Hi. I'm in the process of planning the plot to my first custom campaign, "Here There Be Monsters." Here is the campaign background:
Towards the end of the Fall, a Promethean focused around biological research and warfare suffered minor exposure to the exsurgent virus. I say minor because its goals and motivations were changed only slightly instead of going into full on insanity like the TITANs. The Promethean was left questioning how it should benefit transhumanity and sought to gain perspective by uploading some minds in its local vicinity. Then it had an answer after going through several hundred minds. Thanks to the TITANs, humanity was being forced to think and fight in new ways to secure its survival so then those left standing would be more fit than those that died and be better prepared for future threats to the species. In order for transhumanity to move forward, it need monsters to push it forward. With this realization, the Promethean renamed itself Grendel and proceeded to set-up its base of operations. It was Grendel's settling that turned Iapetus into the saddening nightmare that it is today. For the past 10 years, Grendel has been gathering information and expanding very slowly to avoid notice from the other Prometheans by gaining control of some of those who enter Iapetus' monster caves through basilisks, psychosurgery, etc., creating agents for some kind of plan to better transhumanity.
In addition to this background, I was thinking of Grendel preparing for a major attack on the Gatekeeper facility on Pandora using recruited terrorists in about the midpoint in the campaign. The attack will be played on to access the gate, but will actually be used as a distraction to obtain Tanakan samples in the research labs. With the interesting genome of Tanaka's life, Grendel will be able to create all kinds of different nanoviruses and bioplagues using only one genome. The only problem is that I'm not sure how to leave clues that point to this attack.
Otherwise, I have no idea how to start this campaign and how to build it up.
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Need Help with Campaign
Sat, 2013-11-02 19:57
#1
Adaptive Radiation
Need Help with Campaign
Mon, 2013-11-04 19:45
#2
Adaptive Radiation
Hello? Anyone?
Hello? Anyone?
Tue, 2013-11-05 08:54
#3
Leodiensian
You say it was only mildly
You say it was only mildly changed, yet its early behavior sounds kind of indistinguishable from a TITAN - forced uploads, using the Exsurgent virus to modify others etc. Honestly, you make it sound like Grendel's gone off the deep end. Maybe reconsider that point before you do anything else.
Now, to the other points. If you're concerned about how to properly build a breadcrumb trail for your players to follow, have you considered the possibility of another Promethean? For the sake of keeping things thematic, let's call it Beowulf. Beowulf can use the Sentinel PCs and their immediate superiors (proxies etc) as physical agents to determine what happened to its 'brother' and take the necessary steps. Beowulf, being an intelligence on par with Grendel, can be a source for periodic 'anonymous tips' that help you point the players in the right direction.
Tue, 2013-11-05 17:08
#4
Adaptive Radiation
I guess the reason why I say
I guess the reason why I say mildly changed is that it still retains the idea that it's acting in transhumanity's best interests and it acts in a much more indirect way than a TITAN would. I consider that Grendel is more Promethean than TITAN.
I've thought a bit more about the events building towards the attack on Gateway and thought to point the PCs in that direction by having initial exsurgent attacks that paint Gatekeeper in a bad light by associating the attacks with their recent hauls from Pandora, have attacks on corps and organizations that lend significant support to Gatekeeper painted as standard terrorist attacks, maybe even falsify a significant discovery made by Pathfinder to divert support from Gatekeeper. I was also thinking of giving Grendel some kind of presence on mesh forums to further drive these red herrings. I also thought about having more standard exsurgent attacks going on in the background of all of this, say the PCs hear that a remote brinker habitat has gone silent on Extropia's mesh. These attacks would be caused by Grendel as well as be promoted by his agents on the mesh to further the meme of the monsters lurking in the dark.
Tue, 2013-11-05 18:22
#5
Arenamontanus
Adaptive Radiation wrote:I
Which is of course the exsurgent virus talking, as it slowly subverts the Promethean. The best villains think they are heroes, and relentlessly try to help the world without expecting any thanks. Think of this as the Haunting virus.
Hmm, it sounds like the attack on Gateway occupies an important place. Why not throw it in at the start of the campaign? Only later does the true meaning become clear.
This sounds reasonable. So you will want to have one or two adventures mildly unrelated to Grendel as the plot moves along. Maybe pursuit of the backers of the terrorists (good way of moving the PCs to some cool place like Extropia, Phelan's or Mars), and a mission to investigate something monstrous that appear to hide on Titan - this sets up things, and allows the PCs to gather evidence Beowulf uses to piece together that they need to get to Iapetus.
One aspect here is blue-on-blue conflict: if Grendel is part of Firewall or good at pretending to be, it might send other firewall teams to interfere. You might want to borrow a few things from http://eclipsephase.com/need-imagination
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Wed, 2013-11-06 08:32
#6
Leodiensian
On the "good villains are bad
On the "good villains are bad heroes" point... why do you need the Exsurgent virus?
Remember that Prometheans are intelligent enough to have opinions, or differing takes on the same data. What if Grendel just one day decides this is the logically most effective thing to do under its own power? Firewall isn't a unified whole and I don't think the Prometheans would be either.