QUICK STORY SYNOPSIS

In a sprawling empire governed by Queen ___ known for her generous deeds, wise governance, and enigmatic aura.  However, this veil of kindness/reputation led to a darker ambition to mold the world in her and an unknown King ___’s image.

Secretly, they assembled a formidable team of warriors, known as The Chess Piece Army.  Drawing from all walks of life – Some had been coerced, others bribed.  Despite their origins, most members of The Chess Piece Army despised the world for various reasons, which fueled their passion on the battlefield. 

The Chess Piece Army waged wars town after town to gain more land for the Queen and King to extend their empire, but with a twist.  To appease the masses, they set up tournaments in a specific town, Kaleido, giving territories a glimmer of hope.  The winner would retain their land; the loser would be assimilated. But this was no ordinary tournament; it was more a theater of their control, where the outcome was preordained. 

A meek province, Liloria, is one of the vulnerable territories.  They seek help from a local guild.  The guild takes up the job and heads out to Kaleido.  However, treachery awaited them.  (2 different scenarios now)

• The night before the tournament, the guild was sequestered in separate chambers. But, as dawn approached, they were ensnared and transported away to a floating castle, each imprisoned in uniquely colored sectors (towers.) 

Upon each of them awaking, a loudspeaker announces “Welcome to the war games.  To win, to secure the safety of your land, you must make your way to the center of the castle.  To do so you will fight our fighters in each room you come across, and in the center is your final fight; win and your land shall be spared.  Before you enter a room there will be a screen and button next to it, hit the button and it will do a sequence to determine your opponent.  This is your final chance to turn back now if you don’t wish to die.”

The guild makes it to the center of castle (this next part is subject to change depending on how things go) to find the final fight is either the king, queen, or both. Win or die.

• The night before the tournament, the guild was not all put in the same chamber. But, as dawn approached, they were ensnared and transported away to a floating castle, each room imprisoned in a different tower.

Upon each of them awaking, a loudspeaker announces “Welcome to the war games.  To win, to secure the safety of your land, you must make your way to the center of the castle.  To do so you will fight our fighters in each room you come across, and in the center is your final fight; win and your land shall be spared.  Before you enter a room there will be a screen and button next to it, hit the button and it will do a sequence of color and number to determine your opponent.  This is your final chance to turn back now if you don’t wish to die.”

The guild makes it to the center of castle (this next part is subject to change depending on how things go) to find the final fight is either the king, queen, or both. Win or die.

BASIC CHARACTER INFORMATION                           still a work in progress  

The unique colors mentioned above are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.  Each color represents a chess set team.  Each team has 2 Pawns, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, and 2 Knights.  The Rook caste is the weakest caste, and the Knight caste is strongest.  However, that does not mean all are strong and all are weak.

Depending on what color you were assigned depends on the character’s team etc. that you have the possibility of fighting.  I have 12 knights (of the zodiac), 12 bishops, and 12 rooks.  I was thinking 3 rooms till center.  Some characters are good, some neutral, whilst the rest are pure evil.

Levels are:

13 – King and Queen       12 – 4 Knights    11 – 4 Knights    10 – 4 Knights, 3 Bishops, 1 Rook

9 – 5 Bishops, 2 Rooks    8 – 4 Bishops, 4 Rooks    7 – 3 Rooks         6 – 2 Rooks         4/5 – all Pawns

FLOW OF GAME

Take job at guild, from some town person.  Walk for a few days, possibly wolf, or bear attack at night.  Close to tournament town have 6 colored robed figures (pawns, each a different color.)  Get to town of Kaleido, and meet the town’s caretaker, and shows team to hotel.  Perception check at night when everyone is asleep.  6 more colored robed figures 1 in each room to sneak up and kidnap/teleport team member to the color-coded tower up in the floating castle.  After the announcement, if yes to proceed forward downstairs to the first room.  If not, 2 knights (whether color option or whatever dm decides) will come to kill you.  When at door to room hit button to find out opponent etc. then proceed.  Certain actions etc. happen.  Win move to next part.  If make it to center fight the final fight/s.

FINAL FIGHT                       3 possible options at the moment on how it will work.

Option 1: Set conditions.

