FIRST STEPS
this article inaugurates the first of many, where we’ll keep track of an ongoing campaign, from his creation steps to the future game sessions.
The Players
The first detail to analyze are the players.
I have to design an adventure, that could turn into a campaign, for two female players that have never played a roleplaying game. Both players are mexicans.
Now, the first obstacle to overcome is what ruleset I could use.
I pick D&D 5ed because it’s mechanic are easier than 3.5 or Pathfinder. I consider these two rulesets very good to employ, but not very good for new players that have no idea of what a rpg is. Beside that, dungeons and dragons is something that many people have heard of, so this will help me to reduce some skepticism.
The Flavour
I’m sure many of you have heard the spanish word brujeria, which translate into sorcery or hex. In mexican culture brujeria is a thing.
So, to have the new players dealing with a chunk of something that call their attention, I’ll try to design a basic plot where the character deal with sorcery or, better saying, hexes.
I decide that the players won’t create their characters, something that could prove to be too heavy for a newbie, I’ll prepare instead four basic characters with a chunk of description and then the players will pick two of them.
The Classes
As I said, the campaign flavour will be sorcery and hexes. The choice here is easy, or better saying I have not many options left.
I pick the warlock, or witch in this case.
So, both players will have to play a witch and both of them will be women.
In the very moment I’m writing this article both players have been convinced to start the game.
The Races
To spice things up I choose four different races for each pregenerated character. Drow, Tiefling, Human and Half-Elf.
Now, someone could blame for what I’m about to say, but I had to make a choice. This doesn’t mean that I can’t change my mind on last minute.
I decide to write a short background for each character, instead of leaving this task to the players. However, I’ll let the players to name each character.
I’ll write the character’s background once the structure of the first short session is ready. For what I have in mind, writing the backgrounds wouldn’t make sense without the basic idea of the campaign.
It’s not a must of course. It’s just a choice of mine.
I’m just telling, not stating.
The “Employer”
Well, saying employer could sound cold. An “employer” is a non-player character/event/situation that activates and motivates the characters to take action and throw themselves toward certain death.
Now, in the better tradition of rpg games, when we talk about witches we talk about curses, flying brooms, boiling cauldrons, people boiling inside the cauldrons, the movie Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters…and…COVENS!
Witches & Covens. Who is missing the party? Well, the hag of course.
Clarification about the Hags
I know that hags in D&D 5ed form covens and I know that in the monster manual they are allowed to form a coven only with their kin.
For the sake of this adventure I’ll warp the rules by stating that a covens can be formed by hags and witches, provided they are females. A small change that won’t affect the game economy or create disequilibrium.
The Villain as the Employer and the Characters on the evil side.
So, the Hag will be a Green Hag and she will use the characters to enforce her goals.
In the next article we will define in detail who is the hag, what does she want, etcetera, and at the same time we will define something more about the characters and how they are connected to the Green Hag.
As I promised I will design the villain using the AD&D Book The Complete Book of Villains.
Thanks for reading.
Next Article…Campaign Chronicles #2 – Creating the Villain and more details