Help with Custom Campaign - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Yunru Sep 28, 2014 15:29:49	So first the essentials: The setting is in a completely made up world, rather than any of the cannon ones, purely for simplicity. The players start as first level characters. Now then I know at least some of my players browse these forums so I'm going to try and be as vague as possible whilst still being helpfully informative. In the world I'm running the players are heading towards a city for some reason. Whilst travelling a major calamity has struck the local area, causing many of the fallen to rise again as zombies. Cue plot arcs involving organised raiders, mysterious cults, etc. Okay, a bit more in-depth world building: The zombie outbreak has caused serious issues, with whole cities able to "go dark" if the problem gets out of hand. Clerics and others who can repel the hoards are in high demand, working the fields is a dangerous job and of course, there's always the power hungry seeking to expand their influence. The problems I'm getting writter's block on are the following: I want divine powers to still be as effective as usual, with Clerics being exceptionally good at rebuking undead, but hten why aren't the gods themselves doing more? I want the players to be unaware of the outbreak at the start of the campaign, but how do I get them together and out of the way long enough for that to be possible?
#2 Direach Sep 28, 2014 15:42:51	Generally speaking, gods are often prohibited from acting directly, and must rely on their earthly agents to do what needs doing. This can be because of a non-interference agreement between the gods; maybe they almost destroyed the world last time they could act directly, and agreed not to do that again. Or perhaps they gave up the ability to intervene directly in order to prevent some powerful evil or destructive force, greater than themselves, from being able to enter the world because of their activity. If you want clerics to have more frequent use of Turn Undead, consider allowing them to buy additional uses at the cost of hit points. You'd have to figure out what a fair "price" was for this, but it would mean that they could turn more frequently if they needed to. You prevent the turn/heal/turn/heal cycle by stating that HP expended to power Turn Undead cannot be regained until they complete a long rest. If they can't immediately stop the outbreak, it doesn't matter if they're aware of it or not. If nothing else, they're unlikely to be aware of the scale of it. You can leave a few clues: abandoned caravans and towns, more wandering zombies than the party would expect to see, that kind of thing. Maybe one or more of them has prophetic dreams, as the gods try to warn their chosen followers of the coming danger. Probably the easiest way to keep them out of the way is for them to be on a sea voyage, or guests of a reclusive noble or order.
#3 Dreamstryder Sep 28, 2014 18:57:39	I assume you've decided the gods (1) exist and (2) are invested in the fate of humanity. Divine magic could derive from the world's spirits, inner spirit, or other sources, or be shed from divine beings who are not aware of humanity, like filching crumbs from giants. The PCs could be locked in a remote dungeon, in military service at a distant front, or worked as slaves in an exotic land. They may overhear others wondering why all reports or requests of military assistance to X have gone unanswered, all shipments from X have been canceled, or no messengers have returned.
#4 bawylie Sep 28, 2014 22:00:04	1.) don't worry about this. Leave the question open, completely. Nobody knows why your world's deities aren't interfering. Call it out. Have soothsayers predicting end times and non-evil cults calling for repentance, for the deities have forsaken the people. Use this to your advantage, you won't need an answer for a long time. 2.) one common problem is beginning too early. Prequels are pointless. Start as close to the end as you can. That's where all the interesting action is anyway. Start your game at 212 degrees (boiling). Anything less is just watching a pot of water slowly heat up. "You awake simultaneously. All of you are lying in sarcophagi arranged in a circular room, and you're adorned and interred as though dead. Clearly you're not. Each sarcophagi bears your names and some kind of written history about your deeds. Whoever interred you thought you were some kind of heroic troupe or unit. None of the histories match what you remember of your own life..." See where something like that gets them. Ask big questions and make them chase answers. Don't give anything away.
#5 Llenlleawg Sep 29, 2014 3:15:13	The problems I'm getting writter's block on are the following: I want divine powers to still be as effective as usual, with Clerics being exceptionally good at rebuking undead, but hten why aren't the gods themselves doing more?
#6 Caliburn101. Sep 29, 2014 3:46:00	On the issue of Gods and their behaviour, I would advise the following; Sketch out in some detail their relevant cosmology, relationships and personalities. Write-in why they cannot intervene and make sure it flows from the background you created. Then, if the characters start chasing answers as to why, you can dole out non-contradictory information (when they find snippets of the truth that is...) which you don't have to reverse-engineer later to make sense of it all. On keeping the characters away from the zombie outbreak at the start of the game, there are any number of ways; Shipwrecked on an island - a ship drifts onto a beach with zombies on it, and handily (if no-one is a sailor), just enough crew hiding in the bilge to get the ship underway once it's been cleared Start the game as slaves in a mine - one day the slave masters go quiet and they have to fight their way out using mine tools in the dark vs. zombies! Collective amnesia - an after-effect of some form of magic which was intended to change people into zombies but which has the mind-wiping effect on those inside a stone circle when it happens, or some other reason why the group, all together, weren't affected. The zombie outbreak starts in a distant land and spreads locally after a tigger event (a 'carrier' comes to the city, the necromancer ritual group responsible started their work where the campaign starts only recently, there is a plane-leak from the negative material which flows round the world and has only just reached the area the campaign starts - but has spread quicker than common message carrying techniques can keep up with, etc.). Servants of Orcus are running around disguised as official heralds informing each population center that the zombie outbreak is a mundane disease and encouraging isolationism to 'protect' communities whilst actually isolating those communities that, if they worked together, could deal with the problem.
(Reply to #2) Redbeard2	Direach wrote:
#8 Direach Sep 29, 2014 11:12:07	I hadn't thought about exhaustion! That would work too, probably better. Good call!
#9 Ahrimon Sep 29, 2014 14:32:56	You could always let them spend HD to power it. They have to decide whether an extra turn undead or two now is worth less recovery later.
#10 Seraphex Sep 29, 2014 15:19:12	The gods "disappearing" could be a plot hook and it of itself. Or at least a reason to amp up the tension for your players.. Just make sure to emphasize that in-universe people have begun figuring it out, before it becomes a metagame debate!
#11 Yunru Sep 30, 2014 5:47:22	Problem is: Show I want the characters' first encounter with the zombies to be while exploring a (seemingly) abandoned city.
#12 Direach Sep 30, 2014 7:26:02	There's not much creepier than an abandoned port city. Plus you have a built-in misdirection: players will almost always assume that a port city is empty because of sea monsters or sahuagin! Also, you can have the ship's captain get spooked and sail off, leaving the adventurers stranded, so they have no choice but to cross through the city if they want to leave (unless they know how to sail a ship themselves).
#13 kalil Sep 30, 2014 8:27:29	bawylie wrote:
(Reply to #13) AaronOfBarbaria	kalil wrote:
(Reply to #4) Redbeard2	bawylie wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Yunru

