To start this thread i am using a post (or at least part of a post) from Set. The Idea of this thread is to submit your own story hook ideas and or expound on others already submitted.
Remembering as well that we are all individuals, so lets keep it civil.
The origional post is as follows;
It would be interesting to see a scary, scary group of ascetic fanatics who are dedicated to the eradication of fiends (maybe daemons in particular), by gathering up volunteers who are willing to dedicate their lives to containing the evil outsiders. Not 'containing their threat,' but actually, physically *containing* them. The volunteers bodies are tattooed and enscribed with binding sigils and glyphs and they are assigned to special cells, within summoning circles. The leaders of the sect call up daemons (devils, demons, whatever) and bind them to possess the volunteers. Once inside, the fiend finds that the magical sigils prevent it from escaping, and the volunteers body is restrained in such a way that the demon can't just 'suicide' it's way to freedom (and, even then, the sigils remain potent, and the demon would just be trapped in the corpse!).
For the lifetime of each mortal volunteer kept within the cells, ranting and shrieking with the rage of a trapped fiend, one immortal unkillable creature of irredeemable evil is removed from the universe, unable to work it's wickedness. The Damned...
Or what if the cult evil and thought they were doing good? What if they KIDNAPPED others to be these vessels?
A dwarven thane has declared his own reinheitsgebot. Enforce it, smuggle witbier or roggenbier, or quell what's quickly turning into a civil war. Beer is Serious Business.
LMAO!!! Loved it!
To start this thread i am using a post (or at least part of a post) from Set. The Idea of this thread is to submit your own story hook ideas and or expound on others already submitted.
Remembering as well that we are all individuals, so lets keep it civil.
The origional post is as follows;
Or what if the cult evil and thought they were doing good? What if they KIDNAPPED others to be these vessels?It would be interesting to see a scary, scary group of ascetic fanatics who are dedicated to the eradication of fiends (maybe daemons in particular), by gathering up volunteers who are willing to dedicate their lives to containing the evil outsiders. Not 'containing their threat,' but actually, physically *containing* them. The volunteers bodies are tattooed and enscribed with binding sigils and glyphs and they are assigned to special cells, within summoning circles. The leaders of the sect call up daemons (devils, demons, whatever) and bind them to possess the volunteers. Once inside, the fiend finds that the magical sigils prevent it from escaping, and the volunteers body is restrained in such a way that the demon can't just 'suicide' it's way to freedom (and, even then, the sigils remain potent, and the demon would just be trapped in the corpse!).
For the lifetime of each mortal volunteer kept within the cells, ranting and shrieking with the rage of a trapped fiend, one immortal unkillable creature of irredeemable evil is removed from the universe, unable to work it's wickedness. The Damned...
I think that could be a fantastic idea. Especially if the initial hook is to locate and recover a 'less willing volunteer'. A distraught relative seeking help in finding their lost loved one. I can imagine alot of interesting role play and encounters as the players slowly unravel the mysteries of the cult, and a final encounter where they must find a way to save the possesed victim from the demon within. Do they break the sigils and face the evil being? Do they shut down the cult? Or do they come to agree with the cult's actions in preventing incursions by otherworldly evil?
I may have to borrow this idea from you.
Key members of the ruling class of large metropolis have begun coming down with a painful disease. Local clerics are unable to cure it. The city at large seems unaffected. Rumors blame a local little known criminal organization, but no one knows for sure. The population at large is unaffected...for now.
Here's a murder mystery plot 10 years in the making.
In an attempt to take control of a small town a barron sets up the local lord. By accident he overdosed the lords wife, and the Lord broken hearted and uable to accept the loss of his wife hangs himself in the bedroom of his manner. Since the suicide the lords manner has been abandoned.
Now 10 years later during the hight of winter, strange lights can be seen in the manner in which the Lord hung himself. The Baron, now in control of the land, is afraid to contact the proper athorities, turns to some adventurers who happen to be passing through.
"My people are terriffied and refuse to work. Please you got to help me."
What exactly will the players find in the lords manner? A ghost seeking justice? Or just looters and goblins trying to hide from the winter storms? Perhaps even the evidence that will put the baron on ice?
