An upcoming campaign that I am going to run is set on a continent that is largely civilized. Countries with towns and cities occupy a large potion of the continent's land. With buy-in from my players we have chosen to play this campaign from the perspective of the native, druidic groups that still inhabit the few ancient forests and mountains that have not yet been conquered by any more civilized country. This allowed for some very thematic character creation which my players loved. I have a shepherd druid, a tempest cleric (of the ocean) and an oath of the ancients paladin. (and a wizard that hasn't yet gone through the character creation process).
I am a faily experienced DM. Running a game almost every week since 2019. But I find myself finding difficulty with making plans for this campaign. Two of my players are completely new to the game and expressed that they want to play a heroic-fantasy game. Both of them have played a one-shot once or twice so they have some understanding of the game luckily.
Where I would possibly turn this into a game with deep role-play and political intrigue for a group of more experienced role-players, I don't want to do that with this group as most of them have hardly ever had to role-play in a meaningful way. The game may gravitate that way when the players have become more experienced and more comfortable with roleplay. But until then I hope to run this as a fairly low-stakes game.
The problem I begin to run into is the following. I have a hard time coming up with ideas for story arcs that I could send my players on. I haven't yet recieved backstories and I hope I can pull some ideas from that. But id like some suggestions as to what I can do. Because the players are basically playing the game from a perspective of an oppressed and threatened people, they will most likely want to fight back against the more civilized countries. However, I also know they want to play the hero. This means that I don't want to put them in positions where they would feel like they are playing the villans.
For example, I don't want to give them a quest that says 'burn down this town because they are encroaching too close to the border of our sacred forest' . In any other game they would go into political discussions with local leaders, or construct a plan to scare the town's villagers into abandoning it without harming them. But I know that these newer players are going to be quite combat focussed (as evidenced by their prefrences I have observed during the few oneshots I have seen them play in). This is because (at least in the beginning of the game) they will be much more comfortable taking turns in combat than having to roleplay their characters.
An example of an idea that I had for a quest is a group of poachers that have taken up residence in a small camp near the forest's edge. They have been hunting and capturing beasts of the forest for sport. The party will be tasked with ridding the forest of their presence. The players will be given the option to frighten them and scare them away or make a deal with them. But the way I intend to portray the poachers will also justify the use of force by the players, without making them feel like they just slaughtered a bunch of innocent hunters.
Like this, I am kinda looking for a few suggestion for low level play. But I would also be interested in some suggestions for higher level play. I intend to run this game starting at 2nd level, all the way up to 8th or 10th level over the course of the next year, year and a half.
Any ideas, concepts or anything like that will be greatly appriciated!
Company has hired mercenaries to threaten and force members of that group to leave their area to set up a mine or a factory or whatever. The Mercenaries are a nice killable threat, and the company works as a decent midlevel antagonist. Have the company escalate, sending more mercenaries or even getting the regular nation involved. Maybe add a figure on the regular nation's side that's sympathetic if you want a more nuanced story.
Or maybe have them deal with the dregs of the nation, maybe criminal groups or necromancers attempt to set up there. So, they need to be driven out. could even be dealing with the wild animals like griffins or chimeras
oh, shoot. I have this time blocked for actually working on my world. But here you go, making a plea with something near and dear to my widdle heart (that is immensely intersectional and truly oppressed, lol).
A combat focused group of oppressed peoples are going to adopt the ways and approaches of folks that even today are struggling.
No matter what they do, how they do it, why they do it, when they do it, they will always, always be blamed for it in the most negative possible way. By the people who are doing the oppressing.
The oppressed side will have folks
who love what they do,
who don't care what they do,
who resent that they are doing it because they think that their way is better,
who want them to stop because the people who are oppressed need to appease and peacefully convince the encroaching folks
who will be harmed by their actions no matter what they do
who will be on the side of the oppressors and so spies and betrayers (in the eyes of the oppressed people. In the eyes of the oppressors, they will always be heroes -- but disposable).
