I want to create a campaign that has a huge area, and is sandboxy as possible, but have my players stay in that area. The goal is to get out of the area. I thought about running it low, or no magic, but when it comes to healing, and fun it kind of sucks.
The premise of my campaign is going to be that people are banished to what I call "The Marsh." It has armies, and natural barriers to keep people in, but my problem is someone casting fly and ruining my game. I want the players to kind of choose their own route. They can either be good and earn there way out, become crime lords and run the area, or do the unthinkable and bust out.
Is there like an curses or anything that I can do to have them stay in the area and keep magic in? Thanks.
Well, the most direct route would be to get rid of that spell/ those spells and keep everything else in ...
Have fairly powerful flying creatures that tend to ignore things on the ground but attack viciously things that enter their domain in the air.
I like the powerful flying creatures idea. You could also have some sort of acidic cloud (think Jim Butcher's "Cursor's Fury"); a regular acid rain could be a neat additional hazard.
Also, perhaps some sort of magical dome? They need to find a way to get through/out -- sort of like "Catching Fire," I suppose.
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Overhanging storm-clouds, with lightening and high winds. Also fierce flying beasts live in the clouds. Elementals, perhaps. The storm would also disrupt teleport spells, of course.
It should be an allowable way out, though. If the characters can make it through all that, they deserve to escape.
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A giant, flying stone head that is worshipped as a deity by a local barbarian tribe.
The head routinely vomits up guns for the barbarians to use when enforcing its will.
I'd just like to point out particular parts of what you've said, so you my response will make sense.
I want to create a campaign that has a huge area, and have my players stay in that area.
The goal is to get out of the area.
I want the players to kind of choose their own route.
They can either be good and earn there way out, become crime lords and run the area, or do the unthinkable and bust out.
Be very careful how you think about this scenario because the way you talk about this scenario is pretty classic railroad. You've decided how the characters can get out, and you're trying to close all other doors. That's probably not what you intend, which is why I'm pointing it out.
Usually good scenario-writing involves making a situation where it doesn't matter how the PCs go about the task. Otherwise there's going to be some technique you didn't think of that will doom you. So basically, my advice is to write the situation such that fly might work, but - being obvious - complicates their lives. Perhaps ensure that there are a half-dozen important-to-them NPCs who they also want to get out, only there won't be enough spells available, so they have to come up with a more complicated plan that may involve fly but that alone won't suffice.
I really like the idea of using something that defines an area and is connected to the main story.
Creating a Great wars Front line / encroaching forest of beast that creeps in as the story progress/ A Fog of Ghost that is sweeping in stealing souls of the outer villages etc.
Just a thought.
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The easiest way to handle this is to consider the area it's own special place. What if this area was actually a pocket Demi-plane with its own unique characteristics? Plane travel won't become available to the party until much higher level so you will have a period of time where you can effectively keep them put. Every time they try to step out of the bounds of this area they may be pushed back by many different elements.
This way you could have fun with it. Perhaps an evil wizard has created this pocket dimension to keep the party members as his own playthings. Perhaps the party is like a bug in a jar, and they will slowly discover the plot as you unravel it and they explore the confines of their existence.
Doing it this way also means you don't have to start them out in this place. They could be on an adventure, start to unravel the evil wizard's plot and then be sucked into his trap.
The easiest way to handle this is to consider the area it's own special place. What if this area was actually a pocket Demi-plane with its own unique characteristics?
My group does an occasional Silent Hill (d20 Modern CoC) adventure every couple of years or so, and sometimes I use some of the same characteristics for our Pathfinder games.
In SH, the protagonist(s) tends to find his/herself trapped in a demi-plane that looks much like the real world, but decrepit and aging and falling apart. The video games have an easy time keeping the protag stuck in a given area, simply by having the ground around any egress fallen away to reveal a huge chasm. By solving puzzles and finding keys and resolving plot points, access to other areas is gained, eventually leading to escape.
I do the same sorts of things in our games, with mystery driving the plot and solutions allowing forward motion. But where we do this in PF, and some characters find various magical means of egress, I simply define ahead-of-time the various rules of the plane and then make sure to stick to them. A demi-plane of this sort has a feel of being semi-living, as if it is driving the characters towards a resolution (I'm not talking about railroading, just mysterious elements that need solving), so it is reasonable to allow for the sense that the plane itself is "thwarting" their escape. There is precedent for this in other fiction, as well.
As to the specifics of deflecting easy magical ways out, the plane itself summons things into it based on the unconscious impulses and fears of the PCs, but the same power bars magical transportation into or out of the plane by the characters (they cannot summon except through outlined rites and they cannot teleport out). Likewise, the chasms surrounding the plane are bottomless. And finally, a thick fog surrounds the realm, which, when flown into, ends up transporting the flying character back into the realm at a random location. Non-Euclidean spaces are key in this sort of thing, with spaces that are larger on the inside than the outside, and doors that open upon unexpected locations. (Think opening a closet door in the top floor of a house, and walking through into an alley halfway across town.)
Just some thoughts.
