Here is the basis for the Campaign premise I am going to run in about 1 month. Please critique as you like. I have a few changes and smaller things I will include. Also, feel free to ask questions and suggest ideas. I probably won't take any new suggestions and will run this as I like, but anyways, feel free to copy.
World: Aldona
The world is an old world, one where war has shaped the lives of its inhabitants and both began and ended many eras of its history. The gods watch over letting the mortals do as they see fit. Some say the gods have not sway over the world and just command their worshippers to do their bidding; others say the gods walked the world long ago, but grew bored and retired to their respective domains. Many theories exist to explain the many factors of reality. Long ago one group of such researchers decided to build a powerful tool to test their theories and study the world and planar system. They built the Observatory. The Observatory was an amazing creation, it was eons ahead of its time and it allowed the choice few who could be trusted by those who built it to study the universe better than ever before. Nothing could compare to the magnificence and power of the Observatory. No one had ever tried to create such an object and the secrets to how it was crafted were kept hidden even to those that had access to its grand halls. Eventually, the original sages were betrayed by one of their own. They were cut down until only one remained. No one knows who survived the ordeal or even how many of the original creators of the Observatory existed, but this one survivor decided to place the Observatory into hiding and thus created the Guardians. These were twelve powerful individuals who slowly gained the trust of the survivor and were eventually placed in control and protection of the Observatory. These individuals each represented an art form of power known as a class. The twelve classes included: The rage of the Barbarian, the talent of the Bard, the divinity of the Cleric, the ferocity of the Druid, the martial prowess of the Fighter, the adeptness of the Monk, the fervor of the Paladin, the grit of the Ranger, the skill of the Rogue, the raw power of the Sorcerer, the pact of the Warlock, and the knowledge of the Wizard. There was one guardian for each class and they never took on more than their original group. These guardians changed over time as they came and went with the passing of time until they realized the difficulty of trying to train up successors to the previous who died protecting the Observatory from the outside world. Eventually, the Guardians decided to deactivate the Observatory and hide it to prevent those with malicious intent from finding it. They then took the time to cast themselves adrift and forget. Each one of them carried a flask from the River Styx and when they reached their destination, they drank it. Forgetting everything and joining the masses. They left behind one prophecy that has since faded into legend. “Come a new dawn, the Observatory lives, drawn forth will it recall its Guardians, whoever may be with us, and this dawn will bring the answers from beyond the stars.” Its meaning has long been speculated, but I believe it translates to “One day the Observatory will wake up and the Guardians will return to it, to usher into a new age of information.” But this is merely the idea of one professor. Who am I to know what it truly means for Aldona.
Plan
Have the party wake up in a small town called Starhaven and they have no recollection of anything, even their name. Jack the Herdsman will bring the group to try and regain their memory from the local place called the Memory Well, hidden in the ruins of an old temple as they call it. The Memory Well is known to bring back people’s memories in either an instant or after a month at most. The party then are greeted by the Observatory (Annoying Robotic Voice) and go through the process of getting their classes and backgrounds and remember their names but don’t remember more than their training and general history. They are told they cannot regain their memories until they have trained and that with training and performing missions for the Observatory as its Guardians that they will slowly regain memories.
The party start at level 3 and immediately after they all drink from the Memory Well they are attacked by a band of 3 Hobgoblins and 1 Hobgoblin Captain (Or appropriate for their level). Jack the Herdsman is a Druid and he fights alongside them. They are alerted to these intruders by the Observatory itself and get the drop on them.
After the fight, the party must stay and train for a week while Jack gets to cleaning up the Observatory. He has a small animal send a message to his family to tend his sheep while he is away, but soon realizes that this will become his job. The Observatory has its own underground garden and Jack soon begins to weed it and plant fresh food, but for the time the party must each the stored rations that last them for a month, but it will be three months before any crops become available. In the meantime, the Observatory will send them to raid a dungeon and get some money to buy supplies with. After they get the supplies the Observatory suggests they try and retrieve the artifact that will unlock the Observation Chamber and sends the party to go find it.
