I am beginning a Planescape campaign using the Pathfinder rules. I will be modeling the campaign after Paizo's own adventure paths (including a Player's Guide, maps, and a thread of continual plot throughout the game), with the exception that my player's are starting out at 2nd level, and the adventure path will probably go all the way to 20th level.
The party is a mix of primes and planars, unaffiliated and faction namers. It takes place post-Faction War. I'm thinking of stringing together a lot of the pre-written adventures with appropriate modification, and then top it all off with something new. So far, I'll be starting with Desire and the Dead, and am considering the following order:
-
1. Desire and the Dead
2. Doors to the Unknown
3. Harbinger House
4. Modron March
5. Dead Gods
6. Something of my own?
Modron March and Harbinger House may switch places. My main concern right now is the Player's Guide. I've been trying to piece it together for a few weeks now, and I've got a list of what I'd like to see included, but I have been struggling when it comes to coming up with campaign traits. For those of you unfamiliar, Pathfinder adventure paths have a set number of traits (or half-feats) that provide a character a link into the adventure and a small bonus. An example follows;
You belong to an organization (most likely a religion) that has definite views on the menace posed by the lower planes. The willfulness with which the city of Korvosa (they even allow a temple of Asmodeus to operate in broad daylight!) tolerates infernal influences is, to you and your organization, the greatest symbol of what’s wrong with civilization today. And now, in Riddleport, there’s news that a gambling tournament is using devils and Hell as an idle decoration. It’s likely that this is just an example of poor taste, but there’s a chance that something sinister may be lurking beneath the goings-on at the Gold Goblin. You have been contacted by your organization (or may have decided on your own) to travel to Riddleport (if you don’t already live there) and attend this tournament under the guise of a patron. Keep an eye on things there, even after the tournament is over; if you can, get a job working for the owner. Demons and devils can be subtle, and it could take weeks or even months to find proof of their involvement.
Benefit: Your near-obsessive hatred of all things fiendish grants you a +1 trait bonus on all attack rolls made against foes you know to be evil outsiders.
I was thinking that I could use the suggested backgrounds/introductions in Desire and the Dead to build traits, but I'm just blanking. Has anyone done this? Can you suggest traits that would play into later adventures? I'll update as I work on these.
I had to skim over "Desire & the Dead" as I wasn't familiar with it.
So primarily that adventure introduces a magic item that generates intense emotions (a good way to introduce/induce a trait/half-feat)
I guess the question of what power to bestow ties back to the question of whether you have some overarching thread or goal in stringing these adventures together.
If your end point is the hidden antagonist in Dead Gods you might bestow an ability to sense or combat items tainted with the stain of undeath (i.e. undead, visages, magic items manipulated by this hidden villain, maybe a partial resistance to the draining of the Grey Wastes, etc.) This might help steer the PCs without railroading (e.g. if the PCs sense a "taint" in the out-of-pattern modrons marching through the planes, it might make them curious when they sense the same taint elsewhere). The nature of this "gift" might also tie back to the Dustmen in the original adventure (perhaps by setting things back to normal, the PC gets "in touch" with death)
[BTW, I wouldn't put "The Great Modron March" in the middle, I would pepper various episodes from it throughout your campaign]
I modified "Doors to the Unknown" to have the end goal being, in my case, some secrets about the Lady of Pain and her connection to Sigil. But it might suit your campaign to have the big payoff supply some background info and/or hints about the Hidden Villain
The serial killer in "Harbinger House" could have been tainted/driven insane by the Hidden Villain when he was tasked with performing some act to further the Hidden Villain's plan (although you might have to invent what role that was)
This is an aside, but I had a note for an adventure (can't remember if it was an original idea or not, sorry if I'm stealing) that I liked as a precursor to introduce the idea of the Harbinger House to the PCs before they are plunged into the official.
-Years ago, a deva went insane and was locked away in the Harbinger House. But now he has escaped. A reward is put out on the deva to be retrieved “by any means necessary”. Although the deva is dangerous (prone to violent outbursts or demands of conformity if provoked with a “trigger” issue) and possesses a wild power from its delusion; a paladin (dressed like a thief) asks the PCs to help capture the deva in a non-lethal way before a more vile/greedy individual does. Perhaps other factions or fiends are interested in the deva too. What moral dilemmas result if the PCs kill a deva? What dilemmas if the random actions of the deva threatens the life of another and PCs fail to act?
I liked this as it introduced the House organically and had it in the background instead of starting with "HH" and saying "Yeah, there is this important place that you've never heard before and you have to explore it"