Campaign Thinktank - Recently Updated Pages

Plot Synopsis

Thurman — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:41:43 CST

Encounter/Mini-Arc Ideas:

Planar Sidetreks Mini-Arc

Spy vs. Spy

Potential PC Concepts:
Latest Player Input: Sticking with the evil campaign still. Their backgrounds tie together with Hoss' psychopath having stepped in and prevented the killing of danny's PC.
Player Survey Summaries:

Hoss' Preference Highlights.

Forgotten Realms. Start @4th-5th Lvl. Typical Realms Magic Levels.

Dungeon Delves, Wartime Mercenaries, with in depth Downtime.

Higher Ratings:
Long term Plot, Progressive Magic Items,
Puzzles/Riddles, Encounters they can plan for,
Them against the world,

Lower Ratings:
Fighting Exotic Creatures, Huge piles of Loot

Danny's Preference Highlights.

Planescape. Start 1st Lvl. Magic should be common amongst wealthy & adventurers.

World/Planar Travelers, Evil PC's, Periods of intense action w/ fast forwarded Downtime.

Highest Ratings: Fighting Mostly Humanoids, Fighting Big Bad End Monsters, Traveling Far & Wide.

Other Upper-Range Ratings: Huge loot, Items that Advance with PCs, Planning for encounters, going on missions for other people.

Lowest Ratings: One shot adventures, E-mail/Web interaction, Bonus Xp for Summary/Journal.

Common Threads.

High- Advancing Items, Encounter Planning, Mercenary/Directed Adventures, High Magic, (Fighting Humanoids)

Low-(Fighting Monsters),

Oppositions- Huge Loot,

Spy vs. Spy

Thurman — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:40:57 CST

Pit the PCs against competing factions for specific Goals.

Private Security- PCs hired to Defend a target from Assassination Attempts, and Vice Versa.

PCs hiredto retrieve objects/components/etc.before anyone else, or take things from whoever happens to have them.

Opening Session

Thurman — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:35:30 CST

Flash Back History Session

Scenes-

First Meeting:

Danny's "Marrow" Has Just been ambushed by his Drow pursuers. (Multiple Ftr1 and a Wiz3/ Ftr1) I think Hoss said "Darius" had been tailing the group out of curiosity/boredom.

Fast Forward to City Locale:

Ambushed by group of Assassins/Killers from small guild. Use the fight to introduce guild in case they still want to be Assassins. And possibly tie to the "Evil Mastermind".

Home

Thurman — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:25:40 CST

Well Hoss' Campaign is wrapped up, so it is time to get things rolling on the next campaign. I have posted the updated Background info from the players, as well as some info on directions/elements I would like to pursue

Take a look around. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated by not only myself, but also the poor bastards who will eventually play in this campaign.

Locations

tedwittler — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:15:33 CST

A Listing/Reference of Locations important to the Campaign.

Planar Nexus

Bone Yard

Basic Flow

Thurman — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:37:06 CST

Looking to utilize this campaign as a set-up for the transition to fourth edition.

Names, Places, Styles, and Mood may change, but i would like to play with the Law versus Chaos Axis theme. Maybe with some Lovecraftian/Cthulu/Graphic Horror Element. ultimately having the Evil PCs help to unleash the forces of Chaos at the Direction of a Bigger Maniac. Evil need not neccesarily be violently malicious, just crazy and self interested perhaps.

Theme related elements i've been thinking of, so far; Rakshasa Mastermind(poss. wolf in sheeps clothing), Chaos Beasts, Building/Discovering a Sphere of Anhiliation, Taint/Sanity(need a good rules set/format/feel), cursed items/intelligent Chaos items that may manipulate weak personas, etc.

Will hope to take whatever the PCs establish and turn that into the 'Enemy' for the first Fourth Edition Campaign giving them direct knowledge of the enemies history and habits, but with enough breathing room to shake things up and surprise them.

Plot Points/Key Encounters

Thurman — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:06:37 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Notable Groups & NPCs

Thurman — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:05:06 CST

Circus Murderous-

Horror Theme-Nasty circus that rolls into town as dusk falls rounding up townies and forcing them to watch macabre performances leading to death and disfigurement for the local talent. Lead by a (Mader/Medusa/Half-Fiend?) with a few levels of (wizard/sorcerer?)

