As it appears that my current Kalamar campaign is drawing to a close, I’ve been prepping for the next campaign to be set in Pathfinder’s Golarion. As I’m putting the framework together, I’ve been thinking I want to plant the game squarely in the dark fantasy camp. To use video game vernacular, it’s going to be “M”-rated. To use movie vernacular, it’ll be straddling the “PG-13” & “R” fence but will lean more towards the “R” side.
The closest source of inspiration I can cite is Dragon Age: Origins . I want to take a standard Golarion campaign & use it for a dark fantasy campaign much like DA:O takes conventional FRPG elements but puts a dark fantasy lens over it. Taking cues from DA: O, the mechanics aren’t what makes the game a dark fantasy, it’s the story & content. I’ve got the mechanics I need. Instead, I’m looking for theme, mood, NPC, & adventure creation suggestions to help achieve my goal.
What this campaign WILL NOT be:
So to my fellow GMs, how would you go about achieving my goal of a dark fantasy Golarion campaign?
My initial thoughts:
The closest source of inspiration I can cite is Dragon Age: Origins . I want to take a standard Golarion campaign & use it for a dark fantasy campaign much like DA:O takes conventional FRPG elements but puts a dark fantasy lens over it. Taking cues from DA: O, the mechanics aren’t what makes the game a dark fantasy, it’s the story & content. I’ve got the mechanics I need. Instead, I’m looking for theme, mood, NPC, & adventure creation suggestions to help achieve my goal.
What this campaign WILL NOT be:
- A Ravenloft-style horror campaign
- A Midnight-style oppressive lost-cause campaign
- A no-heroes campaign
So to my fellow GMs, how would you go about achieving my goal of a dark fantasy Golarion campaign?
My initial thoughts:
- Tough choices. There should be few choices that lead to better/easier outcomes than others. This isn’t to say all choices must be negative, but the PCs should have to really work to determine the optimal path and the optimal path should never be the easiest one to take.
- Moral ambiguity. Even though PF uses alignment, generally speaking, things are more morally gray.
- Ruthless bad guys. The PCs aren’t facing four-color comic hero villains from the Silver Age of comics, bad guys to bad things – and they often times are being done to good people/innocents.
- Corrupting influences. Things like the 7 Deadly Sins (already in canon per the Runelords) are NPC/villain motivations just as often (or moreso) than Evil as Sauron-style influence. When Outsider-style/otherworldly evil is in around, it’s reeeeaally bad.
- Violence isn’t pretty. It’s bloody, destructive, and not always the best solution.
- Competing factions. Many people find security in group affiliations and many groups are at cross purposes with each other.
- Prejudices. Many people have them & they can be based on just about anything. Those that have them often aren’t shy about displaying them.
- The PC’s actions have lasting consequences. Whether it’s the death of a NPC that might have been saved, the destruction of a village or town, there should be demonstrable consequences of the impact to the setting caused by the PCs actions. Many times, making things better for person/group A means severely impacting person/group B in a detrimental way.