Hi, everyone! With being somewhat dissatisfied with published adventures so far, I've decided to write my own campaign. I'm still working on the premise, and I want some feedback from the community.
We're playing 5e. My reasoning behind this is that half of my players are newbies-never set eyes on a d20 in their life-and 5e is much, much simpler than Pathfinder. We're starting at level 2 (the two players who are not new strongarmed me into this, otherwise they wouldn't play), and we're using point buy and the four common races.
Here's the roster:
Wood Elf Ranger
Human (Variant) Rogue
Human (Variant) Monk
Human (Variant) Druid
Undecided
The basic premise is that a seemingly evil empire is expanding, rapidly taking over the world. A scrappy rebellion of oppressed humanoids have formed to repel it, and are valiantly defending the last bits of land the empire has not yet claimed.
Sounds pretty simple, right? Except it's not.
Contrary to what you might believe, the players do not start off embroiled in this conflict. Rather, all of them are approached by a museum curator to venture out into the deserts to go to a lost library, where a legendary artifact is housed. Here's how the PCs get involved:
The primary monk order in my world is less about peace and meditation and more about gold and smashing faces in. An elite mercenary company, people shell out top gold just to get one of their adepts. Their initiates cost far less, but are less trained. However, it is a good opportunity to get field experience into them. This is where the PC monk comes in.
The thieves guild the PC rogue belongs to has fallen on hard times. Overshadowed by other guilds and low on funds, they are desperate enough to send inexperienced members out into the field if it means getting a few more gold into their coffers. When a museum curator asks for a stealth specialist, he gets the PC rogue.
Far out into the wilderness, a contemplative druid suddenly receives a vision of a coming apocalypse, where darkness engulfs the world. At the center of this vision lies an ebon blade, sized for a giant, lurking in a darkened library in the desert. When she wanders into town for supplies, she finds a "Want" ad for a curator who wants that exact item. Intrigued, she takes up the offer.
Finally, the wood elves in my world are less "Wood" and more "Desert." The other two elf races-moon and sun-live in orbiting celestial bodies that act as moons and suns for the world. Moon elves are aligned with transmutation, illusion, and enchantment, while sun elves were aligned with evocation, conjuration, and abjuration. The wood elves were aligned with Necromancy. The most powerful of the three elf races, the other two turned on them and cast their citadels down to the earth, where the necromantic energy annihilated all life in the radius. They lived and survived in the desert, and eventually forgot their own heritage and wandered the place as hunter-gatherers, gaining crucial supplies that are not found there by escorting travelers across the desert. This is where the PC elf ranger comes in: he has been hired to escort the PCs to the original wood elf citadel, where they will find the ebon blade. Young (by elf standards), and eager to prove his worth, he is the only one willing to venture to the place.
So that's the role of the PCs. The initial dungeon is going to serve as something like a necromantic version of Wan Shi Tong's Library, full of skeletons, zombies, a few ghouls, and the occasional demon. It's also going to have the feel of Arbiter's Grounds of Twilight Princess. The final boss is basically going to be Death Sword from the same game, wielding the Ebon Blade. Once the PCs finally vanquish him, they will hear a slow clapping from the shadows as the curator emerges. Dismissing the illusion, he is revealed to be a handsome young man with white hair, who promptly telekinetically summons the sword to his hand. He is the ruler of the expanding empire. Coincidentally, he is not evil: he is attempting to unite the whole world under him to fight off an invasion from beyond the stars: Elder Things, Mi-Go, Shining Children, maybe even a few Star-Spawn... he's thinking big picture. The Blade is instrumental in defeating an Old One of my own design.
However, he knows that the PCs will take a dim view of him. He will give a calm and reasonable explanation of his actions-the Library can only permit those who don't know of the Blade's true power, lest they abuse it-but, in all likelihood, the PCs won't listen, and attempt to fight him. After all, the Ebon Blade is a big, ol evil-looking sword, and the long white hair will most likely make them think of Sephiroth (all of them are FF fans.)
So he will kick all of their asses if they fight him, apologizing and attempting to make his point all of the while.
It's pretty much guaranteed that the players will go join the rebellion at that point, drawing the conclusion that the Empire is most definitely eveel. However, it should become gradually apparent that the rebellion is the same, if not worse, than their counterparts. They use fear tactics, torture, slavery, subjugation, mind-controlling magics, and painful and scarring spells to win the war by any means.
It's more like the Imperial Legion vs. the Stormcloaks than the Empire vs. the Rebellion.
Eventually, the players will choose to side with the Rebellion or the Empire. If they side with the Rebellion, the "final" boss will be the Emperor. If they side with the Empire, the "final" boss will be a Balor as the Rebellion gets desperate enough to summon that thing. The actual final boss, regardless of who the players choose, will be an army of Outer Things and their leader as they descend on the planet.
What do you think?
Alright... where can I ask the admins to move it? :P