1: The nearby grasslands are home to a tribe of razorclaw shifters. They keep to themselves for the most part, don't bother travellers. However, the brother of their current Chieftain (we'll call him "Mark") has bigger plans. Mark makes an alliance with a nearby pack of gnolls, and with their help assassinates the chieftain and his only son and makes it look like an accident. Under Mark's leadership, the shifters reluctantly band together with the gnolls and begin a campaign of conquest and banditry against the nearby human villages.
However, unbeknownst to Mark, the chief's son managed to escape. Pursued by gnoll hunters, he flees to the PC's hometown, and begs them for assistance.
2: The shadar-kai have undergone a civil war, each led by a member of their royal family. The prince of the winning faction (a powerful Shadow-Pact warlock) wishes to reconquer the Prime Material and merge it with the Shadowfel, turning it into a paradise for the shadar-kai and a desolate wasteland for all the native races. He defeated the more peaceful faction led by his sister, and turned her into a Shadowraven. He now leads his army to transform the mortal world into a land of darkness, with his transformed and exhiled sister the only one who can warn the natives of his insane plan.
3. The characters are former slaves, separated from their parents at birth and raised as slave-members of their current class/profession. They must escape their enslavement and discover their own identities while trying to find out why they were taken from their parents and enslaved.
4. The gods have made war on each other with mortals as proxies for millenia. Now the mortals have had enough. Who will they turn to for help against the gods themselves? Demons? Dragons? Other, older (more sinister) gods? Primordials? The creator-God?
5. An ancient race of demons/humanoids/whatever made war on humans centuries ago and both sides were nearly wiped out. The humans recovered first, but their enemies (assumed destroyed) now live amongst them, subverting them from within. Empires have risen and are now crumbling. Meaningless wars spring up and the enemies of humanity are behind it. Who will stop them, since everyone believes them destroyed?
6. A thousand years have passed since the last Great Conjunction of the Three Moons and now it is due again. The only problem is, everyone has now forgotten what exactly happened and how the last one was predicted. The Great Conjunction caused widespread geological, meteorological, planar and social upheaval. What will happen this time? Heroic: Signs and Portents of the Conjunction. Paragon: The actual Conjunction. Epic: Forging a new world in the aftermath.
7. An annual faire has come to the city and sets up in the fields outside. Among their attractions they will also be hosting a number of contests and events. People have come round from far and wide to pit their skills in a Hand to hand fighting competition, an archery competition and a spear throwing and duelling competition. There is big money on Master Wu to win the Hand to Hand competition, but every rough and tough around with a pair of fists wants in on a good fight.
8. The faire is also hosting 3 gladatorial events with sizeable awards to the winners/survivors. Five brave souls sign up to fight a "bear" - when the gates raise up an enormously enlarged bear that has been dressed out in armor thunders into the small arena. Four adventurers signed up for the second battle against a "lion", they are placed in a larger arena with a chariot - when the gates raise up a very well trained displacer beast leaps out with a roar, sadly there were no survivors in this bout except the cat. Seven strong adventurers entered the final competetion against a "spider" - nobody knows exactly where the hosts of this faire managed to capture and control a powerful Drider, but hopefully there is more where it came from.
9 - The characters are hired to do a series of 'odd jobs' for a local businessman - ridding his cellar of rats, etc - they quickly graduate to 'helping his trusted guards' get rid of 'dangerous elements to society' - organized criminals. He arranges for them to see their most atrocious behavior and sets them up to kill/neutralize the organized criminals. In reality - they are his competitors. When his reign of terror begins (when all of his competitors are gone), the characters must stop him... or join him?
10 - Eladrin are immortal, impossibly beautiful, largely immune to mortal diseases - they are the 'master race' - the characters start out in an eladrin-run slave camp - where they are collecting humans and other lesser races to use as slaves (or in the case of orcs/goblinoids, exterminate them). The characters must escape and wreak havok on their oppressors.
11. An ancient monster (likely dragon, vampire, or lich) threatens the Empire for the first time in centuries. Scholars say, and reports confirm, that defeating the monster by traditional means would be almost impossible, but the legendary hero who defeated it centuries ago knew its weakness, and his ghost still knows. The PCs must find this hero's ghost, learn the trick to defeating the monster, and defeat it once and for all to save the Empire.
12. The PCs all wake up one morning - one year has past since they went to sleep. In the intervening time a catastrophic event has triggered sweeping and devestating change across the world in which they once lived. How are they going to survive in this new world? What's happenned to their friends and enemies? What triggered this cataclysm and how can the PCs help heal the worlds wounds? Most troubling of all, what the hell happened to them in the last year?
