I am creating a D&D 3.5 campaign that my friends and I will play (eventually). Aside from them not wanting to play right now, i've had some difficulties. Please forgive how rough and undetailed these descriptions are, I keep all my campaign info in a notebook where I really describe it and put all the crunch.
The campaign takes place in my own D&D world. It is generic, core D&D, except for the pantheon and planes and stuff, which I think i'm going to redo to make the deities and planes less excessible and more mysterious. But the point is, this is pretty much a vanilla world.
The first few sessions are going to take place in a desert setting. I kind of took a mixed approach to world building; I sketched a continent and then focused on a small area where the PCs will be. This works best for me.
Anyway, the first few sessions will take place on a huge, dry peninsula. It is a mix of dry, harsh crags along the edge of mountains on the northern edge of the peninsula, and flat and rocky boulder strewn desert skirting the edges of the Amihash Basin, a massive dune sea far below sea level.
The character's home base in the town of Sarahd in the Bhara Kon Canyon. There are three towns in the canyon, but Sarahd is the largest and is where the mayor lives.
The Dustflow River runs through the canyon's base, the bottom level of the canyon. The bottom level is full of vegatation and life, and is very moist and has rich soil. All farms and irrigation channels are found on this level. Rising about twenty feet above the moist riverland is the Town Level, where all the buildings and towns are found. They have to be built here, or the rising flood waters of the Dustflow would wash them away.
The cliff level is the last level, consisting of, you guessed it, cliffs. Sheer cliffs, caves, and narrow walkways make this the least worked level of the canyon.
The Bhara Kon Canyon is a homy oasis in the desert. The Dustflow River empties out into the Amihash Basin, an enormous dune sea. Here it creates a sort of desert wetland. The river splits into hundreds of streams and pools, and lush vegatation grows around them. This is a very unique wetland, as it has crystal clear water and the ground is sand. It abruptly stops after about ten miles, and the water dries up and gives way to the vast dune sea of the Amihash Basin. In the farthest reaches of the wetland lives the Ba'Dune lizardfolk clan, the original inhabitants of the area.
Jin Zark, the current mayor of the Bhara Kon Canyon, has struck an alliance with the previously hostile Ba'Dune clan. Now the Bhara Kon Canyon towns and the Ba'Dune villages are in a much more peaceful state, and both have profited greatly from it. The inhabitants of both places are not friendly with eachother, meaning they are suspicious and rude, and nothing worse.
When the PCs start playing, I have done what I always do. I let the PCs do what they want in town, but they always do pretty much the same thing. Pretty much shop and go to the tavern. So in a few of the places they go I place quest hooks. The PCs will undoubtedly do one of these mini-quests, which include gathering Irrowin Flowers (a special ingrediant in a delicious wine)from an oasis out in the dune sea (the oasis is guarded by a very friendly Nymph, who tells the PCs to indulge in the desert's delicacies, as long as they don notharm the animals or plants. There are a few more mini-quests like that, and after one is completed, it 'catches the attention' of whatever higher power there is in the area, and he gives them their first adventure.
When done right, this method makes the world feel open and full of options, and is easy for me to handle. When done wrong it is repetitive, which is why I need to get creative with the method in which I do this strategy. I particularly like it because it leaves some other little quests for the PCs to do if they want a break from the main story. These little quests always have one or more special features that make them different and exciting, so its not just like "go kill the rats in my cellar and i'll give you 3gp each" or "collect twelve pearls."
Well, once the mayor, Jin Zark's, attention is caught by the PCs, he invites them to lunch the next day to discuss a crisis he is in. When they go, it is them, the mayor, and Yersh Ba'Dune, Jin's friend and the representative of the Ba'Dune lizardfolk clan. Jin and the PCs indulge in small talk for a little while, and then he gets into buisness. He is worried about a growing number of Kobolds in the rocky flat desert to the north.
When he is talking about this Yersh Ba'Dune (the lizardfolk) becomes ver agitated and advises against that course of action. After Jin insists many times, Yersh becomes angry, but agrees.
The twist is that Yersh, who was supposed to be an ambassador of peace for the Ba'Dune clan, is actually trying to gain the upper hand and take over the towns. He has a hatred of those who live in the canyon. This was his self appointed mission, so it is not a lizardfolk conspiracy. He is planning to do this by gathering an overwhelming force of Kobolds, who were easily gathering and convinced, and taking the towns by sheer force.
However, the PCs will not know this until they get to the end of the Kobold fort and find Yersh along with the kobold leader.
