Greetings friends.

I am in the process of creating background and plot for a campaign that will be played 6-7 months from now. I'm playing with a group of close friends who have played together for many years and enjoyed several awesome campaigns, and several mediocre ones. I want this next campaign to be as immersive and memorable as possible, and would love your suggestions. In the past we have played D&D, Earthdawn, Spycraft, Mage, Alternity, and a few other lesser-known systems. However one of my friends has come up with his own system and we have helped him play-test and balance it out to our satisfaction, and will be using it.

The campaign I envision is one driven by the characters and their choices. I want to give the party as much freedom as possible and put them in as many moral dilemmas as is convenient. Combat will hopefully be rare and dangerous, giving it a desperate and heart-pounding quality that hopefully the players will pick up on. I want the party to be as concerned with negotiation and compromise as with confrontation. I don't plan on pulling many (if any) punches in combat, so hopefully they will pick up on that quickly too.

The main theme I want to get across is that the party must choose whether or not to become heroes: making the "right" choice as opposed to taking the easy route is often the more difficult one, but can be the most rewarding in the end. In other words I want them to feel proud of their characters for making tough choices rather than feeling as if they have to be goody-goody by default. Tempting them with easy, lucrative paths will be a good way to test their mettle in that department. The setting will be a good size city (medieval timeframe) grown rich from years of economic and political dominance. The city is ruled by a magister who is elected by an elected body of elders who serve as the city's lawmaking body. The true power however lies with the extremely wealthy families of the city, who use the council and even the magister as political pawns for their own advancement. Hopefully a setting this rife with intrigue will give the party oppurtunity to make numerous allies and enemies.

The story won't be epic in the save-the-world sense, but I want it to be as epic in the personally dramatic sense as I can make it. What are some questions/suggestions you have?

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated!

My instinctual response to your set up is that I would want to play a fairly well ranked member of one of the weatlhy families in town. Then I would detail several persons that are important to me, loves, parents, political allies, favors, etc. Everyone could play members of the same family (which might not agree among itself,) or members of allied families.

good luck with it!

regards,

Trevis

So far none of the players have expressed a desire to play as a member of one of the powerful families, though that option is open to them. It seems like having the party immediately allied with one or more of those families serves a dual purpose: it gives the party political/economic power right from the start, but it constricts the story somewhat. If John the Swordsman is a member of Family A, then the interests of Family A are now a part of the common interests of the party, which may not be a good thing.

I had envisioned a party made up of mostly middle/lower class people who decide to give adventuring a try when the oppurtunity presents itself. Perhaps one of the party could be a member of one of the families, but a party made up with pre-existing divisions and conflicts of interest seems limiting.

Geoff

The fact that none of the players want to be members of the elite families suggests to me a certain amount of pre-existent class antagonism in your group of players. Perhaps a bit of revolution and its aftermath?

This might be the case, though we have played some "nobility rich" games in the past, perhaps they are looking for a break from that theme, which is fine by me. I've personally always loved to play characters from humble or unknown backgrounds, though I have played a few with noble blood.

Do you think I should suggest that one or more of my players hail from a privelaged family?

Geoff

Hey Geoff,

What happens if, given the choice, you have a player or two who takes the easy/lucrative path?

Paul

Well our group has a track record of staying together pretty well, so I don't see any one of the characters totally going off on their own (at least with the other party members knowing). If the group chooses to take the easy, lucrative path then so be it- they will get short-term rewards but they miss the golden oppurtunity to be the good guys.

But that's ok. Being the good guy sucks sometimes- it usually means sacrificing something for a higher purpose- not knowing if your sacrifice will ever be rewarded. When it comes to gaming I am a huge advocate of karma- do good things and good things may happen to you as a result. I won't punish the players for choosing the easy path- I'm not trying to train them to do what I think they should- however the long-term rewards will probably outweigh the short-term.

Geoff

I don't know that being a noble in this situation would be an easy path. Everyone out to cut your throat and all. Also I see a rare opportunity for heroism if someone is part of that system, but is idealistically against it. Who would have more to sacrifice? I think you could be part of it and still be a good guy.

On the other hand I think being more of a lower class revolutionary has its appeal as well.

Trevis

If your players don't want their PCs to be part of one of the families, perhaps they could be made pawns in a greater plot involving one or more of the families.

In the beginning their choices would be easy and as the plot and the implications grow clearer, not only their choices will be harder but they might start to regret previous choices they made when in blissful ignorance of the whole picture.

This kind of plot usually creates rather cool campaigns in our group.

Andreas