Hey,
So, I'm starting a new Pathfinder campaign with my friends, with whom I've played D&D 3/3.5 in the Forgotten Realms setting for years. I'll be the GM this time around, and I kind of suck at it, and I know it. So, I'll be going at it a bit differently this time.
We've never used the 1" maps and miniatures with this group; our combats have always happened in our heads. However, after having played Pathfinder with another group where we did use miniatures and squares, I fell in love with the square/miniature combat style, and quite frankly don't understand why we never used it with this group. I mean, movement becomes such a strategic decision, and stuff like charging is no longer a given, etc.
Anyways, I'm going to run this campaign with square maps and miniatures. I have a table-sized basic flip mat already, and am planning on buying a few more. I'm also going to print out some simple walls and buildings to use. The point with my campaign would be to bring this RPG as close to a board game as possible.
With that, I'm also trying to go with a very basic straightforward setting, with as short and simple "missions" as possible. The idea is to have fun one nighters, much like board game sessions.
So, the setting is this:
The players have been abducted to another plane. Whether this happens in the Forgotten Realms universe or not (we have a ton of the books so that's not a problem), it doesn't really matter, because of it being on another plane. This plane has a huge "harbour town", only the harbour isn't at water; it's a gateway to other realms.
The city is run by a powerful species, who utilize telekinetics, magic and even some sophisticated technology (think the dwemer in the Elder Scrolls), and this is simply to make them as unknown to the players as possible, so there's no metagaming. Also, to make them powerful enough so as to force the players (I hate forcing players to do anything but in this case it's a must) to stay there.
This city has a huge arena, where people go to be entertained. However, it's not just an arena. The contestants in the arena are sort of on a "holodeck", so basically they can be anywhere. This gives me complete freedom as far as these missions go. The spectators on the other hand get to watch things unfold as if it was a theater of some sort.
The missions, or quests, will reward the players with gear and money, and the city has a huge market where all kinds of stuff can be found. They're not so much slaves or captives, as they are mercenaries who are forced to stay in the city by their "benefactor".
I know my players, and they like their bling, so I'm going to try and give them as rewarding but at the same time as challenging a way to better their characters not only through levels but also through gear.
Now, I know, this is very very shallow as far as the RPG side of it goes, but that's the point. We have a great GM, who runs great, deep RPG plots. I just can't do that, but we do need some shorter distractions, so I'm going to try and give our group that.
I will also run a backplot, which has the players most likely escaping the city at some point, or something similar. However, the main focus will be on these nice little quests, and the players advancing in levels and gaining better and cooler gear and feats and so on. I'll also try and add some off-session gaming via forums, where the players can explain what they do on their off time, so they can use their professions, make gear and so on.
So anyways, I'm open to suggestions and criticism, and any kind of input. If you've got any ideas, questions, or whatever, feel free to chime in. :)
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You might look at adapting pathfinder society scenarios, those are designed to be played in a single night.
Sounds pretty cool to me. PFS is definitely the place to start.
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What level are the guys? Here is a fun little dungeon crawl designed for level 1 characters. Jacob's Tower: Level 1. It completely fits the holodeck feel of the arena.
Broken Zenith wrote: What level are the guys? Here is a fun little dungeon crawl designed for level 1 characters. Jacob's Tower: Level 1. It completely fits the holodeck feel of the arena. The group will be a new one, and as much as I'd like them to get a few levels rather quickly so as to get to levels where they've got a few feats and spells and such to utilize, I'd rather not start them off at higher levels. So, I was thinking level 1-3, and preferably right on at level 1, if I can figure out something fast for the first few levels to kind of wet their appetites.
The link you gave is awesome! It's exactly what I was looking for, and not only can I use the adventure itself, but it also gives me a great insight as to what kind of little adventures to make, and how. Thank you greatly.
As for the "holodeck", well, I guess it was a simple way of describing what I'm going for. It just sounds a bit too Star Trek, but I guess the idea gets through. I was thinking about the arena, and perhaps these "virtual adventures" would actually be viewed by rich people in some kind of booths, more than the entire arena. Some straight out battles and such might be shown on the arena itself, and besides that it would just act as an arena, having all kinds of spectacular fights and even just exhibitions on it.
Anyways, I'm still in the fleshing out phase of this, getting material together and so on. We'll see how it goes. :)
Have the city and arena contain various "mercenary" parties of heroes from various dimensions/worlds/cultures -- with successful parties having the backing of patrons who want their parties to succeed and their rivals to fail. Have a popular element of your one-off adventures be parties or individual arena heroes popping up with shared or divergent goals -- some so diametrically opposed that the REAL main event would be both parties clashing for supremacy.
...Perhaps a motive for keeping them there is one of the reasons they test various groups from certain civilizations/planes is to gauge where their armies might invade next to capture not just a handful of souls for entertainment, but a city's worth, or worse, of interesting... but conquerable (as was proven by loss in the arena) slaves. The party will stay on the treadmill if they know getting off of it too soon, or failing, could mean returning home to find it burned.
