Valdorian Age Game: Campaign Suggestions Needed

[Super Squirrel]

It looks like I have myself at least the three player minimum I need to start a table top game. I small sized hex paper, wet erase markers and shrinky dink paper. I have Valdorian Age, Fantasy Hero and a ton of other books. I've got a creative imagination and thanks to a poster on here, I even have the HD template for Valdorian Age.

All I need is a campaign idea.

I'd prefer to run a campaign that isn't locked in to Elweir but I certainly don't mind one that starts that way. Right now, the thought that I actually get to run a game is a bit too elevated on my mind for me to figure out what I would like to do in Valdorian Age though.

[Curufea]

Start with an unusual premise-

All the PCs could be criminals on the run. Or spies. Or have a secret. Or be part of the same organisation/army.

[bblackmoor]

If I do not have a solid idea up front, I get an idea what kind of character backgrounds the players have in mind, and work from that. Of course, if they're waiting for a cue from you to decide on their backgrounds, that doesn't work.

If the PCs don't want to be outright criminals, or pawns of some dweeb in The Fifty, you could have them be freelance troubleshooters, a la the Garrett Files. Private investigators, basically. It's even in genre. You need to have at least one member of the group have a really good Streetwise skill, and one have a really good High Society skill, and the Knowledge Skills that go with those. Once you have the group in place, it's easy to run a one-shot game, and after a few one-shot games, after the PCs have made from friends and some enemies, I'm sure an idea for a longer story arc will occur to you.

[arcady]

Do the players have copies of the book? Or just you?

If they have copies you can probably work up an idea after you get their concepts, and beforehand you don't need much more than 'make me a pack of shady characters who might be in Elweir in mid winter and probably either know each other or have an unusual number of coincidences in common.'


If they don't have the book, you'll need a plot first, and one with some setting feeders.

If you're really stuck you could always open the book three seperate times to randomly picked pages. First page your finger lands on something to do with what seems to be the plot or launches into it. Second page your finger lands on a red herring. Third page is either where things go if the red herring gets followed, or is the real secret behind the plot.

That of course, then has to be filtered down so that even if it comes up with an entry on the other side of the world, you interpret it to something local - like the foreign traveler the PCs meet, or whatever.

You could also pull this kind of trick with a Conan anthology - piece in elements from the first three plots you land on. The same thing works with the 'show me a random story' option at Elfwood - but that of course requires a lot more reinterpretation to get it back to Valdorian themes.

[Super Squirrel]

I'm the GM. Alice is a player and has access to the book if she wants to. The other two have never played Hero before. Though I believe one of the two will be playing an "Evil" Sorcereress.

I'll see what kind of character Alice wants to play and discuss with one of the players a little bit more in depth of what kind of character they like to play. I will then go from there.

[Markdoc]

When I ran a "big city" campaign, I started by having the players arriving from outside the campaign city and then framed by the local guard captain and arrested. He then offered them the "thieves normally lose their hands, but if you do a favour for me, I might let you go" routine.

His motivation was to get outsiders who could not be involved in the political machinations he thought might be going on - if they turned up anything embarrassing, he could always have their throats slit and then dump the bodies in the nearest canal and pretend it never happened. Once the players successfully completed the mission, they had become used to working together and had some links to the city's overclass that let them get jobs - and it just kind of ran from there.

For me it worked well, because it explained why the players were unfamiliar with the city, letting me feed it to them bit by bit. It also led to a story arc that ran for over a year.

cheers, Mark

Edited to add that I have the adventure fully written up with maps, NPCs and so on - you're welcome to look at it if you like.

[Alibear]

I recently started a campaign where the characters were part of an organisation commited to hunted and destroying evil. Buffy in a fantasy world with magic in place of martial arts if you will, wouldn't work in the Valdorian setting though.

What about all members of a street gang? What about all street kids to start with?

[John Desmarais]

I'm the GM. Alice is a player and has access to the book if she wants to. The other two have never played Hero before. Though I believe one of the two will be playing an "Evil" Sorcereress.

I'll see what kind of character Alice wants to play and discuss with one of the players a little bit more in depth of what kind of character they like to play. I will then go from there.

Help her build her character using the info in the Valdorian Age book to provide this one character a fully fleshed out background, then build the initial adventure around this character (don't forget you can use some of teh info in teh GM Vault section of the book - just pick a hook and build it into her character). Once the other players have gotten a feel for the setting they can begin to tweak their characters to be more tightly integrated with it - giving you more campaign fodder.

[AliceTheOwl]

Help her build her character using the info in the Valdorian Age book to provide this one character a fully fleshed out background, then build the initial adventure around this character (don't forget you can use some of teh info in teh GM Vault section of the book - just pick a hook and build it into her character). Once the other players have gotten a feel for the setting they can begin to tweak their characters to be more tightly integrated with it - giving you more campaign fodder.

Oh, but he ALWAYS does that!