I'll keep this as simplified as I can but basically I'm seeking some city campaign help. I'm trying to keep it gritty (intrigue, political jockeying, and assassinations) but it's getting the thing rolling at level 1 that I'm finding difficult.
I've been running games for almost seventeen years now so usually I don't have issues with campaign plots but for some reason getting this upcoming campaign going is causing me grief.
Setting: Terranth (home setting)
The city-state of Dravnia is based upon a rough outline of medieval St. Petersburg Russia. In my campaign the city-state of Dravnia has been overrun by the Sinestrath Empire (think Rome) and occupied for ten years.
The old Dravnian king is in exile and no one knows where he is in hiding. The Dravnic peoples have splintered into factions; the ones that remained in or near the capital and are now ruled by the Sinestrath Empire, the ones that fled the city and wander as gypsies, and the third faction are the Luptavi which never lived near the city-state and were never really fond of being ruled by the original king in the first place.
The Sinestrath Empire is using the city-state of Dravnia as a staging ground for their wars against the barbarians of the north. They are also gathering resources from the barbarian areas including spider-pine wood for ships (highly fire resistant) and iron from the peat bogs.
My campaign will have as a centerpiece a Sinestrian mage (wizard but I use mana and not the memorize and forget), a Luptavi rogue (assassin), a gypsy bard, and a Sinestrian scout that will work for the mage.
The PC mage's master is the magister officorum (head judge and political advisor to the Lord Senator) and the Lord Senator's term is coming up at year's end so many lords are vying to be voted in by their peers to sit upon the emperor's council.
And so here I sit with many plots swirling but not sure how to mesh it together by Saturday night. I'm up for any suggestions or questions if you want further clarification about what is going on.
thanks!
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First question to ask yourself is how do the PCs get this job. Is in a nepotismic thing, or did they do something in the past that got them the job. It could be as simple as they applied and got hired, but nobody hires anybody without experience on their resume.
So start your backtracking there. If you can come up with an adventure from that question, there is where you start, and at level 2 or 3 when they finish, then they get the job.
If you still can write an adventure, backtrack further, asking how they got to that place.
And so on and so on.
You decide the party got the job by being called to the attention of the senator after they rescued one of his minor aids from someone trying to steal official documents.
The party may have to chase down the thief, while making sure the aid is safe.
Ok, so how did they get there.
Hmm, if it happened on the street, it may just happen, but if it was more structured you may want to have some other hook that draws them all together.
Just some quick advise.
I prefer the PCs not to be tied together due to random happenstance.
Here are some PC hooks I have that might tie together.
The mage PC is a favored apprentice of the head magistrate and thus the magistrate is going to assign the Sinestrian scout to be his guard. The scout was wanted for murder and put into the military but the noble family that wants him dead found him and so he was put on special assigment to work for the Magistrate.
The Luptavi rogue is being sent with a sealed letter to give to the Magistrate and basically the magistrate has been assigned this rogue to strengthen ties between the Luptavi assassins and the Sinestrath Empire. There is a long term goal of the magistrate to break away from the empire and to forge his own kingdom starting in the Dravnian capital. The Luptavi Assassins guild known as the Sons of Truth (Fius-al-Adevar in Romanian) work for the Luptavi Prince who knows of the magistrate's plans and is pledging his guild's services in order to jockey for position in the new kingdom to be.
The bard is a gypsy whose family was murdered on the roadside; he was the only survivor. He took on another name and travels town to town as a womanizer and a drunk. It is possible that his family was murdered because they were minor nobles before being forced to flee the city when the Sinestrians took over.
There is also an insance cleric pc that is the son of a baron that was murdered by his people for being so treacherous. This baron could tie in about anywhere in the plot but I'm sure his deceased father and abandoned castle could hold some secrets that could tie in later.
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My campaign will have as a centerpiece a Sinestrian mage (wizard but I use mana and not the memorize and forget), a Luptavi rogue (assassin), a gypsy bard, and a Sinestrian scout that will work for the mage.
I am I assuming correctly this is your players (PCs)party make up?
The PC mage's master is the magister officorum (head judge and political advisor to the Lord Senator) and the Lord Senator's term is coming up at year's end so many lords are vying to be voted in by their peers to sit upon the emperor's council
and that this magister officorum (head judge and political advisor to the Lord Senator) is the PCs patron?
