One day a few months back An idea struck and Ive been writing a homebrew slowly but surely ever since. Ive recently picked up steam drastically on this lately and I think im nearly ready to call on adventurers.
HOWEVER I have never DM'D before and have about 50-70 hours total play time as a Pc *roughly speaking *
My main worries are with my story arcs and my prep and was wondering could I get advice/Feedback from the community on how im going so far.
The introduction I have is
After 2 Day's at Sea The Captains aid gathers all of you stowaways in the Hold. Each of you are given a seaman's uniform and a crate of beer to put all of your belonging in.
Instantly a loud set of heavy footsteps come down the steps as the captain himself joins you in the brig
"in order to get off my ship you've got to act like my crew. Pack your items into these crates. This beer needs to get delivered to a Local Tavern by the name of Lightly's. Its in the dockyard square. Say George sent you. The will understand." The captain says
(This bit im happy with and would love peoples feedback on)
My main concern is the main quest line I have for the players.
I have it set that the king is very ill and needs medicine from ingredients found in different parts of the wild. The players along with a guide (who is really a villain) will be payed as hired help from an NPC working under the king.
My main arc is that the king has actually been murdered by poisoning days ago and the reasoning was to get another house into the seat of the throne. The king dies while the PCs are collecting the ingredients and the land falls into evil chaos which they must overthrow
(Is this "too thought out" or not enough or?)
Cheers for the replies! Sorry if this is all over the place.
So, is this a higher level quest, or a lower level quest? The stowaway scene looks low level. Like they don’t have much in the way of magic items or spells, and they need this captain’s plan in order to regain their freedom. Being hired on to help save the king sounds more like at least 8th lvl characters. And if they were higher level, would they just fall in line with your vision? Or would they more likely try to find their own way to save the king? Or pull some other shenanigans that ruin your plot twists?
My advice is to think more in terms of trigger events that give players something to react to in their own ways, instead of in a more narrative way of writing. So instead of “The king has actually been murdered days ago” it’s “ when they get to This Town, they are attacked by a spy who carries a note saying “Don’t let them come back until the poisoner’s work is done.” Campaigns are really just a long series of interconnected encounters more than a cohesive narrative. The narrative comes from what the PCs do around the encounters. So while yes, you need to have high level direction and character goals for your villains, the real determiner of a great adventure or campaign is at the encounter level. Because no plan survives first contact with the PCs.
The ship scene is how the players are introduced to themselves in the world; the ship is pulling into the harbour and they disembark with these crates. There first objective is wether or not they head to lightlys and if not what they do! :)
I guess my main issue with the campaign is trying to find out how to balance narrative with open ended choices; I feel the grand arc of the campaign should involve the king being in danger but perhaps smaller quests can level characters up before that quest line even becomes apparent?
I like your ideas. The starting scene gets the players into things right away. And your overall plot leaves you a lot of leeway on how things develop.
Some comments/questions:
Why are the PCs stowaways? Perhaps have your players come up with a background as to how then ended up a stowaway.
Do all the PCs have to be stowaways? Perhaps some of them are actually crew.
How do you make sure the players go through with the beer delivery? If they were stowaways they could just say 'yes' to get off the ship and then take off.
What happens when they get to where the beer is to be delivered? Is there something interesting you're planning there?
How do they get tasked with finding the rare ingredients? The NPC approaches them at the Tavern?
The rare ingredients is an excellent hook for having exploration of interesting wilderness environments, though you could also have something need to be "acquired" in town. Like maybe a temple unsympathetic to the king has some holy substance that's needed.
Are you sure the land falls into chaos when the king dies? If it was another house planning to take over, wouldn't it be more that they purge the military and city guard and impose strict martial law to suppress rebellion? It seems strange to me that they'd plan to kill the king without a plan to take tight control of things.
Hi Thanks for the response and thanks for the points to consider.
I Agree that they should include this in backgrounds they create! :)The PC's are stowaways because I didnt want to tie them to the role of ship crew. however having some as crew would help. (I guess I could rethink this slightly but I dont want the PC's having any connecton before the campaign.
I Feel by putting all of there belongings into the crates of beer there given it will incentivise them to continue to lightly'. while I did have an idea for a plot line to begin there I also felt if the players sat around a table it would be a good social introduction for the party to one another.
so here is a small paragraph I wrote regarding the tavern and how I intended to begin the players on the quest line. I feel the players wont feel to railroaded if they decide to take it and if they avoid all signs it still leaves the options open for them to find out about the kings illness from other sources.
The adventurers land in the town by boat and make there way towards lightly's. The town is rather busy with asteemed lords and stewards of the different houses. Through talking to the staff at lightlys they find the king to be rather Ill. after this discution (The players are given the oppertunity to come into contact with Ventis in the Tavern. He is a Nobel elf.) He offers the task of retrieving the wild ingredients for a medicine that will aid the kings health. He was bestowed the task but fears to much for his safety in the wild and that he would pay handsomely for a team of intrepid adventurers to complete the task.
