Inspired by the excellent story that my friend and DM wrote for her short December campaign, I have decided to try once more to make a home-brewed story-based campaign of my own. Due to wanting the story to be a political one that involves alliances and great empires that do not exist on Toril, I have decided that my story will take place in a different world, a mirror world to Toril, where the alliances and empires that I want to use, exist.
My mirror world will still be part of the forgotten realms. It will be virtually the same as Toril, except for differences in the geopolitical landscape, names of places, and some differences in its history.
The first story will take place entirely within a single city. I decided on this to not have to build an entire world. I would only need to make one city, come up with the names of others and have a general idea of a world map, allowing me to spend more time fleshing out the titular city and its people.
Here are the notes that I have made on the idea and the backdrop, and although I have not started to plan out the first story yet, I would like to get your thoughts and opinions on what I have so far.
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Chrysalis: The Lost Chapters.
Chrysalis: The Lost Chapters is a new group of stories, in which the first story, Chrysalis, a new Dungeons and Dragons story-based campaign for entirely new players between levels one to five, is part. Chrysalis takes place on Terrestris, a world that is part of the forgotten realms and a mirror to the better-known world of Toril.It uses the Dungeons and Dragons 5e ruleset to tell an original story set against a background of political intrigue, courtly drama and assassination.
The story unfolds from the points of view of the main characters.
Campaign Backdrop:
Chrysalis is the titular name of the city where the events of the first story take place.It was once an essential Luminarian city until, in his forty-fifth year, Emperor Matthias Corvinus Aidanson the 3rd, the twelfth Emperor of the Dominion of Luminaria, moved the royal court to his new capital, Insomnia and redrew the borders of the empire, abandoning Chrysalis and its people to their fate.
With the city and its people now cut off from the protections of the empire and trade outside of the imperial borders prohibited by decree of the Emperor himself, the people of Chrysalis sought alliances with the barbarian hordes and smaller city-states who had declared themselves independent from Luminaria in protest of the Emperor's actions.
Fifty years after the forging of the first alliance, the leaders of the various barbarian tribes and allied states gathered together behind the mighty walls of Chrysalis to ratify a charter that would see the dissolution of the alliance and the founding of the Imperium of Solace, as a move to challenge directly the now ageing Matthias.Not all is as it seems, however, as not every city-state succeeded from the Dominion of Luminaria.Some have been acting as bases for double agents, playing both sides, and some have been biding their time, not fully committing to one side or the other until they saw which way the winds would blow, and the barbarians have secret agendas of their own.
Our story starts in the days leading up to the founding of the Imperium of Solace.There is an energy in the air, a carnival atmosphere in the streets and a general sense that for good or ill, the coming days will see meaningful change permeating every home, from those who reside in the highest of offices to the lowest foundling, all look forward, in anticipation or dread.
Caught up in events beyond their control, we find a small group of young friends seeking a way to carve out a piece of the future for themselves, and it is from their points of view that the story unfolds
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That is what I have so far, and I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on my ideas for this new story-based campaign. I would say that while there will be combat, the story involves more political intrigue, court drama, subterfuge and assassination, than world travelling and battling dragons. There will be an entire city to explore, however, and secrets to uncover as the player's characters try to carve out a piece of the future for themselves and make their mark on the world.
As Chrysalis was once the capital city of the Dominion of Luminaria, it is an enormous walled city, that in the intervening years, has seen significant expansion to its population living outside the walls and, thanks to the cities alliance with the barbarian hordes, has been heavily fortified. However, I plan to remain inside the city walls for most of the first story as I build the city around the player's characters.
What do you all think about what I have so far? Does it sound like it could shape up to be good, and what other thoughts do you have?
Political campaigns can be fun, but they work best when there is a lot of prep work on the part of the Dungeon Master. You never know how the party is going to upset the balance of power in the city, which means the DM needs to intimately know who the major individuals and factions are, what their goals are, and how generally they tend to approach problems. The DM needs to keep all this information in the back of his or her mind when running the campaign, and constantly be thinking "okay, this series of events transpired, which means this faction responded this way, this one responded this way, etc." It is also important to think about the ripple effects. If an event (either the party's actions or something else that occurs independent of the party or due to the party's inaction) causes Faction A to react in a certain way, Faction B might react to both the event and Faction A's reaction, which in turn might produce a counter-reaction from Faction A, responses from Faction C, etc.
When I place my parties in the mix of politics, I usually try to create a basic outline of a plot (key events I know are going to happen unless the party stops them and an overall conspiracy/BBEG/conflict), but keep these elements rather flexible and vague, knowing that the ripple effects from both events and the party can easily spin out of hand.
Here are a few general questions I ask myself when creating major players in a political campaign:
1. What is their primary, secondary, and tertiary motivation?
2. Who are their allies, how strong are those alliances and how did they form?
3. Who are their enemies? How deep does their rivalry run and how did it come to be?
4. What trades are they engaged in?
5. Who are they reliant upon, even if not allied to them? (Ex. a merchant guild might rely upon dockworkers, but might not consider them an ally or enemy).
6. What resources do they have available? Not just monetary or material resources--information they might have on other factions, spies or other agents placed in key places, backdoor connections with other factions or individuals?