Your players will be up against an otherwise unmatched military force that is used to fighting a guerilla war and shows absolutely no mercy under the leadership of their commanding officer.
I would suggest adding in differing languages -- and have them start off not knowing the conqueror language -- or not be very facile with it.
Worse, there will be conquered territories where the people who were conquered are left alone to rule themselves as long as they pay off the bad guys and don't complain about slaves being taken away (most of whom are rebels and fighters against the system -- so your players will be marked for that or death, and should note it at the start).
That's the rough draft. And since you are using Druidic folks on the fringes of "civilized" space, I should let you know that I am not using anything modern in this any of this, lol. All of this is stuff from the Roman Conquest of Northern and Western Europe and the Isles from roughly 200 BCE to 0 CE. Heavy, huh? The good news is that meets your criteria.
They are the good guys. The enemy general is the BBEG.
They have a noble justification in ending tyranny and defending their people.
They can start out doing just raids and slowly start getting attention (use two renown scales -- enemy and home -- if you use that option). As things progress, they will gain both notoriety with the enemy and role playing will involve bringing their people around to tier side and dealing with spies and traitors as they move through the levels.
And perhaps best of all, you don't need to make it a game about that, lol. ALl of that can be incidental by having them become focused on different side quests that solve a problem of tier people and still put them in contact and all that.
Next, this is a really good idea:
An example of an idea that I had for a quest is a group of poachers that have taken up residence in a small camp near the forest's edge. They have been hunting and capturing beasts of the forest for sport. The party will be tasked with ridding the forest of their presence. The players will be given the option to frighten them and scare them away or make a deal with them. But the way I intend to portray the poachers will also justify the use of force by the players, without making them feel like they just slaughtered a bunch of innocent hunters.
This is an excellent starter or entry approach.
Then you can do a slave caravan. Then you can do a small group of soldiers coming up or going back. Then you can do a garrison. And in between you still have to get them better equipment and earn coin and all that. They can sell their loot or trade it (depends on the economy, hell it could be go to town and sell it just like regular mainstream D&D).
And any time they start to feel like they are engaged in an unending battle or losing hope, have them hear from the kids, or overhear how they are loved -- but whenever they are overly full of themselves, have them hear how they are not wanted and how they cause trouble.
It isn't even a balancing act -- you hear both in those circumstances -- it will test the degree of conviction they have.
For encounter design you will have both regular natural risks of monsters and such, but also, this example is of a huge empire that will bring in terrifying monsters to wreak havoc and so you an have that happen (Hey, Didler heard there's a new caraan on the southern road with some kind of strange beast). But mostly, you will have a lot of armed soldiers of varying levels, skills, classes, and abilities. They will always outnumber the players -- so they need to get good at sneaking, lol.
Now, in real life, obviously things didn't work very well for the tribal peoples. They were also hit with additional pressures from within (competition for space), from a different direction (The Huns), from the weather, and so forth, and ultimately they were just really outmatched by the military power of Rome.
If ROme doesn't work, look to the Warring States Period in China, or the period just before the founding of the Shogunate in Japan. Both have similar situations (look to the Ainu).
It is the kind of campaign that can go on for as long as everyone want it to, and can evolve from guerilla warfare into negotiation and unification of diverse tribes and pushing the invaders back.
And it will also give everyone some insight into the way that oppression works, if you all decide to let it do so.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Robin Hood is a very good example of how to spin the story of a thief skulking in the woods robbing peaceful travellers into a hero ;-)
I read somewhere that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, your campaign will have ample opportunity to delve into that - and the morality of the whole mess
Good and evil are relative terms, so as long as the civilised folk are worse, your guys are the good guys by default. If your players do something that makes them seem evil, have the enemy over react.
The Big Bad Industry is encroaching on sacred land that has a Great Evil sealed within it for a millenia. The Good and Proud Druids are trying to prevent the BBI from doing this. Maybe there's some clashes in grey areas at first, and then the Great Evil is released accidentally and suddenly the Good and Proud Druids get to say "I told you so".
Then the Druids and the Industry work together to stop the evil threat to the world.
