Campaign confidence [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign confidence [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Magius
08-21-04, 05:21 PM As I've posted many times here, I'm a new DM desperate for my campaign to work out. I had an idea and made a few adventures, but I recently realized that the actual campaign was basically non existent. The idea was that the PCs go from place to place in the FR (my favorite campaign setting) and encounter virtually unconnected adventures except for recurring villains. However, except for the theme of pirates and a seafaring campaign (this was the anchor of the campaign; the PCs have a ship and sail from place to place), there was no real consistent plot or goal for the PCs besides adventuring and encountering adventures in various ports.

I have looked at my few ready adventures and was quite disgusted by my own work. I thought up a campaign in a few days but I'm afraid of messing everything up, so I post it here. Please save no criticism. I need it. It is set in the FR but knowledge of it is not 100% necessary to understand the campaign. I'm sorry if this might be long.

The idea: In the history of Faeru^n there was a famous pirate by the name of Immurk, probably the most powerful seamen of all times. He united the many ships and factions of the pirate isles in the inner sea under his banner and terrorized the coast. However, the powerful nations of Cormyr and Sembia made a truce against him and defeated him when he tried to attack them. Immurk himself drowned, and the pirate isles returned to their chaotic system of factions and just a bunch of buccaneers in the same place. So far, this is not my campaign, this is straight out of FR history. This is where the fiction starts.
After his fleet fell apart there were still many loyal to him, though they no longer were able to serve him. Five (or maybe four, it's quite irrelevant) liutenants in particular were extremely loyal and sought him out, finding his body in the sea and dragging him out. The means don't matter.
Now for a small diggression: Immurk had a son who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. Though Immurk did not consider him an exceptional sailor, he made him a high ranking officer as a parental favor. The son soon became a commander by his own skills, but he overheard his father speak badly of him one day ("That son of mine is a terrible sailor, but he's my son, what could I do...") in front of other officers, and from then on hated his father. When Immurk attacked Cormyr and Sembia, the son took this as arrogance and ambition and turned back, thinking that his father was virtually on a suicide mission. Immurk thinks his son's retreat was the reason he was defeated.
Now back to the story. The five loyal crew brought his body to a cleric so she could ressurrect him. However, the son had heard of their intentions and placed a cleric of the good deity of the seas who was against the pirates (Velsharoon, I think), so as to prevent the ressurection. He wanted to unite the isles himself, and he knew his father alive would recruit too many pirates himself and take away his victory.
The cleric of the good deity punished the pirate lord by turning him undead, into a spectre of some kind. Her companions then killed the liutenants.
The spectre gets the PCs to a certain area where he portrays himself as an undead spirit who is being tormented by his undead state and asks fo release. He picks the PCs because they are the sons/daughters of the pirate liutenants. He also offers them gold but says he doesn't expect them to take it alone, as they are going to be risking their lives. He tells them (this is the real motivation) that he has answers for their questions, that he can tell them why their fathers were never present and who they were and who the PCs really are. I'll have told the PCs of their background when they are creating a character, that they never really knew their father, that he had large sums of money, he smelled of brine sometimes, etc. They just won;t know who he was.
The campaign will be the PCs hunting for Immurk's (they don't know it's him) skeleton parts, then his items that will restore his body somehow, and eventually Immurk will be ressurected. He will ask the PCs to join him in a new conquest of the inner sea.
They can (In a kind of Knights of the Old Republic way) either join him and raid the inner sea, gaining members and much more action oriented than the first part, or they can oppose him. Since they were responsible for his ressurrection and they are the sons of his most loyal officers, he doesn't kill them then and there.
During the campaign, the PCs will have the main idea in mind (finding pieces of skeleton/items) while having many diversions. First of all, the adventures ideas I had from my initial idea will be side quests which will add versimilitude (every port has an adventure which they can but do not have to take upon themselves). Also, they will have the recurring villain of the son which is trying to prevent the ressurrection, and the church of the goo deity which is trying to do the same. The PCs will have their own ship with a very fleshed out crew and possible improvement. There will be many sea related adventures (such as tritons asking a favor after they helped the PCs sink a pirate ship), as well as treasure (Immurk knows many locations of locked chests, I think). There will be many back alley meetings with Immurk's old friends and questionable characters. Meanwhile, to keep them motivated Immurk throws them tidbits of information about who they and their fathers are/were.

