This may sound like a strange idea, but hear me out. This is what I have for somewhat of a micro homebrew campaign.
Basically, somewhere in Varisia, there was a small town that was thriving and prosperous...until an ogre warpriest of the rare ogre patron, Haggakal, raided the town single handily, and took control of it. Now he rules with an odd law-all women are his, and they must be fertile to create "Father Moon's lost family"-basically, this ogre wants to raid Varisia with an army of inbred ogrekin.
How the level would go, the PCs would start off at level 1, and I think the highest they'll go in level is maybe 10? I don't want this campaign to drag on for too long. Also to note is that I will be using some rules from the Horror Adventures book, obviously as this is going to have somewhat of a Silent Hill or Texas Chainsaw Massacre feel to it.
The various encounters will not just be ogrekin and the ogre warpriest himself, but also some of the more crazed female residents who have pretty much accepted the ogre's rule-more out of their insanity than anything else. Ghosts, worgs, and undead will be other creatures that can be used.
Though, I do want others to put in their ideas on what can make this campaign feel more complete. More or less suggestions, but still, anything that can complete this horror homebrew campaign.
|
Will the PCs start in the captured town, or a neighboring village? If they start nearby, what will be the first sign that something is wrong? If the ogre allows trade to continue, a friend or relative might send a seemingly-innocuous message to the PCs with references to people who don't exist, or events that never happened.
When the PCs arrive in town, frightened villagers might attempt to convince them that nothing is wrong, or send them on wild goose chases after non-existent bandits or goblins*. Just discovering the real problem in town could take multiple sessions. H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth could provide source material for this stage of the mini-campaign.
*Better yet, the false leads could result in the PCs taking out a rival group of ogres, who wanted to raid (but not rule) the town. Learning that they've done the villain's dirty work for him is a classic horror revelation.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Standard caution: know your players and how they will feel about the "rape slave" aspect of the story. Some folks will just be more motivated to take down the bad guy, some will be offended to have the issue brought up at all in their fun time. I am in no way telling you how to play your game with your friends, just offering advice, make of it what you will.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So you're creating a rape-fantasy (all women are his, and they must be fertile to create "Father Moon's lost family") as your story core. This is supposed to be a fun story for whom?
Rape is never fun but adult players can benefit from being exposed to the awfulness of something like that which does exist. There is a very short list of things that can immediately inspire a group to act; rape and child abuse being the 2 most obvious.
it doesn't have to be a "rape fantasy" if it is approached with some reservation (not being explicit in the descriptions, or not even having the characters witness the act, but having an NPC "relate a horrific story of sexual predation" or some other less detailed description.
I see this as a horror story where the characters are witness to something truly evil (not the cliche evil of tented fingers and maniacal laughter)
Our culture is so desensitized to violence/awfulness that sometimes you have to up the game to illicit a response.
Would this have the same revulsion response if the story was female drow having charmed all the men in the village to perform sexual acts with them (equal to rape)?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At my tables, yes. At tables where men believe that a man who is sexually harassed or abused by a woman is unbelievably lucky , then perhaps not.
Standard caution: know your players and how they will feel about the "rape slave" aspect of the story. Some folks will just be more motivated to take down the bad guy, some will be offended to have the issue brought up at all in their fun time. I am in no way telling you how to play your game with your friends, just offering advice, make of it what you will.
So you're creating a rape-fantasy (all women are his, and they must be fertile to create "Father Moon's lost family") as your story core. This is supposed to be a fun story for whom?
Java Man is wise.
Also, 1 to 10 is actually a pretty hefty time, at least in my experience. May want to tone it back a bit, or use the fast experience track.
As for horror, there's sooooo many types. Body horror, psychology horror, gothic "horror", uncanny valley typed horror, slasher/killer, paranormal, etc.
Which are you going for? Depending on what type of horror you're trying to emulate, you need to plan for it.
Mess around with the players (and the characters) heads if you're trying to go for psychological horror. Ramp up their paranoia by having innocuous sayings/npcs doing commonplace activities that could be interpreted as traps. Overly friendly villagers, odd local slang, etc. Let the players paranoia run wild. Remember to occasionally have someone actually be up to something. They'll remember the one time the innkeeper had a flesh golem living in the barn and a tribe of pugwampis stealing their cutlery.
If you're going for slasher/body horror. Have Shia LaBeouf stalk them for a while.
I would second/third/fourth/et cetera the concerns brought forth about the subject matter. Taken at face value, there's something off about the tastefulness of the campaign, but that could just be the idea in its infancy without further development to take concerns like that into account. Most importantly, know your players and know without a doubt whether or not you're going to be presenting content that will threaten their interest in the game.
Without going to excessive detail, I have some questions I hope might be helpful:
What stands in this warpriest's way aside from the PCs themselves? Does his faithful dedication create problems in his own immediate family? Amongst his army? Is there jealousy over his rule? Disgust from his own people in his actions?
How about the women? Surely they aren't all just victims in this, driven mad by the new law and treatment. Is there any kind of positive female representation that can rise from an otherwise troubled premise?