Or something.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Have them meet the denizens of the forest and let them make friends and really like the npc's they meet.
Then explain the problem without blaming the town directly.
Give the players the time to discover the problem comes from the town being where it is... and then let them find out the townsfolk are sweethearts as well.
From there, your party has to figure out what to do.
Morally ambiguous and gut wrenching.
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Dear people of the internet,
Let me explain.
An upcoming campaign that I am going to run is set on a continent that is largely civilized. Countries with towns and cities occupy a large potion of the continent's land. With buy-in from my players we have chosen to play this campaign from the perspective of the native, druidic groups that still inhabit the few ancient forests and mountains that have not yet been conquered by any more civilized country. This allowed for some very thematic character creation which my players loved. I have a shepherd druid, a tempest cleric (of the ocean) and an oath of the ancients paladin. (and a wizard that hasn't yet gone through the character creation process).
I am a faily experienced DM. Running a game almost every week since 2019. But I find myself finding difficulty with making plans for this campaign. Two of my players are completely new to the game and expressed that they want to play a heroic-fantasy game. Both of them have played a one-shot once or twice so they have some understanding of the game luckily.
Where I would possibly turn this into a game with deep role-play and political intrigue for a group of more experienced role-players, I don't want to do that with this group as most of them have hardly ever had to role-play in a meaningful way. The game may gravitate that way when the players have become more experienced and more comfortable with roleplay. But until then I hope to run this as a fairly low-stakes game.
The problem I begin to run into is the following. I have a hard time coming up with ideas for story arcs that I could send my players on. I haven't yet recieved backstories and I hope I can pull some ideas from that. But id like some suggestions as to what I can do.
Because the players are basically playing the game from a perspective of an oppressed and threatened people, they will most likely want to fight back against the more civilized countries. However, I also know they want to play the hero. This means that I don't want to put them in positions where they would feel like they are playing the villans.
For example, I don't want to give them a quest that says 'burn down this town because they are encroaching too close to the border of our sacred forest' . In any other game they would go into political discussions with local leaders, or construct a plan to scare the town's villagers into abandoning it without harming them. But I know that these newer players are going to be quite combat focussed (as evidenced by their prefrences I have observed during the few oneshots I have seen them play in). This is because (at least in the beginning of the game) they will be much more comfortable taking turns in combat than having to roleplay their characters.
An example of an idea that I had for a quest is a group of poachers that have taken up residence in a small camp near the forest's edge. They have been hunting and capturing beasts of the forest for sport. The party will be tasked with ridding the forest of their presence. The players will be given the option to frighten them and scare them away or make a deal with them. But the way I intend to portray the poachers will also justify the use of force by the players, without making them feel like they just slaughtered a bunch of innocent hunters.
Like this, I am kinda looking for a few suggestion for low level play. But I would also be interested in some suggestions for higher level play. I intend to run this game starting at 2nd level, all the way up to 8th or 10th level over the course of the next year, year and a half.
Any ideas, concepts or anything like that will be greatly appriciated!
Sincerely,
A tired DM
Company has hired mercenaries to threaten and force members of that group to leave their area to set up a mine or a factory or whatever. The Mercenaries are a nice killable threat, and the company works as a decent midlevel antagonist. Have the company escalate, sending more mercenaries or even getting the regular nation involved. Maybe add a figure on the regular nation's side that's sympathetic if you want a more nuanced story.
Or maybe have them deal with the dregs of the nation, maybe criminal groups or necromancers attempt to set up there. So, they need to be driven out. could even be dealing with the wild animals like griffins or chimeras
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
oh, shoot. I have this time blocked for actually working on my world. But here you go, making a plea with something near and dear to my widdle heart (that is immensely intersectional and truly oppressed, lol).
A combat focused group of oppressed peoples are going to adopt the ways and approaches of folks that even today are struggling.
No matter what they do, how they do it, why they do it, when they do it, they will always, always be blamed for it in the most negative possible way. By the people who are doing the oppressing.