Intrigue Theme- When the Circus comes to town someone Dies. Well known Travelling Troupe of Performers who provide cover for an unknown number of Assassins. [Hist;Originally an agressive security group created after violent attacks on the original performance troupe and later subverted by a (Rakshasa/ Outsider?)]

PC Bios

Thurman — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:48:09 CST

Darias(Hoss)

In a small Duchy east of Secumber lived Duke Digglion. The Duke ran his lands well enough kept his people safe and treated them fair for the most part. But the Duke was less than fair with the occasional chambermaid, or other young woman who struck his fancy. A young servant girl 20 years younger than him gave in to his advances and was pregnant. The Duke had lost his only son in a battle with a raiding group on knolls some years earlier, Thus making this new child if a son a contender for lordship of the land. The Duke's wife with help from many of the Duke's advisors had the woman killed. To avoid suspition it was to be done during the birth. The assassin hired (Centas) a greedy man killed the woman and took the boy to sell into slavery in Amn. The Duke was mostlyun bothered at the news of the accidental death of the girl and child and went on with his life as if nothing happened. The wife and all else who knew what they believed was the truth were happy all went well and the problem was solved.

The boy who was named Darias grew up in in slavery in Amn pre forming the most de grating physical task in the day and working as a pickpocket at night. Centas a friend of the slave owner visited many times through the next 18 years, constantly mocking Darias for his ill fortune. Every time he would tell the story would add more and more onto how much nobody wanted him and how easy he was forgotten.

One cold rainy night while working the streets of Amn trying to make his required amount of gold for his owner followed a well dressed but very old man into an alley thinking an easy mark. As he approach for a straight robbery not worried about silence or alarm giving the conditions of the night the old man began mumbling under his breath, and Darias was held motionless. The old man quickly began chanting more and pain went through his body causing Darias to drop to the floor as the now obvious wizard stood and laughed at him.

Darias awoke in a tower chained to a wall in the dalelands and was informed that he now was under the ownership of the wizard Sorent. The wizard put him to work on task of hurting and killing local farmers or townspeople who would not give the wizard what he wanted. Darias took to this task with great enthusiasm. He loved the kill but he loved the feeling of causing pain to the person, and then the sadness his family would likely feel knowing there husband and father would not be cominghome. Sorent began teaching him the ways of magic and showed much potential butit was clear Darias liked the blade to much. He reveled in the close kill.

Sorent enjoyed taking him all over the realms and spend days in town or city's getting to know everyone there. They would buy drinks for everyone, tell the most amazing stories and would be immediately loved by all. Until on the last night pick 2-3 people to brutally murder that would cause the most amount of suffering through town.

On one occasion Sorent was upset when a drunken celebration amongst a group of drunken farmers interrupted his meditation that he ordered Darias to unleash all the rage he had in him on this town. No one was to be safe, kill all he wanted. As the wizard watched in the midnight hour from the sky as his assassin moved from house to house looking more and more furies with each new house until the point when he came upon the stables of the inn and went inside. Sorent began to get impatient as he did not see Darias for some time. He looked with his magically enhanced vision but could not see Darias for over an hour until the abscense was broken with a burst of fire breaking out from the stables. Within minutes men were gathering to form a bucket brigade trying to put out the fire until another house irrupted in flames, and then another. One bye one every house and shop in the small town erupted in flames. And then when chaos was truly at its peak darias erupted blade in one hand and torch in the other stabbing or setting fire to all that came into sight until morning when nothing but a few smoldering ashes was all that was left and one small boy of 9 or 10 years still alive crying over his dead father. Darias walked calmly and cooly to him, plunged a dagger into the dead man's back and said to the boy "When I come back be ready". And walked to the edge of what was left of the town to see Sorent still half shocked and half amused. This would not be the last time Sorent would watch as Darias would butcher and burn entire villages leaving just a few young who would likely die days later from starvation or other perils.In his own twisted mind it was kinder than subjecting them to the slavery he had gone through.

Over the next couple years Sorent enjoyed Darias unending need for bloodshed, but also began to worry about how much longer he could keep him from turning on himself. The thought of killing Darias crossed his mind for a moment until he decided it would be much better just to take the leash off him an turn him loose on the world. He would watch from afar at the chaos that ensued. And to make sure he was able to achieve real chaos Sorent preformed a spell reaching into the shadow realm and pulled on the will of the shadows to infuse with Darias turning him into a Shade.

