I haven't seen anything else about a story similar to this so I would love some ideas and some feedback! There will be a minimal amount of fighting, just enough to keep the story interesting but the majority of the campaign will be about roleplaying and adventuring. I have an idea that the first "scoop" they will be asked to look into is children going missing in a local village, and it will end up being a mind flayer in the basement of the local tavern that is being helped by the tavern owner. I'm going to have many smaller stories that are going to lead into one big story, although I haven't decided what the main story is. I will have them go head to head with the dragonmarked houses, corruption within the government and the religious institutions as well as the universities. I am hoping to have some sort of prestige system where the more prestige they get with the newspaper company the more important the news stories and connections they get and the deeper in hot shit and danger they get.
Any ideas for possible news stories or any ideas for the main quest line? Thank you!
For a bigger story, you could delve into corruption. They are sent to seek out information on a murder, they find evidence indicating >some organisation< is involved. The news goes to the print, nothing is printed about the organisation. Next time they bring up evidence about them, the editor calls them in to explain that the organisation is a patron of the newspaper and that if they don't want the paper shut down then they should drop it.
This can lead on to them being assigned to locations which prompt assassination attempts - starting with local thugs who seem to target them, and going up to professional assassins. From there they can start finding evidence which leads them sideways from the paper to unravelling a larger plot. They are advised by the editor to keep submitting stories to keep the organisation from noticing their absence from the paper (if the organisation thinks they're busy then they will leave them alone). Everything they report though still has some little link to the organisation (you'll need an intricate web of events).
Then they can ultimately take down a corrupt organisation, or try to, and save the day.
Be sure to have a few "red herring" stories and a "fluff piece" occasionally.
Send them on a story that is a for a societial party where they can meet the people that are pulling the strings of the plot before they know much about it. Bonus points for having the PCs like the BBEG before they know it's him/her.
Yeah I dig the hell out of this campaign idea. My best advice would be to find a few action/mystery/political drama type movies who's main character is a reporter untangling some kind of conspiracy. See what inspires you or what you might just wanna steal outright if your players haven't seen the movie. Maybe throw in one or two mob movies.
Bonus points if they're period pieces around WWI, since that's a closely analogous time to the Ebberon setting.
Off the top of my head, here's the first "story" I can think of:
-X powerful political/industrial figure rose to prominence by committing Y atrocity during The Last War, covering it up and profiting from it. Over the years since, they've been rubbing out anyone else involved, leaving a scattered trail of bodies of various other lesser movers and shakers around Sharn in their wake for your reporters to pick up on.
Edit: remember, not every story needs to be a murder mystery. Maybe sometimes you're covering protests and interviewing activists/politicians in conflict, fighting against oppressive interests steam-rolling communities for profit, with their pens holding the power to sway public perception one way or another. That kind of thing.
Make sure their editor assigns them some boring-ass stories they don’t want to do, but they have roll their eyes and do (half-assed) anyway: Local teen wins award, weather this week will be rainy, woman grows unusually large potato, 20th anniversary of a beloved institution, planning and zoning commission meeting, etc. Especially if they’re 1st level when they’ll be on some General Assignment beat. Though all of those can probably be turned into something interesting, I’d say keep some of them not interesting. Thing is, stories like those are where you develop sources who will help you when you get the chance for something interesting. But probably 85-90% of journalism is little stories that everyone forgets about the next day.
Oh, and have them do the overnight cops, where they just sit in the newsroom, listening to the police and fire scanner on the off chance that something catches fire at 2 am, or there’s some other kind of mayhem. Everyone has to take a turn at that sooner or later.
You can even have your players irl take turns writing brief articles based off the previous session between games as a fun flavor activity as well as good recap. And it would encourage taking good notes!
I really love this idea, thank you! I'm going to take parts of this and incorporate it into my campaign, especially the idea that the start to be followed by assassins from important people that don't like what they are printing!
Wow that's a good idea to do some research! I've watched a few superhero movies such as doctor strange and wandavision (anything with sorcerer-like powers) to get some ideas for interesting ways to use magic and that's a really good idea to watch movies based on newspapers! Thank you! I've decided, since it's cannon, that the main "baddie" is going to be House Cannith because one of the sons is still running making warforged and he's going to be making them to wage a war on the Daughters of Sora Kell and the peaceful colony they have created with the monsters. They're attempting to wipe out all monstrous creatures because they believe them to be evil.
I haven't seen anything else about a story similar to this so I would love some ideas and some feedback! There will be a minimal amount of fighting, just enough to keep the story interesting but the majority of the campaign will be about roleplaying and adventuring. I have an idea that the first "scoop" they will be asked to look into is children going missing in a local village, and it will end up being a mind flayer in the basement of the local tavern that is being helped by the tavern owner. I'm going to have many smaller stories that are going to lead into one big story, although I haven't decided what the main story is. I will have them go head to head with the dragonmarked houses, corruption within the government and the religious institutions as well as the universities. I am hoping to have some sort of prestige system where the more prestige they get with the newspaper company the more important the news stories and connections they get and the deeper in hot shit and danger they get.
Any ideas for possible news stories or any ideas for the main quest line? Thank you!
This sounds like a neat concept!
For a bigger story, you could delve into corruption. They are sent to seek out information on a murder, they find evidence indicating >some organisation< is involved. The news goes to the print, nothing is printed about the organisation. Next time they bring up evidence about them, the editor calls them in to explain that the organisation is a patron of the newspaper and that if they don't want the paper shut down then they should drop it.
This can lead on to them being assigned to locations which prompt assassination attempts - starting with local thugs who seem to target them, and going up to professional assassins. From there they can start finding evidence which leads them sideways from the paper to unravelling a larger plot. They are advised by the editor to keep submitting stories to keep the organisation from noticing their absence from the paper (if the organisation thinks they're busy then they will leave them alone). Everything they report though still has some little link to the organisation (you'll need an intricate web of events).
Then they can ultimately take down a corrupt organisation, or try to, and save the day.
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Be sure to have a few "red herring" stories and a "fluff piece" occasionally.
Send them on a story that is a for a societial party where they can meet the people that are pulling the strings of the plot before they know much about it. Bonus points for having the PCs like the BBEG before they know it's him/her.
Yeah I dig the hell out of this campaign idea. My best advice would be to find a few action/mystery/political drama type movies who's main character is a reporter untangling some kind of conspiracy. See what inspires you or what you might just wanna steal outright if your players haven't seen the movie. Maybe throw in one or two mob movies.
Bonus points if they're period pieces around WWI, since that's a closely analogous time to the Ebberon setting.
Off the top of my head, here's the first "story" I can think of:
-X powerful political/industrial figure rose to prominence by committing Y atrocity during The Last War, covering it up and profiting from it. Over the years since, they've been rubbing out anyone else involved, leaving a scattered trail of bodies of various other lesser movers and shakers around Sharn in their wake for your reporters to pick up on.
Edit: remember, not every story needs to be a murder mystery. Maybe sometimes you're covering protests and interviewing activists/politicians in conflict, fighting against oppressive interests steam-rolling communities for profit, with their pens holding the power to sway public perception one way or another. That kind of thing.
Make sure their editor assigns them some boring-ass stories they don’t want to do, but they have roll their eyes and do (half-assed) anyway: Local teen wins award, weather this week will be rainy, woman grows unusually large potato, 20th anniversary of a beloved institution, planning and zoning commission meeting, etc. Especially if they’re 1st level when they’ll be on some General Assignment beat. Though all of those can probably be turned into something interesting, I’d say keep some of them not interesting. Thing is, stories like those are where you develop sources who will help you when you get the chance for something interesting. But probably 85-90% of journalism is little stories that everyone forgets about the next day.
Oh, and have them do the overnight cops, where they just sit in the newsroom, listening to the police and fire scanner on the off chance that something catches fire at 2 am, or there’s some other kind of mayhem. Everyone has to take a turn at that sooner or later.
You can even have your players irl take turns writing brief articles based off the previous session between games as a fun flavor activity as well as good recap. And it would encourage taking good notes!
I really love this idea, thank you! I'm going to take parts of this and incorporate it into my campaign, especially the idea that the start to be followed by assassins from important people that don't like what they are printing!
Wow that's a good idea to do some research! I've watched a few superhero movies such as doctor strange and wandavision (anything with sorcerer-like powers) to get some ideas for interesting ways to use magic and that's a really good idea to watch movies based on newspapers! Thank you! I've decided, since it's cannon, that the main "baddie" is going to be House Cannith because one of the sons is still running making warforged and he's going to be making them to wage a war on the Daughters of Sora Kell and the peaceful colony they have created with the monsters. They're attempting to wipe out all monstrous creatures because they believe them to be evil.
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