New Campaign Idea's
Cerabelus
Member Posts: 385
I just wanna start discussions for idea's on a new Campaign.
It's my hope that down the road when Beamdog makes new Modules we get something really good.
It's my hope that down the road when Beamdog makes new Modules we get something really good.
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We start in Waterdeep on HOTU but very quickly leave the City, is there good stories there?
Or should they make a Campaign somewhere new? Somewhere no PC game has been.
I always found Raptors scarier than T-rex.
What Culture is prominent in Chult?
They fear the threat of a strange creature called "Uluu Thalongh" and the threat from the "Peaks of Flame" a volcano home to fire type creatures.
being transtported back in time through magic can be used as a (cheap) plot device, but the setting itself might just be worth it
I know nothing of Illusk so I'll have to look it up.
Netheril has been talked about though the games, If i remember they where mostly Human and acquired Arcane knowledge from Illefarn and built flying cities over the desert, many Lich's came into being over that time as the knowledge and help getting there was common place, Divine casters welcome and at their end Karses the Arch Mage tried to uplift himself into the Weave replace Mystra as God of Magic which caused a massive disruption in magic and many creatures bound to the Weave where destroyed.
Even if the time travel element was limited and mostly used for information gathering or making very carefull changes would open up interesting events, if the player had to peer into the past at certain locations and use skills like Lore, Spot etc to identify as much info as possible to help you complete your next task, yeah I can see interesting elements if done carefully.
That was a good line. Ok, only new campaigns then. First as I said I'm a bit fed up with adventuring always in the same place. First of all why being limited to a single place? You could travel a lot actually.
- The Moonshae: I like this place, there's so much to tell about it and it's been largely unexploited.
- Zakhara: this is the "Al-Qadim" line but it is the same world as the Forgotten Realms line. Here too there's so much to write and use.
- Waterdeep: THE city of the Forgotten Realms line, we only break wind there in "Hordes of the Underdark" while a true gigantic urban story could be taking place. There's the giant city, the undermountain dungeon, skullport and the surrounding... it's all good.
So why not making a story starting of in the Moonshae, moving to Waterdeep and taking a boat to Zakhara?
Yeah I've heard so much happens in Waterdeep but the games barely mention it.
According to what I'm reading Mount Waterdeep was home to "Melairkyn" Mithral mining Dwarf Clan but the halls where infested with creatures long before the city was built, Waterdeep was considered the most influential city but after the "Spellplague" Baldur's Gate grew bigger and more influential, there was a guild war ended with the reformed Lords Alliance and the city got back on track to prosper, apparently the merchants guild grew and the Lords Alliance are secretive but supported by these merchants and protected by City Guard (Soldiers) & City Watch (Police) who are apparently "superb" and as a result the city became well protected and over time more tolerant of other races, religions & lifestyles, oh and we all should've heard about "Undermountain" and that very stable minded Halaster Blackcloak (he's definitely not crazy...nope not one bit).
Zakhara has large desert but also lush oases, Genies frequently meddle in the society, secretive cities with stories of demon infested cities and "godless sorcerers" named "Sha'irs" who apparently wield strange magic, and the land is known for other "exotic" magics, the capital city called Huzuz also known as "the city of delights" (sounds nice), hmm secretive cities & strange magics...I'm intrigued.
Ok had to look up Moonshae, I'm intrigued already, multiple smaller islands and one of them called "Snowdown" was controlled by Vampires. fighting undead is always good but a whole Island...that's dangerous (sign me up), wars between Northmen vs Ffolk (not a typo), Northmen faith is mostly Tempus vs Ffolk's druid goddess "Earthmother", Bhaal had influence here through a minion named "Kazgaroth" who initiated invasions, Kaz challenged and defeated a child of the earthmother called "Leviathan", these wars have eased up since a "High King Kendrick" has been working hard to settle things down.
NWN is 3rd edition so it's previous spellplague.
Sha'Ir of Al-Qadim are a warlock kind of wizard which control genies instead of demons or whatsoever and Moonshae is the home of the first Forgotten Realms novels: starting with Darkwalker on Moonshae which tells the story of Kazgoroth. Never heard of a vampire island, must be another of those 4th edition things.
The Forgotten Realms are huge and we need to stop focusing on always the same places. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter and the Spine of the World have been explored enough for my taste.
Maybe you can use your first post in this thread to centralize ideas. For now I would add Halruaa or Mulhorand as these are quite uncommonly used and yet...
While reading about these new locations Chult, Illusk, Netherum, Moonshae, Waterdeep and Zakhara I've
become intrigued about these places, we can always return to Baldur's Gate again, no harm in going back but looking at these locations has got me wanting something I've never seen before.
