Starting a new campaign and looking for input

madbishop
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Starting a new campaign and looking for input Aug 26, 2018 11:56:53 GMT joatmoniac and gsmitty44 like this

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Post by madbishop on Aug 26, 2018 11:56:53 GMT

Hey all, first time on this forum. I've been playing tabletop RPGs for 20 years now and been DMing for most of that time. We are starting a new campaign after the New Year and I am starting to work up the plot. I recently lost my sounding board for my campaign ideas, as he is now one of my players, so I figured I would reach out and see what ideas and input you all might have.

My players have played through much of my homebrew world at this point (we've been playing for 15 years or so) and, recently, one remarked that we never do anything with the Orcs of my world. So I decided to take that to heart and design an Orc-centric campaign for them. My players prefer a more focused story that helps direct their path and draw them in rather than free-roaming, which makes for more work for me.

I have always loved the Warcraft take on Orcs and was heavily influenced by that lore when designing the Orcs of my world. There are 8 clans of Orcs that all wander a barren desert region and have, until now, largely been defined in board strokes only. They have been manipulated in the past by the Demon Prince, Orcus, and many are still under his sway through the shaman of one of the major clans. Knowledge of the Demon Prince's involvement is nearly non-existent. The Orc clans simply believe that the Shaman found new magic that gave them great power. They followed him fanatically as he was the source of their power. Only the Shaman and couple of others know about the Demon Prince and none but the Shaman know the extent of the exchange.

In the history of my world, there have been 2 times that the Orcs have banded together into a Horde and attacked the rest of the continent. The first wiping out much of the northern realms and only turned back after they slaughtered thousands. The second time, they were empowered by the Demon Prince but they refused to do as he commanded. In retribution, the Demon Prince caused the Second Horde to turn on itself and they scattered to the winds before they could inflict much damage.

This campaign will focus on the rise of the Third Horde. Several of the Orc clans are still under the sway of the Demon Prince and he will stir their blood and cause them to collect the wayward clans to spread destruction and death on the kingdoms my players have come to know so well.

They will restart at 1st level and I think I want them to start in a small town near the edge of this desert region. (I have very detailed maps of the lands if I can figure out how to post them) One of the Orc clans, who refused the power offered by the Demon Prince and are not under his influence, has a settlement nearby and they trade with the locals from time to time. This will be the hook to draw the players in. I am thinking I will give them a few adventures to level up, explore, and become invested in some of the NPCs. Once they have had a chance to grow a bit, I want the "friendly" Orcs to provide the means to draw them into the path of the coming Horde and be swept up in the events that lead to a major showdown with the Demonic Shaman at the head of the Third Horde.

That's what I have so far. It needs a LOT of work but I have a few months before we start up and even longer before the players are ready to be hooked into the main story. I would love to read your thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Here is the link to the OneNote with all my world information.

1drv.ms/u/s!Ag_2HLcSLos9j2l6wrlaUlKXmojM

Feel free to browse and let me know what you think. Important parts for this campaign are listed below.

World History -> all pages

Races -> Orcs

Kingdoms of Bremen -> Dramerus and Kham'Shar

Orc clans of Kham'Shar -> all pages

DM Onesie Knight
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Starting a new campaign and looking for input Aug 30, 2018 18:05:01 GMT joatmoniac and gsmitty44 like this

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Post by DM Onesie Knight on Aug 30, 2018 18:05:01 GMT

If I were you, I'd play up the internal conflict among orcs as the horde consolidates. There will be tribes who resist, and some of those skirmishes might spill out into neighboring lands. There might even be waves of refugees and survivors if uncooperative clans are harshly punished, which could put all kinds of pressure on civilized lands and fuel prejudices.

