So recently I've been watching the colony on demand as well as man vs wild and similar shows and it kind of gave me the idea to run a somewhat post apocalyptic mini-campaign. I'm thinking that a big war between some powerful magical countries just took place and that the country was pretty much annihilated. The PCs will have no idea what the campaign setting is going to entail before it's started so they're kind of stuck with whatever they make, I will probably tell them that diplomacy and skills are going to be a big thing though. They'll probably meet in some sort of common building that they all see as some sort of sanctuary from their current situations or something like that. Right now I guess I'm just trying to figure out some interesting ideas so if anyone has any input that would be awesome. Thanks in advanced.
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You're going to need to decide on whether or not you want to keep Create Water as a 0-level spell early on.
Magical apocalpyse? Could be a great excuse for all sorts of unnatural weather and hazards, from reality/flesh-warping chaos storms, firey rain, acid rain, razor wind, etc.
If you have Advanced Bestiary, I wholeheartedly recommend having the plantlife of entire areas turned into Flesh Tree variants. Imagine a tree made of meat. That feeds off blood. Now imagine an entire forest of them.
The Mournlands of Eberron have been detailed here and there. There's probably some fine stuff to mine there.
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Also, were all of the other people in these countries simply killed, or did something worse happen?
Could they have been twisted into horrific aberrations or undead as a side effect of the magical backlash that took the country out? Or could such a fate have been purposeful, by way of a weaponized magical disease? Could these twisted remnants of what were once people still be infectious?
Dont forget the zombies. You cant have an apocolypse without zombies.
Seriously, to get the survivors together you could have them as passengers on a ship or caravan. In the distance they see bizzare lights in the sky. When they come to a town, it is wrecked and bizzare monsters...and zombies...are everywhere. What is really strange is that you were in that city a few months earlier and it was fine. but now it looks like it has been abbandoned for years.
(check out the History channel show "life after people" then add monsters)
Never explain what happened. They are totally in the dark and so are any NPC's (cannon fodder) you throw in with them. This not only keeps you from making up an apocolypse players can nitpick at, but means you can keep them as confused as the first 3 seasons of Lost.
Once in the city they could find a small castle where everyone inside has committed suicide, and try and use it to eke out survival.
One problem: Players (not PCs, Players) want to kill kill kill and never run run run. In an apocolyptic campgain they should do both.
I have an entire setting written up for just that sort of thing. I can't post it, it is waaaay to long (over 30 pages), but if you want it I can get it to you. It includes rules for Arcane mis-casts, countries/races at each other's throats, an extremem lack of everyday supplies, and the meanest deadliest elves you've ever heard of.
If you want survival to be a real challenge past like level 2, take a good hard look at magic. Creat water, purify food and drink, endure elements, etc, are all low level spells that make survival much MUCH easier. When you get to later levels it literally becomes pointless with Secure shelter, and Heroes Feast. Add to that divination and teleportation spells for navigation and travel, and a well equiped magic party can pretty much ignore the task of survival.
Actually, after thinking about this a little bit more, what I think I'm going to do instead of making a mini setting for just a 15-20 session campaign I think I'm going to add this in to my home-brewed, island based, steampunk game that I'm running now. What I think I'm going to do is eventually have my PC's captured and exiled to a island similar to how Australia was, just some huge island that the big kingdoms in my game send their criminals to. They will be striped of weapons and armor but will probably be given a hand axe and a few things. Maybe flint and steel or a single tindertwig, possibly a machete (short sword that deals slashing damage), some sort of back pack, a half-full water skin, just some basic things that they were given to survive.
Just to give anyone that wants to help an idea of my world you can check out the layout of it here and some of the more steampunky homebrew stuff and the races (which 90% of are homebrewed) here. Currently the players are a Rhinosaur Fighter, a Vahnthra Sorcerer (going into Dragon Disciple), a Vahnthra Psion (Kineticist), a Human Rogue, a Human Druid (who has ranks in both craft weapons and armor), and my girlfriend may join the campaign just for this little session because she finds it very interesting. Right now they're all 4th level and this will probably happen around 6th or 7th level.
