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Running Commentary on Rel's 4e Campaign (Complete 8/2/10)
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 5265705" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>I was low on time yesterday when I finished posting that so let me throw in a bit of GM commentary/implications that grew out of this conversation with the "ghost" of Valakir:</p><p></p><p>First, this guy was obviously my way to sum up a bunch of stuff that had been hinted at for a big portion of the campaign. It's a little ham handed but you see it all the time in the movies where you have a character basically explain what's going on to the audience (in this case both the readers here as well as the players). I find it mildly distasteful but if you think that it is sometimes a necessary evil to have a character sum stuff up after a 2-3 hour movie, it's <em>really </em>necessary after 160+ hours of a RPG campaign.</p><p></p><p>Don't get me wrong. The players had done a pretty great job of picking up various clues, following leads, asking sages for info along the way, etc. Valakir was the chance to embody an NPC whose work they had been following for 3/4 of the campaign by way of his book. I was quite impressed with Zanne's player's focus on finding out everything she could, asking all the experts she could find on two planes of existence. So Valakir in the flesh (well, in the mist I suppose) was sort of the payoff for that.</p><p></p><p>It also spelled out exactly what was at stake here and set up an interesting choice (that was never really a choice to begin with but that's ok): If the ritual was completed then the world is free of the Mist but under the tyranny of the Elder Dragon God, Ryukaar (who is also in control of the Nexus and thus all the planar gates). If they can stop the ritual then they preserve the apocalyptic status quo. Clearly that's the route the PC's would be taking but they did at least mention the alternative during the discussion.</p><p></p><p>This all ties back into one of the themes of the campaign, the Small Gods. I purposefully made this world such that the gods were relatively "small" in stature compared to the D&D baseline. I wanted local gods who had a lot of influence over a small area but who may be unimportant (and possibly powerless) only a short distance away. Thus you end up with beings like Vond, the Dweller, Mayaheine, the three Dragonborn deities and even Kal-Sarok (the giant crocodile god of the Lizardfolk). In a normal campaign each of these would simply be an Epic level NPC (though Mayaheine did have the omniscience thing going on). In this world, divided and devastated, they qualified as "gods".</p><p></p><p>Thus, confronted with Old Ryukaar, having the power of a being more on the scale with a typical D&D god, the world would be in some deep doo-doo. The only other "old god" known to still exist is Melora. And her power is much diminished by the fact that nature is still so devastated by the Mist apocalypse. So it was unlikely that she would be able to stand up to Ryukaar.</p><p></p><p>I think it would perhaps be an interesting campaign to have a world recovering from being blanketed in Mist for 500 years trying to resist the oppression of the only old god worthy of the name. Mialain would no doubt take on the role of quietly recruiting followers while simultaneously cleansing the land of the taint left by the Mist and hoping to restore Melora's power that way. Eshik and Zanne would have become important figures in organizing the resistance of the Dragonborn and Vondites respectively. Astavian would still be trying to figure out a way to somehow open a gate to the Elemental plane of fire to let (New) Ryukaar back in so they could continue the battle together.</p><p></p><p>But, like I said, I knew they wouldn't choose that path. The devil that you know in this case is a lot more manageable than the devil you don't know.</p><p></p><p>One other implication arose from this conversation. Valakir specifically mentioned that, if they destroyed the tablets holding the ritual during their confrontation with the Dracolich, he'd never be able to return to corporeality. To his credit, he mentioned this as being a small consideration in the grander scheme of things. But he did point it out.</p><p></p><p>Anyhow, that sets things up for the beginning of the end! Up next: The Temple Door</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 5265705, member: 99"] I was low on time yesterday when I finished posting that so let me throw in a bit of GM commentary/implications that grew out of this conversation with the "ghost" of Valakir: First, this guy was obviously my way to sum up a bunch of stuff that had been hinted at for a big portion of the campaign. It's a little ham handed but you see it all the time in the movies where you have a character basically explain what's going on to the audience (in this case both the readers here as well as the players). I find it mildly distasteful but if you think that it is sometimes a necessary evil to have a character sum stuff up after a 2-3 hour movie, it's [I]really [/I]necessary after 160+ hours of a RPG campaign. Don't get me wrong. The players had done a pretty great job of picking up various clues, following leads, asking sages for info along the way, etc. Valakir was the chance to embody an NPC whose work they had been following for 3/4 of the campaign by way of his book. I was quite impressed with Zanne's player's focus on finding out everything she could, asking all the experts she could find on two planes of existence. So Valakir in the flesh (well, in the mist I suppose) was sort of the payoff for that. It also spelled out exactly what was at stake here and set up an interesting choice (that was never really a choice to begin with but that's ok): If the ritual was completed then the world is free of the Mist but under the tyranny of the Elder Dragon God, Ryukaar (who is also in control of the Nexus and thus all the planar gates). If they can stop the ritual then they preserve the apocalyptic status quo. Clearly that's the route the PC's would be taking but they did at least mention the alternative during the discussion. This all ties back into one of the themes of the campaign, the Small Gods. I purposefully made this world such that the gods were relatively "small" in stature compared to the D&D baseline. I wanted local gods who had a lot of influence over a small area but who may be unimportant (and possibly powerless) only a short distance away. Thus you end up with beings like Vond, the Dweller, Mayaheine, the three Dragonborn deities and even Kal-Sarok (the giant crocodile god of the Lizardfolk). In a normal campaign each of these would simply be an Epic level NPC (though Mayaheine did have the omniscience thing going on). In this world, divided and devastated, they qualified as "gods". Thus, confronted with Old Ryukaar, having the power of a being more on the scale with a typical D&D god, the world would be in some deep doo-doo. The only other "old god" known to still exist is Melora. And her power is much diminished by the fact that nature is still so devastated by the Mist apocalypse. So it was unlikely that she would be able to stand up to Ryukaar. I think it would perhaps be an interesting campaign to have a world recovering from being blanketed in Mist for 500 years trying to resist the oppression of the only old god worthy of the name. Mialain would no doubt take on the role of quietly recruiting followers while simultaneously cleansing the land of the taint left by the Mist and hoping to restore Melora's power that way. Eshik and Zanne would have become important figures in organizing the resistance of the Dragonborn and Vondites respectively. Astavian would still be trying to figure out a way to somehow open a gate to the Elemental plane of fire to let (New) Ryukaar back in so they could continue the battle together. But, like I said, I knew they wouldn't choose that path. The devil that you know in this case is a lot more manageable than the devil you don't know. One other implication arose from this conversation. Valakir specifically mentioned that, if they destroyed the tablets holding the ritual during their confrontation with the Dracolich, he'd never be able to return to corporeality. To his credit, he mentioned this as being a small consideration in the grander scheme of things. But he did point it out. Anyhow, that sets things up for the beginning of the end! Up next: The Temple Door [/QUOTE]
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