Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 VampyresThrenody May 16, 2008 4:48:46	I'm planning on running one of my first d&d games in awhile. Typically I don't have too much in the way of intrigue or really complicated plots. I suppose this comes from many of my games not making it all that long time wise and wanting to avoid 'rail-roading' a group along a particular path. I typically aim for the sandbox type game where many different things can be done. In that sort of game I can't quite manage to pull off complex plots. I am sure some people can, but the lack of thorough and strong planning makes it more difficult for myself. Now, I am going to be running two new games and I really want one of them to be both a sandbox type while also being very complex. I figured I could do this by setting a spider's web. What I mean by this is arranging for multiple plot hooks many of which seem innocent enough i.e. "We found a door after a recent cave in to some strange building but can't get it open, want to go see if there's any gold inside?' and eventually lead to connections to various political groups, gangs, and other plot hooks. My intent is to set this up in a way that does not rail-road players along a set path. Think less a branching road and more a maze with a half dozen entrances and a half dozen exits and plenty of dead ends. That said, I come here for help in creating this. I understand all above is general so here are the ideas: The basic ideas Show PC's start as part of one faction, either chosen by them or myself this has not yet been decided. There are eight or nine (can't recall at the moment) factions in the city. I need to find a way to connect several starting plots to more intricate plots. Here's an example: The player's investigate a recently uncovered building that is mostly buried. When they get there, the doors have already been opened. Inside are various monsters (hopefully all with an ice-element feel) and finally a boss, an ice demon that had been imprisoned. The arcane circles holding the creature have been broken by the time the players get there. By having various hints throughout the building or perhaps suggestions from the demon itself, the players learn an arcane caster (what do you call NPC wizards with no wizard levels? o.O) with some power released the creature by taking a device that had been imprisoning it. The device will be a magic item of some sort that was stolen primarily to off-set it being stolen by another mage. Still not sure how or if this will be given to the players. Magician A belongs to a group of wizards who each belong to various factions in the area. Their intent is to manipulate these factions in order to subjugate portions of the city and eventually the whole city on behalf of Badb Catha, the (second) goddess of war. The device aids in the containment and/or summoning of demons. It was stolen to use as such. Magician B, is in reality the one who stole the item from Magician A. Magician B is part of a small group of wizards in Faction A (whichever faction the players belong to) which is attempting to prevent Magician A and his ilk from killing the faction leader and replacing him. Magician B's group only knows about a plot to kill the faction leader and replace him with a follower within the faction. They don't know who the follower is. I may make it a friend or family member to one of the PCs. Thus, they know nothing about Magician A's group's intent to take over the city. That said, the ice demon was merely one seal in a line of several. Unfortunately, neither magician group knew this. Releasing one weakens seals on other demons throughout the city. Each of these demons is used as various portions to seal away a massive demon lord who was imprisoned within the city. Funny enough, this demon lord happens to be imprisoned in a giant stone ring that is worshipped by one of the factions. This faction has a subset cult within it that knows of the ring's true nature and is attempting to find the demon seals and free their lord. They are the ones who suggested to Magician A that the item be stolen. They told that group because they themselves have few with any arcane power and are primarily just people with connections and knowledge. Can you see where this is heading? There are spirals within spirals within spirals. Now I need more then one way into the spiral. I have some ideas on this but need suggestions and aid.
#2 smerg May 16, 2008 7:18:14	My suggestion on the best way to do this is to follow the 'City of Heroes' model. While you could use other models (I have tried many from various Call of Cthuhlu and Delta Green which often have complicated plots among other games), I will recomend the 'City of Heroes' model because most players get easily confused. While you have roughly nine 'factions' within your city, consider that only three have 'prominent' plans at the moment (consider that most factions will generally have a couple of allies in support of a particular group's 'prominent' plan). You now have three plans which means that you need three quest givers that you offer the players (you can figure out how to connect or give an introduction to these three quest givers to your players). Each of the three quest givers will have one adventure quest to start. Players may choose to pick up all three or may only pick up one. You could also put in a stipulation if the players go to work for quest giver X then quest giver Y and Z will not talk or deal with the players (the player's choice of quest giver will assign a basic set of affiliations to factions whether they understand it or not). Examples of First Quests Quest Giver A {possibly a priest, wizard, or oracle type}> 'I have felt a change in the flow of magic in our surroundings. Please go to X and check that the cave and it's seal is still intact and come back to report to me on what you should do next' Mission is to go up to the cave and check to see if the cave is closed and the seal is intact. The cave will not be intact which means that something has occured. There could be an encounter outside of the cave mouth with a small band and another encounter just inside the cave mouth with a slightly tougher band. The full dimension of the cave will not be revealed at this time as it should not appear that