D&D General Brain Storming a Campaign idea

[Fanaelialae]

Maybe there was a group of mages, and they created a network of portals from one demiplane to another. Some of them pose as false gods while others oppose them.

Or maybe I've just been watching too much Stargate recently...

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I love the ideas so far!

For campaign progression, I'm thinking:
Tier 1: lvl 1-3 is standard fair adventures: helping merchants, doing tasks for Nobles. This is a great time to establish everything in the world. I want this place to be completely bizarre (because it's limited only by the Mage's imagination) and normalize those things for the Players. Weird, Dr. Seuss-like trees, maybe the world is a flat disk as described above, surrounded by a strange sea. Anyone who sails out gets lost or just returns to the place they left. Crazy laws etc...

3-5 is where they start noticing that things are not perfect. While I'd give clues to this at early levels, bring it more to the foreground: weird happenings, erratic weather, crops failing. At this point they might be working for someone who points them towards the exit....the illegal thing, the place no-one is allowed to talk about, or something like that. Maybe, at this point, they discover the world is dying.

5-8: Outside the Demesne. They discover the outside world. It is unlike anything they know. But it's livable. A place for the people to settle...but there are strange locals. These locals have their own stories of the 'catastrophe'.

8-12 They range further afield and learn that there are other cities (destroyed or not). It's here that they realize their homeworld is delicate, slowly deteriorating pocket dimension. They are now dealing with a main antagonist that is equal power to their 'God-King' and are trying to save all the people in their world. Maybe they are dealing with the original threat that their people fled from, or maybe that is dealt with at higher levels if I ever go there.


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I'm thinking that the original settlers worked closely with the mage. Maybe set up a counsel to make decisions for their people. Each counsellor represents a city/province from the outside world or is based on the races that were saved. I'm leaning towards the former. Over time, these became 'Noble Houses'. They became very influential. At some point, people wanted to leave. The Noble Houses didn't want to risk losing their power and prevented the others from leaving. They influenced the wizard. There was a rebellion and it was quashed. Since then, the heads of the Noble houses or the council are the 'Mouths and Ears to the God-King'. They changed history which is why there is no records to prevent future rebellion which is why there is no memory of what actually happened. Even if the people are safe to leave the domain, the ruling class won't allow it. The mage never wanted to become a god but the ruling class use him as such to maintain their influence and power.

I like the idea of the Mage Dying. That's why the world is cracking. I'm thinking of statting the Mage as an Elder Brain. There's nothing left of his body. Essentially, the Mage no longer makes decisions for the world. He's just a brain that keeps it working and the council manipulates it. But, maybe, there is something left of the mage's personality. Maybe the PCs convincing the remnants of the mage to release the people is one of the ways to set the people free...

I like the idea of limiting spells to 3rd level (especially since they will be leaving the demesne by the time they are 5th. I'd probably also outlaw conjuration.


Still processing some other ideas from the posts...I'll included them in a separate post.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

First, this is really cool.

Second, I've had this... crazy metal idea in my head for years that you might be able to use.

The world is flat, a disk. The sun is actually a huge fiery glowing crystal on a staff. The staff is rotated around the world by an enormous lich. During the day, he is "invisible" because of the glair of the staff-sun. At night, his form is revealed, illuminated from below the disk by the staff-sun (which is hidden from the people living on top of the disk).

The priests of this "god" would be either death (or similar) domain, or light domain (the "sun").

Perhaps there is a hidden city under the disk, hanging from ropes/chains?

What is your crazy metal idea? Also, the world can look like anything...so this has potential, although, I probably wouldn't go with a lich....but, maybe the effigy of the 'all-seeing' God-King.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Clerics:

1. Ok, I'm fine to totally drop all pantheons that have named gods with portfolios. In fact, I think it might work better if I do. I think it would be interesting to say 'clerics get no spells' and, if a player chooses to play a cleric at low level, I can compensate them with a magic item and, by 3rd, when they gain access to spells, they'll be the ONLY cleric in the world - once they find a way to channel their power. Maybe they worship an old - illegal - god. Really depends what kind of idea a player would come up with if I tell them, "clerics can't cast spells"

2 . If I use the idea where certain factions are in charge of certain aspects of society: Trade, Protection, Crops. (maybe I need to think of about a half-dozen to a dozen 'spheres') Then people can become clerics of these attributes. The same way a paladin no longer needs a god to get powers in 5e, clerics derive their powers from these ideals or spheres.

Noble houses or cults of clerics could be in charge of these spheres of influence.

I'm not sure which is cooler. I'm tired of the typical gods (especially Forgotten Realms). I want to simplify worship.