Anyway, Jin gives them the quest to go either wipe out the Kobolds or convince them to leave. The journey to the kobold fort takes four days, and in those four days the PCs face challenges such as a way too powerful to fight dinosaur, a feild of exploding cactuses (from the book Sandstorm) and other things. When they get there, they complete the dungeon crawl or diplomatically solve it with the kobolds, or do something else completely. Whatever, either way the kobold leader and Yersh Ba'Dune are together in the kobold leader's bed chamber planning.
My problem: why would the PCs be in the desert that far south? I always give them suggestions that they build off of.
And are there any tips or suggestions? Anything that anyone wants me to describe in more detail? I don't expect anybody to read all of it, it's mostly just rambling anyway, I just want some feedback.
Sounds like a really good first adventure - lots of different options. The Sandstorm book is quite good too, I thought. Kudos on going for the world in motion feel, and the canyon town sounds cool.
As for why the players are down south (apart from possibly being born there) - shipwreck, caravan duty, recently discharged soldiers, mercenary work of some variety, drawn by the promise of riches (if the towns have any?), religious pilgrimage (for clerical types), study (for wizardly types), family matters (a death, a marriage?). Just a few random ideas.
EDIT: one of the players might be an outlaw fleeing the justice of another region.
Quote from: SurvivormanMy problem: why would the PCs be in the desert that far south? I always give them suggestions that they build off of.
Some ideas:
* The town was holding a big celebration/festival (maybe something like 500 years since founding?) with FREE DRINKS for all. PCs dared the desert to join the party :drunk:
* The PCs were in another kingdom and accidentally (or perhaps "accidentally") stumbled into the sultan's harem. Exiled into the desert by the jealous sultan.
* The PCs were crossing the river for whatever reason, when the raft they had purchased from an "honest" used rafts salesman broke down. They hung on to pieces of debris and were washed downstream into this land.
* They found a flying carpet, but it malfunctioned and was flying around uncontrollably, then crash-landed.
* They were tracking down a fugitive villain and only caught up to him in this town.
A merchant prince with adoration with one of the PC's girlfriends has sent the party on a wild goose chase to get them out of town, so he can pursue his betrothal. He has asked them to retrieve an item from this southern canyon town with just enough funds to get them there, as he promises a reward will be collected upon arrival that will more than pay for the trip in return. Of course there is no such item nor payment, so the party has arrived and is now broke. They will need funds to pay for the trip home...
One of the PC's distant relatives, a barely known uncle is on his deathbed and has sent a request for a surviving relative to place into their hands an heirloom destined for the PCs mother, and cannot trust non-family to return this valuable item (?). The party arrives to find the uncle already passed, but the heirloom in safekeeping at the local tavern/general store/mayor's home...
A wealthy scientist/explorer has hired the party as a guard and other professional service for a journey to find the true mouth of the Dustflow river, however the trip turned out to be too detrimental to the scientist's health and has passed from desert exposure the day before arriving in town. Now they have equipment and supplies, but lack a purpose and now are looking for something to do...
Or any simpler storyline, as one of Steerpike's ideas, etc.
GP
Gamer Printshop, I really really love the explorer idea. It explains exactly why they're there, that they are already adventurers and now they need something to do. I'm probably going to use that.
Thanks also to Steerpike and Ghostman, I'll think about the celebration idea....
So it's been about two years since I posted this, and I finally got around to playing this campaign with friends. It went over very well, especially considering none of us have played for over three years and two players were completely new.
