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#1 dwarvenarcher May 28, 2008 15:49:10

I'm writing up a plotline and first batch of encounters for my 4th ed campaign. Thought I'd share my thought process here, since we're all going to have to experiment a bit to dm under the new edition. I intend to get the players familiar with the city with some straightforward adventures and then move more into political games. The campaign starts in the kingdom's capital city. Haven't worked out all the setting details, but it will be dragonlance-based (same world, later time period than the published setting). I may use Pax Tharkas, but it's been fully rebuilt and is now the center of a mighty kingdom on Krynn. The city itself is huge and degenerating (think skullport), all kinds of creepy stuff going on in the slums. Adventure hooks to get the PC's all in one place and start things off: Grey Wanderer Quest-> A well known prophet travels around Krynn making predictions and fortune telling. He is widely sought after for his supposed ability to tell a person his or her destiny. At least some of the PC's are looking for him for direction in their lives or to answer some question in their backstory. He is currently kidnapped by a theives guild/street gang called the blood ravens. Quest reward for saving the GW is X xp and their destiny fortold. Dispatch the Bandits-> Various locals have been robbed or are paying protection to the blood ravens gang. They are willing to pay the PC's to shut them down. Quest reward is X xp and Y gp. This is an alternative way to link up the players, should the one above miss any. Rat Problems-> The town guard have seen huge rodents in the poor districts, and even a strange animal man such as ones the PC's fight in some of the encounters. If the PC's can convince the city constable that they are reliable and the threat is serious, he will even help equip them up front. Quest reward is X xp, Y gp. The blood ravens have a number of members who are wererats. This has allowed them to muscle in on other theives and become a real threat in some parts of town. The constable could turn into local political connections for the party later. It seems like you need to design encounters 10 at a time in 4th ed, to keep the treasure amounts straight. So here's the first batch, roughly: 1- human thugs at the GW's tent. PC's show up to talk to him, he's gone and these guys are ransacking his stuff. 2- social challenge vs city constable 3- Blood ravens hangout at the tavern "The Naughty Elf" (clues here lead the PCs to the BR base in the sewers) big barfight, throwing wine bottles, all that good stuff -Blood raven revenge ambush in the city if PC's wait too long after 1 or 3. 4, 5, 6 in sewer system: - giant rat horde + BR-affiliated wererat controlling them - some sort of slime-type monster encounter -giant crocodile or other beastie + a water hazard (whirlpool, got some ideas for this) to make the fight more interesting 7- Blood ravens secret guildhouse living quarters, lots of BR's, wererat allies 8- the guild leaders and a draconian ally (plot hook for the next segment), also location of the GW. 9- puzzle challenge -> complicated trap room guarding the guild vault 10- escape encounter, climactic moving battle as pc's are chased back through sewers by the last of the BR's Large quests layout: -Blood raven thing -Next group of encounters will be uncovering a dragon cult in the city that plots to conquer the kingdom via dark magics, they are using the BR's as muscle (turning some of them into were-creatures). -Then, pc's find out the cult was being somehow manipulated by a local lord to get him into power. -Further layers of conspiracy, not really important to describe right now. I need to make sure this plot string doesn't have any big holes and then add more details to the encounters, flesh out some NPC's around town, etc.