I'm thinking of making a D&D campaign in an Eastern setting. The basic storyline is this: A samurai abandons one aspect of bushido, that of loyalty to his lord, in order to fulfill another aspect; that of complete sincerity. In his mind, if he has said that he shall eliminate a rival, he'll be damned if he doesn't do it.
For this breach of the code, he is forced to become a ronin and join a mercenary outfit currently working to save a dwarven mining village from the iron grip of a rival warlord whose right-hand man has earned the fearsome title of "He Who Shatters Steel," a warrior infamous for favoring the tactic of breaking his foe's weapons and the man the main character has sworn to defeat. The question is, how will the ex-samurai find the strength to fulfill his promise when there are enemies closing in from both those in the service of the adamantine-armed juggernaut and those who used to call him an ally but now call for his head?
As far as storyline goes, I think that rescuing the dwarves, who have recently struck a rich vein of adamantine and whose services as master smiths are now being usurped by the enemy, is the first priority, but before that happens, I need some ideas for creating party cohesion, some side quests that will serve as warm-up exercises and give the mercenary commander a reason to send the characters as a unit. Right now I'm thinking that all the characters belong to the same mercenary squadron under the same commander, but that seems a bit too heavy-handed to me.
Remember, this is an 8th level D&D version 3.5 game with an Eastern flavor and the following conventions:
-Automatic maximum HP per Hit Die
-Reroll double 1s and double 2s when generating ability scores; one reroll per ability score, must take reroll even if it's worse
-Each character takes two traits from those listed in Unearthed Arcana; this is to encourage unique characters and consistent roleplaying
For this breach of the code, he is forced to become a ronin and join a mercenary outfit currently working to save a dwarven mining village from the iron grip of a rival warlord whose right-hand man has earned the fearsome title of "He Who Shatters Steel," a warrior infamous for favoring the tactic of breaking his foe's weapons and the man the main character has sworn to defeat. The question is, how will the ex-samurai find the strength to fulfill his promise when there are enemies closing in from both those in the service of the adamantine-armed juggernaut and those who used to call him an ally but now call for his head?
As far as storyline goes, I think that rescuing the dwarves, who have recently struck a rich vein of adamantine and whose services as master smiths are now being usurped by the enemy, is the first priority, but before that happens, I need some ideas for creating party cohesion, some side quests that will serve as warm-up exercises and give the mercenary commander a reason to send the characters as a unit. Right now I'm thinking that all the characters belong to the same mercenary squadron under the same commander, but that seems a bit too heavy-handed to me.
Remember, this is an 8th level D&D version 3.5 game with an Eastern flavor and the following conventions:
-Automatic maximum HP per Hit Die
-Reroll double 1s and double 2s when generating ability scores; one reroll per ability score, must take reroll even if it's worse
-Each character takes two traits from those listed in Unearthed Arcana; this is to encourage unique characters and consistent roleplaying