What about a murder mystery? Each PC is called upon to solve a murder.Perhaps the Magister himself was murdered but an expensive clone spell or ressurection has brought him back to life.He is unaware of who/what killed him or why (That the PCs job to solve). If the PCs are successful at this he promises aid and or money as well as future employment in his service.
And yes you were correct Savage he is the PC's patron. I am going to run this as a relatively low magic level campaign (somewhat like a Conan setting) so resurrections/clones while not "impossible" are not common place and are nearly impossible to obtain.
A murder mystery sounds good; I'm just trying to piece it together to have good ties ins to future adventures and memorable NPCs. It's like I have this city in my head but I dont have a mapping program so i have to spend so much time mapping it out and making NPCs that due to time constraints I just dont have them as detailed as I'd like --i guess I'd like the city to be so detailed that hundreds of people are fleshed out but that just isn't possible so I usually shy away from a full city.
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I think you need to focus on what you need now. If you give the players too much and too fast they wont be able to digest it all. Start small,and work your way up.
So choose and idea. You Like the murder mystery idea so run with that. I used the magic stuff just as an idea. The seed for that was from a really great sci-fi book called Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
So someones been murdered,who/what did it and why. Your players need to figure this out so you need to know this in advance. As you ask yourself these questions ideas will form in your head and you can roll with that.
A time saver is to look at pre-published stuff and modify it to fit your game.Anything came help in this respect it could be as specific as a adventure from Dungeon set at a level for the PCs or as broad as a great book you read.
I think you need to focus on what you need now. If you give the players too much and too fast they wont be able to digest it all. Start small,and work your way up.
So choose and idea. You Like the murder mystery idea so run with that. I used the magic stuff just as an idea. The seed for that was from a really great sci-fi book called Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
So someones been murdered,who/what did it and why. Your players need to figure this out so you need to know this in advance. As you ask yourself these questions ideas will form in your head and you can roll with that.
A time saver is to look at pre-published stuff and modify it to fit your game.Anything came help in this respect it could be as specific as a adventure from Dungeon set at a level for the PCs or as broad as a great book you read.
You're right, I think I've written so big of a web in my plotline that I'm having trouble with the starting point. I know where I want the campaign to go but I dont know how to get it off the ground so starting slow and simple might be the best method. Thanks and if anyone else has more input I'm all ears/eyes :)
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You're right, I think I've written so big of a web in my plotline that I'm having trouble with the starting point. I know where I want the campaign to go but I dont know how to get it off the ground so starting slow and simple might be the best method. Thanks and if anyone else has more input I'm all ears/eyes :)I think you need to focus on what you need now. If you give the players too much and too fast they wont be able to digest it all. Start small,and work your way up.
So choose and idea. You Like the murder mystery idea so run with that. I used the magic stuff just as an idea. The seed for that was from a really great sci-fi book called Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
So someones been murdered,who/what did it and why. Your players need to figure this out so you need to know this in advance. As you ask yourself these questions ideas will form in your head and you can roll with that.
A time saver is to look at pre-published stuff and modify it to fit your game.Anything came help in this respect it could be as specific as a adventure from Dungeon set at a level for the PCs or as broad as a great book you read.
Without knowning what webs you have weaved, I would suggest picking at one of your plot threads and start with that. Pick the one you like the most or the one that generates the most ideas in your head. From there you should be able to get the ball of wax rolling.
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Sorry that I've been off-line for a couple of days: I think I missed your deadline. Have you already played? If so, how did it go?
BTW: Its good to finally see you on these boards. It would be cool (if you have the time) to have you write a little round up of what happened each week in the Campaign Journals thread. I would love to hear what I am missing.
If it isn't too late, the idea that came to me was to simply have the party brought together to investigate the murder of a teenaged boy of little importance or social stature. The party is given this small task because the boy is unimportant: the magistrate would not waste the talents of better investigators on such an unremarkable case. As things build, however, and the party starts finding clues and asking questions, it turns out that this murder is larger than it seems. Perhaps someone who has powerful divination magic found out that the boy would someday be the turncoat/traitor whose actions finally crushed whatever cause was important to the party. Therein lies the big plot twist: the party is hired to bring to justice a murderer, but it turns out that the murderer is one of the good guys. None of the intrigue would have to be revealed right away, as you could have the investigation last a very long time and draw the party into the political machinations of the city.
I think you should reveal the major players of the politcial web slowly over the course of a few lower level adventures that are unrelated to the main plot. Give the players a chance to develope as a team while they do some investigating for the magistrate. Each investigation could lead them to learn about the various lords, and political factions that they will be dealing with later on. Start off with some simple short adventures that help level your party and hlep them develope personal ties in the city. You may find that they will unknowingly show you how they are going to get involved with the greater web of things just by the way they create friends and or enemies in your city.