 

[Steampunkette]

There is some force that is slowly creating holes in the dimension and slowly eating it away. Think of The Nothing in Neverending Story. It is a threat that can start slowly and build giving the PCs a scale as they advance.

Who or what is behind it? Maybe a rival mage. Maybe a lost family member from the other side trying reunite. Bonus if you can have another group of players or the previous party the players are using find the link and be able to create a hole to get in.

I love this.... Allow me to add on?

The Wizard who created the pocket dimension isn't alive after the thousand years. He died -centuries- ago. He's still worshipped as a god-king, because he left a large number of programmed images that are displayed at different times of the "Year" (Permanency) to guide the people who are trapped. Leaving his wisdom behind. But like Plato's Cave, the illusions is all that the people who live have known, so it is the God-King.

The "Nothing" that is slowly eating the plane, and the people, is the magic that sustains it being slowly drained over a long time with slowly increasing speed as the magic that holds the demiplane in one piece is being taxed by the increasing population.

It's up to the heroes to find out why the God-King has forsaken the people, reveal the truths, deal with the social fallout, and find a way to escape to a world these people have never known against the explicit wishes of the God-King.

 

[Ancalagon]

What is your crazy metal idea? Also, the world can look like anything...so this has potential, although, I probably wouldn't go with a lich....but, maybe the effigy of the 'all-seeing' God-King.

the crazy idea was that the sun was propelled around the world as the gem at the tip of a staff, by an undead being thousands of km tall, floating in space. This being would be visible at night but not during the day (a bit like how the starts are hidden by the glare of the sun.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I like the idea that overpopulation is part of the problem. It was never designed to be permanent. It was designed as a 'bomb shelter'. A temporary place to weather the storm. As the population increases, the realm is forced to expand and the magic is being stretched thin.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Maybe there was a group of mages, and they created a network of portals from one demiplane to another. Some of them pose as false gods while others oppose them.

Or maybe I've just been watching too much Stargate recently...

I've yet to find an upper limit when it comes to watching Stargate.

 

[Istbor]

I guess I would look at it this way, especially in the context of this portion:

"I kind of like the idea of the group doing adventures in the 'world' but slowly finding out that things are not as they seem. That there are cracks on the edges. Then they find out there's 'another world' and, possibly, that their God-King isn't a god at all."

That the souls of those brought his are also unable to escape this demi-plane. That over those 1000 years perhaps spirits of the long dead portend this place as a sort of gilded prison. Or something I like even more, stories or experiences of people remember different past lives. Compounded for a 1000 years as souls trapped simply return to the "Great cycle", people start to fall into a madness as these multiple memories mix and merge. Slowly eating away at the society that has been stable.

Now... my views on what absolute power would do to a wizard like this out of consideration, you could run the God-King as having become aware of the issue but trying in vain to fix a problem beyond his grasp. That could lead to very mysterious quests through intermediaries or disguises as the magic user ropes the players into helping find some solution, or it could lead to some well intentioned, but failed (perhaps horrifically so) past attempts at 'freeing' the souls from this artificial demi-plane.

I personally like that the wizard could still technically be completely benevolent but shut away to fix a slow building new crisis of his own creation. I would definitely see some players trying to figure out who this 'client' is that has been paying them to perform odder and odder tasks that might be revealing more of the truth of the world they are in. Then suddenly finding out through their own investigations they are working for this God-King wizard.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I guess I would look at it this way, especially in the context of this portion:

"I kind of like the idea of the group doing adventures in the 'world' but slowly finding out that things are not as they seem. That there are cracks on the edges. Then they find out there's 'another world' and, possibly, that their God-King isn't a god at all."

That the souls of those brought his are also unable to escape this demi-plane. That over those 1000 years perhaps spirits of the long dead portend this place as a sort of gilded prison. Or something I like even more, stories or experiences of people remember different past lives. Compounded for a 1000 years as souls trapped simply return to the "Great cycle", people start to fall into a madness as these multiple memories mix and merge. Slowly eating away at the society that has been stable.

Now... my views on what absolute power would do to a wizard like this out of consideration, you could run the God-King as having become aware of the issue but trying in vain to fix a problem beyond his grasp. That could lead to very mysterious quests through intermediaries or disguises as the magic user ropes the players into helping find some solution, or it could lead to some well intentioned, but failed (perhaps horrifically so) past attempts at 'freeing' the souls from this artificial demi-plane.

I personally like that the wizard could still technically be completely benevolent but shut away to fix a slow building new crisis of his own creation. I would definitely see some players trying to figure out who this 'client' is that has been paying them to perform odder and odder tasks that might be revealing more of the truth of the world they are in. Then suddenly finding out through their own investigations they are working for this God-King wizard.

The movie Aeon Flux does something similar if OP wants an easily digestible take on this idea.