That's more or less it. I apologize for the lack of organization and confusion, but I just put these ideas together from a few days ago and I wrote this in about twenty minutes. If I left anything out, please ask.

Have I left any holes in the story, do you foresee any problems and do you have any tips? From a novice DM to the veterans among you, I ask that you please help. I need this campaign to work, if I'll ever have any good D&D campaign in the next three years.

Magius.
Cymraegmorgan
08-21-04, 08:41 PM I think your concept is swell(nautical double entendre). You seem to have covered a prime rule of mine, plenty of optional adventures to cover the fact players don't always go the way you want them to go. The pirate/son rivalry is good, especially if the party brings Daddy back and decides to fight against him.

Since this is a seafaring campaign give the weather a more prominent place than it usually gets in DnD. Nothing like a category five hurricane to throw some spice into the PC's lives.
http://www.milieusim.com/ is a place to find out about weather, it should be the Pirate DM's best friend.

Have your players created characters yet? If so, what did they come up with?
Magius
08-22-04, 01:29 AM Actually, I'm now 'recovering' from my PCs' previous sheets, which- by no real fault of their own, more of mine and my brother's, who also DMs- are basically just dice roll upon dice roll. We realized this a bit too late but decided we can't do a campaign with characters who are basically non existent. There are no personalities, noe backgroundsw, no attitudes besides what the player feels like playing. Basically, they don't have distinct attitudes, so you could say they role play their players. The players make all the shots and there is little or no role playing. Much of this was due to a certain player who is less open to the idea of role playing and is more of a power gamer, who plays mainly to get as powerful a character as possible and kill as many monsters as possible. Me and my brother decided that either he adapt to a more role-playing style or he not play. We haven't asked him about it yet, we're waiting for me to develope my campaign and for him to come back from a vacation.
Anyhow, the players will have new sheets when I start the campaign, this time real characters.
Thanks for the compliment and the site.
Cymraegmorgan
08-22-04, 01:45 AM If you have access to Complete Warrior consider Swashbucklers, they are quite lively. A Bard, a Sorcerer, a Druid, and a couple of Swashies would make a fun party.
Magius
08-22-04, 01:54 AM I don't have the complete warrior but I have ordered a dragon magazine on the topic, which might help.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Magius 08-21-04, 05:21 PM	As I've posted many times here, I'm a new DM desperate for my campaign to work out. I had an idea and made a few adventures, but I recently realized that the actual campaign was basically non existent. The idea was that the PCs go from place to place in the FR (my favorite campaign setting) and encounter virtually unconnected adventures except for recurring villains. However, except for the theme of pirates and a seafaring campaign (this was the anchor of the campaign; the PCs have a ship and sail from place to place), there was no real consistent plot or goal for the PCs besides adventuring and encountering adventures in various ports. I have looked at my few ready adventures and was quite disgusted by my own work. I thought up a campaign in a few days but I'm afraid of messing everything up, so I post it here. Please save no criticism. I need it. It is set in the FR but knowledge of it is not 100% necessary to understand the campaign. I'm sorry if this might be long. The idea: In the history of Faeru^n there was a famous pirate by the name of Immurk, probably the most powerful seamen of all times. He united the many ships and factions of the pirate isles in the inner sea under his banner and terrorized the coast. However, the powerful nations of Cormyr and Sembia made a truce against him and defeated him when he tried to attack them. Immurk himself drowned, and the pirate isles returned to their chaotic system of factions and just a bunch of buccaneers in the same place. So far, this is not my campaign, this is straight out of FR history. This is where the fiction starts. After his fleet fell apart there were still many loyal to him, though they no longer were able to serve him. Five (or maybe four, it's quite irrelevant) liutenants in particular were extremely loyal and sought him out, finding his body in the sea and dragging him out. The means don't matter. Now for a small diggression: Immurk had a son who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. Though Immurk did not consider him an exceptional sailor, he made him a high ranking officer as a parental favor. The son soon became a commander by his own skills, but he overheard his father speak badly of him one day ("That son of mine is a terrible sailor, but he's my son, what could I do...") in front of other officers, and from then on hated his father. When Immurk attacked Cormyr and Sembia, the son took this as arrogance and ambition and turned back, thinking that his father was virtually on a suicide mission. Immurk thinks his son's retreat was the reason he was defeated. Now back to the story. The five loyal crew brought his body to a cleric so she could ressurrect him. However, the