I'm currently running a custom campaign where the players will end up killing the god of magic, ushering them into the world of Dark Sun. The end is only a few months off, and I'd like to start developing the next campaign in my free time.
My players have always enjoyed the "treasure hunter" quests I've given to them; they're more than just fetch quests, they're an opportunity to gain a real trophy in the game. After reading today's Dungeon article on monster hunters, I mentioned it to my players and they thought it'd be a really fun campaign for them, especially since I'd have an excuse to make elaborate "boss fights."
My problem is that I can't think of a way to make it last from 1-30 (they like the complete feeling of playing their characters to the end). I can see making a heroic campaign out of it, building up their skills and arsenal to take down the big quarry. However, Paragon and Epic seem like they should deal with more than simple monster eradication, and I'm stuck as to how to keep them "trophy hunting" while gradually increasing the scope of the campaign.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice, or even some resources that I could look at to start crafting the basics of the campaign?
Once they know where to look, give them the chance to stop it before it gets too bad in one location. This could be the final fight between the heroic and paragon tiers. Succeed or fail, the PCs will have come to the attention of this evil group.
Somewhere at the end of the heroic tier or the beginning of the paragon tier have them hook up with a monster hunting group. This will give them allies and good sources of information. On the bright side you have a convenient pool of like minded individuals that provide a plausible replacement PC or new player's PC. This group will give them leads to monsters. Not all of these monsters will be a part of this pattern the PCs have noticed, but that's not really important at this point.
In the paragon tier somewhere have this evil group send some thugs after the PCs. I'm partial to 3/4 of the way through the paragon tier. These thugs will lead them to some clues that will give them the first actual agent of the evil group (maybe the guy that's been planting all these monsters for the whole time). Make this agent the final "boss fight" for the paragon tier. He'll have information that will help them cripple the evil group's plans and maybe the PCs can learn that this evil group is up to some epic nefariousness.
With the evil group on the ropes there will probably be a few staged fights, using monsters to lure the PCs into a trap and some truly unrelated epic monsters (I would suggest using something from an unusual campaign setting - you mentioned Dark Sun and if I remember correctly there were some strange critters in that setting).
Final fight with the BBEG and then you roll the credits.
I'd suggest having lots of folk tales and myths prepared to tell players that gives them information about legendary monsters. Also, some tribes in your world may consider slaying a particularly fearsome beast as a ritual to join the tribe. Having friendly competitions or deadly rivalries with other hunters maybe a great way to add some variety to the campaign. Those are just off the top of my head. Hopefully some of these ideas can you help create some easy paths to segue from section to section of your campaign.
Neat campaign idea, Face-Stab
How about allowing the Witcher to influence you? An organised monster-hunting group, perhaps with a unique advantage (special abilities, etc), with a seemingly simple purpose: to do a dirty job that no one else wants or can. Perhaps you could use the following backdrop to give this simple premise more meaning and intrigue:
The world in which the PCs live was once protected by a strong civilisation that ultimately failed. The world, now plunged into darkness for the last (100?) years has seen the contraction of civilisation to flickering points of light. In this time, there were those who stood against the tide of darkness alone or in desperate groups. One group in particular, led by XX (a founding hero with special powers or techniques that allowed a cohesive, lasting group to be formed), was able to hold back the tide for a while. These men and women of the Watchers/Witchers/Wardens/Whatever have fought the darkness, unasked and often unappreciated, since that time, but they are few and the darkness gathers force against the feeble flickering of the light.
Heroic tier could open with an adventure that brings the PCs to the notice of the monster-hunting group and sees their recruitment, or they could start as junior members of the group.
The PCs are sent on missions by the higher ranking members of the organisation: this monster is plaguing Hamlet, that infestation is terrorising Ashtonville. The first few levels of Heroic could see the PCs as itinerant trouble shooters wandering the countryside and clearing out evil wherever they find it. The deal is that they can get paid for doing so under the country’s laws (however, neither the nobility or the general populace like it – the one resents having to pay, the other fears the group).
Mix this format up with plots involving the Darkness trying to eliminate these hated foes (suggesting that the Darkness is not simply random monsters but, at least in part, an organised menace – this might be an intriguing link to what caused civilisation to fall in the first place). Consider also: betrayal from within the order, political unpopularity weakening the standing of the order and its freedom to operate; both these allow the insidious Darkness to gain an even greater foothold in the last bastions of civilisation).
Or perhaps the order is wiped out early on in heroic tier by some massive move against them by the Darkness which sees the order as the only real resistance to its ultimate domination of the land. The PCs are the only survivors and now face trying to survive and rebuild the order (qv Lone Wolf).
So, the campaign moves from hunting and killing random monsters to surviving against an organised threat and ultimately pushing back the tide of darkness or at least buying civilisation a brief reprieve (depending on how bleak you want your story to be!)
Hope there’s something useful for you here. Let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out.
Right now I'm torn between 2 options. On one hand, the idea of hunting down creatures that grow more epic and legendary in scale seems pretty fun, and would allow for some really gimmicky boss fights. Starting from hunting creatures that drunk bar patrons brag about fighting, moving on to creatures of myth, and perhaps finally the great beasts of the world that have been known to destroy towns as humans would simply destroy an ant hill.
