I'm trying to figure out a good starting point for a new campaign that I am going to be DMing soon. I know a few things to try and give you and idea.
1. The players are going to be starting out in a smaller town in a relatively central location in my setting. I want them to start small and build their way up.
2. For the first story ark, I'm thinking I want the main antagonist to be a crazed Artificer. We haven't used that kind of villain yet with my D&D group and I think it will be fun.
3. I want to incorporate the planes as a heavy aspect in this campaign. For the first ark, since the main antagonist is going to be an Artificer, I was thinking I would incorporate Mechanis as the first plane my players encounter.
I was thinking the timelines could be lined up so that it is currently time for Mechanis' Modron March and the Artificer is trying to take control of the Modrons and use them to further his goals.
Any ideas on how I could start a campaign like this? I thought that maybe I could introduce my players to the Modrons by having certain mechanical malfunctions happening within the town caused by the Modrons gathering information on the different planes. Once the players realise its these mechanical beings causing the problem, introduce ones that have been tampered with by the Artificer.
One thing I'm having reservations about though is I feel like these ideas I would like to eventually incorporate would be coming into the game a little to quickly if I started right off with the Modrons. Any ideas of how I could maybe build up to the Modrons? Should I introduce the Artificer early, before the march? Or like him after its begun?
I don't know. What are you guy's thoughts? I need some inspiration here lol
Have the party encounter some of the Artificer's earlier, perhaps defective, creations. Say the Artificer has been working on his creations for a while. There's bound to be some trial and error. He's created and discarded several designs along the way. One of them worked out a bit better than he thought and is semi-intelligent. It's been attempting to repair the other rejects and so they've been sort of wandering about. Many are harmless because they have no weapons but they sure are freaking out the common folk who see them!
Enter the party as they either encounter some of these creatures or maybe a village that is plagued by them. They follow the trail of the rejects, encounter a few with weapons (FIGHT!) and eventually find the one repairing the others and destroy it. Now they're intrigued how all of this came to pass and this puts them on the main plot path. You can pace this part as fast or slow as you want to give the players time to get the feel for things.
I agree with Darkaiser's idea, however, you as the DM must be prepared for your players to do something stupid. Mine usually do. So maybe make a looser story arc. If they go off course, that might be a good thing, and it might allow you to make the players think that they have more control over the story. When they feel they have more control, they usually don't take the combat action as much, because they think that they can find another way.
I know this didn't really answer your question, but I still hope it helped.
Tweaking Darkaiser's idea, these earlier creations are actually functioning "correctly", but they're programming is actually bad or they execute in a poor way. I.e. it's not their fault that their instructions were to "gather resources, protect base" and that to follow this programming, they are walking into a town and taking all the stuff and killing everyone.
I actually really like those ideas. I was thinking about having the NPCs complain of problems with their supplies like missing wheels, pipes, etc. I might have an initial conflict arise of an NPC that finally catches the culprit, a rogue automaton, and let my players fight it. It might have a symbol or mark of the Artificer on it to drop hooks to the larger problem.
The only other thing I would have to think on is how to go about including the Modrons. Maybe I can have them show up at some point. Maybe narrate them as "automaton like, but lacking the design style of previous mechanical creations you've encountered in the past"??
The people of the town all start buying this game the Artificer has made. They play it more and more and get more and more obsessed. The Artificer is using this game to harvest their mental processing power to to his next really bad evil thing he's trying to figure out.
What's the game consist of you ask?
Well, it is this set of scrolls for the rules, and then there are these little clockwork figurines of people with boom sticks and metal wagons with boom sticks and figures that cast a fire spell called "Nae Palm." And each player plays one of those figurines and makes up the lines they say. Except for one player, he just sits there and tells them what they see and controls all the bad guys and good guys that aren't the players themselves...
Holy crap, they're playing Battlefields & Battalions! B&B. There is even a magical scroll with spells to help them. It is titled bnbbeyond.
Continuing on earlier ideas: the created automatons are faulty. The artificer are trying to build Mordrons, but failing. He/she has a captured monodrone and tries to reverse engineer it, having carved it open but kept it alive.
The artificer believes this world should be like Mechanus. However, the artificer does not fully understand what that means, thinking of order and rules according to his/her wishes.
The clockwork creations sent out are fault. Cogfarmers without conscience. They attack and kill if needed, or just lay waste, to get what they want. They are the first wave.
When they are attacked, sturdier versions show up(Clockguards?) that are to protect the cogfarmers. This escalates the problem for the village and the PCs.
The artificers contraptions mirrors unknowingly a part of the monodrone that calls to its siblings. A message without meaning. This reaches across the planes and lead to a scout being sent to investigate. Whatever happens to it (killed by PCs?), it sends a message about Mordron abominations that stirs Primus into action.
