Within my current campaign, the players will form a commando style hit squad (composing of the usual 4 PC's who also each get the control over 2 lower leveled NPCs to provide backup, essentially making this a 12 man team.)
The players will have to overthrow a powerful organization known simply as The Society (think of them as fantasy themed Nazis).
I was wondering if anyone had any cool ideas for locales, places or operations that The Society could currently be using/exploring and that the players would have to either liberate or help destroy?
For example, I absolutely want an Egyptian themed archaeological dig-site where ancient relics and magic weapons from bygone ages are being uncovered. The players would have to either sneak in and sabotage the place and steal the relics of perform a frontal assault and take everything by force.
Thanks in advance to any ideas.
By Nazi I mean a large and powerful organization, dominating a large amount of the world with a huge amount of resources and military backing it up on whatever endeavor it so chooses to embark on.
For example, if the Society decides that the merfolk ruins of Shadaneen could possibly hold ancient tomes that would permit them to control the seas and oceans, by god there will be a massive operation to get into those ruins, slay the remaining merfolk/enemies inside and grab the loot.
To clarify though, the Society's purpose is the collection of artifacts and receptacles of power with which they will finally confirm their five leaders' true divine heritage and permit them to ascend into fully fledged deities.
Now, I am loving the underground bunker/alchemical experimentation lab (very, very, very much xD) and it is perfectly within the Society's reach to develop new types of warships and armaments. Though why you don't want submarines, I'd recommend it as I know for a fact that there is a submersible in one of the official APs and the possibility of simply claiming it for their own could lead to some pretty cool things.
And last but not least: POW Camp is awesome! Exactly the sort of thing I could see a hit team of characters taking down to free captured allies.
Thanks a lot Tim, helping a huge amount ^^
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Keeping with that theme while maintaining fantasy elements they could also be running dig sites for ancient constructs (as weapons of war), digging up or extracting entombed/destroyed (partially or incomplete) undead for use as generals, sources of info or weapons. That or searching for the graves of ancient powerful wizards or clerics from different lands who might share a similar ideology, just so they can resurrect or revive them. Of course so many of thse things can backfire on the Society, which can make for some interesting situations.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Nazi's had many weird groups operating within their ranks - those searching for the power of race (and all the legends associated with them) and those looking for more information on the occult. They even had a group called the SonderKommando Hexen (Special Unit H - Hexen for "Witch") that researched those who practiced witchcraft in Germany (and were executed for it). Ultimately this was to make a case to eliminate Christianity as the state religion - just to show how fanatical these guys are.
Think along the lines of obsessed/fanatical and the material will write itself. What is their focus (besides their leaders), is there a racial/religious component to their beliefs? Do they subscribe to ancient prophecies or beliefs tied to their leaders, their land or their country/empire? Maybe another, older country/empire or cultures (Nazi's venerated aspects of Ancient Rome).
So more ideas: maybe they can have different groups (some at odds with each other) conducting research into new kinds of necromancy, siege warfare technology (new types of weapons or defenses), inducing controllable lycanthropy (shock troops), looking for sites of power (fountain of youth, tree of life, city made out of gold, island paradise in arctic waters or oasis in an inhospitable land, etc).
Maybe they want to capture items traditionally associated for good (since maybe they think in some twisted way they are also "good") to harness or channel their power (Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, Spear of Destiny). Also looking items from others (who may be good) who have ascended to divinity - of course good guys/religious would be horrified to find out that their sacred items might be on shopping list put together by some wacko (yet powerful) powerful group.
The group (players) can also turn things around - steal back good/powerful items originally thought lost but dug up by the Society.
Just a few ideas off the top of my head.
Just off the top of your head? By god man (or woman, I don't know) you've written a veritable masterpiece here... a treasure trove of ideas if I ever saw one.
Keeping with that theme while maintaining fantasy elements they could also be running dig sites for ancient constructs (as weapons of war), digging up or extracting entombed/destroyed (partially or incomplete) undead for use as generals, sources of info or weapons. That or searching for the graves of ancient powerful wizards or clerics from different lands who might share a similar ideology, just so they can resurrect or revive them. Of course so many of thse things can backfire on the Society, which can make for some interesting situations.
I am loving the idea of them digging up fallen generals, wizards and priests to further their cause. Though my homebrew world is fresh and new, there is a background of heroes and potential ressurectees. In fact, I may just have the Society bring back the corpses of past PCs and PCs that may fall in battle.
Think along the lines of obsessed/fanatical and the material will write itself. What is their focus (besides their leaders), is there a racial/religious component to their beliefs? Do they subscribe to ancient prophecies or beliefs tied to their leaders, their land or their country/empire? Maybe another, older country/empire or cultures (Nazi's venerated aspects of Ancient Rome).
So more ideas: maybe they can have different groups (some at odds with each other) conducting research into new kinds of necromancy, siege warfare technology (new types of weapons or defenses), inducing controllable lycanthropy (shock troops), looking for sites of power (fountain of youth, tree of life, city made out of gold, island paradise in arctic waters or oasis in an inhospitable land, etc).
Once again, love the ideas. Controlled lycanthropy sounds great (mostly because I'll probably have the damn thing get out of hand and both sides caught between voracious werewolves or somesuch situation). The other locales are great too and I can definitely say that so far thanks to you and Tim, my mind has indeed begun generating ideas.
For another question that could help me, what do you think about the idea of a commando team consisting of the 4 PCs who also get joined by 8 more lower level characters they can also use to reinforce their group?
Depends what the other 8 do. Are they camp guards and lore specialists who stay behind and help the PCs out primarily in the legwork pre-mission and with support, or are they there for combat as well? 12 PCs is going to mean LONG combats when they do get bogged down in combat, and if one person stealing the spotlight is bad, imagine someone stealing the spotlight with all 3 of his PCs. I'd be disinclined to let all 12 characters go along into the actual infiltration parts of these missions, but I think as guys who build gear, research lore, heal PCs after they return, and guard the horses, they could be a lot of fun. Kind of like an MI6 that moves around with Bond.
I was thinking more along your line of thought, like extra allies who you assign to various things. For example, you want to ambush the Society's watchtower? Well you can get your allies to cause a disturbance nearby, get some of the units to chase after them so there are less for you to fight.
There is no way I'm running a 12 PC combat xD
It's based on a Reward System. Players accrue Prestige Points and can spend them to claim items they really want. Spare items go to the player's faction and help to increase things such as the faction's maximum GP Value, provide new Items for Sale and gain Victory Points. [Victory Points are used like in the old Heroes of Battle to track the campaign's progress and is required to determine the outcome of the final battle.]
To simplify, XP is assigned normally to the four players and the rest of the team levels up with the players.
As for gold, Society members do not usually individually carry gold. Instead, most groups of these enemies usually have a Vault or Cache in the vicinity which once liberated grant player's the gold they would have earned.