I'm a new DM planning out an adventure in a homebrew world. Right now I have an idea in having my adventurers meet in a small village tavern, accidentally start a tab, get drunk, and find out the morning after the bill is much more coin than they have, thanks to some heavy drinkers outside the party. My idea to bring the adventurers together was them to find an old man in the town, (secretly a young wizard in disguise) who offers to repay the tavern on behalf of the adventurers, as well as 1000 GP each if they retrieve a stolen wedding ring of his, as well as his life savings, stolen by goblins and a thieves guild on his way to the town. The twist is there is no wedding ring, or gold, but in fact a powerful weapon that would reignite the conquest of the Orcs in my world. My plan was to have a fight break out between the secret wizard and his hidden minions in an ambush, and the adventurers are all knocked out.
My problem is I don't know if it is a good idea to have the first session end in the adventurers being defeated and knocked out on purpose, but I cannot figure out a way to weave the adventurer's paths together with this intro that I like. Any advice on how I can have an event occur before the tavern visit that can sorta bring the adventurers together, or leave it as is?
I'm not sure I'm following the purpose. What are you trying to get the group to do? Find the powerful weapon? If so, what is it? And if the adventurers retrieve it, why would the wizard knock them out? They're returning it to him. Or is your goal for them to be knocked out? In which case, why?
My purpose is to set the plot that the wizard was hired by the Orc Chief to retrieve the weapon.* The weapon was originally kept guarded by an Empire in my world, but a thieves guild which uses magic stole it and took it to a thieves hideout, to decide what to do with it. (sell it to the hightet bidder, etc.) This secret wizard was able to somehow in his own ways figure out the location of this weapon, but could not retrieve it alone because (I forgot to add this in the original post) this wizard retrieves his power from an amulet he must wear, which prolongs his aging and gives him magical powers. This amulet was also stolen, and without the amulet, he returned to his real state which is a frail old man. Upon retrieving the amulet, he regains his magical powers, in addition to later receiving money from the Orcs when he sells the hammer back to them, as he found the Orc Chief's long lost weapon of destruction. This would lead to conflict between the Orcs and the Empire, which the adventurers would work to resolve.
*The weapon is an ancient stone hammer, handed down through the Orc generations, ans was used in various wars with an Empire in my world. The weapon led to the slaying of several kings, which led to some sieges of the capital. Since losing the weapon in the latest war, the Orcs will not go to war again, as they view the weapon as a symbol, in their eyes, as hope without it, they stay in their territory.
1) Skip the tavern drinking. Start the next morning with them hungover. Summarize the events of the night before and launch into the interaction with the wizard. Paying off a hefty tab in return for a simple retrieval ought to be motivating enough for the PCs to head off on the adventure.
2) Start with the tavern drinking and you could have it that the people who run up the PCs' tab are the wizard's minions but they don't know. This has the advantage of coming back as a plot quest later on.
I'm not sure you need the minions knocking them out until they get to where they think the amulet is and they only find the artifact. But be prepared for the PCs to come up with something clever to keep their hands on the weapon when the wizard's minions show up to get the object. The PCs have cleared the hideout which makes it that the minions can get to the artifact and there's a battle over the artifact.
Right, ok then. So he hires the adventurers to get his medallion (a family heirloom he cares greatly about) back. He'll pay their tab, and anything else they happen to find "is theirs to keep". He's sure there will be a bunch of valuable stuff in the hoard, making it more than worth their while. When they find the stuff, talk the hammer up a bit so it's something they want to take.
When they return the medallion, he can casually mention a big stone hammer, and if they'd picked that up along the way. They may lie about it, but either way, he won't risk it, wether he believes them or not. He casts something or other, knocks them all out and makes off with the Hammer. But that's horribly railroady. They could surprise you and give him the hammer, or sell it to him. If THAT'S the case, find a way to drop some info on them. A tale they overhear about some Orcs searching for this weapon of Legend, powerful enough to bring the Empire to it's knees. At which point, the penny should drop.
That's a concern I've been having... How do I have the master plot, with side quests that can tie back to the master plot while not having it like a railroad? I was thinking since this is mainly meant to bring the adventurers together, that would be railroaded and then it would open up to "adventure," but being a first time Dm planning an adventurer I didn't really know what would be best for my players.
