Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bowstrife 08-20-07, 01:17 PM	Hi everyone (first post ever:D ) I am a brand new DM and would love some help on my campaign and world I am creating. General Idea OK so the party start out in a small city near the coast.On the west is the sea,north is a huge forest and south and east is a mountain range.On the other side of the mountains is a huge expanse of fields and forest mainly inhabited by barbarian tribes.After that there is another mountain range with only a small pass to get to the other side.(gaurded by a dragon:eek:)And finally a huge city.(maby even capital)So basicly the small city is cut of from all contact.(Eccept via sea) The small city(nameless) The city sustains itself by farming and selling the produce to ships on far journies. The Amber forest Its called the amber forest because the the forest mainly consists of amber oaks(like a oaktree in autumn just before it loses its leaves)I want the oaks to have some kind of magical property(help:help: )In the forest their lives a tribe/clan/settlement of druids.I want them to have a reason to protect the forest(not cliche):help: The story Lately the city has begun to chop at the edge of the forest to make room for more farming land.At about this time misterius attacks on the edge of these farms have also been taken place(the druids-duh)The adventure begins were the party is requested to investigate attacks. Ristrictions My campaign contains no undead,no diaties(no cleric)and no other planes + CORE ONLY!!!!!! All help/tips/advise hugely appreciated
Delfedd 08-20-07, 04:50 PM	Whoa whoa whoa.... Why no undead, deities or other planes?
Dog_O_War 08-20-07, 08:35 PM	Hows about the forest is a living (but non-intelligent) being that was placed there 10 millenia ago as a tomb cover for an ancient and awful evil. The evil seeps magic though, and over thousands of years has permeated into the trees causing the sap (which is used by the animals and druids alike) to generate mild versions of the spells emotion:rage and magic fang. This has caused the druids to be very agressive and to naturally grow claws (something like unarmed damage, but slashing and does real damage), not to mention the feral and "dire" stature more and more of the animals seem to be gaining every year. The sap is a near drug-like substance for the druids, who now have triple reason to protect the forest. Now I have some questions; what is arcane magic like? how prevailent is it sinse there is a distinct lack of divine? How advanced is the technology level? If it's low, are wizards artificially increasing it with alchemy and engineering? Why does the dragon guard the pass? If this place is so cut off, wouldn't it just declare independence?
queenfange 08-21-07, 07:51 AM	Why no undead, deities or other planes? If you exclude these, remember to disallow all spells that make use of other planes; many you don't even thing of as interplanar actually use the Shadow or Etheral planes somehow. I think there's a list somewhere, but I don't recall where I saw it. What keeps people going without any faith in the divine? Where did they come from? Is there necromancy, if there's no undead? Are you using all PH races and classes, no more & no less? What sort of mysterious attacks are taking place? Are we talking about murdered people, or something more subtle (or at least less violent) such as quickly overgrown fields or burned crops? Are the druids all evil, and if so, why? Why does no one suspect the druids; are they not well-known or do people dismiss them as tree-huggers who would never lift a finger against any plant or person?
Bowstrife 08-21-07, 11:01 AM	Delfedd My hole group is Christain and especailly one player feels uncomfortable with it(Forgot to add demons/devils to the list) Dog_O_War [what is arcane magic like? how prevailent is it sinse there is a distinct lack of divine?] There isn't arcane or divine.There is magic in the world but it's more of a natural energy flowing through averything.This magic is in all things natural,in plants,animals,water air-everything.Except man made things(like cities) [How advanced is the technology level?] Like in the medievel times but obviusly more,because it's a port city it gets alot of tec. from other countries. [Why does the dragon guard the pass?] He has a lair nearby and thinks the pass is part of its teritory and eat any trespassers.(plothook/side campaign) [If this place is so cut off, wouldn't it just declare independence?] Haven't thought about that(help) queenfange [What sort of mysterious attacks are taking place? Are we talking about murdered people, or something more subtle (or at least less violent) such as quickly overgrown fields or burned crops?] Mostly just barns and fields being destroyed by brairs and vines that appeared over night(more on that later)But lately a body has been found tangled in a brairbuch with huge thorns.This is where the pc's are called to investigate [Are the druids all evil, and if so, why? ] No they are just protecting the forest butthey are ruled by corrupt leader who secretly wants to destroy the city. [ Why does no one suspect the druids; are they not well-known or do people dismiss them as tree-huggers who would never lift a finger against any plant or person?] They are just very secretive and nobody dares go into the forest in fear of dangerous creatures. [Are you using all PH races and classes, no more & no less?] I would happily allow things from other books but I only have the core books presently. Thanks for all the feedback you guys are great
Alexeduardo 08-21-07, 08:20 PM	The anubis dude idea's pretty cool I'll steal it:D There's nothing wrong with loving god. But you must remind your players it's just a game. It's not like they're going to hell for having their fictional barbarian healed by a fictional cleric through the powers of fictional gods. Hell, I'm a catholic and play twice a week! If you wanna help your players,make one of them a wizard. Why? Forest, wood, fireball. :evillaugh Edit: yeah! freedom for smalltown! grab a copy of heroes of battle!!