After turning him loose on the world Sorent felt it best to move his tower to someplace unknown to Darias. It would help him sleep at night.

Darias was left in the Dalelands still full of rage at everyone he ever knew and most of the people he has heard about. He knew he wanted revenge, but what would be the worst. Death would be to easy. They would have to suffer, everyone would have to suffer. But who would be first.

Darias Human/Shade Rouge 1 Age 30 Height 5'9 Wieght 185
assassin0Immortal

Discription. Darias is natuarly pale or gray due to his shade transformation. He explains this by usually walk hunched over with a cane as if sickly. He speaks calmly and politly to most people. He will kill at the drop at a hat but always has a stradegy planned to achieve victory. He enjoys the collection of gold and treasure, but death and torture is his true craving.

Planar Nexus

Thurman — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:55:42 CDT

'You find yourselves standing on a low platform surrounded on all sides by gently lapping water. The light has a twilight quality to it though you can see neither sun, nor moon, nor clouds of any sort in the deep azure sky.'
'The platform is dominated at the center by a low dais on which a quicksilver orb rests supported by an ever shifting base of what you can only describe as fluid bronze. Around the perimeter of the platform nine massive pillars stretch into the ethereal heights above you.'

I've been wanting to incorporate more handout imagery to draw the players into the locations a bit more. This piece took my fancy while I was surfing the web for images to incorporate, and after Danny mentioned Planescape I started brewing up some ideas. I used a teleporting map/war room years ago that i really liked the idea of even though the PCs never really made much use of it. So if i need a means of planar travel for them I may try to bring it back. you know, "have the nail build the house" sort of thing.

Right now I'm thinking of treating it almost like the Stargate meets Sliders. Left behind by 'someone' with links to almost anywhere and accessible to random people. I have a wild hair to have them run into encounters occasionally when they pop into it(some combat, some role playing). They could find one portal to it and explore more directions as they pleased sort of building knowledge of routes to different places.

For operation i'm thinking this:

Use Magic Device Check to arrive at:	DC
Specific Plane	15
Specific Region	20
City/Town	25
Teleport Style Accuracy	30

Activation Time: faster for Higher Int? longer for higher DCs

Intelligence Check to arrive at:	DC
Random Plane/Location	20
Home Plane	25
Home Region	30

Attempt Intelligence check activation 1/day? Penalty for Failure-Abil Damage?

or perhaps a nexus of ever shifting hallways, or perhaps the nexus alters its' visual properties constantly. The platform, to hallways, to barren desert paths, to empty city streets, to secluded forest trails, to...infinity.

Planar Sidetreks Mini-Arc

Thurman — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:40:15 CDT

So, I'm thinking about using a mini-arc to ease the PCs in to the Planes. Give them some exposure to things in the planes, hand out some free planar knowledge points for them to pick some interests, and generate some far-flung contacts. May help them choose eventual feats and Prestige Classes, or even whether they really want to go to the planes.

Basic Plot Summary:

Drop in teaser encounters

While following main Party driven plot; PCs get summoned several times to various locales in the planes by spellcasters. Range of situations- combat, servants/errand boys, Scholar/Diviner/Researcher, etc. [Maybe give 50% Combat XP for PCs that die while summoned.]

Meat of the Story

PCs Discover that a "Summoner's Broker" acquired their true names/lock of hair/whatever (Focus-for flavor and storyline not the optional rules set) and has begun selling them to spellcasters in and around Sigil. Spellcasters buy (a Focus) to ensure certain abilities/classes.[Let conjurer tell PCs if they have no means to discover the truth]

PCs head to the Planes under their own power(borrowed, bought, stolen, or earned) to track down and deal with the Broker. Lead them around on a short chase/tour over the course of several encounters before finding Broker. [I'm leaning towards Roleplay over Combat for Final Encounter here. Let the Broker tell them about primes, planars, petitioners, etc. Whatever else they run into along the way can kick their asses before hand.]

Afterparty
Door remains open for a few more 'summoning' adventures or a means to transition to a planar campaign.

