Im looking for some help finalizing a homebrew campaign i came up with. I'm looking for suggestions for filling in the blanks for the things missing, although i think i might have covered everything at this point. My players want a grand story kind of campaign, along with some adventuring options. I have a start to my campaign as where the PCs begin, I have a main story concept, and i have 5 factions to fill my world. i chose 5 because it's an odd number, and that means there cant ever be a tie between factions so there can always be some kind of conflict happening. Here is my descriptions for each of these factions:
Port Dickens The Massive port city, rightfully named Port Dickens, is a city not run by any bigwigs, but is ran by the merchants. Port Dickens is home to multiple gangs, guilds, and other organizations. Although the majority of the populace is of an assortment of all kinds of merchants. Now because of the lack of authority, Port Dickens keeps its functionality and order, through the cooperation of its citizens. That’s not to say things are always orderly or functional, a lot of the time Port Dickens can be unsafe do to gang fights and guild battles. Even when you think there’s not any way you would get caught up in the happenings inside Port Dickens, you’d be sorely mistaken. Everybody here has a rival of some sort, it doesn’t matter if you’ve lived here all your life, selling only the best quality “goods”, or if you’ve just stopped on by to window shop. Trust me, somebody somewhere is likely eyeing what you’ve set your sights on.
Feldheim Kingdom Feldheim Kingdom (The City in the Rocks) is a mining city, it would make sense that it had dwarves. It might also be home to gnomes. I can imagine that the gnomes, with there mechanical prowess would be making a living of of making/repairing mining equipment and large machinery. if i were to have another race living here, it would have to be the goliaths. they would be ideal laborers, doing the heavy lifting of crates full of minerals and ore. Goliaths don't tend to stay stationary and tend to be a more outside and fresh air kind of race but the reason why there may be so many goliaths that live there would probably be because as the city itself is partly built into the mountain, the goliaths might have lost some of their territory and moved into the city. perhaps the mining inside the mountain and in caves or tunnels, could be disrupting the land on which the goliaths live and the land might not be in liveable condition.
Kilndrian Empire The Kilndrian Empire (The Immoral Providence) is one of the largest cities in this world, and by far the most religious. Though the Empire has its secrets. As for their gods that they worship, there is Savras, god of divination and fate, and behind the scenes they worship Shar, goddess of darkness and loss. The Kilndrian Empire might seem an upbeat and festive atmosphere, but in its core is a corrupt and cynical place. There is something scheming behind the scenes and it very much could bring disaster.
The Nether’s lost Located underground, The Nether's Lost is home to all things horrid. No one dares enter this place for it means certain death. Here lives all sorts of monster such as goblins, ogres, minotaurs, and orcs. The list goes on. There is however rumors of a treasure that lies beneath the feet of the people among the surface. The rumors tell that this treasure is a grand ancient relic that, if in the wrong hands would spell the end of this world as it is known.
Aerilous As one would expect of a magical floating city, Aerilous has a supply of all sorts of magic and it seems near limitless. Aerilous is the go to place for any and all your magic needs and is home for students that wish to master the ways of magic. When you first step foot onto Aerilous, the first thing that catches the eye is a ginormous tower in the middle of everything. Surrounding that tower are workshops, laboratories, and many, many bookstores. There is alway people hustling around trying to get from place to place, and the workshops try to welcome people to look at their magic items they had crafted every chance they get, the laboratories make noise all the time as they do their reaseach, and even the bookstores are alway having deals on there supply.The tower itself is actually a giant library owning any and every book you can imagine, and at the top is where the Master Council resides. The Master Council is made up by the founders of Aerilous, and they are in charge of the peace in the city. Aerilous is a magnificent wonder to behold and the best place to learn about anything you want.
