Split a campaign across 2 time periods?

[Eldragon]

I am trying to come up with some new and unique ways of telling a story through a DnD session. I'm quite bored with the tried and true method of coming up with a plot, and the players may or may not ignore it.

So, I got to thinking, what if the campaign was not one story line, but two, and they converge?

The basics:
Each player creates the same character twice. One is a few levels higher than the other. e.g. 9 and 12. The lower level character is when the PC is a veteran hero, well known throughout the land. The second is where the PC is an undead, walking the earth again to fufil a sacrew oath made when the lower level PC died. Timelines one and two respectively. Since death is involved, and differences in level can be mitigated with the fact that you lose XP when you die.

The story has two related plots, but set serveral hundred years apart. This helps keep the PC from causing problems with the timeline. Everyone from the first timeline is already dead in the second.

The two plots will of course have many tie ins. To be more specific, and ancient artifact in the first timeline is the central plot device of the second.

My question to the community at large is: Would anyone enjoying playing a game like this? Has anyone tried?

 

[tigycho]

As a player, I would love it.

As a DM, it sounds like a LOT of work.

Try to keep a notebook full of side effects of the downtime PC actions, since I imagine the uptime players will eventually run across the same locations... it'd be awesome, as a player, to wander into an evil looking cave and find the walls are charred with an ancient fireball that I remember having my other PC cast =)

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Executed properly (which would take an obscene amount of work on the DM's part), this would make an awe-inspiring campaign to take part in-- from either side of the DM screen.

If you pull it off, do please share with us the details.

 

[Jdvn1]

We had a campaign, once, that involved mid-level characters in a world that was falling apart. After a number of small adventures, the evil troops caught up with them and we died. The players were like, "What? TPK? Jeez, that was hard." But the GM had this planned, "Okay, now make characters roughly based on your current characters. These are great-great-grandchildren. That story was the backstory. Now the real game starts."

It was pretty cool.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

I once tried something like this, though it didn't have as many tie-ins.

Well, imagine a bunch of high level (5 is high in this campaign) kings, generals and leaders of large and violent organisations for a number of reasons personally travel south on one last adventure together - to remove the last thing stopping them from being brutal tyrants over the whole world - the powerful Emperor to the south who is busy raiding their kingdoms/whatever with large armies.

They travelled south, meeting interesting people - briefly - and taking their things, pretending to be mercenaries. Rich snake towers fell, wizards cackled amongst greenish light, magical plague-storms were stopped from happening.

Now - Starting level one characters, elite soldiers of the Imperial army - are protecting an important general sent on a quest by a prophecy - to destroy the Temple of Set itself in the haunted blightlands. After that, deal with the scabrous northern kings.

One thing leads to another. Outside the temple of Set, two parties save each others lives from the Horned Hunter himself, and that general turned out to be the uncrowned Emperor of the south.

Funny how things turn out and you don't want to kill your own beloved characters.

It turned out well - the players loved it. It does require a lot of work, though. Seems like it should just be one campaign, but it's like creating two or three

 

[Committed Hero]

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My question to the community at large is: Would anyone enjoying playing a game like this? Has anyone tried?

My question to you is: start this game at once and tell us how it goes.