Alternatives to "Save the World"

[Draksila]

I co-DMed a campaign where we took PCs from my and my friend's previous campaigns and dropped them in a whole new world. This setting had suffered an apocalyptic event that had destroyed the previous gods (the Egyptian pantheon) and wiped out civilization (as far as most people knew). Magic was wild and unpredictable, and its last guardians (the elves) had become militaristic and expansionist (leading to references of 'Nazi elves' at the game table). Humans and halflings were scattered plains nomads who operated in close-knit tribes. To the east, a large tribe of tasloi had turned away from their cannibalistic roots and were trying to create their own neutral necromantic society in opposition of the elves; they had taken in a couple of human tribes and were teaching them to live among the trees and revere the dead. The dwarves, thought destroyed in the apocalypse, had sealed all their kingdoms in the south and were the last guardians of civilization; their cities resembled Midgar from Final Fantasy VII in basic design and technology, including automatic gunpowder weapons, and were powered by captive lightning elementals (this was mid-90s in 2nd ed, so way before Eberron).

The dragons, guardians of the world order, had summoned the PCs from their homeworlds in an effort to rebuild the world without having to destroy it. The PCs goals were to find new gods to stabilize magic and the natural order, to recover some of the equality between the races that had been lost (note this didn't mean 'defeat the elves' or 'turn the tasloi back to evil...' it just meant they had to find a balance so that no one species wiped the others out of existence), and discover what had happened to the world in the first place so that it didn't happen again (the dragons were pretty sure Set had put a plan into motion to make himself the only god, and that's what kaboomed the world).

From a long-term view, yes, it could be said that rebuilding and stabilizing a world is, in fact, saving it. But the goal was letting the PCs have a hand in creating a setting that we could then use in future games. Unfortunately, the game was never concluded; we lost half the players to real life issues, and it just happened to be the proactive players.

 

[Dykstrav]

I also think discovery and exploration is a much under-used plot device; imagine the D&D equivalent of discovering a new continent and the race to carve up such a place.

I totally agree with this. One of the biggest things I love about the game is the exploration angle, I love having a mysterious wilderness to map out and I love to open every door in a dungeon complex just to see what's there.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Well, I'm running one campaign and using the published adventures, so right now I have no idea what the final plot is going to be!

I'm playing in another game, and right now we're just happy to have got out of the situation we were in - trapped inside a glacier as more and more skeletons started re-animating all around us!

 

[tankschmidt]

Go on adventures. Explore the dungeons and the wilderness. Become a pirate for awhile. Rescue a princess. Discover magical items and locations of great power. Spread law (or chaos) across the land. Amass riches and build a stronghold. Levy fair taxes and rule justly or crush all opposition with an iron fist. Continue exploring the world but also begin to shape the world. Create new spells and name them after yourself. Expand your domain and become powerful. Wage war, prevent war, play politics. Defend your lands from usurpers and yourself from assassins. When the time comes, retire to the good life, and let the next fellow have a chance.

Compared to all that, saving the world just gets trite after awhile.

 

[Jack Colby]

A lot of posters seem to complain that ye olde "save the world from massive threat"-scenario is lame. I'm wondering - what's going on in your campaigns, especially at high levels and epic proportions?

High level epic games are also lame.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I ask the players: "Your characters have the power to change the world. So just how do they plan to change the world?"

This is part of the whole premise of Exalted - which I am currently GMing, and which has been a real education to me. In "saving the world" scenarios, the PCs are basically reactive - there's some huge threat, and they need to stop it somehow.

But even if there is no such threat, there are still plenty of things which are wrong with the world. Slavery. Oppression of racial, ethnic, or religious minorities. Serfdom. Even oppressive taxes. All of these need not be affect the PCs directly, or be a threat to them - but any PC might be motivated to do something about them. So encourage your PCs to have big, epic motivations from which to build big, epic adventures even when the fate of the world is not at stake.

This kind of paradigm shift - from reactive to proactive plots - may not come easily to some players. So I suggest the following scenario:

Once they have become powerful in their own right have the PCs go to some minor fiefdom or kingdom. They quickly learn that the ruler is a jerk - not the frothing Evil Overlord of other tales, but certainly unpleasant, and quite a few locals are oppressed by the authorities.

Not the PCs, though - to them, the local authorities will be polite, since they have made a name for themselves as people not to be trifled with. They will accommodate the PCs reasonably well (though they will also encourage the PCs to leave quickly again), but they will also try to block any attempts of the PCs to interfere in their operation. If the PCs really insist and it looks like they become violent, they might make some compensation to their victims - but it is clear that this is a short-term reversal only and they will do more of the same once the PCs turn their backs again. Think of how Chinese or Russian authorities try to prevent interference by Western countries when they complain about those pesky "human rights", and you get the picture.

Keep this up for a while, and most PCs will be itching to do something about this situation - but it should be clear that the only way of doing that is toppling the local government. So when they try exactly that, let it succeed instead of having some powerful NPC stopping them to maintain the status quo (as it happens in far too many bad adventures).

So now the PCs have entered a new profession: Politics. And it's going to be vicious, but the rewards are great: If they do things right, they can create the future of an entire realm. All they have to do is figure out what they actually want, and act accordingly. When they suddenly see all sorts of NPCs popping up and asking them what they should do...

...then, maybe, they will come up with their own plans for the future - and thus, their own plots for adventures.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I'm typically not a fan of epic level campaigns, so that takes a load off my back

When it all comes down to it, why does (almost) anyone become an adventurer? For fame and profit! Sure, some people concern themselves with saving the world, but some characters just don't want to go back to farming. Or maybe they're the knight errant type, just wandering around, looking for evil things to kill and good things to help. Or heck, maybe they're just bored and are one of those particularly crazed individuals who just likes to dungeon dive.

 

[Desdichado]

--Save yourselves; watch the world burn.

--Destroy the world yourselves.

--Save the world... so you can crush it under your boot and rule it with blood and iron.

--Kill even bigger, more powerful things and take their stuff; who cares about the world?

--Epic ale and whores.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Prevent the party's Alienist wizard from consummating his marriage to the Lethe-dipped spawn of Baalzebuul who is unknowingly masquerading as a pretty halfling girl who is unaware of her true form: a giant maggoty-beetle thing.

 

[The_Warlock]

Prevent the party's Alienist wizard from consummating his marriage to the Lethe-dipped spawn of Baalzebuul who is unknowingly masquerading as a pretty halfling girl who is unaware of her true form: a giant maggoty-beetle thing.

That does seem pretty darn proactive....or is that prophylactic?