13. It is discovered, after a long and hard campaign against the growing forces of darkness throughout the player's world, that their homeland is nothing more than a demiplane of sanity trapped within the churning evils of the Abyss. And the barriers are finally breaking. A mass evacuation must be performed, before the tiny world rips itself apart.
14. A century ago, the noble Shadar-Kai House Morlan (noble as in nobility, not nice) created a set of three artifacts that could open massive, permanent interplanar portals- a staff, a sword, and a crown. Before they could be used, however, an audacious thief stole the items away to the Prime Material, where there were lost. Since then, various forces have been searching for these items, for various purposes- a necromancer who plans to drain the power stored in the items to fuel his ascension to divinity, a devil lord sealed within a prison demiplane planning to transport his armies into the Prime Material to resume his conquests so rudely interuppted a millenia ago, and of course House Morlan, which has kept its original plans for the items carefully secret.
Now, a century after the theft, the staff is wielded by the powerful Gnoll warlord whose army is laying waste to the frontiers of bountiful Nerath, all in the name of the devil he serves- yes, that devil. The sword is the personal property of Sir Aran, the head bodyguard of Nerath's king- Aran is ignorant of the sword's true purpose, but he knows it's a damn fine blade. And the crown? The crown has fallen to the bottom of a cave system recently claimed by goblin bandits, who the PCs have been contracted to drive off...
(The plot sketch for a campaign I started running shortly after 4.0 came out- the empire wasn't Nerath at the time, but once Wizards released more info about Nerath's fall, I realized that this story fit perfectly. Of course, the campaign had fallen apart by that time, before the players learned any of the backstory, but such is life.)
14. A century ago, the noble Shadar-Kai House Morlan (noble as in nobility, not nice) created a set of three artifacts that could open massive, permanent interplanar portals- a staff, a sword, and a crown. Before they could be used, however, an audacious thief stole the items away to the Prime Material, where there were lost. Since then, various forces have been searching for these items, for various purposes- a necromancer who plans to drain the power stored in the items to fuel his ascension to divinity, a devil lord sealed within a prison demiplane planning to transport his armies into the Prime Material to resume his conquests so rudely interuppted a millenia ago, and of course House Morlan, which has kept its original plans for the items carefully secret.
Now, a century after the theft, the staff is wielded by the powerful Gnoll warlord whose army is laying waste to the frontiers of bountiful Nerath, all in the name of the devil he serves- yes, that devil. The sword is the personal property of Sir Aran, the head bodyguard of Nerath's king- Aran is ignorant of the sword's true purpose, but he knows it's a damn fine blade. And the crown? The crown has fallen to the bottom of a cave system recently claimed by goblin bandits, who the PCs have been contracted to drive off...
Now that sounds like an awesome campaign!
1: The nearby grasslands are home to a tribe of razorclaw shifters. They keep to themselves for the most part, don't bother travellers. However, the brother of their current Chieftain (we'll call him "Mark") has bigger plans. Mark makes an alliance with a nearby pack of gnolls, and with their help assassinates the chieftain and his only son and makes it look like an accident. Under Mark's leadership, the shifters reluctantly band together with the gnolls and begin a campaign of conquest and banditry against the nearby human villages.
However, unbeknownst to Mark, the chief's son managed to escape. Pursued by gnoll hunters, he flees to the PC's hometown, and begs them for assistance.
I would refuse to play in a party that are the equivalent of Timone and Pumba
15. The existence of an entire race is threatened by a rapidly-spreading and extremely contageous disease that is exclusive to that race. A two individuals, a male and a female, are immune to the disease due to a genetic mutation in some minute strand of DNA. The Powers that Be hire/recruit/command the PCs to seek out these two and bring them together and escort them far away from the rest of their people to a safe and spacious tract of land in which they may rebuild their race. Certain individuals would benefit from this race's death, however. To add to the PCs' problems, the two immune individuals are of opposing alignments.
16. In a non-magical fantasy setting, a divine being seizes an unknowing PC and imparts power unto him/her by force. The world's first sorcerer/sorceress has just been created. An infinite spectrum of possibilities open up.
17. An experimental project run amongst our group, dubbed The Gods Campaign. Bored with how things have been unfolding in the world, a scarcely-known creator-god plucks [x] mortals from the world and brings them to a void. There, he creates, before their eyes, a new world covered in ocean, and brings from it an island roughly the size of Great Britain. The players are endowed with godhood, and mandated to create their own race of people - one to each god/godess. From there, the creator watches things unfold among the PCs with interest.
