Borne into the World - A campain idea

[Zugh]

I have a new campain idea, and it involves five characters. The five characters are caught in the mist of battle between Bahamut and Tiamat, and they die in the fighting. They come back to life as Dragonborne, each one a color of a different Metallic Dragon (Or Chromatic, depending on if the players want to be good or evil). Basically (The game is way more in depth then this) the five Dragonborne are created in the shrine of either Tiamat or Bahamut, and are sent to destroy the other's shrine. Its pretty much a god's war that the players are fighting.

At first the mission seems simple, but when they run into other Dragonborne from the opposite god, they must find the five resting places of each dragon (If evil, they will find the red blue green white and black ones. If good, they will find the gold silver bronze brass and copper ones.) to collect their scales and bring the scales to their god's shrine. Then and only then can their god make a magical item (Or weapon) powerful enough to use against the opposite deity's spawn.

I'm urging my players to pick the good alignment, that way it will be much easier. They will fight Tiamat's spawn and her 5 Dragondborne warriors and I, as a lazy DM, wont have to make spawn for Bahamut. The dragons whom they need the scales from aren't willing, however, for clerics of the opposite diety have brainwashed them. The clerics are guarding the dragons, and the players will fight through the world for the sake of their diety.

But, pleasing Bahamut/Tiamat isn't their only motive for this act. The characters are promised that, if they complete the diety's request, they shall be revieved back to life. This way, the diety is pleased, and the Characters return to their lives. If they fail, however, they shall be sent by the diety to the hells of Baator for eternity.

The Characters start out at level 1, but I level them up fairly quickly. To be fair, they will be allowed to keep the status adjustments (Ex. Dwarf= +2 Con, +2 Wis.) from their other race if they please. If not, then they will be givin the default Dragonborne stat adjustments. The Players will have the option of keeping their Racial Traits, such as any bonuses to skills. The Characters will also be givin a Breathweapon. The type of damage it deals will be based on their Dragonborne form's color.

So, thats basically it. Please comment, and if you have any question, don't hesitate to ask. Advice is also exepted with pleasure

[Q-man]

Its an interesting concept for a campaign. I wonder if it might be a place for the Revenant race they put in Dragon Magazine? Basically the gods decided they needed champions to work for them and resurrected them into Revenants to carry out the god's task. Its kind of what you described there, but might give the players another option when creating their characters.

I assume the campaign would boil down to 5 major modules or dungeons, at the end for which they find one of the scales they need? It might be interesting to put a time component in there somewhere. Since they are racing against the other 5 dragonborn, there should be some way for them to tell if they are in the lead or if their opposites are ahead of them. Doing so means you'd need to give them some ability to retake the lead if necessary.

You might put in some special encounters or skill challenges that can be used to delay the other team. Something like sealing the entrance to the dungeon where the scales are kept which delays the other team, or failures on finding the dungeons which delays the PCs. You'd still need some method for the PC's to know their place, maybe some scrying talisman that guides them to the scales, but also can show the other team?

[Zugh]

Yeah, I was gonna make a time component, when they find out that Tiamat's Dragonborne are after the same things, they try as fast as they can to collect each item.

[Blydden]

Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, Draconomicon 2: Metallic Dragons, and Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn should all be helpful books for you to use in your endeavors.

Other than that, not much advice I can think of. Good luck. :)

[wbrandel]

I wonder if it might be a place for the Revenant race they put in Dragon Magazine?
Q-Man read my mind. I think that the revenant race would be perfect for this campaign. You could suggest to the players thay they play revenant dragonborn of similar alignments. There's my pennies worth.