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Hi! :-)

I'd like to run a small Christmas themed adventure in 1 1/2 weeks and have some basic ideas but I'd could use some help and some more ideas to put it all together. And as I know that you guys have great ideas, I thought I'd give it a try and just throw my ideas out there!

Ok, so here is what I've got so far (as I just started thinking about it yesterday):
I plan to insert this into my recently started Rise of the Runelords campaign. I'm in the middle of chapter 1 and I'd like to make the players feel like their characters are well respected. So I'm planning on making a small jump in time, just a few month into December (can't remember how that month was called in Golarion right now ^^) for the "ritual of the stardust", a Desna holiday. But I don't want the characters to get into danger, I don't even want them to be necessary present: I want to pull this off as a play in the Sandpoint theater which is about an adventure the party supposedly went on a few years before the start of the campaign... though of course it's all just fiction. So I basically want the players to play idealized versions of their characters and play through this fictional adventure. This fits especially as one of the characters, a gnome bard, already talked to the owner of the theater and there was talk of him starring in a play some day. So as the bard probably helped writing this play, it ought to be overly heroic and stuff :D

So what is this play about you ask? The Ritual of the Stardust of course! The ritual is all about making a big fire and having a big feast and making wishes after the fire burned down (so it fits Christmas quite well). But there was a problem that one time a few years ago: The messenger of Desna did not come to town to bring those wishes to Desna. In fact the messenger was caught by a frost giant who is a follower of zon-kuthon and now tortures the messenger (a Lyrakien) out of fun (as I lack a better reason for now). Now it comes to the heroes to rescue the messenger.

Some additional ideas which I'd like to integrate:

• The Frost Giant is oviously supposed to be some kind of "bad santa" with a long white beard, maybe the players will find a way to make him believe in christm... uhm... Desna? I'd like to give him a red outfit, which probably is just a white tunic that is soaked in the blood of the many creatures he tortured and murdered!
  
• I'd like him to have some sort of elves... probably Goblins? That would add some extra fun, would fit the Rise of the Runelords theme, and would make sense as minions in such a play (as the people of Sandpoint had their fair share of Goblins and probably like every story where some of them die).
  
• I don't really know where to put "bad santa". I'd love to have some sort of factory, maybe he produces some sort of potions? Maybe he needs the blood of the Lyrakien?
  
• I'd like to have some sort of evil raindeers, I even thought about having "bad santa" ride on the back of the Sandpoint devil...
  

So, that's the idea for the play/adventure. It will play out as a normal adventure mostly, but I'd like to add some specialties to add some extra fun and to highlight the fact that it's actually just a play. Some ideas are:

• Have everyone play a overly heroic or exaggerated version of their characters, as their roles in the play will be played by actors
  
• Have everyone talk in rhymes when talking in character (that would be fun, but I'd have to check that with my players first ;-))
  
• I'm thinking about making a small set of printed stage directions that will add some randomness and fun ("more DRAMA!" or "Start crying" or something along those lines).
  
• I'd like to give characters some bonus or something if they describe the actions of their characters in a "cinematic" way.
  
• I'll probably give the characters some extra hero points, as they should be just that: Heroes!
  

Ok, that's about all I've got right now. I still need some parts, like some way for the characters to actually investigate what happened to the messenger and maybe some more and different minions. The whole adventure should fit a 2nd level party, but I have no problems making some enemies easier or exchanging them with some other stats.

So, any ideas for this? What do you think of my idea? :-)

Hi everyone.

Just a warning: This post might get a bit longer. I'd still appreciate anyone who reads and helps me with this! :)

I'm starting RotRl AE next month and am gathering my players and am trying to figure out some background stories with them that will fit the campaign nicely. The thing is, my players don't have much (if any) knowledge of Golarion. So they basically give me a rough draft, some with some more details then others, and I try to expand on that, give them some more details and background and try to link it to the campaign and the world in some way.

The thing is, I have some ideas based on my players wishes, but I have a hard time to make those stories work, or at least I think I have. So I thought I'd come to you fine and creative folks, show you my ideas and see if you have any further ideas.

So, let's begin, I'll go through the ideas I have up to now for each character. For now I'll just begin with one character and add the others later.

Female Aasimar Fighter
Players input
So the player hat this idea about playing an Aasimar who once had actual wings and was a apprentice cleric. But due to some trouble after loosing her twin brother (and wasn't able to help/heal him) she lost her believes, her wings and her few clerical powers. She wants to play a fighter, but would like the option to recover her faith and maybe even get her wings back (there's that 10th level feat for Aasimars somewhere).

My ideas
I think I'd place her in Magnimar as a young cleric of Desna, maybe in the Cynosure Tower in Keystone, having her and her brother being raised by Bevaluu Zimantiu, a cleric of Desna (see Magnimar, City of Monuments). I'd like to give the PC a similar background as Nualia has, as her being harassed by people all the time, making it easier for her to fall from her faith and maybe this results in some nice "maybe Nualia was just mistreated!" roleplay at the end of BO. :)

Her brother should have gone in a quite different direction, being raised to be a Paladin. He was probably gone quite often to study somewhere else and to learn some more fighting. He probably taught his sister some fighting too at that point.

Now, this is the easy part (though I'd be happy for any ideas as to where I could tune this a bit more). Now its about killing her brother somehow, having her fall from her faith and linking her to Sandpoint somehow.