Railroads are not ideal, but they're also not absolute no go's, depending on why you use them. If you want to display this wizard as super OP once he has the medallion, and the adventurers shouldn't seek him out until they have more experience then giving them a smackdown serves that purpose. Or if they don't tell him about the hammer, you could let them roll deception. They may pass or fail. But he could let them leave and then hire another group to pinch it when they're not paying that much attention. Then when they notice it's missing, that will lead them back to the wizard. Then you could go back with the loose tail of the Orcish Weapon of Great Destruction. Either way, I can't see you getting out of it without removing your PC's choices at least a little if they don't want to co-operate.
Is the wizard a long term part of your story, or just a vehicle to introduce the players and get the hammer to the orcs?
Planning for contingencies is how you avoid the rails. Reading published adventures (both WOTC and DMs Guild) and watching online streams, they almost all start with a rail. But then the character choices blow the rails up. That's just my observation and .02.
My next session in my campaign I'm running (if we ever play again) I have the hook of what happened last time to start the session. If they choose to go that route, they'll find themselves in a dungeon crawl. Once that's over, I have several contingencies laid out. I know what will come next based on a multitude of choices I foresee the PCs making. Once they make that choice, the other things that happen could still happen in the future, but they'd be modified to reflect previous PC choices. Asking "What if" and answering that over and over again with a situation your PCs will face will help you find all those contingencies so that you're ready when a choice is made and the PCs feel like their choices are shaping the world around them. As far as getting back to those early hooks that are abandoned, maybe a key NPC that would have been in Location A had the PCs made Choice A are now in Location B because they went with Choice B.
If the PCs keep the hammer and the wizard later sends minions to steal it, maybe the war starts up and the next time the PCs are in town they start asking about what caused the war to begin again. If you have either one of the minions who stole it there, they could make some intimidation checks or use spells to get information out of him. Or if one of your PCs is a scholarly type maybe they go to a library and research the previous wars and find mention of some sort of all-powerful weapon that one side or the other wielded with a vague description that a good roll of the dice using a skill of your choice would nudge the PCs to going after the wizard. Explore all the possible paths that information could travel along and you'll be ready for anything your PCs throw at you.
The goal of this Opening Chapter, so to speak.. is to inform the adventurers that the wizard was tasked by the Orcs to retrieve their legendary weapon. (Or he will receive a massive award for returning the weapon to the Orcs.)
What I was looking at was there could be a hideout the wizard lived in with fellow wizard minions, and they could discover his whereabouts that way, then battle him and find out the hammer was given to the orcs so they could go to war once again. Or maybe that the amulet's true powers can be revealed, and they discover his weakness, and find him some different way.. I haven't worked it out yet.
Another question... How can I make it so there are multiple ways for the players to discover the power of his amulet and his whereabouts? Or more general, how to make a quest be approached in a unique way to the players? I don't just want one or two ways the chapter ending can be reached.
I'd just have him put the medallion on when they return it and he ages backwards before their eyes. Get all narrative with it, emphasising his weakened, frail state when they meet him, to his new young, strong, healthy state. As far as the hammer.
They bring it back and he asks if they have it. From there.....
1: they lie. He doesn't believe them. He beats the hell out of them and takes it by force.
2: they lie. He doesn't believe them. He gets some of his minions to steal it, the PC's not realising until they go to sell it/use it. They overhear in a tavern or somesuch that the Orcs are looking for some great hammer they lost. If they find it, then the whole Empire will be in peril. This is even better if they hear this before they realise it's been pinched.
3: they tell the wizard they have it and refuse to part with it. See either 1 or 2.
4: they sell/give it to the wizard. See the end of part 2.
The wizard sends them to get the medallion and says they can keep anything else they find (because he doesn't want to bring attention to the hammer). Then when they get back, he casually mentions it (while you were gone, I heard a tale about a stone hammer that's gone missing. I don't suppose you noticed if the same villains that stole my medallion filched that as well?), and wonders if they'd picked it up. Go from there.
Reading through all of this, it's similar to an issue I had early on in my DMing - it seems like you're over-engineering the plot without taking into account how wild and reckless PCs can be.
Honestly, I'd start with the PCs waking up hungover in the tavern with an angry bartender asking for their tab to be paid. None of them remember the night before (which maybe can be used for plot stuff later on in the game) and they have to explain they don't have the money for the tab. An elderly man (the wizard) overhears this as he's staying at the B&B above the tavern and has come down for breakfast. He offers to pay off the tab (and get them all breakfast!) if they can help him retrieve a small item that means a lot to no one but him...