Here are some ideas for one-night play sessions:
1. the wards on some kind of hallowed ground are starting to wane, causing the dead to become unrestful. the appropriate rites and items must be placed in and around the graveyards and tombs, and certain restless or evil souls must be placated/banished.
2. Haunted House -- full of undead, really scary, pump atmosphere up to 11 on this one. The party must not only survive, but be brave and make their surviving the night look good for the crowd.
3. The party is transported into a war on another plane -- they are given equipment and an objective as a kind of specialist unit, with unfamiliar creatures and people dying all around them.
4. The party is transported into a maze-like prison with countless other parties. All bets are off and everyone is killing each other because the amount of air in this pocket dimension is finite, and anyone who does not discover a way out of the pocket dimension will become permanently trapped in it in "X" hours. The trick is, that getting out involves puzzles that require the cooperation of more than one party -- and promises that might need to be broken.
5. The party is tasked with stealing a treasure or magical relic from a tomb/musuem/castle/manor/whatever -- they must do so as quickly and quietly as possible... However another party is also attempting the heist, so cooperation or competition is possible!
6. The party is transported into a truly alien environment -- deep dark underwater caves, or a gravity-less cloudworld, that sort of thing. Their test is to find some way to survive in this new environment -- they can only go home once they demonstrate they can survive the indigenous lifeforms, rest safely and consistently, and know how to live off the "land" (or lack therof) -- the alternative is to see them slowly turn on each other and starve.
7. The party is thrown through a series of wormholes, only remaining in a certain place/dimension for 1-5 minutes. Their task, in each brief jump, is to steal anything of value that is not nailed down. They could appear suddenly in a trapped treasure room, or a museum, or a jewelry store, or a dwarven bank... but two things are certain -- 1st, only the teams with the most loot make it back to the arena (the rest are left invariably to fall into the custody of those they robbed)... and 2nd -- 300 SECONDS IS A LONG FRIGGIN' TIME.
8. "Unferth's dungeon clearing company" -- a dungeon level or area is infested with monsters/traps/environmental hazards and the party is tasked with pacifying that area of the dungeon so it can be converted for use by the arena as storage/barracks/new setpieces for forthcoming events, or maybe even just sites for resource exploitation. The party is loosed in the dungeon environment and the sport begins!
there are some ideas, hope they give you some traction.
I'm glad you like it, and let me know how it goes! The second level is now ready and the third should be out before the end of the week. If you like, you can run them through level 1 at level 1, rank them up to level 2 for level 2, and then rank them up to level 3 to level 3. At this point they should be ready to go!
Jacob's Tower: Level 1
Jacob's Tower: Level 2
Vicon wrote: Have the city and arena contain various "mercenary" parties of heroes from various dimensions/worlds/cultures -- with successful parties having the backing of patrons who want their parties to succeed and their rivals to fail. Yeah, I was thinking of going with the kind of a Spartacus TV series competing ludus, or some kind of Hunger Games vibe. The point being that somehow the players, while they have been abducted and brought there against their wills, would start to like their "benefactor", and fight for him/her, and against his/her rivals.
Vicon wrote: Have a popular element of your one-off adventures be parties or individual arena heroes popping up with shared or divergent goals -- some so diametrically opposed that the REAL main event would be both parties clashing for supremacy. I was thinking of having some of the enemies, be they monsters or men, in the one shot adventures be branded somehow, or carry some marking, of some group (or a couple groups), without explaining it in detail at first. Then later the players might realize that they've been taking out the forces of a certain group.
Now, at this point, they might realize something that I also want them to uncover; they have been sent to the real world on these missions every now and then, and they could've escaped all along, but they thought it's just happening in their heads or on a virtual plane, so they never did. But now, knowing this, they might start hatching a plan to get the hell out of this place.
Vicon wrote: ...Perhaps a motive for keeping them there is one of the reasons they test various groups from certain civilizations/planes is to gauge where their armies might invade next to capture not just a handful of souls for entertainment, but a city's worth, or worse, of interesting... but conquerable (as was proven by loss in the arena) slaves. The party will stay on the treadmill if they know getting off of it too soon, or failing, could mean returning home to find it burned. I also had the idea that these real-life incursions of the players might be some chess moves being played by the species who have abducted them, trying to gain a foothold on their home planet or some part of it, by taking out rival forces at first, then perhaps taking out the law, bribing people, and so on.
Vicon wrote: Here are some ideas for one-night play sessions Awesome ideas, thanks a lot!
Druids and Dinosaurs: the PCs have to collect a couple of different species of exotic reptiles for an eccentric collector. The players are free to use poisons, ropes, whatever they need to brig down their quarry.
Fast and Fresh: the players are asked to recover a stolen batch of valuable delicacies, such as truffles and caviar. The catch is that they need to bring back the food in 36 hours or it will spoil.
