I have been thinking about putting together a 38-week online campaign taking place in the Feywild, during a conflict between the Fey and creature of the Shadowfell; commanded by an ancient black dragon turned dracolich—now serving as a Deathpriest of Orcus. As it is a relatively short campaign, it will be mostly combat-based and entirely within the Feywild, except for the final battle between the characters and the Deathpriest. For the final battle, the dracolich will show up and pull them all into the Shadowfell, to take care of the characters after they have defeated many dark servants and fought their way into the inner sanctum of the dark temple.
The campaign will be exclusively for Warlocks of the Archfey. The players will play characters summoned to the Feywild from the Material Plane, by the Faerie Queen, to help her fight the darkness that has invaded her realm.
Throughout the adventure, the players will face a combination of Shadow Demons, other shadow creatures and undead minions, as well as Fey and parts of the Feywild itself, that have been corrupted by the negative energy and dark magic of the Shadowfell. They will also come across several winter Fey, not corrupted by the Shadowfell, but who have nevertheless allied themselves with the invading forces.
The story will be relatively simple as it is only a short campaign. It will be mostly combat based, with the characters trying to find a way to the centre of the corruption, to regain control of a temple, and close a portal through which the dark forces of the Shadowfell have invaded the Feywild. There will be plenty of short rests, as all the characters will be Warlocks, and I will create some Fey style villages, that they will be able to pass through and restock supplies.
There will be six players, and it will be medium to hard difficulty throughout, with the final encounter being a deadly one.
I don't have a script or anything, as I plan to make it up and prepare session by session; so those are all the general notes that I have written down about the campaign, and I would like to know what you think.
Thanks,
XD
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If it's what the players like, more power to you. Personally I'm not really enticed by mostly combat or Archfey Warlock exclusive (or any class exclusive).
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
If it's what the players like, more power to you. Personally I'm not really enticed by mostly combat or Archfey Warlock exclusive (or any class exclusive).
To be fair, I also prefer more roleplay focussed games, but I thought that since this one was going to be online and it is relatively short, at only 38-weeks, it would be better for it to be combat heavy and roleplay light.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
the story itself is missing the big 'why' everyone from shadowville is attacking everyone in feyville...and why fey creatures would assist shadow creatures in attacking its homeland.
.. as I plan to make it up and prepare session by session
i think this strategy may be setting some up for disappoint when you combine it with 'this will be 36 weeks'. I read this as relatively random, inconsequential fight scenes until week 35 and then you go fight the boss....which means nothing in the middle, nor the story, matters (imo). i would make an outline of events/story at the very least.
there's nothing wrong with making it up as you go...but the idea of 36 weeks worth of random encounters stitched together doesn't really appeal to me. 5 weeks might.
Thanks for your suggestions. I think perhaps you're right and I need an outline that will tie each session together. Any thoughts on how I might make a campaign with a set time limit, still work?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I would look at giving the players a time limit where something is happening besides what they are doing, and that something happens in a certain timeframe. You could probably create a timeline for "events the players aren't involved in" which moves the story along. The campaign could be "they will arrive in 6 weeks, and you need to get the hummdinger sword, sparkly shoes, helmet of halitosis, greaves of powersliding, shield of endless screams and the chalice of confidence juice so that our champion has any chance of winning!"
there - a hard limit. make it so that they almost can't actually get everything unless they are super efficient, and then they get to pick the order they undertake the quests. After each one, inform them of how long they took, and of how long they have left, and how far away each other quest is now. They'll have to plan out the route they want to take to do it in time, what they prioritise (try to make the ideal route not match the ideal priorities, EG if the best items are the sword and shield, put them far apart with the sparkly shoes in between). Giving them more to do than they can have time for, decisions to make and a hard deadline will give you control over the timeline without making it seem like random encounters.
Prepare contingencies for them not making it back in time as well, so they still get the boss fight.
What is magical about 38 weeks? If you said then I missed it on reading the OP and subsequent answers.
To me, I think it is a mistake to decide the ending and campaign length ahead of time.
Also, what is the guarantee it will go 38 weeks? Matt Colville likes to talk about how the majority of his games (and this is with close friends whom he knows well) don't go the distance... How the majority of his campaigns have ended by session 10. How do you know yours will go the distance, as it were? What happens if people get tired of it after 7 sessions?
Also, it seems like no matter what the players do, they are going to fight X in Y place. If that's the case, I propose a much shorter game -- let them make up high level PCs and do an extended one-shot (not one session but one adventure) in the ending place against the ending BBEG and assorted minions. It'll be fun, dramatic, and enjoyable, and you won't have the players feeling like everything they did for the first 33 weeks was pointless because this ending was going to happen no matter what.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
38-weeks is the length of time I have, give or take a couple, before future commitments mean that I won't have the time to run the game anymore. I still want to be able to play in the game I play in and in about 8-to-9 months, I won't have the time anymore to DM on a regular basis due to future commitments.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
There is no way you can realistically know how long it is going to take them to run the rest of the story, and get to the BBEG. The worst thing that could happen is that you get to the end, the last couple of scenes take too long, and you have to terminate the campaign before it truly ends.