7. Do they want to preserve the status quo or are they looking for a change?
8. How would you describe the individual's personality, or if it is a group, the personalities of the key individuals?
9. For individuals/key individuals in groups, what family, personal, or other ties do those people have?
10. Is the individual/entity's reputation, power, etc. on the rise, on the decline, or staying relatively even?
11. What has been going on in the immediate history of this entity? What is a brief summary of their older history (just the relevant highlights--older events tend to be less important to the present, barring some old grudges or justification for present motivations)?
Things like that are a good place to get you started. You probably will want to make sure you have a wide range of demographics covered. You're looking at military groups, religious groups, nobility of various degrees, merchants and artisans (both middle class and upper class, which, in real-world history, have traditionally had some nuanced differences in their motivations and power), the poor, etc. I would look at various time periods in history for inspiration, trying to find corollaries to your particular setting's time period and political dynamic.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. I find world building fun, but I also find it hard to create interesting campaigns out of the worlds that I have built, and in the past have relied on my players having fun during combat, fighting lots tough enemies, than exploring the world.
This time however, I want to make a world that is fun to explore, because the nature of the campaign that I want to run almost demands that the world and it’s people are interesting.
You have given me a lot to consider. Thank you.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
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Hi, beyonders
Inspired by the excellent story that my friend and DM wrote for her short December campaign, I have decided to try once more to make a home-brewed story-based campaign of my own. Due to wanting the story to be a political one that involves alliances and great empires that do not exist on Toril, I have decided that my story will take place in a different world, a mirror world to Toril, where the alliances and empires that I want to use, exist.
My mirror world will still be part of the forgotten realms. It will be virtually the same as Toril, except for differences in the geopolitical landscape, names of places, and some differences in its history.
The first story will take place entirely within a single city. I decided on this to not have to build an entire world. I would only need to make one city, come up with the names of others and have a general idea of a world map, allowing me to spend more time fleshing out the titular city and its people.
Here are the notes that I have made on the idea and the backdrop, and although I have not started to plan out the first story yet, I would like to get your thoughts and opinions on what I have so far.
----------
----------
That is what I have so far, and I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on my ideas for this new story-based campaign. I would say that while there will be combat, the story involves more political intrigue, court drama, subterfuge and assassination, than world travelling and battling dragons. There will be an entire city to explore, however, and secrets to uncover as the player's characters try to carve out a piece of the future for themselves and make their mark on the world.
As Chrysalis was once the capital city of the Dominion of Luminaria, it is an enormous walled city, that in the intervening years, has seen significant expansion to its population living outside the walls and, thanks to the cities alliance with the barbarian hordes, has been heavily fortified. However, I plan to remain inside the city walls for most of the first story as I build the city around the player's characters.
What do you all think about what I have so far? Does it sound like it could shape up to be good, and what other thoughts do you have?
Thanks
Forge
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Political campaigns can be fun, but they work best when there is a lot of prep work on the part of the Dungeon Master. You never know how the party is going to upset the balance of power in the city, which means the DM needs to intimately know who the major individuals and factions are, what their goals are, and how generally they tend to approach problems. The DM needs to keep all this information in the back of his or her mind when running the campaign, and constantly be thinking "okay, this series of events transpired, which means this faction responded this way, this one responded this way, etc." It is also important to think about the ripple effects. If an event (either the party's actions or something else that occurs independent of the party or due to the party's inaction) causes Faction A to react in a certain way, Faction B might react to both the event and Faction A's reaction, which in turn might produce a counter-reaction from Faction A, responses from Faction C, etc.
When I place my parties in the mix of politics, I usually try to create a basic outline of a plot (key events I know are going to happen unless the party stops them and an overall conspiracy/BBEG/conflict), but keep these elements rather flexible and vague, knowing that the ripple effects from both events and the party can easily spin out of hand.
Here are a few general questions I ask myself when creating major players in a political campaign:
1. What is their primary, secondary, and tertiary motivation?
2. Who are their allies, how strong are those alliances and how did they form?
3. Who are their enemies? How deep does their rivalry run and how did it come to be?
4. What trades are they engaged in?
5. Who are they reliant upon, even if not allied to them? (Ex. a merchant guild might rely upon dockworkers, but might not consider them an ally or enemy).
6. What resources do they have available? Not just monetary or material resources--information they might have on other factions, spies or other agents placed in key places, backdoor connections with other factions or individuals?
7. Do they want to preserve the status quo or are they looking for a change?
8. How would you describe the individual's personality, or if it is a group, the personalities of the key individuals?
9. For individuals/key individuals in groups, what family, personal, or other ties do those people have?
10. Is the individual/entity's reputation, power, etc. on the rise, on the decline, or staying relatively even?
11. What has been going on in the immediate history of this entity? What is a brief summary of their older history (just the relevant highlights--older events tend to be less important to the present, barring some old grudges or justification for present motivations)?
Things like that are a good place to get you started. You probably will want to make sure you have a wide range of demographics covered. You're looking at military groups, religious groups, nobility of various degrees, merchants and artisans (both middle class and upper class, which, in real-world history, have traditionally had some nuanced differences in their motivations and power), the poor, etc. I would look at various time periods in history for inspiration, trying to find corollaries to your particular setting's time period and political dynamic.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. I find world building fun, but I also find it hard to create interesting campaigns out of the worlds that I have built, and in the past have relied on my players having fun during combat, fighting lots tough enemies, than exploring the world.
This time however, I want to make a world that is fun to explore, because the nature of the campaign that I want to run almost demands that the world and it’s people are interesting.
You have given me a lot to consider. Thank you.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.