Adventure in the New World [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adventure in the New World [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Jordan Schaefer
07-17-04, 04:05 PM My player group (really the current GM [me] and the other regular GM [the other guy]) made a brand new world to statisfy my problems with the FR Campaign Setting, namely the easy of knowing what we were dealing with at anytime, providing simple metagaming that put others at a disadvantage who did not like the setting.

The last campaign in this land was our first there. Our characters made it to 16th and therefore had enough notoreity to be mentioned in our next campaign. I took the helm (since I hate playing D&D but don't mind running it) and decided that for arguement's sake, others had better ideas what they would run right after the last heroes were done. So as to not step on anyone's toes, I put my campaign 150 years into the future of this world ... during the begining of a mass Exodus towards the "New World".

Needless to say, after some very boring mass combat (no matter how it was handled) and some long drawn out speeches (my fault there) we have landed on the new world. Now I have been working the races (if any) the group will encounter. I have also begun to set up work some interaction between the other national representatives coming to this New World and the crew of the Implacable.

ALSO, the cleric just happens to be one of four priests of Sanguinius (my creation for a diety) and that really makes for a great struggle for conversion. Either way, I am modelling heavily off of what the English/French/Dutch/Spanish did during the colonization of the new world here in RealLife. But I would like insights for what I could have the 2nd Level characters get working on to keep them busy.

FYI: We do have 6-7 players right now on Friday Nights.

We are currently just off the ship in Wolf Bay, named by the Lycanthropes (in our world, civilized and able to work to fight their disease) who landed first.

My thoughts centered around using a new monster race I created (much like Kobolds but like little dogs [so 2E kobolds]) for the group to slaughter and pillage. Or I would throw a mystery for some to follow and an exploration team mission for some others.

Suggestions would be wonderful for other things I can do for them. I kind of want to make these multi-session adventures so the game does not stay so linear when it comes to plot.
Cymraegmorgan
07-17-04, 06:18 PM Minikobolds rock!! They're so cute with their little toothpick spears and yippy voices. But their fur is fabulous, softer than mink, and there are so many of the little darlings. Fur harvesting by some would upset(to say the least) the lycanthropes. Where do the players stand? What allies do the minikobolds have further inland that will defend them?
Is gold to be found here? If so, this is a greedy imperialists dreamland. Barbarian tribes unused to warfare(simple hunters) would be enslaved by the greedy. Does the cleric just try to convert them, or does he work to free them?
Other nations can be broken down into a few simple categories for motivation and how they interact:
1. Goldseekers: will enslave the natives as cheap labor under the guise of conversion.
2. Furgatheres: will fortify settlements and work with natives deep in the interior to harvest furs. culturally indifferent, but ecologically uncaring.
3. Expanders: this country sends excess population to survive or die in new world. What they produce agriculturally here can feed the nation's armies.
4. Traders: they want permanent ports of trade to expand the influence of the merchant class, whose taxes pay for the military.
5. Exiles: Just want to live and will band with natives to fight encroachment. Loosely organized, easily overwhelmed.
6. Some civilizations in the interior can be powerful enough to rival the "Old Worlders", an opportunity to introduce new prestige classes.

And then their is the fortress deep in the forest of Wizard X, long ago exiled by the kings of your homeland. She sees your players, descendants of her old enemies, and the Vendetta is on! Natives fear and respect X, and she can raise the braves and shamans of a dozen or more tribes to fight the foreign devils.

The PCs are ordered to find "Northwest Passage", the water route to this continents far shore. Robert Rogers and Louis and Clarke would envy them the chance. But aside from various nomad tribes, maybe this continent is flush with dire animals with the taste for people sashimi.
MinusInnocence
07-17-04, 06:58 PM If your group enjoys linear storytelling, maybe you could offer up clues on each of the miniquests linking all of them to one spectacular plot arc. The evil sorceress queen exiled from the homeland of the PCs seems appropriate for this.

