I think it has some concept of fate, And I think it has to do with how the characters relate to the main story. For example if your campaign is about free roaming in a open world the concept of how people might relate to that is their guild, Because that is one way people could make a story out of a open world game, Where nobody knows what will happen next and the guild they train in offers some consistancy. That can come from doing quests. That tell a story through what people train as they succeed in their quest and they gain levels and things to train with their levels like milestones that help them remember-- How much extra str they got for level they got from following a good path to gain strength from it and maybe they used a neutral path for constitution and evil path for wisdom and the specifics of what each path entails to succeed.
But once someone has trained the three stats the guild has to offer what story does it tell to show how the guild bring consistancy to a world that costantly changes because it is ment to be free for anyone to roam and make their own story? it helps to tell the story of how the guild lead the hero through each quest and the person choose the order of what each part of the quest ment as if they ended up where they were ment to ( like on the good path they found strength because being strong was what their idea of a good fate would be) kind of like fate. For example Maybe a monster from a fairy tale comes out of a book and must be out smarted based on the book they came from to succeed on the quests good path for strength. and maybe people need to do is roll a d20 and if they succeed with a hide check they automaticly succeed with getting through the evil path to wisdom. And maybe they need to defeat a monster before all the monsters can train into them by rolling a d20 for some other stat check for the neutral path of constitution.
But this is only 1 of each path so how does anyone find a story from that? this is ment as a quest that to succeed it takes three people to find one of each of the true path by each rolling a d20 instead of one person finding one of each path they can each decide that they want to go on the same path and they can even get different stats.
I Think starting off for two quests or so is not bad, but pay attention to what the players are interested in and find fun. If they like a particular shop keep, he might get kidnapped or have him ask for their help. Some players might have personal things from their back stories you find worthwhile to include. On the Dungeons and Dragons sub-reddit there was a post about something called "Knife- Theory" which is incorporating named NPC's, organizations, places, beasts, items, and so forth that have a personal connection with your character. With good backstories this will be present. My bard, Leopold, has a sweetheart named Katerina, back in his home town of Hillfold. He has caused a ruckus for the Steel Rose mafia, especially there leader Kraedal Sleeptight. These are four 'knives' right here; Katarina, Hillford, Steel Rose, and Kraedal Sleeptight. If you ask your players to allow their backstory to have just 3 or 4 knives you have not only populated your world with personal connections between your players and potential quests, but you also have things that the player is interested in dealing with. So you can have a quest based off of a knife and then can continue onto something from someone elses knives, or you can use a snowball effect, same concept of threat ie the mafia itself but a new operation, or a higher power.
I understand what the above commenter is saying in terms of the way of a higher power, dealing with fate and all. but i do not understand the rest of what he is talking about. What I think your question is pertains to "how do i create a cohesive storyline that spans multiple quests, dealing with the same main antagonists." First you have to make your main villain someone powerful enough to warrant multiple quests, more powerful than the party in terms of the way that he can absolutely not be dealt with at the party's first encounter with him/her. A good example is Matt Coleville's Calorell the Vile. he regards the party as beneath him at first encounter. The second step, in my opinion is to set up his goal and how he can accomplish it. Your heros then become a thorn in his side that gets more and more aggrivated as time goes on. Think carefully about how the actions that the heros take effect the villain and how he would respond. A truly powerful villain would never stoop so low as to attack level 1 adventurers, but this problem needs to be dealt with? Or ignored? or Micro-managed? or maybe he doesnt even know about it since a lieutenant is gonna to take care of it. Think of it like a game of chess, action followed by reaction with the party starting out as pawns and growing into kings and queens.
Ya its a ongoing project thats why it isnt easy to explain but i keep working on it in my campaign i have three encounters now so i see it like if all three people in the group went for thegood path of strength on all three quests they have found a true path of strength because being strong was what their idea of a good fate would be. but i play with the idea that what if one of the people decided that on the good path they found wisdom and i guess it could still be a good path but i wouldn't really be able to explain fate i just think its fun to try and figure it out for the purpose of making the campaign have a story that somehow drives the game without it interfering with the actual game play. it sounds like your idea does that too because a villain is essential part of gameplay but i think a problem that happens with some storytelling in a game is when the gameplay gets over written by the story and people have to try and remember what was the game that were playing is it about finding a good path to strength or are we trying to find the connection between the villain and the path of wisdom rather than just everyone getting on the same path and finding out that because of that the villain was not strong enough to succeed in their plans.
