Campaign advice? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign advice? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
i142857
09-13-04, 12:38 PM I'm working on a campaign to play with my group, only it's a bit complicated and I feel I should get some advice. [Hopefully my players aren't reading this :)]

Basically it starts out with the players waking up somewhere in Cormyr (or something, not decided yet) not remembering anything about... well, what happened lately. Like that year lately. They have uneering familiarity with each other but otherwise pretty blank.

Soon, they discover that they are in Faerun, but there are some. ... problems. Probably the first one is that there is no Divine Magic. None. Nada. (Clerics in the party WILL hate me :) ) Then they're going to notice quite a few weird, humanoid dark creatures going around and acting as if they belong. It will probably take a while but eventually they'll notice that there are no dwarfes.... And what makes everything even worse is that everyone else seems to think that it's been that way forever.

Anyway, the point is the PCs are right the rest of the world is wrong. The maev (the dark creatures) the baari (their eternal enemies) and their gods have, amongst other things, killed most of the dwarfes, sealed off Toril from the rest of the planes (in fear of the other gods revenge) and eventually enchanted (almost) everyone in the world to think that that's the way it should be. (They were kind of powerful ... not being from this multiverse and all)

The point of the campaign will basically be to unseal Toril from the planes. That would be basically enough as a LOT of angry, Forgotten Realms gods will do the rest. But first they must figure out what's going on.

So anyway, am I taking it too far? It might seem that this requires extensive changes to the campaing (hello, no Divine??!?) but, the whole point is that the aliens changed people's minds and some of the hard proof of divine magic and dwarfes, but it's far from perfect. There should be a lot of incoherences, and stuff, hinting that everything ain't as it seems. Hints that should, eventually, allow them to convince a few important people. Another option would be to just have no dwarves and the maev running around, but that wouldn't be as shocking as no divine.

(I have skipped over most of the details but there are pretty good explanations of ... everything)

What do you think?
chme
09-13-04, 01:12 PM I never DM this kind of high-profile save-the-world-game, but I have some opinions/questions anyway :) :

It sounds like a lot of work for you - are you sure you don't want to focus your efforts on developing plot and details etc while being able to rely fully on your FR sources to provide all the setting?

What levels are the PCs, and how long - roughly - do you think the campaign will last? It might get very annoying for divine spellcasters.

I always *loved* the amnesia theme, and if you and your players haven't done it before, it's one of the very best imo! I would make it much lower profile though: instead of finding out what happened to the world and try to save it, let them find out who they are in order to survive! Starting with a no-background char, and gradually find out you used to be a person with this and that alignment, worshipping this and that god, having certain enemies and certain friends ... it can be the basis of a very very cool campaign revolving around the rediscovery and reevaluation of your former life. This is *if* you haven't done it before (because it's an oldie ;) ).
i142857
09-13-04, 01:27 PM No, haven't done amnesia before :) so yay. Got the ideea after reading Azure Bonds. It starts that way, drifts off in different direction though.

Anyway, I wasn't thinking about a no-background amnesia. The characters know who they are ... they just don't remember the last ... big chunk of their lives. (They were once quite important heroes, yet trying to plane shift exactly while the link between Toril and the rest was disappearing had some bad effects on them - like amnesia and severe character level loss. They'll start level 2)

As for divine spellcasters I am trying to discourage players to select them. And of course, by the time they get to level 3, they'll probably not select cleric again....

Anyway, your ideea is pretty good, with no-background, no alignment no nothing. I like it but ain't it a bit weird to use at the beggining? I mean, if I would just hand them character sheets and say... This is you, you don't know who you are... But having them create characters and then say "You don't know who you are" is a bit off.

Thanks for the advice.
Kuje31
09-13-04, 01:35 PM One thing, its not just the clerics that will get screwed here. It's the druids, clerics, rangers, paladins, blackguards, etc. :) Since all divine casters get thier magic from thier deity in FR.

So if I was DM'in that world, I'd think long and hard about the effects of cutting off and basically removing all the divine casters and how it effected society, nations, the world, etc.
i142857
09-13-04, 01:54 PM I know that it affects a lot of stuff, but on the other hand I'm not going to change the world too much, because the maev were not THAT powerful. Maybe in a world without divine, the wizards of Thay would be far more powerful. Maybe the whole history of the world would be different if there had been no divine. But that's the whole point, all these effects do NOT appear (at least initially). The characters will soon begin to notice all these inconsistencies. I mean there will be plenty of proof that divine magic has existed.

On the other hand, it's still a lot of work. In the first weeks of campaign time, some kingdoms should fall, all matter of ancient monsters should be released, and so on.