15. The existence of an entire race is threatened by a rapidly-spreading and extremely contageous disease that is exclusive to that race. A two individuals, a male and a female, are immune to the disease due to a genetic mutation in some minute strand of DNA. The Powers that Be hire/recruit/command the PCs to seek out these two and bring them together and escort them far away from the rest of their people to a safe and spacious tract of land in which they may rebuild their race. Certain individuals would benefit from this race's death, however. To add to the PCs' problems, the two immune individuals are of opposing alignments.
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15.
so is it a love story campaign. that could be really interesting for roleplay. would PCs be required to settle spats and seek to really create a well founded relationship between the opposing aligned 'safe' couple? what type of protection from outside sources might exist in the kingdom/anarchist commune that the race is already a part of which would aid PCs? is there a way to link the disease to those whom would benefit from this race's death?
so many good questions.
are the PCs a part of that race? what does it mean to them that they may likely die of the disease and be survived only by these two they are protecting? what does it mean if these two don't like each other and don't care to 'save the race'?
18) Something's gone wrong with people's dreams all over the known world. The PCs have to enter the Plane of Dreams via communal dreaming and put it right.
19) portals opend and the lands where over run by abberations, fortunaly a group of powerfull maged managed to errect large magical domes to keep them out. some of the domed are physicly connected but many are not in the years that passed the guild of mages maintaining the domes and teleport cirkles between them rose to incredible power and wealth. both the domes and circle travel consuming large quanteties of residium.
can the portals be closed, did the mages create the portals to rise to their posision of power, will we run out of residiul to feul them, that is for the players to find out
( campaign idea i'm working on domes are about 200km across each dome acts like a small kindgom, outside the domes random encounters of paragorn level must be expected)
the residium must flow
There is a city in the desert buried by the Gods.This is punishment for some nameless wickedness still unknown to this day.It is now a popular attraction,people come from miles around to see it.
What was their sin that the Gods would punish them so?Cannabalism,blasphemy etc. you choose.
The city has an escape tunnel laden with traps.These were set by a rogue on his way out of the city.He betrayed the city's rulers who sought to flee the Gods' wrath.
Beneath the city is a gateway to another,older city the ruins of which holds another secret more terrible than the first.
Did the Gods fear it so that they would bury an entire society to protect it?
The PCs are hired to find the Rogue's journal and deliver it to a third party.The Gods are bound by their oath not to directly interfere with mortal men.But their followers can.They attempt to stop the PCs.
One of the Gods is secretly against the others.That deity helps the PCs on the sly through His/Her clerics.The journal also has entries pertaining to treasure caches located throughout the city.This gives you some potential hooks as well as some intrigue.
I think cannabalism would be the nameless wickedness.This means there would be lots of ghouls for the PCs to fight.
The Big Secret could be
1. Men are the source of divine magic.Faith in the Gods gives Them their powers.Lack of faith or worship will cause them to fade.
2.The people were to ressurect an older,darker God whose essence is located in the second city.
3.Arcane magic is forbidden by the Gods.The people dicovered a fountain of it exists in the second city
Just some ideas and a framework in which to work.Hope this helps.
21. The PCs are from a nomadic society. They've been given the task of scouting out new routes and securing temporary settlement locations. Adventures could be dungeon crawls to clear out an infested potential settlement or more urban-diplomatic affairs as the PCs secure supplies and safe passage. The society could be primitive nomads or they could be more medieval pseudo-gypsy inspired society. Higher level adventures include larger engagements and potential advancement within their society.
22. The arc of another campaign could be about freeing an imprisoned good aligned god.
23. The PCs are from one of the scattered pockets of free people on a planet dominated by illithids. Adventures include fighting against the hunters serving the mind flayers, freeing those that are already under illithid dominion, and destroying illithid outposts and supply lines. The highest levels of adventure could include erecting a barrier between the plane of the illithid and the PCs home world. Or perhaps the PC's could reach out to some of the illithids' other enemies, urging them into an interplanar war against their overlords.
24. The PCs live in a world where the surface is a blasted, barren waste. Societies have shifted to the upper reaches of the underdark. After hearing endless stories about the dreaded surface wasteland and possibly experiencing the dangerousness of this harsh environment themselves, the PCs discover that not all life had been destroyed on the surface. Small hamlets and villages thrive, oblivious to a history of an uninhabitable surface. Adventures include exploring the surface and its ruins, discovering valleys of lush vegitation, and possibly leading their people back to the surface. Could they be powerful enough to restore more of the wastes?
25. The heavens are aflame with war. Many of the gods have fled their celestial homes and have taken residence in the physical world claiming vast swaths of territory as their own. Are the gods fighting amongst themselves? Have the primordials returned? Or is it something more dangerous? Will the adventurers be able to restore the gods to their rightful place?