Campaigns in a nutshell. Adventures in a sentence.

[Wannabehero]

Re: Campaigns in a nutshell

As a GM I find the hardest sell to my players, from a RP perspective, is coming up with the reason they form the party. For my newest campaign I devised the following adventure (and excuse), which my players loved.

The Crucible

The players awaken in the *regional state-power*'s arcane academy with no recollection of who they are or why they are there. A member of the academy (Professor) explains to the PC's that they were brought there to undergo a magical ritual to protect them from being magically tracked. Unfortunately, the ritual was interrupted part way through when the academy was invaded by a small force of unknown assailants who are seeking the PC's for nefarious purposes.

As a result of the incomplete magical ritual, the PC's have awakened with their memories fragmented but with their knowledge (read: skills and class) generally intact.

• As they further quest in later adventures each player is provided the opportunity to rediscover their past and regain their memories (wonderful RP possibilities, and fantastic adventure potential focused on the PC's).

The assailants belong to a group/cult/power from which the magisters of the academy sought to protect the PC's with the botched ritual. Each of the PC's has qualities, signs at their birth, and/or family lineage that prophesies their greater destiny in the world (the plot-line of the rest of the campaign).

The Professor leads the players to the only "safe" exit of the academy (a secret exit). It is through a training dungeon, known as The Crucible to students of the academy. This dungeon serves as a final exam to students training to be field-agents for the *regional state-power* and is stocked with real hazards and monsters (suggest vermin, undead, and animated objects).

The dungeon is not located in or under the academy, but rather is hidden underground at a considerable distance. Students enter the dungeon through a portal in the academy and exit through another portal at the dungeon's end. However, there is also a secret passage at the end of the dungeon that leads to the surface, and therefor escape for the PC's. The Professor will seal the portals in the academy after the PC's enter the dungeon, protecting them from pursuit. The players must then face the dangers, tricks, and challenges of The Crucible.

-Fin

I apologize for this not exactly being an "Adventure in a sentence".

 

[2020]

An Aboleth, transplanted beneath the city of Loudwater during the phase transition of Abeir and Toril, has awoken. With the strange energies of the phasing combined with the Aboleth's immense psychic power, magical crystals have grown throughout the depths of the caverns where the Aboleth is trapped and are starting to break the surface.

These crystals have amplified the Aboleth's psychic powers enabling it to manipulate creatures on the surface. Recruiting an eager bard to it's cause, it tricks him into believing it is a beautiful maiden trapped beneath the surface by an evil wizard, aeons ago.

The bard assumes a new personality and becomes obsessed with freeing the 'maiden'. He recruits local humanoid tribes to raid merchant caravans for supplies so that he can manipulate the crystals in order to create a massive teleportation ritual, using the power of leylines that criss-cross Loudwater.

The kink in the Aboleth's plans, however, comes when the citizens try and recruit the Flaming Fist to rid themselves of the growing humanoid threats that are plaguing merchant caravans to the area. To get rid of the Flaming Fists, the bard poses as a hero, using the psychic power of the Aboleth to disguise the humanoid cheiftains as his 'Merry Band'. They pretend to rid the area of the threats and collect a tidy reward for their trouble. Through the Aboleth's influence, the entire town become enchanted with "Magnar the Magnificent and his Merry Band of Heroes".

The PC's arrive in town after having been attacked by kobolds to find the townspeople to be completely smitten with their new hero. Statues are being erected, women are bearing his children, competing bands of mercenaries are vying for the favour of the bard, and all are under the delusion that there is no humanoid threat. Of course, the PC's know better, but can they defeat all the humanoid bands before the Aboleth exerts its control?

 

[Wannabehero]

The Four Towers
An evil portent is upon the world. In the heavens, a new star can be seen growing brighter with each day. A Primordial, a being of abstract concepts older than the Gods or the Planes, is bearing down upon the world. If it reaches this world, all will be consumed. The Gods will not intervene, fearing being consumed by the same power that will destroy and reshape the world.

The only hope lies in the legend of the Four Towers, ancient structures created during a time forgotten, built by gods or mortals whose names are no longer remembered. Located at the corners of the world, the Towers serve as the vertices of a world-encompassing extraplanar ward that will repel the primordial if they can be raised again.

Will the heroes be able to find the resting places of each of these towers in time, and be able to discover the true nature of each tower and the means to erect it? Will the heroes be prepared to face the dark powers aligned against them who wish to see the world destroyed and be reborn in the aftermath? Will the heroes be able to make the sacrifices necessary to empower the ancient towers and save the world? Time is running out.

- Fin

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I just saw photos of Caño Cristales and can't help but think that something like this could be the basis for an adventure.

Perhaps the river does this only when the local Ley line flares up, marking this as a time when great magic can be done.

Or perhaps when this happens, even the merest alchemist may make powerful potions.

Or maybe its simply an omen.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This video:

The scariest path in the world?


inspires not so much of an adventure idea, but a location for a pitched running battle that could be your campaign's equivalent to the Mines of Moria.

PS: follow the "Trail Ride" link for more of the same, but crazier...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This thread has a really cool idea in it.

 

[RangerWickett]

Man, this thread had legs.

I'm tempted to post the outline of the next E.N. Pub campaign, but that would spoil things a bit.

Dannyalcatraz, I love that video.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dannyalcatraz, I love that video.

That path vid? Oh hell yeah- its just perfect for the main surface thoroughfare for the warrens of a large Kobold settlement...like Tucker's Kobolds...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sifting through the collectibles of my youth, I came across the Trencher comic books.

It seems to me that you could do a really cool supers or FRPG campaign based on the PCs being "Repo Men" for the wrongfully reincarnated.

Heck, it could even work in a whacky Stargate Universe, with the PCs going after those who muck around with the rules of Ascension.

 

[El Mahdi]

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