I'm a relatively new DM. My group has ben playing for about a year, but it's intermitant at best so we really havn't played much. I figured I would start a FR campaign because of the lore and material available, and we've started out in Loudwater and we're running some of the starter adventures there. I'm looking for some suggestions and pointers (I've never been involved with D&D anything before this).
My basic idea right now is for Netheril to start flexing it's muscles and putting plans of empire into motion. I was thinking that the Princes of Shade would start by sending agents to the snake folk, trying to get them unified and causing problems (more so) for the people surrounding Najara. The ultimate intent there being that the serpent fold would join a "Netherise empire." Shade would also send agents into the Gray Vale region to sew discord and cause disruptions (possibly to come in later to offer to "help" get rid of the problems).
I figured my overall campaign plan would be this:
Heroic - handling the gangs and trouble brewing in the area of the gray vale, discovering the root cause of the sudden issues.
Paragon - Uniting the region and fighting back the serpent folk...
Epic - taking the fight back to Shade
I know that plan is very vague at the moment. These are just ideas that are bouncing in my head. I'd love your suggestions. Thanks!
The Serpent Kingdom hides ancient magic older than the Netherese.
If we look to the Eastern Border of Netheril however there is the Sembian Nation being controlled by the Shades there could be any number of things brewing with the Dales, Mythdrannor, and Cormyr. Also there are some nefarious plots brewing in Neverwinter with intrest of the Shades and Thayan controlled Cultist. There could be some supply line traffic moving through Loudwater. I'm sure Zhent Mercenaries would be trying to make the most coins from any intrigues passing through the "Ruin" outpost around Llorkh. It has been reported that after the volcanic activity around Neverwinter many shade like Undead have been battling with other undead and cultist, not to mention mercenaries there trying to protect the reconstruction effort. I am certain there are Zhent Mercenaries working on both sides there as well earning a coin and gathering intelligence.
The Serpent Kingdom however is a threat all in themselves as are the Shades of Netheril. The combination of the two would possibly be based on some powerful Artifact or unification of Gods, but I am still not sure if they would unite or kill each other.
Don't forget Evereska having dealt with and defended against the Shades before, would be ever vigilant against either threat by their neighbors if such a threat should arise. There was a battle with the Netherese in that area before the Spellplague. Khelban was involved, Waterdeep, Evereska, and Cormyr. Tilverton was destroyed in that battle. Tilverton could be an area of intrest to check out if you have time. Who knows what mystery hides in that anomaly to invade peoples nightmares. I think of Night Stalkers and the Shadowfell or always something possibly worse...
PS: the search on these foruns suck, needed to search manualy through the foruns for the right thread
How convoluted does this sound...
A bit
But it could also be the return of Cyric, that seems right up his alley,no?
It seems a bit far-fetched, though, you REALLY need to pull something out of your hat
But why go on such a large scale right from the start? Those are some heavy hitters, such a plan would require quite a bit of preparation and moves.
I don't know anything about Mask but he sounds interesting and seems like a good antagonist (considering the gods don't even know if he's around or not).
And I like Orcus as a bad guy to! If any one has any suggestions on where to go for lore without reading all the FR novels and such, I'd appreciate it.
Every one winds up getting armed and primed against action from a threatening agency, and in turn tries to manipulate other groups until every one is so paranoid that a minor attack might set off a war that envelops the entire continent...
That was my point, actually, i doubt a few skirmishes would trigger an all-out war, it would require major army movements to do so, IMHO.
Another possibility would be an assassination of a major political player (kinda what triggered WW1), but that needed some real tension prior to the event, and some well orchestrated misinformation trail (and we go back to the long period of preparation).
It seems to me that there is already quite a bit of tension going on between most of the major powers, and many of the lesser powers in the world. I could do some DM handwaving and say that my BBEG (whoever that might be, still not sure), could have been working his agents (spys and sabatuoers) into these groups for a good while. They've been slowly building up their influence and power base within the organizations so that they can play the group they've infiltrated against the others.
HEROIC TIER:
With violence and crime on the rise in the area of the Gray Vale, my party starts asserting itself as a force to be reconed with, righting wrongs and all that jazz. Maybe midway-late heroic one of the good guy groups approaches the party in order to recruit them. PCs start working missions for the good guys, YAY.
