Help fleshing out ideas.....

[Mercury]

Ok, I have some random plot/campaign ideas floating around in my head and I would like some ideas/help/inspiration for who to weave them together, improve upon them, or ditch them( if the suck considerably).


* A world in trouble, on the brink of destruction. A few groups are forming armies, other forming dark pacts to obtain power.

* This world is in dire need of heros, many common folk no longer beleive they exist.

* Most of the world is comprised of humans, with a very small portion of the other races, very few elves, fem dwarves, the gnomes and halfing may be more common.

* Most of the monsters are humans. Save the orcs, goblins, and some of the other creatures saved for stories their parents tell their children to keep them inline (even though they really exist, most people refusee to beleive, and their scarcity helps this thought process.)

* There is a war in the heavens. The celestials are fighting with each other. I am thinking those who would act to try and redeem this world, those who beleive we should try to help ourselves, and a third group, those who beleive we are beyond saving.

Heres is what I am currently thinking. The PC's are in the middle of their run of the mill battle, when suddenly, lightning arcs throught the sky, scorching a 45 foot crater into the ground. Within it are two celestials fighting. One celestial quickly overpowers the other, but just before the killing blow is struck, the defeated celestial flings a ball of misty energy at the PC's, at which point they wake-up. Upon waking they find themselves in a town they are not familiar with. Sleeping in beds they do not know, and in a town that has never seen them before. Or perhaps they should awaken in the woods, or an area similar to the one they were fighting in. Either way I think they should end up in that alternate Prime Material. OK, that is pretty much all I can think of right now. What do you think, what needs improvement, and so on, and so forth Thanks for reading.

Mercury

 

[Nifft]

Start the game out "Low-Magic" -- no clerics or paladins, and if a Sorcerer, Wizard or Druid publically uses a spell, they're shunned (or worse) as "witches".

Near the end of 2nd level, let the party find a lost temple -- the temple turns out to be one to a deity who is the ONLY good deity who hasn't abandoned the world. A Lantern Archon appears and asks all good party members if they would like to become Priests or Paladins. His Domains should be Sun, War, Strength, Fire and Good.

Whether the characters bite or not, they become aware over time that the god has grown dissatisfied with this world, and wishes to purge it of the overwhelming evil he senses seeding it. (Demons and Devils are working in the background, helping charismatic leaders to create great armies.)

The god starts acting like an Old Testament Yaweh -- leveling cities, burning lands of evil, etc. This could shape up in a number of ways:

1) The god is more powerful than the demons & devils: the players are sent from town to city, killing evil in the god's name. They can try to save various populations (even convert perhaps?) before the wrath of the god smites them, or they can participate in the smiting.

2) The god is weak, the demons and devils are fighting. The Blood War is spilling over into this material plane. The players must try to take out the devilish & demonic leaders without upsetting the balance of power too much, until the god is strong enough to take them all on. (How to strengthen the god? Create converts? Build more temples? Unearth relics?)

3) The god isn't interested in saving people, he's interested in starting over. The PCs can either help or try to avert the Flood.

4) Evangalion-style: the god hates humanity. He sees us as a blight upon his world, and he wants to un-make the world -- after killing all of us. "Good" in this sense is a very fundamentalist good, which is: do what the god says, no matter what, and in the after life you will be rewarded. Angels are terrible to behold. The PCs must fight against the angels, becoming noble Hellspawn (like the angsty guy in that comic "Spawn", or the vampire Angel on "Buffy") in the process. Very morally ambiguous, shades of grey type stuff.

Hope this helps, -- Nifft

 

[Silver Moon]

* A world in trouble, on the brink of destruction. A few groups are forming armies, other forming dark pacts to obtain power.

* This world is in dire need of heros, many common folk no longer beleive they exist.

* Most of the world is comprised of humans.

* Most of the monsters are humans.

OK, how about this...we will call the world Earth in the year 2003, call the groups forming armies North Korea and Iraq, and call the other dark pacts terrorists....nah, nobody would ever buy that one.

Seriously through, yours sounds like the start of a good campaign. I would start with choosing the specific pantheon of gods that will be involved, and the pieces of the puzzle will then fall into place based upon what they stand for and the motivations of the followers.

 

[reason]

cethen

Have a look at my Cethen proposal:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news/modules/Downloads/store_folder/Setting_Proposals/Cethen.doc

Might give you some ideas.

Reason

 

[Mercury]

*BUMP*

Promise I will only do this once

 

[Paradoxish]

Like somebody else said, low-magic might be a good idea. If the Gods are essentially abandoning the world would they still be providing spells to clerics? Also, isn't it somewhat hypocritical for the celestials to claim that the world is beyond hope thanks to the many wars and yet they're settling this dispute with a war of their own? Not saying you can't do it, but you might want to keep that in mind in case the players bring it up.

I think you have the beginning of a good campaign here. I've always been a fan of war settings (see my campaign idea, the topic is the Seven Armies of the Fallen) and you could probably make this one work really well. You should consider the role others play in this, however. If the celestials are fighting with eachother, what are the infernals doing? It seems to me that this would be a good time for a power-hungry demon or two to make his way to the prime material world and seize power. This could also effect the way the celestials look upon the world. Will they sit back and watch as evil takes over the prime material or will they do something about it?

Oh, and you should probably consider what direction you want the campaign going in. What the ultimate goal for the PCs is and where the war is going to end up. I could definitely see a campaign like this making for quite a few interesting situations. Good luck with it and keep us posted.