This is my first time doing this--creating a homebrew campaign--and I'm still very new here, so please bear with me. :shy:
I have decided that I want to overwhelm myself and create a from-scratch 4e campaign, tentatively entitled, "The Doom of the Five Gods."
In this universe, there are five gods, each of which represent the general categories of alignment:
Bien-Tho: The god of neutrality. Represents a balance of all things (good/evil, chaos/law). Bien-Tho has created the material plane, but no longer directly affects it. Bien-Tho's main goal (and thus, the goal of the followers) is a balance between the alignments. "One's good is another's evil" is a good way to describe the outlook of the followers of Bien-Tho (called "Thorians"). Citizens in the world who are not in any way involved in politics or are not interested in global events tend to be of neutral alignment. Most of the action of the game takes place on Bien-Tho's plane, however, the other gods have more of a direct effect on the material plan than Bien-Tho does.
Shen-Tai: The god of Lawful Good. Followers of this god (Tailians) work towards good, but they will choose to follow the law of there is a dilemma between good and law. For example, a man caught stealing bread for his family because they are starving will be punished because stealing is against the law. Shen-Tai is just, but not merciful. Followers of Shen-Tai are extremely trustworthy, as breaking one's word is akin to breaking the law. For them, "law, by definition, is good, as it gives a dependable standard by which to live." While laws will vary from nation to nation, there are a few laws handed down from Shen-Tai himself.
"One may not injure another, or through inaction, allow another to come to harm." However, one is able to use force to protect oneself or another, provided excessive force is not used. Killing in self-defense is strongly discouraged. If there is any other way to prevent harm to come to another person, that must be used instead. Shen-Tai himself is consulted when there are disputes regarding this; his word is considered law. Encountering someone who is evil aligned is not reason enough to cause them harm, they must actually cause harm first. Members of this nation respect the followers of Daray-Inali, but they will not necessarily be friendly towards them. They are more friendly towards the followers of Shen-Kiri, but are often suspicious of them.
Shen-Kiri: Chaotic good. Followers of this god (Kirias) believe that good is more important than law. Merciful, but not always just. Followers of Shen-Kiri may seem untrustworthy, as they will break promises if they do not believe that following through will promote good. Their actions must be beneficial to the greater good, even if they are unlawful. They will generally follow laws when a part of a lawful good society, but they do not feel bound by them. Followers of Shen-Kiri are more proactive about promoting good. That is, they will kill evil creatures if they believe those creatures mean to do others harm. Above all, they believe "the least amount of harm for the most amount of good." Kirias are willing to face the consequences of breaking the law if they believe their actions are for the greater good. Kirias generally regard Talians well, but get frustrated with their black and white view of morality. Kirias have no respect for those who are evil in any way, and the more zealous members have to be restrained from killing them on sight.
Daray-Inali: Lawful evil. Followers of this god believe that law is necessary to control the masses. It is against the law to harm a member of the nation (unless in self-defense), but it is encouraged to harm outsiders if it will benefit the lawful evil nation. This god wants the members of his nation to be productive and safe, but not necessarily happy. People of the lawful evil nation are generally overworked and underpaid. Propaganda is in high use in the nation of this god. Members of this nation, on the one hand, feel safe because the laws are enforced as they are written. On the other hand, if they break the law (even accidentally), the punishment is swift and severe. Followers of this god will rarely give their word to promise something, but if they do, they will keep it.
Daray Tamal: Chaotic Evil. These guys are crazy. They will do what they want, however they want, and for whatever reason. There is no real nation of the followers of this god (they tend to all kill each other if the group is too large), but there are bands of these people in existence, and some larger organizations. They are generally regarded as a pain in the butt. However, the gods understand that without evil, there is no good, and without chaos, there is no law. The presence of these bands is tolerated, but those of other alignments do not hesitate to oppose them if they become aggressive.
