[4E D&D] Awesome Campaigns Wanted

Hexmage-PA

I just had a great idea for a campaign and wanted to share it. However, I was afraid that it might get lost in the primary Dungeons and Dragons thread and decided to create a new thread for throwing around campaign ideas.

The purpose of this thread is a bit different from the last one: instead of world-building, this thread is focused on brainstorming for campaigns. You can use this thread to both show-off your awesome campaign plans or simply as a place to share your ideas with others. I especially hope that this thread can become a source of inspiration for myself and others.

So, without further ado, here's the idea that prompted me to start this thread:

THE LITURGIES OF THE DIVIDED DRAGON

The original dragon god, Io, believed himself to be the greatest of the gods and thought that he should be the ultimate authority that the other gods answered to. It would be very difficult to usurp control, especially during the Dawn War against the primordials. Io began to construct an elaborate plan that would end with him the lord of both the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos.

The first dragons of both the Metallic and Chromatic families were created and instructed by Io to be key players in his strategy for dominance. After challenging the primordial known as the King of Terror, Io then sealed away the knowledge of his plan and some of his strength from himself before facing the primordial in battle. After Io was divided into Bahamut and Tiamat and the lesser dragons had split ways, the original, perfect dragons remained true to their purpose and worked to bring their creator's plans to fruition.

Each of the original dragons now heads a cell of a plane-spanning organization. The cells are made up of lesser dragons, dragonspawn, dragonborn, and even non-dragons who seek to restore the Divided Dragon and do his will. Each part of the organization works to bring about the ideal conditions in the Multiverse necessary for Io to take control as the king of the gods. Once these requirements are met the organization will set events into motion that lead Bahamut and Tiamat to combine and Io to be reborn.

Though it is possible that some extraplanar beings of great power could be in on the plan to recreate Io, the vast majority of gods, primordials, demon lords, and archdevils would most likely be violently opposed to the plot and work to stomp out the organization working to make it a reality. Even Io's own two halves would reject it: after all, not only are Bahamut and Tiamat diametrically opposed to one another, but they are also unique beings who would cease to exist if Io were to be resurrected.

There is also no guarantee that Io's master plan would work out just the way he expected, though; it's quite possible that his reemergence could throw the Multiverse into a conflict of a magnitude not seen since the Dawn War. If Io's plan were to fail his arrogance could well bring about the remaking of the Multiverse and the end of the Material Worlds.

I'm incredibly proud of this idea and will likely drop the last campaign idea that I'd been working on for a long time for this one. I mean, there's so much potential here.

- Evil PCs could conceivably work well in this campaign provided they serve beings who want to stop Io's plan from being fulfilled. It would especially be cool to have followers of both Bahamut and Tiamat working together to prevent the destruction of their gods.
- As Io's plan is revealed and tensions rise in the Multiverse the party could try to defuse the situation by talking gods, archdevils, demon lords and primordials out of declaring all out war throughout creation.
- There could be beings of great power who were in on the plot the whole time for various reasons. Some beings could believe that Io truly does deserve to rule the planes. Others could see it as a way to pursue their own goals, whether it be to take advantage of the new order and gain power or use it to kickstart the end of creation.
- Adventures wouldn't be limited to just fighting the organization trying to revive Io; the PCs could also work to weaken the forces of demon lords and primordials who are prepared to overtake the Astral Sea.
- What could be more cool than two gods being recombined against their will into one greater god at the culmination of a plan hatched at the beginning of time?
- Once Io is defeated the PCs could talk some sense into him. Once persuaded Io could conclude that he was too arrogant and that the Multiverse is better off without him. With that he willingly splits back into Bahamut and Tiamat, ending the plot that had been in existence since the beginning of time and bringing stability and order back to the Multiverse.

piL

This is my latest concept. Parts of it are a little cliche, but I hoped to use it to throw my players into a planescapish 4e game, and also play with using playing cards. I was going to run this with some friends, but that fell apart, and I don't think I'll run it online, so I guess I might as well throw it up, so that it may live somehow. It was a lot of fun to throw this together, so I hope somebody else enjoys reading it.

