Miasma City - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Miasma City

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Greater_Lammasu
May 19, 2009 0:19:02 Ok. In my campaign we're chaging gears to something a little more swashbuckler and ship based. My idea is having an undead city state of Miasma sponsoring monstrous privateers. I've talked about the idea of having an undead city ruled by a Larva mage and administered by an undead council, that i might have be made up of his family members. One thing I would like to have in this city is an ongoing conflict between the major religions. My idea is to have a large cathedral called the Temple of True Assention. The temple is dedicated to Asmodeus, Orcus, Vecna and Tharizdun. The main conflict is between Asmodeus and Orcus who are acting out a small scale Blood War with Vecna trying to play them against each other while undead aberations worship Tharizdun in the city underground. How does this sound? Any suggestions for any other deities in the city?
#2
gregt_314
May 19, 2009 0:32:45
.. a large cathedral called the Temple of True Assention..

Just curious. True Assention - is this intended to be a completely made up word, a derivative of "assent" (to agree), or a mis-spelling of "ascension"?

Also, is "Larva mage" actually intended to be "larva mage" - some kind of magic-using baby insect - or "lava mage" - a mage who works with molten stone?

As far as helpful advice goes, can I suggest that a story about political intrigue between gods might not work terribly well, for several reasons:

(1) Political intrigue stories require NPCs to be clever political strategists. Unfortunately, by the nature of the game, NPCs can only ever be as smart as the DM, so unless the DM is a master political strategist their actions are going to come across to players as mostly baffling and occasionally inept. It's just not a genre that D&D does well.

(2) Using named gods as your puppetmasters is problematic because if players have familiarity with the source books they'll have expectations about who these gods are how they behave that may run counter to the way you want to run your campaign.

(3) Using named gods as your puppetmasters is also problematic because there's limited scope for players to meaningfully interact with gods, especially at low levels. You might be better off taking the gods off stage and focusing on their High Priests as the movers and shakers.

(4) If you must have a four way conflict, introduce it slowly. Start off with Orcus and Asmodeus and go a good three or four sessions before you so much as mention Vecna. People respond much better to clear diametrically opposed conflict than they do to shades-of-grey so you shouldn't be complicating things until your players actively want that complication.

Final note: Undead cities have been done before but an undead city that sponsors a navy of undead pirates is TOTALLY AWESOME and I look forward to hearing about the epic adventures that ensue.
#3
turtlshellz
May 19, 2009 5:00:57 Stupid question (sorry you are not stupid, I am): Is Miasma the main city, the origin of the characters? Or is it a antagonist filled city?

Just wanted to clear that up. The idea of a City full of Undead with Undead Pirates sounds pretty cool :evillaugh
#4
Greater_Lammasu
May 19, 2009 7:08:08
Stupid question (sorry you are not stupid, I am): Is Miasma the main city, the origin of the characters? Or is it a antagonist filled city?

Just wanted to clear that up. The idea of a City full of Undead with Undead Pirates sounds pretty cool :evillaugh

Antagonist filled city in an isolated mountainside area. Local Goaliath tribes wage a low level gorilla war against them.
#5
AbdulAlhazred
May 19, 2009 17:07:43 Personally I think the various factions in the city will work fine. Obviously the PCs are not going to do much about hurting a huge city of undead on their own unless they can find some weaknesses to exploit. Factionalism is a perfectly good weakness, exploit away.

It is true that political intrigue type plots in general are likely to go astray, but I don't think that makes them bad things to run. You just have to be prepared to go with the way it develops. In this case ALL the factions are I guess the enemy, so really all the party is going to want to do is find out what the factions are and somehow provoke them to fight with each other. That probably isn't TOO hard and may not even involve direct interaction with them.

A clever party might do things like start some rumours or plant some information such that one faction thinks another is about to get the jump on them. Infiltrating the city and provoking a fight between the factions by making one think another attacked them could work too. It might even be possible to ALLY with one faction and use it to wipe the others out (could be dangerous, the survivors could become too powerful to deal with).

As to whether or not using canon material like named evil deities is the best idea, that is hard to say. The setting will seem more original and interesting perhaps if you change them around some, but either way it should work.
#6
Greater_Lammasu
May 19, 2009 22:41:18 Well, I've always liked the Blood War and since they reintroduced it in the Planar Handbook it gives me the first chance ever to really use it in a game.
#7
Greater_Lammasu
May 20, 2009 20:27:04 I got MM2 today and honestly I don't know what to do. The human pirates are pretty cool but i'd love to use the Death dog and Infection zombie template. I'm really not sure how to introduce everything and keep it coherent.
#8
arizonagoatee
May 20, 2009 22:10:34
I got MM2 today and honestly I don't know what to do. The human pirates are pretty cool but i'd love to use the Death dog and Infection zombie template. I'm really not sure how to introduce everything and keep it coherent.

One things I've noticed about this edition of D&D is that it's much easier to use varying monsters for encounters than it used to be. In fact, adventures seem to get quite tedious if you only run into the same monster types over and over again. As long as you can tie the monsters together to some theme or master, I'd go for making interesting and varied encounters, as opposed to ones that would pass a realism audit. Your players will tend to fill in gaps for themselves, anyway ("Pirates fighting along side death dogs? This must be an evil port, indeed!").

To respond to your OP, I would say it sounds like a pretty cool setting. I would also say to be careful about how much time and effort you put into fleshing out the political intrigues of the various factions, etc., unless you're absolutely sure your players will want to get involved in intrigues and social clashes. There is definitely such a thing as overpreparation when it comes to building a setting, and the last thing you want to do is write 80 pages describing the history of your city, and the words out of your players mouth after you describe the main gates are, "We attack."

