(This scenario is stolen and modified from a game my players haven't played.)
Setting: lowish-magic, assume everyone's human or that racial kingdoms divided by biomes don't exist. Anything else is game.
Dramatis Personae:
Duke A: The king just died. Vies with Duke B for crown.
Duke B: Vies with Duke A for crown.
Cardinal: secretly wants to rule in place of materialistic rulers.
Secret Heir: The dead king's direct child; heir's bodyguard wants to get heir to the capital to be crowned.
PCs: hired by heir's bodyguard to defend them as they make their way to the capital. PCs are told that no one else is supposed to know the heir exists. (I assume the heir has proof of claim to the crown, but that could be another wrinkle.)
Complication: The guide and his troops (who were hired in addition to the PCs) were secretly paid more by Duke B to make sure the heir meets with another troop of dressed mercs. These dressed mercs were hired by Duke B but equipped and bannered to appear as Duke A troops. Their mission is to kill the heir to frame and ruin Duke A’s support among the nobility.
Clues I want to give the PCs:
G1. Reveal that the guide was bought by an enemy.
G2. Reveal that Duke A is not behind the dressed mercs.
- Trust guide: Fight dressed mercs, the guide and his troops desert (G1), and dressed mercs make off with heir in chaos of battle. Chase.
- Don't: Enter monster territory, then guide takes heir to “safety”; seen delivering heir to dressed mercs, (G1)
- Either way: PCs see dressed mercs arguing (one of them was actually a Duke A spy, who was investigating stolen equipment: G2).
Afterward, PCs and bodyguard will likely want more protection. Bodyguard knows that current Cardinal was always fighting with Crown, but they can try Cardinal, who is in the capital, or run to either of the Dukes A or B.
NPC plans:
Barring PC interference, eventually Duke A is overcome by Duke B. Cardinal will kill weakened Duke B and take throne, ostensibly relieving populace of bloody military lords to rule land with divinely inspired authority.
Two other possibilities, currently not in use:
- Towns raising a militia to bargain with feuding nobility to have a say in rulership. They probably need a high-profile hostage or they won’t get an ear.
- An invading army willing to play the warring factions off each other to get leverage.
Questions:
- I believe the Cardinal officiates crowning. The Cardinal could assassinate the heir or make the heir a puppet. How would the latter work?
- How would you use the two, currently unused, possibilities?
- Any way to make this more fun?
It might not be what you wanted to hear, but my short answer is that I would focus on exciting encounters instead of a convoluted plot.
My long answer is that I'd do two things; 1.) simplify the plot significantly (players always complicate matters anyway), and 2.) give the PCs a lot more to do.
Simplify
- I'd drop the Cardinal as yet another competing faction and instead make him the target you have to get the heir to. You already have three rival factions without him, which is plenty.
- I'd drop the two other possibilities as they are just further complicating an already complicated situation.
- I'd drop the guide and troops too. If the heir's bodyguard is hiring the PCs for protection, why is he also hiring a guide and troops? That doesn't make much sense to me. I'm sure he knows the way to the capital city so he doesn't need a guide, and extra guards are just going to attract attention. Not to mention he is going to be very, very careful about whom he hires to begin with - that's why he contacted the PCs right? He probably has a past connection with them so he knows they are trustworthy.
- When you look at what is going on - Duke B knows about the heir, wants to kill him and blame Duke A for it to give him the edge needed to win the crown. He presumably has someone spying on the heir and bodyguard. Why not just send troops dressed as Duke A's people to ambush the heir?
More to Do - Encounter Ideas
- First set the stage. Something related to the conflict between the two dukes that the PCs get caught up in.
- Contacted by heir’s bodyguard, attend clandestine meeting, big reveal of heir, and then they foil an assassination attempt by Duke B's assassin.
- Let PCs plan how to smuggle the heir to the cardinal. Duke B’s spy discovers plan and sets an ambush somewhere based on their plan. If the PCs come up with a great plan, they foil the ambush.
- Ambush PCs and heir, clues reveal that the men belong to Duke A instead of Duke B. Ideally clues need to be followed up on and aren't an instant reveal. By the way, does Duke B want to kill the heir or capture him? Why?
- If ambush fails, PCs continue to capitol and must deal with real Duke A, hopefully have evidence of Duke B’s treachery.
- If ambush succeeds, PC’s either rescue heir and get him to the cardinal, or present dead body of heir and evidence to cardinal –with heir dead scenario becomes about getting Duke A the crown instead of Duke B.
- Final scene – three-way conflict in front of Cardinal.
Something like that, anyway. Obviously if it were my own campaign I'd spend more time thinking about it and fleshing it out.
As a player an interesting character background might be the Charlatan but to play a Royal Pretender. The Actor feat might be helpful in this role. This would be great if the players could appeal to the Cardinal to play the Dukes off against each other by the Church not actually supporting the pretender but refusing to officially denounce him or her. The Cardinal might actually have plans to denounce the Pretender after the Dukes have destroyed or crippled each other leaving no on else in place to run the kingdom except the church.
The player/pretender might pose as an illegitimate eldest child or alternatively perhaps the real heir disapeared into a dungeon somewhere and was never seen again with the PC posing as this returned long-lost Prince(ss). In this case the Prince(ss) might actually turn up at an unfortunate moment? As a twist unknown to the Pretender one of the other PC's might knowingly (or through spell or cursed induced amnesia unknowingly) be the actual Prince(ss)?
Dreamstryder wrote:
Masks of Nahlehotep and the enemy within, arguably the two greatest pre-written campaigns/adventures ever written have very convoluted plots. So I am no sure that avoiding complex plots is good advice. However, if you going to go with a strong and complicated plot, your going to want to make sure you develop your impovise skills.
Understanding your NPCs, their resources, methods and motivations allow you to guage their actions within the plot, in responce to the players actions, Try to avoid specific pre-scriped events, but rather develope Agents of the antagonists, and have them respond to or drive the the PCs through their actions.
Secret Heir: The dead king's direct child; heir's bodyguard wants to get heir to the capital to be crowned.
PCs: hired by heir's bodyguard to defend them as they make their way to the capital. PCs are told that no one else is supposed to know the heir exists. (I assume the heir has proof of claim to the crown, but that could be another wrinkle.)
Complication: The guide and his troops (who were hired in addition to the PCs) were secretly paid more by Duke B to make sure the heir meets with another troop of dressed mercs. These dressed mercs were hired by Duke B but equipped and bannered to appear as Duke A troops. Their mission is to kill the heir to frame and ruin Duke A’s support among the nobility.
Eris.Shrugged wrote:
Ansbach wrote:
Eris.Shrugged wrote:
So the heir can't be secret anymore, and should have some proof of claim. The idea of fairy lineage is interesting. I think the PCs will be fine with a guarantee of payment and a way to end the ducal civil war; I like the idea of using an encounter to introduce this part of the setting.
I actually envision the entire scenario as a multi-adventure affair (perhaps I should have said "campaign"). My players are savvy, like to add at least one convolution per adventure, preferably givng them a choice of complications to unravel and ease the road to their goal.
The 1st adventure will be protecting the heir from the dressed mercs as they make their way to someplace safe. I'll probably map the shortest route as the most dangerous, the longest the safest, and point out some middle ones with varied flavors of danger. The longest could be dangerous if they never defeat the mercs, and if they don't identify their true nature, they could choose some bad roofs to shelter under. This may be complex enough for starts, but the entire campaign doesn't end there.
Each chapter could introduce a new complication, ie: the heir's claim is revealed forged or is stolen and the entire party is threatened with execution for being usurpers. I'm still looking for feedback on anything! 