I use amnesia in this, and I'm sorry for it, but it feels appropriate.

Book 1 Purgatorio (heroic)

The players awaken memoryless lying in the middle of a dry dust-blown wasteland, cracked red clay beneath their backs. Nestled between two large cliffs, the players have awoken in a foreign canyon. Their attention is grabbed by a fireball streaking across the sky. A putrid stream runs along the ground. In one direction an old man stands watching, his cloak and beard fluttering in the wind. In the other direction a pack of grey, spiny skinned creatures, armed for battle worth their way to the party.

The players have awoken in Vactini: the plane of portent dreams. This is the realm from which prophecy is derived, and in it exists a multitude of islands, most of which are interconnected for those who know how to walk the dreams. Some, however, have been severed by the gods to serve as testing grounds. The players have been brought here to serve in a sort of purgatory. The landscape emulates several planes in a dream-like memory fashion. Replicas of hellish landmarks stand opposite this dreamscape from lands that represent the higher planes. The players, stranded and lost must search the lands, both being tested and collecting memories of their past lives.

As they collect their memories, they become aware that the tower in the center of the island, stretching high above the island (one of the properties of the plane is that all the islands rest below what appears to be a crystal lattice, to which this tower is being built) is the key to their escape from this plane. When they eventually assault the tower, they will somehow be overcome and perish, and the dream ends.

All the while, the players have been dreaming from the basements of a dark-wizard's laboratory, where he's been keeping them in stasis the entire time. Their presence on the dream plane, however, has been just as real. The wizard has used the players to force his way into the land of portents, where he builds a tower to the sky to try and channel the powers of the plane. The players are tasked (I'm thinking by some diety of prophetic dreams who is powerless to invoke her own will on this island that has been devoted to serve as purgatory for different dieties) to stop the wizard and shatter the crystal tower. Their efforts will, more than likely, destroy many of the people they encountered in the dream realm as well. Along the way, they should encounter their cold decaying bodies from before.

A few more notes. Afterwards, the players will probably be dumped in Sigil, a 'gift' in exchange for their service (instead of dying with everyone else).

-The 'memories' would have been generated using a cartomancy guide I found online. Different suits represent different events, different numbers representing different points in time. Players would accrue 'fate points' (and could gamble for more) that would provide a game effect if they wanted to spend them there, or could be spent for redraws/to affect the events in their memories.
-Also, each player would be tied to a card in the deck. Each player would choose a suit and draw a card, and maybe even a second card. The suits would give bonuses for certain elements (if someone played a genasi, his cards would be chosen for him), with one card representing their major card, and another their minor. Many villians, allies, etc would all be represented by other cards in the deck. Perhaps in later tiers, a quest would occur where the players were to find or eliminate other members of the deck.
-To keep the playing card events in the game later, players would be tied to the plane of portents (and the diety too), and as such, would be able to use fatepoints/prophecy later, using similar rules as to the memory generation.

mightyspacepope

I swiped this from a thread on rpg.net a while ago. I think it's a pretty badass idea.

The Warforged were created by Man.

They rebelled.

They evolved.

And they have a plan.

The Second Warforged War was over within a day. The Warforged slaughtered millions of humans on the islands of the Twelve Colonies. Artificial life forms constructed by man, the Warforged re-created themselves into the image of their creators. They look and feel completely human. Some are even programmed to think they are human, sleeper agents unwittingly waiting for the trigger to pursue the Warforged agenda: the destruction of the human race.

Outgunned, outnumbered, human survivors have no choice but to flee. The rag-tag fleet of civilian ships is being guided and protected by the last remaining battleship, the Skyship Galactica. Officers and enlisted men and women, politicians and mechanics, children and parents must overcome personal demons and differences on their desperate search for a mythical new home called Eberron.

The general premise is something that will probably be a natural outgrowth of what's happening in my current campaign. I'll pop back in sometime this weekend to detail what we've been doing with our D&D gaming for the past 8ish years (off and on).

Alecthar

I don't think I could really enjoy playing a D&D version of Battlestar Galactica.