Features of the Observatory
The Observatory has many rooms, some of which are locked until the party bring back certain artifacts that the Observatory sends them to retrieve.
The rooms include the following:
Foray
Grand Entrance Hall
Library
Kitchen
Sleeping Quarters
Gardens
Bathing Chambers
Memory Well
Armoury
Storage Hold
Holding Cells
Training Deck
Observation Chamber
Creation Hall
Already Present Recipes:
Bag of Holding (U)
Driftglobe (U)
Potion of Greater Healing (U)
Potion of Fire Breath (U)
Potion of Water Breathing (U)
+1 Weapon (U)
+1 Shield (U)
+1 Ammunition (U)
Communications Hub
Design Station
Vault
Teleportation Chamber
Oculus
Defense Matrix
Arcane Core
Flight Deck
The Observatory also has access to the following spells and unlocks each level when the party reach the appropriate level to use those spells, the bold spells were learned first for each level and the Observatory starts at level 3 alongside the group.
To me you have set up a cool hub for the PCs and a start for how they find it. But then what? I miss an overall arch that leads up to a finale of some sort and challenges in between. What conflict are the PCs facing? What world shattering events led to the death of the creators - and by whom - that led to the Guardians? Is that person/god/creature/group at it again? If so, why now? How will they go about it? Are the PCs hunted and/or known? Are it/they searching for the Observatory? Have the players agreed to not more than one PC of each class? As that is the premise of the guardians. If not, perhaps say that there were twelve guardians, chosen for their virtue and will, rather than their class. If the Observatory is so powerful, I think you need more than spells that, potentially, any wizard or sorcerer could learn at level 20. What can the Observatory do and why was it so ahead of its time? I would go outside the spell lists and create powers and/or technology that tie into the overall conflict.
So, I have purposefully left it open to work the character's chosen classes, backgrounds, and races into so I can make it up after we begin to play. This allows me to throw the entire Monster Manual at the players throughout their adventurers as I will have them hunt down the artifacts in far-off lands of all kinds from jungles to deserts to underground mushroom forests to giant floating crystal castles. The idea is that the characters are trying to figure out what happened with the Observatory and their pasts as they have no clue about it. My ideas for that portion are not fully there as I will kind of build it as we play depending on what ideas I get from how the players interact with the world (Improvise as we go is my DM style). The power level of the Observatory is also something I wanted to go off the player's ability because at higher levels it would also get access to an Avatar which it would be able to move around within itself. I chose to have only those select spells because the Observatory has less limit to its ability to cast because it doesn't need to worry about location and distant while the creature or thing it targets is within it. Only in Avatar form would that matter. I also am the one in charge of its ability to use the spells. I would change how the targeting system works for the spells because it can transport all of itself into the Astral plane with the Astral Projection spell like a Spaceship would warp drive. Hence why at level 13 it gets the Flight Deck. The Observatory literally can move at that point and can teleport and change planes. It becomes stronger than any normal teleporting spell. Also, it can manipulate the effects of many of the spells it casts such as Time Stop it can allow anyone it likes to not be Time Stopped until one person who is Time Stopped becomes affected by someone who is. I also, don't want to give the Observatory other major abilities because I feel that I can manipulate its casting of any of the listed spells to allows for a certain effect as I would changing it slightly in some situations. Since it also has the Wizard spell slots of the appropriate level, this would give it plenty of power. The reason as well that the Observatory is not necessarily stronger than a level 20 character is because it is smarter than any level 20 character and has the cunning to stop anyone who is. If someone tried to Wish something against the Observatory, it could easily Counterspell them as it is not above doing so. I have not shown the specific stats of the Avatar, but I have them at 20s in all skills. The main factor of the Observatory is its knowledge of anything that happens within it that is not obscured by some powerful magic or illusion, but even then it can still dispel it as it can do that. The idea is that the Observatory is more like a version of Hal who is on the party's side. Also, when it comes to my game, I will state to the party that there