Anyone who's worried about spoilers has left? This one isn't major, but I want to give people fair warning.
Okay!
Some of you may be familiar with the Microscope RPG (http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/) which is a GM-less game of creating and exploring histories. I was inspired by the 10,000 years that Runeforge is cut off from the material plane, especially the Halls of Wrath where the book describes 'a highly successful warrior society' and that 'hundreds of generations have passed' compared to most of the wings where it seems the survivors had to become immortal in some way, and thus were relatively unchanged except for sinking into their corruption.
With a couple of my usual players out for a session, I have decided to run a round of Microscope to look at those hundreds of generations in Wrath!
I'm going to use the seed statement:
"The Halls of Wrath are isolated after the fall of Thassilon for hundreds of generations"
The starting period is:
"The fall of Thassilon cuts off Runeforge from the outside world. The denizens of Wrath do not pursue extended lifespans or immortality"
The ending period is:
"Their numbers diminished, the remains of a warrior society in the Halls of Wrath are led by Highlady Athroxis"
I figure if I set up the core boss fight as something that must be true (Athroxis), I could tweak what they find in Wrath to reflect the history we end up building together. The survivors in Wrath are also the only (most likely?) Runeforge residents who can actually leave as well, so exploring more about their history might make my players think about them as more than just targets for attacks, and think about what happens if they spare them and want to help them resettle out in the Material Plane.
I'm also not 100% stuck to making Highlady Athroxis a required part of the story if you think it would be more fun to leave it totally open-ended? I'm already choosing to leave out the 'why' of fighting Abjuration so we can decide for ourselves why there aren't enough people left in Wrath to sustain hundreds of generations of breeding stock.
Feel free to comment or give suggestions, to steal the idea for a Microscope round of your own, or stick around to see how it goes. I'll try and post something about the results, even if it's 'well that didn't work because of ___.'
Wish me luck!