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Ok my one female gamer has decided that she would like to try to DM and this is the campaign idea she pitched me, I am going to post it to see what kind of feedback and maybe ideas I can get from everyone.
The premise of her campaign is fairly reminiscent of time bandits... She would like to have a group of evil people going through time and stealing artifacts. These artifacts are going to be used in some evil plot to give some grand bad guy a shot at divinity. She told me should would like to use an Inevitable to bring the group together. The first games would almost be one on one where she establishes the characters reasons for actually undertaking the quest. She would like to have the Inevitable snatch the various party members away right before their untimely deaths. For Example, she would like to play a short theft with the party rogue, when he sets off a trap that would kill him, the Inevitable shows up and gives him an offer he can't refuse. She would like to have the party based out of a small keep in Limbo or some demi plane. The Inevitable would be the patron of sorts for the party and would be responsible to sending them to the right time periods and briefing them on their missions. She would like the base to contain the various weapons used by the different cultures and the different types of currencies. She would also like the Inevitable to brief the party on the local customs. So the party has a base and a patron...
Now she would like to use this campaign as a way to expose the players themselves to various cultures. She wants a Roman type culture, an Amazon based culture, a Mongol culture, and an Aztec based setting. Through all of these the party members are chasing these bad guys and trying to thwart whatever plans they have. The party must find out what the plans of the bad guys are and this would lead up to the final showdown. She would like the Final battle to take place in a Labyrinth like setting with subjectual gravity and confusing layouts.
I told her I would aid her in her DMing seeing that it is her first time. I think that the story itself has merit and I can see a ton of roleplaying potential. I know this player very well and she has a love of good novels, I am hoping that her love of stories will add to her campaign. Now if any of you have any suggestions or ideas, please share. Shes a wee bit nervous but I told her that all good DM's started somewhere and this being her first campaign is off to a good start.
-V-
all i can say it is a great idea and you can tell her that my first DMing sucked because my players tried to kill each other and i had no good motive for why the player were in a certain place. The culture thungs sounds good. Overall i want to see this.
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I think it could work; a couple of suggestions:
1) Don't play out the prequel adventures. There's just way too much chance that the inevitable* death would turn out to be avoidable or so obviously unavoidable that the railroad ticket would be too apparent. Instead, perhaps have the players include a death in their character histories. The DM could then start the first game with a capsule description of the characters' rescues and move directly into the game.
2) When designing, treat the visited times/cultures the way that episodic SF treats planets: each is only about two miles square. (If you're either old or young enough to have seen them, I'd go for a sort of adult version of Magic Tree House.) Otherwise, the design task is likely to spin rapidly out of control.
* Sorry, couldn't resist.
It sounds like it'll be incredibley good if she can pull it off but if she does it wrong it'll really suck. If not done carefully it will be an adventure full of railroading. Designing such an adventure would also be a very time consuming process, probably involving a lot of research. I agree with Doug that actually playing out their near death experiences has way to many things that could go wrong, better just to talk with the players about what these experiences were. The near death thing could be cool becuase it might give characters any number of mental problems.
I've been in a campy like this- My DM ran a DnD version of Stargate SG-1, and we popped into TV shows and movies to find artifacts. It was fun for a while, but lost steam for me when it became apparent there was no "tada" waiting for us at the end, just more and more macguffins. Especially if its her first campaign, try to guide her into a shorter story arc, and reuse the same Idea if it works well. Just my $.02
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This campaign sounds great, and your player should certainly be encouraged to do such things. My only hesitation with this campaign is that it seems to be VERY complex. One problem that many first time DMs have is biting off more than they can chew. Does she have enough free time to create such an intricate campaign?
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To limit the scope of the areas they visit, put a physical limit on it.
Even something silly like, if you go more than a mile from the point you arrive, you fall out of that time, and back into the pocket dimension they call home.
A side benefit is that you can use that rule as a benefit for story telling.
As for playing out the little prequel story it would work fine if the players know they are on the rails from the begining. If they know it is happening, it would be more palatable. Also, consider making the unavoidable death questionable. Perhaps each of them in their own time would have survived, but gone on to be insignificant, until they were eventually killed by BBEG's plan. The inevitible took people he knew would eventually have the necessary skills, but before they were metaphysically locked on to the path to their destruction.
And finally, make sure there is an answer to why doesn't the inevitible go bash these guys himself. If there isn't there will be story trouble.
Just my thoughts
Inevitables are all about the rules. If The Rules say they can't, then it can be interpreted that while the Inevitable cannot they can help someone who can.
One thing I have a small problem with is, the evil theme. The PCs are supposed to be evil yet work together. Possible, but ultimately a time-bomb if the players decide "well if our opponent can do it, why can't we?" After all if the Inevitable cannot stop the other guy, why can it stop them.
well, the only problem I can see with this campaign is the source of tension; your gonna need one; sure every scenario can be a challenge to overcome some dungeon like environment, but I would use something as an antagonist to keep the party jumping; there are several time dieties and things like time elementals and she probably should create some type of time cops or corps and hehe watch the movie time cop with beer n muchies with friends, but her campaign will probably be a lot more fun if she ups the pace a bit by giving the pc's a semi time limit if they are being persued by said time agents who seek to right their wrongs and undo their wicked acts. Pcs can often be at their best when being persued and it keeps the game from languishing. I would also perhaps recommend that there be an overall plot; like; say they are trying to recover the 13 fingers of Zabo the dead god as they have stumbled on a "real" hehe ritual that will bestoe the dead dieties powers on them if they recover all the fingers or whatnot and sucessfully preform the ritual. just some idle thoughts; hope they are useful
The premise for the campaign is very strong, and could be a lot of fun. But...