However, with no story to get invested in, I fear that I'd be relying purely on combat to keep my players engaged. And while they all love the combat of the game, there just aren't enough fresh ideas out there to justify spending a year, especially when I fear the end of the game will feel like the relief of a burden, rather than a feeling of satisfaction.
On the other hand, I really like Lionshanks' idea. It reminds me a bit of the assassin's guild quest chain in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You start small, running violent errands that you aren't terribly connected to. However, as time goes on you become more invested because you're part of the story, and indeed you have as much to lose as you do to gain from your success or failure.
Having typed through all of these, I've pretty much made up my mind. There's really no "on the other hand..." to allowing them to hunt in heroic, but have it actually serve a purpose in the end.
I will probably be back in a month or so when I get things rolling. Thank you all so much for the immense help you've given me in figuring out how to get this idea started!
Monster hunting can take different forms - but you could take a leaf out of Buffy and other shows. Someone opens a hellgate and the campaign is to close the Hell Gate - or the players close the Hell Gate, but find themselves on the wrong side of it and have to fight their way through Hell to get home.
Perhaps there are big beasts that run around and kill things and some of the hunters are in fact the controllers. The local sheriff and his gang get murdered whilst tracking the monsters down in the wood. The town gets attacked and a party of adventurers who just happen to have the right counter measures "save" the town and install themselves as the protectors of the town. As time passed the protectors become the Mayor and so on. So the first stage of the campaign is simple monster hunting and discovering the plot of the "protectors".
The motives of "the protectors" become apparent to the players and some of their supporters and a secret war of assassination and counter assassination takes place. The protectors are trying to get one of their own declared Emperor or such like. Different noble houses support different sides, but open warfare does not develop.
At some point a powerful "monster" becomes king or emporer and the players become outlaws - so the next stage is to destroy the emporer before it destroys everything else.
The last stage is to shut the hell gate/dimension door to stop further invasions.
Hope this helps.
It is later discovered that an ancient water dragon awoke under the island, found itself trapped, and has been trying to break free, causing the earthquakes.
Most of the hunts are missions/quests that an extremely prestigious guild gives out.
Great comments all, thank you so much.
Right now I'm torn between 2 options...
I add my 2 cents, as a relatively unexperienced DM.
Imagine a Country (or a World) where, every 1000 years (or 2000, or you name it) a mighty monster awakens. A Tarrasque, for instance, or another one. Its appetite is terrific, there is no means to stop it and every time it awakens, it destroy the civilization dropping the world back in a barbaric age. Everything was tried in the past: huge offerings of cattles, barrels and barrels of good wine, unwed maidens too! Nothing.
Now, the awakenings is approaching (1 year, two, you name it). The mountain under which the monster slumbers is well known, and the sages are able to precisely predict the awakening.
Every time in the past, the legends say someone tried to slay the beast, from huge armies to groups of paragon heroes, but they were always killed.
Now is your player's turn. Maybe they were selected among groups of volunteers, maybe they just picked up the short straw. You decide.
They have to train at the beginning, maybe in an arena, or roaming the land in search for battles. Then they will have to travel the world to find more and more challenging monsters, visit dungeons and lost tombs to check legends about almost invincible foes, search the mountains and swamps for dragons, roam the seas in search of the krakens, etc.. Then maybe they will need to visit the planes, in search for advice, knowledge and (of course) other foes. You can put any kind of adventure in here. The "fil rouge" of the path is monster slaying, of course, but you can add traps, puzzles, everything you want.
The goal is to save the world from the beast and become living legends, or be slayed.
(English is not my mother language, sorry if I made some mistake
)I'd take a little hint from The Monster Hunter ORAGE manga: every major quarry is connected to the people who dwell in the area. Examples:
Polluted God
The monster is fabled to be from the land of the gods. When it is seen in the world of mortals, it brings great abundance, when it dies, great dearth in the flora and fauna. Only one is ever sighted at once, and efforts to domesticate it have failed, but it is always reborn at some point again, and the cycle is the same.
Why the heck would the PCs want to fight that? Because now the beast is somehow poisoned and irritable, causing pestilence to grow and strange beasts to appear in the fields. No one has been able to survive nearby long enough to drive it away or study it and find out how this happened.
The PCs could simply fight and slay it, sending the already beat-up land into shortage, if the pattern is to be followed, and the next time the beast appears it could be unchanged. Back to square one.
The PCs could weather the storm about the beast long enough to see it return to a poisonous hole and vanish within. Could this be where new ones are born? What festers at the bottom? A beast that parasitizes beasts of the gods? Must they slay the parasite on the irate monster without killing the host?
Isolated Pawn
A great war swept this great land clear of any large civilization. The fields are littered with the remains of great war machines, bones of the fallen, and torn banners fluttering in the icy wind. The tribes of people that have survived are meager villages tucked away in cliffside cliffs and tangled-wood grottos. Their numbers increase in their small bounds, but they dare not venture out to settle the plains of the old war: one of the war bio-weapons still patrols the fields, pikes sprouting at odd angels from its thick, weapon-scarred carapace, innards whirring away eternally.
