Well my Star Wars campaign is now entering the final adventure. Aptly enough t'was written and designed as a trilogy of adventures with linking elements between them, partly for fun and also because I'm fething pretentious like that.
The first arc saw the players as 2 jedi and a Scout/pilot. They all died, heroically, fighting against the return of a Sith Lord, betrayed at the last as Order 66 was given.
The 2nd arc saw them play as an elite Clone Trooper kill team/special ops, who gradually came to see the horrible truth about the New Order -- not least due to uncovering information on and about their previous characters, including an encounter with the force ghosts of said characters too -- and who in the end turned against it and in fact helped found, fund and train the burgeoning Rebel Alliance.
This 3rd arc has been set during the Rebellion era and has seen the party -- now numbering 4 thanks to the welcome addition of Big Dave's presence -- recruited into the Rebellion and performing a variety of down and dirty missions. During which they've uncovered worrying information that the
nigh on mythical "Team 7" of Clone Troopers have more or less gone insane and are pretty much hell bent on destroying everyone and everything. throw in the seemingly returning threat of a certain Sith Lord and, of course the actual Empire... and they've got their hands pretty full.
All in all I've enjoyed the campaign immensely, it's been a blast to run and, thankfully, my players have enjoyed it as well. We've tweaked a few rules here and there, as well as ignored a fair few as well truth be told. Not least as, technically, there's at least 2 -3 different editions of the
d20 version we use, all with different rules.
But we've had fun.
I am
somewhat burnt out with the setting however I must confess. But we've been playing for over 3 years so that's understandable. And I must confess that at times the urge to actually just be a player is almost overwhelming.
But t'would seem that this is not to be...
.. but , with a bit of luck, a change of setting and system will help...
So, after a good few years, we'll be plunging into the fantasy genre again. I was tempted to run some WFRPG -- and will -- but last year, back when Mr. Tim and his charming, democracy lovin', cornflake milkshake denied other half visited I picked up the Pathfinder rulebook and having been dipping in and out of this ever since.
Since, essentially, my players are quite lazy, but they do have something of a familiarity with the
d20 system, it seems logical to use this.
Picked up a few of the other books since then, mainly the first 2 bestiary books and the
GM guide. The latter is very good indeed, a very well thought out and useful guide even for hoary old
RPG veterans.
I'm not going to use the main/official setting. Partially, as I may have mentioned, as my players are pretty lazy and there's no fething way they'll ever read any background apart from small snippets that I throw at them.
Plus it means that I don't have to buy ( and learn) all the books and supplements. Conversely not doing this does go someway towards putting more work with regards to
NPCs and the like on my back, but I am, alas, used to that.
So I dug up some random old
RPG maps, which after a bit of research seem to be from the GreyHawk campaign setting, and this will be where we start adventuring soon.
Characters have been generated :
A brick outhouse of a Half Elf Paladin.
A human Cleric , specialising in healing and ... err... The Sun
IIRC.
A slightly weedy yet nimble elf ranger.
A incredibly weak yet charismatic and smart gnomish Bard.
Little bit
WTF about the apparent # of cantrips the last one there seems to get, but we can work that out and I guess they're not that great either,
They're starting off at L2, each with 1 fairly minor magic item they started off then with x2 the starting money.
So they're quite well equipped, for low level but not over powered.
I like having the characters set in advance, as it makes it easier to fit the plot around them and them into the plot.
... so..
The Elf wound up with loads and loads of money, and a ring of protection +1...
..hmm... so.... he then is an Elven prince. Something like 28th in line to the throne, but royalty nevertheless. He found the intrigues and plotting of the royal court dull and not for him, so he's set off to explore the world and travel. His family aren't happy about it.. but he's young, he'll grow out of it in 30 or 40 years right ? His chosen enemy is orcs.... hmm... So we'll have them have killed his father. This gives the character some motivation, removes a degree of possible "protection" from the character -- dad can't save you ! -- whilst still leaving his (royal) Mother around if I/he does want to play up that angle, it also gives me a route into some elven royal court intrigue or just a link to having adventures with them.