Maybe her preferred lackeys are the kobolds you mentioned. If the native humanoids despise such creatures, this could be exploited: pointing out that their dark queen is actually in league with the beasties might prove disasterous for her political agenda. You could throw the PCs a bone with this as they are present when the kobolds raid one of the settlements in the night. All of them wear a strange insignia, and the PCs probably think nothing of it but offer it up for their superiors to keep an eye on it for future reference. Maybe someone there knows something of the old sorceress' mark?

Another idea for a mission would be to find one of the other ships the Implacable lost contact with. Superficially, the PCs are recruited to ensure the survivors are brought to safety; but perhaps the ship is one of another nation and thus they are actually sent as diplomat/spies. Allowing the PCs to stumble upon clues [insert rival nation here] is actually looking for a mysterious artifact rumored to be found somewhere here would be a good idea at this time, and maybe the documents they find could include the mysterious insignia the kobolds bore.

I like the idea of searching for the potential trade river. But of course, something so valuable would certainly be held and fortified by the native peoples of this new world and since the foreigners only just arrived, they can't yet marshal their forces against the barbarians. Diplomacy is required; maybe the tribe garrisoned on the river is more open-minded than most, and can thus be negotiated with. Some among them have fallen ill in recent weeks, and the naysayers are suggesting that the encroaching "outlanders" are to blame. But the elders know better - it is a ploy from the Sorceress, used to twist their arms and make them obey her. If the PCs can find the cure, it would help them in the eyes of the natives as well as bring solid evidence to both sides that the Sorceress is turning them against each other.