can only be one of each class (Which I have done before multiple times with no difficulty) and the players have always been okay with as they see it as covering the bases. The ingame idea is that the Original twelve gave rise to the idea of the actual classes in the lore and were the originals of each. The main reason why the Observatory shut down also is that a certain piece of knowledge was too much for the time and it needed to be kept hidden. The specifics I have still not decided, but they are along the lines of a multiverse theory that was believed to have upset the balance of the world until a time when it would prove useful in defending the fabric of reality. The PCs are not being hunted and the idea of the Observatory is known to many big evils in the world who see it as a way to get power, but most are not actively seeking it as they don't know how to. The idea is that this place is the secret to unlocking the secrets to all of reality and if one with a malicious intent had that knowledge they could become a god of some sort. The PCs are the intended guardians of this knowledge even if they don't know it yet and are the ones who get to really decide the fate of reality when times comes to it. Also, know that certain spells the Observatory can cast will have manipulated durations and potentially multiple castings in the sense of an invasion. This is when I make the Observatory go overdrive and have stronger than normal casting abilities with its ability to not use spell slots, but it would need time to recharge, making it vulnerable and in need of the PCs defending it. Also, I did not make it clear that certain rooms have certain abilities:
Observation Chamber - 1-mile radius of sensing aura alongside telescope and other spying materials that upgrade as they go
Creation Hall - Crafting Room where the party make magical artifacts because they are not as present in the world
Communications Hub - Unlimited Sending through visual projection to chosen linked individuals like a holodeck
Design Station - The party get to redesign the Observatory itself and can change the layout of any unlocked room
Vault - big upgrade in magic items that the previous owners made including custom items designed for each character
Teleportation Chamber - Unlimited Teleportation Circle spell
Oculus - Unlimited Scrying spell similar to a Crystal Ball
Defense Matrix - Disintegrate spell to any individual the Observatory chooses who is inside with a Recharge of 6 like some monsters
Arcane Core - Ability to forgo spell slots for a day at the cost of reduced casting ability the following days
Flight Deck - Ability to literally fly and teleport like a spaceship (Considered Fully Operational)
Beyond that will depend on the party and their adventures
If the game does go to level 20, and I doubt it, the Observatory will also have access to an ability in which it can create Simulacrums of each of the party members when they are away to help protect itself. Other than this I can really work with the spells it has, just making some unlimited really ups the ante with power level and means I don't have to create my own abilities, making it easier for me to use something that has been designed balanced. I just need to balance my usage of it.
So yeah, that's my plan. I have way more than I put above and even this listed. I am keeping it free form, even the world itself is minimally planned to allow for me changing my mind during play.
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Here is the basis for the Campaign premise I am going to run in about 1 month. Please critique as you like. I have a few changes and smaller things I will include. Also, feel free to ask questions and suggest ideas. I probably won't take any new suggestions and will run this as I like, but anyways, feel free to copy.
World: Aldona
Plan
Features of the Observatory
To me you have set up a cool hub for the PCs and a start for how they find it. But then what? I miss an overall arch that leads up to a finale of some sort and challenges in between. What conflict are the PCs facing? What world shattering events led to the death of the creators - and by whom - that led to the Guardians? Is that person/god/creature/group at it again? If so, why now? How will they go about it? Are the PCs hunted and/or known? Are it/they searching for the Observatory?
Have the players agreed to not more than one PC of each class? As that is the premise of the guardians. If not, perhaps say that there were twelve guardians, chosen for their virtue and will, rather than their class.
If the Observatory is so powerful, I think you need more than spells that, potentially, any wizard or sorcerer could learn at level 20. What can the Observatory do and why was it so ahead of its time? I would go outside the spell lists and create powers and/or technology that tie into the overall conflict.
