Oriental 5e

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wtf is that image op

>>49900534
Before I forget

>Some of the NPC's hate eachother and want a certain other NPC dead.

I want the players to really think about which NPC's they choose to help and such. Make they're decisions have consequences.

Also, how would i make a primary threat (such as a oni army) yet still make the NOC personal goals still seem important. Like for example, if there is this huge roaming army of Oni destroying the land, what would be a justifiable excuse for the NPC's not to work tofether to defeat it? How can i make the NPC's feel as if there goals are more still important and have impact and that the players should still focus on that as well? ...if any of that makes sense......... Any suggestions would be welcomed.

>>49900576
I guess a cropped version

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>>49900592
>...if
>sense
>...............
>any

Stop doing that

>>49900614
The gimme some suggestions ;_; Well in simple terms then. How can I make the NPC goals still have impact so the players don't primarily focus on the oni threat?

>>49900630
>;_;
stop

>>49900534
Lol its the shitty gm with his shitty setting again.

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>>49900630
Is this seriously a problem you're having?

This isn't some obscure troll thread where you pretend to be absolutely retarded?

I want to help you but this is such an incredibly basic problem to solve.

Tell me what you think you should do and maybe I'll give you some advice

>>49900694
Don't shitpost, anon

>>49900592
the NPCs simply have different usefulness as allies. think strategic value. some might flip sides. one might have a big army in poor shape and they think they can handle the threat alone. some might not have the nerves and surrender prematurely. some might be beyond salvage already (too close to the source to organize defenses in time).

i am sure you can come up with better shit as you go.

>>49900722
>>49900746
shut the fuck up

>>49900592

>Also, how would i make a primary threat (such as a oni army) yet still make the NOC personal goals still seem important. Like for example, if there is this huge roaming army of Oni destroying the land, what would be a justifiable excuse for the NPC's not to work tofether to defeat it? How can i make the NPC's feel as if there goals are more still important and have impact and that the players should still focus on that as well?


You pick good goals and you find ways to mitigate or play down the threat.

The trope that shows up in basically everything everywhere is that the authorities don't believe the threat is legitimate, or too wrapped up in their own shit to notice.

You've probably played Mass Effect - look at them. In every game no one really believes the Reapers are a problem and ...Mass Effect boy (?) has to run around getting clues and putting his team together while being openly laughed at by scheming politicians.

Meanwhile there's all sorts of other big issues going on. The Dinosaur people are really strong and would help but are also highly uncooperative murderbeasts and are dying out due to a curse that the Frog people (look it's been a long time since I played them) developed because the Dinosquad were otherwise dedicated to wiping out civilisation.

At one point Posterboy has to make a choice whether to cure the crazy murderbeasts of their curse and get their help (with other 'its just the right thing to do' elements going on) or turn that help down because letting those fuckers loose is just as big a problem in itself

>>49900792
>Shut the fuck up
Say that to my face IRL and not online and see what happens.

There's no way anyone could take this Op seriously unless they've never run a game, or if you're one of his retarded bestfriends and felt the need to defend a guy who can't figure out that you don't tell your players there's a fucking demon invasion when you want them to change out their NPCs bathwater or pet sit your original character's dog

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>>49900867
>Say that to my face IRL and not online and see what happens.
nothing happens. that's what. I call your bluff and you crawl back to your space with your tail between your legs.

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>>49900972
You played your Trump card too early, son.

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>>49900534
>how can I make the players decisions have consequences based on the NPC's they decide to help, yet still have an end goal to destroy the primary threat?

Write out broad, loose, competing goals for each of these NPCs, and then think of how the setting would be if only one of these guys got his way. If one guy wants to kill all the non-humans in the region, and the PCs help him, this genocide becomes more likely. If another guy wants to increase trade with other areas, his victory should see greater selections and better prices at stores. In general, think about what the "status quo" of the area is, and each NPC goal should be something that somehow shakes up this status quo.

As for the primary threat, downplay its severity early on so by the time everyone realizes how bad it is, they're already locked into the conflict with each other. Give the NPCs really bad blood with each other by the time the Oni show up, like they've committed numerous atrocities against each other. This way, it's tough for them to reconcile, but not impossible (that's where PCs come in). Maybe the NPCs don't know about or foolishly doubt the threats seriousness. Check out Game of Thrones for a model. In GoT, many of the characters with armies think of the White Walkers as simply boogeymen and fairytales, when they are in fact an apocalyptic force marching on a dangerously ignorant and weakened Westeros.

Now, how can the PCs helping these various NPCs help advance the end goal of defeating the primary threat? Simple. As long as the NPCs are fighting, the region is vulnerable to the Oni. But the sooner the conflict ends (either through truce or force of arms), the sooner the region has to prepare against the Oni threat. Make it so that the NPC help isn't necessary for the PCs to defeat the Onis, but very useful. Like they provide more troops or better weapons or whatever for the final stretch of the campaign.

>>49900576
GOTTA GET BACK
BACK TO THE PAST

If you want a sandbox game with a growing threat to be destroyed, have the threat grow closer to the players every session.

I use a scaled-up version of Hunter/Hunted from that D&D with Pornstars blog.
Basically, every session the players either get closer to the baddie... or the baddie gets closer to them.
At a sandbox scale, this will be more impersonal than that.
Either the players get closer to finding and killing the Big Bad, or the Big Bad's machinations get closer to the players as towns and villages and key people are destroyed/influenced/captured.

This way the players can still do whatever they want, but they ignore the bad guy at their peril.
It's a slow build, not "and while you were fucking around on sidequests, the demon lord killed everything. Thanks for playing!"

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>>49901148
>>49900804
>>49900792
>>49901387
You guys are literally campaign savers, I got a magnitude of ideas from these posts. I was just having a super brain fart. Like I knew exactly what I wanted to do but didn't really know how to go about it. Thanks you.

>>49901148
>>49900804
>>49900792
>>49901387

Should I make the players know it's the primary threat but downplay it? Or should I just completely hide it for a while? Btw, the oni army is going to essentially be like an apocalyptic force

>>49901796
how competent is its leader? a crafty leader will hide his strength and turn the other daimyos against each other.

>>49903293
Well its pretty complicated as far as what ties in. But the oni leader is an overlord that's a sorcerer, so he's gonna be pretty intelligent and clever. Also, one of the kingdoms is gonna make a pact with the overlord to use the oni army to defeat the other kingdoms under the condition that innocent people are left alone. Unfortunately, and this is way down the road of the campaign, the Oni Overlord betrays that pact and wants to rule the land for himself and enslave the other races, so he kills the leader of the kingdom that made a pact with him and essentially becomes a threat to everyone and every kingdom after that.

If that gives you some insight as far as what I had planned.

I'm also going to make some sort of plague that comes with the oni army that the overlord un leashed to try to quickly his takeover. This sort of plague turns people into mutated abominations.

Would that be too much? I just thought of the plague thing last night, I want the towns and land n such that the oni army is ta king over to have a battle/war torn apocalyptic feel to it. Idk about the plague idea thoguh, what do you guys think? Seem cool?

>>49900576
It looks like Samurai Fingolfinn fighting Oni Morgoth.

>>49900972
I really don't understand this image. Trump gets salty as fuck at any slight, doesn't have any discernible sense of humor and appeals to emotion just as much if not more than any other politician.