So, I've been working away on a campaign plot and thought it might be interesting to share my process. I'd love to see if fellow DMs can pick holes or find areas of weakness in the overall concept and the primary antagonist's motivations and actions.
The Pitch - On the continent of Thronus, the oppressive Elven Igemonia have fallen. The continent has been retaken by its non-elven, non-Fey inhabitants. However, somewhere there is an antagonist who is seeking to rip open the walls between planes of existance and allow a creature known only as The Hunger to emerge. In this world, plane shift and similar spells do not function. It is not possible to cross from the material plane to other planes of existance - no ifs, buts, or coconuts. If The Hunger is allowed to emerge, they will literally bring with them the entire population of the hells which will descend upon the world. So it's a pretty basic pitch here. Nothing real special.
What the player characters will likely 'know'.
The Setting - A low magic setting, only about 1% of the entire population can naturally harness magics (D&D Classes), and 'normal' people can't utilise magic items. The adventure will revolve around a city - Forsceta. With around 3,000-4,000 population (and yes this is realistic for a European inspired small city of the time period), within city walls and a technological progress of Late Anglo-Saxon England this city is at a time of peace and growth. It is highly democratic, and there are legal restrictions on the amount of profits able to be made by traders and suchlike. It functions much like a city-state. The city is the administrative capital of a patch of land extending 30 miles beyond the city walls in all directions. Beyond this, are the wild lands between city states. The city sits at the centre of the continent of Thronus. Due to the oppressive nature of the Elven Igemonia, the population despise and distrust any creatures of Fey Ancestry. What few Fey species that exist (Elves, Changelings, Fairies, etc) live outside of established cities and are effectively now disparate small tribes roaming the continent.
The History - When the Igemonia ruled much of the world, they treated non-Fey races as servants and oppressed them heavily. However, the Igemonia were the masters of magic. When they ruled, a creature could stride between planes with little to no thought or difficulty. No-one quite knows why the Igemonia fell. Many suspect that the Elves who ruled simply became decadant and misused magics. Others claimed it was pressure from rebellions. Still more claim that magic began to die which stripped the Igemonia of their magic advantages.
From here on out, is the secret stuff. Things for the characters to discover, or attempt to discover in play.
The Antagonist - The Antagonist is the last in a long and powerful line of Fey Changelings. The court to which this changeling belonged was one of the founding courts of the Igemonia. The grew powerful by striking a deal between the planes. That court became the gatekeepers of the material plane. No creature could enter the material plane without their permission. As the final member of the court, the deal compels the antagonist to open a gate between the material plane, and the hells. As the last of their court, the antagonist must complete a very ancient and powerful ritual. This ritual will cause the city of Forsceta to become the portal between the Hells and the Material Plane.
Motive - The Antagonist sees this as his duty, because the 'lesser' species managed to destroy his entire Fey court. By unleashing the Hells upon the material plane, he will see justice done and make the non-Fey species pay for overthrowing the Igemonia.
Tactics - The Antagonist presents themselves as the human, administration obsessed steward of the leader of Forsceta (the Forwost). The antagonist has been using what few Fey contacts they have to organise attacks and mischief which will concern and scare the population of the city. In doing so, the antagonist can convince the Forwost to go to extreme measures to try and 'save' the city from the Fey attacks. His goal is to lay the blame for the ritual at the feet of the Forwost - until it is too late.
Before the party/adventure begins
The City has suffered largely harmless, but scary to the population, attacks from Redcap Fey - all summoned by the antagonist
The antagonist pressures the Forwost to acquire a magic item that can 'awaken' magical abilities in 'normal' members of the city (our adventuring party/player characters).
Further pressure is placed on the Forwost to acquire reagents that will 'allow the Forwost to use the magic item'.
In reality the acquisition of these items is to ensure that the paper trail leads back to the Forwost. The item and reagents are necessary for the antagonist's ritual.
Antagonist's Plan 'A'
At this point the party are formed and player characters are walking the world.
The antagonist will work with a Black Marketeer to start flooding the city with dangerous goods, and undermine the economic stability of the city.
The antagonist must acquire a very specific ritual dagger.
