For some time, around 6+ years, I’ve been knocking around a campaign setting that is, hopefully, a bit off of the beaten path. I’ve had a couple of close calls, particularly with a series of articles in Dragon / Dungeon, but so far my “idea” hasn’t appeared in another form somewhere. (After this post I’m sure it won’t be the case.)
The campaign world the players know is coming to an end. It isn’t a campaign where apocalypse is a saving throw away: the end is nigh and ugly in several unpleasant ways. Tough choices are being made, along with some hard changes in alignment, as the players and the NPC’s are forced to make hard choices with no easy answers.
Think along these lines: “Two children, a boy and a girl, are tied to a stake with a red dragon winging closer with every minute. You have time to save one so who do you choose?” It’s not an actual scenario, and sounds trite to boot, but gives you a sense of the kind of moral ambiguity with some of the decision making.
In a lot of ways the world of the campaign setting is going through the Kubler-Ross stages of receiving catastrophic news as realization of what is happening spreads:
Denial – The first nations that deny what is happening are among the first most dramatically effected and pay a terrible price.
Anger – This is where the initial physical resistance finds its roots. Unfortunately while initially effective, it soon becomes a case of holding back the tide. (Not literally. This isn’t “Waterworld” or the far superior Alexander Key’s “The Incredible Tide”.)
Bargaining – Perhaps the single worst path that can be taken. The line between the devil and the deep blue sea only ends in tragedy of horrific proportions. Reaping what they sow is clearly presented as a non-viable option.
Depression – Loss is a key theme of the campaign: Loss of culture, art, population, etc. That doesn’t mean that hope and promise of a brighter future don’t exist but for many of the countries and people of the land this is a dark, dark time requiring heroes .
Acceptance – I really think this is where the roots of this campaign’s success lay. Once the problem is laid bare and the scope of the undeniable fate is realized the best are those that recognize what must be done. (Or at least attempted.) It’s this “What must we do?” thinking that is going to lead to some failed alignment checks.
I’ve several other key ideas fleshed out:
As a diety what do you do when your followers are becoming fewer and fewer. (Tipping my had a bit that the overall device is an escalating one.) What pact do you make with the other gods on your plane?
How does your knightly order survive when the very thing you must do to save some of the people you serve will damn the rest to a fate that will haunt your dreams for eternity?
What will force evil, true evil, to recognize that there are some times when working with the forces of good to survive. (Vice versa as well.)
Can any king survive the weight of responsibility when their decisions will lead to the deaths of unimaginable numbers of the very subjects they are sworn to protect?
If the old have had their chances who will teach the young you are trying to save?
My creative, and hopelessly vain, side thinks there are several excellent adventures in the heart of this. (Perhaps a novel or two. *lol* Are you listening WotC? Paizo?) Here are some examples:
The politics of building a pact that will stand against “the foe” are extreme. How do you convince your steadfast friends and worst enemy to ally as one?
As a kingdom falls the last surviving heir to the throne must be rescued to rally her desperate people. The party, in carrying out the rescue, comes face to face with the true extent of what they face.
What do you choose to save from the most fabled libraries and museums of the world?
How do you save a people whom you cannot communicate with and who have no interest in communicating with you?
Ideally none of this sounds like a retread of “Battlestar Galactica” or Noah’s Ark. because I think the key concepts are very different. (Although I do like the new Starbuck.) There’s death and dying on apocalyptic scale but rebirth is just as important.
D&D has always lent itself to killing monsters and getting treasure but the best games I’ve ever played in are about story telling and watching characters grow in ways that you can never imagine when you’re first rolling their stats. It’s about stories that, years after the actual events, can cause you to laugh or smile or grimace as memory floods back. I suppose that is what I want to do the most: tell a great story.
I’m interested in getting some input from some of you with solid DM experience. My DM skills are pretty rusty and I’ve not run a game in a long time so some of the mechanics of 3.5 are still new to me. (I do have a few Prestige classes lined out that I think are nifty and tie in well.)
At some point in the next couple of weeks I’m going to open a section of my website where I can upload a lot of the particulars for feedback. (I pray it will be a bit more constructive than the "It sux!" type.) If you're interested please feel free to email me or reply here.
Kind regards,
Jim