Aendvari 08-22-07, 01:41 AM	78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature. A great point! I've been running a campaign that started with all four players on their own mini-adventures (I was curious if it would work), none of which started in a tavern :) Eventually, through circumstances the four players "ran into" each other, and thus started the "real" adventure!
Bowstrife 08-22-07, 09:29 AM	Spellcasters I am working on a few brand new spellcasters to fit in with my game and type of magic(it flows through all things natural) I was thinking in the line of threadmage and stonemage After walking for days in the forest you come across a small clearing.In the middel of the field sits a small cottage,on the grass next to the house sits a beautiful maiden next to a spinning wheel spinning some kind of white thread.As you come closer you see some thing amazing.Next to the maidens feet a small thread of glowing magic is weaving itself into the regular thread. These type of casters use things that magic naturally flows through to achieve what they want.
Return of the Flumph 08-22-07, 05:59 PM	Why not just have clerics worship God (the christian god, that is), have the fiends be Satan's fallen angels, and let undead fall into place where they will? DnD can emulate Christian theology just as easily as paganism.
yellowdingo 08-22-07, 07:32 PM	The Shadowquarter An area of the city held by a faction of nasty evil wizards, the mages guild dont go anywhere near it...Any how, a crisis soon begins as wizards from the Shadowquarter begin openly attacking guildwizards at night in the rest of the city. Call it a night of the long knives if you will. The conflict escalates to the point where the shadowwizards summon hunters (shadows) to attack people on the streets (one young evil wizardess is running about the night-shrouded streets naked, tatooed, and covered in the blood of her victims), others are attacking wizards in taverns and other public places, even penetrating their apartments and lying in wait. Finally the city is ablaze as the Big Villain decides to summon a Pack of Collossal Wolves to devour the occupants of the City. -I was writing a novel and that is just a description of the first chapter.
Holy_Beholder 08-22-07, 08:38 PM	How about the forest contains trees that were rifted through time, and are now partially petrified, but magically. If even a branch were to leave the forest, that branch would turn to stone. However, the important thing here is the sap. If it were removed from the trees, and taken out it would actually turn to amber. This has been abused before, when the druids were briefly weakened by a powerful outer force. Dark mages made giant crystals of amber, and imprisoned the druids within them while they were still sap. Then they removed them. These druids were kept in a hidden hall, surrounding either side. They were then darkened, turning into some of the foulest druids to ever exist. At the same time, they were given perfection by the mages. The druids know one other thing about the forest though. Recently, people have been removing the wood, and it is staying that way. With every tree cut down, the amber, and the stone out side of the forest begins to turn back into sap. If it were to progress far enough, those dark druids would be released. However the other druids have begun to connect themselves to the forest, to try to preserve the connection. They would do anything, no matter how bad to protect the forest, making them dangerous and evil. However, they are nothing compared to the druids in the amber. Not only that, it is known within the druidic circles, that these druids are mad, and that because of them, any other druid who tries to help them is also afflicted. It is also known that the amber was drawn into the mages, replacing their blood. Once the "curse(remember, the party knows none of this" on the forest is lifted, and the druids are slain, the dark druids appear. The party was duped. It will seem that the only way to stop them, besides hunting down the most powerful druids in existence(all 400 of them) and killing them one by one would be to bring the curse back to the forest. So the players go on a really long quest to bring back the curse. This seems like it would work. However, it backfires, to an extent, as it is a double edged sword. The weaker druids of the 400, that is around 350 of them, are turned into amber statues, lose mobility, and are drained of magic. However, 40 of the 50 retain some sap, so they are essentially druids, with damage reduction 10/adamantine, immunity to sneak attack and critical hits, and special abilities that involve petrification by smashing the other statues, turning the amber to sap briefly, then sending the sap into their enemies