The main conflict is the Kilndrian Empire ( as the PCs will start off being caught by), is trying to obtain a grand ancient relic from The Nether's Lost. If they were to succeed in obtaining this grand ancient relic, it could spell the end of this world as it is known. all of this is kept secret from the public and only a few select individuals know of its happenings. The PCs have been hired by the Feldheim kingdom to infiltrate the Kilndrian Empire and gather information on some fishy rumors regarding the schemes of the Kilndrian Empire. This is what i got for the player introduction to the campaign so far: The PCs will start out in a prison cell, their memories of what had happened to them are a bit hazy. All the PCs are able to remember is them entering a massive city, but soon after entering they all blacked out. (if the PCs were to roll an intelligence check, they would have the possibly of remembering some rough details of the spot where they were taken and possibly an idea of what had happened to them.)
Note: As a side quest, I do plan on giving the PCs a way to recover their lost memories somewhat early in the campaign. The PCs will be able to find an NPC that may be slightly hidden, but would be obvious if they know where to look. Not sure where exactly the NPC will be hidden yet, but the PCs will think they are dumb when they notice how the NPC is hiding.
The PCs will be escorted in shackles by guards to a larger holding cell. In this cell, they will have the opportunity to pick weapons and armor. They then will see a gate open up at the end of a short hall leading out into a coliseum. The PCs will be met with roaring crowds of both booing and cheering, and then there is silence as a figure stands up. (It is implied that the figure in this scenario is the emperor of the Kilndrian Empire.) “These fools have attempted steal from our sacred reliquary, and now they shall face punishment! And as entertainment I will release hell onto this band of criminals. In the slight chance they make it through this ordeal alive, it will be as proof our god have given them mercy. Now let the fun begin!” (First encounter starts here) After the encounter, the PCs exit the coliseum. There is a shady character waiting for them outside the coliseum looking for a report on the Kilndrian Empire’s war strategies. The PCs not knowing of this will choose how to react. If the PCs react as if they don't owe this shady character any favors and/or acts aggressively about it, the shady character might:
1) Assume them traitors and go off to inform the Feldheim Kingdom.
Or if the PCs react as if they don’t understand what is going on and proceed to ask what is happening, or ignore what the shady character has to say, he might:
2) Tell the PCs to gather more information and return to the Feldheim Kingdom to relay the situation.
3) Leave the party with a warning and give a deadline in which to gather information by and relay, or there may be possible consequences.
I believe they will try asking for information, just knowing the kind of people the players are irl. And I want them to put the pieces together that they were in the middle of a mission prior to losing their memory. But I'll be dming for them the first time however making this group a new experience.
All sugestions and criticisms are welcome. Thank you.
Whenever the PCs encounter something that could remind them of their quest, have them roll a history check with advantage (as it is their own memories). Also, make sure you know how they lost their memory.
Thinking as a player, I'm not sure how well I'd take starting without memory. It takes out a lot of the fun of backstory - you'd be starting without one and having to rediscover it, if you even get that opportunity.
You might want to remove just their recent memories, such as "they remember being on a cart traveling to talk to...someone... about a job or a cry for help". This can be explained along the lines of encode thoughts and a spymaster or something has 'plucked' the kingdom's secrets from their heads. This (like JCAUDM said) keeps the cool backstory part, whilst having the unknown current situation.
Some things to think about in world building (faction wise): Why (or why not) is Faction A in conflict with Faction B? How are they in conflict? (e.g. merchant embargo, armies fighting, etc.)
For example, if 1 faction is based in the major port city, they would prefer to not be at war as they would likely be based on trading. (long range trading by sea, short range by land) They could produce good diplomats and negotiators as they are able to keep beneficial agreements with the other factions or act as their bank and have the option to call in their loans if they so wish.
Example 2, a mountain/mining based faction which is rich in mineral resource is likely to be under pressure or even attack so that another faction might be able gain control of this rich resource. However if they are supported by the nearby faction of weaponsmiths with an agreement to send most of the iron their way, they would also be safe-ish. Likely though they would sell to most factions, and should they begin to be attacked, they would cut off trading to that faction and starve them of weapons. And fists vs a sword doesn't go well for the fists.