the inside of the cave extends any further. Quest Giver B {possibly bar tender or city guard type}> 'I have been having lots of problems lately with the gang of L. Could you go to location M where they are known to hang out and knock some sense into them.' Mission is to go to the stated location to 'talk' to the gang. While the player's start to have their discussion outside of the gang's base, another group rushes by and into the gang's base. Player's will likely follow this other group into the base and see that a fight is going on and start busting heads on both sides. Third and last encounter is seeing the invading group with a slightly tougher person attacking the existing gang's leadership. If the player's wait a round or two then the gang L's leader is killed. If the player's attack immediately then they may face gang L's leader and the rest of the strike groups forces. Quest Giver C {possibly a ranger or druid like priest type}> 'I have heard disturbing reports from some of the foresters and farm owners around here of wild animals suddenly changing and attacking people. Could you please go check and see if this is true?' Mission is to go forest area and go look at several spots where bits of animal signs could be found. Information given out could be that they see fresh bear's claw marks on a tree despite it being close to town where bear's usually do not go. They see a mixture of animal tracks walking beside boot tracks (say druids do not wear boots but only sandals or bare feet to highten this is different). After the player's have gone by several spots which might include say past the cave which has the seal broken and the cave mouth open (though no attack from this spot on this mission), the players get an attack from several different animals to finish the mission. -------------------------- I would give more on what to do next but work calls. See though that the previous missions stay small and focused. :D
#3 VampyresThrenody May 16, 2008 10:24:31	Hmm that's a good model idea, I never thought about it before. I always liked the method CoH/CoV used to build up to larger, more important and exciting aspects. Thanks for the suggestions! It would take a bit of modding to fit into how the city is arranged (mostly empty with a few areas occupied by a faction, which act more as gangs then anything else), but still works out perfectly. Since players will likely start in one district of the city, i.e. with one faction, I'll include all three of those there. It's even better because I've already put together some interesting NPC's in different areas. I had planned on using them as either foes or information givers (I hate the idea of DMPC's or giving any allies that aren't under the player's control) but they can be better roled as quest givers. Ooh the ideas are bouncing around now..*goes to jot down notes in NPC concept list*
#4 smerg May 16, 2008 17:57:19	Good to hear. Now that you have the idea, I will lightly plot out a chain or arc for the three starter quests. Quest Giver A Quest A.2> Told to go an report your information to sage/mage/high priest/wise person. Purpose of this quest is to introduce a future quest giver to the players and give a role playing moment. Quest A.3> Information gained from the A.2 Quest says has it that trouble seems to be breaking out with people dying in mysterious way. Quest Giver A has lead on where the next attack might occur. Player's dispatched to find faction cult thugs lead by half-demon like creature (first introduction to ice creatures ~ possibly mephit level) Quest A.4> Contact from A.2 has provided a magical item that if the players stand in the open cave will transport them to a secret realm where the creature was magically bound. Players with the key can now more fully investigate the cave and find where the bigger demon was originally bound. There are some cultist types here to bash and smaller demons working with them. Quest A.5> Information gained in the cave (recovered book of notes or part of a clay tablet) is brought back. Players are first dispatched to the contact from A.2 who then can tell them that it looks like the demon from the cave is going to be used in a big attack. Players go and stop the big attack. During the finding and battling to stop the big attack, the players note the person that they thought was the villain of the story get killed. Stopping the demon from the cave though completes this arc as things will for the moment seem to stabilize and turn better in the town. Quest Giver B Quest B.2> Players are told to go meet the local sheriff/head guard and report on the gang conflict. Players are 'deputized' to walk the streets and keep a watch for a few nights because the current watchmen are too few in number do to a sudden illness outbreak. Quest B.3> Players get to walk around the streets on a patrol and need to bash up a mix of different gang types. This is a chance to introduce a few of the key gangs of the city to the players. Good to personalize the factions so that they can afterwards identified by players as the 'zombie dudes', the 'mages', and the 'amazons' (or watever is the particualr gang schtick you choose to mark them so they can be recognized at a glance). Quest B.4> Players told that it is believed that the illness of the watchmen may have been a deliberate attempt to poison them. They need a cure which means the player's need to travel and see the druid/high cleric/unicorn of the woods/pool of healing to get a cure. Players will likely be ambushed when the try to get the cure and return with the cure. Quest B.5> Having brought back the cure and been ambushed by the same group, it is pretty clear who was the source of the problem. It is now time to invade the gang base for some pay back for the ambushes. Players arrive to find that they are not the only people looking for some payback as the watchmen were evidently not the only gang that was suffering from being infected with the illness/poison. Mayhem ensues as players get to the pair of end bosses dueling it out. Quest Giver C Quest C.2> Player's told to take one of the animals from the Quest C.1 to the druid/nature cleric/sage and find out what is wrong. Another introduction to contact mission. Quest C.3> Player's told that it will take some time. In the mean time, could