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You can have a pretty good urban campaign based on what was going on around Beirut, Lebanon circa 1972. The Lebanese Civil War in general is super ripe for picking at for a geopolitical intrigue/spy thriller.
This has the potential to be touchy since it's the middle east and all so I did what I could and boiled it down to the mostly abstract. I'm just trying to show the amazing power struggle going on in that time and the 30,000 different agendas happening.
Imagine a cosmopolitan city state divided in half by a bloody civil war. The standing army is useless and torn between ethnic bounds causing militias and warlords to struggle to maintain order.
You have two neighboring countries waging a geopolitical and ideological proxy war in a once prosperous, cosmopolitan city.
On one side of the city you have the minority ruling class (X) maintaining order and the peace. This side demands, controversially, to have their own separate country. They want this thing to have all the trimmings like their biggest benefactor: Neighbor A. Neighbor A is also the ones giving them the supplies to provide order.
On the other side of this city you have a coalition of several oppressed, but similar ethnic groups (V,W,Y) with basically no say in the government or economic opportunities. These guys would normally not get too along but they're finding increasing common ground against their oppressors. These guys are supported by several groups and neighbors. Largest of all they are supplied by Neighbor B who is of similar ethnic standing to one of the groups. Similar to neighbor A, these guys are giving them the guns and the provocation to fight their oppressors.
Now throw into the mix Group Z. Group Z are basically political pariahs and blend in with the coalition against the minority leaders because they have no true homeland to call their own and the oppressed sympathize with them. Group Z is Neighbor A's biggest enemy (constant terrorism etc) and uses their presence as provocation to the other countries as rationale for excessive force.
Basically the Pariahs and Neighbor A think they both deserve the same land and fighting a sort of war in this civil war.
And then there's country C who is far removed from this situation but the A,B and groups W,X,Y, (and even Z) look towards it for brokering peace and solving everyone's problems.
C knows that X cannot get their own country, Group Z, the pariahs, need to have their problems addressed for ANY sort of peace to last, and neighbor A is too overzealous and refuses to pretty much talk to Z to broker a peace.
HOW COOL IS THAT FOR A DND GAME?
If that isn't enough...
How about some of these events?
-Neighbor C brokers a truce between group Z's and neighbor A. A real first of it's kind. Group Z's heads of power get extracted from this civil war and safe harbor to another nation. Some poorer members of Z stay and live in refugee camps with the other oppressed folks.
-The minority-in-power culture promotes a pretty stern, ruthless warlord as the frontrunner for "elections" and will run the country. Fearing this warmonger and regional balance of power, neighbor B assassinates the warlord.
-Neighbor A invades and takes over the city state. Oppressed groups lose the civil war.
-Minority-in-power commits hate crimes against oppressed groups... with tacit permission by Neighbor A.
-Neighbor D, high off their own successful revolution, steps in and swells the Oppressed groups hate. Forms a new, stronger coalition geared towards political change...
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This is from a campaign a friend of mine actually ran, and in which I was a player. I thought it was a very cool concept.
The PCs come from a country or city where most of the citizens worship the same benevolent deity. Certain members of the population, including the PCs, have received special abilities bestowed by this deity (represented mechanically by something similar to mythic tiers in our campaign).
When one of the individuals with such special abilities dies, his/her abilities pass to another person who already possesses such divine blessings. The abilities of the recipient don't have to be similar to those of the person who died. All such abilities stack. The passing of abilities from one person to another is random. No one can predict who will be the recipient.
Recently people who have such blessings have been dying more frequently. The PCs discover that a former member of their community/nation who has these divine gifts has discovered how to direct the gifts to a specific person, and has been killing gifted people in order to give himself and his followers more power. He actually believes that the god is telling him to do this, but the PCs suspect it's an evil deity or outsider who's misleading him. It's up to the PCs to discover how to stop him.
Alternatively, the PCs could be among this person's followers and could believe that they are collecting the divine gifts in order to return them to their deity. When they find out their leader is actually stealing the blessings for himself, will they turn on him or continue to support him? Is he actually an evil power-hungry megalomaniac who wants to usurp the god's place? Or does he believe he's saving the god's power from being randomly given away to unworthy people?