Hi, all. I'm contemplating starting a new campaign for my face-to-face group. It's set in Golarion, but more sandbox-style. I wrote up the following, and would welcome feedback, whether criticism, suggestion, or ideas as to what might happen next. Thanks.
The PCs are significant people in Woodcroft, a forestry village in
Razmiran, on the shores of Lake Encarthan near the Ustalav border.
Razmiran is ruled by a tyrant who claims to be a living god, having
used the Starstone in Absalom to attain divinity. No other form of
worship is tolerated in Razmiran. However, in this small village on
the edge of the woods, largely neglected by the Visions who govern
Razmiran in Razmir's name, a new faith has arisen -- or rather, a very
old faith, the worship of Desna, the Song of the Spheres. The people
of Woodcroft find comfort in the worship of the goddess of dreams, but
then they are detected -- or betrayed?
Regardless, the PCs learn of the coming of Razmir's military to put
the village to the test of heresy, and to the sword if they fail. As
the campaign begins, all those who are willing are evacuating the
village under cover of night, into the woods they know so well and
across the border into Ustalav -- a nation founded by Varisians over
two thousand years ago, but ruled for over six hundred years in the
fourth millenium by Tar-Baphon, a vile lich-king known as the
Whispering Tyrant. The Shining Crusade launched by the empire of
Taldor was ultimately able to imprison the immortal Tyrant in his
fortress of Gallowspire in western Ustalav, and some semblance of
normalcy has returned to the nation -- though normalcy interrupted by
two civil wars.
Now the villagers of Woodcroft find themselves in the territory of
Soivoda, a region of Ustalav where the families of powerful counts
rule over rugged and largely impoverished lands.
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I have some notes from years back for a campaign where humans are a few shiploads of refugees who fled through a portal from a conquered Prime Material into an alternate world ruled by elf-equivalents.
It seems like a fine campaign model to generate danger, adventure, intrigue and moral complexity as the refugees, their lack of allegiance to local potentates and the problems they brought with them disrupt the existing social order.
I have some notes from years back for a campaign where humans are a few shiploads of refugees who fled through a portal from a conquered Prime Material into an alternate world ruled by elf-equivalents.
It seems like a fine campaign model to generate danger, adventure, intrigue and moral complexity as the refugees, their lack of allegiance to local potentates and the problems they brought with them disrupt the existing social order.
Cool, thanks. One of the reasons for the refugee setup is to give the PCs ties and obligations -- they're not adventuring as a career path, but to help save and make better lives for their friends and families.
Also, not being a one-way gate, when they're more powerful they might decide to go back.