So I am running a story where my BBEG is a dragon, looking for a blade that was made to destroy her, The Dragon Slayer. I was thinking that the story could use a twist, such as these two:
1. The Dragon Slayer doesn't present itself immediately to the players. They must prove themselves worthy.
2. The Dragon Slayer wasn't made so the players must make it.
3. The BBEG's allies will betray her given the chance, they seek to aide the allies in killing her then betray the players.
Now if you have any ideas of your own please go ahead and leave your suggestions below, and if you think any of these three are good just tell me which one and if I need to flesh it out.
I'm not sure these are twists, but rather like plot points. There's nothing wrong with them, they just don't seem twisty.
I thought maybe the dragons actions lead to the creation of Dragon Slayer in some way, like killing the parents of a child who grows into a wizard who gets the PCs to get the components for its creation.
I agree with @MikeoftheGC those are more plot points than a twist.
Assuming you are looking for a less generic twist, but a plot twist would be something like this.
The players are introduced to a traveling blacksmith who tells them a story of a great battle between a dragon and a dragon slayer in which the players are given a rough idea of the campaign events. This blacksmith then asks for some help, nothing to do with the story just some random quest that has nothing to really do with the plot of the campaign.
After the players return from this quest, they are given another one, it should build on the first one, however, this quest would introduce another character. This character tells the story again of a dragon and a dragon slayer. However, in this story, they are told of the sword. This character should seem harsher and less friendly towards the players. Hopefully, the players inform the blacksmith they have hopefully grown friends with about this other NPC and the sword. At this point, the blacksmith can act worried and proclaim that that NPC is the Dragon and he is looking for the sword to prevent the dragon slayer from finding it.
This starts the campaign where the players must perform three quests to gather the hilt, the blade, and the magic gem. However, instead of the blacksmith directing the players towards parts, they instead direct them to other NPC who know the wear abouts of the parts.
The last part would be that they have to have the blacksmith assemble the weapon, if the players have never figured out or questioned the blacksmith, then he destroys the weapon forcing the players into combat with the weapon, however if the players have learned about the true identity of the blacksmith hopefully they take the weapon to the second NPC who know how to fix it.
Now this is the classic, Help the bad guy by accident. It's simple and teachers your players that even the bad guys can seem like good guys. The hardest thing about this is, you have to make the bad guy seem like a good guy. You need t prevent the players from asking him to many questions. Secondly you need the good guy to seem like the bad guy, but remember he is the good guy, if the players ask the right questions they should be able to figure out that the blacksmith is playing them.
I like where Mouse is going with this. It makes sense that the dragon would be aware of the sword that would mean her doom and take measures to prevent it coming into play again.
Just make sure you seed some clues: The NPC knows too much or has been seen in places where he shouldn't be. The party gets ambushed by powerful monsters when no one should have known where they were going except the NPC ect...
When confronted, the NPC/ Dragon could say something to the effect of "Yea, I'm smarter than you and have have lived much longer. Did you really think I wouldn't act to keep you from that sword?"
I actually thought of that, what would the dragon do to ensure it's safety and what effects does bringing the sword out have? And I added these small additions to the story.
1. The dragon sent all of it;s minions to find this sword. these minions include: a younger dragon, kobolds, assassins, bandit gangs, psychos, and master planners. Some of them have no idea who their working for, for the dragon only sends letters signed with an old alias.
2. If a certain minion gets the sword there is a chance they (A. Give it to the players (B. Use it (C. Give it to the dragon each one has an effect.
3. Depending on how many of the dragons minions are alive will also effect the outcome, some of them will want the treasure of the dragon.
4. The sword was hidden away as it was apart of a pact made with the humans and dragons long ago. The dragons would leave the humans alone if they never used the sword again. it's been so long people forgot the agreement and if the players take the sword dragons swarm onto the human society.
5. The location of the sword was lost, but their is a spy glass that hints at the location of the sword. The spy glass is in two half which points to a landmark which would be visable to the sword location, and hints at the traps and protection of the sword.
6. Sword is optional, if the players choose not to look for it then that is all right. They can always fight the dragons minions as all of them seem to be doing something. Bandits are raiding, the young dragon is looking for the sword, the assassins are hunting, the mastermind is causing internal turmoil (the humans/dragons side) Then once they defeat one, they may learn the identity of the dragon. Enough info for the players to piece it together on their own.
Are these any good? Are these good ideas to have in my story?
plot: A Dragon Cult rises and starts to hunt for a Sword
point 1) The party/Heroes investigate and find out the sword is an artifact that will destroy the avatar and the cult seek to destroy it
point 2) Cat and Mouse and scavenger hunts ensue as the party seek to out witt the cult and find the sword to bring an end to the Avatar and restore truth, justice etc to the land.
point 3) The twist....the avatar was imprisoned a millennia ago, all records of it were lost to the ages and the sword is actually the key to freeing it, bring the sword into the avatars prison opens it and releases the avatar into the world. Well done heroes, you just released an extremely powerful dragon on the realms....what do you do now?