A possible change to the lead-up to the opening encounter, An emperor is probably unlikely to talk at a minor function, preferring to just watch. However if there was a large-ish arena, divided into sections by metal bars (like a cage/prison cell) and multiple fights were taking place at once it would be more likely that they would speak the opening words.
Also traitors and spies would be unlikely to get even this small chance of success, so it might be an idea to be accused of grand theft (stealing from the palace or something) and their real mission was not found out. Possibly because an information broker (mind thief) stole their memories and plans to blackmail them back to the PC's or something.
Faction building: The faction they start in would need to seem to be religious if "trial by combat/ordeal" was an option.
(Side note, happy to help with further in-depth world building if you want as well)
Yeah, you need to find a way to build backstory into this. For me, it's the best and easiest way to get players to invest. I'm not saying I'm opposed to the memory loss start, just agreeing with JCAUDM that you need backstory.
As for Factions? Religion man, religion. They always screw things up. And you've already mentioned "the gods", so they would certainly have some sort of representatives. For all their benevolence, religious orders usually want power too. You could also have a civilian faction looking to overthrow the empire from within, who may not be very happy that they're going to be the meat in the grinder of this war. A 5th one.... Aliens? Kidding. Although you could go with some sort of infernal baddy who is pulling the strings of everyone just to watch the world go up in flames and get souls into the underworld. A God of War or Death would be fun.
ALSO. Be prepared for the players to go off script. They get taken to a chamber with weapons. What if they attack the guards. What if they refuse to enter the coliseum. What if one of them throws a frickin trident at the emperor and rolls a nat 20.
A memory wipe is a rather big thing to put on players, or is that just me?
I think you would engage the players better by telling them they start in a cell and the general conflict going on, and then make the players help come up ideas for the background on how their character ended up in prison. These backgrounds can most likely also help create later plot hooks and / or complications.
I have updated and improved on my campaign by quite a bit. i have added all the factions and their descriptions, as well as reiterated the first session introduction. thank you everyone that has helped so far.
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Im looking for some help finalizing a homebrew campaign i came up with. I'm looking for suggestions for filling in the blanks for the things missing, although i think i might have covered everything at this point. My players want a grand story kind of campaign, along with some adventuring options. I have a start to my campaign as where the PCs begin, I have a main story concept, and i have 5 factions to fill my world. i chose 5 because it's an odd number, and that means there cant ever be a tie between factions so there can always be some kind of conflict happening. Here is my descriptions for each of these factions:
Port Dickens The Massive port city, rightfully named Port Dickens, is a city not run by any bigwigs, but is ran by the merchants. Port Dickens is home to multiple gangs, guilds, and other organizations. Although the majority of the populace is of an assortment of all kinds of merchants. Now because of the lack of authority, Port Dickens keeps its functionality and order, through the cooperation of its citizens. That’s not to say things are always orderly or functional, a lot of the time Port Dickens can be unsafe do to gang fights and guild battles. Even when you think there’s not any way you would get caught up in the happenings inside Port Dickens, you’d be sorely mistaken. Everybody here has a rival of some sort, it doesn’t matter if you’ve lived here all your life, selling only the best quality “goods”, or if you’ve just stopped on by to window shop. Trust me, somebody somewhere is likely eyeing what you’ve set your sights on.
Feldheim Kingdom Feldheim Kingdom (The City in the Rocks) is a mining city, it would make sense that it had dwarves. It might also be home to gnomes. I can imagine that the gnomes, with there mechanical prowess would be making a living of of making/repairing mining equipment and large machinery. if i were to have another race living here, it would have to be the goliaths. they would be ideal laborers, doing the heavy lifting of crates full of minerals and ore. Goliaths don't tend to stay stationary and tend to be a more outside and fresh air kind of race but the reason why there may be so many goliaths that live there would probably be because as the city itself is partly built into the mountain, the goliaths might have lost some of their territory and moved into the city. perhaps the mining inside the mountain and in caves or tunnels, could be disrupting the land on which the goliaths live and the land might not be in liveable condition.