Mike Danger

I think the problem is that eventually you would get tired of it. It would probably be a pretty fun one-shot, though.

ravensmuse

There's a thread on rpg.net called "Give me a one sentence description of your game". Mine would be, "I stole a whole bunch of this from Exalted and video games."

I'm kind of worldbuilding, kind of not. I like points of light because it means I can do setups such as these which are coherent, but don't have to be entirely thematically linked, y'know? They can share some elements, but not have to bend to everything.

Basically, I'm building towns and then building plots around them.

Here's a few I've been thinking about lately (and been too lazy to sit down and write out til now):

Pirates of the Mysterious Island

During the waning days of the High Eladrin Empire, there was Spiral Island, home of Lord Spiral and his laboratory-city. Spiral was a master scientist-wizard, and from its white walls he and his assistants found the highest reaches of magic - new spells, rituals, tools and even life.

Spiral Island became a haven for scientists, sorcerors, thinkers and philosophers, a city where intelligence and reason reigned. As more came, the city grew, from a tiny village into a massive city covering the entirety of and island. People flocked to have an audience with Spiral himself, hoping that he would have answers to problems they had. Spiral Island prospered.

Eventually, as civil war began to rage within the Empire, Spiral was asked to create weapons of war. With each new weapon and monster he unleashed, a little bit of himself slipped away. Spiral Island grew cold and harsh, and as martial law was implemented "to prevent unrest" it came to light that those imprisoned ended up as test subjects within the laboratory. Evil creatures daily walked the streets, collecting for thier master.

Spiral's daughter (a powerful wizard herself) and her husband (a knight) discovered these atrocities when they came to visit. They pledged to save the people from their terrible master and confronted Spiral. Legend states that after a stunning blow to the head, Spiral's daughter was able to call on her mightiest magics and send most of the island sinking beneath the sea, washing the taint of Spiral and his tower from the face of the planet.

Some were able to reach the few remaining pieces of the island still above the waves, and re-establish themselves. They took little notice as the Eladrin Empire faded away, content to become fishermen and farmers. Spiral became not more than a legend told every year, when one boy is chosen to be the knight, a girl the daughter, and the village elder the evil wizard.

A new, man-made island has recently appeared in the sea, and from it, long black boats crewed by wicked goblins emerge. Huge birds fly in the sky. People are beginning to disapear and ships traveling to and from the mainland have been reporting a rise in pirates. Are they all connected? What does this have to do with the legend?

The Problem With Quirk

Within the Holy Bahamut Empire, dragons are considered only a step below Lord Bahamut himself. Essentially dragons can do whatever they want, where-ever they want, within the Empire's borders. Many cherish this freedom.

Not Quirk. Quirk is a sleek silver dragon with a lair on lake in the mountains. He's got an odd streak of humor, a penchant for shapeshifting, and a need to be hands-on with his rulership.

When travelers began to emigrate to the lake and established a town, he came to them as the elder white wyrm Crackle and demanded tribute. If they didn't, he and his trible of kobolds, the Whitesnouts, would raze the town. Scared, the town agreed, even naming the lake and town in his honor.

But Quirk grew curious about the village and became a merchant named Orin Quint. Quint started an inn and rose to prominence within the town, eventually becomng mayor. As generations passed Quirk would establish a new Quint family member, who would wisely govern the town.

His growing interest in the shapeshifting arts has led Quirk to a group of changelings. They've started a colony on Crackle's Lake under the guise of a small fishing village that he also rules over as a changeling named Quibble. They know of his persona as Quint and help out as members of his family or man his inn.

Things have worked out pretty well for Quirk, but there's always problems. As the legend of Crackle grows, so too do those that come to challenge him. Recently, priests of Bahamut have also come to try and convert Crackle, and won't take no for an answer. They've even started building a church! Goblins are moving into the woods and are harrassing the changelings. The kobolds are fighting off a rival, star-struck tribe of kobolds who wish to become Crackle's new go-to tribe. The current mayor is getting on in age and he needs to come up with a new persona soon.

The biggest problem is Quirk's secret - can he continue this multiple personality charade without being found out?

