Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 alysium Oct 31, 2009 5:25:13	Hi, I'm a new DM and would like some suggestions on campaign plotlines... I've taken my Heroes through the basic starter game, which I amended slightly for my own purposes. I made Old Kellar the bad guy - He'll become the Kallerel character in Shadowfell - and he kidnapped Baron John Stockmer, the residing Baron over the Harkenwold area in the Nentir Vale. I've bought both Shadowfell and Thunderspire Labyrinth and have had a quick read through the hooks to see how I can use them... I have two ideas forming currently either a: Stockmer will become a sacrifice to Orcus towards the end of Shadowfell, b: he'll die at some point early in the quest and the Heroes will have to fight his reanimated corpse, or c: he would have been sold to the slavers in Thunderspire. Now, those ideas are all well and good, but they feel a bit tenuous. I can't quite get a grasp on an overlaying theme to link the two together.  Would a campaign based purely on rescusing a Baron from a small barony in the Nentir Vale work? Or is he quite small fry? Perhaps there currently is no threat bigger than those depicted as the "Big Bad" at the end of the quests... and John Stockmer is just a "minor quest." I just feel like there should be something more...
#2 QuestingWord Oct 31, 2009 6:03:28	I believe this is the case of 'cause and effect' starting to create a causality with you imagination.  yes, I agree that the Baron - only hereditary 'ruler' from the old empire days left over to tend to the folk in this portion of the vale, but consider this... so what if he is a small fry, the real person orchestrating kidnappings of Barons might feel like it is all part of a grand scheme, perhaps Tieflings with infernal ties and ambitions of the reemergence of their older empire... and by doing this, they spread discord in the area and keep it weak for further expansion decades later, regardless of a cult of pathetic demon worshipers. Just because we all want to have neat and nice clear beginnings and endings for hooks, you can't envision exactly what the players will do, or you will think up 2 sessions down the road that might be better ideas or ideas that only came about because you didn't commit yourself to a well spelled out plot... although, it definitely has a place in RPG stories/arcs, but you should keep a decent portion (left to personal level of comfortability) of the structure as malleable.   I do it also, have doubts about what I want my story to be or what choices I need to make to help it stay along a vision that I want the Players to experience, but you have to keep in mind, this is a shared event and experience... and keeping some wiggle room for yourself and taking the chance to not have everything bolted down neatly opens up opportunism later in my opinion. As for what you should do?  I say, let him get sold (assuming you are going to have him kidnapped) to the Slavers in Thunderspire... he will be the thread that connected Shadowfell... to Thunderspire, but only had a bit part... he literally was just a dot of info to keep the players think along a mental track that you steered them.
#3 tkxmuse Oct 31, 2009 6:28:33	If the campaign is based totally on saving the Baron, I think that is a bit... small? To me, a campaign is a chain of adventures that bring the players from level 1 to 30... But I don't that's what you're talking about. A series of adventures (two or three) to save the baron might be good enough though, as the above poster said, tie the baron's kidnap to something higher and bigger than the baron to fit a campaign would be better.