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Greater_Lammasu May 19, 2009 0:19:02	Ok. In my campaign we're chaging gears to something a little more swashbuckler and ship based. My idea is having an undead city state of Miasma sponsoring monstrous privateers. I've talked about the idea of having an undead city ruled by a Larva mage and administered by an undead council, that i might have be made up of his family members. One thing I would like to have in this city is an ongoing conflict between the major religions. My idea is to have a large cathedral called the Temple of True Assention. The temple is dedicated to Asmodeus, Orcus, Vecna and Tharizdun. The main conflict is between Asmodeus and Orcus who are acting out a small scale Blood War with Vecna trying to play them against each other while undead aberations worship Tharizdun in the city underground. How does this sound? Any suggestions for any other deities in the city?
#2 gregt_314 May 19, 2009 0:32:45	.. a large cathedral called the Temple of True Assention.. Just curious. True Assention - is this intended to be a completely made up word, a derivative of "assent" (to agree), or a mis-spelling of "ascension"? Also, is "Larva mage" actually intended to be "larva mage" - some kind of magic-using baby insect - or "lava mage" - a mage who works with molten stone? As far as helpful advice goes, can I suggest that a story about political intrigue between gods might not work terribly well, for several reasons: (1) Political intrigue stories require NPCs to be clever political strategists. Unfortunately, by the nature of the game, NPCs can only ever be as smart as the DM, so unless the DM is a master political strategist their actions are going to come across to players as mostly baffling and occasionally inept. It's just not a genre that D&D does well. (2) Using named gods as your puppetmasters is problematic because if players have familiarity with the source books they'll have expectations about who these gods are how they behave that may run counter to the way you want to run your campaign. (3) Using named gods as your puppetmasters is also problematic because there's limited scope for players to meaningfully interact with gods, especially at low levels. You might be better off taking the gods off stage and focusing on their High Priests as the movers and shakers. (4) If you must have a four way conflict, introduce it slowly. Start off with Orcus and Asmodeus and go a good three or four sessions before you so much as mention Vecna. People respond much better to clear diametrically opposed conflict than they do to shades-of-grey so you shouldn't be complicating things until your players actively want that complication. Final note: Undead cities have been done before but an undead city that sponsors a navy of undead pirates is TOTALLY AWESOME and I look forward to hearing about the epic adventures that ensue.
#3 turtlshellz May 19, 2009 5:00:57	Stupid question (sorry you are not stupid, I am): Is Miasma the main city, the origin of the characters? Or is it a antagonist filled city? Just wanted to clear that up. The idea of a City full of Undead with Undead Pirates sounds pretty cool :evillaugh
#4 Greater_Lammasu May 19, 2009 7:08:08	Stupid question (sorry you are not stupid, I am): Is Miasma the main city, the origin of the characters? Or is it a antagonist filled city? Just wanted to clear that up. The idea of a City full of Undead with Undead Pirates sounds pretty cool :evillaugh Antagonist filled city in an isolated mountainside area. Local Goaliath tribes wage a low level gorilla war against them.
#5 AbdulAlhazred May 19, 2009 17:07:43	Personally I think the various factions in the city will work fine. Obviously the PCs are not going to do much about hurting a huge city of undead on their own unless they can find some weaknesses to exploit. Factionalism is a perfectly good weakness, exploit away. It is true that political intrigue type plots in general are likely to go astray, but I don't think that makes them bad things to run. You just have to be prepared to go with the way it develops. In this case ALL the factions are I guess the enemy, so really all the party is going to want to do is find out what the factions are and somehow provoke them to fight with each other. That probably isn't TOO hard and may not even involve direct interaction with them. A clever party might do things like start some rumours or plant some information such that one faction thinks another is about to get the jump on them. Infiltrating the city and provoking a fight between the factions by making one think another attacked them could work too. It might even be possible to ALLY with one faction and use it to wipe the others out (could be dangerous, the survivors could become too powerful to deal with). As to whether or not using canon material like named evil deities is the best idea, that is hard to say. The setting will seem more original and interesting perhaps if you change them around some, but either way it should work.
#6 Greater_Lammasu May 19, 2009 22:41:18	Well, I've always liked the Blood War and since they reintroduced it in the Planar Handbook it gives me the first chance ever to really use it in a game.
#7 Greater_Lammasu May 20, 2009 20:27:04	I got MM2 today and honestly I don't know what to do. The human pirates are pretty cool but i'd love to use the Death dog and Infection zombie template. I'm really not sure how to introduce everything and keep it coherent.
#8 arizonagoatee May 20, 2009 22:10:34	I got MM2 today and honestly I don't know what to do. The human pirates are pretty cool but i'd love to use the Death dog and Infection zombie template. I'm really not sure how to introduce everything and keep it coherent. One things I've noticed about this edition of D&D is that it's much easier to use varying monsters for encounters than it used to be. In fact, adventures seem to get quite tedious if you only run into the same monster types over and over again. As long as you can tie the monsters together to some theme or master, I'd go for making interesting and varied encounters, as opposed to ones that would pass a realism audit. Your players will tend to fill in gaps for themselves, anyway ("Pirates fighting along side death dogs? This must be an evil port, indeed!"). To respond to your OP, I would say it sounds like a pretty cool setting. I would also say to be careful about how much time and effort you put into fleshing out the political intrigues of the various factions, etc., unless you're absolutely sure your players will want to get involved in intrigues and social clashes. There is definitely such a thing as overpreparation when it comes to building a setting, and the last thing you want to do is write 80 pages describing the history of your city, and the words out of your players mouth after you describe the main gates are, "We attack."