Once Among Giants

Many years ago, the plains were full of people. These people traded, fought, inter-married, whatever for as long as any kobold or goblin or gnome can remember. But one day, when a large and ominous red star loomed, all of the big people fell upon each other in a night of terrible violence. When the morning mist came, the smalls emerged from their homes and discovered that they were the only ones left - even the bodies of the fallen bigs had disappeared!

Realizing that strength came in numbers, the smalls united into one large tribe and created the colony of Smallost. They resumed basically the lives they'd led before, but always, always, they wondered what had happened on that one fateful night.

Now the shamans say that great evil looms in a cave across the plains. A group of smalls has been called together to explore and hopefully, stop whatever this taint is. Can they do it? Can they discover what happened to the bigs?

JacquesCousteau

It's hard to come up with something original. I find a lot of DnD has: an omen/prophecy, a supervillain and a "twist". Although this is being pretty broad, I wonder if there is some way to make a campaign based around grey areas where people know the consequences of their actions but can't always choose something absolutely righteous. Also, there are just bad people who don't drop notes or leave journals pointing to some greater evil. I'll get back to you perhaps.

In this vein: I like the look of The Problem with Quirk although I'm not sure how the PCs fit in.

ravensmuse

Quirk and Cracklesprings is a sandbox campaign with all sorts of things to do. What I wrote was a sketch, but now that I have a little more time to think...

-- Though Quirk restrains himself with Crackle, the townsfolk have always had a problem with a dragon threatening them with harm. Plus, his little kobold tribe won't stop picking through people's garbage. So for years they've been hiring dragonslayers to go up into Crackle's lair and get rid of the old brute, but Quirk has always managed to outwit them.

Now they've brought the PCs in, "professional" dragonslayers, and Quirk's worried. He's been fortifying his defenses best as he can, but with his kobolds mixed up with some internal problems, he's a little understaffed.

-- A much younger white dragon named Icetongue looking to build a reputation and gain some territory for himself. Hearing stories about "Old Crackle", he figures the doddering old dragon is easy pickings, so he's moved in. He's even found a third kobold tribe more than willing to ally themselves with him due to chronic bullying from the Whitesnouts. The stage is set for a dragon on dragon confrontation that Quirk knows he's ill-equipped to deal with with so much going on in his town.

However, there are those dragonslayers his town recently hired. Couldn't they be useful in dealing with this problem?

-- Quirk is always interested in new and potent forms of shapeshifting. Recently he's learned of a group of druids with great ability and he's looking into ways to not only bring them to the area. The PCs are contracted by Quint to scout them out and gain a little information on them. They're a strange and insular group, however, and possibly not even druids at all.

-- A priest of the Raven Queen named Myra has quietly moved into town. According to a vision from her Goddess, it's time for the strings of Crackle's fate to be snipped. Researching, she's discovered hints of Quirk's fondness for multiple roles...

-- There's a small settlement of dwarves living within Crackle's mountain range that Quirk has also appeared to as a friendly elemental named Whim. For a small tax, he's been allowing them to dig into "its" territory and they've allowed it to hang out while they work. However, the dwarves have discovered that there's enough material to mine in the mountain for a long time and have started on plans to build a city without Whim's knowledge. What does he do when they arrive and start to build?

This is all off of the top of my head of course...

I've always liked how Shadowrun treats their dragons; specifically, the Great Dragons. They're just like people with wants, needs, desires, likes, hates, and motives, but they're three stories tall and long and can breath ruinous fire. Random dragons are fine, but sometimes you want a dragon with personality.

Quirk is interesting because he's in over his head and he knows it. To him, he's playing the dragon version of Animal Crossing and trying to stay offline so other people can't come and take the fruit out of his trees. But its a dangerous game to play because if anyone finds out about what he's doing, it all falls down around him. He could take out Icetongue, but he'd be too weak to deal with the dragonslayers. He could destroy Cracklesprings if the villagers ever found out, but I mean, that ruins the game - same with the changelings finding out and packing up. He's trying to be conservative but the more he spreads out, the more dangerous the whole thing becomes.

I really like Quirk

Hexmage-PA

I think I'm going to brave the no-man's land (TVTropes) and look for tropes that could be used in Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. I'll post back here when I'm done.

piL

Hexmage-PA wrote: »

I think I'm going to brave the no-man's land (TVTropes) and look for tropes that could be used in Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. I'll post back here when I'm done.