In this universe, each god has its own plane of existence, but generally the action takes place on the Thorian plane, as that is where the PC races reside. There are other creatures in the other planes, but they are of NPC races. As in many campaigns, PCs and NPCs are aligned in some way, to a greater or lesser extent. Most of the NPCs in this campaign are followers of religion (and thus, the gods), but there are some who are not as committed to the churches. Many of these people describe themselves as neutral (Bien-Tho is not so concerned with worship and followers as some of the other gods), but many also follow the guidelines of the churches without being active members.
There are four main nations (Not all of which have names yet, hah), each ruled by followers of the corresponding god. Deray Tamal has no nation, as no one person (or group of people) would stay in charge (that is, alive), long enough to do anything. Gods typically choose someone that they feel best embodies their ideals to be the leader of the nation, though there are many smaller, local governments with leaders chosen in various ways. And, while followers of the god of the nation will always be the majority in a nation, there are people of other alignments in other lands, treated more or less well, depending.
The main plot (so far, I need more to this):
There is a group of chaotic evil followers who refer to themselves as "The Fellowship of the Hyena." They are not a large group, but the members they do possess tend to be of higher level than most CEs, and there are members in every nation. They do not have a leader, per se, but there is a committee of sorts that has come about to put together their plans. They remain in power because they are the most powerful, and thus, it's hard to kill them. Their plan is this:
Hundreds of years ago, when the CEs were running rampant and generally making a mess of things, the other gods got together (sans Bien-Tho) to take Deray-Tamal on and subdue him. Shen-Kiri and Deray-Inali were all ready to try to kill him (for differing reasons), but Shen-Tai suggested just subduing him. Bien-Tho was also consulted, and Bien-Tho agreed on the idea of subduing, instead of outright destroying, as destroying a god would upset the balance of things.
The CEs, of course, were not real happy about this, because their god could no longer provide them with any major help, save for a few random dreams of guidance here and there. In the past few years, the Fellowship of the Hyena has decided to take it upon themselves to try and not only resurrect their god, but bring him into power in the material plane.
They are doing a number of things to move towards this goal:
-Creating an undead army
-Making contact with/travelling to the CE plane
-Gathering new recruits, both just general CEs and to their fellowship
-Gathering an army (Of things that aren't undead)
-Training a select few to become more powerful
-Researching how to revive Deray-Tamal
-Surreptitiously weakening other nations so they are more susceptible to attack and rebellion
These activities are going on, in secret, all over the world. There are, of course, whispers of what is going on, and the gods have a pretty good idea of what these people are trying to do, but Bien-Tho has convinced them to let the people of the world take care of it before they truly step in. However, the gods are doing what they can to "nudge" adventurers into quelling the various factions of the fellowship.
My proposed playtest module:
"The good vampire"
"Evening has once again come to the town of Kiri-Thalan, the capital of the chaotic good nation of J'enkirla. While many of the town's inhabitants have gone home for the day, those without families (or at least, families they'd like to spend time with) gather at Kiri-Thalan's largest tavern, The Bloated Donkey. A large fire roars in the great stone fireplace along the southern wall. In one corner, a dwarf woman plays the piano while a half-elf gentleman animately plays the violin. They play mostly upbeat, folksy songs, but the music will occasionally take a slower, mournful tone. The mood is high, but perceptive ones will notice those with worried faces hidden by fake, drunken smiles.
The bartender, Chelori, stays busy continuously pouring out pints of beer, wine, and ale. Wenches occasionally come by to fill trays with mugs or drop off a settled tab, though one wench, a busty blonde, seems to prefer to drop the coinage from her tables into Chelori's front pocket with a lecherous smile, rather than in the jar designated for the evening's earnings.
The adventurers find themselves seated at the last table of the tavern. The blonde wanders over to obtain the group's order and flirt a bit in hopes of a better tip. The adventurers introduce themselves to each other, and perhaps share a bit as to how they have found themselves in Kiri-Thalan. Some may have come for the chance to purchase the beautiful opal and tourmaline jewelry the city is known for. Some may be there for a day of shopping, or perhaps selling, in the nation's largest marketplace. Others may have come to pay their respects at Shen-Kiri's large temple. Still others may just be traveling through the lands, eager to find adventure.
