[4E] Points of Darkness - working on ideas for a setting

[Neonchameleon]

This sounds like it will a more PvP game than a PvM game. This may be fine for some groups, but I ahve always been more of a players versus monsters kind of GM, not with lots of politics and such.

But I know that is just me.

I hope not. I only normally want to run PvP when running Paranoia. I'm intending to upend most fantasy tropes - and produce something that's in many ways functionally equivalent to PoLand while being the end goal of many adventurers. Readily usable for comic subversion, straight, and evil campaigns. Politics on the other hand can be quite fun. (Oh, and another point of the setting is to use some of the rarely used sections of the MM - PCs don't normally treat metallic dragons as automatic enemies and chromatic as possible allies).

 

[Herobizkit]

This is an easy one.

Monsters as PC races.

Driven to the brink of extinction, the great leaders of the Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, Kobolds, and Gnolls have banded together for mutual survival. Led by [whoever], a great Ogre Mage, the humanoids have agreed to lay aside territorial disputes for the promise of the eradication of the humans and their allies; the humanoids unite under the banner of the Legion of Doom. (hee hee to those who get the ref; Legion is still a cool word). All is not peaceful in the ranks, however, and many scuffles and struggles for a pecking order still occur. Where do YOU stand?

 

[Cyronax]

This is an easy one.

Monsters as PC races.

Driven to the brink of extinction, the great leaders of the Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, Kobolds, and Gnolls have banded together for mutual survival. Led by [whoever], a great Ogre Mage, the humanoids have agreed to lay aside territorial disputes for the promise of the eradication of the humans and their allies; the humanoids unite under the banner of the Legion of Doom. (hee hee to those who get the ref; Legion is still a cool word). All is not peaceful in the ranks, however, and many scuffles and struggles for a pecking order still occur. Where do YOU stand?

I love the Super-Friends.

That gets me thinking about using comics as ideas for rpgs.

One plot I would like to try out for current or future campaign would be to have the recurring (and surviving) villains team up in a way similar to the old Marvel Avengers Acts of Vengeance story arc. (This idea has sort of been updated with Marvel's Dark Reign.

Essentially all the villains decide to do a 'nemesis swap.' "The idea was that after years of being constantly beaten by the many super-heroes, it was time that the villains stopped attacking the same targets they always attacked, and focused on ones they had never faced. By doing so, they hoped to take the heroes off-guard and easily defeat them."

This works well in campaigns that have established villains that either don't directly face the PCs/Good NPCs or villains that the PCs can't kill due to in-plot complications or moral dilemmas.

To take this into D&D, I'll draw a similar example that became a prominent plot feature from a campaign I ran a few years ago.

Goblin horde, led by a conniving half-dragon goblin, plans for 15+ years to conquer the premeir dwarven kingdom of the world (and enslave them and take their stuff). The main way they do this is by breeding and mutating RUST MONSTERS which strikes at the dwarves' biggest strengths -- technology.

/Random ideas

 

[Cassander]

Kind of seems almost like changing the default alignment system from Lawful Good vs. Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good vs. Lawful Evil. Points of Chaos instead of Points of Law, as it were. Or just jettisoning the Good and Evil axis and having a Chaos against Law campaign.

 

[Xris Robin]

This idea reminds me of a book I read once, but I can't recall the name. It was sort of a D&D parody a little, where Good had won and unbalanced the world, so the last few villains had to adventure to return Evil to the world to save it.

 

[GladiusNP]

This idea reminds me of a book I read once, but I can't recall the name. It was sort of a D&D parody a little, where Good had won and unbalanced the world, so the last few villains had to adventure to return Evil to the world to save it.

Sounds like "Villains by Necessity" by Eve Forward. The main character was an Assassin named 'Sam' IIRC. Granted, I read this about ten years ago. I also thought of this book when I read the first post.

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Villains by Necessity