What do you do if the PCs are...ok with what's going on? Are you enforcing an alignment? It seems predicated on the idea that the PCs will consider all of this a problem that needs solving - what things can you invent about the entire scenario that would motivate most any character of any alignment to be against it?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hmm...maybe I can fiddle with the concept and the setting, cause yeah when it comes down to it this setting is a rape-horror. I definitely don't wanna try something that can be offensive or too intense for players, so maybe I'll just make it more like a slasher horror, similar to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspiration I've talked about. Maybe instead of ALL women being involved in this, only one is kept in this way?
The other women I imagine would grow into a bizarre barbarian cult of the ogre; perhaps the actual raiders of nearby settlements? I do also plan for some local women of the town-before it was taken over-to have successfully fled and are trying to find ways to bring the ogre down. If anything, they could be part of a growing guild of sorts that would ask the PCs for assistance.
I do have ideas for creatures who are allies of the warpriest; perhaps a changeling that was raised neither by humans or hags but from the dark thoughts of her mind (I'm thinking of having her go with a sorcerer that has the aberrant bloodline); a half fiend worg that could be the closest thing to Haggakal's herald; and maybe the warpriest's undead pets (the first thing that comes to mind may be wyvern skeletons).
As for what else could be in the way of the warpriest, I would imagine that there could be an angel or an azata that tried to vanquish the warpriest, but was slain, imprisoned, and tormented; basically putting them at negative levels to the point where they are close to death. Other ideas could be a lizardfolk tribe who see the ogre as more demon than giant, a tiefling who lived in the town before being raided and is also trying to find ways to assassinate the warpriest, and maybe a hatchling copper dragon who simply just doesn't like the ogre's definition of fun (which is plucking off the limbs of victims one by one and similar disturbing ways of "messed up humor").
But yeah, this campaign is no longer going through the rape-horror sub-genre, but more towards a body horror/slasher horror sub-genre. Sorry for upsetting anyone with the supposed rape-horror sub-genre.
I think Yossarin has a good point:
How about the women? Surely they aren't all just victims in this, driven mad by the new law and treatment.
It's not likely that the women in the village who aren't in the hareem are just passively accepting the situation. They are, in fact, very likely to be working hard to end this abuse and destroy the perpetrator
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Your scenario screams for a succubus to be a member - overtly or secretly - of the harem, feeding off of the misery of the other women.
I think Yossarin has a good point:
How about the women? Surely they aren't all just victims in this, driven mad by the new law and treatment.It's not likely that the women in the village who aren't in the hareem are just passively accepting the situation. They are, in fact, very likely to be working hard to end this abuse and destroy the perpetrator
Those that are not in the hareem are either barbarians (pretty much lost their minds to the insanity) or have fled the town and are trying to find a way to get rid of the ogre.
Your scenario screams for a succubus to be a member - overtly or secretly - of the harem, feeding off of the misery of the other women.
Well, I was thinking of the changeling with the aberrant bloodline to be half succubus. Perhaps she heard the calling of her hag mother, and killed her thinking she's better than some hag.
Also, thinking on something else to give the campaign a Silent Hill vibe-the town is actually surrounded by energy from the Abyss, and has qualities of said plane. It could be that the ogre either wants to enlist the assistance of true demons, or his rule is slowly creating something like a small scaled version of the Worldwound. Just an idea I've been brainstorming.
Added my own fan-made insight into Haggakal, the evil deity that's the main focus of this homebrew campaign, which can be found here.
Also, ideas on the statistics and concepts of some key enemy NPCs:
This is the final boss of the homebrew campaign, similar in role to Kazurog from RotRL. He is an ogre warpriest of Haggakal, with 16 levels in said class; his blessings are with the Evil and Strength "blessings", and his tactics could include utilizing his throne (which is focused with a unhallow spell), as well as summoning skeletons and zombies once every few rounds; the PCs will be at very high levels to take them on, but there will be about 10 skeletons summoned, so these could be minor distractions while the Chief heals himself with a potion of cure critical wounds or something along those lines.
This could be the closest thing that the Chief has to a captain; this is an advanced half fiend worg, utilizing the half balor variation of the half fiend template. Probably best for a mid-way boss, as it would be a CR 5 encounter (while the normal half fiend template would give it a +1 to its CR for having 4 hit die, the half balor variation of the template makes the creature's CR 1 higher than a typical half fiend worg, plus the additional +1 to the CR due to the advanced template). Perhaps will add some fiendish fire elementals (most likely Small sized) to make the CR a bit more like a mid section boss fight. Obviously, the Balor Beast will focus entirely on attacks, and the typical feats of the worg, Run and Skill Focus (Perception), will instead be replaced with Power Attack and Weapon Focus (bite).
This is just a temporary name to this encounter-a succubus bard, and an incubus magus (or, baring that, an oracle with the battle mystery). Either way, the succubus is a supporter (most likely assisting the chief at the end of the campaign) while the incubus is a battle arcane/divine caster (if magus, it's base Intelligence and Charisma scores will be swapped; if oracle, those scores will remain the same) that may be the guard of the Chief's prisoners.
That's what I got so far for what could be considered the boss encounters, although I may add more ideas in the near future.