The adventurers hear a man at the next table discussing some strange goings-on in one of the neighboring villages. He speaks of villagers noticing some of their livestock missing, but the animals are often found a few days later, whole, but dead, save for strange wounds. No one has seen anything strange, but the animals are all found close to the village, and there are tracks suggesting that the animals have been dragged back toward the village."
The adventurers stay they night. If there are any that are chaotic good, they have a dream in which Shen-Kiri speaks to them, something about finding the Fellowship of the Hyena. No one in town really knows much about the fellowship, but there are rumors that their is an enclave of CEs in the same general direction of the village with the missing livestock. If the adventurers choose to go to the town, they'll be attacked along the way by some minor angry woodland creatures. They reach the town and find out about the livestock. They can wait overnight to try to ambush the guy or just search around to find him. If they search for him, they find a small shack in the woods. It has no windows. Either way, the person is the same: Emmeth, the vampire. He does not try to attack them, and honestly and eagerly tries to gain their mercy. He has escaped from the CE enclave, where they are trying to make an "army" of vampires (and possibly other various undead creatures). Emmeth decided that he didn't want to be evil, and that he wanted to be good. He states that he has never killed any one, but instead feeds on the blood of the livestock in the neighboring village. He feels bad about it, so he tries to drag the dead animals back to the town, hoping the people can still use the meat. (If the adventurers want, they can convince the villagers to allow Emmeth to have the blood when they slaughter an animal, so nothing is wasted and their livestock aren't stolen. They can give some other excuse as to why Emmeth needs it.)
Emmeth gives them directions to the enclave, where they encounter some vampires and some of the Fellowship of the Hyena. They kill them and collect some minor treasures. When they return to the main city, someone who is CG (or at least who is the most CG-like) will have another dream with Shen-Kiri thanking them for their help and maybe giving them some more information).
As you can see, I don't have the module completely fleshed out yet, but that's the basic idea.
I welcome any and all comments, criticisms, suggestions, angry throwing of pies, etc. Please let me know what you think. I'm very new at this and need all the help I can get!
Thank you! And even if you don't have anything to say, I commend you on getting through all of this post!
I have decided that I want to overwhelm myself and create a from-scratch 4e campaign, tentatively entitled, "The Doom of the Five Gods."
In this universe, there are five gods, each of which represent the general categories of alignment:
Bien-Tho: The god of neutrality. Represents a balance of all things (good/evil, chaos/law). Bien-Tho has created the material plane, but no longer directly affects it. Bien-Tho's main goal (and thus, the goal of the followers) is a balance between the alignments. "One's good is another's evil" is a good way to describe the outlook of the followers of Bien-Tho (called "Thorians"). Citizens in the world who are not in any way involved in politics or are not interested in global events tend to be of neutral alignment. Most of the action of the game takes place on Bien-Tho's plane, however, the other gods have more of a direct effect on the material plan than Bien-Tho does.
Shen-Tai: The god of Lawful Good. Followers of this god (Tailians) work towards good, but they will choose to follow the law of there is a dilemma between good and law. For example, a man caught stealing bread for his family because they are starving will be punished because stealing is against the law. Shen-Tai is just, but not merciful. Followers of Shen-Tai are extremely trustworthy, as breaking one's word is akin to breaking the law. For them, "law, by definition, is good, as it gives a dependable standard by which to live." While laws will vary from nation to nation, there are a few laws handed down from Shen-Tai himself.
"One may not injure another, or through inaction, allow another to come to harm." However, one is able to use force to protect oneself or another, provided excessive force is not used. Killing in self-defense is strongly discouraged. If there is any other way to prevent harm to come to another person, that must be used instead. Shen-Tai himself is consulted when there are disputes regarding this; his word is considered law. Encountering someone who is evil aligned is not reason enough to cause them harm, they must actually cause harm first. Members of this nation respect the followers of Daray-Inali, but they will not necessarily be friendly towards them. They are more friendly towards the followers of Shen-Kiri, but are often suspicious of them.