PARAGON TIER:
The missions get stepped up a bit, and eventually, the PCs are tasked with taking out some lord or other notable from Netheril (probably not one of the 12 princes... not sure what their levels would be but I imagine it's epic). This,and maybe a few other actions the party wasn't involved in could cause the explosion into all out war. The rest of the paragon tier would be dealing with said war, and maybe the party working out the nature of the conflicts (partly at least).
EPIC TIER:
Having worked out at least some of the truth, the party now has to deal with the true threat. They might even have to make some unexpected alliances (shade princes? mwuahaha).
Yeah... I kind of like that idea... I really like the idea of my players sparking off the war! Is that mean?
ohh... exactly... that sounds like the perfect catalsyt once things have been primed. Hmm... who to off... Could make it look like one of the 12 princes was assasinated by an agent from Thay, and that some serpent kingdom higher up was killed by some one from the dale lands or the bedinites (beninites? the people setting up resistance against netheril).
I still cant see Thay being an adversary of Netheril (at least from the current side of things), as they have common enemies in the middle (the good guys), so a temporary alliance (like what the previous thread suggested) would be more likely.
For me, you would need to create quite a few reasons for Thay to seem to have a reason to attack Netheril, and even then, those attacks would be covert (assassinations), not open; even them, what would the battlefiled be? According to the political map of the FRCG 4th Ed, they dont share territorial lines, unless you count Sembia, all across the Sea of Fallen Stars (and there is Aglarond/Thesk/Akanul in the middle.
Why not just settle for a local conflict? That would bring chaos enough, destabilize the power structure, and you would have a lot less work to do in explaining everything.
So... my FR campaign version ??...
HEROIC TIER:
With violence and crime on the rise in the area of the Gray Vale, my party starts asserting itself as a force to be reconed with, righting wrongs and all that jazz. Maybe midway-late heroic one of the good guy groups approaches the party in order to recruit them. PCs start working missions for the good guys, YAY.
You may want to give rumours on a constant base of the events happening outside the Grey Vale, some true, some not, some greatly exagerated.
PARAGON TIER:
The missions get stepped up a bit, and eventually, the PCs are tasked with taking out some lord or other notable from Netheril (probably not one of the 12 princes... not sure what their levels would be but I imagine it's epic). This,and maybe a few other actions the party wasn't involved in could cause the explosion into all out war. The rest of the paragon tier would be dealing with said war, and maybe the party working out the nature of the conflicts (partly at least).
The princes are Epic controlers (FRCG 4h Ed. pg 260).
Once again i say the likely response from Netheril would be proporcional (a retaliatory assassination and direct action against the party in particular), not army movements; the Serpent kingdoms are more likely to be confrontational, but not against Netheril (once again, no territorial frontiers).
But you are the DM, you can change some parameters, if you really wish this to happen.
Yeah... I kind of like that idea... I really like the idea of my players sparking off the war! Is that mean?
If you can pull it off, its great
Thanks a lot for bouncing ideas back and fourth Pruano, I'm sure I'll be posting more questions and concepts for critique later!
Well, it looks like my FR game is falling apart. 2 of the players really don't seem serious about being involved in the game, and the rest of us are getting tired of it.
It happens.
Sometimes the players dont really take to the storyline, either prefer to explore or go for combat (that bums me too); thats another reason the DMs should start small, to avoid investing too much work that will never appear; do write your ideas though, they may come in handy in another game.
Luckily, I just found another friend who wants to start playing. So between him and his son, we'll be able to start another game with them. I'm going to stick with Nentir Vale for the time being to kind of simplify things while I hone my Dungeon Master Ninja Magic.
Ya, experience helps (im also a rather new DM); i also recommend that approach.
For the Nentir Vale setting, the best sources are the new Monster Vault (has pretty much everything) and the DMG1; the Chaos Scar area has its own site (not updated).
Thanks a lot for bouncing ideas back and fourth Pruano, I'm sure I'll be posting more questions and concepts for critique later!
Not a problem, loved to help, and i know how useful that can be myself