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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 7326520" data-attributes="member: 92511">I am intrigued and, actually, rather excited. It sounds like a great concept for a campaign setting/world. The second of your original thoughts is certainly more interesting/would make for a better game, imho. But you do have to take into account...what the players are going to want to do. You can't just havea game and tell everyone they have to be a draconic sorcerer or warlock, dragon god paladin or cleric, or dragonborn[yuan ti or lizardmen] characters.I initial though is, why not combine your two ideas?"<insert campaign setting name> is a world that was once awash in the wonder and beauty (and power) of magical beings and sorcery. None embodied that beauty and power moreso than the great wyrms of ancient times. A myriad rainbow of dragons, associated with the various elements and natures of the world itself, at once being fed by and emanating their magical force throughout the world.Magical creatures and beings teemed in the sylvan glades, soaring peaks, the roiling tides, and beneath the earth. Great sorcerer-kings and archmages ruled over gleaming empires/ Devout priests and druids kept their mysterious and sacred places. The forces of Evil and practitioners of dark magic were held in check, outside the world, through the combined power of the goodly races' magic-workers, and that of the dragon magic which infused the whole of <setting name>. The world was in balance. The realms, for the most part, at peace.Until it wasn't.The dragons disappeared. Even the most learned sage knows not why or where they went (though theories abound). <Some great evil -and their hierarchy of minions of varying power- can be/become the overarching Big Bad of the campaign world to pit against the party, repeatedly. Keep them close to the vest and make the players piece together the who's and why's.>With the disappearance of the great wyrms, the magic of the world slowly withers and atrophies. Magical creatures have become ever-increasingly rare, many falling into whispered legend. Magical beings and races (like elves and gnomes) have receded from the world, seeking or creating hidden fonts or sanctuaries to attempt to conserve their magic, carefully protected and jealously guarded. Dark otherworldly forces, the outside evils long held at bay, seeped into the world and multiplied.Time turned. The gleaming empires dimmed and fell. The sacred places, largely, lost and forgotten.Now, those capable of the working of magic are strange and rare individuals. There are few that can muster more than the slightest force to fuel the simplest incantations. Priestly prayers and sacrifices, by what religions still attempt to hold societies together, go largely unanswered. Those who dare to wander the dangerous and dark recesses, seeking riches of the lost kingdoms, following the occasional whispers of a dragon sighted (never believed), or searching for the places or items of magical power are rarer still. YOU are such rare individuals." Let your players choose their characters and their classes. NO dragonborn (I'll explain)! If you want, no elves, gnomes or tieflings either...half-elves and dwarves (depending on how 'magical" you consider dwarves) would be extremely rare. Halflings, I guess, could be uncommon but generally not considered "strange" or magical. Though, that whole thing about evil forces infiltrating and multiplying in the world kind of speaks to tieflings being a possible thing...I would still say rare though.Let them choose any class (I personally, would probably keep warlocks off the table to reserve them as specific bad guys, see below).In short, somewhere in your behind the scenes story/history, the dragons never "left/disappeared." They, including the PCs, were all cursed into mortal forms...with no memory of their true/former selves! So, the PCs who are spellcasters innately have a capacity to [gain levels normally] use magic at a way that will eventually become awe-[panic-]inspiring.Certain evil dragons still exist, but they are nothing more than large reptilean beasts of animal intelligence (rarely speak, no magic). As well as "warped" or mutated draconic creatures (but not "real" dragons) that are similarly ferocious and/or lost to insanity and/or mad with grief: hydras, dragonnes, behirs, (chimeras, basilisks?) etc... Evil sorcerer-warlords [evil dragons who were also trapped in mortal forms -and maybe a few good ones that have gone evil/lost it in their attempts to regain their former glory- warlocks?] eke out their own dark domains...ever searching to claim more magic power (new spells, lost items, etc...). So they should come into conflict with these kinds of individuals (and their agents) repeatedly.  As the campaign progresses, hints can be dropped -perhaps some evil dragon-men know the reality, let it slip in some evil monologue or battle and/or say ALL dragon-cursed can "see" each other for what they are, or at least that they are something odd/magical about them (innate ability after a certain level, I would say, so the more powerful the dragon-turned-mortal, the more they know/glean about their reality). Draconic sorcerers, maybe have some dreams/visions about draconic pasts or themselves.And work it so that the increasing power [levels] and claiming of their "real" selves transforms them -slowly- into full Dragonborn beings. I'd make a random chart to roll on for each level after, say 4th or 5th: gain the scales AC bonus, the elemental resistance, recognizing other dragon-cursed at a glance...eventually add in a full breath weapon, claws or horns/draconic form, forming wings? until they were fully dragonborn looking around, say, 8th or so. I'd say around 12-15th level, add in a temporary transformation into their full dragon forms.The campaign is completed when the PCs are able to learn the truth, reclaim their "true self" forms, find and defeat the evil cause of the world's "curse" and return magic (and dragons) to the world.Yeah. I'd play that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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