Sep 28, 2014 15:29:49

So first the essentials:

The setting is in a completely made up world, rather than any of the cannon ones, purely for simplicity.

The players start as first level characters.

Now then I know at least some of my players browse these forums so I'm going to try and be as vague as possible whilst still being helpfully informative.

In the world I'm running the players are heading towards a city for some reason. Whilst travelling a major calamity has struck the local area, causing many of the fallen to rise again as zombies. Cue plot arcs involving organised raiders, mysterious cults, etc.

Okay, a bit more in-depth world building:

The zombie outbreak has caused serious issues, with whole cities able to "go dark" if the problem gets out of hand. Clerics and others who can repel the hoards are in high demand, working the fields is a dangerous job and of course, there's always the power hungry seeking to expand their influence.

The problems I'm getting writter's block on are the following:

I want divine powers to still be as effective as usual, with Clerics being exceptionally good at rebuking undead, but hten why aren't the gods themselves doing more?
I want the players to be unaware of the outbreak at the start of the campaign, but how do I get them together and out of the way long enough for that to be possible?

Direach

Sep 28, 2014 15:42:51

Generally speaking, gods are often prohibited from acting directly, and must rely on their earthly agents to do what needs doing. This can be because of a non-interference agreement between the gods; maybe they almost destroyed the world last time they could act directly, and agreed not to do that again. Or perhaps they gave up the ability to intervene directly in order to prevent some powerful evil or destructive force, greater than themselves, from being able to enter the world because of their activity.

If you want clerics to have more frequent use of Turn Undead, consider allowing them to buy additional uses at the cost of hit points. You'd have to figure out what a fair "price" was for this, but it would mean that they could turn more frequently if they needed to. You prevent the turn/heal/turn/heal cycle by stating that HP expended to power Turn Undead cannot be regained until they complete a long rest.

If they can't immediately stop the outbreak, it doesn't matter if they're aware of it or not. If nothing else, they're unlikely to be aware of the scale of it. You can leave a few clues: abandoned caravans and towns, more wandering zombies than the party would expect to see, that kind of thing. Maybe one or more of them has prophetic dreams, as the gods try to warn their chosen followers of the coming danger.

Probably the easiest way to keep them out of the way is for them to be on a sea voyage, or guests of a reclusive noble or order.