12 very specific 'sacrifices' must be chosen. Their blood must be shed during a ritual.
An emmissary of The Hunger (a fiend) must be called into the Material plane to 'prepare the way'.
At this point nothing can stop the arrival of The Hunger. The black market can be discovered and is of little consequence because the evidence points to the Forwost, not the antagonist.
Back-Up Plans
The antagonist's first tactic is always clandestine. They will try to use other people to get access to the things he requires. Frame jobs, subversion, and even the mysteries of administration and beaurocracy are their main tools. If that fails however, he will be left with no choice but to kill, usually trying to frame an innocent person.
If the antagonist is revealed to be a changeling, they will retreat to a pre-prepared place that is secured and secret to continue with their plans.
If the dagger is not acquired, or the party discover it and hide/destroy it; then the dagger must either be stolen back or reforged. The antagonist will kill, steal, and do pretty much anything to get the dagger back.
If the sacrifices are hidden, killed outside of the ritual, or otherwise placed out of the antagonist's reach they will try and scour for a suitable replacement. Failing that, they will utilise mercenaries to attempt to rectify the situation. If the sacrifices can't be used for the ritual, the antagonist will begin sabotaging the party's efforts and eventually build up to a full attack on the group. Potentially starting by framing the group for murder, or trying to turn the city against these magic using 'traitors'. The final revenge would be an attack on the party along with what reinforcements or mercenaries he can summon.
If the ritual step to call forth the emmissary is interupted, the antagonist will simply try again. He already has a back-up location that is secure and hidden, to which he can withdraw.
If the back-up location is discovered the ritual fails and he exacts the revenge as detailed above.
If the ritual step to call the emmissary is thwarted, again he will exact revenge.
The antagonist has, prior to the adventure set up many distractions like hiding Swarm of Rot Grubs in the city's granaries and warehouses; setting up the black marketeer as a bad guy; or like a referendum on allowing traders to make unlimited profits. The biggest distraction is the ability to kill the mentor of the player characters, framing the party for the murder.
If the antagonist is captured, they have already set up ways to escape the prison.
If the escape attempt failed, their Redcap Fey allies will attempt to break the antagonist out of prison.
If the antagonist is killed, the ritual fails - the player characters stand victorious, but the antagonist's Fey allies will attack and beseige the city.
The Hunger Rises
If the party fail to uncover the antagonist's plans and/or the antagonist manages to achieve his goals then we enter a final stage.
Forsceta becomes the floodgate through which every fiend and monster from the Hells will descend upon the material plane.
The party's first order of business would be to attempt to evacuate the population.
The antagonist, and the Emmissary, must be killed in order to slow the flow of fiends into the material plane. The Hunger will recover and make their way to the world though.
The Hunger is the last of the fiends to enter the material plane, so the party would literally have to traverse the Hells to get to them and face off against the Hunger.
There's a lot of misdirection and social roleplay fodder here, and that's what I'm going for. I don't 'write a story'. Rather I plan out a few key events and the plan for the enemy of the adventure. The story is the party's to tell and share. I also like to remain flexible too, so I'm not the person who is going to write specifically what date, or how information can be discovered. I tend to react to the investigations of the party. Short of a boneheaded course of action I won't consider any one path they take to be 'right' or 'wrong'. I am also the type of DM who sets out that the adventure is all in and around the city. If the party decide to leave the city and never look back - that's the end of the adventure. The antagonist suceeds and the world as they know it, ends. (Yes. The players are informed of this before play begins)
So, is there anything I've missed? Any holes you can see that ought to be filled? What do you think of this style of adventure design?
So, I've been working away on a campaign plot and thought it might be interesting to share my process. I'd love to see if fellow DMs can pick holes or find areas of weakness in the overall concept and the primary antagonist's motivations and actions.
The Pitch - On the continent of Thronus, the oppressive Elven Igemonia have fallen. The continent has been retaken by its non-elven, non-Fey inhabitants. However, somewhere there is an antagonist who is seeking to rip open the walls between planes of existance and allow a creature known only as The Hunger to emerge. In this world, plane shift and similar spells do not function. It is not possible to cross from the material plane to other planes of existance - no ifs, buts, or coconuts. If The Hunger is allowed to emerge, they will literally bring with them the entire population of the hells which will descend upon the world. So it's a pretty basic pitch here. Nothing real special.
