Dragon Hunter Game

Earlier today I was on the Chat talking about building a new PC just for fun, and instead I ended up with a new campaign concept.

The game is for a generic campaign setting currently, but could be adapted for almost any setting. The campaign revolves around a single world spanning organization. Here is the info about the Order.

Order of the Broken Maiden

Origin Legend:

The order of the Broken Maiden is thousands of years old, legend has it the order was founded by a group of sons of daughter of the Broken Maiden. A legendary figure the Maiden was an beauty lusted after by all creatures far and wide. Most of all a cabal of powerful dragons who absconded with the princess taking her back to their lair. Enslaved for years she was imprisoned for years. During this time she bore several children all of which where left in the wilds to die by her Draconic masters. While many died a few of the hardest of children survived, growing strong as they where blessed with the power of dragon blood coursing through their veins. After years of captivity the maiden’s beauty had waned and the dragons tossed here aside like the many children she had borne. Her hatred for the dragons which had stolen her life fueled the Maiden on a quest to seek out her children and form them into a powerful band of warriors to be the instrument of her revenge. Thus the order of the Broken Maiden was born, sworn to honor the maiden and avenge her pain the descendants of the maiden still hunt their hated foes to this day.

The Order Today:

The order has expanded greatly from its humble beginnings funded by the horde of treasure earned by the killing of dragons. Many of the order are direct or indirect descendants of the first the maiden and the first five. The order has stretched across the breadth of the world working in small cells of elite fighters to take down dragons where ever they are found. In recent years several of the cells have gone rogue turning from the order and using their training for personal gain and losing sight of the order’s mission. The order is has a secret base somewhere in the world from where the leaders of the order send out orders to various cells, along with this secret base the order has the fortress of Undermount. A series of tunnels and building carved into a mountain. The complex is supposedly the same great complex the cabal of dragons used to hold the Maiden those ages ago. This is the public face of the Order and where many of the order train in the art of killing dragons.

The First Five:

The First Five are the original members of the order powerful mages, and warriors born from the union of the maiden and her dragon captures. Left to die in the wilderness these children survived against all the odds. Blessed with powers beyond that of normal humans this children spent there lives as outcasts even in the societies which adopted them. Years based and these children grew strong then one day their mother came for them, and revealing their true origins and bring them together creating the first family they ever knew. Together Five began a guerrilla war against the cabal of dragons that had imprisoned their mother for so many years. They where able to drive the dragons from the lair, and killed many of them, but several escaped. The Five never gave up looking for them, but the lives of mortals are shorter then those of dragons, and so the order continues to seek the original dragon which committed the crime against the maiden.

The Division

Recently there has been some dissent with in the ranks of the order. This stems from the nearly futile goal of the orders mission combined with human greed. Many of the younger member question why the order continues to seek revenge for those long dead, and wonder if there talents could be used for more productive purposes. Along with that is the money one could make as a mercenary Dragonhunters. Currently all Cells are expected to send a portion of their earnings back to the Undermount, but many question why they couldn't just keep the money themselves and even charge locals to deal with Dragons and other powerful threats. Now until recently these thoughts have just been a few people grumbling, but in the last couple years a couple Cells have acted on these thoughts splitting from the order and forging themselves into mercenaries. They have been very public about this transition, and many are talking about following their lead. Others feel that these upstarts should be hunted down and dealt with, and still others feel that it is a personal choice and everyone should be free to make their own path if they chose.

Structure of the Order

The Order works in a series of self sustained cell divided out across the world, each cell is given a particular region to patrol looking for signs of dragons, and then routing them out. Each Cell is only vaguely aware of the actions of other nearby cells, if they know anything at all. Each Cell sends regular reports back the the Leadership of order, and the leadership then funnels info back to the various cells as needed. Through these reports the Leadership is able to see larger patterns there by able to send out mission details to the various cells as needed. Each Cell only answers to the leadership, and beyond that they are free to go about their business as they see fight. Generally speaking the leadership, and the various Cell have no permanent base of operations. The only permanent known outpost of the Order is the Undermount it acts as a recruiting, and training center for the order. The undermount also serves as a meeting place of the order for staging large operation that require many cells, and finally it acts as a safe haven for Hunters who have retired, allowing them to pass their knowledge on to the next generation. To keep the Undermount funded it is expected that each Cell tithe a portion of their earning back to the order, the rest is to be used to fund their own operations.

The basic campaign concept is that the players are members of this organization a single Cell of elite soldiers, and mages. The campaign itself is about this groups action, not only killing dragons, but the creeping division with in the organization. Now while the campaign seems like a high level campaign that does not have to be the case. Finding and killing a dragon can be difficult work. First you have to find them, and then you have to scout out their lair, and deal with their minions, and not all leads will end up with fighting a Dragon as it could be a dead end or the creature could be some other hording monster.

Big Thanks to Coboney and Sober for helping flesh out the concept, and thanks in advance for anyone who wishes to provide advice.

[Guest]

Why not expand a little, and cover monsters completely. There are many monsters besides dragons which might need to be hunted. Bulettes, Remorhazes, Frost wyrms, etc are all dangerous opponents and allow for lower level characters too.

Maybe the campaign world has a lesser amount of monsters, so typical adventurers aren't as common. So a small elite organization is responsible for hunting down monsters when they surface.

[obtusehobbit]

That would definitely be a good adaptation have a underworld world ruled by Monsters with the Order patrolling to keep them from coming to the surface.

Currently I am not trying to build a setting just the organization, so Dragon work well as a common powerful monster in all settings. Also while the game concept could be adapted it was created with 3.5 in mind, and there is a lot of support for Draconic blooded PC for those who want to play on the history of the First Five.

[SoberIrishman]

There's really enough options in D&D 3.5 for low-level draconic creatures that this can cover low-level campaigns I feel. Looks like you pretty much got everything we discused and did a nice job fleshing it out a little more.

[obtusehobbit]

Hey Sober thanks.

Just to be clear here are my thoughts on a low to high level progression of the game.

Low-Levels = Non draconic minions such as Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, and so on. Also in this level of play you can run the finding the general location of where a dragon might be, doing a lot of RP as you peal away legends and to uncover the truth.

Mid-Levels = Here you start running down the leads from the investigation and you can start dealing with Draconic type creatures, such as half dragons, Dragonspawn, and so on. These are the elite guardians of the dragons lair or decoys to throw adventures off the path.

High-levels = You have reached the dragon itself by this point you have pealed away the layers of lies and located the lair of the dragon. You have dealt with the minions, and now it is time to take on the Dragon itself.

Now that would the progression of the entire campaign, and with proper pacing you can have it run from low to high level with the dragon being the BBEG.