Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Grimgrin 01-24-08, 05:42 PM	I recently watched a show on the History Channel about the Black Plague and it started me thinking about how I would intergrate the social and medical impact of the Black Plague on a d20 medieval campaign. This is some ideas about plague and other diasters and their impact on society in a fantasy campaign. It can be used in any d20 setting. Coverted to PDF for easier reading. I would like some feedback. Pandemic d20 PDF (0.5MB) (http://grimgrin4488.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/pandemic_d20.pdf)
DebiHuman 01-24-08, 11:54 PM	The problem with introducing pandemic is that there are resources available to combat such things. One is of course the lowly cleric but even more so is divine intervention. I don't think many would want to play in a campaign where the PCs are the carriers of disease while not exhibiting symptoms themselves (much like Typhoid Mary). Giving this role to an NPC whom the PCs must identify and quarantine makes more sense. Furthermore, infecting the PCs isn't much fun for the players either unless it really is part of an on-going story plot. Simply making them sick is either wastes their time until they recover or forces them to use up valuable resources to recover more quickly. Last of all, a pandamic is probably a greater threat than any group of PCs can really expect to combat in a meaningful way. Saving a a village from an outbreak would be manageable but would be a tad more difficult to stop a world-wide outbreak. This isn't just throwing the One Ring down a volcano. That is not to say that pandemics have no place in a campaign world. Certainly, a pandemic could be seen as an omen of a god's disfavor. Ridding an area of a disease certainly is worthy of a campaign but it is not for everyone. It also depends on how historical a campaign you want to portray. The Black Plague is only one factor in history. It certainly could be lethal. More often it killed the elderly and added to an already high infant mortality rate. Hence the percentage of deaths may be 30-50% of the population but you'll see that those numbers are heavily skewed towards the elderly and very young rather than along economic lines. What happens when the pandemic ends? In its wake, the Black Plague left a relatively young population with more financial resources than ever before. Imagine a world of Teens and Twenty-somethings who survived when their parents and younger siblings succumbed to the disease. Not only that, the survivors had more resources than ever before. Someone had to inherit all that stuff! Debby
Grimgrin 01-25-08, 07:44 PM	Debby, I can't disagree with anything you have said. A group of Adventurers no matter how powerful will likely be unable to stop a "pandemic" otherwise it would not be a true pandemic. Also the adventurers would likely remain uneffected by diseases that would infect weaker NPC classes such as Commoners. The game would be about their efforts to survive and help others. This would include finding a place of refuge, protecting or robbing others to obtain what they need, stopping or leading riots. Looting abondoned estates or retrieving stolen artifacts, etc. Obviously the diaster itself would not instantly kill the player character party leading to a very short and unpopular game. INSTEAD, it would act as a immediate and constant threat to their survival. As to your comments on the aftereffects of the Black Plague you are exactly right. It is the belief of many historians that the death of so many at once in Europe created the social and economic vaccum necessary for the Reinassance and Reformation as well as the many religious wars that followed (i.e. The 30 Years War).
DebiHuman 01-27-08, 04:46 AM	Actually, I think it would be fun to have a campaign start at the end of a pandemic. Religious wars would be prevelant because there are those who want to celebrate the ending of the plague and assume they've won back favor of the gods and there are others who see this as a foreshadowing of worse things to come. Optimism vs. Pessimism. Old faith vs new morality. There would be lots of room for intrigue. Also, when cultural leaders are young and relatively inexperienced, they are more likely to be rash. One can either embrace the political and economic changes or rail against them. Certainly the PCs would want to be part of the action. The question then becomes how do you make this exciting in a game? Debby