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Castlevania inspired campaign

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
hale84
Mar 10, 2012 20:46:17 I'm designing a campaign inspired heavily by the castlevania series. It will take some liberties and also draw quite a bit on Christian and Catholic mythology.

The premise is that a powerful and evil sorcerer is bringing Hell to earth because he wants to usurp Lucifer himself. When he completes the ritual, a hell mouth opens in Romania in the form of a massive, floating castle. The party will have to chase him into the castle, fight the legions of Hell (and sometimes Heaven), thwart the sorcerer and close the hellmouth.

I have several cool ideas for bosses, but I'm having issues coming up with storylines. The entire campaign will take place inside the castle. At times, the "castle" will literally be Hell. But I need ideas and side motivations thrown in to make the journey to closing this hellmouth interesting.

Thoughts?
#2
w00f
Mar 11, 2012 18:41:35 If the entire campaign takes place in the castle then I assume said castle is pretty big (small continent size at least). Is that a safe assumption? If so, I'd suggest you start thinking about what different "factions" are in the castle and what their interactions are with each other. Demons and Devils, dispite both being evil, are often at odds with each other. Heck, all demons don't even get along, nor do all devils. There could be plenty of different conflicts that the PCs can pick their way through among the evil extra planar creatures alone. You mention that there could be angels as well? That will add even more intrigue.

Alternatively (or perhapse in addition to the above suggestion), you could have a sort of "Dante's Inferno" kind of thing going on where the PCs need to keep going deeper and deeper into the castle, each time emerging into a different "layer" with a different layout, different monsters, different important figures/factions, etc. until they finally reach the core where Lucifer himself awaits them (or whatever you want at the end).

Either of these ideas catch your fancy?
#3
DeathByDonut
Mar 11, 2012 19:47:44 I did a hell bound campaign once based on Dante's Inferno and it worked really well. The Castlevania campaign sounds really cool. But I agree the castle would need to be huge to accommodate a long term campaign. One works to really look at if you are going with this approach is Undermountain, because much of that was very similar. Different factions each with their own goals sprang up in response to the vastness of the castle.
#4
ToeSama
Mar 11, 2012 22:32:54 In the Castlevania series, Dracula's castle is constantly changing. That could alleviate the need to make the castle huge. It's much more disorienting if the layout of the castle changes from adventure to adventure.
#5
hale84
Apr 11, 2012 14:10:42 Indeed, the castle will need to be huge. Which makes the idea of a constantly changing landscape very appealing. Drawing out each individual room is an intimidating endeavor, though. What's Undermountain all about? Are all the areas intricately planned out in that or just specific ones. I'm also considering having the castle dissovle into natual landscapes at some point via magical means. Walking through a door into a swamp, for example. But I'm trying to figure out an elegant way to do so.

And on the topic of descending into Hell, I've decided I want the levels of the castle to reflect the levels of hell in some subtle way. Different creature types, sure. But I don't want to feel too restricted by the sins designated by each level.

I still haven't designed any groups/factions for this, though. What kinds fo motivations do people and mystical beings have when Hell has suddenly appeared on Earth?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 hale84 Mar 10, 2012 20:46:17	I'm designing a campaign inspired heavily by the castlevania series. It will take some liberties and also draw quite a bit on Christian and Catholic mythology. The premise is that a powerful and evil sorcerer is bringing Hell to earth because he wants to usurp Lucifer himself. When he completes the ritual, a hell mouth opens in Romania in the form of a massive, floating castle. The party will have to chase him into the castle, fight the legions of Hell (and sometimes Heaven), thwart the sorcerer and close the hellmouth. I have several cool ideas for bosses, but I'm having issues coming up with storylines. The entire campaign will take place inside the castle. At times, the "castle" will literally be Hell. But I need ideas and side motivations thrown in to make the journey to closing this hellmouth interesting. Thoughts?
#2 w00f Mar 11, 2012 18:41:35	If the entire campaign takes place in the castle then I assume said castle is pretty big (small continent size at least). Is that a safe assumption? If so, I'd suggest you start thinking about what different "factions" are in the castle and what their interactions are with each other. Demons and Devils, dispite both being evil, are often at odds with each other. Heck, all demons don't even get along, nor do all devils. There could be plenty of different conflicts that the PCs can pick their way through among the evil extra planar creatures alone. You mention that there could be angels as well? That will add even more intrigue. Alternatively (or perhapse in addition to the above suggestion), you could have a sort of "Dante's Inferno" kind of thing going on where the PCs need to keep going deeper and deeper into the castle, each time emerging into a different "layer" with a different layout, different monsters, different important figures/factions, etc. until they finally reach the core where Lucifer himself awaits them (or whatever you want at the end). Either of these ideas catch your fancy?
#3 DeathByDonut Mar 11, 2012 19:47:44	I did a hell bound campaign once based on Dante's Inferno and it worked really well. The Castlevania campaign sounds really cool. But I agree the castle would need to be huge to accommodate a long term campaign. One works to really look at if you are going with this approach is Undermountain, because much of that was very similar. Different factions each with their own goals sprang up in response to the vastness of the castle.
#4 ToeSama Mar 11, 2012 22:32:54	In the Castlevania series, Dracula's castle is constantly changing. That could alleviate the need to make the castle huge. It's much more disorienting if the layout of the castle changes from adventure to adventure.
#5 hale84 Apr 11, 2012 14:10:42	Indeed, the castle will need to be huge. Which makes the idea of a constantly changing landscape very appealing. Drawing out each individual room is an intimidating endeavor, though. What's Undermountain all about? Are all the areas intricately planned out in that or just specific ones. I'm also considering having the castle dissovle into natual landscapes at some point via magical means. Walking through a door into a swamp, for example. But I'm trying to figure out an elegant way to do so. And on the topic of descending into Hell, I've decided I want the levels of the castle to reflect the levels of hell in some subtle way. Different creature types, sure. But I don't want to feel too restricted by the sins designated by each level. I still haven't designed any groups/factions for this, though. What kinds fo motivations do people and mystical beings have when Hell has suddenly appeared on Earth?