Hey there!
I will be starting a new campaign with 3 new pathfinder (and rpg in generall ) players soon and want to male a reallly, really good session. I really want them to have fun and find interesst in the game, so it just has to be more than some good encounters. While I can make those up on my own I have troubles finding a good plot. The Characters will be a DD-Kensai, a TWF-Ranger and a heavens oracle.
Now there are plenty of classic adventures or modules that are quiet interesting but for now Im looking for an exceptional experience. This may sound somewhat silly, but I really mean it, I want a one-shot with a rather intelligent story that excites my players, gives them some real challengenes and introduces them into the game mechanics. I really dont have an idea that Im satisfied with.. maybe some horror would be cool, Zombies and stuff, or an snow and ice setting... but I just cannot come up with a truely amazing plot that will do it for me.
It doesnt neccessarily have to be a one shot as we probably will keep playing anyway, but it should just be interessting throughout the whole session.
Any ideas?
Ä
Thanks in advance!
Wasum
I've no specific campaign to recommend, but would suggest anything that starts in a town. The one thing that sets table-top RPGs apart from other games is the fact that anything is possible. Everything is "interactive" and there's no limit to what the PCs can get up to.
The many story- and background-elements that can be found inside a town facilitate wrapping one's head around that concept.
This was the basic plot of the first couple sessions of the campaign I'm currently running:
The players have arrived at a festival, which has been created in honor of a great hero who has passed away. This hero has accomplished many great deeds both on and off the battle field, and his renown is known throughout the land - which is why this festival is quite packed with people of all races, cultures, etc. The festival is also there as a before/after event, sandwiching the hero's funeral procession. After the ceremony (the hero in casket is honor-marched from the podium, into his pre-designated crypt by officials - both military and religion) the players are approached by an NPC, who claims there's something fishy going on: she interns at the local science academy, where she performs autopsies. This hero had no autopsy report, and her superiors wouldn't let her perform one. She plans to sneak into the crypt at night and look at the body, but isn't a very experienced adventurer, which is why she approached the PC's.
Fill the crypt with giant bats, giant spiders, oozes, robbers, etc. When the PC's find the hero's tomb (maybe put a guardian construct boss), the NPC inspects the body and discovers a small, clean, bullet hole in the back of his head. This hero didn't die of old age, he was murdered! By friend? By foe? Someone else? Are they at the festival? Or up in the castle?
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I would recommend running
The First Steps to get them familiar with how to play Pathfinder:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8jor?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-Intro-1-Firs t-Steps-Part-I-In-Service-to-Lore
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8jos?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-Intro-2-Firs t-Steps-Part-II-To-Delve-the-Dungeon-Deep
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8jot?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-Intro-3-Firs t-Steps-Part-III-A-Vision-of-Betrayal
If you are feeling ballsy then have them run through the Crypt of Everflame
http://paizo.com/products/btpy89c9?Pathfinder-Module-Crypt-of-the-Everflame
but be wary for my group of 6 PCs regularly wiped in this dungeon. *shrug*
For non scenarios and modules I tend to like to bring the PCs into a "hopeless" situation where things are already in motion. A paladin comes into a secluded town that is harassed by kobolds, hunts the kobolds, ends up uniting all of the kobold clans against the town, and the PCs, working in a nearby town, are hired to find out what is going on in the besieged town only to be trapped there sharing its fate.
It you want something more RPish then attempt to get the PCs grounded in the game-world. They are at a gambling hall when it gets robbed, and they fight off some of the attackers.
They are walking on a common road when an elven caravan matches their path. After the heroes fight off several bandit raids the elves offer to hire the PCs as additional escorts to get their burden to <DISTANT LOCATION>. Even if the heroes refuse they and the elves are traveling for the same path for at least a few weeks.
You could go the Ruins of Myth Drannor route and have the heroes leap through a portal bade by a high level wizard who is attempting to hold the destabilizing portal open. This suggests that the party is reckless, since who in their right mind jumps through a destabilizing portal, and maybe a little more foolhardy than is good for them.
