I don't know if this is where to post this but it seems as good of a place as any!
I could really do with some story building advice, I am a fairly new DM and have started a short home-brew campaign.
I have the main plot sorted which is going really well about 10 sessions in.
In short the city the campaign is based around has currently undergone a revolution and I have managed to get the PC's to believe that the new rulers are the bad guys, however they are in fact attempting to stop a rival city take over the region and the previous leader was planning on gifting the city to that ruler (The PC's obviously don't know this). Kinda cliche I know but im a new DM give me a break.....
The guy the PC's have gotten involved with is a member of the council who is actually working for the rival city to sow strife within the city making it easier to influence, but obviously the PC's believe he's the good guy.
Im basically stuck of ways I can breadcrumb in that he's using them... I don't want to turn around and go "Well looks like you were working for the bad guys this whole time" without giving them clues throughout the campaign....
I could go for the standard "you find a letter" but that seems bullshit since this guy is super careful and isn't likely to leave these letters around..
The campaign is ending in a siege where the more the PC's find out the better defended the city is OR they can just switch and work for the rival city.
Your "good guy" council member could be spotted leaving the company of someone the party KNOWS is on the wrong side. Simple happenstance, and the council member is too far to notice them/and or they have no chance to intercept him at the time. If confronted, he can deny it, with an alibi of somewhere the party KNOWS he couldn't have been for whatever reasons.
The part might overhear a conversation with some evidence pointing to a conspiracy. Nothing hostile or such, just a casual conversation between some locals where a key link between your councilor and the rival city maybe? Keeping a "dropped note" in reserve in case the birds don't follow the crumbs is a good idea. Subtle hints are like tiny post-it notes. Dropped letter is more a big red sign.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
They could find that the rival city has some one on the inside of the council. The guy they work with uses that to have the player investigate other council members and distracted as he makes moves in other parts of the city. Maybe they find some one they think is a spy but later find evidence of a framing operation on him.
How about an intercepted messenger? Like, by happenstance the party saves or defeats or comes across a messenger and they discover a scroll with the sigil of the rival city. No names, just ominous instructions.
What would also be cool (but tricky) is to point everything towards another council member as they collect the bread crumbs and the final crumb makes it impossible for that particular person to have been the culprit and reveals who the real bad guy is.
Ideally with the party unknowingly carrying out missions to help his villainous cause.
I like Falwith's advice, and I was going to offer this similar advice ... It may work as a precursor event to the scene Falwith laid out.
Your Council Member is happened upon in the stable having a whispered conversation with someone out of earshot of the players. The person the Council Member is talking to notices the party, says something very quickly to the Council Member and exits the stable another way before they can get a good look at him. The Council Member turns and smiles at the party and asks how they are doing and where they are going (assuming that they came to the stable to fetch horses). When (If) asked about the other person he simply replies, "No one you need concern yourself with. Just another source of information I maintain." Or he could say something like, "Oh, he is a relation of mine from _____ <the other place>." It should strike someone as strange that he left so suddenly without waiting to be introduced.
I thought this subtly puts the notion in the players minds that the NPC has more information that he is not willing to share with them. They may accept this at face value or it might begin to set the wheels in motion.
In another scene, say at a formal diplomatic affair/gathering, the party sees the Council Member talking with a fellow. They are introduced to this fellow as someone he has known for a long time and a good friend. Then from another source, the party learns this new fellow has always lived in <the other place>.
And in a third instance, when the party is travelling outside the town on a well traveled public road, the party sees the Council Member talking to two fellows <and they are all riding horses, but standing still at the moment while talking>. These fellows, or their horses, bear cloth with the coloring of the other town, maybe tunics, or saddle bags or something. The riders ride off before the party can close to conversation distance. When asked about the riders, the Council Member says he was asking about the weather or something about the road conditions ahead or something.
After you have dropped some of these more subtle hints on them, then you drop Falwith's hint on them, and then possibly something that all but eliminates any other possibility that the players have been set up.
Good luck and have fun.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
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I don't know if this is where to post this but it seems as good of a place as any!
