Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 4272225" data-attributes="member: 7177">Here's an idea: Eventually, thanks to the heroic efforts of the PCs at a critical juncture, the Evil Empire collapses partially, and a civil war breaks out. The PCs manage to liberate and hold some territory of its own - but at the same point, several successor state of the Evil Empire (each controlled by a former henchmen of the Evil Overlord) stabilize, and they are looking to gain an advantage over each other. And the realm of the PCs - and the PCs themselves - might just constitute such an advantage.Yes, this means that the PCs not only get to control their own mini-kingdom, but also play games of backstabbing intrigue with some more more powerful nations, each of which could potentially wipe their realm out, but risks weakening itself in the process. Will they ally themselves with one of the factions in hope of gaining more influence, or carefully try to stay neutral between the factions - while the Successor States try to provoke a war between the PCs and one of their rivals? What kinds of ideals are they willing to compromise to ensure the safety of their own people - are they willing to ignore the suffering of humans elsewhere to protect the humans in their own realm? Will the people in their own realm accept their leadership, or will some try to replace them - either because they want the power, or because they don't want to make any compromises with the enemy? And what do they hope for the future - is some sort of coexistence between humans or humanoids possible, or can this only be over once every last humanoid is either driven out of their region or killed?This kind of approach allows for a lot more drama, shades of gray, and cloak-and-dagger intrigue than the more common, simplistic "Good vs. Evil" story - and in my opinion, it's a lot more fun. And if it gets boring eventually... well, just start an invasion by Things Man Was Not Meant To Know that threaten everyone, humans and humanoids alike, and see if they can rally former enemies behind them.</blockquote>

Verification