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So I am running a story where my BBEG is a dragon, looking for a blade that was made to destroy her, The Dragon Slayer. I was thinking that the story could use a twist, such as these two:
1. The Dragon Slayer doesn't present itself immediately to the players. They must prove themselves worthy.
2. The Dragon Slayer wasn't made so the players must make it.
3. The BBEG's allies will betray her given the chance, they seek to aide the allies in killing her then betray the players.
Now if you have any ideas of your own please go ahead and leave your suggestions below, and if you think any of these three are good just tell me which one and if I need to flesh it out.
I'm not sure these are twists, but rather like plot points. There's nothing wrong with them, they just don't seem twisty.
I thought maybe the dragons actions lead to the creation of Dragon Slayer in some way, like killing the parents of a child who grows into a wizard who gets the PCs to get the components for its creation.
I agree with @MikeoftheGC those are more plot points than a twist.
Assuming you are looking for a less generic twist, but a plot twist would be something like this.
The players are introduced to a traveling blacksmith who tells them a story of a great battle between a dragon and a dragon slayer in which the players are given a rough idea of the campaign events. This blacksmith then asks for some help, nothing to do with the story just some random quest that has nothing to really do with the plot of the campaign.
After the players return from this quest, they are given another one, it should build on the first one, however, this quest would introduce another character. This character tells the story again of a dragon and a dragon slayer. However, in this story, they are told of the sword. This character should seem harsher and less friendly towards the players. Hopefully, the players inform the blacksmith they have hopefully grown friends with about this other NPC and the sword. At this point, the blacksmith can act worried and proclaim that that NPC is the Dragon and he is looking for the sword to prevent the dragon slayer from finding it.
This starts the campaign where the players must perform three quests to gather the hilt, the blade, and the magic gem. However, instead of the blacksmith directing the players towards parts, they instead direct them to other NPC who know the wear abouts of the parts.
The last part would be that they have to have the blacksmith assemble the weapon, if the players have never figured out or questioned the blacksmith, then he destroys the weapon forcing the players into combat with the weapon, however if the players have learned about the true identity of the blacksmith hopefully they take the weapon to the second NPC who know how to fix it.
Now this is the classic, Help the bad guy by accident. It's simple and teachers your players that even the bad guys can seem like good guys. The hardest thing about this is, you have to make the bad guy seem like a good guy. You need t prevent the players from asking him to many questions. Secondly you need the good guy to seem like the bad guy, but remember he is the good guy, if the players ask the right questions they should be able to figure out that the blacksmith is playing them.
I like where Mouse is going with this. It makes sense that the dragon would be aware of the sword that would mean her doom and take measures to prevent it coming into play again.
Just make sure you seed some clues: The NPC knows too much or has been seen in places where he shouldn't be. The party gets ambushed by powerful monsters when no one should have known where they were going except the NPC ect...
When confronted, the NPC/ Dragon could say something to the effect of "Yea, I'm smarter than you and have have lived much longer. Did you really think I wouldn't act to keep you from that sword?"
I actually thought of that, what would the dragon do to ensure it's safety and what effects does bringing the sword out have? And I added these small additions to the story.
1. The dragon sent all of it;s minions to find this sword. these minions include: a younger dragon, kobolds, assassins, bandit gangs, psychos, and master planners. Some of them have no idea who their working for, for the dragon only sends letters signed with an old alias.
2. If a certain minion gets the sword there is a chance they (A. Give it to the players (B. Use it (C. Give it to the dragon each one has an effect.
3. Depending on how many of the dragons minions are alive will also effect the outcome, some of them will want the treasure of the dragon.
4. The sword was hidden away as it was apart of a pact made with the humans and dragons long ago. The dragons would leave the humans alone if they never used the sword again. it's been so long people forgot the agreement and if the players take the sword dragons swarm onto the human society.
5. The location of the sword was lost, but their is a spy glass that hints at the location of the sword. The spy glass is in two half which points to a landmark which would be visable to the sword location, and hints at the traps and protection of the sword.
6. Sword is optional, if the players choose not to look for it then that is all right. They can always fight the dragons minions as all of them seem to be doing something. Bandits are raiding, the young dragon is looking for the sword, the assassins are hunting, the mastermind is causing internal turmoil (the humans/dragons side) Then once they defeat one, they may learn the identity of the dragon. Enough info for the players to piece it together on their own.
Are these any good? Are these good ideas to have in my story?
plot: A Dragon Cult rises and starts to hunt for a Sword
point 1) The party/Heroes investigate and find out the sword is an artifact that will destroy the avatar and the cult seek to destroy it
point 2) Cat and Mouse and scavenger hunts ensue as the party seek to out witt the cult and find the sword to bring an end to the Avatar and restore truth, justice etc to the land.
point 3) The twist....the avatar was imprisoned a millennia ago, all records of it were lost to the ages and the sword is actually the key to freeing it, bring the sword into the avatars prison opens it and releases the avatar into the world. Well done heroes, you just released an extremely powerful dragon on the realms....what do you do now?