Dreamstryder

Sep 28, 2014 18:57:39

I assume you've decided the gods (1) exist and (2) are invested in the fate of humanity. Divine magic could derive from the world's spirits, inner spirit, or other sources, or be shed from divine beings who are not aware of humanity, like filching crumbs from giants.
The PCs could be locked in a remote dungeon, in military service at a distant front, or worked as slaves in an exotic land. They may overhear others wondering why all reports or requests of military assistance to X have gone unanswered, all shipments from X have been canceled, or no messengers have returned.

bawylie

Sep 28, 2014 22:00:04

1.) don't worry about this. Leave the question open, completely. Nobody knows why your world's deities aren't interfering. Call it out. Have soothsayers predicting end times and non-evil cults calling for repentance, for the deities have forsaken the people. Use this to your advantage, you won't need an answer for a long time.

2.) one common problem is beginning too early. Prequels are pointless. Start as close to the end as you can. That's where all the interesting action is anyway. Start your game at 212 degrees (boiling). Anything less is just watching a pot of water slowly heat up.

"You awake simultaneously. All of you are lying in sarcophagi arranged in a circular room, and you're adorned and interred as though dead. Clearly you're not. Each sarcophagi bears your names and some kind of written history about your deeds. Whoever interred you thought you were some kind of heroic troupe or unit. None of the histories match what you remember of your own life..." See where something like that gets them.

Ask big questions and make them chase answers. Don't give anything away.

Llenlleawg

Sep 29, 2014 3:15:13

The problems I'm getting writter's block on are the following:

I want divine powers to still be as effective as usual, with Clerics being exceptionally good at rebuking undead, but hten why aren't the gods themselves doing more?

Caliburn101.

Sep 29, 2014 3:46:00

On the issue of Gods and their behaviour, I would advise the following;

Sketch out in some detail their relevant cosmology, relationships and personalities. Write-in why they cannot intervene and make sure it flows from the background you created. Then, if the characters start chasing answers as to why, you can dole out non-contradictory information (when they find snippets of the truth that is...) which you don't have to reverse-engineer later to make sense of it all.

On keeping the characters away from the zombie outbreak at the start of the game, there are any number of ways;

Shipwrecked on an island - a ship drifts onto a beach with zombies on it, and handily (if no-one is a sailor), just enough crew hiding in the bilge to get the ship underway once it's been cleared
Start the game as slaves in a mine - one day the slave masters go quiet and they have to fight their way out using mine tools in the dark vs. zombies!
Collective amnesia - an after-effect of some form of magic which was intended to change people into zombies but which has the mind-wiping effect on those inside a stone circle when it happens, or some other reason why the group, all together, weren't affected.
The zombie outbreak starts in a distant land and spreads locally after a tigger event (a 'carrier' comes to the city, the necromancer ritual group responsible started their work where the campaign starts only recently, there is a plane-leak from the negative material which flows round the world and has only just reached the area the campaign starts - but has spread quicker than common message carrying techniques can keep up with, etc.).
Servants of Orcus are running around disguised as official heralds informing each population center that the zombie outbreak is a mundane disease and encouraging isolationism to 'protect' communities whilst actually isolating those communities that, if they worked together, could deal with the problem.

(Reply to #2)

Redbeard2

Direach wrote:

Direach

Sep 29, 2014 11:12:07

I hadn't thought about exhaustion! That would work too, probably better. Good call!

Ahrimon

Sep 29, 2014 14:32:56

You could always let them spend HD to power it. They have to decide whether an extra turn undead or two now is worth less recovery later.

#10

Seraphex

Sep 29, 2014 15:19:12

The gods "disappearing" could be a plot hook and it of itself. Or at least a reason to amp up the tension for your players.. Just make sure to emphasize that in-universe people have begun figuring it out, before it becomes a metagame debate!

#11

Yunru

Sep 30, 2014 5:47:22

Problem is:

Show

I want the characters' first encounter with the zombies to be while exploring a (seemingly) abandoned city.

#12

Direach

Sep 30, 2014 7:26:02

There's not much creepier than an abandoned port city. Plus you have a built-in misdirection: players will almost always assume that a port city is empty because of sea monsters or sahuagin! Also, you can have the ship's captain get spooked and sail off, leaving the adventurers stranded, so they have no choice but to cross through the city if they want to leave (unless they know how to sail a ship themselves).

#13

kalil

Sep 30, 2014 8:27:29

bawylie wrote:

(Reply to #13)

AaronOfBarbaria

kalil wrote:

(Reply to #4)

Redbeard2

bawylie wrote: