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View Full Version : City-Name, Story-Line Criticism and Map Creation.



XnOs
2013-06-22, 02:02 PM
Hello Giants! :smallbiggrin:

While reading this, please keep in mind that it is my first HomeBrew, so be gentle. :smallsmile:

I am working on a homebrew 3.5 d&d scenario, and I am having major problems with the Map Creation.

I've tried Cartographer but with no luck.
I have no money to spend on Software at this moment.

MS Paint Is not my friend.
http://oi40.tinypic.com/6ohr14.jpg :smallannoyed:

The map is VERY temporay, and therefor in my native language. Let me translate, however obvious:
Havn = Harbor.
Lagerbygninger = Warehouses.
Handelsplads = Marketplace.
Middelklassen = Middle class.
Marked with black = Poor lower class
The peculiar thing between the market and the harbor = The Coliseum.
The blue = Water.
The Island = Where the royals and the council resign.
The Green = a forest, and within it you can see a temple. (Thought i'd use it for a side-quest of sorts.)

I'd also love feedback on the story line.

Other than that, I am searching for inspiration regarding a name of the main town.

What I've written down in Blue Is often thought from a GM point of view. The blue indicates that I'd like some feedback on the subject. Example "Demon Lord" - I have limited knowledge of the different demon lords/gods, and therefor i am wondering what would fit in here. :smallsmile:

What I am looking for, is merely a friendly discussion, where we could discuss my thoughts so far. And every piece of feedback is appreciated.

The scenario name is Gathering of Gods.
It is an Urban setting.

General Story-line:
The great city of ????? is a wealthy city despite a great social and economical disparity. The city is not ruled by a King or a Queen, but by a Council. This council is, secretly, a gathering of Elans, in search of strong Humans, that they can convert into Elans. They want to gather an army of immortal soldiers. Besides that, they are worshiping some Demon Lord, which explains the demons that are a part of the scenario.

(I have yet to go into an in depths research of Elans, and i might have misunderstood a thing or two.)

The town folks are all very racist, and the races that lives the longest, are considered more worthy. And because of the Elans need of Humans the Humans are also thought of as worthy.

There are 5 major players in this "game":

- Council of Elans, ruling the city. (Bad guys)
- The PC party. (Good guys)
- The Corrupt Military. (Bad guys)
- The Resistance. (Good Guys) - is a group of people, who have figured out the secrets behind the facade of the Council. They fight for the freedom of the city.
- The Thiefs-Guild (Neutral - Can be used by the PC Party.)

The town has sensors that detect all magic use in the town area. Using high level sorcery is against the law. It is possible to conceal the use of magic, but this requires some kind of check. The sensors are in the center of the city, and depending on how close you are, it gets easier/harder to conceal the magic usage.
If magic usage is detected, a military group will send to the destination, to check out what happened. this is to promote caution with magic use, and also possibly put some time pressure on the party at certain times.

The coliseum is a way for the Elans to find strong Humans, fit for their transformation.

The party starts out with no possessions, and needs to fight their way out of the coliseum, since they have (wrongfully?) been charged of some crime.

After being victorious in the coliseum they are called upon by Pipin the Nurse. She has a quest for them, and the party is to track down some documents. These documents contain information of a corrupt military branch. (The royal military)
The part does not know of the Elans at this point.

This would be the start of part 2:

The highest ranked officer of the corrupt military branch is identified, and needs to be taken care of. If they are successful, he will not accompany the council in the big fight, that should be at the end of the scenario.

I want to make some side-quest of sort, where they have to cut off some supplies indirectly crucial to the corrupt military branch and directly crucial to the council of Elans. This could as well, have a direct effect on the last encounter.

Part 3:
Preparing the attack on the council.

This part would be focusing on gathering supplies needed, maybe fetching some troops from somewhere. (Mini quest possibilities EVERYWHERE)

Maybe help a key-figure escape prison, and so on....

Part 4:

This is where the PC group and the resistance (with possible help from the thiefs-guild attack the council.)





Story-line Part 1 of 4 in detail:

Day 1:
Our heroes have been captured, and are in the back of a prison wagon. Being driven to the city of ???? where they are sentenced to fight at the coliseum, for the entertainment of the royals, and the higher-middle class.

Our heroes have been stripped from their items, and therefor have no possessions.

As the prison wagon makes it through the bumpy road, the heroes have the opportunity to speak to some of the other prisoners, and there is a small barred window, that they can look out of, of orientate regarding their whereabouts.

As a GM i'd be sure to describe this in detail, and sort of set the mood.