I also like going the Dark Souls route where the heroes are going about their lives after graduating and are "Chosen" by a god. Demon Lords are fantastic for this. If you are going to be pitting the heroes against Werewolves then I suggest Jezelda being the Demon Lord who does this, pitting the heroes "prey" against her werewolves "predators". Unlike Dark Souls, however, do have a small desperate town of high level people who are barely hanging on against the regular raids. Now, the heroes must go forward, defeat their enemies, and find the exit--or perhaps the source of Jezelda's power on this demi-plane so they can free everyone.
You can also try this:
Have the PCs dream up three or four possible "futures" for themselves:
The Heroic Version: (Who he will be if nothing changes!)
The Dissented Version: (The opposite of the Heroic Version's Lawful-Chaotic argument. If he is Neutral then what does he "lean" towards, the dissented version is heavily against that lean. If the hero wants to coexist with society the Dissented version abandons society!)
The Disenchanted Version: (This is the hero if he switches or lessens in his "goodness" or "Evilness". He retains his Law/Chaos lean, but becomes the opposite of his good/evil alignment, or lean if he is neutral. He has given up on helping others and learned that other people exist to be taken advantage of, OR he has learned the pain of being truly alone after filling his dark heart with money or other gain and has turned instead to helping others only to find this ignites a new fire within him that he likes.)
The Antithesis Version: Everything the character once stood for has been torn apart. If he was NG with a lean towards Law then he is NE with a lean towards Chaos if not outright Chaotic Evil. Something extremely traumatic happened and taught him a great truth that his own self-delusion could not compensate for and as a result everything came crashing down. He cried, he begged why, and someone showed him the enlightening/cruel answer.
Have a character who represents each of these elements to help push the character towards his end, but have all of them acting at the same time on the character. Depending on his choices and how he reacts to situations that arise from the meddling of these forces he will slowly begin to change.
Ex. Silastrix the Aasimar werewolf Dragon Disciple.
He thinks he is a gold-dragon and worships Apsu.
HERO: He will steadily lean more and more towards LG, and after mastering Form of the Dragon he will demand that Dragon-kind (and perhaps Apsu) acknowledge him as a true dragon--albeit in spirit--and he will become a paragon of what Gold Dragons stand for.
DISSENTING: He will become steadily less delusionsal about being a Gold Dragon. His view of himself will be less and less idealistic and unrealistic as he learns, the hard way, that the world views him as just another werewolf to be feared regardless of how hard he tries to prove them all wrong. He begins to worship Ashava more and more over Apsu, and eventually only carries the holy symbol of Apsu as a keepsake of how things once were. He becomes a loner, and only finds refuge in those who accept that he is not a monster, but a lonely wolf shunned by society.
ANTITHESIS: Through manipulation and positioning he is shunned by society and hunted for the werewolf he is. He learns to resent others, and his anger boils into hatred. The wolves of Jezelda slowly convince him that these disgusting curs he surrounds himself with are prey, and he is the predator. Eventually he goes out and starts hunting people with his predatory brother. He defiles the holy symbols of Apsu and Ashava and throws them away while championing Jezelda. His hatred for everyone aside from his own brethren consumes him as he becomes a paragon for everything that Jezelda represents, and slips into being a complete monster.
Hero: Silaxtrix is his own representative for his HERO path. His personality, ambition, and goals will push this through to the end, and unless major events happen he will continually reconstruct his view of the world to this.
Dissenting: A goodly werewolf learned of the werewolf living in Riddleport who walks around in hybrid form speaking of dragon kind. Concerned this werewolf goes there to pull this wayward Silastrix away from his path before it consumes him. With Ashava the dragon obsessed werewolf can be safe with a goddess that would love him, and with a church that will help him.
Antithesis: Silastrix's evil brother hunts him, and while stronger and more powerful than Silastrix this vile brother wants to bring him into the fold. He kills people around town to sully his goodly brother's reputation and make people second guess if he is as good as he says he is. He needs to tear Silastrix down, defeating and humiliating him in the name of Jezelda to show him where true power lies. Silastrix's allies are his weakness, and only through joining with his true brothers will he be free of illusions and lies.
Just to point this out: character evolution aspects of everyones' characters have essentially overridden campaigns in the past. When you have 4-6 people with 3-4 NPCs manipulating and pulling them all in different directions it becomes chaotic at best. It can be very interesting to see, but at the same it can also make it so the original goal of the campaign changes. The campaign storyline takes a back-seat for a while as the character storlines all take the forefront as the influences on PCs are trying to change them.
