Dungeons & Dragons? Tell Me More...

Just saying that I am going to be running D&D doesn't necessarily say much.  As an RPG, it is very broad in its scope of potential game and story ideas.  One of the things I love about D&D, and 4E in particular, is its focus on the action-adventure fantasy gaming.  D&D is about doing STUFF and having fun doing that STUFF.  Not to say there isn't room for story or character development or such - and I plan to have a good dose of both - but deep exploration of those aren't the itch that I choose D&D to scratch.  So what I'm looking to run is basically "as-advertised" D&D: kick ass team-based fantasy action-adventure.  Especially since a couple of my prospective players are new to the game, if not tabletop RPGs in general, going with the default playstyle the game puts forth will be easier on them.  And, as a very rusty DM, easier on me!


I pitched the idea of running something to a couple of friends, who were fully on board with it.  My first thought, once I had decided on running a game of D&D, was "what is this game going to be about?"  In the sense of if there's going to be action-adventure and kicking ass, what kind of ass is going to be kicked in what kind of adventurous places and ways?  While I'm a fan of all things Far Realm and Lovecraftian, I discarded that for some of D&D's own backstory: elementals and giants.  Elemental themes to the game struck me as pretty cool, both for world and adventure building, and how can you go wrong smashing giants (and they have some smahsing minis).  Giants are tough customers, so that means the primary arc of the game would have to be at the paragon stage.  Which works out well, because that gives me the heroic tier for folks to get used to their characters, some general D&D adventures, and laying the groundwork for Operation: ZOMG Elementals and Giants All In Our Shit.


Before I had even thought much about the potential shape and source of this threat, I was flipping through The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos and came across the section on the Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye.  Too damn perfect.  Right there was the driving antagonistic force for the game.  It delivers my desired elemental and giant action, with room for plenty of other nasties under its umbrella to boot.  The old school D&D ties are just bonus coolness.  I already have some general flow shaping up just based on this.  During heroic, I can have the PCs encounter some scattered elements of the Cult, and foreshadow the coming conflicts that will define paragon play.
Further, by using the Cult, I now have ready-made epic tier potential, if any ideas don't arise in the course of game - or in addition.  Both Tharizdun and Zuggtmoy, as well as the Elemental Evils themselves, all give me lots of fodder for epic adventuring.  Espeically one nasty little idea that occured to me: what if, after all these centuries, Zuggtmoy nurses a grudge about how her operation got jacked out from under her?  The concept of Zuggtmoy as an uncertain ally for the PCs in their fight against the powers behind the Cult is a fun one.


With this, I now had the broadest of roadmaps for the game, a rough idea of what each tier would be largely revovling around.  Paragon and epic are a (long) ways off, so it's time to start breaking into heroic and planning that out.  I want to include a solid propotion of adventures based on PC backgrounds, which, lacking players and their respecitive PCs, I can't really plan around yet.  But before even that, I need a where for things to happen....