If the players sit at there own table ventis buys them a round and requests there company. If they walk out of the tavern all together they run into another Nobel elf. He apologieses and walks on into the bar. The players notice he has dropped a slip of paper.
If they choose to give it back to the elf, the elf thanks them profusely and asks them to join him and his friend (Ventis) for a drink. If they choose to read it he notices and scorns them for it. He tells them that by reading the letter they have no choice but to do him a favour.
Religion is something I have yet to develop im still trying to work my head around what way I want to work it. I was thinking sun and moon gods but not sure! but that certainly isnt a bad idea and I will probably use it! Thanks! :D "Holy Water from the Shrine of "Insert Name Here" :)
Chaos perhaps was a stron word but yeah the way you describe it is perfect!
Thanks again :)
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One day a few months back An idea struck and Ive been writing a homebrew slowly but surely ever since. Ive recently picked up steam drastically on this lately and I think im nearly ready to call on adventurers.
HOWEVER I have never DM'D before and have about 50-70 hours total play time as a Pc *roughly speaking *
My main worries are with my story arcs and my prep and was wondering could I get advice/Feedback from the community on how im going so far.
The introduction I have is
After 2 Day's at Sea The Captains aid gathers all of you stowaways in the Hold. Each of you are given a seaman's uniform and a crate of beer to put all of your belonging in.
Instantly a loud set of heavy footsteps come down the steps as the captain himself joins you in the brig
"in order to get off my ship you've got to act like my crew. Pack your items into these crates. This beer needs to get delivered to a Local Tavern by the name of Lightly's. Its in the dockyard square. Say George sent you. The will understand." The captain says
(This bit im happy with and would love peoples feedback on)
My main concern is the main quest line I have for the players.
I have it set that the king is very ill and needs medicine from ingredients found in different parts of the wild. The players along with a guide (who is really a villain) will be payed as hired help from an NPC working under the king.
My main arc is that the king has actually been murdered by poisoning days ago and the reasoning was to get another house into the seat of the throne. The king dies while the PCs are collecting the ingredients and the land falls into evil chaos which they must overthrow
(Is this "too thought out" or not enough or?)
Cheers for the replies! Sorry if this is all over the place.
So, is this a higher level quest, or a lower level quest? The stowaway scene looks low level. Like they don’t have much in the way of magic items or spells, and they need this captain’s plan in order to regain their freedom. Being hired on to help save the king sounds more like at least 8th lvl characters. And if they were higher level, would they just fall in line with your vision? Or would they more likely try to find their own way to save the king? Or pull some other shenanigans that ruin your plot twists?
My advice is to think more in terms of trigger events that give players something to react to in their own ways, instead of in a more narrative way of writing. So instead of “The king has actually been murdered days ago” it’s “ when they get to This Town, they are attacked by a spy who carries a note saying “Don’t let them come back until the poisoner’s work is done.” Campaigns are really just a long series of interconnected encounters more than a cohesive narrative. The narrative comes from what the PCs do around the encounters. So while yes, you need to have high level direction and character goals for your villains, the real determiner of a great adventure or campaign is at the encounter level. Because no plan survives first contact with the PCs.
Ok thanks for the response!
The ship scene is how the players are introduced to themselves in the world; the ship is pulling into the harbour and they disembark with these crates. There first objective is wether or not they head to lightlys and if not what they do! :)
I guess my main issue with the campaign is trying to find out how to balance narrative with open ended choices; I feel the grand arc of the campaign should involve the king being in danger but perhaps smaller quests can level characters up before that quest line even becomes apparent?
I like your ideas. The starting scene gets the players into things right away. And your overall plot leaves you a lot of leeway on how things develop.
Some comments/questions:
Hi Thanks for the response and thanks for the points to consider.
The adventurers land in the town by boat and make there way towards lightly's. The town is rather busy with asteemed lords and stewards of the different houses. Through talking to the staff at lightlys they find the king to be rather Ill. after this discution (The players are given the oppertunity to come into contact with Ventis in the Tavern. He is a Nobel elf.) He offers the task of retrieving the wild ingredients for a medicine that will aid the kings health. He was bestowed the task but fears to much for his safety in the wild and that he would pay handsomely for a team of intrepid adventurers to complete the task.
If the players sit at there own table ventis buys them a round and requests there company. If they walk out of the tavern all together they run into another Nobel elf. He apologieses and walks on into the bar. The players notice he has dropped a slip of paper.
If they choose to give it back to the elf, the elf thanks them profusely and asks them to join him and his friend (Ventis) for a drink. If they choose to read it he notices and scorns them for it. He tells them that by reading the letter they have no choice but to do him a favour.
Thanks again :)