What the player characters will likely 'know'.
The Setting - A low magic setting, only about 1% of the entire population can naturally harness magics (D&D Classes), and 'normal' people can't utilise magic items. The adventure will revolve around a city - Forsceta. With around 3,000-4,000 population (and yes this is realistic for a European inspired small city of the time period), within city walls and a technological progress of Late Anglo-Saxon England this city is at a time of peace and growth. It is highly democratic, and there are legal restrictions on the amount of profits able to be made by traders and suchlike. It functions much like a city-state. The city is the administrative capital of a patch of land extending 30 miles beyond the city walls in all directions. Beyond this, are the wild lands between city states. The city sits at the centre of the continent of Thronus. Due to the oppressive nature of the Elven Igemonia, the population despise and distrust any creatures of Fey Ancestry. What few Fey species that exist (Elves, Changelings, Fairies, etc) live outside of established cities and are effectively now disparate small tribes roaming the continent.
The History - When the Igemonia ruled much of the world, they treated non-Fey races as servants and oppressed them heavily. However, the Igemonia were the masters of magic. When they ruled, a creature could stride between planes with little to no thought or difficulty. No-one quite knows why the Igemonia fell. Many suspect that the Elves who ruled simply became decadant and misused magics. Others claimed it was pressure from rebellions. Still more claim that magic began to die which stripped the Igemonia of their magic advantages.
From here on out, is the secret stuff. Things for the characters to discover, or attempt to discover in play.
The Antagonist - The Antagonist is the last in a long and powerful line of Fey Changelings. The court to which this changeling belonged was one of the founding courts of the Igemonia. The grew powerful by striking a deal between the planes. That court became the gatekeepers of the material plane. No creature could enter the material plane without their permission. As the final member of the court, the deal compels the antagonist to open a gate between the material plane, and the hells. As the last of their court, the antagonist must complete a very ancient and powerful ritual. This ritual will cause the city of Forsceta to become the portal between the Hells and the Material Plane.
Motive - The Antagonist sees this as his duty, because the 'lesser' species managed to destroy his entire Fey court. By unleashing the Hells upon the material plane, he will see justice done and make the non-Fey species pay for overthrowing the Igemonia.
Tactics - The Antagonist presents themselves as the human, administration obsessed steward of the leader of Forsceta (the Forwost). The antagonist has been using what few Fey contacts they have to organise attacks and mischief which will concern and scare the population of the city. In doing so, the antagonist can convince the Forwost to go to extreme measures to try and 'save' the city from the Fey attacks. His goal is to lay the blame for the ritual at the feet of the Forwost - until it is too late.
Before the party/adventure begins
Antagonist's Plan 'A'
At this point the party are formed and player characters are walking the world.
At this point nothing can stop the arrival of The Hunger. The black market can be discovered and is of little consequence because the evidence points to the Forwost, not the antagonist.
Back-Up Plans
The antagonist's first tactic is always clandestine. They will try to use other people to get access to the things he requires. Frame jobs, subversion, and even the mysteries of administration and beaurocracy are their main tools. If that fails however, he will be left with no choice but to kill, usually trying to frame an innocent person.
The Hunger Rises
If the party fail to uncover the antagonist's plans and/or the antagonist manages to achieve his goals then we enter a final stage.
There's a lot of misdirection and social roleplay fodder here, and that's what I'm going for. I don't 'write a story'. Rather I plan out a few key events and the plan for the enemy of the adventure. The story is the party's to tell and share. I also like to remain flexible too, so I'm not the person who is going to write specifically what date, or how information can be discovered. I tend to react to the investigations of the party. Short of a boneheaded course of action I won't consider any one path they take to be 'right' or 'wrong'. I am also the type of DM who sets out that the adventure is all in and around the city. If the party decide to leave the city and never look back - that's the end of the adventure. The antagonist suceeds and the world as they know it, ends. (Yes. The players are informed of this before play begins)
So, is there anything I've missed? Any holes you can see that ought to be filled? What do you think of this style of adventure design?
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.