The oppressed side will have folks
Your players will be up against an otherwise unmatched military force that is used to fighting a guerilla war and shows absolutely no mercy under the leadership of their commanding officer.
I would suggest adding in differing languages -- and have them start off not knowing the conqueror language -- or not be very facile with it.
Worse, there will be conquered territories where the people who were conquered are left alone to rule themselves as long as they pay off the bad guys and don't complain about slaves being taken away (most of whom are rebels and fighters against the system -- so your players will be marked for that or death, and should note it at the start).
That's the rough draft. And since you are using Druidic folks on the fringes of "civilized" space, I should let you know that I am not using anything modern in this any of this, lol. All of this is stuff from the Roman Conquest of Northern and Western Europe and the Isles from roughly 200 BCE to 0 CE. Heavy, huh? The good news is that meets your criteria.
They are the good guys. The enemy general is the BBEG.
They have a noble justification in ending tyranny and defending their people.
They can start out doing just raids and slowly start getting attention (use two renown scales -- enemy and home -- if you use that option). As things progress, they will gain both notoriety with the enemy and role playing will involve bringing their people around to tier side and dealing with spies and traitors as they move through the levels.
And perhaps best of all, you don't need to make it a game about that, lol. ALl of that can be incidental by having them become focused on different side quests that solve a problem of tier people and still put them in contact and all that.
Next, this is a really good idea:
This is an excellent starter or entry approach.
Then you can do a slave caravan. Then you can do a small group of soldiers coming up or going back. Then you can do a garrison. And in between you still have to get them better equipment and earn coin and all that. They can sell their loot or trade it (depends on the economy, hell it could be go to town and sell it just like regular mainstream D&D).
And any time they start to feel like they are engaged in an unending battle or losing hope, have them hear from the kids, or overhear how they are loved -- but whenever they are overly full of themselves, have them hear how they are not wanted and how they cause trouble.
It isn't even a balancing act -- you hear both in those circumstances -- it will test the degree of conviction they have.
For encounter design you will have both regular natural risks of monsters and such, but also, this example is of a huge empire that will bring in terrifying monsters to wreak havoc and so you an have that happen (Hey, Didler heard there's a new caraan on the southern road with some kind of strange beast). But mostly, you will have a lot of armed soldiers of varying levels, skills, classes, and abilities. They will always outnumber the players -- so they need to get good at sneaking, lol.
Now, in real life, obviously things didn't work very well for the tribal peoples. They were also hit with additional pressures from within (competition for space), from a different direction (The Huns), from the weather, and so forth, and ultimately they were just really outmatched by the military power of Rome.
If ROme doesn't work, look to the Warring States Period in China, or the period just before the founding of the Shogunate in Japan. Both have similar situations (look to the Ainu).
It is the kind of campaign that can go on for as long as everyone want it to, and can evolve from guerilla warfare into negotiation and unification of diverse tribes and pushing the invaders back.
And it will also give everyone some insight into the way that oppression works, if you all decide to let it do so.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Robin Hood is a very good example of how to spin the story of a thief skulking in the woods robbing peaceful travellers into a hero ;-)
I read somewhere that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, your campaign will have ample opportunity to delve into that - and the morality of the whole mess
I'm loving this setting!
Good and evil are relative terms, so as long as the civilised folk are worse, your guys are the good guys by default. If your players do something that makes them seem evil, have the enemy over react.
The Big Bad Industry is encroaching on sacred land that has a Great Evil sealed within it for a millenia. The Good and Proud Druids are trying to prevent the BBI from doing this. Maybe there's some clashes in grey areas at first, and then the Great Evil is released accidentally and suddenly the Good and Proud Druids get to say "I told you so".
Then the Druids and the Industry work together to stop the evil threat to the world.
Or something.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Don't solve it.
Have them meet the denizens of the forest and let them make friends and really like the npc's they meet.
Then explain the problem without blaming the town directly.
Give the players the time to discover the problem comes from the town being where it is... and then let them find out the townsfolk are sweethearts as well.
From there, your party has to figure out what to do.
Morally ambiguous and gut wrenching.