I think it has some concept of fate, And I think it has to do with how the characters relate to the main story. For example if your campaign is about free roaming in a open world the concept of how people might relate to that is their guild, Because that is one way people could make a story out of a open world game, Where nobody knows what will happen next and the guild they train in offers some consistancy. That can come from doing quests. That tell a story through what people train as they succeed in their quest and they gain levels and things to train with their levels like milestones that help them remember-- How much extra str they got for level they got from following a good path to gain strength from it and maybe they used a neutral path for constitution and evil path for wisdom and the specifics of what each path entails to succeed.
But once someone has trained the three stats the guild has to offer what story does it tell to show how the guild bring consistancy to a world that costantly changes because it is ment to be free for anyone to roam and make their own story? it helps to tell the story of how the guild lead the hero through each quest and the person choose the order of what each part of the quest ment as if they ended up where they were ment to ( like on the good path they found strength because being strong was what their idea of a good fate would be) kind of like fate. For example Maybe a monster from a fairy tale comes out of a book and must be out smarted based on the book they came from to succeed on the quests good path for strength. and maybe people need to do is roll a d20 and if they succeed with a hide check they automaticly succeed with getting through the evil path to wisdom. And maybe they need to defeat a monster before all the monsters can train into them by rolling a d20 for some other stat check for the neutral path of constitution.
But this is only 1 of each path so how does anyone find a story from that? this is ment as a quest that to succeed it takes three people to find one of each of the true path by each rolling a d20 instead of one person finding one of each path they can each decide that they want to go on the same path and they can even get different stats.
I Think starting off for two quests or so is not bad, but pay attention to what the players are interested in and find fun. If they like a particular shop keep, he might get kidnapped or have him ask for their help. Some players might have personal things from their back stories you find worthwhile to include. On the Dungeons and Dragons sub-reddit there was a post about something called "Knife- Theory" which is incorporating named NPC's, organizations, places, beasts, items, and so forth that have a personal connection with your character. With good backstories this will be present. My bard, Leopold, has a sweetheart named Katerina, back in his home town of Hillfold. He has caused a ruckus for the Steel Rose mafia, especially there leader Kraedal Sleeptight. These are four 'knives' right here; Katarina, Hillford, Steel Rose, and Kraedal Sleeptight. If you ask your players to allow their backstory to have just 3 or 4 knives you have not only populated your world with personal connections between your players and potential quests, but you also have things that the player is interested in dealing with. So you can have a quest based off of a knife and then can continue onto something from someone elses knives, or you can use a snowball effect, same concept of threat ie the mafia itself but a new operation, or a higher power.
I understand what the above commenter is saying in terms of the way of a higher power, dealing with fate and all. but i do not understand the rest of what he is talking about. What I think your question is pertains to "how do i create a cohesive storyline that spans multiple quests, dealing with the same main antagonists." First you have to make your main villain someone powerful enough to warrant multiple quests, more powerful than the party in terms of the way that he can absolutely not be dealt with at the party's first encounter with him/her. A good example is Matt Coleville's Calorell the Vile. he regards the party as beneath him at first encounter. The second step, in my opinion is to set up his goal and how he can accomplish it. Your heros then become a thorn in his side that gets more and more aggrivated as time goes on. Think carefully about how the actions that the heros take effect the villain and how he would respond. A truly powerful villain would never stoop so low as to attack level 1 adventurers, but this problem needs to be dealt with? Or ignored? or Micro-managed? or maybe he doesnt even know about it since a lieutenant is gonna to take care of it. Think of it like a game of chess, action followed by reaction with the party starting out as pawns and growing into kings and queens.
SOBEK! - F.
Ya its a ongoing project thats why it isnt easy to explain but i keep working on it in my campaign i have three encounters now so i see it like if all three people in the group went for thegood path of strength on all three quests they have found a true path of strength because being strong was what their idea of a good fate would be. but i play with the idea that what if one of the people decided that on the good path they found wisdom and i guess it could still be a good path but i wouldn't really be able to explain fate i just think its fun to try and figure it out for the purpose of making the campaign have a story that somehow drives the game without it interfering with the actual game play. it sounds like your idea does that too because a villain is essential part of gameplay but i think a problem that happens with some storytelling in a game is when the gameplay gets over written by the story and people have to try and remember what was the game that were playing is it about finding a good path to strength or are we trying to find the connection between the villain and the path of wisdom rather than just everyone getting on the same path and finding out that because of that the villain was not strong enough to succeed in their plans.