So, campaign update. I had full plans to keep going with the Artificer. I had the plot hooks set out amd even did a solo session with a guy in our group to try to make it so he could get the group going together towards stopping this guy.
Well, on the first session, out of 6 players, only two were able to make it, but they still wanted to play. I asked them if a quick one-shot module dungeon crawl would be okay. They said yes. So, I ran the module, made it kind of story like as to not be completely railroady. Well, they decided that the ruins they were traversing was too dangerous and they went back to the starting village to await their backup.
Tonight, we had session 2. Only one person couldn't make it. The guy that I soloed to pull the group together towards the Artificer. Since the only lead they had right now was the ruins, they all went to the ruins and we are finishing that module.
They seem to be having a lot of fun with this game so far, so I'm going with it! In this ruin, it is littered with traps. Traps that my players seem dedicated to find through means of getting hit by them rather than checking for them, for some reason lol. There is a trapmakers workshop within the ruins, so I can easily link the traps to the Artificer if I want to continue that storyline.
This module, the backstory is acolytes of Lathander that were awaiting the coming of a chosen one to save them and bring peace to the land. I feel liken it would be cool to see about making this coming "savior" more of a looming "villain."
So, campaign update. I had full plans to keep going with the Artificer. I had the plot hooks set out amd even did a solo session with a guy in our group to try to make it so he could get the group going together towards stopping this guy.
Well, on the first session, out of 6 players, only two were able to make it, but they still wanted to play. I asked them if a quick one-shot module dungeon crawl would be okay. They said yes. So, I ran the module, made it kind of story like as to not be completely railroady. Well, they decided that the ruins they were traversing was too dangerous and they went back to the starting village to await their backup.
Tonight, we had session 2. Only one person couldn't make it. The guy that I soloed to pull the group together towards the Artificer. Since the only lead they had right now was the ruins, they all went to the ruins and we are finishing that module.
They seem to be having a lot of fun with this game so far, so I'm going with it! In this ruin, it is littered with traps. Traps that my players seem dedicated to find through means of getting hit by them rather than checking for them, for some reason lol. There is a trapmakers workshop within the ruins, so I can easily link the traps to the Artificer if I want to continue that storyline.
This module, the backstory is acolytes of Lathander that were awaiting the coming of a chosen one to save them and bring peace to the land. I feel liken it would be cool to see about making this coming "savior" more of a looming "villain."
What do y'all think?
"No plan will survive contact with the players" to paraphrase a military maxim. Rolling the Artificer into the one-shot works fine and this is a fact of running a game: You HAVE to be able to think on your feet. Well done and good luck!
You could have the modrons first start out as courrupted enemies that they are unaware of the origin for. Maybe your characters could be targeting them not knowing they are simply puppets in the artificer's plans. Then you could have them go and try to confront Primus and he would force them to understand the situation and correct the artificers mistakes. Maybe Primus threatens that since their world is ruining his, Primus will ruin theirs if they don't stop the artificer
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm trying to figure out a good starting point for a new campaign that I am going to be DMing soon. I know a few things to try and give you and idea.
1. The players are going to be starting out in a smaller town in a relatively central location in my setting. I want them to start small and build their way up.
2. For the first story ark, I'm thinking I want the main antagonist to be a crazed Artificer. We haven't used that kind of villain yet with my D&D group and I think it will be fun.
3. I want to incorporate the planes as a heavy aspect in this campaign. For the first ark, since the main antagonist is going to be an Artificer, I was thinking I would incorporate Mechanis as the first plane my players encounter.
I was thinking the timelines could be lined up so that it is currently time for Mechanis' Modron March and the Artificer is trying to take control of the Modrons and use them to further his goals.
Any ideas on how I could start a campaign like this? I thought that maybe I could introduce my players to the Modrons by having certain mechanical malfunctions happening within the town caused by the Modrons gathering information on the different planes. Once the players realise its these mechanical beings causing the problem, introduce ones that have been tampered with by the Artificer.
One thing I'm having reservations about though is I feel like these ideas I would like to eventually incorporate would be coming into the game a little to quickly if I started right off with the Modrons. Any ideas of how I could maybe build up to the Modrons? Should I introduce the Artificer early, before the march? Or like him after its begun?
I don't know. What are you guy's thoughts? I need some inspiration here lol
Have the party encounter some of the Artificer's earlier, perhaps defective, creations. Say the Artificer has been working on his creations for a while. There's bound to be some trial and error. He's created and discarded several designs along the way. One of them worked out a bit better than he thought and is semi-intelligent. It's been attempting to repair the other rejects and so they've been sort of wandering about. Many are harmless because they have no weapons but they sure are freaking out the common folk who see them!
Enter the party as they either encounter some of these creatures or maybe a village that is plagued by them. They follow the trail of the rejects, encounter a few with weapons (FIGHT!) and eventually find the one repairing the others and destroy it. Now they're intrigued how all of this came to pass and this puts them on the main plot path. You can pace this part as fast or slow as you want to give the players time to get the feel for things.
