Hello fellow players! My buddy and I are looking at running a new campaign, he will be DMing. We are experienced D&D players (and both have DM'd games before) and we spent a few hours discussing a new campaign idea. Before we get to ahead of ourselves, I'd like to run it on the forums to see if anyone has any suggestions and/or ideas/feedback.
The players start off on an island with a single kingdom. Roughly half the size of Ireland. Right at the start of the campaign, the island is in imminent peril from some natural disaster and everyone has a few days to leave. Not knowing of any surrounding land, the Kingdom packs people, resources, items, etc, in as many boats as they can and people sail out. As for the players, they were randomly selected via lottery to apart of an adventuring guild to help explore new land they may find. A few boats sink along the way, storms separate boats, but you eventually find land. Because of the separated boats, different boats set up different small colonies many miles apart.
Things that would be factored in:
- We would make a character sheet for the king. Depending on stats, quirks, flaws, would depend on how the king effects the growth of the colony.
- Talking about the king, the player may or may not land with the king and the king may or may not survive the trip. Gonna roll for it!
- We would use a kingdom building system (Pathfinder Kingdom Builder, we share a Hero Lab license so this would make it easy) to handle the growth of the colonies.
- Because nobility and high ranking members of the kingdom wouldn't want to be left behind, they will either be let boats or force themselves on. Will effect initial colony growth. (Using Pathfinder Kingdom builder, as mentioned before).
- The plot would be very much devoid of Macguffins, big magic machines, crazy demon lords, etc. Very much down to earth and survival based.
- The players would get rewarded for clearing caves, cartography, providing resources to the growing colony, etc.
- Players would encounter natives and monsters they have never heard of before.
The idea is to give that first 50 turns in Civilization feel while playing Pathfinder. Explore, grow, etc.
Any opinions?
Great use of the "exploration" theme. They might encounter living or even long dead cultures on their new home. Plenty of opportunities to use rare or home brew monsters to give players a "it feels so new" sensation. Great even for high level players to establish influence for themselves.
Great idea all around. Nice job!
If you want to push the survival theme, you might need to cut back on some of the spells that make dealing with those themes trivial.
Sounds like you got a good idea though. Roll with it.
If you want to push the survival theme, you might need to cut back on some of the spells that make dealing with those themes trivial.
Sounds like you got a good idea though. Roll with it.
Both of us have actually are indifferent to magic heavy campaigns, so we're looking into ways of limiting magic. He is going to be a bit harsher on magic components, making them more rare and so that you can't just buy them from a shop or something. Which makes sense given the circumstances of the campaign.
Well a lot of component could become ruined by exposure to water, wind, sun etc. Also a loss of one or more boats could make supplies of components or even spellbooks or scrolls completely disappear just like with food or other necessities.
Well a lot of component could become ruined by exposure to water, wind, sun etc. Also a loss of one or more boats could make supplies of components or even spellbooks or scrolls completely disappear just like with food or other necessities.
This is very true. We thought of an idea where there are say, 100 boats. We would make a list of nasty things like attacked by sea monster, hit my rogue wave, mutiny, smooth sailing, etc. We would then roll a d100 for every boat (probably use an auto dice roller). That way, if a king dies or the boat full of magic scrolls sink, well then everyone then there ya go.
Obviously the PC boat would have to make it, but it could make for an interesting start if you got hit by a rogue wave and the players woke up on the shore together.
Absolutely, turning that into a marooned scenario amps up the need to survive factor by hundreds. I think a colonization scenario is more than enough to chew on for you and your players. Climate and available resources plus monsters/natives etc. are plenty of obstacles to play with.
Once established, I'd love to see how the PCs decide to set out either exploring inland or traveling the coast looking for other countrymen who've managed to settle the land.
Another variant on this theme is using magical transport of most of the population to another area/realm/time to avoid the calamity. Note there is a RPG setting product out there that does this and if you are curious you can PM me and I will give you the info.
Also, just because you are moving to lands you do not know about or of, does not mean that others are not there or daemons, devils, BBEG's are not there before you. The same goes for magic items, strange cultures, building, lost civilizations, etc.
If you want a game like Civ (computer game/board game) then you should plan on gating to an unknown, unoccupied planet/land/created plane/etc for your people to explore and populate.
MDC
As a side note, we're going for the settlement/colony ideas because as a player, I will get heavily into that. Also, one of the other players who was in a campaign I DM'd was heavily into a kingdom aspect of the game. (She owned a small kingdom after throwing a successful coup).
Also, a big reason why we're moving away from a lot of the daemons, devils, BBEG's, etc, is because we want to focus on the 'human' aspect. What would Dwarves do? Elves? How would the different races react to this, etc. We would much rather our BBEG's be a King or Captain of the Guard who eats more then his fair share of food, thus causing starvation among a population that cannot afford that kind of crisis considering the size of the colony. That, and, in the campaign I mentioned I DM's before had a lot of homebrewed Demons and whatnot so we want to focus on something smaller.