• Ethical choices – During each fight in the rooms, the team had chances to show mercy or be ruthless. If they showed consistent mercy, sparing opponents, when possible, they’d face the compassionate but manipulative Queen alone.  She believed that such warriors were influenced through empathy and charm.
• Strategy and Intelligence – If the team showcased high intelligence, setting up traps, and using the environment to their advantage, they’d be pitted against the strategic mastermind, King. He valued brains over brawn and believed he could outwit any opponent.
• Aggression and Force – If the guild members displayed sheer force, taking down their foes with raw power and aggression, they’d face both monarchs. Believing in the power of combined strength and strategy, would join forces to tackle what they perceived as the most direct threat. 

Option 2: Zodiac keys

• Designate Each Knight with an American Zodiac symbol. Each given a key with their symbol/elemental color i.e., Fire – Leo, Air – Libra, Water – Scorpio, Earth – Taurus.  After defeating one of the knights, it is possible to get a key.
• To fight the Queen, they must have at least a water and fire key.
• To fight King, they must have at least an air and earth key.
• If they have all 4 elemental keys, they fight both.

Option 3 – The Talk

• Enter the center ring where both the King and/or the Queen sit.
• Depending on the talk whether to join or not etc. either fight one or other or both.
• Another possibility is one is in room and defeat them for other one to come out and ask questions about joining etc.

That tells me the story of the bad guys.

What is the story of the heroes who will overcome them?

Remember that the adventure is not about the folks you put all that work into so far, it is about the players,. All of that is meant to support the PCs in their adventure.

Your Flow of game is very much linear. Unless your players are down with that, add in some side quests and options for them to do something other than this story.  Making players do a certain ting is called “railroading” and generally reduces the fun of everyone if the players aren’t totally down for it. And since most adventures start with railroading (getting the party together), it gets old fast when it is “go here, do this, now go here do this” and they don’t feel like they have much choice or cannot take a break and do something else.

Unless you have reason to expect your players to be otherwise, always assume they will just chop their way through everything, and ignore ethical stuff.  To do ethical stuff, you have to introduce a series of not- connected events that encourages them to start thinking ethically.  Of course, then they will only think ethically. This is still a game, and whatever you think they will do?

THey won’t. Players are wonderful like that.

Same goes for intelligence and strategy — they cannot act smarter than they are, and they do not think like you do. So that’s a really dicey measure that has a chance of causing bad feelings.

More in the same vein.

This seems like a lot of extraneous work for a one-shot. If you want to develop a nice simple one-shot adventure for your party to explore, try following this basic formula:

1. Who - Who is the main enemy? (Find some fun monsters that can be encountered in groups and then maybe pick out a "boss" to command them.)
2. What - Pick a thing that those monsters have that the party needs. (Treasure, stolen relic, kidnapped persons, etc.)
3. When - Choose a time of day and a season the adventure takes place. (Use that to inform descriptions and maybe add hazards like ice, heavy rains, desert heat, etc.)
4. Where - Pick a location for your party to explore. (Enchanted forest, lost ruins, natural caves, winding canyons, shipwrecked island, etc.)
5. Why - Give the party a quest hook to adventure. (Paid to rescue or reclaim something, seeking something important, vengeance drive, etc.)

Keep the explorable space small, maybe a 5-room dungeon space, or a forest or rocky canyon area with 3-5 "scene" locations. This is a one-shot and should be resolvable in 2-3 hours. 

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Your Flow of game is very much linear. Unless your players are down with that, add in some side quests and options for them to do something other than this story.  Making players do a certain ting is called “railroading” and generally reduces the fun of everyone if the players aren’t totally down for it. And since most adventures start with railroading (getting the party together), it gets old fast when it is “go here, do this, now go here do this” and they don’t feel like they have much choice or cannot take a break and do something else.

 To be fair, we're talking about a one-shot here, and by a new DM to boot. It's reasonable for these to be fairly linear and to expect the party to buy in to the main adventure.

My main advice would be to keep it simple for your first time DMing. This set-up seems fairly complicated - some groups would find that interesting, but it's a common mistake for new DMs to go really deep into their world-building and become invested with that world in a way the players are not likely to be. Make sure you take a step back and look at how you expect the game to go from the perspective of a player just coming to the table, and make sure that part is engaging and fun, providing enough context to your choices that players can apply roleplay to their choices as opposed to just picking things at random because they don't understand what's going on.