blood stream. Another 9 are more powerful, higher level druids, DR 20/adamantine, immunity to sneak attack, critical hits, poison, petrification, death effects, major spell resistance, etc. They also have other attacks that involve drawing the sap from trees. Eventually, the party should have to flee, and one of them should be trapped in an amber crystal. Then the players have to free him or her. The most powerful druid is made of sap and amber, and can switch between the two. It can turn into a yellow water thin sap, and go under doorways perfectly. It also had DR 30/-, immunity to sneak attack, critical hits, poison, petrification, death effects, major spell resistance, immunity to every type of energy except for sonic and force, the ability to catch force effects by draining a tree of sap and trapping it, etc. Once that druid dies, the statues all animate, and around 50 of them are still around, the others having been powdered. Oh and the major druid explodes in a shower of Amber, trapping all the players in crystal. Next campaign can center around taking out the amber golems(use stone golem stats) amber tainted water elementals(nasty sap guys, really powerful) and other things left behind. It is a much smaller threat though. Several of the adventures should involve breaking the crystal prison surrounding the old PCs they have been hidden. You can use skeleton and zombie stats, but not flavor for the amber shelled wooden constructs that appeared, and the sap creatures. Once the old PCs are saved, the Old PCs are going to go hold back the storm of sap creatures, while the new PCs go find the source. The source turns out to be in the center of the forest, which has been reduced to a small glade, guarded by an amber dragon, which breaths sap fueled fire. Once they kill the dragon, they will find a spring, cased in a amber crystal, with silvery gold sparkles emanating from the water, and passing through the crystals. It also radiates ridiculously powerful magic. The new PCs will smash it, and when it smashes, the spring turns all of the amber creatures to dust, stops producing them, puts a film of magical amber over all of the PCs weapons turning them into major artifacts, and regrows the rest of the forest, putting it as a beautiful site, full of good fey, brimming with magic. Then the campaign ends. In a later one, you might want to drop rumors of the Amber Weapons. They are basically weapons that upgrade with the party as for what they should have, the ranged weapons create ammo(amber bolts, arrows, sling stones) and all of them are practically invincible. So what do you think?
Bowstrife 08-23-07, 08:55 AM	Thanks for all the help:clap: All the ideas sound great!!!! After some thinking I decided that the party (1 rogue and 1 barbarian)neaded a healer and some fighting backup so i'm introducing a dmpc.:gah:Yea i have read the forums but it is essential.Anyway i thought why can't he be a druid from the forest! So this is the plot:there has been attacks on the farms,the pc's envestigate,they find the circle of druids,pc's find out that advisor of head druid has the leader under permanent enchantment also had plans to destroy city,pc's stop advisor and break enchantment,leader reward pc's with young druid nephew who wants to adventure and learn more about the world's plant population. But still don't know why druids guards the forest.
Rinian2 08-23-07, 09:27 AM	The Amber Forest could be something designed by ancient druids with powers greater and beyond the scope of the current druids. It could be something similar to the internet in that each tree (or 'computer') is a seperate 'identity' within the forest but a part of something greater (or the 'internet'). I'm thinking that the forest is some kind of hive mind (similar to that of bees) and that the druids know the potential of the forest but can only access the basest functions of it. In other words, their spells and abilities are side-effects of their connection to the Amber Forest. The ancient druids would have been able to do pretty much anything; transmit secret messages instantly, create illusions by directing dew-soaked branches into beams of sunlight, speak all languages, store vast amounts of knowledge, protect the forest with walls of fire (or firewalls :)), and whatever else your computer can do but with a druidic and magical slant. All of the abilities don't have to be powerful; imagine how nifty it would be to have access to a calculator at any time. The advisor may have discovered a new function of the Amber Forest that has allowed him to 'reprogram' the leader. The reason that the druids protect the forest would be that, knowing the ancient stories, they understand how dangerous it could be if someone evil gained control of it. How's that sound?
