Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Caeldor 10-27-05, 11:55 PM	Greetings everyone, I am just started writing a campaign for my gaming group and am having trouble with my plot. Though I have DM'd before, I've never ran my own campaign, and any help would be appreciated. So far only three of my five players have character ideas, an illumian wizard, a gnome monk/dragon disciple, and a cleric. The campaign will begin with a scholarly NPC recruiting all the level 8 PC's to aid him in exploring a city destroyed 50-1000 years ago. 1.) Our wizard player is a good player and was main DM from before I've been debating whether or not to have him recruit the players instead of an NPC. Thoughts on this? 2.) Why/How was the city destroyed? The government of the country has forbid any to enter the city's ruins. Thus they will be the first once to explore it. Note: The country is a human kingdom, and is comprised of mostly plains and farmland. 3.) Why does the government not want people to go there? Surely after all this time someone with enough power could have cleared it out…. Why haven't they? I have more questions but I will just leave it at that for now. I'm sure none of you want to read 3-4 pages of questions let alone answer them. Other things to keep in mind: -The pantheon of just seven gods is very active within the world. -I have made the stats of the BBEG; he is a level 13, fiendish cleric with levels in blackguard(CR 15). Although I don’t have any ideas about what his plans are, other than him being the champion of thanatos, god of death and destruction. -I wish to have a re-occurring assassin harassing them through most of the adventure. -I am going to use the map found at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/city802.jpg for the ruined city. I have not thought of anything yet for the locations they have provided. Although I do know I want the city to be comprised of mostly undead.
Kesht 10-28-05, 12:34 AM	1) I don't think using the previous DM as a point of cohesion for the group will do the game any good. Better to leave all your PCs on equal footing (leadership-wise at least) so as not to cause tension. 2 & 3) It sounds like you've already put MUCH thought into your campaign. Why come here to ask us when you are clearly capable of creativity? Maybe you got some DMs block. That's cool, it happens. Keep following along. If not please see the end of this post. Lost City destroyed by: One or more of the Good Gods in your pantheon. The denizens of the city became corrupt and deserved a good smoting. Why does 'The Man' want to keep people out: To protect the people of whatever evil may still lurk behind. Lost City destroyed by: Magic gone amuck. Whether arcane or divine, powerful magic destroyed the entire city, leaving it a smouldering/frozen/haunted/deadly ruin Why does 'The Man' want to keep people out: In order to prevent such magic surfacing again. Lost City destroyed by: A slow and silent war. Deadly and stealthy creatures came and picked the citizen off one by one. Why does 'The Man' want to keep people out: To prevent the stealthy creatures from finding a new snack-basket (the large city) It's kind of, *searching for the right word* well lazy I guess, to come on the boards and ask other people to do your work for you. I'm not tryin' to be harsh or come off as a punk. It's just that so many DMs new to the boards (I see you've only registered this month) strike a tone that says, "Ok, make my game for me. Teach me the rules and fill in all the creativity." I don't think this is your intent. I'm just saying, just so you know, that it helps you to help yourself first around here. Some really cool people (You know who you are) just flat out avoid threads that beg for help when someone could easily help themselves. When you make it clear in your "Help me!" posts that you have tried everything you can think of, Super Cool Ninja DM (http://boards1.wizards.com/member.php?userid=170610)s come out of nowhere and help you out. Hope I haven't ****** you off. Welcome to the boards! :dancin:
TheChilliGod 10-28-05, 12:47 AM	1) Seems like a good idea, if you're sure that the wizard's player could handle the responsibility associated with being the 'employer' of the other PC's. It might be an idea to see how he would feel on doing that sort of thing. Off-topic-I like Illumians. They're cool. 2) Perhaps the ruined town was destroyed by the power of the BBEG, who unleashed a horde of minions upon the town and utterly destroyed it. Or he could have subtly killed all the people off through disease, and the town simply fell to negligence. Or the Tarrasque wiped his feet on the town. Or a dragon destroyed it, and the dragon is now slain/is still out there. Or the town was the center of a massive battle, which drove everyone out. Too many options here! 3) Perhaps the government thinks the town is still dangerous, due to a mass haunting, the aforementioned plague, evil corruption, or some other dark and foul phenomenon that can't be destroyed. (Think evil effects to locations as described in the Book of Vile Darkness.) The government would surely not like any blood at their feet, and would try to catch anyone heading in that direction. Or perhaps the government is corrupt, and secretly uses the ruins in order to conduct meetings of darkness and shadow, where none would dare watch them. They would, naturally, spread rumors that the town is corrupted by an incurable power in order to stop peeping toms. As a side, how many levels in blackguard? 1? Because I you can't have a character with 1 hit dice and then qualify for the Blackguard prestige class. I know Rule 0 and all that, but I'm just making sure you know.
