How do I make a "Tracks in the Sand" style campaign

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>>48748647
Cont.

So I come to you for advice /tg/:

#1: How many quest and plot hooks linked to revealing the main plot would it be best to have around when starting out in the first city? I have total of 5 quest hooks, 3 of which are plot hooks for the overarching goal, and 2 for if the players find the first three not worth looking into and can be tied into the plot later. In short, how much material should I prepare in advance for this sort of campaign? And should I cook up more plot hooks after one has reached it's conclusion, even if others are still unexplored?

#2: How do I connect it all together without severely limiting player choice and also keeping logically advancing at a satisfying pace? For clarity and completeness sake, the ideal goal of the campaign (as no plan survives contact with the players) is that PC's find out that the king of the Elves, Orius Starlock, eldest of the three kingdoms, is conspiring with the Formians to open portals to Feydark across the continent. With the lands tie to the physical plane being shakey enough as it is, will eventually be pulled in and merged with the Feydark thus expanding the realm of King Thrumbolg, First Lord of the Formians. The players of course must stop this from coming to pass.


If you guys have any advice along those lines, or anything else to add that would really be appreciated! And apologies in advance if my writing is rambling and/or confusing, I'm a bit scattered brained when I'm nervous. I just want to create the best possible campaign for my players, present and future.

>>48748659

5 is plenty. Usually I start games with all the players having a single objective they are all already there to do and just let them go wild. Giving 5 to choose from is plenty.

Only answer to number 2 is git gud. Usually you can make connections by having them get jumped or find the remnants of the evil forces at work. Like, no matter what the quest is you can find some way to slip in a goon with a tattoo of the evil, or wearing the clothes of the evil, or even just finding note that the evil dropped.

#1 Seems like a decent number of quests to start off the campaign, the important bit would be making them seem different enough from one another so that your players don't realize they all lead to the same plot except in retrospect.

#2 The way I've handled this during my games is by making a conspiracy pyramid. Essentially there are separate levels of a conspiracy that goes from proxies to underlings to bosses. You have the characters defeat a part of the organization at the lower level and then leave breadcrumbs too higher parts of the organization. It could be an accounting ledger that leads to a shipping company, a stone with markings that makes magic portals work or a signet ring that has to be identified by the family insignia on it. The point being is that one clue points to a different part of the organization.

When your players want to be distracted and run around for a session or two that's fine but try to make it so that their actions tie back to the conspiracy. For example, if they run off to the woods so that the druid can commune with the wild, have it tie back in by stumbling across a broken portal from earlier in the scheme. Eventually your notes should look like the ramblings of an insane conspiracy theorist.

One problem that I have encountered from this type of game is a lack of iconic villains to fight. I haven't really got a good solution for this one, I've tried enemies they could meet but not fight but that seemed somewhat unsatisfying, but this is something that varies from person to person. Then again you could keep one note villains interesting or possibly turn them away from evil as a way to keep a fun character around. I dunno this is one area that my conspiracy style games need working on.

Note that if you have the conspiracy retaliate don't just be a dick to your players, make it so that the players can retaliate back themselves and win decisive victories against them.

>>48749156
It may sound weird but one of the best villains I've made iconic was the ones the players didn't really want to fight but had to. Like a demon lord who followed them throughout their quest mocking them but providing slight help because he liked to toy with "heroes". Or the Guild master who helped them since day one but becomes corrupted by an ancient curse. The players loved that guy and hated fighting him but enjoyed it as a sad memorable moment. They even made up a term for sad deaths using his name .

I found that works or villains introduced in unique places or with unique features.
I think who they are, with how they act, with their identifying feature.
A zealous general with a massive stone arm from a curse.
A demon clown who lures people into the circus to kill them.
A priest with many masks that change how he acts

I found it creates detailed villains. Also adding voices or in game quirks such as stuttering or taping their fingers make them more likely to stick in players minds

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>>48748647
So what I do is let them make the story and I put in NPCs who can't die or can't die easy for recurring inside villain (for in case of not enough planning) and made the BBEG someone that the player's and their characters would hate. And try to provide a basic route to an end goal but still working with what they want to try/do.

>>48749344
Alright, I think I'll try a villain that my players are reluctant to fight the next time this comes up, thank you. Also that's some solid villain building advice, I especially like the priest with the masks, perhaps some masks could be metaphorical so that even when not wearing an physical mask he's still wearing a social mask? That's a solid villain concept I'm gonna steal.

I missed the thread, can someone post the PDF the OP is talking about?

>>48749969
No problem. Villain building is my favorite part of making campaigns and worlds, and something I excel at.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask :)

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>>48749156
>>48749344
OP here, thanks for the tidbits, I will have to remember that. Luckily for me if there's two things that I've gotten down to pat, it's voices, emoting, and writing down notes like a COC investigator.

>>48750318
I thought I had saved it... hrm. You might try looking around in the pdf share threads, one person is bound to still be hawking it to people.

>>48750634
Three things damn it.

That's not a good sign.

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>>48750318
Here's the updated version.