I would strongly advise any new DM to NOT jump straight into running a campaign. Instead, they would do better to construct a couple of one-shot adventures and run through those. Once the new DM has that bit of experience under their belt, THEN it's time to go for the epic campaign. Trying to do the big story right out of the gate is a recipe for disaster, in my experience.
I'm with some of the poster above... For a first experience as DM, she should try a small, simple, straight forward adventure and see how it goes. I would go for something classic;
... Exterminate some bugs in a mine,
... Get rid of a bunch of kobolds that are attacking people in the woods,
... Investigate a creature that has been terrorizing farmers on the outskirts of the village,
... Act as mercenaries to protect a merchant caravan on a five day journey across the hills.
The first adventure should have a definite start and an end... It's the 'intro' sort of speak. If things go well in that adventure, then move on to something a little bigger, and so on.
The storyline you described above has merite, and sounds very interesting (I LOVE time-travel stories!), but it seem so complexe that even I, a twenty-year D&D veteran, would have trouble keeping track of everything.
Ultradan
Contributor
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The premise for the campaign is very strong, and could be a lot of fun. But...
I would strongly advise any new DM to NOT jump straight into running a campaign. Instead, they would do better to construct a couple of one-shot adventures and run through those. Once the new DM has that bit of experience under their belt, THEN it's time to go for the epic campaign. Trying to do the big story right out of the gate is a recipe for disaster, in my experience.
I largely agree with this, except I would say, start with a self contained one-shot that could seve as an intro to the campaign. Make sure it has an ending of its own that will be satisfying, so that it can be successful on its own merits. Think of it as the pilot episode. It give the DM and the players a chance to see if it's really going to work. Build the second and third installments the same way, but start dropping more open-ended bits in. just make sure that each 'episode' has its own satisfying ending. If you've got three under your belt and everyone's happy, you can go nuts and your premise is already established.
I largely agree with this, except I would say, start with a self contained one-shot that could seve as an intro to the campaign. Make sure it has an ending of its own that will be satisfying, so that it can be successful on its own merits. Think of it as the pilot episode.
I can only speak from my own experience, of course, but in general I've found that for a new DM, running a 'Pilot Episode' is generally a bad idea. Doing so creates the pressure, albeit implicitly, that this is still the first adventure in the campaign, and means that the group is basically stuck with any mistakes the DM makes that aren't severe enough to abandon the whole thing and start over.
Going in knowing you're going to be starting clean just removes all that pressure, and lets the new DM do his thing knowing that if he screws up it's a non-issue.
Doing the 'Pilot Episode' thing also creates a pressure on the players to stick with the characters they've created for the one-shot, to provide continuity (and, conversely, to create characters that they think will be fun in the long-term, where they might prefer a change for a one-shot). The weakness of this is that DMs have different styles, and sometimes a DM's style might make some classes more fun to play than others. With the one-shot, the players can learn that Druids and Rangers are poor choices in my campaigns, and create their 'real' characters accordingly. Running the 'Pilot Episode', the player of the Ranger/Druid may well feel he should stick with the same character, and consequently have less fun in the campaign at large.
so any update; has she started; how are things going?
One thing I have a small problem with is, the evil theme. The PCs are supposed to be evil yet work together. Possible, but ultimately a time-bomb . . .
I *mostly* agree with this, and it's also NOT necessary since this "party of lost souls" is clearly being coerced by the Inevitable, or whomever the real big bad is. If they were mostly Good or Neutral then they'd all have the dilemna of trying to figure out a way to save themselves and not serve evil while doing precisely that. The same rule would apply to a few evil characters - what's in it for them to help some other guy take over the universe? Another trick might be to fool the mostly good-aligned party into thinking that they're actually working for good guys when they're not (same rule applies to an evil team - a *Dirty Dozen* campaign). Man! Will they be pissed when they figure it out later in the campaign! ;^D Regardless of whether or not the party is Good, Neutral, Evil or a mix of all three, I think it would be best if the GM demand that everyone be Lawful - that way they'd have to honor the *letter* of their contracts, but would allow clever PC's to occassionally ignore the *spirit* of their contracts.
I also agree that the character's "deaths" be part of their back-story and not something played out. Don't have PC's play stuff that entirely pre-determined, it's not fun, and they'll resent it. They always do.
Good Luck!
Regardless of whether or not the party is Good, Neutral, Evil or a mix of all three, I think it would be best if the GM demand that everyone be Lawful - that way they'd have to honor the *letter* of their contracts, but would allow clever PC's to occassionally ignore the *spirit* of their contracts.
I have to take issue with this: regardless of alignment, and barring powerful enchantment magic, PCs never have to do anything. The worst sanction the DM has is an alignment shift... which for most characters means absolutely nothing (Monks, Paladins and some Clerics being the core rules exceptions).
It strikes me as far more profitable to simply allow the PCs to adopt whatever alignment they want, to allow them to plot against their patron all they want... and provide them some powerful motivation to at least appear to be going along. Trust me, the campaign will be more fun if the DM allows the PCs the latitude to run with it, rather than try to force things down a pre-determined plot, no matter how compelling.