When they arrive to the coliseum they are thrown into a prison cell, and are fed a poor meal.

A nurse briefly stops by, to make sure that the heroes are physically fit for fighting at the coliseum. Also notes down their preferred weapons.

Day 2.
A Guard wakes them by pouring a bucket of water over them, and mumbling some curse words.

There is a long wait, and they are finally given their weapons and armor, briefly before being shoved into the Fighting Ground of the coliseum.

The fight will be Fairly easily winnable, and the heroes debt has been payed.

Because of their heroic and skillful demonstration, they are rewarded with an invitation to fight at the grand fight, later that day.
This fight will for the entertainment of the town council and the royals only.

I have yet decided the nature of this encounter, but i am thinking that the team will fight a monster that have been in captivity, or something like that.
Winning this will be rewarded with gold with which they can get the start gear, that they normally would just pop into their character sheets. This will force the party to walk around town, buying what they need and so on.(Pickpocket possibilities everywhere)

After the fight, the nurse will tend to their wounds, and without anyone noticing but the one she addresses, she will ask for the heroes to come see her in the temple of whichever deity i choose for her to worship two days from present day. (day 4 i believe)

The heroes are tired and exhausted. Finds a place to sleep, and ends the day here. Presumably.

Day 3.
The party has a day free, in which they can buy equipment, lurk around town and even make a quick gold piece or two, if they look for labor.

Day 4.
The party was asked to come see the nurse at this time.

As the Party introduces themselves to the nurse, she reveals that her name is Pipet and that she needs a word with them in private. She gesticulates them towards a private sector of the Temple.

Pipets Quest:

As in introduction Pipet tells the party of the thiefs-guild.
(There is an underground thief-guild running a chunk of the city.)

The party is to gather some information. This information is in written form, and it is important that the party does not read the information, and strictly delivers it to the nurse.

(Written information could be coded in a magical language, and possibly contain a Rune word of sorts.)

The whereabouts of these papers is unknown, but the party is pointed the direction of a shady hut, in which members of the thiefs-guild are known to appear. This is in the poorest part of the city. While being in this part of the city, I want to make a Random Encounter table

The party finds the hut, and it is crowded by shady types.

I want to do some rolls, to see if they are offers of a pickpocket.

The Party ask around, and they need to do some Diplomacy checks, to even lure a member out.

If they make these Diplomacy checks, they are to subtract the whereabouts of the written documents (The desired information.)

Ways to do this:
Win them in a game.
Buy them.
Intimidate.
Other.

The member has no information regarding the whereabouts of the documents, but he has information regarding a break-in done by some of the higher-ranked thiefs-guild members. (In the harbor area.)

This information is what they will get out of this place.

If they fail to subtract the information, they will simply have to search other ins and taverns. There will be a chance of success at most places, but there will also be a kind of drop-chance on the information, in some of the random encounters.

When the group are on their way back to the tavern in which they stay, they notice a bright light in the distance coming from the direction they are heading.

At this point, i want to make a Maze-like event, where the team has to fight their way out of a great fire. The lower class part of the town is in flames, and the team has to get out.

Demons appear, and they have the opportunity to save a guy from under some rubble of sorts.

(The cause of this fire is unknown at this time. Later on the party might learn, that it was the Elans cleaning up the weakest part of the population.)

I am considering some sort of Damage over time, caused by the heat and smoke from the fire. I am thinking something like the players taking 1 damage point per 10 rounds, or so. (depending on the level of the players.)


Having survived the encounter, the Party are now exhausted. The information they have obtained is about a break-in in the harbor area, going down yet another few days in the future.

The players have, yet again, some time to snoop around, make and spend money, gather information and so on. If there is a Rogue-like skill monkey in the team, there is also the option to gather information about the thiefs-guild, and perhaps a membership, hidden from the rest of the party.

Tracking down the Thiefs-guild members at the harbor, will be somewhat skill-check based, and i need a backup in case the party fails the skill checks.

When the party tracks down the Thiefs-guild members, they quickly see, that the guards guarding the building are unctions, and that the locks have been picked.

They enter the warehouse, and face the thieves.
I want this to be a rather high DC encounter.

If the party loses this fight, they will be held responsible for the break in, and once again face the coliseum? (Or sentenced to some other punishment, I have yet to decide this)
Also, they need to gain the information somehow, even if they lose the fight. Need a backup plan here as well.

They then gain information on the whereabouts of the Documents they are searching for.

