Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 99typhoons Jun 24, 2015 19:06:57	Alright so the world that i have created for the group I DM has many "big" cities. The cities are full of people of all the races but each city has a ruler of some kind of a specific race. There are a few Human run places, Dwarf Kingdoms, Elf Nations, and so on.... Each of the PCs are from different places on our world map.    My idea revolves around what would happen if I had some of these nations that the PCs are from go to war with eachother? So if the groups Human Clerics home town of Human Kingdom-A goes to war with Elven Kingdom-B, which the groups Rogue is from, what would happen? how would that affect them? we could have the two places have some sort of conflict and we see the effects all the way down to the group who are friends but being pulled to support their Home Nation. They all have their own backstories in place and everyone seems to be proud of where they are from.   Maybe even feature some sort of mission that would effect the outcome of a battle between them but the group would need to make a decision to do so. Maybe the choice to destroy one of the armies is advantageous for one but destructive to the other. How would they decide? Would they fight eachother?   This idea is still fresh so i dont have all the details hammered out, but i think it would be a good way for the characters to get into a new narrative with our game, that brings out some really cool scenarios. Basically i make the campaigns and missions for the group be up to their own ideas and way they want to handle it.    Any expansion or ideas are much appreciated. Thanks
#2 Danny_Montanny Jun 25, 2015 9:13:40	Being proud of where your from and willing to lay down your life for your country are two vastly different things. This idea rest solely on how the PCs feel about the situation. Have your war, but don't be surprised if none of the PCs really care. The things you definitely need to think about are why the war is actually happening an what the public perceives is the reason. On both sides. The rest will figure itself out and offer some hooks. You definitely don't start out with all out war right away anyways. Sow the seeds of dissent between the opposing sides. Rumors, public displays for/against the conflict, possibly small out of the way skirmishes, and stuff like that. How the PCs react to the "pre-war" situations will give you an idea about their feelings on the subject.
#3 Lord_Ventnor Jun 25, 2015 11:15:36	The most important thing, I think, is to give your PCs a reason to stick together despite the fact that their homes are at war with each other. For example, they discover evidence that there is some shadowy group that has manipulated the leaders of these cities to fight each other for some (probably sinister) reason.
#4 Varden_Khol Jun 25, 2015 15:15:34	Lord_Ventnor wrote:
#5 Imaculata Jun 26, 2015 3:48:23	War torn countries are a great basis for an exciting DnD campaign. You could do a lot of interesting things with the plot here, and make the players question the legitimacy of the war. Be sure to work out the details of the political climate. Who are responsible? Are they villains, heroes, or neither? Possibly nation C has instigated a war between nation A and B, to weaken them, and is preparing for an all out war against both. Maybe the players are placed in the position where they have to run missions for both sides? Plenty of opportunity for difficult moral choices here too.
#6 Thoughts_My_Aim Jun 26, 2015 10:54:59	I think you might be in danger here of having to invent solutions to an invented problem. The fact that your homeland and my homeland are at war doesn't necessarily make us less likely to work together, especially not in a pre-nationalistic society. I think you could probably get away with assuming that players will not need any specific additional reasons to work together. Adventuring is a dangerous job, and a largely apolitical one.
#7 Hebitsuikaza Jun 26, 2015 16:30:06	It isn't enough to simply "have a war".   What started this war? What tensions existed before the war in order to allow this catalyst explode into all out warfare.   Should the PCs be pulling for one side of the conflict because one side is clearly in the right or should they be looking to end this because it is all a big misunderstanding or due to some sort of nefarious plotting? Or maybe this is a big mixed bag where the conflict is over something that there is no solution to that would satisfy everyone, but neither is any nation totally in the wrong.   Does this war personally involve the PCs? Or COULD it personally involve the PCs? What exactly do they care about that is at sake? Or do they have no specific ties at all and they are just going to be profiteering off of this war as mercenaries for hire?   Well, what if you can give them something personal that is at stake? How well developed are these characters?   I believe that once you begin filling in these details the answer will come to you.
#8 BRJN Jun 26, 2015 17:17:03	Hebitsuikaza wrote:
#9 99typhoons Jun 26, 2015 19:01:03	Currently in our world, a massive goblin army has tunneled from out of the mountain and are overrunning one of the three continents of the world. The spread of their forces are stopped at a great river that crosses into the territory of one of the PCs homeland. The other great cities on this continent have been wiped out for the most part. An entire kingdom of elves took off to cross the sea to another continent (btw, all great populations of elves are now on x1 continent.) One of our past missions took place at ground zero of this goblin armies "d-day", they failed to complete a task that would have stopped it and changed our entire game. it was awesome.    maybe instead of the two nations belonging to the PC's going to war, they could go to war with this Goblin Army that is laying some serious smackdown everywhere. So maybe there could be a point where the goblin army is fighting both nations and there is something at stake that could help one side but drastically damage the other?    I read in a different thread earlier this week about a Dwarven Mine that had two mountain-sized statues that can be activated to fall over onto enemies. what if there was some element of this that could activate one of the statues that smash one of the good nations and traps the goblins from advancing, or the oppisite crushes the other good army and prevents the goblins from retreating. or both statues would inflict severe damage to the greater enemy at the cost of both good armies receiving tremendous losses.    I think the focus to have the armies be from places that they are from would help with their PCs because they all have families that they wrote about in their backstories in their homelands. The people i dm for have put a lot of effort into really bringing their characters to life. its been just a blast.    again any way to create the best possible experience but also give them some risk to have a greater reward, im all ears.