This island will probably include some crazy cannibalistic aborigines who will probably not be the fondest of magic (or psionics). I may throw in a Ranger that is based off of Cody Lundin as a bit of an antagonist and possibly even someone that takes some of the PCs stuff when they're not paying attention. Right now I'm still working this but these are just some ideas I have.
If you want survival to be a real challenge past like level 2, take a good hard look at magic. Creat water, purify food and drink, endure elements, etc, are all low level spells that make survival much MUCH easier. When you get to later levels it literally becomes pointless with Secure shelter, and Heroes Feast. Add to that divination and teleportation spells for navigation and travel, and a well equiped magic party can pretty much ignore the task of survival.
Ya I think this island may have been through some sort of magical apocalypse like I said and that may screw with magic (and psionics) while they're on this island, just to make it more challenging for the PCs.
EDIT: I'm thinking about possibly limiting the spells to certain things and possibly even certain schools but I'm still debating that.
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You might want to take a look at Obsidian Twilight and Contagion Infected Human Zombies if you do decide to go with the zombie apocolypse.
If you want survival to be a real challenge past like level 2, take a good hard look at magic. Creat water, purify food and drink, endure elements, etc, are all low level spells that make survival much MUCH easier. When you get to later levels it literally becomes pointless with Secure shelter, and Heroes Feast. Add to that divination and teleportation spells for navigation and travel, and a well equiped magic party can pretty much ignore the task of survival.Ya I think this island may have been through some sort of magical apocalypse like I said and that may screw with magic (and psionics) while they're on this island, just to make it more challenging for the PCs.
EDIT: I'm thinking about possibly limiting the spells to certain things and possibly even certain schools but I'm still debating that.
You may want to warn the players in this case. If magic is going to be screwy (depending on how screwy and what the effect is) it can be a real downer on the fun of primary casters. It always sucks when spells fail, but if the chance to fail is really high, or if there is a chance it's going to blow up in your face, the caster probably isnt going to be enjoying himself. You dont want to surprise players with something like that.
You may want to warn the players in this case. If magic is going to be screwy (depending on how screwy and what the effect is) it can be a real downer on the fun of primary casters. It always sucks when spells fail, but if the chance to fail is really high, or if there is a chance it's going to blow up in your face, the caster probably isnt going to be enjoying himself. You dont want to surprise players with something like that.
O no, I'm not going to completely screw over the casters. Really what I'm going to do is probably put some limits on spell casting (such as no create water, detect alignment) and they'll probably be told by the people taking them there that there's something wrong with the magic stream or however magic works in my world (I'm still thinking up something). I definitely won't mess with casting to the point that it makes it not fun to be 1. Really in my party the Sorcerer is actually the Battle Sorcerer variant (from Unearthed Arcana) so he kind of mixes melee with blasting people and the Druid is focusing on healing and wild shaping.
Ok, after looking at the spells a little more I think I'm just going to say that Abjuration and Divination spells don't work on the island and possibly a few other choice spells that I think would get rid of the survival feel such as create water, purify food and drink, restoration spells, possibly neutralize poison but not delay poison, possibly control winds, and I think I'd put a limit on how far teleportation spells could take you (if some of those fall under abjuration or divination it's because I didn't look).
You may want to warn the players in this case. If magic is going to be screwy (depending on how screwy and what the effect is) it can be a real downer on the fun of primary casters. It always sucks when spells fail, but if the chance to fail is really high, or if there is a chance it's going to blow up in your face, the caster probably isnt going to be enjoying himself. You dont want to surprise players with something like that.O no, I'm not going to completely screw over the casters. Really what I'm going to do is probably put some limits on spell casting (such as no create water, detect alignment) and they'll probably be told by the people taking them there that there's something wrong with the magic stream or however magic works in my world (I'm still thinking up something). I definitely won't mess with casting to the point that it makes it not fun to be 1. Really in my party the Sorcerer is actually the Battle Sorcerer variant (from Unearthed Arcana) so he kind of mixes melee with blasting people and the Druid is focusing on healing and wild shaping.
Since most of the problem spells (create water, create food) fall under conjuration/creation you should just be able to limit those types somehow without nerfing your PC's characters to badly.