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#1 n00bied00bie Dec 16, 2011 8:35:17	So I'm writing an adventure for two diffrent groups of players, 1 group which will be my main is going to be 4 players plus me. The other group is going to be me and my 2 brothers. I've written up the start to my game, I've drawn up a map I want some feed back on what I've done so far. I haven't played D&D too many times but I have some experience and have played alot of rpgs and read this forum alot. So here it goes first i'll give you the setting then the story then my ideas and map will be posted in a little bit here. also I'm not sure on the stance of posting the same thread in 2 diffrent forums but I plan on posting this in the dm forum or what ever if it's not aproiate, I'm sorry for my noobieness and please close down the thread in which ever it doesn't belong. ~~~~World setting~~~~ High Fantasy with lots of dark/weird/horror/occult elements, think of a world where really anything that could possibly happen happens somewhere, just maybe not necessarily where you are located. This leads it's self to the question of scale to put it in perspective the planet of Ur which is where this game will take place on is 1 million times the size of earth. The magic of this world is limitless. Which does need some explanation not everything is magical in Ur but a hell of a lot of things are, this world has been around for millions of years with society expanding their knowledge of martial and magical arts.Some machines exist but these machines are powered by magic and are very rare. Guns do not exist. The world of Urr is solarge that a war is always in progress between two or more factions really, and in the rare times of peace, such as right now. Peace is uneasy. There are certain zones, Islands, and countries which for one reason or another are declared off limits to attack and conquest. The island of Zola is a good example of this, it is considered a neutral party in almost all affairs of war and politics, Zola is only one of a handful of these rays of light, but for how long? the two closest continents to Zola are Moravia and Godanga. Moravia is a large Circular continent lets say it's the size of Asia, africa and Europe, It has a giant lake in the middle which the locals call the Green Sea. Moravia's main inhabitants is the race of Humans although this is not to say that every village or city is a human city. The geography of Moravia is mostly grass lands and deserts sort like a middle eastern/Savannah feel to it. There are large nomadic tribes of half ling gypsies. Godanga is a smaller continent pretty much in between the sizes of Zola and Moravia. Godanga is a japanese meets India world filled with a race of Catpeople(Unsure of the name off the top of my head). The average godanga would be like a humanoid house cat, with Emperor and Empiricist of Godanga being Lion humanoids and the other members of society would be different kinds of cats like panthers, tigers, lynx and such. Almost all if not all the settlements on Godanga are the catpeoples, you may find a small community of orcs or some other creatures around. however as it is mostly a jungle. ~~~~Zola~~~~ Thinking less globally and more storyline oriented you will be starting your adventure on the island of Zola which is about the size of australia and is very much in a state of neutrality about world affairs and would prefer to keep it's nose in its own business it is ruled by a council of 12 Noblemen and 12 noblewomen who as a pair(not necessarily a married pair). The island is made up of 3 regions. The first being A Temperate forest on the eastern coast affectionately named Haven mainly consisting of pines, spruces, oaks, and beech trees, Although some maple's can be found. The forest of haven encompass almost the entire left half of the Zola. Settlements can be found here and there with no real alignment to anything other then nature, Although Haven elects 12 members to the council of zola. These settlements trade between each other but mostly keep to themselves. The towns and villages of Haven sort of work as a really nice refugee camp in the sense that with a world constantly in upheaval this is where mindful folk from all come to live life in a more peaceful manner. This is not to say that war and fighting does not reach havens door, Just the folk of Haven don't go looking for a fight. Slowly the trees thin out and you find yourself in the Low Mountains which in fact are not that Low to our comparisons to the mountains of earth, but are in fact very low for the world of Ur.The Low mountains are very much like our Adirondack's but to the scale to the world of Urr with many roads, rivers, ponds, lakes. The Low mountains have few real settlements just hermits and monstrous beasts who wish to live isolated from the world, however there are a few villages and one city worthy of note. They according to size, R'lyeh, Windfall and the city of eureka. The town R'lyeh is a story of a rather peculiar kind, a cult dedicated to the worship Chtulhu, not much is know about the town other then this and it's location which sense your asking is right in the middle of Lake Chubba Toad on a man made island.Windfall is a sort of trading cross roads built near a waterfall on