I'm preparing to run my first session as a GM (Pathfinder but I don't think it matters for this question). I love the world building side of things, so I'm not too interested in pre-published adventures or campaign settings (although I don't have any quibbles about borrowing liberally from them).
I've never been very good at creative writing - mostly because I'm too critical of my own ideas - so I'm struggling to come up with a plot. What I thought was my first good plot idea revolved around an elven village running out of food. Trying not to think too hard about it at first, I started creating hooks for adventures, generating NPC and enemy stat blocks and encounters, detailing the setting, etc.
Then I realized that it's kind of impossible for elves to run out of food due to the presence of magic. So I decided the elves' magic, whether wooing the crops to grow or the rain to fall, isn't working for some unknown reason. Now I have another adventure hook - the PCs can talk to the elves who work the fields, from whom they can find out their magic is being "blocked."
So how can elven magic - particularly the kind that they rely on for their food - be "blocked?" Are there any spells or magic items that could explain this? Or is my plot idea too complicated already? I'm loath to resort to "dragon/villain attacks village, go kill the dragon/villain," but I'm starting to see why a lot of pre-published introductory adventures are just that.