I would recommend that you not worry so much about a BBEG under these circumstances, and just do a sandbox world. You can still do the Feywild and have it be under threat from "the Shadowfell" but just run it as a series of related adventures rather than trying to build to a BBEG based climax. You can make evil villain guys for each adventure/dungeon and the ending will be satisfying for each one, and when you get to the end of the allotted time, you stop.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
To me, I think it is a mistake to decide the ending and campaign length ahead of time.
Same. I'd just leave it open-ended and if you get to week 30 think about starting to wrap things up. Set time limits are very constraining and problematic for little benefit. If it runs shorter you can always spin up some shorter adventures to fill the remaining time.
The other flag for me is restricting the PCs to one subclass. That's about 80% of the way to just straight-up writing pregens, and would not appeal to me as a player at all. Neither would 38 weeks of mostly combat with 5 other people with essentially the same features, spells, and strengths/weaknesses that I had. Warlocks do not have a monopoly on having a relationship with the Faerie Queen. Certainly she could have noticed all sorts of champions of the mortal realm. I get the desire for fitting the theme, but you could open it up a lot more, requiring just some connection to the fey - whether it be through race or subclass or convincing backstory. That would make it much more desirable to me anyway. If you have 6 people already lined up to be feylocks, feel free to disregard.
Dresden Files has a lot of good Fae inspiration. Exclusive Archfey Warlocks is monotonous. Oath of Ancients Paladin can be just as compelled as Warlocks, maybe more, Wild Magic Sorcerers and Barbarians are also Fey inspired, Ranger has Fey Wanderer subclass, and pretty much everything Druid is tied to the liveliness of the Feywild. Pretty much any character that is Eladrin will also be compelled by the Feywild.
If your determined to have a 6 person party of Warlocks, than I'm sure you could make it work, but if you just want a 6 person party of Fey influenced members, there's a lot of Fae flavored content. Even one characters Pact or Oath could be contingent on obligating the group rather than an individual. And they can be pact sworn without actually being classed into a pact build.
I hate all combat games but if that’s what you and your players are into that sounds like an awesome campaign! I am a little worried that six Warlocks of the Archfey might be too repetitive (as someone else pointed out, there’s a lot of other Feywild-inspired stuff you could do). But plot wise and atmosphere wise it sounds great. Are you getting married in 38 weeks?
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Hi,
I have been thinking about putting together a 38-week online campaign taking place in the Feywild, during a conflict between the Fey and creature of the Shadowfell; commanded by an ancient black dragon turned dracolich—now serving as a Deathpriest of Orcus. As it is a relatively short campaign, it will be mostly combat-based and entirely within the Feywild, except for the final battle between the characters and the Deathpriest. For the final battle, the dracolich will show up and pull them all into the Shadowfell, to take care of the characters after they have defeated many dark servants and fought their way into the inner sanctum of the dark temple.
The campaign will be exclusively for Warlocks of the Archfey. The players will play characters summoned to the Feywild from the Material Plane, by the Faerie Queen, to help her fight the darkness that has invaded her realm.
Throughout the adventure, the players will face a combination of Shadow Demons, other shadow creatures and undead minions, as well as Fey and parts of the Feywild itself, that have been corrupted by the negative energy and dark magic of the Shadowfell. They will also come across several winter Fey, not corrupted by the Shadowfell, but who have nevertheless allied themselves with the invading forces.
The story will be relatively simple as it is only a short campaign. It will be mostly combat based, with the characters trying to find a way to the centre of the corruption, to regain control of a temple, and close a portal through which the dark forces of the Shadowfell have invaded the Feywild. There will be plenty of short rests, as all the characters will be Warlocks, and I will create some Fey style villages, that they will be able to pass through and restock supplies.
There will be six players, and it will be medium to hard difficulty throughout, with the final encounter being a deadly one.
I don't have a script or anything, as I plan to make it up and prepare session by session; so those are all the general notes that I have written down about the campaign, and I would like to know what you think.
Thanks,
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If it's what the players like, more power to you. Personally I'm not really enticed by mostly combat or Archfey Warlock exclusive (or any class exclusive).