So, I have purposefully left it open to work the character's chosen classes, backgrounds, and races into so I can make it up after we begin to play. This allows me to throw the entire Monster Manual at the players throughout their adventurers as I will have them hunt down the artifacts in far-off lands of all kinds from jungles to deserts to underground mushroom forests to giant floating crystal castles. The idea is that the characters are trying to figure out what happened with the Observatory and their pasts as they have no clue about it. My ideas for that portion are not fully there as I will kind of build it as we play depending on what ideas I get from how the players interact with the world (Improvise as we go is my DM style). The power level of the Observatory is also something I wanted to go off the player's ability because at higher levels it would also get access to an Avatar which it would be able to move around within itself. I chose to have only those select spells because the Observatory has less limit to its ability to cast because it doesn't need to worry about location and distant while the creature or thing it targets is within it. Only in Avatar form would that matter. I also am the one in charge of its ability to use the spells. I would change how the targeting system works for the spells because it can transport all of itself into the Astral plane with the Astral Projection spell like a Spaceship would warp drive. Hence why at level 13 it gets the Flight Deck. The Observatory literally can move at that point and can teleport and change planes. It becomes stronger than any normal teleporting spell. Also, it can manipulate the effects of many of the spells it casts such as Time Stop it can allow anyone it likes to not be Time Stopped until one person who is Time Stopped becomes affected by someone who is. I also, don't want to give the Observatory other major abilities because I feel that I can manipulate its casting of any of the listed spells to allows for a certain effect as I would changing it slightly in some situations. Since it also has the Wizard spell slots of the appropriate level, this would give it plenty of power. The reason as well that the Observatory is not necessarily stronger than a level 20 character is because it is smarter than any level 20 character and has the cunning to stop anyone who is. If someone tried to Wish something against the Observatory, it could easily Counterspell them as it is not above doing so. I have not shown the specific stats of the Avatar, but I have them at 20s in all skills. The main factor of the Observatory is its knowledge of anything that happens within it that is not obscured by some powerful magic or illusion, but even then it can still dispel it as it can do that. The idea is that the Observatory is more like a version of Hal who is on the party's side. Also, when it comes to my game, I will state to the party that there can only be one of each class (Which I have done before multiple times with no difficulty) and the players have always been okay with as they see it as covering the bases. The ingame idea is that the Original twelve gave rise to the idea of the actual classes in the lore and were the originals of each. The main reason why the Observatory shut down also is that a certain piece of knowledge was too much for the time and it needed to be kept hidden. The specifics I have still not decided, but they are along the lines of a multiverse theory that was believed to have upset the balance of the world until a time when it would prove useful in defending the fabric of reality. The PCs are not being hunted and the idea of the Observatory is known to many big evils in the world who see it as a way to get power, but most are not actively seeking it as they don't know how to. The idea is that this place is the secret to unlocking the secrets to all of reality and if one with a malicious intent had that knowledge they could become a god of some sort. The PCs are the intended guardians of this knowledge even if they don't know it yet and are the ones who get to really decide the fate of reality when times comes to it. Also, know that certain spells the Observatory can cast will have manipulated durations and potentially multiple castings in the sense of an invasion. This is when I make the Observatory go overdrive and have stronger than normal casting abilities with its ability to not use spell slots, but it would need time to recharge, making it vulnerable and in need of the PCs defending it. Also, I did not make it clear that certain rooms have certain abilities:
If the game does go to level 20, and I doubt it, the Observatory will also have access to an ability in which it can create Simulacrums of each of the party members when they are away to help protect itself. Other than this I can really work with the spells it has, just making some unlimited really ups the ante with power level and means I don't have to create my own abilities, making it easier for me to use something that has been designed balanced. I just need to balance my usage of it.
So yeah, that's my plan. I have way more than I put above and even this listed. I am keeping it free form, even the world itself is minimally planned to allow for me changing my mind during play.