I've probably put at least a hundred characters on a bus.

Jealous Deva

I always wanted to make a campaign based on SaGa's premise. For those that never played the game, the premise is as follows:

There is a tower in the middle of town, extending higher than the eye can see. The tower has been locked for as long as anyone can remember. One day the tower opens. Inside the tower are a set of stairs leading to floors which exit out into the world. Each floor is a completely different world, unaware of the multiple worlds above or below it. Basically each floor is an entirely self-contained area unaware that it's part of a larger set of planes (in the game at the very top was the creator of the tower, who had basically made the entirety of existance just to see if a group of adventurers would ever make it to the top.)

SAW776

I think it'd be fun to run a rogue-like D&D campaign. Kind of like a delve, where you send the adventurer's into a tower, they get as high as they can until they die or gtfo to heal up/stock up.

Ain Soph

Here's one I've been thinking about for a while:

A hundred years ago the country of Artuvia was a peaceful nation governed by a fair king. A country bordered by friendly allies and a small coastline that was home to the continents second largest part. But all that was changed in a single day. From the sky fell 17 great stones. Massive crystalline objects that tore the country asunder as they crashed into the earth, sending fireballs skyward and mountains of rock tumbling through the air and across the county side.
With the capitol destroyed, the majority of it's citizens dead, and the land in ruins, many of the survivors became refugees. Unfortunately some carried with them a plague of madness. Spreading the disease across the borders and introducing roving bands of cannibalistic madmen to Artuvia's neighboring countries. A brief war ensued, but it could not be won. Many of those who fought against the plagued became infected themselves. A plan of quarantine was then put in place and a massive wall built around the plaguelands and the remnants of Artuvia.

2 years ago, messengers adorned in heavy armor armor of bone and metal spikes have dispatched with a message of war from the walled and presumed dead country of Artuvia. A list of grievances and a vow of revenge from the old king. A man thought dead in the disaster, and now impossibly alive almost 100 years later.

In those 2 years since, the war banner of Artuvia has flown again and raids of vicious warriors come through the old wall taking prisoners back into unimaginable torture. And the countries of the old Alliance who came together to build that great wall have now formed a new Alliance to fight the enemy they once thought subdued.

- Basically for this campaign the players could be part of a mercenary company, or army regiment, black ops squad protecting border towns and villages, taking part in counter-offenses on the other side of the wall, or sneaking around gathering information.

- The plague is a 28 days lateresque rage virus. Anyone infected soon becomes insane, uncontrollably enraged and cannibalistic towards any other person they see that is not infected. Finding a cure/ vaccine for the plague can be part of the storyline. If left alone for several months, infected regain their capability to reason. But are irrevocably changed. Still filled with rage and traces of madness, they make for vicious foot soldiers in the Artuvian military. (think barbarians in plate).

- 16 of the 17 crystals that fell from the sky allow a person to "imprint" their souls and minds onto the crystal. Basically transferring their mind, soul, and consciousness into the crystal, and allowing them to remotely control their body from the crystal. Their body is also copied to the crystal. So that at the point that the body they are controlling dies, a new body emerges from the crystal at the exact same age, wearing the exact same clothes and with exactly the same equipment (even magic) that the crystal was last imprinted with. This can curiously create duplicates of unique magical items and artifacts. The old King from 100 years ago is imprinted onto one of these crystals and is thus immortal. the only way to kill him permanently is to destroy his crystal, have someone imprint themselves over him (battle of wills type thing) or destroy the 17th crystal.

- The 17th and largest of the crystals that fell allows communion with ancient and mysterious beings from the far away stars. The influence from the 17th crystal drives the motivations and madness of all those who are infected by the plague.

-Certain power sources are nullified in an area directly proportional to the size of the crystals making certain areas dead zones for skills each crystal nullifies a different power source (Divine, Arcane, Primal, etc.). High ranking soldiers and commanders of the army carry small pieces of crystal with them that nullify low level power source skills in an area a few feet around them.