Actually, you might want to try something similar with the "Old Worlders" first. Stage a savage attack on one of the frontier camps, leaving no survivors. A few well-placed barbarian corpses would get tongues wagging, but an in-depth investigation would let the PCs determine the natives weren't behind the carnage. Unfortunately, everything they unearth would have to be off the record, because their superiors seem to be against any further clue-gathering. Strangely enough, the staunchest opponents to any investigation that may incriminate the Sorceress are from that same nation that came here with the sole purpose of finding the artifact.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jordan Schaefer 07-17-04, 04:05 PM	My player group (really the current GM [me] and the other regular GM [the other guy]) made a brand new world to statisfy my problems with the FR Campaign Setting, namely the easy of knowing what we were dealing with at anytime, providing simple metagaming that put others at a disadvantage who did not like the setting. The last campaign in this land was our first there. Our characters made it to 16th and therefore had enough notoreity to be mentioned in our next campaign. I took the helm (since I hate playing D&D but don't mind running it) and decided that for arguement's sake, others had better ideas what they would run right after the last heroes were done. So as to not step on anyone's toes, I put my campaign 150 years into the future of this world ... during the begining of a mass Exodus towards the "New World". Needless to say, after some very boring mass combat (no matter how it was handled) and some long drawn out speeches (my fault there) we have landed on the new world. Now I have been working the races (if any) the group will encounter. I have also begun to set up work some interaction between the other national representatives coming to this New World and the crew of the Implacable. ALSO, the cleric just happens to be one of four priests of Sanguinius (my creation for a diety) and that really makes for a great struggle for conversion. Either way, I am modelling heavily off of what the English/French/Dutch/Spanish did during the colonization of the new world here in RealLife. But I would like insights for what I could have the 2nd Level characters get working on to keep them busy. FYI: We do have 6-7 players right now on Friday Nights. We are currently just off the ship in Wolf Bay, named by the Lycanthropes (in our world, civilized and able to work to fight their disease) who landed first. My thoughts centered around using a new monster race I created (much like Kobolds but like little dogs [so 2E kobolds]) for the group to slaughter and pillage. Or I would throw a mystery for some to follow and an exploration team mission for some others. Suggestions would be wonderful for other things I can do for them. I kind of want to make these multi-session adventures so the game does not stay so linear when it comes to plot.
Cymraegmorgan 07-17-04, 06:18 PM	Minikobolds rock!! They're so cute with their little toothpick spears and yippy voices. But their fur is fabulous, softer than mink, and there are so many of the little darlings. Fur harvesting by some would upset(to say the least) the lycanthropes. Where do the players stand? What allies do the minikobolds have further inland that will defend them? Is gold to be found here? If so, this is a greedy imperialists dreamland. Barbarian tribes unused to warfare(simple hunters) would be enslaved by the greedy. Does the cleric just try to convert them, or does he work to free them? Other nations can be broken down into a few simple categories for motivation and how they interact: 1. Goldseekers: will enslave the natives as cheap labor under the guise of conversion. 2. Furgatheres: will fortify settlements and work with natives deep in the interior to harvest furs. culturally indifferent, but ecologically uncaring. 3. Expanders: this country sends excess population to survive or die in new world. What they produce agriculturally here can feed the nation's armies. 4. Traders: they want permanent ports of trade to expand the influence of the merchant class, whose taxes pay for the military. 5. Exiles: Just want to live and will band with natives to fight encroachment. Loosely organized, easily overwhelmed. 6. Some civilizations in the interior can be powerful enough to rival the "Old Worlders", an opportunity to introduce new prestige classes. And then their is the fortress deep in the forest of Wizard X, long ago exiled by the kings of your homeland. She sees your players, descendants of her old enemies, and the Vendetta is on! Natives fear and respect X, and she can raise the braves and shamans of a dozen or more tribes to fight the foreign devils. The PCs are ordered to find "Northwest Passage", the water route to this continents far shore. Robert Rogers and Louis and Clarke would envy them the chance. But aside from various nomad tribes, maybe this continent is flush with dire animals with the taste for people sashimi.
MinusInnocence 07-17-04, 06:58 PM	If your group enjoys linear storytelling, maybe you could offer up clues on each of the miniquests linking all of them to one spectacular plot arc. The evil sorceress queen exiled from the homeland of the PCs seems appropriate for this. Maybe her preferred lackeys are the kobolds you mentioned. If the native humanoids despise such creatures, this could be exploited: pointing out that their dark queen is actually in league with the beasties might prove disasterous for her political agenda. You could throw the PCs a bone with this as they are present when the kobolds raid one of the settlements in the night. All of them wear a strange insignia, and the PCs probably think nothing of it but offer it up for their superiors to keep an eye on it for future reference. Maybe someone there knows something of the old sorceress' mark? Another idea for a mission would be to find one of the other ships the Implacable lost contact with. Superficially, the PCs are recruited to ensure the survivors are brought to safety; but perhaps the ship is one of another nation and thus they are actually sent as diplomat/spies. Allowing the PCs to stumble upon clues [insert rival nation here] is actually looking for a mysterious artifact rumored to be found somewhere here would be a good idea at this time, and maybe the documents they find could include the mysterious insignia the kobolds bore. I like the idea of searching for the potential trade river. But of course, something so valuable would certainly be held and fortified by the native peoples of this new world and since the foreigners only just arrived, they can't yet marshal their forces against the barbarians. Diplomacy is required; maybe the tribe garrisoned on the river is more open-minded than most, and can thus be negotiated with. Some among them have fallen ill in recent weeks, and the naysayers are suggesting that the encroaching "outlanders" are to blame. But the elders know better - it is a ploy from the Sorceress, used to twist their arms and make them obey her. If the PCs can find the cure, it would help them in the eyes of the natives as well as bring solid evidence to both sides that the Sorceress is turning them against each other. Actually, you might want to try something similar with the "Old Worlders" first. Stage a savage attack on one of the frontier camps, leaving no survivors. A few well-placed barbarian corpses would get tongues wagging, but an in-depth investigation would let the PCs determine the natives weren't behind the carnage. Unfortunately, everything they unearth would have to be off the record, because their superiors seem to be against any further clue-gathering. Strangely enough, the staunchest opponents to any investigation that may incriminate the Sorceress are from that same nation that came here with the sole purpose of finding the artifact.