Is it bad that this seems familiar to me...?A giant, flying stone head that is worshipped as a deity by a local barbarian tribe.
The head routinely vomits up guns for the barbarians to use when enforcing its will.
Oh my yes.
Look up a series of old games called Exile. In those games, dissidents and criminals were banished to a pretty harsh underground realm called Exile which (supposedly) had no escape. The first game is based around the premise that, over centuries, so many people had been thrown through the portals that a whole civilisation had emerged who now sought to take the fight back to their captors. You play as an adventuring group and there are multiple endings, including finding a way back to the surface, allying the diverse underground races into a single empire or even asassinating the surface king.
It's a great game series and would match your general idea pretty well/give you a lot of good ideas. It solves the fly issue neatly, too.
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Oh my yes.Is it bad that this seems familiar to me...?A giant, flying stone head that is worshipped as a deity by a local barbarian tribe.
The head routinely vomits up guns for the barbarians to use when enforcing its will.
Thank you for reminding of Sean Connery in a red nappy
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A giant, flying stone head that is worshipped as a deity by a local barbarian tribe.
The head routinely vomits up guns for the barbarians to use when enforcing its will.
ZARDOZ. ZARDOZ.
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Anguish and Brunwald are giving you EXCELLENT advice.
"The marsh" actually being it's own "prison-plane" will help a lot, and it can be part of the adventure for the characters to even discover they are not actually on the prime material plane, but just a tiny world that is analogous to it.
Likewise, as a GM beware of the instinct to railroad. How they choose to get out is not your job, at least in a sandbox -- your job is to make it sufficiently difficult to be a challenge. As such, don't decide what's going to work... entertain a couple of things that MIGHT work, and the more obvious things that you've considered can be extra difficult because it might occur to the party first as well.
Impenetrable barriers and anti-magic zones might also be your friend here.
An interesting hook might be that leaving the plane actually destroys it -- so letting the party know that numerous innocent, important, valuable people might also be here... (or items or information) that if left behind would be a disaster, could potentially keep the players in bounds for some time.
Is there like an curses or anything that I can do to have them stay in the area and keep magic in? Thanks.
The closest thing to a curse that would keep them in would be a Mark of Justice on exiles prohibiting leaving the area or casting magic on the outside world. This is only effective though until someone gets their hands on remove curse or break enchantment.
Here's a different spin.
Just keep players interested enough that they don't want to get out until the time is right. If your PCs care about the events/NPCs/etc going on in the Marsh, they're not going to leave until they set things straight. Make sure you have enough plothooks, quests, events, to make them think that the marsh is an interesting place to have the campaign.
I understand that the 'goal' of the campaign is theoretically getting out of the marsh, but still there are things you can do. Maybe one/several of your PCs have a loved one that is also in the Marsh that they are simply not going to leave behind. Or maybe just a friend, npcs, or a whole town that they'd like to rescue. Maybe the PCs feel the marsh is totally unjust and wont be satisfied until everyone is free, the wardens are punished, and the whole place is destroyed.
You dont need to make a cage for your players if they simply want to stay in longer.
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How about bizarre white spheres that inerrantly chase down people who get too close to the perimeter?
Seriously, The Prisoner probably has a lot of stuff you can steal adapt.
1) Demiplane
Seriously limit exit; have it loop one side into the other.
2) Underground marsh (Journey to the Center of the Earth)
It's a big cave. Flying's OK, but no holes in the roof.
3) Curse mark
Anytime a pylon at the perimeter detects it's presence, instant teleport back to the center. Random flying pylons prevent flight, or secondary pylons trigger if too high. Need to magically hide, transfer, or remove the mark to exit.
4) Warped space
Going off one side brings you back on the other, but going to the center lets you exit. Possibly with a 1/day gate.
/cevah
How about bizarre white spheres that inerrantly chase down people who get too close to the perimeter?
Seriously, The Prisoner probably has a lot of stuff you can
stealadapt.
Dangit, that's a much more apt reference. I'm slightly ashamed that my brain went for Zardoz first.
Hehe...Zardoz.
Put a mountain range on one side, with volcanoes spouting ash and poison gas. The ash cloud is constant, and filled with lightning elementals.
On the other side is a vast ocean, the cliffs make boat-building nigh impossible.
On the other side from THAT is a vast desert, filled with giants and undead and undead giants and Sean Connery (level 7 gunslinger) wearing a loincloth.
Yes! The Demiplane sounds perfect. Outsiders that kidnap people from the Material Plane and throw them in their own. I want to have a vast amount of races, but equal. And possibly have as many environments as possible. might be a lot of work though. Make it basically like a prison, instead of a human dominated world, have them all almost equal and predominately against one another. But also have different factions within one another. got to iron things out. How do you quote others?
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If you make your demiplane in multiple parts, each can have its own theme. You can even set the time, weather, magic and other factors. Have them all interlinked to a larger common area for "battle". Have the linked spaces only allow in one species or only those with the correct "mark". To exit, you need to meet some condition within the main area.
/cevah