I still want to have some big change obvious to the players when they... wake up. Besides the maev running around. And I would also kinda need something to keep the gods from interferring... Any ideeas of a more ... easily implemented change to the setting?
ClobberinTime
09-13-04, 04:19 PM I think it would have alot more impact if the chars were higher level when you started this and would get more to the point. The problem is that everyone from Elminster on down would be trying to figure out what happened. I would run it as a parrallel toril that the PCs end up on. Hey those NPCs are just as human as the one in the FRCS.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
i142857 09-13-04, 12:38 PM	I'm working on a campaign to play with my group, only it's a bit complicated and I feel I should get some advice. [Hopefully my players aren't reading this :)] Basically it starts out with the players waking up somewhere in Cormyr (or something, not decided yet) not remembering anything about... well, what happened lately. Like that year lately. They have uneering familiarity with each other but otherwise pretty blank. Soon, they discover that they are in Faerun, but there are some. ... problems. Probably the first one is that there is no Divine Magic. None. Nada. (Clerics in the party WILL hate me :) ) Then they're going to notice quite a few weird, humanoid dark creatures going around and acting as if they belong. It will probably take a while but eventually they'll notice that there are no dwarfes.... And what makes everything even worse is that everyone else seems to think that it's been that way forever. Anyway, the point is the PCs are right the rest of the world is wrong. The maev (the dark creatures) the baari (their eternal enemies) and their gods have, amongst other things, killed most of the dwarfes, sealed off Toril from the rest of the planes (in fear of the other gods revenge) and eventually enchanted (almost) everyone in the world to think that that's the way it should be. (They were kind of powerful ... not being from this multiverse and all) The point of the campaign will basically be to unseal Toril from the planes. That would be basically enough as a LOT of angry, Forgotten Realms gods will do the rest. But first they must figure out what's going on. So anyway, am I taking it too far? It might seem that this requires extensive changes to the campaing (hello, no Divine??!?) but, the whole point is that the aliens changed people's minds and some of the hard proof of divine magic and dwarfes, but it's far from perfect. There should be a lot of incoherences, and stuff, hinting that everything ain't as it seems. Hints that should, eventually, allow them to convince a few important people. Another option would be to just have no dwarves and the maev running around, but that wouldn't be as shocking as no divine. (I have skipped over most of the details but there are pretty good explanations of ... everything) What do you think?
chme 09-13-04, 01:12 PM	I never DM this kind of high-profile save-the-world-game, but I have some opinions/questions anyway :) : It sounds like a lot of work for you - are you sure you don't want to focus your efforts on developing plot and details etc while being able to rely fully on your FR sources to provide all the setting? What levels are the PCs, and how long - roughly - do you think the campaign will last? It might get very annoying for divine spellcasters. I always loved the amnesia theme, and if you and your players haven't done it before, it's one of the very best imo! I would make it much lower profile though: instead of finding out what happened to the world and try to save it, let them find out who they are in order to survive! Starting with a no-background char, and gradually find out you used to be a person with this and that alignment, worshipping this and that god, having certain enemies and certain friends ... it can be the basis of a very very cool campaign revolving around the rediscovery and reevaluation of your former life. This is if you haven't done it before (because it's an oldie ;) ).
i142857 09-13-04, 01:27 PM	No, haven't done amnesia before :) so yay. Got the ideea after reading Azure Bonds. It starts that way, drifts off in different direction though. Anyway, I wasn't thinking about a no-background amnesia. The characters know who they are ... they just don't remember the last ... big chunk of their lives. (They were once quite important heroes, yet trying to plane shift exactly while the link between Toril and the rest was disappearing had some bad effects on them - like amnesia and severe character level loss. They'll start level 2) As for divine spellcasters I am trying to discourage players to select them. And of course, by the time they get to level 3, they'll probably not select cleric again.... Anyway, your ideea is pretty good, with no-background, no alignment no nothing. I like it but ain't it a bit weird to use at the beggining? I mean, if I would just hand them character sheets and say... This is you, you don't know who you are... But having them create characters and then say "You don't know who you are" is a bit off. Thanks for the advice.
Kuje31 09-13-04, 01:35 PM	One thing, its not just the clerics that will get screwed here. It's the druids, clerics, rangers, paladins, blackguards, etc. :) Since all divine casters get thier magic from thier deity in FR. So if I was DM'in that world, I'd think long and hard about the effects of cutting off and basically removing all the divine casters and how it effected society, nations, the world, etc.
i142857 09-13-04, 01:54 PM	I know that it affects a lot of stuff, but on the other hand I'm not going to change the world too much, because the maev were not THAT powerful. Maybe in a world without divine, the wizards of Thay would be far more powerful. Maybe the whole history of the world would be different if there had been no divine. But that's the whole point, all these effects do NOT appear (at least initially). The characters will soon begin to notice all these inconsistencies. I mean there will be plenty of proof that divine magic has existed. On the other hand, it's still a lot of work. In the first weeks of campaign time, some kingdoms should fall, all matter of ancient monsters should be released, and so on. I still want to have some big change obvious to the players when they... wake up. Besides the maev running around. And I would also kinda need something to keep the gods from interferring... Any ideeas of a more ... easily implemented change to the setting?
ClobberinTime 09-13-04, 04:19 PM	I think it would have alot more impact if the chars were higher level when you started this and would get more to the point. The problem is that everyone from Elminster on down would be trying to figure out what happened. I would run it as a parrallel toril that the PCs end up on. Hey those NPCs are just as human as the one in the FRCS.