I'm planning to have a campaign with a lot of downtime. So much downtime, that eventually the characters get old and need to pass the torch to the next generation. Ideally, characters marry into influential families and raise children that can grow their estate. Alternatively, a character could adopt an orphan, and train them in the ways of their class to continue the 'mission'. Parents would try to arrange lucrative marriages for their heirs, and other such machinations.
First, I would need to normalize the lifespans of the different races, as having elves live so much longer than others would wreck things.
I'm interested in ideas that would encourage the characters to have an heir or two to carry on for them. Increased starting wealth from inheritance would be one. Along with inherited social status. I need a 'carrot' to get the players to be motivated to participate with their characters in such an endeavor.
If things go well, the story could continue with a third generation.
I can't seem to find advice or rules that would support such a campaign, beyond the basic down time rules which don't get into heirs and such.
I don't know what kind of scenarios you intend to run, but of course you'll reward them with land rights rather than cash or stongly incite them to sink their cash into real estate, and possibly noble titles, that should incite them to settle and found families.
Yeah, getting rewarded with land and titles instead of the normal bag of gold will definitely be part of it. Or, maybe local nobility have a daughter or son who could be married off to one who can prove their valor on some quest.
I'm not sure what scenarios I intend to run, either. I'd like to focus on local politics and business, so maybe not quite the traditional dungeon full of monsters and loot. Like if the PC's open up a tavern, the nearby tavern may use some underhanded tactics to try to remove the competition.
I think you should adapt Scaling Magic Item rules and possibly Automatic Bonus Progress (without the reduction in wealth) with the following modification: These effects apply to a characters lineage. Slow the rate of growth, but bonuses carry from one character to the next.
Give the characters a free sorcerer/bloodrager bloodline but modify it to fit their specific characters.
Use some of the Kingdom building rules.
Award heirs free story feats or traits.
Maybe an intelligent magic sword that keeps going on about how your father was so much better. Alternatively, the magic item may like the younger heir better.
Or the magic item gives occasional 'flash backs' like Darth Vader's old lightsaber.
Magic items could be passed down, and may have abilities that still need to be unlocked. Or the new character needs to advance in their training before they can use the more advanced powers of the magic item. AKA Scaling. That would be good, so they get to keep a nice item, but it isn't way overpowered at low level. Although part of the fun, would come from being low level with really good hand-me-downs.
If someone had a special familiar, maybe it would bond with the younger master.
Yeah, I want to take advantage of the Kingdom building and downtime rules. I'd like for the players to start at the bottom and work their way up, as they go through the generations.
Another idea would be to have long lived enemies like a vampire that may hold a grudge against the heirs. Or maybe a terrible villain was defeated, but their fragmented minions and organization still holds a grudge. Or a long lasting curse that transfers to the heir when the parent dies.
I like the idea of story feats, but when I read the actual story feats, they are lacking. I could make something for the individual characters to fit the present/past story. And then, let the player know what they need to do to unlock the full power of the custom story feat.
Actually, that might be what I need for the initial characters. Give them each a custom story feat which is unlocked when they have produced a viable heir. Alternatively, setting up a 'wizard academy' or something similar, would count, where an apprentice is trained to continue the master's life quest. This would take some time talking with the players to see what they would have in mind. I know one player who would probably be satisfied to sprinkle illegitimate children throughout the kingdom, rather than actually raising a heir properly, so these story feats would need to be flexible, and the reward based on the character class, and the difficulty of the objective.
Sounds good. There's also achievement feats but they're equally sucky.