The big disaster happened at the major center of magic on the kingdom and wiped out the 9 level casters (the temple district was close to the arcanum) Most of the training materials for 9 levels was lost and the new kingdom will only have 2/3 casters remaining.
The setting I'm running is kind of like a flashforward of this concept, but 500 years later. The continent was ruled by orcs and gnolls, and then an amoral god sent his children (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and goblinoids) to it, where they first mostly got along, but then warred and conquered most of it. After 500 years, the god sent an artifact that the orcs captured and attempted to enact a doomsday ritual with it, but the party intercepted them and disrupted the ritual, which brought them back to their home world (of which they know absolutely nothing). They've basically fought nothing but orcs for the first 7 sessions or so (they started out as oarers on an orcish slave boat), though were also technically slaves to fellow humans for a session (or was it 2?). Most nations are mostly agrarian, racist, and slavery-based. That last session was the first time they saw anything otherworldly.
I like the "brave new world" concept a lot. Heck, my initial map was done with Civ5:Brave New World... XD
Works better with low-power, though. I run E6 with impeded magic.
I like the "brave new world" concept a lot. Heck, my initial map was done with Civ5:Brave New World... XDWorks better with low-power, though. I run E6 with impeded magic.
My buddy and I are *huge* Civilization fans, hence the name of the campaign ;) We are thinking low-power, so we'll look into E6 with impeded magic. Never heard of it until now!
My party was used to much higher power/magic settings from the main GM of our group (and the others who gave GMing a try kept with that), so I added some homebrew mechanics to avoid them being underwhelmed by the 1-6 progression instead of the 1-20 (with mythic once) progression.
For example, to grant them greater progression, I included increments to their growth. Instead of starting as lvl 1 PCs, they started as lvl 1 "slaves", an NPC class which is basically the worst class ever, with a rule that the toils of slavery are hard and for every month of enslavement, captives devolve one of their levels for this class. Once they freed themselves from the shackles (corsairs skirmishing the slave ship weakened some shackles and lured the warship escort away), they immediately got to retrain into an NPC class. Once they managed to sail their ship back to shore, they were immediately allowed to retrain into a PC class. Didn't want to push my luck and drag this low power long, but it did allow to create 8 increments out of a 6 level cap. I also added half levels, which add an extra feat and 4 skill ranks. For extra increments, but also to make more builds viable and because I find the classes get way too few skills to begin with anyways. For survivability, I changed death to be at double negative constitution score. I really want to grow a story about this ragtag group of slaves being fated, which is hard to do if a random crit can kill them at any time. And a mythic point per day to surge on a roll or give a short boost to a stat; I find it helps keep everyone pertinent and avoid terrible mishaps.
With these perks, I then swarm them with mooks. I've burrowed from 4e minion rules, my "minion" template giving 1 HP and always minimum damage on the dice. By the setting, the orcs were pushed into the ressource-poor deserts, mostly, and thus don't have much iron anymore, so they use bronze mostly. And since they were at seas... rusty (broken). Changed the orc racial bonuses to be on par with other humanoids (two +2s, one -2), and did a large array of "archetypes" (conscripts are commoners with spears, sailors are experts with light crossbows and daggers, grunts are warriors with clubs, etc.) to spam, and for the most part they had terrible stats. They'd then usually have a captain that had a few PC class levels, and he usually had a few henchmen with may not have had PC class levels but didn't use mook rules either. Despite starting with 5 point buy (now 10), and taking a while to even get a first PC class level, these guys have now killed hundreds of orcs. Had to fight the idea of "low-powered = our characters suck and will be stuck to killing rats in the bar's kitchen" perception, and I think I managed (I had never GMed with that group before, heck I hadn't GMed in probably 15 years). To note, I gave them all 1 extra NPC for the first sessions, due to how easy it is to get knocked out with a d4 HD and the con mod one can afford with a 5 point buy. I also used environment hazards a lot, such as big waves hitting the boats, barrels of explosives below-deck, the ship sinking (due to the rogue sneaking in to detonate said barrels), light ballistas, etc. Level 1 characters might not have the innate power to create smoke, AoE, make people fall prone, deal concentrated damage, or so on, but it's fairly easy to put outside elements that they can take advantage of.
For magic, when I started the game, I was using a wild magic trait, where people had to do checks to succeed in casting magic right. Wizards got new feats to reduce the odds of mishaps, while sorcerers got new feats to "roll with it" (some mishaps increased the effects). The former GM and I are good are crunching rules, making new ones up, and rolling with others', but the rest of the players are more casual, so I ended up stripping that to a base. A soul shard (minor artifact) used to give a bonus on that roll, now it's just a requirement. No soul shard, no spell casting. After hesitating some, I ended up deciding this only applied to spells. I didn't touch Su or such abilities because I didn't want to overly limit class options. Every partial caster was given the option of switching a spell level for a feat, every time he'd earn one, though many such classes have archetypes that just remove spells altogether (vanguard for ranger, archaeologist for bard, for example). I think it fair that if a character wants to be a full spellcaster, the rarety of soul shards be made clear in advance, but that if he persist a quest be made possible for the party to go get one. I'm also implementing a mechanic by which soul shards must be powered up to allow higher leveled spells, but I didn't reveal it to the players yet so won't write it here. :P The party was a rogue, a fighter, a ranger (who just retrained to sorcerer), a paladin, and an alchemist, all human. An elf (pretending to be human) bard joined them later on.