Bone Yard

Thurman — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:29:20 CDT

for the mysterious random site intro:
'The hulking corpse of some long dead creature dominates this otherwise barren landscape. As you study the immense bulk ahead you can discern smaller shapes moving amongst the remains.'

or for key encounter use:
'True to its' word the Baatezu spawn disappears after leading you to the inert corpse of the dead god Binthiku. As you study the remains you see Jessup standing near a cavernous hole in the side of the corpse. Seeming as though he was waiting for you he waves and then beckons you to follow as he goes inside.'

When I first saw this all I could think was Dead God. I think I'll be pretty disappointed if I can't squeeze it in somewhere.

Player Comparison

Thurman — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:39:54 CDT

1. What Settings Would You Most Like to Adventure In?
Hoss-Forgotten Realms
DD-Planescape

2. What Flavor, or Tone, Interests You?
Hoss-Dungeon Delvers
DD-World/Planar Travelers

3. Is There a Theme You Would like the Campaign to Be Based Around? Hoss- Wartime Mercenaries/Heroes/Leaders
DD- Evil PCs

4. At What Level Would You Like Magic to Be Present In the Campaign?Hoss- Attainable but no free-flowing.
DD- Only Common Amongst the Wealthy & Adventurers

5. How do you prefer the campaign time line to progress?
Hoss- In depth downtime/Roleplayed Character Building opportunities
DD- Periods of intense action/adventuring with fast forwarded downtime

6. What is Your Ideal Combat to Roleplaying Ratio?
Hoss- 60/50
DD- 70/30

7. What Level Do You want your PC to Start at?
Hoss- 4th-5th
DD- 1st

8. How Common Should Upper Level NPCs (10th Lvl +) Be?
Hoss- Fairly
DD- Fairly Common

9. Are there Things You Would Like to See Us do Differently as a Group?
X
X

Rate the Following on a scale of 1-10 Based on your Preferences:
{Highest Averages are in Bold}
{Exact Matches are Underlined}
{Lowest Scores are in Italics}
{Large Variances Noted w/ *}

Long Term Storyline/Plot interests Me- avg 8(h9,d7)

Magic Items that Advance with My PC- avg 8.5 (h9,d8)

Traveling Far and Wide- avg 9 (h9,d9)

Having a 'Home Base'- avg 8 (h9,d7)

Getting to Plan Before Encounters is Good- avg 9 (h10,d8)

Puzzles & Riddles- avg 8 (h9,d7)

Fighting Mainly Humanoids- avg 8 (h7,d9)

Fighting Big Bad End Monsters- avg 8.5 (h8,d9)

*Handouts are Good/Helpful- avg 8 (h10,d6)

Going on Missions at Someone's Direction- avg 8+ (h8-9,d8)

Fighting Mainly Strange & Exotic Creatures- avg 6 (h6,d6)

Fighting Cannon Fodder- avg 7 (h7,d7)

Being able to Craft Items Regularly- avg 7 (h7,d7)

One Shot Adventures are More Fun- avg 5.5(h7,d4)

*Getting Bonus XP for Plot Summary/Journal- avg 6 (h9,d3)

Dungeon Crawls- avg 6.5 (h7,d6)

Overland Adventures- avg 6.5 (h7,d6)

Huge Piles of Loot- avg 7.5 (h7,d8)

Random Encounters- avg 7.5 (h8,d7)

Having NPCs to get Help From- avg 7 (h8,d6)

*Us against the World- avg 8 (h10,d6)

*Using E-mail/Web for some Downtime Tasks- avg 7 (h9-10,d4)

Brain Storming

Thurman — Sun, 20 May 2007 13:36:55 CDT

Opening Session

Some of the important elements I can think of at the moment:
Player Involvement:

Campaign Direction- Players should choose Setting, and/or Theme, Campaign Goals, Campaign Style(Wealth, Magic, Amount of Roleplaying), etc. Pre-Campaign Survey

Character Development- Each Player should have a well developed Character history completed well in advance of the first session of the campaign. This History should contain at least one Goal the PC expects to achieve within the First 5 Levels of advancement and the more long term goals the better.