Basically the gypsy bard (Innokenti) that was due to be hung from the gallows is a PC but he did a pretty horrible job of leading the party to the real killer (his half-brother that happens to look a lot like him named Vinovati). Now the guy who played Innokenti wants to play a hexblade instead so I'm thinking about having this bard double cross the PCs and either get killed off or actually be guilty and attempt to escape the party and from there I will run him as a NPC thorn in the side of the PCs that rescued him or a neutral guy that owes the PCs for getting his neck out of the noose.
This is a quick summation of what happened Saturday night.
Asere 21st, 1070 F.C. (Founding of Constillonia)
The Sinestrath Empire has occupied the city of Dravnia for ten years
making incursions into Yrthgaard lands for resources and slaves. They
aim to bring civilization to the known world. Every decade the nobles
of a province vote amongst themselves to decide the next Lord Senator
of the province. For the first ten years Lord Senator Quintus
Misonius Othos has been in power and built aqueducts, a new "Noble's
District in the northern quarter of the city as well as an arena and
more barracks for the Sinestrath Soldiers and hired mercenaries. Lord
Senator Othos' tenure ends on the last day of the year so many
political factions are forming and trying to push their person into
power. The incumbent Lord Senator obviously wishes to maintain a
second term (there is no limit) and Magister Officiorum Mordavion
favors the incumbent because he is afforded much power and personal
freedom under his watch.
On Mid-Summers Eve Festival (known as Asere's Dance in other parts of
the continent) a nobleman's son named Curio was attending a gypsy
encampment in Old Quarter when something happened that sent him
running into the fire to burn to a crisp within a minute or so. A
gypsy named Innokenti was accused of the crime and was to be hung in
the Old Quarter gallows three days hence. However, Magister Scipio
under Mordavion's decree wanted Innokenti freed to see if he could
help track down the real murderer to find out for whom he(they) work.
The reason, Curio's father is a strong backer of incumbent Senator
Othos and they believe it was a message that no one is safe as long
as the Spada de Riga (Swords of the King) are still in power in the
city.
The party consisting of Calidus, Demetrius, Markov, and Vitaly
rescued Innokenti to find out he was light on information. He
believed it was his half-brother Vinovati and led you to Timofey's
House of Fortune as a possible place to find information on Vinovati.
At the House of Fortune Innokenti conveniently found Volk(short for
Volker) who was also at the gypsy encampment and backed Innokenti's
story. Seeing that this could get bloody Volker was hired on as extra
muscle by Demetrius. The trip led to the Dancing Kegs tavern where a
captive and employee of Vinovati swore under torture that Vinovati
used a curse to cause Curio to leap into the fire. The same man who
said Vinovati spoke with spirits and used curses said he sometimes
headed NW to a shadowed mansion overlooking the sea to be alone and
to speak with ghosts.
The party kept trying to track Vinovati down but an ambush was laid
at the Sleeping Dog's tavern resulting in a bloody knife fight
outside. Many were wounded but no party members met their end. This
left eight bodies for the morning watch to discover scattered
throughout Old Quarter which is going to be hard for even a
magistrate to keep under wraps and the party out of the bounty
hunter's sights.
Demetrius and company headed north just out of town a few hours to
this "haunted mansion on the seaside to find a tied up man, and some
rogues that fled when a mysterious voice threatened all within. There
was also a record keeper found downstairs that did not provide much
information before Demetrius' had him killed (I think Vitaly's idea
of torture or threatened harm would have been a better tactic to get
information). A mysterious black and gray cat was in a bedroom that
proved to have a few books and potions of use but also seemed trapped
in some way to cause sleep (poison gas perhaps?). Markov cut the cat
nearly in two as it tried to flee the room. he was also stuck in the
hand by a needle trap on a wooden box. From the room with the
pirate/bookkeeper came a shambling semi-corporeal undead which was
destroyed and the party stopped at the door labeled DANGER.
You still have very little clue where Vinovati is or what sort of
mysteries are causing the odd occurences within the mansion.
I second that Skuldin. It sounds like you have a good set of ideas about your city campaign. I like the cohesion of the ideas you have so far.
One suggestion: put together a list of important npc players in the political machinations, and have a clear idea of what their status is and what their intentions are.