PCs then agree to do this (maybe with some chat about if they should, if they're naturally suspicious) and head out to go pick up the "family heirloom" that's been lost. Once they clear the fortress, they'll honestly probably loot everything, but plan for what happens if they don't. If they don't, someone will have to go and get the loot (maybe have them brag about all the [bad guys] they killed in [location] when they get back to town, and then someone can take the hammer).
If they do loot it, they can do a number of things. (A) Take it to the old man (wizard), (B) try to sell it, (C) keep it. You don't want C to happen, otherwise the orcs don't get the hammer. Make sure that none of the players can work out how powerful it is, so even if they do inspect it, make sure it has a silly high DC. If they do B, they can sell it on with no real thoughts (probably for quite cheap / at face value) and then an orc lackey can find it and pass it on to the orc chief, similar to if they leave the hammer.
A is interesting because it depends on if you want the wizard to reveal his wizardness or not. If you do, you could have him immediately put on the amulet that the PCs have gotten and show off, and then ask them what else they found and if he could appraise any of it for them (it's a good idea for him to not be overtly desperate for the hammer itself). If they show him the hammer he could "have a friend" that needs something like this, and offer to buy it from them for a cheap price. Or, they could gift it to him as a thank you for paying their tab. You never know how PCs will react to offers like that. If you don't want him to reveal that he's a wizard, do all of the above but without the offer of magical appraisal of the items unless you think the wizard could appraise items without his magic. Other options here could be that he's a collector of odd things (and play up the eccentric old man vibe), or that he has a lot of merchant friends and will pay for items to sell on... etc.
Ultimately, come up with the base plot and then come up with variants for the likely choices that they'll make. Even if it seems silly sometimes, coming up with ways to fix the plot can help if they do eventually make a choice that completely throws you as a DM.
How should I plan my adventure then with a main plot without over-engineering it? I know per session, you should plan various paths based on what you think the players will do, but how do I plan various bosses in my campaign that are required to beat to continue to the next chapter, let alone the climax to the ending, while still letting the campaign be open-ended so the players can choose whatever path they want to take?
How should I plan my adventure then with a main plot without over-engineering it? I know per session, you should plan various paths based on what you think the players will do, but how do I plan various bosses in my campaign that are required to beat to continue to the next chapter, let alone the climax to the ending, while still letting the campaign be open-ended so the players can choose whatever path they want to take?
Play what if with the boss and those myriad decisions they could make. Unlike video games, your NPCs and BBEGs aren't static. Do the PCs successfully deceive the wizard and he thinks they don't have the hammer? Great. What's the BBEG's next move based on that? Do they only think they successfully deceived him? Great. And then keep doing that with all your plot beats. BBEG and PCs need to encounter each other in Location C? Great If the PCs are in Location E and the BBEG is in Location Y, what would bring them together? If PCs choose to do Action H what is BBEG doing while they're off saving the town he doesn't care about from an invasion of bugbears? Do the PCs hear rumors of some nefarious deeds in Location C so they head off from where they are to investigate? Or is there something in one of the PCs' background you can use to get them there? Map it out on paper if you have to, drawing lines from plot points to all the different decisions that can get there. And don't plan too far ahead. That'll leave you able to incorporate player choices in your most recent session into how you guide the PCs to where the next major story beat.
Honestly, what I do is that I will plan a large arc for the BBEG and then, actually adjust it based on the choices made by the players. For me this is like "BBEG moves from town x to town y while the PCs are going from town a to town b, but they hear rumours around the giant army moving from x to y."
Keep a vague arc and a list of cause-result chains. Your players won't know the full backstory stuff so it doesn't matter unless they ask specifically about that.
Cool- so based on that, this is kinda what I'll do.. let me know if it's a good way to start.
1. Draw out the master plot. Figure out what the BBEG wants, how he is going to get it, and if the adventurers stop a way of doing so, he works to find a new way. (New chapters)
2. Figure out how the adventurers will play a necessary role in the master plot. Incorporate their backstories, and maybe even some NPCs they know?
3. Make side quests to expand the adventure, as well as using side quests to bring the adventurers back to the master plot in case the diverge from it too much.
4. Alter the master plot/side plots depending on the paths the adventurers take, as well as the actions they make.
5. After a certain amount of questing/leveling, fully introduce the master plot, after the BBEG is prevented from implementing his master plot several times.