Calsan 08-23-07, 09:38 AM	Why would Druids protect a certain random forest? Well lets take a look at the class it self and how it's build (short). Druids in D&D are portrait as nature protecting people. Who draw on nature to cast the very spells they need to protect nature. And are the closest thing most man can get to the natural world. Why would they protect a certain forest? Well it’s a forest it’s wild and therefore the Druids protect it. Why this forest? Lets bounce some ideas 1. It has a special plant that only grows there and is an important part of Druidic Rituals. But it can’t be cultivated and needs to grow wild. 2. There is an ancient source of nature there; a Druidic circle if you will is build around the site. (A bit to common maybe but it works) Destroying this sight has drastic consequences. 3. The Druidic circle doesn’t actually protect the forest it guards it, there is a ancient monster bound to the forest and if it wakes up the region/world might be destroyed. It could be anything, as long as it is powerful. Well these are some ideas and from the top of my head, this is the best I can do. I kept it some things vague enough to flesh out yourself. Hope it helps
mattdusty 08-23-07, 09:55 AM	I use a monothiestic religion in my campaign. I keep it similar to Christianity. So there's one God who is lawful good and is the main religion in the world (Barbarians and monsters still worship pagan gods and they have 'priests', but they just use the spirit shaman class instead of cleric- I know that's not core it's in the Complete Divine). I actually have him living on the Positive Energy Plane. He has an army of angels on his side but most important are the 7 "Saints" as I call them. These 7 Saints represent the 7 Heavenly Virtues - Chastity, Generosity, Patience, Temperance, Zeal, Humility, and Charity. Clerics in my world choose one of those Saints as a Patron Saint. And it depends on which virtue clerics choose that helps determine their chosen domains as well. But they get all their powers from the main God, not the Saints. Evil clerics follow a dark god whose name isn't even known and most of the worlds inhabitants, including my players don't even know he exists. But what is known is that there are 7 demons who actually work for this dark god, though each have their own agenda for world domination and they each represent the 7 deadly sins - Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Envy, Sloth, and Wrath.
Bowstrife 08-23-07, 10:39 AM	Rinian2 I'm definitely using your idea!:bounce: The hole thing of the forest as the internet is pure genuis:clap: :bow: :ayyyy!: There is nothing I can do about the restrictions-the one player is really conservative and refuses to play if if these things are in the game.I can't just drop her otherwise I only have one player left (small town) Tanks for all the great ideas :D :D :D :D
eue 08-23-07, 01:20 PM	If you are a first-time DM you shouldn't use a DMPC... as you probably read somewhere else in the boards, DMPCs should be avoided at all costs. First, they're hard to manage. It is already difficult to separate player and character knowledge. Now think about separating dm and character knowledge... and it takes away your focus... as a DM you already have a lot to manage, and managing a PC adds even more to the trouble. I use a DMPC on some sort of kick-in-the-door-smash-everyone-to-bits-grab-treasure-leave-for-next-room-campaign I'm running (when we gather with nothing else to do) in the "World's Largest Dungeon", because most of the time only two or three players are present and most of the time I find it difficult when I should make a choice like "should I strike that guy over there and kill him because I've seen his stats and I know he's the most dangerous?" I always chose to attack someone else, to make sure players of the "real" PCs don't think I'm acting on information I shouldn't have. But then I get the feeling that if I was just a player, I probably would bash that dangerous guy. Would I? Would I not? And this is just an example of the bad things DMPCs bring to the game... Believe me, it takes some fun out of the game. In my first campaign, the party had no healer and they got along quite well. Never had a TPK. If you think they will really need healing I would recommend creating some magic items that can heal small amounts of damage with move or swift actions, without provoking AoOs (and price them accordingly!) The perfect solution would be to find another player.... but that might be troublesome, I know... About the religious matter... I honestly don't think you should completely remove deities from the game. It is difficult to explain why no one believes in some "higher power", whether it is real or fictious... And your small town would probably be independent or on the verge of claiming it. If "the city sustains itself by farming and selling the produce to ships on far journies." and it is isolated, political independence comes naturally. Unless the "mainland" is under some tyrannical rule that keeps this small isolated town by force...