Also, groups of different experience with the game might be easier or harder to hook: experienced groups might be quicker to pick up on subtle clues, whereas a group completely new to the game might require some out-and-out railroading (just don't lean too heavily on this one).
I hope this is the sort of advice you're looking for.
As you indulge yourself in the Summer festival, you are soon confronted by the traditional burning of a Giant straw man...then as it is engulfed in fire, it is as though the pop and crackle of the burning ceases and the world around you goes silent.
You hear what sounds like a deep singing in an unknown throat that soon becomes a voice: "...and the two strong slaves lifted it from the back of the Beast. Thereupon I commanded the Brazen Portals to be brought low, and they were wrenched from their hinges and rang upon the stone. The Efreet howled in fear and fled when I caused the page to be read, and the Beast passed into the City of Brass. Now was I, Tzunk, Master of the Plane of Molten Skies. With sure hand I closed Yagrax's Tome, dreading to..."
Fire arcs from its eyes in a blinding flash and the beam seems to strike an assortment of villagers in the celebrating crowd.
The sound of the normal world returns and the celebration seems uninterupted except by a few and then more drifting away from the crowd.
DM Briefing: The Voice described the Codex of Infinite Planes. The 99 villagers struck by light will be dead before the celebration ends. Each is now scribed with one of the 99 damned pages from the Codex of Infinite Planes, head to toe. Someone has attempted to destroy the Artefact and Failed. It has hurled itself across Possibility the only way it could. Now anyone examining the skin of a victim has 1% chance (per "Page" examined) of meeting with a terrible fate - beginning with the Mortician/Cleric inspecting the Bodies.
Kick their Village out from under them. Rip down everything they know and love. They dont have to get involved but if they do it puts them on a Road of terror and Horror.
OP: TOTALLY CONFUSED BY SUGGESTION
Well, to be honest, yellowdingo, I was a little confused by your post at first, too—maybe I'm a little slow today. I thought the OP was asking for general ideas how to hook the party that he could use within a larger campaign idea he already had in mind; your suggestion, while valid (and rather interesting, too...), was perhaps a little too specific to be fit into what he had in mind.
Well, to be honest, yellowdingo, I was a little confused by your post at first, too—maybe I'm a little slow today. I thought the OP was asking for general ideas how to hook the party that he could use within a larger campaign idea he already had in mind; your suggestion, while valid (and rather interesting, too...), was perhaps a little too specific to be fit into what he had in mind.
I like to provide examples - they are quick and easy to comprehend. If we Go into the dark world of "campaign management" - I can point you to the 20 page document i wrote on possibility dynamics, mesh based networking, and Event object Handling (Its called 'in lands where chaos reigns').
Basically you need to lay out your DM's EYES ONLY map - chart the start position of every major source of change (The Bandit army marching south thrrough the forest, the displaced Lycanthropes, the refugees from the destroyed city of Untwald) and plot the direction and time frame of their travel. Then you work out what effect on their course changes created by PC actions will have, solve for cross over points and group collisions in time and space and then decide that hey the Goblins up at Farmer Walt's place are because there is a group of bandits occupying their usual lair. Or that the reason your village is about to be attacked is because Slaver Warbands are sweeping the Region clear of People before the Undead Army of Suriak the Warlord arrives to set up a base of operations in the ruined Keep above the Village and rebuild it into a fortress.
Objects are already in Motion. The Encounter is just where the PCs cross paths with the innevitable. If they are early or Late, they may simply miss their window of opportunity.
I like to provide examples - they are quick and easy to comprehend.
True. I guess I just look at things from a different point of view: I prefer to build up a general idea into a specific usage, where others may prefer to have a specific idea they can generalize.
I like to provide examples - they are quick and easy to comprehend. If we Go into the dark world of "campaign management" - I can point you to the 20 page document i wrote on possibility dynamics, mesh based networking, and Event object Handling (Its called 'in lands where chaos reigns').
Basically you need to lay out your DM's EYES ONLY map - chart the start position of every major source of change (The Bandit army marching south thrrough the forest, the displaced Lycanthropes, the refugees from the destroyed city of Untwald) and plot the direction and time frame of their travel. Then you work out what effect on their course changes created by PC actions will have, solve for cross over points and group collisions in time and space and then decide that hey the Goblins up at Farmer Walt's place are because there is a group of bandits occupying their usual lair. Or that the reason your village is about to be attacked is because Slaver Warbands are sweeping the Region clear of People before the Undead Army of Suriak the Warlord arrives to set up a base of operations in the ruined Keep above the Village and rebuild it into a fortress.
Objects are already in Motion. The Encounter is just where the PCs cross paths with the innevitable. If they are early or Late, they may simply miss their window of opportunity.
Well, something along those lines is one possible way to develop a campaign setting and plot. Certainly not the only way. The approach has some strength in that the world is structured in a fairly coherent fashion, but that is also its weakness. Most often DMs will find that things naturally tend to go off in directions tangential to the initial premise of the campaign. The PCs may also get a bit too much of the "we are just a grain of sand in the cogs of the world" feel.
The party are slave-gladiators.
The party are professional gladiators.
The party are town guards.
The party are mercenaries.
The party are knights (with changes to what counts as a knight).
The party are in the mafia.
The party are border partol.
The party are exiles.
Just make it so the party know each other and go into battle all the time, but make this campaign their biggest adventure yet. Seriously, this is the easiest way.