I'd really love to have her brother being killed by the Skinsaw Men. But I can't quite fit it into the background without feeling I'm changing too much. What I'd like to have:

• A way for the PC to witness the death of her brother without being able to help him and without actually seeing the murderer.
  
• A way to recognize at a later point that the cult they are after had something to do with his death.
  
• I'm not sure though why they would kill him, as he wouldn't be greedy really.
  
• There should be at least a few month between the murder and the beginning of the adventure.
  
• Maybe even have Nualia being involved somehow, as she was in town for a while and would probably either seek some help of other "mistreated Aasimars" or feeling some deep hate for others who seem to have it better then her.
  
• I even thought about making Nualia some sort of lost third sister who was just raised by someone else since Bevaluu couldn't take care of all three. But in that case: Why wouldn't they know of each other? Or Maybe the brother and Nualia did know each other?
  
• How would I kill him in a way that would the PC allow to witness it?
  

Ok, so, after having her brother dead without her being able to heal him she looses her faith (as in "why wouldn't Desna help her n healing her brother, who was a Paladin of her faith?") she tries to find out who is responsible. But after living on the streets for a while (she wouldn't want to live in that temple anymore) she finds it rather hard to get any answers when asking in those shady dock taverns (where else would you ask around? ;)) with her having wings and all. Also people start looking for her, some may be friendly (Bevaluu), others are not (what? A little girl angel is running loose? That sounds like fun...). So it doesn't take long for her to get into trouble. This is where I'm thought I'd send a "shining hero" to help: Jubrayl Vhiski, who is in town for some business. Ok, granted, he's not a big hero, but who would let such an opportunity pass by? So he helps her out, maybe defends her from some thugs (be they real or payed by him) and shows her around the streets, even gives her some tips how "not to die" and just plays the understanding, helpful guy. I mean, there must be some money in a loose angel. And since she doesn't look bad there might at least be some great bed storys he might be able to tell later ;). So after she starts complaining about her "godly gift", especially about her wings, over and over again, he makes her a totally "selfless" offer: He knows a guy who knows a guy who'd help her to get rid of those annoying wings. It's totally safe!

So, since he helped her before and she kind of trusts him, she agrees. So he finds someone, who actually does a quite good job, and even "gets rid" of those nasty, bloody wings. So now the PC is wingless and (without her knowledge) Jubrayl quite a few gp richer.

But the time comes (after maybe 2 or 3 weeks) where he has to leave back to Sandpoint. She still wants to find out some more about her brothers killer, so she stays in Magnimar, just a while longer. But he gives her an invitation to visit him in Sandpoint when she's got enough of the big city.

So, just before the festival she picks up on his offer and goes to Sandpoint.

• So, does this sound reasonable at all?
  
• I love the idea of her wings being used in the main plot somehow, just to have her find out at a later point that this was a terrible mistake. Any ideas on that?
  
• What about Jubrayl? I like to present him to the Player/PC as a nice guy and have her later find out who he really is and that he has his fingers in some really shady businesses. I also think of him trying to have some fun with her without it being serious. He basically just wants to use her to his advantage.
  
• Any ideas for Campaign traits?
  

As a side note, the Player quite likes it when her characters get some serious personal troubles ;)

I really hope for some great ideas and I'd love some feedback of what you think about my ideas so far.

Hi there,

im currently running Jade Regent with 5 players and they're on their way to brinewall. My players kind of complained that "seeking adventure" and "helping out friends" isn't good enough as motivations for their characters, so I'm thinking about ways to get some more motivation using their background stories which isn't all that hard. But there is something I'd like some advice/ideas/brainstorming for:

I have a player who is currently playing a chavalier, mostly because there was no one else willing to play a melee character. But now he'd rather play a magic user instead. And since I'm the last one to force a group to fill certain roles I'm willing to accept his wish to play a dwarfen oracle (I think it'll be a storm(?) oracle).

No here is my basic idea on how to do this:
I am planning on adding "The Harrowing" into this campaign as I like the idea of that adventure. So I thought I might have the current character (the chavalier) be sucked into the harrow deck without the other characters noticing. They would only hear some strange noises (the gate spell) and find the dwarfen oraclenext to a single harrow card. It will take some thinking and maybe some knowledge checks to find out that the chavalier has actually disappeared and that this card has something todo with it... and that they will have to find the other cards to rescue him.

As for the oracle, I'm thinking of him beeing an old possessor of the deck who now lost his memory or who never fully understood what he was doing or why he was doing it (beeing forced by the deck and all). Or he is just someone looking for the rest of the deck.

I'd really like to get some sort of "Dragonballs" quest, having the party search for the rest of the deck to rescue the chavalier. On the other hand I want them to follow the main quest. So here are some questions where I'd like some ideas of you very creative folkes :)

• where could the other cards be? Why would they be in/on their way to tian xia? Could some cards be in brinewall? That would help the "destiny" theme, wouldn't it?
  
• What could have happend to the deck? Why would there be only one card left? Why was it enough to suck in the chavalier? Was the rest scattered around after the chavalier got sucked in? Any ideas?
  
• What could have happened to the oracle? Any ideas on that? Maybe it was his deck? Maybe his patron would like him to secure the deck? Maybe Zassrion, the dragon controlling the decks owner, actually IS his patron? In that case: How could I explain that the oracle doesn't loose his powers after finishing the adventure around level 9?
  

You see, I have some rough ideas which I think could be fun for the group, but I lack ideas to explain everything. I'm happy for any ideas! Thanks in advance!