Kilndrian Empire The Kilndrian Empire (The Immoral Providence) is one of the largest cities in this world, and by far the most religious. Though the Empire has its secrets. As for their gods that they worship, there is Savras, god of divination and fate, and behind the scenes they worship Shar, goddess of darkness and loss. The Kilndrian Empire might seem an upbeat and festive atmosphere, but in its core is a corrupt and cynical place. There is something scheming behind the scenes and it very much could bring disaster.
The Nether’s lost Located underground, The Nether's Lost is home to all things horrid. No one dares enter this place for it means certain death. Here lives all sorts of monster such as goblins, ogres, minotaurs, and orcs. The list goes on. There is however rumors of a treasure that lies beneath the feet of the people among the surface. The rumors tell that this treasure is a grand ancient relic that, if in the wrong hands would spell the end of this world as it is known.
Aerilous As one would expect of a magical floating city, Aerilous has a supply of all sorts of magic and it seems near limitless. Aerilous is the go to place for any and all your magic needs and is home for students that wish to master the ways of magic. When you first step foot onto Aerilous, the first thing that catches the eye is a ginormous tower in the middle of everything. Surrounding that tower are workshops, laboratories, and many, many bookstores. There is alway people hustling around trying to get from place to place, and the workshops try to welcome people to look at their magic items they had crafted every chance they get, the laboratories make noise all the time as they do their reaseach, and even the bookstores are alway having deals on there supply.The tower itself is actually a giant library owning any and every book you can imagine, and at the top is where the Master Council resides. The Master Council is made up by the founders of Aerilous, and they are in charge of the peace in the city. Aerilous is a magnificent wonder to behold and the best place to learn about anything you want.
The main conflict is the Kilndrian Empire ( as the PCs will start off being caught by), is trying to obtain a grand ancient relic from The Nether's Lost. If they were to succeed in obtaining this grand ancient relic, it could spell the end of this world as it is known. all of this is kept secret from the public and only a few select individuals know of its happenings. The PCs have been hired by the Feldheim kingdom to infiltrate the Kilndrian Empire and gather information on some fishy rumors regarding the schemes of the Kilndrian Empire.
This is what i got for the player introduction to the campaign so far:
The PCs will start out in a prison cell, their memories of what had happened to them are a bit hazy. All the PCs are able to remember is them entering a massive city, but soon after entering they all blacked out.
(if the PCs were to roll an intelligence check, they would have the possibly of remembering some rough details of the spot where they were taken and possibly an idea of what had happened to them.)
Note: As a side quest, I do plan on giving the PCs a way to recover their lost memories somewhat early in the campaign. The PCs will be able to find an NPC that may be slightly hidden, but would be obvious if they know where to look. Not sure where exactly the NPC will be hidden yet, but the PCs will think they are dumb when they notice how the NPC is hiding.
The PCs will be escorted in shackles by guards to a larger holding cell. In this cell, they will have the opportunity to pick weapons and armor. They then will see a gate open up at the end of a short hall leading out into a coliseum. The PCs will be met with roaring crowds of both booing and cheering, and then there is silence as a figure stands up. (It is implied that the figure in this scenario is the emperor of the Kilndrian Empire.)
“These fools have attempted steal from our sacred reliquary, and now they shall face punishment! And as entertainment I will release hell onto this band of criminals. In the slight chance they make it through this ordeal alive, it will be as proof our god have given them mercy. Now let the fun begin!”
(First encounter starts here)
After the encounter, the PCs exit the coliseum. There is a shady character waiting for them outside the coliseum looking for a report on the Kilndrian Empire’s war strategies. The PCs not knowing of this will choose how to react. If the PCs react as if they don't owe this shady character any favors and/or acts aggressively about it, the shady character might:
1) Assume them traitors and go off to inform the Feldheim Kingdom.
