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If you are reading this I would like to thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my thread as I need help and anyones help is good help.

I have recently started to GM a 3 man group (including myself) through a fairly extensive campaign. While this was not the game i orignally intended it is what i could whip up in a 2 hour period. I was a good GM and made a nice map, story line, characters and tons of encounters for a high powered campaign, i had to scrap this because we lost 2 player before it even started and was not possible to scale back. I am now using the backstory of my previously campaign to create the story of my 3 man campaign. This story is the story of Hammerhold.

Hammerhold is a Dwarven city on the northern coast of a frigid sea.  It is the heart of a yet to be named dawarven kingdom. It is the heart of said kingdom because of dwarven wizards' creation of a light and heat eminating gem that, in lamens terms, makes a large underground greenhouse. This capability of being able to grow crops in this frigid climate has allowed the local area to thrive even through temperatures can reach -40 on a regular day.

Our heroes begin as Baregrof(player 1), a novice dwarven guard of hammerhold is asked to investigate local livestock disapearances in the nearby village of Alger. Baregrof seeks information about the problem from the town's priest Cornelious(me), a hard yound man not fond of talking and very intimidating, who is able to give him general information. After further investiagation Baregrof meets a wayward elf wizard Razegal(player 2), a noble who is exiled from his home, who gives Baregrof information about local goblin raids in nearby villages. While Baregrof refuses to work with an elf, Cornelious recruits both Baregrof and Razegal to help the town and mediates their bickerings. The trio then lays in ambush at a nearby farm that has some bait in the form of pigs and melons(snow melons can grow in extreme weather due to geothermal heat harvesting from their roots which can be 300ft long) at night. Before long a scouting group of goblins show up and are killed by the heroes. On the goblins they find a crudely drawn map their they dicifer to be orders to raid the farm.

The next morning Razegal uses his raven familar to scout the local area for goblin activity and find the a hideout in an abandonned silver mine thanks to a natural 19. They then find themselves outside the goblin cave trying to force their way in when they ambushed. After this battle our first session came to an end and the heroes decided to make camp outside an abandonned goblin-infested mine(they'll get ambushed).

As the story progresses past the point we have played there will be a major goblin invasion the Hammerhold's gerenal area led by a hobgoblin who can rally mass amount of troops. The players will try to defend hammerhold and most likely fail and then will be forced to sail to a newly discovered(by dwarves and humans) island. From here all choices are up to them as they defend the two or three settlement from supper-babbies and numerous hoardes of evil-doers. Eventually the Hobgoblin(who gets some awsome demon gifts)will come for them and they will defend their new home and succeed and proceed to reclaim their old lands.

While the story can fluxuate wildly depending on the heoes' success i do need some help fleshing out what i have now. If you would like to help please give some ideas pertaing to the following

1. NPC's
2. Town info on Alger or Hammehold 
3. Surrounding area
4. goblin tribes of the area
5.  encounters and adventure arcs

If you do wish to contribute please note that i have already molded my area after a psuedo-russian(pre-soviet) culture and any attempt to follow would be appreciated. 

Thanks for your help and if not, thanks for reading 

Mar 18, 2012 -- 10:26PM, WileyMongoose wrote:

While the story can fluxuate wildly depending on the heoes' success i do need some help fleshing out what i have now.  

The story can (and will) also fluctuate wildly depending on if your characters want to follow this script that you have written for them. I commend your storytelling efforts, but it seems like a little bit of railroading going on here (you can't predict what your players will do, act like, or say in a given situation). I've been DMing for 15 years and I'm just trying to help you out.

I'm leaving the actual storyline open but i really just need help with little npc quirks and side storoies. Stuff that really doesn't effect anything but adds depth and flavor

Ah, I see. Have there been any new developments in the campaign since you originally posted this? Have you developed any of the NPCs or thought up any side quests over last week or so?

Depends on how dark you want to really make your campaign (ie age of group in reference to "adult" type themes...)

The campaign I'm currently running is basically a war where there is a more powerful enemy taking over the world, while the heroes help to fight as part of the rebellion to stop him.

for some ideas you can use:

NPCS: (you'll have to do names - I always have trouble with that part)

Captain of the Hammerhold Guards:
A career soldier, doesn't really buy into the BS of politics, and tends to do what he thinks best, even if it involves going around his superiors - this could lead to him using the heroes to solve problems even if the city officials don't really like the idea (think commissioner Gordon utilizing Batman even though he's a wanted vigilante)
This can also be used if you have the heroes become not liked by the people of the city for some reason, perhaps the officials blame the attacks on the heroes interfering with the goblins and the goblins striking back - the badguy you have leading the goblins could even help out with this by sending messages saying they are attacking in retaliation for the heroes attacking them in their lair...

Some ideas for adventure hooks... when the attack on Hammerhold happens - those left in the city when it's overrun are taken as slaves - this can lead to the daring rescue by the heroes...
Also - when there's a war going on - a good adventure hook is the classic "we think x item will turn the tide of the war - can you go retrieve it?"

Also - you can use a similar idea to what I've done in my campaign - basically the heroes started working for the "good guy" leader, then found out that he was actually playing both sides, and basically just keeping the heroes out of the way while he seized control and used them to gather things he needed to stay in power

Twists like this can be quite entertaining, and can lead to interesting roleplaying situations when they realize that the suffering and death may be partly their fault, and try to rectify it.

Perhaps this could even end up with a tie-in to the Guard Captain from earlier, he does what he can from the inside to undermine the leader and help the heroes to oust the bad guy that the heroes inadvertently helped to power, he can see that the heroes were manipulated just as he was, and does whatever he can to help make it right.

Magic is a great way to let the bad guy play both sides - perhaps as an advisor to the city who eventually gets put into charge (in my case he was advisor who was placed in charge when the leader died with no heir) and once he was firmly in power, revealed that he was leading both groups - but this isn't necessarily needed - think Darth Sidious in the star wars prequels for a great example of this - he plays both sides to war with each other, takes over and ends the war looking like a savior, while enslaving the people "This is how liberty dies, to thunderous applause"

Some other interesting NPC ideas - perhaps a city leader/sect that hates magic and shuns magical races, and attacks magical beings, trying to eradicate it.

feel free to hit me up via PM if you want to bounce ideas back and forth - I'm always up for some creative brainstorming and I'll gladly help as best I can