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[Kai Wren]

Okay, I'm looking at putting together my third Anima campaign. The first campaign merely used the ruleset, the world was my own and it went well. The second campaign used the core Anima setting and was probably the most successful campaign I've run to date, but has been put on indefinite hiatus due to scheduling conflicts and the dread daemon called Re'el Lyfe.

The group I am running for now is a group I have been a part of for a long time, but it will be my first try in a long time running for them. It is the first group a lot of them have been in before, and they have gotten into various habits. Mostly, they've become very mercenary and 'morally grey'. In some instances they tend towards the downright villainous. I want to try and introduce a more strictly heroic campaign. This expectation will be laid out at the start, but I expect some toothing problems.

So. I am thinking of hitting a number of cliches which will hopefully make the older members of the group smile, and will assist the younger members of the group with getting into the game.

Obviously, my players (and you know who you are) should not read further if they don't want the start of the game to be spoiled.

I am thinking of starting the game in Galgados, and twisting the initial 'three successors' story just a little bit. The PCs will meet in a smoke-filled tavern in the poor part of Hecate, brought together by their disparate travels.

Here they will hear many rumors; the first is that Marina Daorland has gone missing and her brother Frederic has taken the throne of Galgados in her stead. Rumors will also speak of dark creatures that have been spotted in the local mountains, and whispers that Frederic is preparing to declare his support to the Azur Alliance. People are scared about this!

The PCs won't immediately be drawn into that, however, as they are instead approached by a man with a map to treasure. Too old to go after it himself, he explains that he took it in lieu of payment from a well known scholar who claims that an ancient artefact called the Diamond Flower is buried in a cave in the mountains. He'll gladly provide the map for a share of the money recovered if the PCs will go and retrieve the artefact for him.

The trip through the mountains will be relatively calm; I may have them be attacked by stray wolves in order to give them a chance to learn to work together without there being too much danger.

When they reach the cave, though, they find that it is under guard by bandits (actually mercenaries in the employ of Frederic). If they press on regardless, either talking their way past or dealing with the mercenaries, they will find the cave gives way to strange glass inscribed with ancient golden script. If I have any Nephilim, this may stir some memories for them. It is clear that this has been unearthed by someone with a lot of resources.

The Diamond Flower is actually an ancient system used to create a source of zeon by the Sylvain during their war. Volunteers would sit on the 'flower' in the middle of the complex and for a day they would sleep. During this sleep their souls and emotions would give up zeon in a solid crystal form.

The Diamond Flower is being abused by one of the Azur Alliance's men to keep Marina out of the way, which shouldn't surprise anyone who has been paying attention. After besting the assassin keeping her in place - who will be outnumbered and unable to hide, and who may very well flee if it becomes obvious he can't defeat them - they can free Marina from the Flower.

Unfortunately, being a weaker human soul, the Flower will have drained her memories as well as her zeon. She has a lot of money on her person, and is obviously a noble, but doesn't remember anything else - if none of the PCs are local, they won't know her either, though they might well be able to put two and two together depending on what they actually heard and got out of the minions on the way to this point.

She'll offer the PCs her money if they will let her stay with them until her memory recovers. If all goes well, that should equate to approximately 50 gold crowns per head (including the old man if they go back and are honest with him) and a 100 zeon crystal which I will need to work out an approximate monetary value for.

Over time, then, Marina can eventually recover her memories and give the PCs reason to oppose her brother... or if they already know who she is, but she doesn't, they can start working against the evil tyrant in secret whilst hoping that she recovers quickly enough to oppose him legitimately.

That should be enough for the first arc of the campaign.


Problems I can see:

PCs might decide to side with Frederic because he's the one in charge. I have no way of stopping them doing this, other than explaining at the start that this is meant to be a heroic campaign for heroic characters.

The PCs can choose to abuse the Diamond Flower in some way, in which case I need to introduce steeper and steeper downsides.

The PCs might decide to screw over the old man just because they can. If they do, I think I will attack that through reputation.

All of this assumes an inability to get into the spirit of the heroic campaign. If this turns into a major issue, I may simply have the situation be dealt with as it 'should' rather than how these things usually go in play. That is, rather than indulging the PCs as they become antagonists, I may set genuine protagonists on their tail and end the campaign at the point of an idealistic youth's sword.

[The Dread Polack]

First off, sounds like a great plot for a campaign.

Second, I am of a like mind when it comes to campaign tone. I recently started an Earthdawn campaign and had to make it explicitly clear to one player in particular that this would be a heroic campaign. He has a history of playing characters who are really villains among heroes. He enjoys this, and I respect him for being able to mostly pull it off, but I was honest and told him I couldn't really handle that sort of thing as a GM. He was okay with it. I suggest saying something similar to your players. Don't frame it as something bad that they do, make it clear that as GM, the whole campaign will work better if they play heroes. You can also present it as a challenge, if it's something they are not used to doing.

Thirdly, keep in mind that this might not work no matter how hard you try. If your players aren't able to play heroes, no amount of cajoling will help. Remind them a few times, but if it starts to get too stressful for you, or if it's no longer fun, then you might have to give up. After all, this is supposed to be fun, not therapy There are certain campaigns I'd love to try, but would never ask my players to try, because I know it just wouldn't work. There are also some campaigns I would never play in, for instance, an evil campaign.

Good luck!

[Sharpandpointies]

I seem to be heavily in agreement with the Dread Polack these days.  It all sounds really good, well set-up, the whole bit.

If you're worried about the players siding with Fredrick, have Karlson show up and bug them to go find his sister or something. 

Hopefully the players will decide to be heroic.  If you explain this at first, and they agree, then go back on it...well, it's on their heads.  And they deserve a smacking.

Hopefully they'll run with the idea you give them.  :) 

[Kai Wren]

We did character generation last night. I have a Weaponmaster (duelist/fencer style), a Summoner (Duk'zahrist), an Acrobatic Warrior, and a Tao (Also Duk'zahrist).

The Weaponmaster is going for a kind of nobles oblige angle, I think, which I like. I can't help but think of him as being a bit like Inigo Montoya, although he hasn't specifically mentioned whether or not his father has been killed by an evil noble.

The Summoner bound himself to darkness in a moment of weakness after he awoke his powers. He hates that he lost control then, and he seeks to stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. He has a bound Shadow familiar which makes him probably the most dangerous member of the party at the start of the game, but I was impressed with his description of his motivations.

The Tao is played by the guy I was most worried about, but he's included a five point code of conduct which includes standing up for the weak, protecting and honoring his friends and bettering himself. He's got Elan with the Dark Warrior, but he is coming at it from the angle of helping others to improve themselves. He enjoys conflict, but conflict does not necessarily mean killing. I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

The Acrobatic Warrior is a cipher at the moment. He hasn't really defined much in terms of concept and his sheet was a mess I could not understand, so I've asked him to type it up and get it to me by next week.

It should be a very interesting game! People bought into the heroic idea very quickly, and three members of the group expressed excitement at the shift in tone.

I am considering having the two Duk'zahrist be revealed over the course of the campaign to be brothers. I may very well have the Sylvain who created the Diamond Flower become an overarching villain later in the campaign, having been driven mad over the centuries and now desiring to wipe out all Duk'zahrist Nephilim for the crimes of their former lives.

We shall see. I feel hopeful about the basis for the game.