Or if the PCs react as if they don’t understand what is going on and proceed to ask what is happening, or ignore what the shady character has to say, he might:
2) Tell the PCs to gather more information and return to the Feldheim Kingdom to relay the situation.
3) Leave the party with a warning and give a deadline in which to gather information by and relay, or there may be possible consequences.
I believe they will try asking for information, just knowing the kind of people the players are irl. And I want them to put the pieces together that they were in the middle of a mission prior to losing their memory. But I'll be dming for them the first time however making this group a new experience.
All sugestions and criticisms are welcome. Thank you.
Whenever the PCs encounter something that could remind them of their quest, have them roll a history check with advantage (as it is their own memories). Also, make sure you know how they lost their memory.
Thinking as a player, I'm not sure how well I'd take starting without memory. It takes out a lot of the fun of backstory - you'd be starting without one and having to rediscover it, if you even get that opportunity.
You might want to remove just their recent memories, such as "they remember being on a cart traveling to talk to...someone... about a job or a cry for help". This can be explained along the lines of encode thoughts and a spymaster or something has 'plucked' the kingdom's secrets from their heads. This (like JCAUDM said) keeps the cool backstory part, whilst having the unknown current situation.
Some things to think about in world building (faction wise): Why (or why not) is Faction A in conflict with Faction B? How are they in conflict? (e.g. merchant embargo, armies fighting, etc.)
For example, if 1 faction is based in the major port city, they would prefer to not be at war as they would likely be based on trading. (long range trading by sea, short range by land) They could produce good diplomats and negotiators as they are able to keep beneficial agreements with the other factions or act as their bank and have the option to call in their loans if they so wish.
Example 2, a mountain/mining based faction which is rich in mineral resource is likely to be under pressure or even attack so that another faction might be able gain control of this rich resource. However if they are supported by the nearby faction of weaponsmiths with an agreement to send most of the iron their way, they would also be safe-ish. Likely though they would sell to most factions, and should they begin to be attacked, they would cut off trading to that faction and starve them of weapons. And fists vs a sword doesn't go well for the fists.
A possible change to the lead-up to the opening encounter, An emperor is probably unlikely to talk at a minor function, preferring to just watch. However if there was a large-ish arena, divided into sections by metal bars (like a cage/prison cell) and multiple fights were taking place at once it would be more likely that they would speak the opening words.
Also traitors and spies would be unlikely to get even this small chance of success, so it might be an idea to be accused of grand theft (stealing from the palace or something) and their real mission was not found out. Possibly because an information broker (mind thief) stole their memories and plans to blackmail them back to the PC's or something.
Faction building: The faction they start in would need to seem to be religious if "trial by combat/ordeal" was an option.
(Side note, happy to help with further in-depth world building if you want as well)
Yeah, you need to find a way to build backstory into this. For me, it's the best and easiest way to get players to invest. I'm not saying I'm opposed to the memory loss start, just agreeing with JCAUDM that you need backstory.
As for Factions? Religion man, religion. They always screw things up. And you've already mentioned "the gods", so they would certainly have some sort of representatives. For all their benevolence, religious orders usually want power too. You could also have a civilian faction looking to overthrow the empire from within, who may not be very happy that they're going to be the meat in the grinder of this war. A 5th one.... Aliens? Kidding. Although you could go with some sort of infernal baddy who is pulling the strings of everyone just to watch the world go up in flames and get souls into the underworld. A God of War or Death would be fun.
ALSO. Be prepared for the players to go off script. They get taken to a chamber with weapons. What if they attack the guards. What if they refuse to enter the coliseum. What if one of them throws a frickin trident at the emperor and rolls a nat 20.
A memory wipe is a rather big thing to put on players, or is that just me?
I think you would engage the players better by telling them they start in a cell and the general conflict going on, and then make the players help come up ideas for the background on how their character ended up in prison. These backgrounds can most likely also help create later plot hooks and / or complications.
I have updated and improved on my campaign by quite a bit. i have added all the factions and their descriptions, as well as reiterated the first session introduction. thank you everyone that has helped so far.