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I'm a new DM planning out an adventure in a homebrew world. Right now I have an idea in having my adventurers meet in a small village tavern, accidentally start a tab, get drunk, and find out the morning after the bill is much more coin than they have, thanks to some heavy drinkers outside the party. My idea to bring the adventurers together was them to find an old man in the town, (secretly a young wizard in disguise) who offers to repay the tavern on behalf of the adventurers, as well as 1000 GP each if they retrieve a stolen wedding ring of his, as well as his life savings, stolen by goblins and a thieves guild on his way to the town. The twist is there is no wedding ring, or gold, but in fact a powerful weapon that would reignite the conquest of the Orcs in my world. My plan was to have a fight break out between the secret wizard and his hidden minions in an ambush, and the adventurers are all knocked out.
My problem is I don't know if it is a good idea to have the first session end in the adventurers being defeated and knocked out on purpose, but I cannot figure out a way to weave the adventurer's paths together with this intro that I like. Any advice on how I can have an event occur before the tavern visit that can sorta bring the adventurers together, or leave it as is?
I'm not sure I'm following the purpose. What are you trying to get the group to do? Find the powerful weapon? If so, what is it? And if the adventurers retrieve it, why would the wizard knock them out? They're returning it to him. Or is your goal for them to be knocked out? In which case, why?
My purpose is to set the plot that the wizard was hired by the Orc Chief to retrieve the weapon.* The weapon was originally kept guarded by an Empire in my world, but a thieves guild which uses magic stole it and took it to a thieves hideout, to decide what to do with it. (sell it to the hightet bidder, etc.) This secret wizard was able to somehow in his own ways figure out the location of this weapon, but could not retrieve it alone because (I forgot to add this in the original post) this wizard retrieves his power from an amulet he must wear, which prolongs his aging and gives him magical powers. This amulet was also stolen, and without the amulet, he returned to his real state which is a frail old man. Upon retrieving the amulet, he regains his magical powers, in addition to later receiving money from the Orcs when he sells the hammer back to them, as he found the Orc Chief's long lost weapon of destruction. This would lead to conflict between the Orcs and the Empire, which the adventurers would work to resolve.
*The weapon is an ancient stone hammer, handed down through the Orc generations, ans was used in various wars with an Empire in my world. The weapon led to the slaying of several kings, which led to some sieges of the capital. Since losing the weapon in the latest war, the Orcs will not go to war again, as they view the weapon as a symbol, in their eyes, as hope without it, they stay in their territory.
So you want the PCs to retrieve the artifact.
Two options:
1) Skip the tavern drinking. Start the next morning with them hungover. Summarize the events of the night before and launch into the interaction with the wizard. Paying off a hefty tab in return for a simple retrieval ought to be motivating enough for the PCs to head off on the adventure.
2) Start with the tavern drinking and you could have it that the people who run up the PCs' tab are the wizard's minions but they don't know. This has the advantage of coming back as a plot quest later on.
I'm not sure you need the minions knocking them out until they get to where they think the amulet is and they only find the artifact. But be prepared for the PCs to come up with something clever to keep their hands on the weapon when the wizard's minions show up to get the object. The PCs have cleared the hideout which makes it that the minions can get to the artifact and there's a battle over the artifact.
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Right, ok then. So he hires the adventurers to get his medallion (a family heirloom he cares greatly about) back. He'll pay their tab, and anything else they happen to find "is theirs to keep". He's sure there will be a bunch of valuable stuff in the hoard, making it more than worth their while. When they find the stuff, talk the hammer up a bit so it's something they want to take.
When they return the medallion, he can casually mention a big stone hammer, and if they'd picked that up along the way. They may lie about it, but either way, he won't risk it, wether he believes them or not. He casts something or other, knocks them all out and makes off with the Hammer. But that's horribly railroady. They could surprise you and give him the hammer, or sell it to him. If THAT'S the case, find a way to drop some info on them. A tale they overhear about some Orcs searching for this weapon of Legend, powerful enough to bring the Empire to it's knees. At which point, the penny should drop.
That's a concern I've been having... How do I have the master plot, with side quests that can tie back to the master plot while not having it like a railroad? I was thinking since this is mainly meant to bring the adventurers together, that would be railroaded and then it would open up to "adventure," but being a first time Dm planning an adventurer I didn't really know what would be best for my players.