one of the many rivers that start in the Low Mountains, it's mostly run by the merchants who inhabit the town, who make there keep feed, clothing and equipping the many travelers who wander from one side of zola to the other, which would make more sense to you if I explained that the Low mountains stretch all the way from north to south on Zola, breaking up eastern half of Haven and the western half of Camelot. The city of Eureka was established first as a single university and has grown to become a small city in comparison to other cities of Urr. The people of Eureka are mostly students of magic or an art of another form. The city of Eureka was built into the eastern side of the tallest peak of the Low Mountains. For the most part those who live in the Low Mountains are hardy once adventures or those who moved from haven or Camelot to isolate themselves. As the mountains fade to the west you see the glorious plains of Camelot which has many small farming communities and one large city of you guessed it Camelot which is ruled by a King who acts much like governor would on earth, he has absolute power when it comes to almost anything in Camelot I say almost because the King of camelot must answer to the council of zola. The city of Camelot lays a day and a halves travel from the western coast. ~~~~Introduction to story~~~~ You each find yourself in a small tavern appropriately named "Chubby's Tavern & Inn" which is situated on the outskirts of the town of Windfall. What brings you here is unique to you all; except for one strange occurrence that happened a few months prior. You all received a letter, telling you to come to this Tavern on this day of month, and to come alone. The reason why this letter was sent to you was not all that clear however it did say that everything would be explained when you upon meeting the man who was the author of the letter in question. A one Peirre Ame-Noire. Who sits cloaked in all black in the corner, this of course is unknown to you at this point in time. ~~~~The deal~~~~ An ere mood falls upon the tavern as a storm begins to brew. Suddenly life in the tavern stops except for you, the cloaked man in the back and 3 others. The man in the cloak slowly rises from his chair calmly. You and the other 3 adventures are dumbfounded for you have never saw nor felt this sort of magic, let alone magic so strong. He steps on his chair and gets onto the table and removes his cloak, with a regal Pierre spoke " I am Peirre Ame-Noire, I called you all here to discuss a rather lucrative deal for us both, but first let us speak of names and introductions. You all know my name and that's all you need to know about me. But this is not all you need to know, so why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our little meeting here?" *introductions from players* "My time with you must be short so I'll get to the point there is a small fortress that exists just past the waterfall this for which this town gains it's name. In the thickest of thorn groves you'll see a hatch, you must enter the fortress undetected. Once inside you must find and kill the one they call The Watcher, he is a man of many faces. So unfortunately I can not supply you with information on exactly what he looks like. I shall require some kind of proof of his murder for you to receive your reward. Also do not fear that is the wrong thing to do The Watcher has committed many many crimes in this region of Urr." ~~~~The watchers fortress~~~~ to be contuined So I'm running my first campaign in D&D(4e) I have a dungeon built for 4 adventures it's in a cavern which has been hollowed out over years by an underground river. It has a number of rooms, a dinning hall, a kitchen, a food stock room, a butchering area, torture rooms, a bunk bed filled barrack, a brewery brewing acid(maybe) and beer a library, a dock, a war room, a grand hall, a big room with a pentagram written in blood on the ground where i plan to have some big monster or some ****, then there's this kind of sectioned off area that the leader guy lives in, also there is a blacksmiths area with a brick oven, ya know for getting metal hot. There is a alchemy circle, in the next room over which i was planning to have a mini boss fight in, because it leads to a long hall way with a key to the aforementioned leaders quarters. Also there is a banker clerk office before you go into a stock pile, sort of by that there are jail cells. I have a bunch of ideas I'm trying to pull together it's a base of operations for a world wide evil organization that is trying to take over the word/spread its influence. I want this organization to be full of all sorts of races depending on where in the world you are you obviously have more people of a certain race this fortress is in an area that's sort of like Oregon or the Adirondack mountains, ya know but all fantasy and ****. I am as DM using a character to be the antagonist of the story who believes in a necessary evil to create a necessary good in the world. I plan on letting my players have this facility at the end of the quest. Also I'm trying to have it so my antagonist has everything planed out so these players who are thinking they are doing good are actually doing the work of this evil organization, when they realize I am evil