I could really do with some story building advice, I am a fairly new DM and have started a short home-brew campaign.
I have the main plot sorted which is going really well about 10 sessions in.
In short the city the campaign is based around has currently undergone a revolution and I have managed to get the PC's to believe that the new rulers are the bad guys, however they are in fact attempting to stop a rival city take over the region and the previous leader was planning on gifting the city to that ruler (The PC's obviously don't know this). Kinda cliche I know but im a new DM give me a break.....
The guy the PC's have gotten involved with is a member of the council who is actually working for the rival city to sow strife within the city making it easier to influence, but obviously the PC's believe he's the good guy.
Im basically stuck of ways I can breadcrumb in that he's using them... I don't want to turn around and go "Well looks like you were working for the bad guys this whole time" without giving them clues throughout the campaign....
I could go for the standard "you find a letter" but that seems bullshit since this guy is super careful and isn't likely to leave these letters around..
The campaign is ending in a siege where the more the PC's find out the better defended the city is OR they can just switch and work for the rival city.
Any advice for a new DM would be great.
Thanks
Your "good guy" council member could be spotted leaving the company of someone the party KNOWS is on the wrong side. Simple happenstance, and the council member is too far to notice them/and or they have no chance to intercept him at the time. If confronted, he can deny it, with an alibi of somewhere the party KNOWS he couldn't have been for whatever reasons.
The part might overhear a conversation with some evidence pointing to a conspiracy. Nothing hostile or such, just a casual conversation between some locals where a key link between your councilor and the rival city maybe? Keeping a "dropped note" in reserve in case the birds don't follow the crumbs is a good idea. Subtle hints are like tiny post-it notes. Dropped letter is more a big red sign.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
They could find that the rival city has some one on the inside of the council. The guy they work with uses that to have the player investigate other council members and distracted as he makes moves in other parts of the city. Maybe they find some one they think is a spy but later find evidence of a framing operation on him.
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How about an intercepted messenger? Like, by happenstance the party saves or defeats or comes across a messenger and they discover a scroll with the sigil of the rival city. No names, just ominous instructions.
What would also be cool (but tricky) is to point everything towards another council member as they collect the bread crumbs and the final crumb makes it impossible for that particular person to have been the culprit and reveals who the real bad guy is.
Ideally with the party unknowingly carrying out missions to help his villainous cause.
I think it's a great idea for a first campaign!
I like Falwith's advice, and I was going to offer this similar advice ... It may work as a precursor event to the scene Falwith laid out.
Your Council Member is happened upon in the stable having a whispered conversation with someone out of earshot of the players. The person the Council Member is talking to notices the party, says something very quickly to the Council Member and exits the stable another way before they can get a good look at him. The Council Member turns and smiles at the party and asks how they are doing and where they are going (assuming that they came to the stable to fetch horses). When (If) asked about the other person he simply replies, "No one you need concern yourself with. Just another source of information I maintain." Or he could say something like, "Oh, he is a relation of mine from _____ <the other place>." It should strike someone as strange that he left so suddenly without waiting to be introduced.
I thought this subtly puts the notion in the players minds that the NPC has more information that he is not willing to share with them. They may accept this at face value or it might begin to set the wheels in motion.
In another scene, say at a formal diplomatic affair/gathering, the party sees the Council Member talking with a fellow. They are introduced to this fellow as someone he has known for a long time and a good friend. Then from another source, the party learns this new fellow has always lived in <the other place>.
And in a third instance, when the party is travelling outside the town on a well traveled public road, the party sees the Council Member talking to two fellows <and they are all riding horses, but standing still at the moment while talking>. These fellows, or their horses, bear cloth with the coloring of the other town, maybe tunics, or saddle bags or something. The riders ride off before the party can close to conversation distance. When asked about the riders, the Council Member says he was asking about the weather or something about the road conditions ahead or something.
After you have dropped some of these more subtle hints on them, then you drop Falwith's hint on them, and then possibly something that all but eliminates any other possibility that the players have been set up.
Good luck and have fun.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt