Sneak Peek: Future Campain Pitches

Hello Secret Door Club!

For the last 6 months we have been running a playtest campaign with a handful of patrons called "The Lost Portals of Ylixwood". When this campaign began to near its end, we knew we wanted to start testing the next idea soon after, so the last month we have been busy writing down our ideas in the form of short pitches, and sending them back and forth between ourselves to fine-tune our ideas, and finally choose one to work on.

We've already chosen our personal favourite of the bunch: Spirit Vale. Our playtest efforts moving forward will be focussed on this pitch, but before we reveal the details to everyone, we wanted to give the secret door club a look at all of the ideas we've been contemplating over the past month.

⚠️ Disclaimers:
1) These campaign pitches are a work in progress, and it's likely that the ideas presented in them will change a lot during development.
2) There is no guarantee we will end up publishing any of the campaign ideas presented in this post. They are shown here to give you a peek into our process!

📝 Layout notes:
Names between square brackets [like these] are placeholders.
Numbers between round brackets (1) refer to an explanation given later in the pitch.

With that out of the way, let's get into it!

The Pitches:

------------
Spirit Vale
------------

Pitch:

The beautiful valley of Spirit Vale has been devastated (1) by an occult [evil capitalist], who has stripped the land of its natural resources for profit. The nature spirits who live in the valley have become twisted versions of their peaceful selves, and defend what little patches of nature are left with violent intent.

The player characters (2) enter the story through a cry for help from workers assaulted by angry spirits. As they explore the valley, they learn more about its history and conclude that in order to stop the attacks at their root they must dismantle the [evil capitalist]'s operation and restore the nature spirits to their former, peaceful selves (3).

1. Each area of devastation (polluted river, chopped forest, infertile soil, etc) should be governed by a twisted spirit that can be restored; Each restored spirit gives the players something to aid them in their battle against the [evil capitalist].
2. Detailed background options should be provided for players to create native/local characters.
3. Enraged spirits must first be exhausted through combat, then offered a reconciliation specific to that spirit’s need. If no such reconciliation is made, they remain enraged. Spirits can not be killed (through conventional combat means).

Finale:

The player characters battle and defeat the [evil capitalist] and their minions, with the aid of the spirits they have helped over the course of their adventure.

-----------------
Tova’s Legacy
-----------------

Pitch:

The vast hoard of Tovanaris is protected by a magical door that only opens to her bloodline. She cannot tolerate any challenge to her rule, and destroys any eggs she lays. When Tovanaris suddenly dies, betrayed by her partner [dragon prince], the ruling factions (1) of Dragonspring scramble to find a living heir.

The player characters are forced laborers who work in the Dragonspring mines (2). During one of their shifts they break into a new corridor and find a shaft full of broken eggshells, and one intact egg. This is Tovanaris’ only living heir.

The player characters must defend the egg from those that would harm it, and in doing so are swept up in a violent worker’s revolution that seeks to overthrow the current ruling class of Dragonspring and liberate the captive miners.

1. Examples of factions: 1) The [dragon prince] and his cronies who believe they have a parental right to the child, 2) the cult of Tovanaris who believe the child to be a reincarnation/continuation of their god, 3) the miner’s movement.
2. Players begin the campaign as incarcerated mine workers from all over Hemelin. Coming up with a reason for their incarceration (or kidnapping) is part of character creation.

Finale:
Help decide the ultimate fate of the dragon child, and who gains control over the draconic hoard, and decide to either choose a side in a large-scale confrontation between factions or attempt to mediate a peaceful solution.

----------------------
City of Champions
----------------------

Pitch:

The player characters are an up-and-coming adventurer’s team, representing a [small village] (1). In their quest to grow in popularity, they must: compete in arena games and attract (high profile) endorsements, all while protecting their home town from infernal threats (2).

When they begin to discover a plot by a [devil worshiping cult] (3) to use the crowds at the [grand championship] as a massive blood sacrifice to summon their demon lord, they must ensure their place in the finale so they can put a stop to it!

1. The adventurers can be either from the village themselves, or can be outside hires that the [mayor] has hired to build up the new team.
2. Infernal threats come from "scars"; areas where the fabric of reality has been damaged by an ancient war with devils, and infernal stuff keeps happening.
3. The cult has placed an impostor on the throne, and uses enchantment magic to erase knowledge of their existence/plan. If the player characters attempt to make the plot public, they will not be believed, and make themselves a target for the cult.

Finale:
A confrontation with the cult, fighting lots of demons in a big arena setting.

-------------------------------------
Feymillion Jungle (working title)
-------------------------------------

Pitch:

The [fey queen] was once beloved by her subjects. One day, a [witch] approached the queen’s court, asking to be let in. When she was refused, the [witch] cursed the [fey queen], separating her mind from her emotions. Without her emotions, the fey queen has turned into a heartless tyrant; she has closed her court, and rules her domain with an iron fist.

These [fey queen]’s emotions have turned into psychedelic spirits that affect the jungle in bizarre ways as they travel through it. The player characters are tasked by the queen’s former court to capture these emotions so they can be returned to the [fey queen], and peace can be restored to the land.

The jungle is full of fun, quirky and psychedelic locations to visit that have been affected by the rogue emotions in some interesting way. As the player characters hunt down and capture the emotions, they also help these people and places.

Finale:
1) The capture of each emotion should be a “boss fight” with some unique mechanics that reflect the unique emotion.
2) The [witch] doesn’t want the queen’s emotions to be restored, and this leads to a final confrontation when each emotion has been collected.

-------------------

We chose Spirit Vale to work on for a few reasons. We like that we can play with the contrasts between industrialised areas and areas of "extreme" nature. This particular pitch has a lot of potential for fresh visual designs in the form of the nature spirits. But most of all we think that this pitch has the strongest story at its core; we want to show how the residents of this valley live under industrial capitalism, what this has done to their community and environment, and we want the players to effect meaningful change on those people's lives through their choices and actions as they progress in the story.

Thank you for supporting our patreon! We'll be back at a later point with a more detailed post about Spirit Vale.

Cheers,
- Niels & Rose