Sep 12 2006, 09:08 PM
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#1
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Great Dragon ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
I'm starting up a play by post game in a setting where the Duke is near death and has no heir. An idea I had was for a prophecy to be uncovered by the church that would give a guide on choosing a new King, reinstating the full monarchy that has been gone for hundreds of years.
I haven't decided if the prophecy is real or not yet, but that doesn't affect the situation currently as there's a while to go before it happens, and even longer before the players get involved. But eventually at some point I'd like to have them hired to fulfill the prophecy. Their job will be to arrange things so that the head of one of the city's factions fulfills the prophecies. I may have the prophecies fulfill themselves with one of the PCs, but haven't decided. What I need now is prophecies. They have to be vague enough to allow several interpretations, but clear enough that fulfilling them is both possible and identifiable. I'd like for one of them to involve returning from the dead somehow. It's a low power campaing setting, so returning from the dead is not something that happens every day, or even every century. I know how this one will be fulfilled for real, and will leave it up to the players to decide how to fake it. The setting is low magic. There's no (well, almost no) arcane magic. The country is monotheistic with a typical God vs. Satan setup. Clerics are scholars, not warriors (that's what fighters and paladins are for). The country has been ruled by a stewardship for 3 centuries, and now the Duke is dying without an heir. Three factions are maneuvering for power: merchants, noblemen, and another group of merchants with less scruples and ties to the seedier sides of the city. So far we've got an aristocrat bard (magicless at first but he'll have opportunities to gain spells via a magic item his father left him but died before he could explain). He doesn't realize his dagger is magical, nor that it can grant him power by feeding on souls. Eventually he'll kill someone with it and that subplot will start. There's a female cleric. Her father is an admiral in the navy, but doesn't pay much attention to her or her sisters because he's chauvinistic. He even named her and her sisters with men's names that her mother just barely managed to convice him to twist into girls' names (Alexadria, Claudette, etc.). She's a member of the church, but not content to just while away the rest of her days in the library like many of her brethren. Male fighter. Ex-bouncer. Ex-bodygaurd. Now he's on his own looking for a living. The rest aren't made yet, but one is looking loike he might be an aristocrat as well. For the aristocrats, I'm making thme take an actual level in the NPC class if they want any of the benefits of bring a trueblood. The second one will likely be a fairly typical aristocratic rogue that likes to spend his time "slumming." I'm not sure what the other two will be. Probably at least one more rogue. If you happen to have the old adventure The Veiled Society it's got a little more info on the area. I'll be basing the first few scenes on it, and seeing where it goes from there. I've also got To Find a King, an old RPGA tournament module that I might swipe ideas from. I like the sound of the premise, but haven't read the actual adventure yet. |
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Sep 13 2006, 01:28 AM
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#2
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Midnight Toker ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
You can never go wrong with Nostradamus. His prophecies sound cool and they are so vauge that they can be twisted into anything that you want to to be.
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Sep 13 2006, 07:57 PM
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#3
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Moving Target ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 803 Joined: 16-March 02 From: The Great White North Member No.: 2,386 |
Another thing you might want to consider is the Noble class in the Dragonlance campaign setting. It's a 20-level character progression with an emphasis on skill and leadership (bardic abilities as opposed to the feat, which noble characters would likely want anyway), two good saves, and the average base attack progression. I think there's also a noble-type class in the Wheel of Time setting, though I don't have access to it right now. As far as prophecy goes, I think it's something that needs to be tailored to the campaign. It's hard to pull from outside sources when, first and foremost, the world really does exist in your mind. |
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Sep 14 2006, 04:49 AM
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#4
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Moving Target ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 834 Joined: 30-June 03 Member No.: 4,832 |
Here's something I made up.
With the death of the moon, the sun will come With the death of the son, the blood wil run you can pretty much replace any of those nouns with anything else and it'll still sound pretty good With the honk of the clown, the car will come With the honk of the car, the clown will run. See how easy it is? :D |
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