Ability Scores- Which System to use? (4d6, 4d6 no 1's, ???) should generate Moderate to High Scores, but not eliminate the possibility of a few Lower scores. Players will receive freely assignable points in the form of a 'Kicker Die' (d2-d8) based upon the detail of their PC History/Background & the quality of scores generated during character creation.
Ability Point Buy System? Player Choice. Bonus pts for History.
45 pts would allow a PC to buy 18,17,16,10,10,10 to balance 3 maxed with no negative ability modifiers.

Character Tree Option- Player Choice.
Dark Sun Style. Allow players to develop multiple characters during creation and advance them along with their current PC(-1 Level?, -2?). eases transition in case of character death.

Rotating Cast.Allow them to choose which PC they would like to utilize for a particular adventure

Campaign Approach:

Non-Rapid Advancement- Players should have the opportunity to enjoy the abilities they have earned when passing each level.
Average number of encounters at level equivalent CR for PCs to advance a Level(2 PC group):

Level XP needed to Advance XP earned per Eqiv CR per PC # of Eqiv CR Encounters
2 1000 300 3.3
3 2000 450 4.4
5 4000 800 5
10 9000 1500 6
15 14000 2250 6.2
20 19000 3000 6.3

PCs are Heroic- Not everyone has Character Levels. If every encounter is PCs vs. DM run (N)PCs then it is simply a numbers game, and we have the numbers. Even if they do have the guns.

Crits- No auto kill vs PCs? No Threat Range for NPCs (old school 20's?), x2 Damage Only?

NPC Pages:

Separate Pages-Allow Pcs to Create a different page for differing relationships. These could be used as ongoing encounter journals and allow for a record of events.

Pre-Campaign Survey

Thurman — Mon, 14 May 2007 12:57:07 CDT

Potential Survey Questions-

1. What Settings Would You Most Like to Adventure In?(Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Planescape, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, General Fantasy/Homebrew, Etc)

2. What Flavor, or Tone, Interests You?(Horror, High Fantasy/Epic Movers and Shakers, Political Intrigue, Dungeon Delvers, World/Planar Travelers, Regional Heroes, Etc.)

3. Is There a Theme You Would like the Campaign to Be Based Around? (Dwarven Giant Slayers, Dragon Slayers, Griffin Riders, Artifact Retrieval Specialists, Wartime Mercenaries/Heroes/Leaders, Deposed King and Cohorts Seeking Return to the Throne, Evil PCs, City Based, Etc)

4. At What Level Would You Like Magic to Be Present In the Campaign? (A Bag of Holding for every Peasant, Corner Magic Item Shops, Highly Sought After and Much of it Available for Purchase, Only Common Amongst the Wealthy & Adventurers, Exotic Remnants of a Better Era only Crafted by a select few Now, Mysterious and Feared by the Common Folk)

5. How do you prefer the campaign time line to progress? (Constant action & Adventure, Periods of intense action/adventuring with fast forwarded downtime, lots of in depth downtime/Roleplayed Character Building opportunities, Etc)

6. What is Your Ideal Combat to Roleplaying Ratio?

7. What Level Do You want your PC to Start at?

8. How Common Should Upper Level NPCs (10th Lvl +) Be?

Rate the Following on a scale of 1-10 Based on your Preferences:

Long Term Storyline/Plot interests Me- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
One Shot Adventures are More Fun- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Dungeon Crawls- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Overland Adventures- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Puzzles & Riddles- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fighting Mainly Strange & Exotic Creatures- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fighting Mainly Humanoids- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fighting Big Bad End Monsters- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fighting Cannon Fodder- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Huge Piles of Loot- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Being able to Craft Items Regularly- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Magic Items that Advance with My PC- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Traveling Far and Wide- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Having a 'Home Base'- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Getting to Plan Before Encounters is Good- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Random Encounters- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Handouts are Good/Helpful- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Going on Missions at Someone's Direction- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Having NPCs to get Help From- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Us against the World- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Using E-mail/Web for some Downtime Tasks- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Getting Bonus XP for Plot Summary/Journal- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Homes and Villages

Jovoni — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:46:46 CDT

This is an excellent way to showcase PC environments

The Manor

This wonderful Irish Manor could be the home some lucky PC

Level	XP needed to Advance	XP earned per Eqiv CR per PC	# of Eqiv CR Encounters
2	1000	300	3.3
3	2000	450	4.4
5	4000	800	5
10	9000	1500	6
15	14000	2250	6.2
20	19000	3000	6.3