Flakster 10-28-05, 01:32 AM	The denizens of the city became corrupt and deserved a good smoting. Oh, what can't a good smoting solve?... :rolleyes:
pmurray@bigpond.com 10-28-05, 01:43 AM	1.) Our wizard player is a good player and was main DM from before I've been debating whether or not to have him recruit the players instead of an NPC. Thoughts on this? Well, it means you don't have to run an NPC. OTOH, you can't use the expedition leader to feed info to the party. If it makes sense, and the players aren't going to mind this person having a leading role, then why not? 2.) Why/How was the city destroyed? 3.) Why does the government not want people to go there? -I wish to have a re-occurring assassin harassing them through most of the adventure. Hmm. The city was destroyed by plague. The govt does not want people going there because people who go there still, after all this time, start showing odd symptoms - probably still the plague. What nobody knows is that this assassin is poisoning people (perhaps by just poisoning the water supply) in order to keep people away. The poisoning of the water is done by the assassin having cultivated a stand of noxious and very poisonous water-weeds upstream of the city, or possibly in the city's cisterns and aqueducts. If the party visist the infirmiary where prior victims of this mysterious sickness have been treated, a gather information might reveal the following clues: the symptoms people get on visiting this city are not exactly the same as those that the plague victims got this condition does not appear to be contagious or infectious people who come down with this illness recover after a couple of days away from the city the condition is definitely not magical If the party investigates the city water supply and sees these plants, a knowledge plants/poison/nature might tell them that that's what's causing it. Of course, if the party starts clearing the weeds, or obviously finds out what's going on, the assassin may want to do something about it. Whaddaya think?
Caeldor 10-28-05, 02:34 AM	Kesht: I'm sorry if I came across as asking too much. I guess I just have what you called DM's block. I was just looking for ideas to get me going again. I've actually spent the last two days lurking these forums for ideas, and decided to register just today. TheChilliGod: Oh that was a typo, the BBEG is a 1st level figher, 9th level cleric, 3rd level blackguard with the fiendish template attached. I'll edit the original post. pmurry@bigpond.com: I was looking for the assassin "mid-boss" just to be re-occurring. I don't think I want him ever as a main antagonist of an adventure. Thanks for the responses. I really just needed some ideas thrown at me. I think I will go with this: 500 years ago a prominent cleric of the town succumbed to the temptation of evil after losing his love. The cleric completed an unholy ritual, which caused disease and death throughout the city. Many people fled, and many people died. Those that died rose again as the undead. The cleric was then taken from the realms of man to the depths of hell, where he became a fiend, and the BBEG. Not only were the people of the city affected by this dark ritual but the plants and animals. Most notably the gardens of gaea (goddess of life and nature) were mutated from lush and beautiful gardens into place of hideous and poisonous plants. The government ordered that none should enter the lost city on account of it being dangerous. They have ulterior motives for this though. A few government officals have ties with the assassin's guild which operates world wide. The assassins want to keep people out so they can farm the poisons. Some other questions I have: When making the BBEG I used a 32 point buy to create his stats (the PC's used 30). Also I gave him the amount of gear (magic items) that the DMG says to give a character of level 15 (pg 135). 1.) Is the CR of 15 correct for the BBEG? 2.) He has both Gauntlets of Ogre power and a Belt of Giant Strength, do these stack with each other? Do those stack with the spell Bull Strength? One of my biggest failings as a DM is my lack of creativity when it comes to names. 3.) Any ideas for the names of the BBEG, the ruined city, or even the country the characters are in? 4.) I'd also like some more opinions on whether or not the wizard should be the party leader (at least for the first adventure).
HyperVyperBeam 10-28-05, 02:46 AM	If you're going to do something with religion as you seem to be headed in that direction, you should take a look at the master DM contest that's running now. The theme is "Lost Gods" maybe you could pull something out of there and run with it.
HyperVyperBeam 10-28-05, 02:48 AM	also, the gauntlets and belt do not stack.
Morka 10-28-05, 10:14 AM	also, the gauntlets and belt do not stack. The gauntlets and belt do not stack, but the wielder of a Hammer of Thunderbolts, an artifact, can make them stack. It could be a subplot of the BBEG to acquire one. About the main "PC", you could have him be the first lieutenant of the NPC who recruit the PCs. This way, the long-time player will be the legitimate authority, but it might change with time, you will have an NPC to display some clues (you could give basic clues to the players before the game, but not all), and eventually, you could have the NPC betray the players... :grin: Still about the Illumian wizard, do you use their background? Perhaps that in your world, the BBEG created the Illumians as a slave-race, but many of them fled. Now an influent illumian (your employer NPC) send his lieutenant to find some relics in the city... As for the recurring assassin, he could be an illumian from a concurrent cabal who want to let the PCs secure the relic, but then kill them and get the relic for his own cabal... Or perhaps is the lost city not so lost and is the home-base of a secret illumian cabal, and the assassin wants to protect it... Oh, and for more ideas about the recurring assassin, check in the Master DM Competition archives, one was about a Little Bad Evil Guy, you'll find some good ideas.