they will become the necessary good in the world or join the evil side. >it's going to see a fair bit of footwork from the pcs. things are fairly close to each other, but it seems like you'll have to walk things out. >Is the place a sanctum or fortress? Is it easily defensible, or is defense bolstered with traps? It's a fortress, Some areas aren't highly defended like the entrance and work areas as you get farther in there becomes more grauds >number of encounters. I plan to have 1 boss battle(in bloody pentagram room probably), a mini boss, a few small skirmishes, like a couple traps, I want some non combat encounters. If things end up going to long I'll give my players an easy out if they work for it. Goblins and Undead are going to be the core of the Organization. I am going for an evil theme more then everything under the kitchen sink, but evil in the sense that I'm evil so I'm going to corrupt and enslave what ever I can. also the sentinel is a cool idea. I always like undead, or some kind of Goblinoid at first level. But I it want to be interesting. Maybe have an undead encounter with the guardians/soliders of the settlement where you start out at? I was thinking of having a sleeping graud kobold as soon as you enter the map. or maybe. Perhaps the place is staffed with its regular occupants, but transformed like Beauty and the Beast, because of some horrible ritual gone wrong from stated bloody pentagram and alchemy circle. Except instead of a talking clock representing the doorman you have a giant sentient stone watcher at the entrance saying something like "None may enter the Master's keep without his permission. Trespassers lives are forfeit." Someone told me this but I wasn't sure of its meaning. "Here's a tip for design more old school dungeons. Instead of having encounter after encounter, create areas where a party can't take a rest, and that is populated with monsters. Say you want the center of the complex (maybe 5-6 rooms) filled with goblins. Toss them down in a few groups, and make sure there is about 7-800xp of monsters. As the players go through, they don't meet all the monsters at once, but they still get worn down as if they did. Don't be afraid for some of the monsters to learn of what they are doing, and set up ambushes and traps because they know the building better. Also, don't be afraid of Elites of level 3 or 4. They make great bosses, and much easier to run solos at this level. Also, use a Carrion Crawler. You don't see enough of those these days." At some point the people inside will find out about existence of the raiders. Also all of my rooms have shelves/purposes and I was thinking a big part of the fun would be letting my group finding different things. Maybe of no value or maybe things of value, paints, weapons, books, maps, jewels, food, random possessions. Also was thinking of when the adventures find the jails/slaves a swarm of rats come out and bite the players, and have them roll to see if they got infected with lyncanthropy. Actually I know I'm doing this but am unsure of how to implement it at the current point. I was thinking of having it so if there is a full moon the character rages out and might kill a bunch of people and like the more hes in werewolf form the harder it is for him to get back to his regular form. Silver adds extra damage, but I was going to give him some killer **** to make up for this stuff make it something that could be cured of slowed down if they wanted to or possibly let the evil corrupt them. Also in this fortress that might end up to be the base of operations of my group there is sort of a teleporter gate I'm trying to think of a good way to use something like that in a way not over powered way any ideas? Was thinking about writing a small peice of background story for each player putting them in a hat and making them use this for there story in the game just to get them started something like "In your hometown you are known as a criminal, weather it is true or not" or "your family is dead" or "your an alcholic" or "you try and sleep with every female in the entire world" things of this nature. So if you made it this far thank you very much, also this adventure needs owlbear somewhere in it.
#2 markisonlin3 Dec 16, 2011 10:04:27	Only tip I have is some players like to choose their character backgrounds. Knew a guy who wrote about five pages of background on a character he liked just for him because it helped him roleplay. On the other hand some just don't give a damn. So give them a choice between choosing their own backgrounds and the hat.
#3 n00bied00bie Dec 16, 2011 12:27:41	Only tip I have is some players like to choose their character backgrounds. Knew a guy who wrote about five pages of background on a character he liked just for him because it helped him roleplay. On the other hand some just don't give a damn. So give them a choice between choosing their own backgrounds and the hat. Yeah it is really just meant to be a starting off point for someone who is having a hard time building a character. Any other points of intrest in this ideas concerns? I'm trying to find a place less cliche than the Tavern to have this first meet up. something that would apropriatly set the tone. I'm thinking the top of a hill or a graveyard possibly.