Mulhorand has 3 classes of citizens, Mages and Priests tend to be the nobility, merchants and landowners tend to be the middle and the majority are Slaves from Thay, they had problems with High Imaskari empire, Sahuagin (Shark Men) and Pirates are in some of the waters around and can be a problem, apparently their deserts have connections to the Underdark and is commonly known, Deity worship tends to be Gond, Mask, Mystra and Red Knight, Priests are self entitled and expect special treatment (you won't get any from me), the Alignment tends to be Lawful but obviously their Laws don't have a problems with mass slavery (I'd feel compelled to do something about the slavery problem), the culture feels they are better than others and that arrogance is well known, oh i just read that the old Imaskari empire before Mulhorand existed opened portals to another world and took 100,000 people called the Mulan and enslaved and blocked Mulan worship and calls for help from reaching their gods and Ao the God of Gods intervened and allowed mortal avatars of Mulan gods to breach the Imaskari Barrier and full on attack the old Imaskari and defeated them (I'd heard a little about the old Imaskari from NWN2 MOTB something about angering the gods, when the gods come down to personally smite your people you know you've done some seriously bad stuff) and the slaves and the Divine avatars founded Mulhorand (i guess Mulhorand thought "hey we where slaves so lets...like you know continue the cycle of slavery"), Elves and Dwarfs didn't like Mulhorand and most left, the majority are Human, Half-orc and Planetouched.
I know some of the info I've posted is generalized and not all the info will be relevant to 3rd edition, some of it won't appear in a new setting unless a new game comes out in 4th edition setting or after that.
These places are very interesting in 3rd and 3.5 edition and worthy of a Campaign or shorter Modules.
Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Darksun, Dragonlance.... These are all settings I would love to see as premium modules in NWN:EE.
I believe there was also talk of redoing the Goldbox games in NWN:EE as premium mods. That would be grand.
I'm guessing that the spells and abilities vary in each realm but i imagine they could work around that.
I love the Dark Sun setting, but its rule mechanism are really specific and don't fit NWN at all, not the slighest. The omnipresent psionics, special rules for weapons and armors, weirdo races... it would need a huge revamp of the whole NWN engine. I think with Spelljammer it's the hardest to adapt.
Planescape, Ravenloft, and many others would work fine (because yeah Planescape works better on any edition of D&D than Dark Sun or Spelljammer).
the Forgotten Realms were first edited for the 1st edition of AD&D, the famous grey box (of which I have a vintage edition) formed the basis. There were the Bloodstone Pass modules and the Darkwalker on Moonshae novels (a trilogy). The FR arrived very late, toward to end of the 1st edition of AD&D so there was little content for this ruleset.
Then TSR wanted to get out of a chicken sacrifice controversy with the 2nd edition. The transition is made by the "Times of Troubles" which are largely referenced in Baldur's Gate and the gang.
- Way too evil gods you could actually served were removed (Baine, Bhaal and Myrkul, you know the later from Mask of the Betrayer).
- Wild Magic (which was introduced in the Tome of Magic) became an essential part of the setting.
- Assassins, cavaliers and some other classes were removed.
- Gunpowder weapons were introduced and expanded, think of the way the Pillars of Eternity handles it to get an idea of the feeling.
In addition the setting was hugely expanded with:
- Kara-Tur: which was built on the Oriental Adventures ruleset for the 1st edition but here for the 2nd. With real pieces of François Froideval at the writing (who made Black Moon Chronicles) along with Gygax.
- Maztica: which didn't get as big as it was meant to
- Al-Qadim: sold as a distinct line of product (without the Forgotten Realms logo) but is set on the same world.
The 3rd edition was not followed by some cataclysm. Some Gods like Baine returned and that's it.
The 4th edition introduced the Spellplague, but no one wants to talk about it. I mean really, no one does.
The 5th edition introduced the Sundering which reversed changes done by the Spellplague and even some changes from the 2nd edition to the context.
Curse of Strahd is really really good but it's Ravenloft's not the Forgotten Realms.
I remember Baine, Bhaal & Myrkul from the BG in game book "The Dead Three", interesting story.
Guns? are they flintlocks? i can see a Fighter with a Greatsword but the enemy is across the room so you quick draw your preloaded flintlock for the gut shot and run in for the kill.
During an AD&D2 campaign I played a wild mage from Calimshan armed with a blunderbuss. Firearms make wizards a bit more playable at low level, if you are willing to take the blow thing chance.
Trading rivals with Waterdeep, say's they have older ties to Genies but they've long driven out, high society looks down on adventurers, apparently Women don't have equal rights, Bandit faction called "Black Raiders" are a big problem, a large trade route goes through the desert and is a big target for Black Raiders, The Shining Sea connects them to Chult and other places, apparently the Calim Desert was created inadvertently due to Efreeti (fire Genie types) waging war for 400 years, there's been Beholder problems for a long ago, a dragon named "Ylveraasahlisar" had influence over their culture for over 100 years, a name i recognize "Twisted Rune" manipulates Calimshan from behind the scenes, another name i recognize "Artemis Entreri" lived here.
there's more but it would take too long to go into, many stories here it seems.