son had heard of their intentions and placed a cleric of the good deity of the seas who was against the pirates (Velsharoon, I think), so as to prevent the ressurection. He wanted to unite the isles himself, and he knew his father alive would recruit too many pirates himself and take away his victory. The cleric of the good deity punished the pirate lord by turning him undead, into a spectre of some kind. Her companions then killed the liutenants. The spectre gets the PCs to a certain area where he portrays himself as an undead spirit who is being tormented by his undead state and asks fo release. He picks the PCs because they are the sons/daughters of the pirate liutenants. He also offers them gold but says he doesn't expect them to take it alone, as they are going to be risking their lives. He tells them (this is the real motivation) that he has answers for their questions, that he can tell them why their fathers were never present and who they were and who the PCs really are. I'll have told the PCs of their background when they are creating a character, that they never really knew their father, that he had large sums of money, he smelled of brine sometimes, etc. They just won;t know who he was. The campaign will be the PCs hunting for Immurk's (they don't know it's him) skeleton parts, then his items that will restore his body somehow, and eventually Immurk will be ressurected. He will ask the PCs to join him in a new conquest of the inner sea. They can (In a kind of Knights of the Old Republic way) either join him and raid the inner sea, gaining members and much more action oriented than the first part, or they can oppose him. Since they were responsible for his ressurrection and they are the sons of his most loyal officers, he doesn't kill them then and there. During the campaign, the PCs will have the main idea in mind (finding pieces of skeleton/items) while having many diversions. First of all, the adventures ideas I had from my initial idea will be side quests which will add versimilitude (every port has an adventure which they can but do not have to take upon themselves). Also, they will have the recurring villain of the son which is trying to prevent the ressurrection, and the church of the goo deity which is trying to do the same. The PCs will have their own ship with a very fleshed out crew and possible improvement. There will be many sea related adventures (such as tritons asking a favor after they helped the PCs sink a pirate ship), as well as treasure (Immurk knows many locations of locked chests, I think). There will be many back alley meetings with Immurk's old friends and questionable characters. Meanwhile, to keep them motivated Immurk throws them tidbits of information about who they and their fathers are/were. That's more or less it. I apologize for the lack of organization and confusion, but I just put these ideas together from a few days ago and I wrote this in about twenty minutes. If I left anything out, please ask. Have I left any holes in the story, do you foresee any problems and do you have any tips? From a novice DM to the veterans among you, I ask that you please help. I need this campaign to work, if I'll ever have any good D&D campaign in the next three years. Magius.
Cymraegmorgan 08-21-04, 08:41 PM	I think your concept is swell(nautical double entendre). You seem to have covered a prime rule of mine, plenty of optional adventures to cover the fact players don't always go the way you want them to go. The pirate/son rivalry is good, especially if the party brings Daddy back and decides to fight against him. Since this is a seafaring campaign give the weather a more prominent place than it usually gets in DnD. Nothing like a category five hurricane to throw some spice into the PC's lives. http://www.milieusim.com/ is a place to find out about weather, it should be the Pirate DM's best friend. Have your players created characters yet? If so, what did they come up with?
Magius 08-22-04, 01:29 AM	Actually, I'm now 'recovering' from my PCs' previous sheets, which- by no real fault of their own, more of mine and my brother's, who also DMs- are basically just dice roll upon dice roll. We realized this a bit too late but decided we can't do a campaign with characters who are basically non existent. There are no personalities, noe backgroundsw, no attitudes besides what the player feels like playing. Basically, they don't have distinct attitudes, so you could say they role play their players. The players make all the shots and there is little or no role playing. Much of this was due to a certain player who is less open to the idea of role playing and is more of a power gamer, who plays mainly to get as powerful a character as possible and kill as many monsters as possible. Me and my brother decided that either he adapt to a more role-playing style or he not play. We haven't asked him about it yet, we're waiting for me to develope my campaign and for him to come back from a vacation. Anyhow, the players will have new sheets when I start the campaign, this time real characters. Thanks for the compliment and the site.
Cymraegmorgan 08-22-04, 01:45 AM	If you have access to Complete Warrior consider Swashbucklers, they are quite lively. A Bard, a Sorcerer, a Druid, and a couple of Swashies would make a fun party.
Magius 08-22-04, 01:54 AM	I don't have the complete warrior but I have ordered a dragon magazine on the topic, which might help.