I've been fleshing out the idea of the city where this campaign takes place a bit more. As I stated before, it would exist on another plane. Planes are a common thing in D&D, and in the Forgotten Realms to be specific. Yes, creating a new plane is taking a bit of creative freedom, but sometimes one has to.
Like I said before, it would act as a gateway between different worlds, or between different material, and even other kinds of planes. Khelben, from Abeir, for example has been to Oerth, so "planet-hopping" has happened before.
Anyways, this plane would consist from this one huge city, floating in this "space". The city would be built on this rock, or rather crystalline base. Above this city there would be a huge crystal with it's tip almost touching the largest tower in the center (or thereabouts) of the city.
Around the city the space would be somewhat calm, but the farther you'd go out, the more there would be disturbances. There would be lots of these crystals floating around in that space, and mining vessels - like sailing ships that sail in space - would venture out to those crystals to mine them, and to even adventure within them, killing some exotic creatures and look for anomalies and portals to distant worlds.
The species who would own and run the city would be called "mind reavers", a distant cosmic cousin of the mind flayer, who they'd resemble in part. On this small "pocket" plane, the mind reavers would be immensely powerful psionicists, getting their power from the huge psionic crystal floating above the city, as well as from crystal shards collected from all over the plane. They would keep the surrounding space of the city calm (apart from a psionic storm every now and then), keep the city anchored to this huge crystal, keep the extra-dimensional gateways open, and keep peace and tabs on everyone within the city.
There would be a ruler in the city, but he/she/it might not be a mind reaver; it would be this menacing mysterious presence, akin to the Wizard in Oz. The ruler would have this army, this elite guard, keeping the city peaceful. Other than that, the city would have a certain amount of greater houses (although I hate to call them that, as there seem to be houses in every story), who would have their own bodyguards, some even small armies, much like in Menzoberranzan, and other drow cities. These factions would often squabble, even conquer each other, and that would be allowed for one reason or another.
The defining structure in the city would be this immense tower, hundreds, perhaps thousands of feet high, in which the ruler, as well as the elite psion guard who'd keep the crystal in place and the "seas calm" would live and stay most of the time, and in the base of it there would be the elite guard of soldiers. Then there would be a tight-knit network of larger roads, back alleys, housing, and so on, with all kinds of different districts, such as market, guild, arena, rich housing, slums, docks, and so on.
One of the prominent districts would be somewhat smaller, with some kind of a special structure, and immensely high security. This would hold the gateways. The gateways would be reseved for the use of the rich and the powerful. However, out there in the sea of psionic storm there would be portals as well, and experienced captains could sail through them with their "flying" ships (which would really look like sailing ships.) These ships would then bring over people from all kinds of places, and those people would mostly stay to the docks, which would be your typical seedy place.
Of course underneath there would be a huge sewage system with catacombs and tunnels and all that goodness.
While the police force of the city would be powerful, as well as the rich factions and their guards, they wouldn't be all-powerful, and enterprising thieves and assassins would obviously thrive in such a large city as well. There would be guilds for both, as well as guilds for all kinds of classes and artisans.
Now, the "benefactor" of the player group would lead one of these prominent factions or houses in the city, but he would be very different, in that he would actually be human, and not mind reaver. However, he would, as it turns out, be an extremely powerful psionicist. Having him be human would allow the players have a bit more "warmth" towards him, and not want to rebel against him straight away.
Now, as far as the missions go, there would obviously also be the possibility that there would be small missions within the city, even venturing out on a ship to the crystals in the neighbouring sea of psionic storm, ridding the sewers of some extraplanar rats, and even take part in a faction vs faction attack. However, I was wondering how to sell the part of doing these missions on the arena, or rather in a "virtual" way.
One problem would be, how could they keep what they find as drops, if it's all virtual? I mean, of course they could simply be rewarded afterwards, but it's always more fun to loot corpses. Perhaps there would be a way of having the items materialize. Perhaps the arena would have to be for battles and more straightforward missions, much like simply for entertainment, for scientific trials and so on, and then have actual excursions to the real world, with perhaps some kind of exploding neckbands or something. :)
Anyways, this is the gist of what I'm thinking.
Fantastic. Love the setting.
As for "drops" - if the mind reavers are so powerful, then there is no real reason for it to be virtual. They can easily make each "level," using spells and abducting the other inhabitants of the dungeon.
If you are looking to take them to level 3, here is level three of Jacob's Tower.
Level 3: Corridors and Chasms
Run the Gauntlet. A series of mechanical traps and obstacles that are typically overcome by acrobatics, swim, disable device checks. Put some feature that require them to keep moving forward every few rounds or suffer. It will require the use of skills that might not see much play, require creative use of spells and abilities, and aid another teamwork. Maybe they leap to safety from alll of the noncombat stuff and then, fatigued, have to fight something.
@Sydänyö: How did it go?
@Vazt: Ironically, the most recent level is called Gauntlet.
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