So i wanted to design a campaign were the player believe they working for a good kingdom but later find out the have caused horrible acts against innocent people.
Only Problem im not smart enough to work out to suck them into it.
Im just looking for help on some good hooks
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"Yes I am, I am man!"
- bonus points for getting the reference.
As to your plot. Have them assist in guarding a boat that later turns out to have sent plague to an enemy city.
Get them to guard a diplomat who gets another nation to agree to a treaty only to have the PC's nation betray the treaty and slaughter their leaders.
At higher levels, have them attack a party of "ne'er do wells" but find it contained a priest heading to cure the plague they had previously started. If the priest happens to be a follower of some death cult all the better. A nation desperate to cure itself of a devastating plague may well turn to evil deities in desperation.
In other words, get them to do standard adventure things, but make the long term consequences really dire. Don't let them find out about this until you are ready (in other words, you are the one who sets the foreshadowing and the moment when these events actually take place).
Amievil was a good remixer at overclocked.
I would suggest using perspective. To any side in a war, their side seems like the good guys, and the enemy seems evil. Especially when propaganda minded leaders get involved.
Perhaps the leaders talk of the unjust acts of savagery the enemy commits, giving them justification to be killed. Then the other shoe drops, and the players learn that they've been the ones committing savage unjust acts.
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^While we're at it, the kingdom the players are working for must insist that the the opposing nation has weapons of mass destruction.
@Wrath, Metallica.
@Solo Cola, look into Spec Ops: The Line. It's a shooter game where you start out as a generic heroic US soldier, and over the course of the game, it's revealed that you've become the villain.
So i wanted to design a campaign were the player believe they working for a good kingdom but later find out the have caused horrible acts against innocent people.
Only Problem im not smart enough to work out to suck them into it.
Im just looking for help on some good hooks
The hooks to start them on the road do not need to be anything special. It might even be completely unrelated to the country being evil. Hunting bandits or busting a local crime guild, for example, are the sort of things most PCs wouldn´t mind doing anyway, and evil kingdoms don´t like it when someone ELSE robs their population.
After this, make the PCs feel appreciated. A drink or two with some officer in the tavern, a dinner with the mayor of the city they made secure, rewards from the provincial governor, and all that. Have the NPCs make the PCs feel like heroes (the NPCs are firm believers in their country). In that environment, have the NPC mention the country is looking for such men, women and kobolds of character, and they can go far indeed. After all, they are obviously skilled warriors, would they not want something to fight for apart from the next bag of gold? Make their missions appear innocuous at first - the guarding of a caravan or diplomat mentioned above sound great. Have someone attack them or even better, try to hold them off (i.e. a long, boring security procedure). Who has time for that? Chances are, the PCs will want to do something to get the plot moving. Let them.
From then on, make it seem like the other side is hostile to the PCs, and do not make it obvious it was because of their actions. For example, a massive explosion rocks the governor´s villa, and the guards blame the diplomatic delegation for smuggling explosives for an assassination. That is actually the truth, but the PCs don´t know it - and their mission is to get the diplomat out. Well, after they help him or her escape, no doubt killing no few guards in the process, they will be considered murderers and terrorists by the other state. The PCs will likely see it is as defending themselves, and there will be a war going on where neither side is 100% blameless... so at some point, just let them start finding out out that the delegation HAD smuggled explosives, that it was not just propaganda, and that the mission they were on was a part of a plan to weaken a peaceful state and provoke it to a war, so it can be conquered.
Bonus points if they find this information either at the same time or after they have alreadyeen rewarded with titles and land in in the now occupied country. Make it so that by then they have profited by their association.
How about the PCs are asked to deliver food to an isolated community. They deliver the food, everyone seems happy, PCs go on their way. They later learn the food was poisoned and the entire community was wiped out.
Remember also, the potential of a fantasy setting for literal evil.
An early adventure could involve hunting down heretics and reckless mages dabbling in dark arts - their texts are taken and handed over to the kingdom's (Kingdom A) association of wizards. When hostilities break out with another kingdom (Kingdom B), they could be sent to retrieve Kingdom B's index of noteworthy magic-users within their realm. The lives, careers, appearance, movements of numerous magic-users are included, but the players are only sent to capture or kill a particularly dangerous one, and generously rewarded for doing so.
Part of their reward is various highly useful pieces of loot, which they are sent to test against the enemy in battle, Kingdom B now painted firmly as the villain opposing them in war.
Except the items were made using a shortcut process that required sacrifices of magical talent, laid out in the dark arts texts they took, using captive mages from the other nation. Each item attempts to bond with each party member after being used in battle to kill, becoming more powerful as a result of the attunement.
The players are lauded as heroes, and are greeted cordially by the Kingdom A higher-ups, and brought in to the planning of a daring mission to break the Kingdom B resistance: A dramatic attack on a midsized town near the capital, a sort of Bombing of Dresden to break the morale of the citizenry. Overwhelming, using indiscriminate weapons that will maximise civilian casualties, using a forcefully mind-controlled Good-aligned monster as the vanguard.
Witnessing the established modus operandi of Kingdom A is make the player's aware that something is rotten.
A copper dragon acid-steaming pedestrians in a seething fit of rage, catapults raining down alchemist's fire, knights in shining armour going house to house with drawn swords. And everyone pleased to see the players.
The concept of the 'we made this possible, damn' is easy to use/abuse.
It makes them hate the villains even more.
"Yes I am, I am man!"
- bonus points for getting the reference.
this is exactly what i came here for, i was not disappointed.
If you dont Think you Can trick your players, just dont. Make sure that everybody undestand the premis of the game and it Will be great.
Uh, guys, that isn't a Metallica song... At least not originally.
As for the OP, making one country capital G Good and the other capital E Evil is probably not the route to go. Introduce the "bad guys" from the "good" nation first, to establish resentment against them. The players will more likely pass off and ignore later hints that their war isn't just until the big reveal.
Gotta love those moral dilemmas. (As long as you're not trying to just piss all over the Paladin if you have one of those.)
Might depend on what kinds of characters you're looking to line up too. The LN cleric might approve of some LE empire doings, if they overall improve law and order, while the CG guys are going to have very different opinions. And any good LE empire will have its own rivals, and not all evil will band with itself.
Just have something ready for when the cracks start to appear, especially if you're trying to blindside the players. If you've got it set when they would get unquestionable proof, that's one thing, especially if you've also arranged it with the players so they, and not their characters, know what's going on. Remember, there's going to be some kind of aftermath. Have a few escape routes for both the party and the campaign.
Dang, I was hoping this would be a parody of the "Am I Loved?" thread. I always wanted to make one, but never had the guts (besides, my threads tend towards self-absorbed enough as it is).
Qaianna brings up a good point: don't use this as a Paladin trap. The Paladin will need to atone, as in the word, not atone as in the spell. The Paladin has rights to wrong and she is going to need her powers to do so.
"Yes I am, I am man!"
- bonus points for getting the reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4RuB3gT8t0
For some reason I thought Danzig when I saw that quote...
*shrugs*