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Well, in the next couple of weeks, our group will be getting back into regular gaming. As one of the potential GMs, I've been tasked with putting together a couple campaign concepts to present to the group for review. I've got two ideas that really interest me, but I've not run any campaigns with similar themes, so I thought I'd run them by the community here for any comments, tips, and ideas.
I'd very much appreciate any feedback, whether you've participated in games similar to either of these or not. Situations and rules to take special note of, story opportunities that might be missed, and so forth.
I've spoilered the two concepts below to save you all a wall of text. Thanks in advance for your help and insight!
Campaign 1: Swampworld
This campaign takes place on a world with little dry land; the entire surface of the known world is all swamps, bogs, and marshes divided up by slow-moving rivers and dotted with bodies of water no larger than a few thousand yards across. Moss-covered trees reach hundreds of feet into the air; the canopy sometimes blocking out the sun. Communities grow up around these giants, although many people live in floating towns made up of barges and rafts lashed together.
Despite the scarcity of dry land, a few places exist where intrepid miners can access the world below the dark waters. Here, the various Arms Cartels harvest their precious iron and other components for their guns. Firearms have reached the "Commonplace Guns" availability level.
There are no orcs, so no half-orcs. Dwarves all have the "Saltbeard" alternate racial trait. Of the Core Races, only humans are commonplace. From the ARG; goblins, ratfolk, grippli, vanaras, and vishkanyas are commonplace. Others are on a case-by-case basis.
I haven't got an overall story arc for that world, yet. It just strikes me as an intriguing change from the norm for our crew.
Campaign 2: Reclaiming the Crown of the Elf Queen
Okay, so this one takes place on my current homebrew world, which is pretty standard by Golarion standards. The story arc, however, is one inspired a bit by Jade Regent, Kingmaker, and the ole Icewind Dale Trilogy.
The party is recruited by an elf queen-in-exile to help her on an expedition to reclaim her ancestral homeland. . . okay a lot inspired by Icewind Dale . . . Unfortunately, during the exodus from their kingdom a powerful magical working was enacted, and all memory of the location has faded from the world. So, the intrepid adventurers must uncover the location of the city from fragmentary records in various locations. Along the way, they'll run afoul of dragons and fey and magical beasts and maybe an assassin hunting the queen . . . [no, I won't name him Artemis . . .].
Eventually, they'll discover the city and have to figure out how to undo the memory-altering magic before they can muster an army of elves to retake the throne. Once the queen has reclaimed her birthright, the high-level fun can begin, as a long-forgotten threat begins to rouse itself and start its way to the city.
I've never had the chance to run the Tarrasque . . .
I like the Swampworld setting, personally. I'm imagining things like swamp pirates and huge cities built on wooden platforms in the branches of those giant trees you were mentioning (like the Ewok city in Return of the Jedi). You could create or modify several monsters to fit the setting as well to give it some very interesting flavor.
Perhaps some sort of story arch could be an expedition to find a legendary mountain rumored to exist, towering over the swampland and offering tons of valuable resources to those brave enough to search for it. Anyone who travels for too long in search of this mountain, however, never returns, and they are never heard from again -- who knows what's waiting for them on or inside of this mountain when they finally get there?
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@garabbott: I like it. Maybe the party comes across some ranting recluse who claims to have seen the place; he's got some odd pieces of jewelry made from an alloy nobody's ever seen, in a design that's quite alien. Maybe the mountain moves . . . maybe it's alive. . .
On the Elf Queen front, I was thinking that maybe at some point there's a serious question about the legitimacy of the would-be-queen's claim and the party must decide whom they lend their support to. Perhaps in the wake of an assassination attempt, the assassin [who escaped the failed strike] decides that turning the defenders against the queen would be the easiest way to eliminate her. To that end, she contacts one or more of the PCs with information that the queen may not be the rightful heir.
Thanks for stirring up the brain juices! Keep 'em coming!
For the swamp idea, you could do something like the polar ice caps melting. This would make Mountain Ranges the only real sturdy land, making easy sense of the gun / iron thing. Might make dwarves a good second when it comes to racial population. This could lead to some animosity and good role play between dwarves and humans.
Also, why no mention of Lizard Folk? When I think swamp, I think Lizard Folk.
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Did I not mention lizards? Dang; you're right! I guess maybe lizardfolk were so prevalent in my head that I kind of assumed they were there. Better double check my campaign synopsis before I hand it out to the players!
I've always had a love for the lizard peoples. They have a very strong presence in the wetlands of my world, and rich and vibrant traditions. One of their favorite entertainments/conflict resolution methods is the torch fight:
A pair of combatants face off in a circle of knee-deep water armed with a spiked shield crafted from snapping turtle shell and a torch. The first combatant to have their torch doused is the loser.
Some of the more rough-and-tumble communities have adopted this practice, usually in the form of pit fights in backalley bars.
Thanks for reminding me! Keep 'em coming!
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Well, finally have an update for this; looks like I'm going to be the one running the show. We're going to be running the "Reclaiming the Crown" scenario, and the players are in the process of putting together their PCs. We've got a half-orc ranger [wild stalker / skirmisher] that should be an interesting RP challenge. The others are still bouncing theirs around, but I'm pretty sure it'll turn out stellar.
The route they'll be taking will put them through one major mountain range, skirting or crossing a desert, through a wooded, mist-shrouded realm full of lycanthropes, undead, and other gothic horrors, through a swamp, and finally into the elf homeland. Should be a whole lotta fun.
Any further ideas would be welcome, and I may post an update or two as the story progresses.
One of the Second Darkness AP adventures featured an adventure in which groups of skirmishing elves were attacking an invading force in one of their cities. It might be useful to grab ideas from there for when you reach the point of invading the elven city to reclaim the throne.
Making an adventure for the PCs to recruit fey allies for the elves would be neat. You could use the battles rules in the Kingmaker AP for the conflict as well.