Also, one potential resolution to the whole campaign: if the players can definitively show the orc clans that they have been duped by a demon lord and a power-hungry shaman, the 3rd horde would collapse on itself in much a similar way as the 2nd. That could be a cloak-and-dagger solution to a campaign that says "mass battle" on the surface

Last Edit: Aug 30, 2018 18:07:35 GMT by DM Onesie Knight

Pass the pipe weed, Gandalf.

gsmitty44
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Killing off my characters' favorite NPC.

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Favorite D&D Class: Ranger
Favorite D&D Race: Elf
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Starting a new campaign and looking for input Sept 27, 2018 1:19:29 GMT joatmoniac and DM Onesie Knight like this

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Post by gsmitty44 on Sept 27, 2018 1:19:29 GMT

I've got two ideas for how the main story could roll out. The first comes from a campaign I run: I have the PC's working for one of 7 warring Barons in a nation. In the ensuing conflict which always rises among power-hunger rulers, the players have built and lost alliances with the other Barons. I could see something very similar playing out once your Orc clans start to congregate. Every time your PCs's have an opportunity (like after completing an adventure) to create an alliance with one of the clans, that Demonic Shaman can forge his own alliance with one of the other clans. It'd be kind of like you and the players would be choosing your kickball teams before the final showdown. That's how my campaign works: every action the players take to better their situation, their enemy makes a similar gain behind their backs. If they succeed on each adventure they would earn half of the Orc Clans as allies to lead against the Shaman. You can further spice it up by adding a strategic element to the clans which might influence which clans they would seek out first. Is there a clan which has the strongest fighters, makes the best weapons, or is the best strategist? Will the heroes win those clans over or lose them to the Demonic Shaman? Since a lot of my campaign is political the players don't always know who is truly an enemy or an ally: they have to make successful insight checks after each session to learn of any changes. Since players may not know of alliances immediately they may unknowingly walk into a camp which has already pledged allegiance to the Shaman.

My second idea is just a variation on the first which would allows the allies to earn more than half of the Orc clans as allies, but would be more difficult of a path for them, and more original story creation on your part. Since both the clans associated with the Demonic Shaman and the clan who refused Orcus' power can't be "earned" as allies (their alliance is predetermined) you can devote an entire adventure and story to each of the 6 remaining clans. The success of each individual story would lead to the alliance being made, while failure would lead to that clan being taken under the reign of the Demonic Shaman. Naturally, those adventures would need to be unique. Some successes could hinge on a physical skill check, some on political/conversational skill checks, while others would obviously be battle based. (Is there a drought in the desert which is threatening a clan? Was an historical artifact stolen which needs to be returned? Perhaps another has two brothers who are vying for the chieftain positions - helping one brother would yield and ally while helping the other would yield an enemy). The other necessity is that failure is entirely possible for each adventure, AND that failure wouldn't kill the players nor make the campaign unplayable. They should still be able to save the world, even if they failed to earn half, or more, of those allies.

I love this idea! There's so much you can do with those internal NPC conflicts.

00dlez
Silver Dragon Patreon Member

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Favorite D&D Race: Gnoll

Starting a new campaign and looking for input Oct 17, 2018 21:14:08 GMT gsmitty44 likes this

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Post by 00dlez on Oct 17, 2018 21:14:08 GMT

Just some idea fodder, since you mentioned a Demon Prince...

I've run a campaign in the past that featured an orc cult, headed up by Tanarukk (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Tanarukk) Priests and Priestesses, that had partnered with their demon overlords to bring about world domination. Step one, according to the cult, was to create 6 Avatars - one for each god of the orc pantheon (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Orc_pantheon) that embodied that gods essence. These Tanarukks were very powerful and were stopped by the PCs as the end to the campaign.

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Starting a new campaign and looking for input

Post by madbishop on Aug 26, 2018 11:56:53 GMT

Post by DM Onesie Knight on Aug 30, 2018 18:05:01 GMT

Post by gsmitty44 on Sept 27, 2018 1:19:29 GMT

Post by 00dlez on Oct 17, 2018 21:14:08 GMT

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