Shen-Kiri: Chaotic good. Followers of this god (Kirias) believe that good is more important than law. Merciful, but not always just. Followers of Shen-Kiri may seem untrustworthy, as they will break promises if they do not believe that following through will promote good. Their actions must be beneficial to the greater good, even if they are unlawful. They will generally follow laws when a part of a lawful good society, but they do not feel bound by them. Followers of Shen-Kiri are more proactive about promoting good. That is, they will kill evil creatures if they believe those creatures mean to do others harm. Above all, they believe "the least amount of harm for the most amount of good." Kirias are willing to face the consequences of breaking the law if they believe their actions are for the greater good. Kirias generally regard Talians well, but get frustrated with their black and white view of morality. Kirias have no respect for those who are evil in any way, and the more zealous members have to be restrained from killing them on sight.
Daray-Inali: Lawful evil. Followers of this god believe that law is necessary to control the masses. It is against the law to harm a member of the nation (unless in self-defense), but it is encouraged to harm outsiders if it will benefit the lawful evil nation. This god wants the members of his nation to be productive and safe, but not necessarily happy. People of the lawful evil nation are generally overworked and underpaid. Propaganda is in high use in the nation of this god. Members of this nation, on the one hand, feel safe because the laws are enforced as they are written. On the other hand, if they break the law (even accidentally), the punishment is swift and severe. Followers of this god will rarely give their word to promise something, but if they do, they will keep it.
Daray Tamal: Chaotic Evil. These guys are crazy. They will do what they want, however they want, and for whatever reason. There is no real nation of the followers of this god (they tend to all kill each other if the group is too large), but there are bands of these people in existence, and some larger organizations. They are generally regarded as a pain in the butt. However, the gods understand that without evil, there is no good, and without chaos, there is no law. The presence of these bands is tolerated, but those of other alignments do not hesitate to oppose them if they become aggressive.
In this universe, each god has its own plane of existence, but generally the action takes place on the Thorian plane, as that is where the PC races reside. There are other creatures in the other planes, but they are of NPC races. As in many campaigns, PCs and NPCs are aligned in some way, to a greater or lesser extent. Most of the NPCs in this campaign are followers of religion (and thus, the gods), but there are some who are not as committed to the churches. Many of these people describe themselves as neutral (Bien-Tho is not so concerned with worship and followers as some of the other gods), but many also follow the guidelines of the churches without being active members.
There are four main nations (Not all of which have names yet, hah), each ruled by followers of the corresponding god. Deray Tamal has no nation, as no one person (or group of people) would stay in charge (that is, alive), long enough to do anything. Gods typically choose someone that they feel best embodies their ideals to be the leader of the nation, though there are many smaller, local governments with leaders chosen in various ways. And, while followers of the god of the nation will always be the majority in a nation, there are people of other alignments in other lands, treated more or less well, depending.
The main plot (so far, I need more to this):
There is a group of chaotic evil followers who refer to themselves as "The Fellowship of the Hyena." They are not a large group, but the members they do possess tend to be of higher level than most CEs, and there are members in every nation. They do not have a leader, per se, but there is a committee of sorts that has come about to put together their plans. They remain in power because they are the most powerful, and thus, it's hard to kill them. Their plan is this:
Hundreds of years ago, when the CEs were running rampant and generally making a mess of things, the other gods got together (sans Bien-Tho) to take Deray-Tamal on and subdue him. Shen-Kiri and Deray-Inali were all ready to try to kill him (for differing reasons), but Shen-Tai suggested just subduing him. Bien-Tho was also consulted, and Bien-Tho agreed on the idea of subduing, instead of outright destroying, as destroying a god would upset the balance of things.
The CEs, of course, were not real happy about this, because their god could no longer provide them with any major help, save for a few random dreams of guidance here and there. In the past few years, the Fellowship of the Hyena has decided to take it upon themselves to try and not only resurrect their god, but bring him into power in the material plane.