God luck!
I agree with Darkaiser's idea, however, you as the DM must be prepared for your players to do something stupid. Mine usually do. So maybe make a looser story arc. If they go off course, that might be a good thing, and it might allow you to make the players think that they have more control over the story. When they feel they have more control, they usually don't take the combat action as much, because they think that they can find another way.
I know this didn't really answer your question, but I still hope it helped.
Playing: Nothing Right Now
DM-ing: The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse
Check out my homebrew: THE WARPER
Tweaking Darkaiser's idea, these earlier creations are actually functioning "correctly", but they're programming is actually bad or they execute in a poor way. I.e. it's not their fault that their instructions were to "gather resources, protect base" and that to follow this programming, they are walking into a town and taking all the stuff and killing everyone.
See? This is what happens when creative people share ideas lol! Great tweaks!
I actually really like those ideas. I was thinking about having the NPCs complain of problems with their supplies like missing wheels, pipes, etc. I might have an initial conflict arise of an NPC that finally catches the culprit, a rogue automaton, and let my players fight it. It might have a symbol or mark of the Artificer on it to drop hooks to the larger problem.
The only other thing I would have to think on is how to go about including the Modrons. Maybe I can have them show up at some point. Maybe narrate them as "automaton like, but lacking the design style of previous mechanical creations you've encountered in the past"??
The people of the town all start buying this game the Artificer has made. They play it more and more and get more and more obsessed. The Artificer is using this game to harvest their mental processing power to to his next really bad evil thing he's trying to figure out.
What's the game consist of you ask?
Well, it is this set of scrolls for the rules, and then there are these little clockwork figurines of people with boom sticks and metal wagons with boom sticks and figures that cast a fire spell called "Nae Palm." And each player plays one of those figurines and makes up the lines they say. Except for one player, he just sits there and tells them what they see and controls all the bad guys and good guys that aren't the players themselves...
Holy crap, they're playing Battlefields & Battalions! B&B. There is even a magical scroll with spells to help them. It is titled bnbbeyond.
Playtesting Fugare Draconis, an epic tale of adventure, loss, and redemption
Continuing on earlier ideas: the created automatons are faulty. The artificer are trying to build Mordrons, but failing. He/she has a captured monodrone and tries to reverse engineer it, having carved it open but kept it alive.
The artificer believes this world should be like Mechanus. However, the artificer does not fully understand what that means, thinking of order and rules according to his/her wishes.
The clockwork creations sent out are fault. Cogfarmers without conscience. They attack and kill if needed, or just lay waste, to get what they want. They are the first wave.
When they are attacked, sturdier versions show up(Clockguards?) that are to protect the cogfarmers. This escalates the problem for the village and the PCs.
The artificers contraptions mirrors unknowingly a part of the monodrone that calls to its siblings. A message without meaning. This reaches across the planes and lead to a scout being sent to investigate. Whatever happens to it (killed by PCs?), it sends a message about Mordron abominations that stirs Primus into action.
So, campaign update. I had full plans to keep going with the Artificer. I had the plot hooks set out amd even did a solo session with a guy in our group to try to make it so he could get the group going together towards stopping this guy.
Well, on the first session, out of 6 players, only two were able to make it, but they still wanted to play. I asked them if a quick one-shot module dungeon crawl would be okay. They said yes. So, I ran the module, made it kind of story like as to not be completely railroady. Well, they decided that the ruins they were traversing was too dangerous and they went back to the starting village to await their backup.
Tonight, we had session 2. Only one person couldn't make it. The guy that I soloed to pull the group together towards the Artificer. Since the only lead they had right now was the ruins, they all went to the ruins and we are finishing that module.
They seem to be having a lot of fun with this game so far, so I'm going with it! In this ruin, it is littered with traps. Traps that my players seem dedicated to find through means of getting hit by them rather than checking for them, for some reason lol. There is a trapmakers workshop within the ruins, so I can easily link the traps to the Artificer if I want to continue that storyline.
This module, the backstory is acolytes of Lathander that were awaiting the coming of a chosen one to save them and bring peace to the land. I feel liken it would be cool to see about making this coming "savior" more of a looming "villain."
What do y'all think?
"No plan will survive contact with the players" to paraphrase a military maxim. Rolling the Artificer into the one-shot works fine and this is a fact of running a game: You HAVE to be able to think on your feet. Well done and good luck!
You could have the modrons first start out as courrupted enemies that they are unaware of the origin for. Maybe your characters could be targeting them not knowing they are simply puppets in the artificer's plans. Then you could have them go and try to confront Primus and he would force them to understand the situation and correct the artificers mistakes. Maybe Primus threatens that since their world is ruining his, Primus will ruin theirs if they don't stop the artificer