Railroads are not ideal, but they're also not absolute no go's, depending on why you use them. If you want to display this wizard as super OP once he has the medallion, and the adventurers shouldn't seek him out until they have more experience then giving them a smackdown serves that purpose. Or if they don't tell him about the hammer, you could let them roll deception. They may pass or fail. But he could let them leave and then hire another group to pinch it when they're not paying that much attention. Then when they notice it's missing, that will lead them back to the wizard. Then you could go back with the loose tail of the Orcish Weapon of Great Destruction. Either way, I can't see you getting out of it without removing your PC's choices at least a little if they don't want to co-operate.
Is the wizard a long term part of your story, or just a vehicle to introduce the players and get the hammer to the orcs?
Planning for contingencies is how you avoid the rails. Reading published adventures (both WOTC and DMs Guild) and watching online streams, they almost all start with a rail. But then the character choices blow the rails up. That's just my observation and .02.
My next session in my campaign I'm running (if we ever play again) I have the hook of what happened last time to start the session. If they choose to go that route, they'll find themselves in a dungeon crawl. Once that's over, I have several contingencies laid out. I know what will come next based on a multitude of choices I foresee the PCs making. Once they make that choice, the other things that happen could still happen in the future, but they'd be modified to reflect previous PC choices. Asking "What if" and answering that over and over again with a situation your PCs will face will help you find all those contingencies so that you're ready when a choice is made and the PCs feel like their choices are shaping the world around them. As far as getting back to those early hooks that are abandoned, maybe a key NPC that would have been in Location A had the PCs made Choice A are now in Location B because they went with Choice B.
If the PCs keep the hammer and the wizard later sends minions to steal it, maybe the war starts up and the next time the PCs are in town they start asking about what caused the war to begin again. If you have either one of the minions who stole it there, they could make some intimidation checks or use spells to get information out of him. Or if one of your PCs is a scholarly type maybe they go to a library and research the previous wars and find mention of some sort of all-powerful weapon that one side or the other wielded with a vague description that a good roll of the dice using a skill of your choice would nudge the PCs to going after the wizard. Explore all the possible paths that information could travel along and you'll be ready for anything your PCs throw at you.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
The goal of this Opening Chapter, so to speak.. is to inform the adventurers that the wizard was tasked by the Orcs to retrieve their legendary weapon. (Or he will receive a massive award for returning the weapon to the Orcs.)
What I was looking at was there could be a hideout the wizard lived in with fellow wizard minions, and they could discover his whereabouts that way, then battle him and find out the hammer was given to the orcs so they could go to war once again. Or maybe that the amulet's true powers can be revealed, and they discover his weakness, and find him some different way.. I haven't worked it out yet.
Another question... How can I make it so there are multiple ways for the players to discover the power of his amulet and his whereabouts? Or more general, how to make a quest be approached in a unique way to the players? I don't just want one or two ways the chapter ending can be reached.
I'd just have him put the medallion on when they return it and he ages backwards before their eyes. Get all narrative with it, emphasising his weakened, frail state when they meet him, to his new young, strong, healthy state. As far as the hammer.
They bring it back and he asks if they have it. From there.....
1: they lie. He doesn't believe them. He beats the hell out of them and takes it by force.
2: they lie. He doesn't believe them. He gets some of his minions to steal it, the PC's not realising until they go to sell it/use it. They overhear in a tavern or somesuch that the Orcs are looking for some great hammer they lost. If they find it, then the whole Empire will be in peril. This is even better if they hear this before they realise it's been pinched.
3: they tell the wizard they have it and refuse to part with it. See either 1 or 2.
4: they sell/give it to the wizard. See the end of part 2.
What do you mean by them lying if they have the hammer? I'm a bit confused
The wizard sends them to get the medallion and says they can keep anything else they find (because he doesn't want to bring attention to the hammer). Then when they get back, he casually mentions it (while you were gone, I heard a tale about a stone hammer that's gone missing. I don't suppose you noticed if the same villains that stole my medallion filched that as well?), and wonders if they'd picked it up. Go from there.
Reading through all of this, it's similar to an issue I had early on in my DMing - it seems like you're over-engineering the plot without taking into account how wild and reckless PCs can be.