Heartfelt Wish
Legend says the beast that sleeps beneath the waves produces one pearl every 1000 years. Whoever possesses that pearl can make their dearest wish come true.
The pearls are actually the hearts of deceased kings of the sea. There is a realm of merfolk in the depths, but they may take more monstrous forms when they visit the surface: sea serpents, crabs, whales, sea turtles...and when their king feels his death, he takes the form of a mighty dragon and vanishes into the wild, his heart, a great pearl, washed about as the fates will.
The PCs have a rival party this time who doesn't really care whether they have to hasten the death of a foreign king to get their wish. Maybe they don't even see these wet were-beasts as people. It might be a surprise to the PCs as well when the merfolk rescue the party following an enormous, ship swallowing storm (or one of their more belligerent and xenophobic kinsfolk).
Chosen Land
One of the PCs' mentors went missing long ago following the trail of a huge monster that appeared once in a blue moon when the eastern sun turned a deep green. Only his/her journal was found, leading to a specific spot and stopping.
Now the eastern sun is green again, and the party returns to the spot expecting a monster, only to witness the mentor, un-aged, appear before them with dire news: "It won't be just one this time. They're all coming." Is this an alien invasion? What was the mentor doing all these years?
So basically, you want a story reason for the PCs to journey across the world ferreting out and capturing/slaying large or fun-to-fight beasties?
I'd take a little hint from The Monster Hunter ORAGE manga: every major quarry is connected to the people who dwell in the area. Examples:
Polluted God
The monster is fabled to be from the land of the gods. When it is seen in the world of mortals, it brings great abundance, when it dies, great dearth in the flora and fauna. Only one is ever sighted at once, and efforts to domesticate it have failed, but it is always reborn at some point again, and the cycle is the same.
Why the heck would the PCs want to fight that? Because now the beast is somehow poisoned and irritable, causing pestilence to grow and strange beasts to appear in the fields. No one has been able to survive nearby long enough to drive it away or study it and find out how this happened.
The PCs could simply fight and slay it, sending the already beat-up land into shortage, if the pattern is to be followed, and the next time the beast appears it could be unchanged. Back to square one.
The PCs could weather the storm about the beast long enough to see it return to a poisonous hole and vanish within. Could this be where new ones are born? What festers at the bottom? A beast that parasitizes beasts of the gods? Must they slay the parasite on the irate monster without killing the host?
Isolated Pawn
A great war swept this great land clear of any large civilization. The fields are littered with the remains of great war machines, bones of the fallen, and torn banners fluttering in the icy wind. The tribes of people that have survived are meager villages tucked away in cliffside cliffs and tangled-wood grottos. Their numbers increase in their small bounds, but they dare not venture out to settle the plains of the old war: one of the war bio-weapons still patrols the fields, pikes sprouting at odd angels from its thick, weapon-scarred carapace, innards whirring away eternally.
Heartfelt Wish
Legend says the beast that sleeps beneath the waves produces one pearl every 1000 years. Whoever possesses that pearl can make their dearest wish come true.
The pearls are actually the hearts of deceased kings of the sea. There is a realm of merfolk in the depths, but they may take more monstrous forms when they visit the surface: sea serpents, crabs, whales, sea turtles...and when their king feels his death, he takes the form of a mighty dragon and vanishes into the wild, his heart, a great pearl, washed about as the fates will.
The PCs have a rival party this time who doesn't really care whether they have to hasten the death of a foreign king to get their wish. Maybe they don't even see these wet were-beasts as people. It might be a surprise to the PCs as well when the merfolk rescue the party following an enormous, ship swallowing storm (or one of their more belligerent and xenophobic kinsfolk).
Chosen Land
One of the PCs' mentors went missing long ago following the trail of a huge monster that appeared once in a blue moon when the eastern sun turned a deep green. Only his/her journal was found, leading to a specific spot and stopping.
Now the eastern sun is green again, and the party returns to the spot expecting a monster, only to witness the mentor, un-aged, appear before them with dire news: "It won't be just one this time. They're all coming." Is this an alien invasion? What was the mentor doing all these years?
Dreamstryder, I really liked your Polluted God idea. I would like to use it in the new Dreamworld setting I am creating. Please take a look at my thread, "Your Votes Will Create This World" and please vote. I would value your advice. Thanks. : )
Basically, long ago a noble traded his soul to a devil for artistic talent. He was jealous of all the attention artists got from the ladies.
The devil (being tricky) gave the noble a magic evil paintbrush. The noble went insane, slaughtered children and used their blood for ink. Anything he drew came to life... and he felt compelled to draw monsters.
So he and countless others who posessed the artifact over the ages all drew and continue to draw monsters.
So, lots of monsters to fight. Track them back to the evil paintbrush weilder, kill him... but the evil paintbrush artifact has already moved on to someone even worse. Save lots of children who are being stockpiled for their blood.
Maybe the PCs get involved with supplying monsters to an arena, before they discover where they're really coming from...
Maybe the monsters turn to ink/blood/paper when they're killed.