I am going to be running a game for a group of four and they asked me to create my own campaign instead of using an AP, but they still wanted it set in Golarion. I decided to go with an idea i have been messing with for a while and base it around a myth from the Land of the Linorm Kings. There is a structure known as the throne of the troll king that legend says if you were to sit upon it all night during the longest night of winter you would be granted control over the troll tribes of the valley.
General plot: A witch from Irrisen is seeking to use the throne of the troll king to manipulate the trolls into destroying the defenses between the Land of the Linorm Kings and Irrisen. The PC's must venture to stop her before she can sit upon the throne.
I want to start the game with the PC's doing something that gets them noticed by the Black Ravens and invited to join their ranks. Eventually they must travel far from home and pass through a forest where the veil between the prime material plane and the first world is thin and deal with the fey. Finally they must ally themselves with the trolls in order to stop the witch. Alternatively, the witch could succeed and the PC's must rally an army to defend against the troll invasion.
Part one:
Villagers are kidnapped in a goblin raid and the PC's are sent to retrieve them. While tracking the goblins the PC's find themselves in the domain of a mad mephit that has claimed and old fort as his kingdom. The pc's must rescue the goblins from the insane mephit so that they may learn the location of the rest of the goblin tribe. Once they find it they must stop the goblin chieftain (A runt of an ice troll parading as a powerful goblin) from sacrificing their fellow villagers to a beast that the tribe pays tribute to out of fear. This is done at the behest of the troll's new companion(A witch from Irrisen that works for the BBEG) In order to gain the goblin tribes allegiance.
Any questions, comments, or help will be much appreciated.
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Have a bridge or pass in the Fey lands where you have to play a game against one of the fey. Each character must play the game to get past. If a character wins they get a permanent +1 luck bonus. If they lose they get a -1 luck curse. If they cheat, they get the word Cheater on their forehead glowing like a torch.
The Good: Witch villian sounds awesome like your setting choices and the very real threat. Love the crazy mephit and the runty ice troll slumming it with the gobos
The Bad: Goblins and Trolls, guess I find them both overused and feel lind of meh here.
The Ugly: Trying to find the connection from your gobo plot and your troll plot and I'm not seeing it aside form the ice troll.
You need a setting hook to draw the PCs in and invest them more tightly to the land, that's really the primary missing factor. Might help if we knew what type of group you're running for, are they:
-Hack and Slash types
-Heavy Role Players
-A Mix
-Politicos
-Novice, experienced?
-Good RPs but also a buncha min maxers
Need the info.
Maybe you're witch has experimented on trolls before and has a small cadre of werewolf templated Trolls: there's a scary twist.
Thanks so much for all of the input
Goth Guru: Wonderful Idea!
Solspiral:
-While I do agree that goblins and trolls are overused,but my party rarely sees them.
-They are 3 inexperienced players and one semi-experienced player who loves goblins so goblins and trolls are not going to be an issue for my group. Out of curiosity what would you recommend?
-My players do not min max, they enjoy both combat and role play (they aren't super tactical or very good at role playing but they enjoy it nonetheless).
- I adore the idea of werewolf trolls and I will for sure use that.
-My major issue is trying to connect it all. I have a few ideas but would really like some more input
Proftob: According to lore the throne only affects the trolls. However, since the troll army would have to push through the fey forest that would give the fey a reason to aid the Pc's
Thanks for the input and any more would be greatly appreciated
Ok Trolls and Gobos would bore an old player ffor newbies they are practically an innitiation right so I'm onboard.
You're trying to connect a few different stories in your mind but can't turn your core idea into a cohesive story. I reccommend a time honored tradition of writers in your position, pick a story you love use it as an outline and make it your own. I'll give you a fine example using your seeds.
The Hermet of Linnonorm (The Wizard of Oz)
-Opening: PCs start somewhere boring get a shared prophetic dream of your witch standing at the head of a troll army that changes into were-trolls and proceeds to slaughter whatever they care about. The dream ends with a repetative chant: Track the Irressin Goblins, track the Irressin goblins!
-The Pcs wake up having dream traveled to your starting village as see a butterfly of astoundingly bright and varried color flutter out of reach and thru the window of an abandoned cottage they awaken in. The cottage is abandoned because many believe it to be cursed by a bitter witch who lost her family to the villagers in a misguided attempt to burn her as a child thinking she was demon spawn. An easy DC search reveals a gleam of gold under a loose floorboard and a simple magic wedding band. Unbeknownst to the PCs the witch needs this simple band which belonged to her mother as a sacrifice to utilize the throne. The throne requires her to sacrifice something of both value and sentimental meaning and the death of her family ended her desire for sentiment.
-Pcs start along the trail of your goblin band, they have ties to the witch thru the troll that leads them. IF they are careful and take captives for information they will find that their tru chieftan wants to stop the madness but he lacks the courage to stop the ice troll. IF they follow a quest to get him a flaming dogslicer that has been lost he will help them fight the troll and give clues to their next way to undermine the witch which is to find the wise old hermet that knows her secret weakness.
I can go on but you get the idea?
Sidenote: There's nothing wrong with using a source to give a campaign direction. In my experience the best games have a mix of feeling familiar yet being adapted and different enough to still be exciting. In my example about you have a goblin as your cowardly lion, perhaps your scarecrow could be a flesh golum with a touch of sentience that has the desire to fight back but lacks the brain power to plan revenge, throw in a troll minion that literally has no heart (the witch has it in a jar and if she lights it on fire he dies) and you have several hooks and sideline that wind their way to where you want things to end.
I hope this was the type of help you were looking for.
Very helpful. I like the scarecrow and tin man ideas very much, but the shared dream teleportation intro is not doing it for me. Thank you so much for all the input.
Change the ring to an actual magic key. You place it into a setting in the throne to fully activate it. I think a ring of spell storing that activates defensive spells when the wearer is attacked. It's a minor artifact so it can do that. Your cowardly lion could be a goblin afflicted with were squirrel. They want to destroy the throne because slavery goes against their caotic good alignment.
If you really want to use some OZ ideas, have them attempting a ritual to bring rain(farmers) and instead, the abandoned house they are using gets picked up by a twister they summoned by accident and dropped on the witches sister, who was wearing the ring.
Suggestion was method of cheating at story structure, using Wiz of Oz rather awesome if that's what you want to do but that was just an example.
You can do this with any story you love, Star Wars for example. You have original ideas just needed a better plot structure.