The Cleric has a focus on healing and Sunlight.. hmm... is good aligned and channels positive energy, and has powers versus the Undead. ... hmm.... So, after some discussion and a look at the map, he comes from the far western lands, lands which are now mostly desert. So, building a bit of history into the game, this land was once ruled by a powerful elite of Vampires who were, eventually, overthrown in a conflict that devastated the land. presumably a religiously inspired uprising. This in turn means that his clerics are often honour bound to journey out into foreign lands and, literally, spread the light of their faith. Driving back the darkness and burning the undead. This means he can journey around quite plausibly, explains his powers, goes someway towards explaining how he wound up in the arse end of nowhere, which is where the game starts and provides us with some
RP opportunity for some stranger in a strange land type scenarios. Plus I think it would be quite amusing to have the character add garlic to everything he eats !
This also means that I can throw in some skeletons/similar as low level opponents, the extra punch that the cleric and paladin provide will help here. In fact the plan will, of course, involve and old tomb that has been opened.
.. There's no rogue so I have to be careful of the trap issue..
..
Got it ! A map in a supplement I was going to steal from shows an excavation on an island. The island is large enough that they can have a few scrapes and mishaps on it before they move on, yet also be small and safe enough that they shouldn't get killed straight away. In fact our erstwhile runaway prince can have acted as a guide/guard for said expedition, which gets him onto the Island... and pits him in the tavern where the others will, of course, have wound up staying in.
The expedition is out of the town, so ... if
... they dig up or discover something best left alone no one else will know. Which means, as experienced archaeologists, they could well have disabled ....
most of the traps in the site. There's also an added motivation for the ranger to check up on them : not only is he of good alignment, but he's wise enough to know that dead patrons don't hire you again or recommend your services...
.... and what if his mom hears about this !
The Gnomish Bard's reason for being where we start is that he has left his homeland to both visit his Uncle, who lives on the Northern end of the Island and to, hopefully, gather a few new tales, songs and so on as he does so. With him being pretty frail and not really all that capable in a fight --
Str score of 6
IIRC, bless that weapon finesse feat eh ! -- it makes sense that he wouldn't want to go off on his own anywhere too dangerous and when he does trek about it's likely that he'd seek out some muscle for protection. Thankfully his high Cha score justifies why the others have, thus far anyway, been cool with this. Their alignments help as well of course.
The Paladin I was a bit more unsure of what to do with. I didn't want to have him just a wanderin' seeking a quest or something, as that's pretty much what the Cleric's origin is -- being a Sun God follower they're required to undergo the " Raa-path" ( that's what it's labelled in the notes anyway, might change later if we come up with something better) when they must spend a year and a day journeying east, until they come across a sign or a message from their God. So given the distances involved our Cleric must have been travelling for quite a while then.. which is good as it provides further impetus for him to get involved with whatever adventure unfolds. -- and I'm keen to help give each character their own origin.
.. so.... after a bit of thought and contemplation, I do find staring at the map and idly plotting out places they might go and what they might encounter there, I decided that he should come from "The Great Kingdom". I decided that this, more or less, have a kind of Roman Empire feel to it, with the once great Kingdom now in a slow decline, the various smaller kingdoms and states around it on the map having once been part of it, now some are vassals and others and wholly independent. This helps with the character's name, so he is now "Titus".
So the Great Kingdom, whilst not a Theocracy, will be heavily religiously influenced. Which means that people like Paladins can be sent on missions for the Church/state, which leaves me the opportunity to perhaps throw in some intrigue and scheming between these factions if I so choose at a later date. In fact I'm somewhat considering the idea of a plotline involving the death of the current King, with his heir being young, a young boy perhaps, who is then being influenced or pushed by someoneorother to forcibly reclaim the land now controlled by the now independent states.
I decided that Titus is the 2nd oldest of 4 sons. His older brother is also a Paladin, who is off questing/doing Paladin "stuff", his other two brothers being a humble guard ( not divinely touched or inspired it seems ) and a newly invested cleric. Gives me some
NPCs/contacts in the capital as/when I need them later. And, of course, also throws up some other potential plotlines.
So with this decided then... The Paladin has been sent bearing an icon, a symbolic representation of the links between the Great Kingdom and Angler's Island.
.. Which, handily enough, puts all the party together, somewhere fairly remote, and staying in an Inn.