Of course, there's also the "impeded magic" planar trait that can be used, which makes it harder to cast spells. But I didn't want to risk players taking full caster classes and then just relying on the gamble. I have a tendency to roll poorly on such rolls, I could very much imagine someone having all the bonuses and still fail their spellcasting check every single time with that mechanic, making them useless even at high levels. I mostly wanted a martial-focused party and justification for why magic isn't used to solve all of the world's problems, and making it rely on minor artifacts fit (well, making it "wild" was the first intent, which in turn created stigma over casters and the mishaps they could cause, but this is even better).
For progression, to remove the reliance on the traditional set of magic gear, I give them all +1 to physical stats on odd levels, +1 to mental stats on even levels. This last session was the first time they ever got a magic item (or even ever seen one), and it was given directly by their god (about which they know little): a +1 item inspired from the scaling items rules and mythic legendary items rules (it'll grow with time and give them extra utility). The items are bounded to them, so while still magical if others disarm them, for example, they lose most of their powers, which prevents a magic mart from happening, even if within the party. I also intend to use it later for foes of the party, so that they can be similarly geared to face them, but their defeat won't incredibly increase the party's power. Also, technically, the items aren't bounded to them, but rather to the eels that swam down their throats while the roots of a dead tree grappled them and pulled them underwater. Hehe. I plan to offer other magic gear as well, but always rare, and usually situational. A item that gives a great bonus might only work in a certain area, for example. Or maybe only grant an effect that works for certain end. The intent is to have the world feel, in the end, as if it had about as much magic as with real world myths (Greek or Christian, for example). The Holy Grail might actually exist and have the power it was said to have, for example, but would be rare and limited enough that it still wouldn't result in the whole world sharing a sip and being on display in some museum. Just an example. This felt like a fair compromise between "I want a gritty setting where heroes are toiling under similar conditions as those in historical tales" and "I don't want to cut out 90% of the game's material from my players". Also, no wizard spell sharing. Spell sharing has a huge role in the wizard trivializing the rest of the party at everything: knock, jump, mend, and such skill-trivializing spells are very low level and it should be costly to the caster to pick it as opposed to letting the rogue do his job.
Eventually, I intend to let the players have their own go at colonization. The world they are native to had been at relative peace for a few years, but as they left war had begun to brew. The orcs, after not being heard much of for a while, had just launched a large-scale operation against the largest human nation, the Albian Empire. The party even had to break through one of their blockades on their escort mission, and that was one of their hardest encounters (to be fair, I rolled a bunch of critical hits on the first round with some of my nasty henchmen). When they return to their world, in a few sessions, they'll be given different options to pursue, one of which being leading a counter-attack into orcish lands, where they could gain a fief to lead their own colony. The world also has other continents that the party knows nothing about that they could eventually attempt to colonize. The whole world is very much inspired by the Americas and Europe. In part by the European colonization of the Americas, but also by the European colonization by the "barbarian hordes" at the fall of the Roman Empire. Sometimes you make friends with your new hosts; often you just take their homes and kill them. Or different relations with different hosts, and different attitudes through time. And it's not always about vile intents by kings and such powerful men: settlers are more than capable of sparking conflicts over relatively minor things (on a national scale), such as wanting to cross burial grounds with his cattle to reach the pastures on the other side, cutting down a sacred tree to heat his house in winter, killing a dog that wondered onto his property and threatened his chickens, etc.
I really like this idea. You should check out Ultimate Campaign for kingdom building, as well as the kingmaker adventure path. Both have rules for building from scratch.
Indeed, though the consensus seems to be to scrap the rules from King Maker and use the ones from Ultimate Campaign.
You can use those rules for the nation, with all the posts held by NPCs, and then as the PCs prove themselves, to eventually climb up the ranks, get given fiefs, and eventually rule "kingdoms" of their own, depending on how you want to spin things. These could be vice-royalties, autonomous duchies or the like. Or maybe something happens to the King and one of them gets it. Or they manage to negotiate with the king for the creation of a confederation of kings. Or they just accumulate enough resources to then lead a new expedition on their own, to conquer unclaimed lands. Many historical examples can be thought of depending on what you want to go with.
In this kind of setting, it's easy to think of "why are the PCs sent to do it instead of someone else?" Because everyone's sent to do stuff. While the PCs go clear X location, there's people being sent to every single other locations. Many of them will fail, if not most. The PCs succeeding in tasks where others fail is what brings them to greater fame and renown, and thus why they are given ever greater responsibilities. E6 also means that no one is invincible, so even badass dudes can risk getting swarmed and killed by mooks, hence why mission-giving NPCs don't just do all of the job themselves (as one might expect of lvl 20 quest givers).