They track down the documents, and at this point i want a Boss-Fight.
After killing the boss, they return to the temple, and this is the end of Part 1 of 4.

drack
2013-06-23, 11:24 AM
Well I use MS paint, and kindly ask my player to make my maps beautiful, but many playgrounders that aren't professional artists/digital arts and design students use gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

Edit: also what level is the party?

XnOs
2013-06-23, 03:32 PM
I have yet to decide the start-level of this campaign, but I am considering level 3 or 4.

The encounters can be changed so that it fits most levels, and with the gold-gain from the winnings at the Colosseum, i could adjust that as well.

Thanks for the tip on GIMP, i'll check it out soon. :smallsmile:

drack
2013-06-23, 07:49 PM
City on fire
Make patches that they have to run through on fire. (water/ice spells should help against this, but there can be enough for it to be hard, the standard 1d6 fire rules with actions to put it out) Combine it with the smoke to make it hard to see. (environmental conditions at the end of DMG for more info, I think on fire is near things like suffocating but it's still all the last two or three sections)


"Tracking down the Thiefs-guild members at the harbor, will be somewhat skill-check based, and i need a backup in case the party fails the skill checks."
Maybe gather info to hear some talk about a guard on the take who can be "convinced" to tell about one of their next heists where they can catch them on a job? :smalltongue: (too convoluted? Intentionally made it so you can take parts if the whole doesn't work.)

"I want this to be a rather high DC encounter."
Traps, spells, actual fighting?

"Also, they need to gain the information somehow, even if they lose the fight. Need a backup plan here as well."
Fight in another fight with a guy who asks them to help him fake his death in the next fight in exchange for the info, and have the council people eventually find out and get mad? :smalltongue:

"(Written information could be coded in a magical language, and possibly contain a Rune word of sorts.)"
Read magic? :smalltongue:

I think I missed some...

XnOs
2013-06-24, 01:51 AM
City on fire
Make patches that they have to run through on fire. (water/ice spells should help against this, but there can be enough for it to be hard, the standard 1d6 fire rules with actions to put it out) Combine it with the smoke to make it hard to see. (environmental conditions at the end of DMG for more info, I think on fire is near things like suffocating but it's still all the last two or three sections)


The limited vision is a great idea! I can't believe i did not think of that. :smallsmile: I'll definitely look at the environmental condition tables. :)


City on fire
"Tracking down the Thiefs-guild members at the harbor, will be somewhat skill-check based, and i need a backup in case the party fails the skill checks."
Maybe gather info to hear some talk about a guard on the take who can be "convinced" to tell about one of their next heists where they can catch them on a job? :smalltongue: (too convoluted? Intentionally made it so you can take parts if the whole doesn't work.)


My thought here, is that the party is at the harbor, the night of the heist, and they have to rather track down the thieves than to gather information about it. (The gather information part right before the fire have that covered i think." :smallsmile:


City on fire
"I want this to be a rather high DC encounter."
Traps, spells, actual fighting?

YES! :smallsmile: (as in, all of it.)



"Also, they need to gain the information somehow, even if they lose the fight. Need a backup plan here as well."
Fight in another fight with a guy who asks them to help him fake his death in the next fight in exchange for the info, and have the council people eventually find out and get mad? :smalltongue:


That's a nice thought indeed! I've considered making the party Wanted, if they fail in being sneaky enough. And this could be one way to do this. :)




"(Written information could be coded in a magical language, and possibly contain a Rune word of sorts.)"
Read magic? :smalltongue:

Yes, that would be the way they could read it, but that would set off the rune. If they were too nosy, they would be punished, and the Nurse would find out as well. :)

Thanks for your feedback mate! - It helps me out a lot. Having done this solo up until now, I stare myself blind (I hope this expression translates) at the details, and the solutions.

:smallsmile:

drack
2013-06-24, 07:32 AM
"The limited vision is a great idea! I can't believe i did not think of that. I'll definitely look at the environmental condition tables. :)"
Don't forget the on fire conditions for those nasty places where you have to run through it. :smalltongue:

"YES! (as in, all of it.) "
Since this is city on fire, rooftop battles over collapsing houses (pit traps) with a few richer homes warded to shoot stuff off, and thief types nimbly jumping about? :smalltongue: Or are thieves their friends now? If not go the floating mage rout. :smalltongue:


"Thanks for your feedback mate! - It helps me out a lot. Having done this solo up until now, I stare myself blind (I hope this expression translates) at the details, and the solutions. "
No prob mate, in honesty I always end up with too many ideas, and little enough time to do all the stating and such for them. :smalltongue: