Okay, so, quick catch up. My players just started on my campaign .We are two sessions in and I have the current mini villain planned out. He's an Artificer. He's meant to be a bumbling fool and doesn't really have any high stake in the main plot. That being said, I've still been brainstorming for a good Master Plot/Villain, and I think I finally have my girl 😊!
My Setting:
Two Hundred and Seventy Years ago, there was a Great War between the Drow and the Humans (along with other allied races). The Drow were eventually defeated and exiled to the Underdark, to which, all the entrances were collapsed and warded to prevent any kind of magical escape.
Lolth, the patron Deity of the Drow, was infuriated with this. Losing her people from the surface has lost her main influence on the inhabitants of the Surface world and thus diminished her power. She has began enacting a plan to liberate her people, exact revenge, and regain her power.
She has, overtime, been able to persuade many powerful individuals within across the realm to aid her. Some within the government to help break down the wards, some within the world collecting useful information, and some gathering their own armies to fight when the glorious day comes that the Underdark will be free again!
What do you guys think? Any additional ideas you might throw at me? Constructive criticisms are welcomed! I literally JUST thought about this a few hours ago too, so its still in early development, but I think I have a good thing going here. The lore about the Great War and the Drow being exiled has been a part of my setting for a while now. I was just going through some Forgotten Realms Lore and just so happened to stumble upon Lolth and everything just kind of clicked together.
Conceptually I like it. It's easy to imagine the Drow and their allies trapped down there would become even more radicalized devotees to Lloth and massing armies for the day they can break out and get their revenge. And I like the intrigue of some people quietly serving Lloth on the surface and moving things behind the scenes. There seem to be a lot of places you can go with this idea.
It's a good overarching meta-plot, which has a lot of potential to mine. It's also easily divided into sub-plots and sub-villains, each of which can be a chapters in the overall campaign.
As lore goes, it's pretty good - the hard part is now translating that lore, into an actual campaign structure.
Questions that spring to mind then. Not all of them have to be answered right away, but you should probably start developing some ideas.
Lolth has an overall goal "free the Underdrark"
What are the sub-steps She needs to do to accomplish this? Just making stuff up here, but:
Destroy the ____ Wards ( what are they? where are they? how are they destroyed? )
Locate the ancient weapon of _______ ( what is it? where is it? why was it lost? does it have guardians? )
Assassinate Good King Betrand, who has the best chance of uniting the kingdoms of the East Marches into a coordinated army to stand against the Underdark when the invasion of the surface occurs,
Etc.
Who are her minions assigned to each task?
What do those minions need to do to accomplish those tasks?
And so on. You could got down 2-3 levels and suddenly you'd have years of campaign material.
In the beginning, make sure that the steps needed to be taken by the minions "coincidentally" affect the party, or things the party cares about ( to find the ancient weapon, the bad guys need to find the ancient writings of Biblios the Mad, which just happens to be a sacred relic in the temple of the God(dess) of Knowledge, in the home town of one of your players, so they assault the temple ).
At first the party won't suspect that the seemly random adventures that keep coming their way ( the assault on the temple, the murder mystery where the High Chancellor was assassinated, the swarms of unnatural beasts that have been coming out of the abandoned Deepdelve Mine and harassing the local towns ) are connected, so you'll need to remember to seed clues into each smaller adventure about the over-arching plot: fallen soldiers of the bad guys in different locations, each with the same heraldic device on their armor; the lair of a minor bad guy containing correspondence with other lieutenants in Lolh's organization; temples and shrines to Lolth being part of every adventure the party is engaged on, etc.)
After awhile, they'll start putting the structure together, and eventually it will start to become personal to them and you won't need to threaten things the party members care about - they'll be actively seeking out your conspiracy in order to thwart it.
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Okay, so, quick catch up. My players just started on my campaign .We are two sessions in and I have the current mini villain planned out. He's an Artificer. He's meant to be a bumbling fool and doesn't really have any high stake in the main plot. That being said, I've still been brainstorming for a good Master Plot/Villain, and I think I finally have my girl 😊!
My Setting:
Two Hundred and Seventy Years ago, there was a Great War between the Drow and the Humans (along with other allied races). The Drow were eventually defeated and exiled to the Underdark, to which, all the entrances were collapsed and warded to prevent any kind of magical escape.
Lolth, the patron Deity of the Drow, was infuriated with this. Losing her people from the surface has lost her main influence on the inhabitants of the Surface world and thus diminished her power. She has began enacting a plan to liberate her people, exact revenge, and regain her power.
She has, overtime, been able to persuade many powerful individuals within across the realm to aid her. Some within the government to help break down the wards, some within the world collecting useful information, and some gathering their own armies to fight when the glorious day comes that the Underdark will be free again!
What do you guys think? Any additional ideas you might throw at me? Constructive criticisms are welcomed! I literally JUST thought about this a few hours ago too, so its still in early development, but I think I have a good thing going here. The lore about the Great War and the Drow being exiled has been a part of my setting for a while now. I was just going through some Forgotten Realms Lore and just so happened to stumble upon Lolth and everything just kind of clicked together.
Conceptually I like it. It's easy to imagine the Drow and their allies trapped down there would become even more radicalized devotees to Lloth and massing armies for the day they can break out and get their revenge. And I like the intrigue of some people quietly serving Lloth on the surface and moving things behind the scenes. There seem to be a lot of places you can go with this idea.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
It's a good overarching meta-plot, which has a lot of potential to mine. It's also easily divided into sub-plots and sub-villains, each of which can be a chapters in the overall campaign.
As lore goes, it's pretty good - the hard part is now translating that lore, into an actual campaign structure.
Questions that spring to mind then. Not all of them have to be answered right away, but you should probably start developing some ideas.
And so on. You could got down 2-3 levels and suddenly you'd have years of campaign material.
In the beginning, make sure that the steps needed to be taken by the minions "coincidentally" affect the party, or things the party cares about ( to find the ancient weapon, the bad guys need to find the ancient writings of Biblios the Mad, which just happens to be a sacred relic in the temple of the God(dess) of Knowledge, in the home town of one of your players, so they assault the temple ).
At first the party won't suspect that the seemly random adventures that keep coming their way ( the assault on the temple, the murder mystery where the High Chancellor was assassinated, the swarms of unnatural beasts that have been coming out of the abandoned Deepdelve Mine and harassing the local towns ) are connected, so you'll need to remember to seed clues into each smaller adventure about the over-arching plot: fallen soldiers of the bad guys in different locations, each with the same heraldic device on their armor; the lair of a minor bad guy containing correspondence with other lieutenants in Lolh's organization; temples and shrines to Lolth being part of every adventure the party is engaged on, etc.)
After awhile, they'll start putting the structure together, and eventually it will start to become personal to them and you won't need to threaten things the party members care about - they'll be actively seeking out your conspiracy in order to thwart it.
Lots of potential, lots of material here.
Good Luck! :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.