airwalkrr
Adventurer
This is related to this thread, but the idea is much simpler. Here's the idea. I would begin a campaign in a fairly generic world (let's say Forgotten Realms) where the players can play pretty much anything they want. They can choose their own ability scores and play any race/class combo using any sourcebook they want to pick spells, skills, feats, items, whatever.
However, this world contains an unusual deity names Kayso, the god of cheese. Kayso's portfolio is clearly nothing spectacular and he is revered by few. He is merely a demigod who is usually related to obscure festivals attended only by dairy farmers, but he has another unusual quirk. At times, he has been known to appear before a mortal and name the mortal as his champion. Whenever this occurs, the mortal is swept away to places unknown and never heard from again. Sometimes this has occured often, even as often as two champions being named in the same day, while others Kayso has not been seen for years. His ways are truly mysterious. The other deities never interfere and such characters are often the stuff of legend in their own time, but quickly fade into obscurity (much like Kayso himself) for reasons unknown. Sages have difficulty finding reference to most of Kayso's champions and many have even speculated that perhaps this is the demigod's doing. At any rate, one thing is certain, Kayso's habit of picking up champions has done nothing but serve to balance the world. Occassionally, he has taken a powerful villain, other times a great hero, but he has always taken exceptional individuals, in fact, individuals that were often proclaimed to be TOO good at what they did. One of the stranger facts concerning him is that Kayso has no clergy and the occassional fool who claims to be Kayso's divine agent (usually a dairy farmer gone mad) has never been able to demonstrate the ability to cast divine spells.
Mechanically, I would merely explain to the players that they are allowed to play whatever they want, within reason. They are free to ask me my opinion on whether or not something is too powerful, but as soon as see one particular character becoming problematic for balance issues (such as realizing that I have to design an encounter specifically to fight one character just to give him a challenge, likely resulting in disaster for the other party members), I will declare that Kayso has descended from the heavens and named that character his champion. The character is immediately retired from the campaign and the player must create a new character with a different build. This encourages the players to police themselves and build effective but reasonable characters. But it also lets them play exactly what they want (unless they insist on powergaming to the max). Kayso would in no way be a prominent fixture in the campaign. In fact, he would probably never even be mentioned unless it was absolutely necessary.
What do you think? Would you play in this campaign?
However, this world contains an unusual deity names Kayso, the god of cheese. Kayso's portfolio is clearly nothing spectacular and he is revered by few. He is merely a demigod who is usually related to obscure festivals attended only by dairy farmers, but he has another unusual quirk. At times, he has been known to appear before a mortal and name the mortal as his champion. Whenever this occurs, the mortal is swept away to places unknown and never heard from again. Sometimes this has occured often, even as often as two champions being named in the same day, while others Kayso has not been seen for years. His ways are truly mysterious. The other deities never interfere and such characters are often the stuff of legend in their own time, but quickly fade into obscurity (much like Kayso himself) for reasons unknown. Sages have difficulty finding reference to most of Kayso's champions and many have even speculated that perhaps this is the demigod's doing. At any rate, one thing is certain, Kayso's habit of picking up champions has done nothing but serve to balance the world. Occassionally, he has taken a powerful villain, other times a great hero, but he has always taken exceptional individuals, in fact, individuals that were often proclaimed to be TOO good at what they did. One of the stranger facts concerning him is that Kayso has no clergy and the occassional fool who claims to be Kayso's divine agent (usually a dairy farmer gone mad) has never been able to demonstrate the ability to cast divine spells.
Mechanically, I would merely explain to the players that they are allowed to play whatever they want, within reason. They are free to ask me my opinion on whether or not something is too powerful, but as soon as see one particular character becoming problematic for balance issues (such as realizing that I have to design an encounter specifically to fight one character just to give him a challenge, likely resulting in disaster for the other party members), I will declare that Kayso has descended from the heavens and named that character his champion. The character is immediately retired from the campaign and the player must create a new character with a different build. This encourages the players to police themselves and build effective but reasonable characters. But it also lets them play exactly what they want (unless they insist on powergaming to the max). Kayso would in no way be a prominent fixture in the campaign. In fact, he would probably never even be mentioned unless it was absolutely necessary.
What do you think? Would you play in this campaign?