Wow Taku that is absolutely incredible. I am most definitely taking a page from that.
=^_^=
*snuggles Scavion*
Glad you liked it, always makes me happy when someone does.
Okay, wow, that is actually really helpful, thenk you all!
I will go through these ideas this evening and evaluate which one might be the best for my group:)))
For the one shot, Have the pcs caught in an interesting partially skill based dangerous situation, where they happen to be together at the same time
Some examples
-zombie/Orc/other humanoid hoard,possibly invading a town or city, which may involve lots of scavenging for supplies why avoiding zombies, and keeping no combat oriented, but possibly useful civilians safe
-press ganged by pirates (similar to skull and shackles)
- part of caravan guard when attacked by bandits (controlled by evil mastermind x), using vehicle mechanics and skills in ultimate combat
-part of caravan guard when herd of cattle tramples (caused by important plot point x) through campsite at night, causing horses to flee and killing a few sleeping people. Caravan now left immobilized in middle of nowhere
-major natural disaster such as flood, fire, earthquake, plague (caused by x plot point), etc in town/ city that pcs start in
These kinds of adventures that are a session or more long require lots of skill checks, often leaving pcs in a desperate but fun situation to save themselves and their community. These also squeeze in combat-or rescue type encounters.
I wouldn't start with a campaign, but instead some very basic adventure (e.g. some goblin invested mine and a near town ask the players to free the mine).
Make them familiar with basic rules (combat, skill checks etc.). Then you can go from their into any campaign.
For your snow and ice one-off I suggest pulling an analog of the old "lone wolf" adventure, "caverns of kalte" -- basically the plot is thus:
The adventurers are sent to the arctic the capture/assassinate an evil wizard who has fled there from civilization to hatch his evil plans. His former college are not content to wait for him to return to exact revenge-- and after sending a few of their own and never hearing back from them, have decided to send the party.
What the party doesn't know is that the wizard has found an ancient fortress in the ice, and is slowly unearthing power and horrors there to use against the world. He has also asserted himself as a warlord of the local ice-barbarian tribes... Quite effectively one might add. This setup should be more than suitable for an arctic survival mission leading to a suitable "dungeon" (the ice fortress) with ample ideas for henchmen (barbarians, unfrozen horrors)...
To add suspense, convey to the party that they will arrive far south of the fort by way of an ice-breaking vessel -- if they cannot return for pickup in one month (or however long you decide is the start of winter), the icebreaker will not be able to reach them (it will be too cold and pack-ice too thick)... This can add suspense to the game, as every night is darker and colder than the last.
The best thing about this adventure as a one-off for inexperienced players is you have a great degree of control over what is potentially most threatening -- both the environment and whatever ungodly horrors the wizard is awakening are great threats, but he needn't thaw out anything they can't handle (but the threat of him unfreezing a dragon or abomination is there, and you can push them to the limit with environment without pushing them over. The ranger can really shine on survival, as well.
If this idea is appealing, myself and perhaps others may be happy to help you with encounter ideas.
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Recommended for new players:
Hollow's Last Hope (free): Great intro adventure into the spirit of exploration and heroics. Plague hits small town and local cleric needs party to retrieve ingredients, braving Darkmoon Forest, witch's hut, and abandoned dwarven monastery. Encounters and battles are simple yet clever.
Sunless Citadel (3rd ed, easily converted): One of the best 1st level modules for new players. One review: This adventure is geared more for a fresh-faced referee and equally fresh set of players. So fresh, they're not jaded by lengthy combats and worry about the number of partial actions other get in on their characters. Classic dungeon crawl with a ton of opportunities for all types to shine (stealth, diplomacy, hack and slash, it's all there). Not every faction in the dungeons get along, and there's side quests into discovering where another adventuring party failed.
Both give you a springboard to a campaign without tying you into a rigid plot.
As for some special starter ideas:
[adapted from Kingmaker forums and used in my own] Role-play wedding precursor:
The World Serpent Inn:
Mysterious Murder:
Tattoos: