Tabletop RPG Campaign overview: Need feedback.

[Touchfuzzy]

So I run tabletop games a lot. Problem is, when my wife is playing, I lose my sounding board, because... well, I can't share the secrets of the campaign with her. So I'm just going to write it all out here kind of stream of consciousness like, and see what you guys think.
 
This game is being run using Fate Accelerated, a nice, superstreamlined version of Fate. Its actually pay what you want for the PDF (along with Fate Core, and the Fate System Toolkit, for a less cut down version if you are interested), and if you are into TTRPGs, I suggest checking it out. Seriously though, if you like them, buy them. The physical copies are also really nice books.
 
Anyway, so this is a game set up to be my daughters first major RPG Campaign. So I really based it around what my daughter likes. Anime and Mecha. So this reminded me of this game setting I saw a while back called Princess Drive. The base of the setting is alright, if a little simplistic, but the rules changes to FAE were neat. Its basically a game where magical artifacts select "Princesses" which gain the ability to use the artifact to call upon a giant mecha called a Princess Drive to beat up threats to the Kingdom.
 
But mostly I just took the base of the setting and then jettisoned the rest to make room for my own ideas. I'm going to write this in two parts. What the characters know, then a second part detailing all the information I'll be working off for the game.
 

The Known World​

10,000 years ago was the Great War. The Priores, the original human civilization on the planet, broke out into civil war. No one remembers the cause. From this war came the Behemoths and Leviathans. Giant creatures of the land and sea. At the end of the war, 6 magical artifacts were forged, the Drivers. With them, Six Princesses were able to summon the Princess Drives, mecha that could match the ferocity of the Behemoths. While the Princesses succeeded in stopping this menace, sacrificing their lives in the process, the resulting devastation left most of society in shambles, having to be rebuilt from ashes and ruins.

While the occasional Behemoth and Leviathan has been fought from time to time since the Great War, none have been seen for a hundred years.

All the players hail from the Nation of Braedamonte. Mostly rolling hills, woodlands and farms, Braedomonte is a pretty nice, if a bit simple, place to live. Braedomonte is ruled by a group of elite nobility, and a representative of each village and town, known as Elders. The Council elders handle most of the actual ruling, though the nobility is actually in charge.

The biggest advantage Braedomonte has over its neighbors is that it is the home of the Princesses. Usually, there is only one Driver active at a time. The only exceptions, are the original Princesses, at the end of the Great War, and now. For some reason, the Drivers are all beginning to activate at once again.

To the Northwest of Braedomonte lies the Grey Wastes. Once the location of the Priores Capitol, it is now nothing but hundreds of square miles of a grey siltlike material. Those who enter, never return.

To the North, is the country of Hypatia. Hypatia is nominally on good terms with Braedamonte. It is a militaristic nation with a King and burgeoning technology, allowing them to build Infernal Engines. Magical steam powered mecha, that, while no match for a Princess Drive, are much more numerous. There have been occasional disputes between the two nations, but there has never been actual war.

To the East, lies the Ocean. The sailing capabilities of Hypatia and Braedomonte are very low, due to the constant threat of Leviathans until very recently. There are several islands off the coast, but not much is known outside of that.

To the West is Ligeia. Ligeia's borders are closed off, and have been for the last several thousand years. The only time anyone is seen from them are the occasional ambassadors, clothed from head to toe in cloth, and even then they only seem to appear to insure their isolation. In the past, there have been wars between Braedamonte and Ligeia. The rulers of Ligeia are mostly unknown, but appear to be strong necromancers. Their armies are supplemented by mechs of bone and sinew known as Nephilim.

To the South is the Wildlands. Dense jungles, swamps, deserts, mountains. These lands are mostly inhospitable to mankind. In the past, Behemoths emerged from the Wildlands, but now, it sits strangely quiet.

-----

I'm kind of done with talking at the moment, I'll start with the secret stuff in the next post I make in the thread.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Ok. Now here is where we get to the crazy. Here is the ACTUAL history.

Many millennia ago, the Aboriginals, the first race that lived on Iero (the name of the planet) thrived. They had incredibly advanced technology, and a near idyllic existence. But there was still death. Still pain. So using their advanced technology, the Aboriginals evolved themselves over one hundred generations, until the point that they could seperate their spirits from their flesh, ascending into beings of pure energy, without death, without pain, without suffering. Their cities slowly crumbled to the ground, leaving behind only scant evidence that they ever existed.

12,000 years ago, Earth is dying. Colony ships leave earth, their inhabitants in stasis. One such ship crashes on Iero. With the ship irreparably damaged, the survivors begin to build a society on Iero.

Nearly 2,000 years later, mankind discovers an energy field in Iero that they had never encountered before. One they could tap into to create monumental amounts of power, enough to warp even reality itself. Magic was born. This energy field was the Aboriginals, their spirits being used as fuel for mankinds inventions. Great strides were made in every field, the skies themselves were changed by the warping of reality, who knows what is beyond the planet, if anything at all, anymore.

And that is when the ruling council of mankind learns about Ascension. Desiring the undying world for themselves, they attempt to recreate the work the Aboriginals did, but without the evolution. They instead would attempt to brute force it. They took six pairs of twin sisters, and experimented on them using the spirit from one of each pair to enclose in an artifact called the Driver, the corresponding twin for each became the first Princesses. The Princess Drives were the key to initiating Ascension.

Rebels within the council attempted to stop this Ascension, creating massive beasts known as Behemoths and Leviathons, starting the Great War. The Great War ended when the original Princesses initiated the First Ascension. Due to the imperfections of mankind, as well as the flaws of the Princesses themselves, this Ascension failed, turning the Capital and the surrounding lands into the Grey Wastes, where the souls of those that failed to ascend wander in endless pain and suffering.

The Drivers disappeared, reappearing later, without their souls, in the lands that would become known as Braedamonte. The souls themselves were thrown into a loop of reincarnation. The Princesses aren't chosen, they are the original souls of the Drivers. The reason the Driver can work is it feeds on the excess energy of the soul it is attuned to.

The Priores Council though, is still working in the shadows of the Grey Wastes. They use their minions, the original Princesses, now known as the Queens, to try to initiate a new plan to save themselves from eternal suffering. The Queens, created from nothing but force of will, and the grey silt of the Wastes, are working to cause a second attempt at Ascension, which will cause the spirits to be unbound from the Grey wastes, and take physical forms as the Nuntii Mortis, messengers of death. Through the consumption of the souls of mankind, slowly evolved over the last 10,000 years, they hope to be able to ascend fully into the aether.

Behemoths and Leviathans are also reawakening, and Hypatia is beginning to eye Braedamonte as well. Ligeia, long waiting in patience, is also looking to make its move in the world.

And that is the game.

 

[Alkorri]

I think it's neat that you're running your daughter's first major tabletop campaign! I'm curious to see what sort of character she's gonna make, and what storyline you're going to set them on.

Edit: Whoa, didn't see that second post until later. That is indeed a lot of process I had to read twice before I got the gist lol. Sounds suitably epic. The only thing I'm not clear about is what the Nuntii Mortis will do, but by the sounds of it, it's bad news for the rest of humanity

Are the Queens still using the Drivers, and will the players eventually come into contact with either?

 

[Shaz]

Touchfuzzy, please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.


You KNOW I had to do that

 

[Ruby]

You wrote that second post... In five minutes....

It looks like a LOT to take in, but looks like a ton of fun! I love table top RPGS, and your story sounds very well thought out and actually kind of cool.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

A bit more info:

The Queens are mostly going to work behind the scenes. They might provoke something within one nation, or use a cult of some sort to threaten the heroes, etc.

Different conflicts I'm going to be using are political issues with Hypatia, conspiracies within the nation itself caused by the Queens, physical conflicts with Ligeia, Behemoths, and Leviathans, and just overall the mystery of what is going on.

Drama will probably be centered around the growing number of flashbacks the players will have from previous lives, which will probably, I'm hoping, be believed to be a result of interaction with the Drivers, and not the actual truth that they are the same soul that lived through being every Princess except the originals.

I'm also hoping for a bit of drama based around the fact that the corrupted Queens are actually their sisters, and that both of them were experimented on 10k years ago in order to create the first Ascension, and the discovery of that.

One of the big things I want to do is have things happen that DON'T have immediate explanations. A layering of more and more bizarre things that eventually leads to some vague understanding of the truth. If all goes well, by the end they will have some idea of what happened, but they still won't have all the details.

@Alkorri

The Queens still have their "Princess Drives" (now appropriately called Queen Drives), but they aren't really the same. They are more a physical manifestation of what they consider part of themselves. The Queens are REALLY powerful, having been released from a mortal form during the ascension, and driven kind of insane (each of the Princesses is associated with a different virtue, Love, Justice, Courage, Trust, Kindness, and Wisdom, while the Queens are twisted versions, being represented by Hatred, Oppression, Fear, Deception, Cruelty, and Cunning). Their corporeal form is basically just animated grey silt, and they have the ability to alter it enough to manifest their Drive.

As for the Nuntii Mortis, basically, if the Second Ascension happens the way the Queens and Priores intend, humans will all be pushed to the verge of ascension, then the spirits in the Grey Wastes will animate the silt, similar to how the Queens do, to terrorize humanity as towering humanoid creatures of death. Their contact will simultaneously finish the ascension of a human, and then consume that energy to slowly purify itself. When they have fed enough, they will, if the plan works correctly, ascend properly themselves. I'm probably only going to use this as a giant climax to the campaign, the one last "oh ****" before they managed to save the world.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Looks fascinating. But why do they call games "Campaigns"?

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Looks fascinating. But why do they call games "Campaigns"?

Leftover terminology from RPGs originating from Wargames, where campaign is talking about a military campaign.

Next bit of info, let's learn about one of our heroes:

Spoiler

Miri is the Princess of the House of Glints, associated with the Virtue of Kindness.

Miri was the child of a Florist, but herself was painfully allergic to pollen. She ended up running away from home to escape the trade, and ended up in another village and being taken in by a blacksmith named Hiram. He taught her the art of smithing. In the first adventure, she will gain the Glintdriver, in the shape of a shield with a stylized wing down one side, which activates. (I'm going to start with only one driver activated, so that when the others start activating its kind of an "ooooh what is going oooon" thing for society). She is very kind but also very shy, and doesn't have a lot of courage. Her experiences with Rosa, a town guard that frequently visits the blacksmith, has taught her to fight through her fear to protect others.

Her Drive is called the Bronze Wing, and it takes the form of a bulky humanoid in a suit of armor with two giant wings. Incapable of flying, it uses the wings like shields. It also wields a massive two handed hammer.

(This is my daughters character. Also, yes, I made that character sheet from scratch in inDesign, and it is gloriously pink).

 

[Alkorri]

Oh my lord, the pink XD

Sounds awesome. I love how you plan to drive the storyline forward through flashbacks and how you aim to misdirect the players on the nature of them, at least until they learn the truth.

This is also the first time I've heard of a character running away from home to avoid becoming a florist ;D I've played quite a number of tabletop over the years; I've never played one based on mecha or anime unless you count me reading a Robotech player manual. I am guessing your wife will play Rosa? With the Queen Drivers being so powerful, I hope Miri has ways to fight back ;D

 

[Touchfuzzy]

My wife is playing a character named Ellie (Ok, in actuality her name wouldn't fit in the character sheet field, its "Brigitte Hildegard Franziska Elena Diefenbacher") but she goes by Ellie.

Spoiler

She is the only active Princess at the start of the story, and is the Princess of the House of Stars, with the Virtue of Justice. Her Driver is a ornate rifle, and her Drive is lithe and fast and called the Orion. She is actually Bradamonte nobility, but ran away at a young age, and through puberty, hairstyling, and just the lack of photographs in a fantasy story, hides who she really is. She worked as a bounty hunter before becoming the Princess of the House of Stars. Her bonds are a character named Johan, who was her bodyguard who has followed her into "hiding", and refuses to leave her, and Marianne, who is a tavern waitress she is fond of.
She is an aloof loner, with troubles with trusting others. You can imagine the exact anime character we are talking about. She is the cool loner type basically.

All the bond characters are NPCs. They are basically ties to the campaign world the characters have for me to mess with and threaten.

I also have people who are lined up to make characters for the House of Gems (Wisdom), and the House of Flowers (Love), but I'm going to not have them in the game until the second session, to introduce characters more slowly, and get Kristy used to the game before I add more people in. They haven't made their characters yet though, so I don't have any details.

 

[nio kasgami]

A would love to give more proper feedback but sadly my english is not good enough..

+ I am not sure of what is a tabletop Rpg

I guess you have a board on a table and you play on it?

 

[Alkorri]

Nio, tabletop RPG is where one person is the storyteller or Gamemaster, who creates a story for other players to take part Each player takes the role of characters in the story. This game usually takes place around a table, thus the word "tabletop".

 

[nio kasgami]

Nio, tabletop RPG is where one person is the storyteller or Gamemaster, who creates a story for other players to take part Each player takes the role of characters in the story. This game usually takes place around a table, thus the word "tabletop".

HO! okai in sort of rp...really develloped!

 

[Touchfuzzy]

We played the first session earlier today (and as I haven't gone to sleep yet, I mean, earlier Sunday). I'm framing each session as an episode. As such, we have kind of a build up to a climax, then a close on a cool looking scene that leaves off before they decide what to do next.

Player Characters: Miri (Daughter), and Ellie (Wife).

Setting: The city of Esterhaven, near the border of Hypatia, during a multi-day festival celebrating the peaceful alliance between the Hypatian and Braedamonte governments.

The story starts with Ellie, already the Princess of the House of Stars, acting as a representative of the Braedamonte government. She isn't too fond of being used as an ornament, but spends her time sitting on the roof of the inn reading a romance novel (which she keeps different dust jackets on. Apparently she is embarrassed at her love of romance novels).

Miri is a resident of the town, still living with Hiram, her teacher in the arts of smithing. She is currently transporting an order of freshly forged swords to the guard with the mule, Bill. There is a commotion on a bridge up ahead. There she sees Rosa, a friend, and one of the city guard, organizing a team of people in fishing a dead body out of the river, its head missing. Miri and Rosa talk briefly, when Miri recognizes that the body is wearing a bracer made specifically for the guards.

As Miri is asked to accompany them to the guard station to see if she can identify when it was forged, hopefully narrowing down who it is, a messenger appears to speak to Ellie. Johan, Ellie's traveling companion, fetches her from the roof. It is a message from the captain of the guard, asking her if she could spare the time to come meet him.

There, she meets with Devlin Lock, Captain of the Guard. She recognizes him as someone she knew during her days as a bounty hunter, and he explains that there has been a murder, and that with the guard stretched so thin due to the festival, that he would appreciate if she could use her expertise to help solve the crime. Ellie investigates the body, discovering that its head was removed after death, and that he died most likely due to poison from a small wound under his right arm. Miri also figures out that the bracer was made the last season, and after the guard goes over their records, it could only be one of three guards.

Rosa suggests Miri act as a guide for Ellie in town, due to the continued shortage of guards.

Together the two attempt to figure out who the body belongs to. Mark, one of the guards, is not home, but was supposed to be at the tavern. At the tavern, a few guards said that he was supposed to show up, but that sometimes he hangs out with his friend John, one of the other guards it could possibly be.

They arrive at John's house, when they find the door locked and hear someone trying to escape across the rooftops. After a prolonged chase, Ellie shoots the man in the leg, and he then poisons himself before she can question him. He has a small tattoo on his inner forearm, depicting a face with a mask being removed to reveal a second mask.

Inside the house, they discover a head, devoid of all features, sitting on the table. Just smooth skin covering the entirety of it. They also discover many chemicals, including a poison, and tons of odd instruments.

As they are leaving, Mark arrives. He seems distraught at his friends death, but mentions that he has to go to help guard the temple that night, and if after questioning, tells them that he needs to head to the temple, and he will be there if they have any more questions.

With a murderer seemingly dead at his own hands, and no further leads, Miri heads home, and Ellie returns to her room.

Late in the night. Smoke can be smelled and screams are heard. MIri grabs her hammer and moves to go into the streets to figure out what is happening. Hiram is coming in as she is leaving. He tells her that a Behemoth, the first one seen in one hundred years is attacking the city. He hands her a buckler, and tells her she needs to keep it with her, and that he is going to try to help evacuate the people.

Ellie moves into the street, and before she has a chance to move towards the bememoth, an explosion is heard in the direction of the temple. She suddenly realizes: That wasn't Mark. Mark was dead, they used some form of alchemical magic to put his face on someone else. The temple is being attacked. She runs towards the temple, while Johann moves to try to do something about the Behemoth.

Miri has crossed paths with he Behemoth. It is huge, towering over the buildings, and shaped like a humanoid dragon with no wings, and no eyes. There are broken Infernal Engines around it. The Hypatian delegation had moved forward to do what it could to stop it, but accomplished little. She sees a man running ahead of it, wearing a cloak identical to the murderer before, carrying what looks like an unlit torch. She quickly realizes that the unlit torch is actually a scent soaked cloth on a stick, used to lure the Behemoth into the city. She runs at the man and yanks the scentstick out of his hand, preparing to run out into the open land around the town to lead the Behemoth away.

The cloaked man moves to attack but is shot by Johann. She begins to run to the edge of town.

Ellie reaches the Temple, to see 7 cloaked figures in the front courtyard. Two groups of three like those she faced before, and one with an elaborate mask. As she is fighting the groups, the one with the elaborate mask slips away.

Miri manages to get the Behemoth out of town, and throws away the scentstick. It snatches it from the air, and then moves to attack her, but is stopped when a lone Infernal Engine smacks it in the face. The Infernal Engine then begins fighting, but is obviously losing the battle. Across the river, at the Temple, Ellie summons her Princess Drive, kicking the final enemies away, and leaping across while firing at the Behemoth as well.

The battle continues, with Miri hiding in a nearby ditch. The Infernal Engine and Princess Drive strike again and again, but the Behemoth is slowly wearing them down. Miri runs out of cover attempting to do something, when suddenly, the buckler begins to glow. It changes shape into a winged shield, it is the Glintdriver. It activates, she sees visions of Hiram as a younger man, of people and places she has never seen. And the Bronze Wing forms around her.

The pilot of the Infernal Engine stares in surprise. "A second drive..." It is a suitably dramatic moment.

The three then team up to take on the Behemoth. The Infernal Engine works to distract it with flashy sword strikes, while Ellie throws down Orion's two sentry turrets, Cannis Major, and Cannis Minor. While it is distracted and being knocked back by the gunfire, The Bronze Wing jumps high into the air and smashes its giant two handed hammer directly into the top of its skull.

It falls back, visibly hurt, and as it is about to spew flames back at the heroes, Ellie takes one final aimed shot, which goes directly through its head, and it falls to the ground.

The Infernal Engine, nearly destroyed, collapses as well, and the cockpit opens. A young handsome man steps out as the sun is rising over the corpse of the Behemoth.

Behind the scenes: The masked men are part of the Cult of Masks, a cult devoted to the Queen of Deception. The temple housed the Blossomdriver, which was what they planned on stealing. Both Mark and John, the two guards were killed, and Mark's face was removed and given to one of the Cult using some form of alchemy/sorcery. They used the Behemoth as a distraction so that they could use explosives to enter the area locked underneath the temple. The man with the elaborate mask was their leader, and escaped with the Blossomdriver. The Infernal Engine Pilot is Rowan August, son of Count August of Hypatia. He is an extremely honorable man and expert swordsman and pilot. He is intended to be a sometimes ally, sometimes enemy of the party, depending on circumstances. Sort of the "Zechs Marquise" of the plot.

 

[Dragonspeech]

I am in stunned silence at the moment and I'm scrambling for my thoughts... I can actually see this as an episodic anime, and I would love to watch this. It is exactly like Gundam-mech meets magical girl tropes. This is going to turn out as the most amazing little homebrew I've ever heard of.

 

[Alkorri]

Wow, I missed commenting on this earlier. This whole adventure does sound like it belongs in an anime! The build-up is excellent, one piece setting another into motion, and then the grand reveal. This must have taken an incredible amount of work.

Looks like Miri has a lot to learn about her new destiny. When's the next session? ;D How did your daughter enjoy it btw?

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Been super busy on weekends, so I haven't gotten another session in yet. But, the two other players have made characters.

(Drawing courtesy of my friend Jesse, the player of Gemma, who is also going to do art for the other two main characters.)

Gemma, The Princess of the House of Facets (Wisdom), is a witch and was an outcast and treated horribly before she was awoken as a Princess Drive bearer, suddenly the masses adored her...but she never forgets the hardships she suffered by their hands before.

Piege, The Princess of the House of Blossoms (Love), was born into nobility and is a spoiled brat...in a way she always thought herself a princess even before being awoken as a Princess Drive bearer. Her secret is she was born male, her parents, being the social climbers they are, raised her female because women have higher standing in this world. She does prefer the frillier things in life and does consider herself female no matter what. 

 

[doncht]

Nicely done on Peige by the way,