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
To be fair, I also prefer more roleplay focussed games, but I thought that since this one was going to be online and it is relatively short, at only 38-weeks, it would be better for it to be combat heavy and roleplay light.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
the story itself is missing the big 'why' everyone from shadowville is attacking everyone in feyville...and why fey creatures would assist shadow creatures in attacking its homeland.
i think this strategy may be setting some up for disappoint when you combine it with 'this will be 36 weeks'. I read this as relatively random, inconsequential fight scenes until week 35 and then you go fight the boss....which means nothing in the middle, nor the story, matters (imo). i would make an outline of events/story at the very least.
there's nothing wrong with making it up as you go...but the idea of 36 weeks worth of random encounters stitched together doesn't really appeal to me. 5 weeks might.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Thanks for your suggestions. I think perhaps you're right and I need an outline that will tie each session together. Any thoughts on how I might make a campaign with a set time limit, still work?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I would look at giving the players a time limit where something is happening besides what they are doing, and that something happens in a certain timeframe. You could probably create a timeline for "events the players aren't involved in" which moves the story along. The campaign could be "they will arrive in 6 weeks, and you need to get the hummdinger sword, sparkly shoes, helmet of halitosis, greaves of powersliding, shield of endless screams and the chalice of confidence juice so that our champion has any chance of winning!"
there - a hard limit. make it so that they almost can't actually get everything unless they are super efficient, and then they get to pick the order they undertake the quests. After each one, inform them of how long they took, and of how long they have left, and how far away each other quest is now. They'll have to plan out the route they want to take to do it in time, what they prioritise (try to make the ideal route not match the ideal priorities, EG if the best items are the sword and shield, put them far apart with the sparkly shoes in between). Giving them more to do than they can have time for, decisions to make and a hard deadline will give you control over the timeline without making it seem like random encounters.
Prepare contingencies for them not making it back in time as well, so they still get the boss fight.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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What is magical about 38 weeks? If you said then I missed it on reading the OP and subsequent answers.
To me, I think it is a mistake to decide the ending and campaign length ahead of time.
Also, what is the guarantee it will go 38 weeks? Matt Colville likes to talk about how the majority of his games (and this is with close friends whom he knows well) don't go the distance... How the majority of his campaigns have ended by session 10. How do you know yours will go the distance, as it were? What happens if people get tired of it after 7 sessions?
Also, it seems like no matter what the players do, they are going to fight X in Y place. If that's the case, I propose a much shorter game -- let them make up high level PCs and do an extended one-shot (not one session but one adventure) in the ending place against the ending BBEG and assorted minions. It'll be fun, dramatic, and enjoyable, and you won't have the players feeling like everything they did for the first 33 weeks was pointless because this ending was going to happen no matter what.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
38-weeks is the length of time I have, give or take a couple, before future commitments mean that I won't have the time to run the game anymore. I still want to be able to play in the game I play in and in about 8-to-9 months, I won't have the time anymore to DM on a regular basis due to future commitments.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
There is no way you can realistically know how long it is going to take them to run the rest of the story, and get to the BBEG. The worst thing that could happen is that you get to the end, the last couple of scenes take too long, and you have to terminate the campaign before it truly ends.
I would recommend that you not worry so much about a BBEG under these circumstances, and just do a sandbox world. You can still do the Feywild and have it be under threat from "the Shadowfell" but just run it as a series of related adventures rather than trying to build to a BBEG based climax. You can make evil villain guys for each adventure/dungeon and the ending will be satisfying for each one, and when you get to the end of the allotted time, you stop.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Same. I'd just leave it open-ended and if you get to week 30 think about starting to wrap things up. Set time limits are very constraining and problematic for little benefit. If it runs shorter you can always spin up some shorter adventures to fill the remaining time.
The other flag for me is restricting the PCs to one subclass. That's about 80% of the way to just straight-up writing pregens, and would not appeal to me as a player at all. Neither would 38 weeks of mostly combat with 5 other people with essentially the same features, spells, and strengths/weaknesses that I had. Warlocks do not have a monopoly on having a relationship with the Faerie Queen. Certainly she could have noticed all sorts of champions of the mortal realm. I get the desire for fitting the theme, but you could open it up a lot more, requiring just some connection to the fey - whether it be through race or subclass or convincing backstory. That would make it much more desirable to me anyway. If you have 6 people already lined up to be feylocks, feel free to disregard.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Dresden Files has a lot of good Fae inspiration. Exclusive Archfey Warlocks is monotonous. Oath of Ancients Paladin can be just as compelled as Warlocks, maybe more, Wild Magic Sorcerers and Barbarians are also Fey inspired, Ranger has Fey Wanderer subclass, and pretty much everything Druid is tied to the liveliness of the Feywild. Pretty much any character that is Eladrin will also be compelled by the Feywild.
If your determined to have a 6 person party of Warlocks, than I'm sure you could make it work, but if you just want a 6 person party of Fey influenced members, there's a lot of Fae flavored content. Even one characters Pact or Oath could be contingent on obligating the group rather than an individual. And they can be pact sworn without actually being classed into a pact build.
GL with your campaign.
I hate all combat games but if that’s what you and your players are into that sounds like an awesome campaign! I am a little worried that six Warlocks of the Archfey might be too repetitive (as someone else pointed out, there’s a lot of other Feywild-inspired stuff you could do). But plot wise and atmosphere wise it sounds great. Are you getting married in 38 weeks?