the player's go deep into the woods and find some items to help with the work of healing. During the quest, the players are attacked in the woods by some fey that think the players may behind the strange behaviour of the animals. Players might talk their way out of this situation. Quest C.4> With the items found and returned, the players are told to go to meet another contact in the woods. This person is an expert tracker (if the party does not have one) and will help them find out who is behind the behaviour of the animals. Players are led to a trail that leads to a faction hideout that has bodies of clawed and dead faction members and animals around (helper will leave at this point to report back on what they have seen). Inside the faction base, the battle is raging with animals and faction members attacking players as they move to the end. End fight is the leader of this group being attacked by several animals while the controller of the animals looks on. If the controller is attacked, then they do a fey step with a bit of warlock trickery to vanish (if caught then just reveal that this was not thee boss of the last quest). Quest C.5> Players after the battle learn clues on where the main villain is running their operations from the feywyld. Players are given a fey guide or a talisman to allow them to cross through in a sacred grove. There they fight several enhanced animals which are under the spell of the large crystal which is being used to dominate their will. During the end of the fight, the crystal will shatter (either player's do it to break the hold on the animals or the animals will charge and destroy it when the controller is defeated ~ basically you do not want to leave a powerful item around in the possible hands of the players that dominates the wills of animals). Anyways, those bare bones can be finished, fleshed, ignored, or enhanced in whatever way you like. Since you understood the CoH/CoV reference then I am sure that you can see how to do that from what I have provided or do your own thing. I think you can also see how the various faction conflicts are shown by having them as part of the background of the various mission arcs. Later arcs could start to show things like that their was more than one demon tomb or other stories in your city.
#5 VampyresThrenody May 17, 2008 10:29:00	Glad I have this marked. Lots of good ideas here, definitely will be making use of this. With this I can also give out xp at easily set invervals and include bonuses for completing the quest, performing side bits, etc. Thanks!
#6 scion9x_dup May 18, 2008 16:13:36	I have always made flow charts for the potential decisions of the PCs. If you can make some default assumptions, such as the PCs will always act as a party and not split ways, it is pretty easy to do. A complex campaign is a lot easier to plan for when you know your players well and can rely on a certain amount of expected decision making. For every occasion that you have a decision with multiple outcomes, just chart all of the expected outcomes for a visual aid, of how you would like the campaign to progress. You can just use a few sentences, or where necessary just code the flowchart with numbers or letters as a key for the longer write-ups on another sheet. Usually you will have some key events that you feel must happen for the plot to continue. In that occasion, multiple decisions can lead to the same conclusion. As long as you are presenting multiple options, your players will not ever necessarily know that the road not taken came to the same end point as the one they actually took. You create the illusion of complexity for when you do feel the need to absolutely railroad. Railroading is only bad when it feels like it; when the players feel like they are spectators. If you can railroad and the players are never the wiser and feel like they are absolutely in control then go for it. Still, be careful when doing this. Usually, when the PCs follow a road to a conclusion that they don't like, they will go back and re-examine their earlier options. When only giving the illusion of choice, make sure the options they did not select are truly inaccessible. That being said, no plan is ever foolproof. You can fully expect that you will lay out clues that you feel should obviously draw the players to a certain conclusion to unfortunately find out that you apparently have a group of players that have absolutely no deductive skills what so ever. Or at least they are temporarily suspended. Also, expect that the PCs will be able to 'outsmart' your well laid plans most of the time and be able to think on your feet. If you have to just BS a 'broken' session, and take whatever remains of your plot points and reattach them where you can based on the new direction of the campaign, do so. PCs, even when given tons of options, will feel railroaded when they feel they have come up with a very clever plot and have it foiled by the DM just so he can get to use his pre-planned material. Expect that some of pre-planned material will just never be used. Whatever doesn't get used can often be rehashed though; either later in the campaign, or for a new one altogether. Save everything that you write.
#7 VampyresThrenody May 19, 2008 13:49:49	double post
#8 VampyresThrenody May 19, 2008 16:14:57	Luckily I play PbP so unexpected choices, decisions and directions are crazy easy to deal with. I can typically devote an hour or two to sketch out what will happen if the continue along path X as opposed to going in the direction I had been nudging them towards. Oddly enough, I'm actually happier to make things up if the players decide upon their own direction (or at least just as happy) then I am with placing cookies to lead them down a specific path. I'd just like to find a way to combine the two. I figured the best method would be to sketch out a large, connected plot where each individual aspect can be approached and dealt with separately and some sections not being used at all. It all boils down to me wanting the players to be important in the world and for making them feel as if they're important. I figured at the end of it all, they would be well into the heroic teir and possibly low paragon tier and of course standing as very important figures for several different areas of the city.