Honestly, I'd start with the PCs waking up hungover in the tavern with an angry bartender asking for their tab to be paid. None of them remember the night before (which maybe can be used for plot stuff later on in the game) and they have to explain they don't have the money for the tab. An elderly man (the wizard) overhears this as he's staying at the B&B above the tavern and has come down for breakfast. He offers to pay off the tab (and get them all breakfast!) if they can help him retrieve a small item that means a lot to no one but him...
PCs then agree to do this (maybe with some chat about if they should, if they're naturally suspicious) and head out to go pick up the "family heirloom" that's been lost. Once they clear the fortress, they'll honestly probably loot everything, but plan for what happens if they don't. If they don't, someone will have to go and get the loot (maybe have them brag about all the [bad guys] they killed in [location] when they get back to town, and then someone can take the hammer).
If they do loot it, they can do a number of things. (A) Take it to the old man (wizard), (B) try to sell it, (C) keep it. You don't want C to happen, otherwise the orcs don't get the hammer. Make sure that none of the players can work out how powerful it is, so even if they do inspect it, make sure it has a silly high DC. If they do B, they can sell it on with no real thoughts (probably for quite cheap / at face value) and then an orc lackey can find it and pass it on to the orc chief, similar to if they leave the hammer.
A is interesting because it depends on if you want the wizard to reveal his wizardness or not. If you do, you could have him immediately put on the amulet that the PCs have gotten and show off, and then ask them what else they found and if he could appraise any of it for them (it's a good idea for him to not be overtly desperate for the hammer itself). If they show him the hammer he could "have a friend" that needs something like this, and offer to buy it from them for a cheap price. Or, they could gift it to him as a thank you for paying their tab. You never know how PCs will react to offers like that. If you don't want him to reveal that he's a wizard, do all of the above but without the offer of magical appraisal of the items unless you think the wizard could appraise items without his magic. Other options here could be that he's a collector of odd things (and play up the eccentric old man vibe), or that he has a lot of merchant friends and will pay for items to sell on... etc.
Ultimately, come up with the base plot and then come up with variants for the likely choices that they'll make. Even if it seems silly sometimes, coming up with ways to fix the plot can help if they do eventually make a choice that completely throws you as a DM.
Best of luck!
How should I plan my adventure then with a main plot without over-engineering it? I know per session, you should plan various paths based on what you think the players will do, but how do I plan various bosses in my campaign that are required to beat to continue to the next chapter, let alone the climax to the ending, while still letting the campaign be open-ended so the players can choose whatever path they want to take?
Play what if with the boss and those myriad decisions they could make. Unlike video games, your NPCs and BBEGs aren't static. Do the PCs successfully deceive the wizard and he thinks they don't have the hammer? Great. What's the BBEG's next move based on that? Do they only think they successfully deceived him? Great. And then keep doing that with all your plot beats. BBEG and PCs need to encounter each other in Location C? Great If the PCs are in Location E and the BBEG is in Location Y, what would bring them together? If PCs choose to do Action H what is BBEG doing while they're off saving the town he doesn't care about from an invasion of bugbears? Do the PCs hear rumors of some nefarious deeds in Location C so they head off from where they are to investigate? Or is there something in one of the PCs' background you can use to get them there? Map it out on paper if you have to, drawing lines from plot points to all the different decisions that can get there. And don't plan too far ahead. That'll leave you able to incorporate player choices in your most recent session into how you guide the PCs to where the next major story beat.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Honestly, what I do is that I will plan a large arc for the BBEG and then, actually adjust it based on the choices made by the players. For me this is like "BBEG moves from town x to town y while the PCs are going from town a to town b, but they hear rumours around the giant army moving from x to y."
Keep a vague arc and a list of cause-result chains. Your players won't know the full backstory stuff so it doesn't matter unless they ask specifically about that.
Cool- so based on that, this is kinda what I'll do.. let me know if it's a good way to start.
1. Draw out the master plot. Figure out what the BBEG wants, how he is going to get it, and if the adventurers stop a way of doing so, he works to find a new way. (New chapters)
2. Figure out how the adventurers will play a necessary role in the master plot. Incorporate their backstories, and maybe even some NPCs they know?
3. Make side quests to expand the adventure, as well as using side quests to bring the adventurers back to the master plot in case the diverge from it too much.
4. Alter the master plot/side plots depending on the paths the adventurers take, as well as the actions they make.
5. After a certain amount of questing/leveling, fully introduce the master plot, after the BBEG is prevented from implementing his master plot several times.