The Player Characters:
Half-Elf Sorcerer
[spoiler]More human then elf but with some elfin qualities (skinny and light, eyes shine slightly in the dark). The player really took advantage of the flaw system in Unearthed Arcana, so he has four flaws: Bloodthirst (has some vampire ancestry), Compulsive Gambler, Compulsive Killer and is Bipolar. Each flaw grants a feat. Normally its recommended that you only allow a PC one feat no matter how many flaws they have, but we worked out that his flaws were crippling enough that i'd let him take a feat for each one, especially because his ability scores are just average. He used the bonus feats to gain proficiency and specialize in bows, and is headed towards the arcane archer prestige class. Since he uses archery for offense, he can focus his spellcasting on utility. Also has a toad familiar with multiple personality disorder. Chaotic Nuetral, really walks a line. Means well but is very disturbed.[/spoiler]
Human Fighter
[spoiler] Played by a friend of mine new to the game but very excited about it. He's drawn character portraits and has an elaborate backstory. His strength and consitution are very high, so he's a melee oriented character with a ton of hitpoints. Basically a generic fighter, but he really brings out his character's flaws and personality. His character is a withdrawn and haunted ex-soldier who never wanted to fight in the first place, and ended up watching his best friends get slaughtered by orcs in a meaningless skirmish. His character HATES orcs with a burning passion, but so does pretty much everyone else. But he also hates half-orcs or anybody with orc blood, putting him at odds with certain NPCs throughout the game. Nuetral Good.[/spoiler]
Elf Ranger
[spoiler]A pretty generic elf ranger with average ability scores. It seems like the player has bad luck 'cause he rolled four critical failures in 3 hours of playing, amounting in a snapped bow, a tumble off a cliff, shooting another PC in the back and almost drowning in a puddle. Its alot of fun making up critical failures, and we all laugh about it. The player's really easygoing and just has fun playing with everybody else. He also has a good survival skill, very useful in a desert wasteland campaign. Chaotic Good.[/spoiler]
Halfling Ninja
[spoiler]This character is played by a good friend of mine who is pretty experienced with the game. His character is very well made, and he got very lucky rolls for his ability scores. A 20 for Dexterity, and a +2 racial bonus for halflings give him a +6 dexterity bonus. Intelligence is his second best score at an 18, giving him alot of skill points. He has a +10 in important skills for his class, like move silently, hide, tumble, disable device, etc. Despite the fact that his character is noticeably more powerful then the others, he's not a powergamer at all, and is more of an explorer/actor type player. True Nuetral.[/spoiler]
The campaign starts with the PCs traveling south through the desert with the explorer Zakk Mardon, who hired them as bodyguards. None of the PCs know eachother. After two weeks of traveling, the PCs awaken in the middle of the night to a wrecked campsite and footprints leading away into the desert. Zakk is missing, and the fighter finds some hair that he recognizes as orc hair. The ranger tracks the footprints through the desert to a rocky outcropping. They see a campfire and camp between some boulders. The ninja and ranger approach stealthily, the ninja climbs easily climbs up one of the boulders and gets a view of the camp. The sorcerer uses the message spell to ask how many there are.
There are eight orcs in the camp, seven with spears and axes, and one with a heavy crossbow sitting watch outside the camp. Zakk is tied, stripped and bloody, to a pole by the fire. The ranger tries to shoot the sentry with the crossbow, but rolls a 1. His bow snaps. The fighter, a full twenty feet back, says he wants to toss his own crossbow to the ranger. I tell him it'll be difficult but he insists, so I have him roll a Strength check for the distance and Dexterity for accuracy. He easily passes the Strength but fails the Dexterity. The ranger rolls Dexterity to try to dive and catch it, and rolls a 19 and catches it. He takes out the orc archer with one hit. One of the orcs in camp sees the sentry fall, and goes over to investiage.
This was supposed to be when the orc would alarm the rest of them and start the battle, but my ninja PC did something crazy. He told me he wanted to try to throw a shuriken and slice the artery in the orcs neck. Seriously. I laughed and warned him that it would be almost impossible. I figured to make the requirement 24, taking into account his high dexterity bonus. He wants to try anyway, so I let him, and he gets a twenty. The shuriken sails through the air and buries itself into the orcs neck. The orc collapses, gurgling blood. Six left.
All four communicate an ambush, giving them each a free round before the orcs can act. They get behind the boulder and spring their attack. The ninja throws a the fighter charging the nearest orc and taking its leg clean off. Cleave lets him bury his sword into the next orc's chest. Four more.
The ninja pounces off the boulder onto the nearest orc, burying his dagger into its neck. The blade fails to go all the way through the muscular next and the orc throws the halfling to the ground and raises his axe and hails. Its the sorcerer's turn, and he kills the orc attacking the halfling with an arrow in the stomach. Three left.
Every PC has gone, so we roll initiative. Two orcs go first, then the PCs, then the third orc. An orc attacks the fighter, but the fighter's plate armor deflects the spear. The second orc charges the sorcerer and knocks him down. The PCs go: the fighter kills an orc, the ranger kills the orc that knocked over the sorcerer. The sorcerer tries to shoot the third orc but misses. Its the third and last surviving orcs turn. He smirks and turns away from the PCs, raising his axe to kill the helpless Zakk, tied to the pole. I roll an attack for the orc as a formality, and get a 1! This threw me off guard, because Zakk was supposed to die. The orc raises his axe behind his head, but is thrown off balance by the weight of it and falls backwards into the fire. His mane of dirty black hair burst into flames and he burns to death.
The PCs are highly amused and thrilled about how the battle turned out. I was suprised it had been so easy for them, I actually thought eight orcs might have been too difficult. The PCs gather themselves up and rest. The sorcerer's supply of blood is empty. (The Bloodthirst flaw demands that the PC drink blood every 24 hours, so the sorcerer carries vials with him and refills them when he gets a chance). He slips away from camp and refills his vials, quenching his thirst with orc blood, which he says is absolutely disgusting.
I'll continue writing the first session if you guys show interest.