They are doing a number of things to move towards this goal:
-Creating an undead army
-Making contact with/travelling to the CE plane
-Gathering new recruits, both just general CEs and to their fellowship
-Gathering an army (Of things that aren't undead)
-Training a select few to become more powerful
-Researching how to revive Deray-Tamal
-Surreptitiously weakening other nations so they are more susceptible to attack and rebellion
These activities are going on, in secret, all over the world. There are, of course, whispers of what is going on, and the gods have a pretty good idea of what these people are trying to do, but Bien-Tho has convinced them to let the people of the world take care of it before they truly step in. However, the gods are doing what they can to "nudge" adventurers into quelling the various factions of the fellowship.
My proposed playtest module:
"The good vampire"
"Evening has once again come to the town of Kiri-Thalan, the capital of the chaotic good nation of J'enkirla. While many of the town's inhabitants have gone home for the day, those without families (or at least, families they'd like to spend time with) gather at Kiri-Thalan's largest tavern, The Bloated Donkey. A large fire roars in the great stone fireplace along the southern wall. In one corner, a dwarf woman plays the piano while a half-elf gentleman animately plays the violin. They play mostly upbeat, folksy songs, but the music will occasionally take a slower, mournful tone. The mood is high, but perceptive ones will notice those with worried faces hidden by fake, drunken smiles.
The bartender, Chelori, stays busy continuously pouring out pints of beer, wine, and ale. Wenches occasionally come by to fill trays with mugs or drop off a settled tab, though one wench, a busty blonde, seems to prefer to drop the coinage from her tables into Chelori's front pocket with a lecherous smile, rather than in the jar designated for the evening's earnings.
The adventurers find themselves seated at the last table of the tavern. The blonde wanders over to obtain the group's order and flirt a bit in hopes of a better tip. The adventurers introduce themselves to each other, and perhaps share a bit as to how they have found themselves in Kiri-Thalan. Some may have come for the chance to purchase the beautiful opal and tourmaline jewelry the city is known for. Some may be there for a day of shopping, or perhaps selling, in the nation's largest marketplace. Others may have come to pay their respects at Shen-Kiri's large temple. Still others may just be traveling through the lands, eager to find adventure.
The adventurers hear a man at the next table discussing some strange goings-on in one of the neighboring villages. He speaks of villagers noticing some of their livestock missing, but the animals are often found a few days later, whole, but dead, save for strange wounds. No one has seen anything strange, but the animals are all found close to the village, and there are tracks suggesting that the animals have been dragged back toward the village."
The adventurers stay they night. If there are any that are chaotic good, they have a dream in which Shen-Kiri speaks to them, something about finding the Fellowship of the Hyena. No one in town really knows much about the fellowship, but there are rumors that their is an enclave of CEs in the same general direction of the village with the missing livestock. If the adventurers choose to go to the town, they'll be attacked along the way by some minor angry woodland creatures. They reach the town and find out about the livestock. They can wait overnight to try to ambush the guy or just search around to find him. If they search for him, they find a small shack in the woods. It has no windows. Either way, the person is the same: Emmeth, the vampire. He does not try to attack them, and honestly and eagerly tries to gain their mercy. He has escaped from the CE enclave, where they are trying to make an "army" of vampires (and possibly other various undead creatures). Emmeth decided that he didn't want to be evil, and that he wanted to be good. He states that he has never killed any one, but instead feeds on the blood of the livestock in the neighboring village. He feels bad about it, so he tries to drag the dead animals back to the town, hoping the people can still use the meat. (If the adventurers want, they can convince the villagers to allow Emmeth to have the blood when they slaughter an animal, so nothing is wasted and their livestock aren't stolen. They can give some other excuse as to why Emmeth needs it.)
Emmeth gives them directions to the enclave, where they encounter some vampires and some of the Fellowship of the Hyena. They kill them and collect some minor treasures. When they return to the main city, someone who is CG (or at least who is the most CG-like) will have another dream with Shen-Kiri thanking them for their help and maybe giving them some more information).
As you can see, I don't have the module completely fleshed out yet, but that's the basic idea.
I welcome any and all comments, criticisms, suggestions, angry throwing of pies, etc. Please let me know what you think. I'm very new at this and need all the help I can get!
Thank you! And even if you don't have anything to say, I commend you on getting through all of this post!