First time posting so I apologize for any issues people find. Mainly, here it is
So me and a friend of mine have been trying to get some other people into D&D with us. We managed to get enough for a single DM and a 3-person party. My friend is currently running a campaign to get us from levels 1-5. I’m going to be DMing for levels 6-10. My idea is a underwater temple that will teleport them to a floating island city that has extremely advanced magic. Everyone knows one or two spells and every weapon or item is magical in some way. My idea for a story line is that there is a criminal organization that has been tolerated by the police because they stop any crime they don’t control (Gentleman Jonny Marcone for any of those who’ve read Dresden Files). Lately, the criminal organization has started selling drugs in the town and the police are tired of it. The PC’s can choose to assist the policemen the organization in this big final battle. I need some help with story building, General dm questions, and just to bounce ideas off of. I have been taking notes and such as I work (Shown Here sorry if they look weird. They're copy/paste from iOS notes)To start off with, what other main encounters could I put into the story? If anyone could comment, or even better, message me, it would be greatly appreciated.
An odd way to start, but I think the size of the island should be a bit larger, you would need a certain sized populace to support a criminal organization. I personally feel like with the size indicated the 'criminals' would just be in control of all the politics. Which does fit fairly well in the Marcone concept. Actually maybe just have the Sister be a political figure with the brother doing the shady business under her auspices. I think of this as something along the lines of the scenario in Luke Cage (Marvel series) where she makes their existence possible wielding her political power to undermine the police forces in some way. If this is a high magic setting then perhaps some of the police are literally being controlled through various means, from bribery, threat, and charm effects.
But I would still come back to the relative size. Having 2 police officers per 1000 residents is in the normal range. So having just two police officers for 400 residents would be a large police force relative to population size. Perhaps add a 0 to your population and then it would make sense to have a decent sized police force to work with. This is definitely a quibbling point when it comes to a fantasy setting but it should be something you think about.
How frequent are visitors to this land? You mentioned a 'greeter' of sorts for new arrivals, do they have visitors frequently or is it a rare event. If it is rare then maybe there is only one or two total police officers trying to police the town making them pretty weak compared to even a small criminal organization. I say this because if very few people come to this place, there could be no overt criminal goings on with everything going on in the shadows. If that is the case then what townsfolk would want to have police officers that don't have anything to actually do. Maybe the Sheriff is an almost symbolic position rarely required to do anything because to the common folk they live in a perfect little town. The most he has to deal with is drunk and disorderly and the occasional crimes of passion (abuse, petty theft et al). More serious crimes "don't happen" because they are either dealt with by the Marcone's or are crimes invisible to common man.
I like the concept and love the books, but take some time to think about the scale you are talking about. Your characters look like they will be a lot of fun to interact with too.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
A side note, maybe people think the sheriff is a bit kooky jumping at shadows all the time (Like in the movie Hot Fuzz if you have seen it). Talking about upstanding citizens being criminals (ie the Marcone's) and having crazy conspiracy theories.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Well, I find its easiest to design things based around your story. Given the story is about the flying city... everything in the city should some way relate to the story. Everything should showcase this light / dark duality you have going here. Well, law and chaos anyways, instead of good and evil, since you want to make this a choice. Proud and upstanding, with a dash of cruelty and legalized torture, unfair punishments on the one hand, ready to grind things beneath the heel of absolute order. On the criminal side, we have our share of Robin Hoods as well as Son of Sams.
I would take this to an extreme, and even put the city inside the Elemental Plane of Air, and fill the citizenry with everything from mephits and elementals, to aarokosha and winged elves, possibly aasimar and tieflings as well. The Rod of Seven Parts (Formerly known as the Rod of Law) could play part in the struggle as well. This way, you can include those trying to expand the city inside the air, build an order to all the weather, but on the other hand you'll have elementals and storms going wild. Visiting diplomats from other planes, such as devils or water and fire elementals. Even if you don't do the elemental plane of air, I highly recommend at least having portals to those planes, to provide fresh water and the like for everyday living. This is likely going to be a highly magical society from the sounds of it. Possibly golems and land-bound races as slaves. Wings, or some other form of flying, are considered to be a form of status, while everyone without flight are second class citizens at best.
Another option for where to put the city is with the Cloud Giants. They're actually renowned for their flying cities, and being rather strict with enforcement of the Ordning over regular laws. For instance, if a cloud giant king considered it part of the tiefling's Ordening to be a criminal, the king would be more inclined to allow them freedom to do as they pleased, because that's their ordained role in life.
Some ideas for dungeons include the obligatory criminal hide out, a cloud-maze hiding a McGuffin that you have to fly through, a wizard tower (doing experiments that will break the floating city), a prison break (either out of, or getting info from an inmate), caves under the floating city leading to whatever magical source is keeping the city afloat. I'd also toss in griffin / hippogriff / etc races and something like quidditch just for some non-blood sport options and to fluff out the city a bit. Maybe join in for some prizes.
