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A diabolical plan has come to fruition!
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<blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 4391028" data-attributes="member: 704"><p>Thanks.</p><p></p><p>The seeds of the whole plan were set in place long before I had any idea of what would grow from them.</p><p></p><p>The first meeting with Hiddukel was the result of me wanting a way to avoid a TPK. Low levels in 2nd and 3rd edition are a pain in the ass for me to run, because I am a very tactical DM, and the PC's are so fragile. I decided that having the players appear in the afterlife before a god and striking some sort of bargain to return to life was the way to go. It gave me a way to justify DM Fiat in the event I screwed up and killed the party. It also made a god an interactive part of the campaign rather than a background element, and gave me a general purpose plot hook to dick my players around with. The decision to use Hiddukel fit my plans since a big part of his portfolio is bargains that screw over those who deal with him.</p><p></p><p>Later on I got the idea of trying to pull off a 'Xanatos Gambit' after spending too much time reading TV tropes.org (<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit" target="_blank">http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit</a>). I was not sure how to do it, but I figured it would be worth giving a shot. The end result is not quite a Xanatos Gambit, but it does set Hiddukel up as one hell of a 'Chessmaster' villain. (see <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster?from=Main.Chessmaster" target="_blank">http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster?from=Main.Chessmaster</a>). The only thing I lacked was something to give the players a sense that they were opposing the very villain they were helping. I am not at all disappointed though.</p><p></p><p>The plan fell into place as a way to tie together a bunch of otherwise wildly unrelated plot threads that existed in the campaign world. The initial setup called back to an encounter that happened during the very fist adventure of the entire campaign. It uses a highly effective villain group, the de la Roche family, that was introduced in the very first combat adventure of the campaign. It takes place during the Red Hand of Doom adventure, and uses a treasure item within the adventure. It takes advantage of two player created origin back stories and makes them integral to a long running campaign arc. It takes a campaign specific world detail, the civil war and political conflict between Prince Oden and Duke Alric and makes it something beyond a secondary background element.</p><p></p><p>Most important? It was a plan designed from the outset to screw over my players, and to have them do all the legwork and heavy lifting needed to make it happen.</p><p></p><p>I must confess that I am just way too pleased with myself.</p><p></p><p>END COMMUNICATION</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lord Zardoz, post: 4391028, member: 704"] Thanks. The seeds of the whole plan were set in place long before I had any idea of what would grow from them. The first meeting with Hiddukel was the result of me wanting a way to avoid a TPK. Low levels in 2nd and 3rd edition are a pain in the ass for me to run, because I am a very tactical DM, and the PC's are so fragile. I decided that having the players appear in the afterlife before a god and striking some sort of bargain to return to life was the way to go. It gave me a way to justify DM Fiat in the event I screwed up and killed the party. It also made a god an interactive part of the campaign rather than a background element, and gave me a general purpose plot hook to dick my players around with. The decision to use Hiddukel fit my plans since a big part of his portfolio is bargains that screw over those who deal with him. Later on I got the idea of trying to pull off a 'Xanatos Gambit' after spending too much time reading TV tropes.org ([URL]http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit[/URL]). I was not sure how to do it, but I figured it would be worth giving a shot. The end result is not quite a Xanatos Gambit, but it does set Hiddukel up as one hell of a 'Chessmaster' villain. (see [URL]http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster?from=Main.Chessmaster[/URL]). The only thing I lacked was something to give the players a sense that they were opposing the very villain they were helping. I am not at all disappointed though. The plan fell into place as a way to tie together a bunch of otherwise wildly unrelated plot threads that existed in the campaign world. The initial setup called back to an encounter that happened during the very fist adventure of the entire campaign. It uses a highly effective villain group, the de la Roche family, that was introduced in the very first combat adventure of the campaign. It takes place during the Red Hand of Doom adventure, and uses a treasure item within the adventure. It takes advantage of two player created origin back stories and makes them integral to a long running campaign arc. It takes a campaign specific world detail, the civil war and political conflict between Prince Oden and Duke Alric and makes it something beyond a secondary background element. Most important? It was a plan designed from the outset to screw over my players, and to have them do all the legwork and heavy lifting needed to make it happen. I must confess that I am just way too pleased with myself. END COMMUNICATION [/QUOTE]
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