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First time posting so I apologize for any issues people find. Mainly, here it is
So me and a friend of mine have been trying to get some other people into D&D with us. We managed to get enough for a single DM and a 3-person party. My friend is currently running a campaign to get us from levels 1-5. I’m going to be DMing for levels 6-10. My idea is a underwater temple that will teleport them to a floating island city that has extremely advanced magic. Everyone knows one or two spells and every weapon or item is magical in some way. My idea for a story line is that there is a criminal organization that has been tolerated by the police because they stop any crime they don’t control (Gentleman Jonny Marcone for any of those who’ve read Dresden Files). Lately, the criminal organization has started selling drugs in the town and the police are tired of it. The PC’s can choose to assist the policemen the organization in this big final battle. I need some help with story building, General dm questions, and just to bounce ideas off of. I have been taking notes and such as I work (Shown Here sorry if they look weird. They're copy/paste from iOS notes)To start off with, what other main encounters could I put into the story? If anyone could comment, or even better, message me, it would be greatly appreciated.
An odd way to start, but I think the size of the island should be a bit larger, you would need a certain sized populace to support a criminal organization. I personally feel like with the size indicated the 'criminals' would just be in control of all the politics. Which does fit fairly well in the Marcone concept. Actually maybe just have the Sister be a political figure with the brother doing the shady business under her auspices. I think of this as something along the lines of the scenario in Luke Cage (Marvel series) where she makes their existence possible wielding her political power to undermine the police forces in some way. If this is a high magic setting then perhaps some of the police are literally being controlled through various means, from bribery, threat, and charm effects.
But I would still come back to the relative size. Having 2 police officers per 1000 residents is in the normal range. So having just two police officers for 400 residents would be a large police force relative to population size. Perhaps add a 0 to your population and then it would make sense to have a decent sized police force to work with. This is definitely a quibbling point when it comes to a fantasy setting but it should be something you think about.
How frequent are visitors to this land? You mentioned a 'greeter' of sorts for new arrivals, do they have visitors frequently or is it a rare event. If it is rare then maybe there is only one or two total police officers trying to police the town making them pretty weak compared to even a small criminal organization. I say this because if very few people come to this place, there could be no overt criminal goings on with everything going on in the shadows. If that is the case then what townsfolk would want to have police officers that don't have anything to actually do. Maybe the Sheriff is an almost symbolic position rarely required to do anything because to the common folk they live in a perfect little town. The most he has to deal with is drunk and disorderly and the occasional crimes of passion (abuse, petty theft et al). More serious crimes "don't happen" because they are either dealt with by the Marcone's or are crimes invisible to common man.
I like the concept and love the books, but take some time to think about the scale you are talking about. Your characters look like they will be a lot of fun to interact with too.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
A side note, maybe people think the sheriff is a bit kooky jumping at shadows all the time (Like in the movie Hot Fuzz if you have seen it). Talking about upstanding citizens being criminals (ie the Marcone's) and having crazy conspiracy theories.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Well, I find its easiest to design things based around your story. Given the story is about the flying city... everything in the city should some way relate to the story. Everything should showcase this light / dark duality you have going here. Well, law and chaos anyways, instead of good and evil, since you want to make this a choice. Proud and upstanding, with a dash of cruelty and legalized torture, unfair punishments on the one hand, ready to grind things beneath the heel of absolute order. On the criminal side, we have our share of Robin Hoods as well as Son of Sams.
I would take this to an extreme, and even put the city inside the Elemental Plane of Air, and fill the citizenry with everything from mephits and elementals, to aarokosha and winged elves, possibly aasimar and tieflings as well. The Rod of Seven Parts (Formerly known as the Rod of Law) could play part in the struggle as well. This way, you can include those trying to expand the city inside the air, build an order to all the weather, but on the other hand you'll have elementals and storms going wild. Visiting diplomats from other planes, such as devils or water and fire elementals. Even if you don't do the elemental plane of air, I highly recommend at least having portals to those planes, to provide fresh water and the like for everyday living. This is likely going to be a highly magical society from the sounds of it. Possibly golems and land-bound races as slaves. Wings, or some other form of flying, are considered to be a form of status, while everyone without flight are second class citizens at best.
Another option for where to put the city is with the Cloud Giants. They're actually renowned for their flying cities, and being rather strict with enforcement of the Ordning over regular laws. For instance, if a cloud giant king considered it part of the tiefling's Ordening to be a criminal, the king would be more inclined to allow them freedom to do as they pleased, because that's their ordained role in life.
Some ideas for dungeons include the obligatory criminal hide out, a cloud-maze hiding a McGuffin that you have to fly through, a wizard tower (doing experiments that will break the floating city), a prison break (either out of, or getting info from an inmate), caves under the floating city leading to whatever magical source is keeping the city afloat. I'd also toss in griffin / hippogriff / etc races and something like quidditch just for some non-blood sport options and to fluff out the city a bit. Maybe join in for some prizes.