Epic quests that don't involve saving the world?

[Surgoshan]

Get Rid of That Darn Cat.

 

[Mallus]

Beat the house in every casino in the world, including the one run by the God of Luck.

Steal wife back from demon lord/divorce wife/win her back.

Found an empire/stock market/school of philosophy/wizard boarding school.

Free an empire/subjugate an empire.

Become the world's top chef/survive catering an event on Mt. Olympos.

Start the world's first parcel delivery service using pilgrim knights.

(I'll have more once I have another cup of coffee)

 

[Surgoshan]

Understand Women.

 

[Chibbot]

Steal wife back from demon lord/divorce wife/win her back.

Understand Women.

As Durkon said, "love is an epic level challenge."

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Get Rid of That Darn Cat.

*Begins to Sing:

"But the cat came back the very next day,
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away.
Away, away, yea, yea, yea"*

 

[Simplicity]

Repair a broken soul.
Discover the meaning of life.
Imprison the essence of a god.
Forge an everlasting peace.
Repair the Godblade, a sword of invincibility.
Learn the Demispell.
Touch the Stone of All-Knowledge.

 

[Mirtek]

Of course, even in just those two categories, there are a lot of variations on a theme. What are some historic, incredibly significant events that might be worthy of an epic destiny?

Free the Israelites and found a nation.

Conquer the known world (Alexander failed, Genghis Khan succeeded).

Sack Rome and destroy civilization.

Liberate the Holy Land (from either side; nobody ever finished this one).

Explore the entire world (Magellan might count).

Keep a nation unified and free the slaves.

Defeat the Nazis.

Actually these all look more like paragon quests to me. Epic is said to be about standing eyelevel with the deities themselves and being concerned about the fates of multiple worlds. Any single world shouldn't be of too much concern, much less small part of a single world

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Basic Ideas:
o Preserve something
o Discover something
o Change something
o Create something

I think one of the most interesting things to do might to change something forever. That might be something that is appropriate for Epic Level Heroes. Instead of just saying you killed Mephistopheles, and he will probably return in a hundred years, you really killed him for good. He will not be coming bad. Evil is forever weakened. The world will never be the same again.

Anyone remember the Dungeon (?) article on the "Zeitgeist"? That could serve as your starting point. What's the current Zeitgeist? Where is it headed if the players don't act? What will the players send it to?

- Avert a cosmic catastrophe (Asteroid/Abandoned Astral Dominion colliding with the world)
- End this World to start a new World (or end this Cycle to start a new one)
- Wake a slumbering god (or help an imprisoned one to escape)
- Kill the Gods, so that the Klingons mankind can stand on its own.
- Eradicate all Evil and create Utopia. (For real. Campaign World-Ender!)
- Eradicate all Drow/Orc/Dragons/Evil Race (or turn them into something friendly)
- Reunite Vulcans and Romulans Elves, Eladrin and Drow
- Reunite Feyworld, Shadowfell and the Prime
- Eradicate a terrible disease once and for all
- Find out where the souls of the dead go
- Safe the souls of the dead
- Lift the secret of creation
- Undo something that happened in the past (Time Travel? Phanes?)
- Bring back the Gnomes!
- Equal Rights (and pay) for men & women (or black & white, man & orc)
- Open the Portal to the Multiverse
- Create a new race, or advance an existing one to a new level (arcana evolved, babylon 5)
- Create a new power source/class (Introduce Druids by creating the first Druidic order)
- Create a new continent/world
- Create a second Sun, so that people never have to live in Darkness (2010) (Variant: "Enlighten" the Underdark)

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Save the world from orcs with pies.

 

[jelmore]

It seems like all the epic destinies they talk about involve stopping the destruction of the world. It seems so . . . done. I mean, saving the world is something everybody ought to do once or twice in their lives, but I'd like some more options. Any suggestions?

"Ushering in a new age" is somewhat ambiguous: historians tend to decide when an "age" begins and ends, and the founding events of an "age" are often not felt until long afterwards.

I'm reminded of something that Jim Starlin once said about writing for various "cosmic"/"epic" storylines he produced for Marvel Comics (I believe the article was discussing the original Infinity Gauntlet miniseries and its sequels). I wish I could find the actual quote, but it was something to the effect of "all good epics are, at the core, personal stories."

What makes an epic is the scope of the events that surround characters whose motivations are familiar. In The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos -- a madman obsessed with winning the favor of (the personification of) Death -- knows that Death will never accept him as an equal so long as he is mortal. He begins a lifelong quest to obtain ultimate power, culminating in the creation of the Infinity Gauntlet. Triumphant, he summons Death to him only to find that Death no longer regards him as inferior, but instead as Death's sovereign: Death will do whatever Thanos asks, but out of obedience, not out of love. Thanos is defeated by the surviving heroes of the universe, and the Gauntlet is destroyed. (It is theorized that Thanos' self-hatred keeps him from succeeding in his schemes, because deep down he is convinced he doesn't deserve ultimate power.)

We can break out some common themes, and mix them up by combining them or attributing an interesting motivation. (This is good practice for fleshing out archvillains, too.)

1a) Attaining godhood or sainthood
1b) Slaying one or more gods
1c) Achieving literal immortality
2a) Founding a notable bloodline
2b) Destroying a notable bloodline
3a) Founding a new nation
3b) Starting a massive social or political evolution
3c) Destroying an existing nation
4a) Genocide
4b) Change or evolution of an existing race
4c) Creating a new race
5a) Discovery of a new land/continent/world/plane of existence
5b) Creation of a new land/continent/world/plane of existence
5c) Destruction of a land/continent/world/plane of existence
6a) Starting a war
6b) Ending a war
7a) Creation of a group or organization
7b) Eradication of a group or organization
8a) Creation of a new technology or form of magic
8b) Destruction of a existing technology or form of magic

So you can have a ranger whose wanderlust leads him to destroy the Parliament of Whispers, a centuries-long conspiracy devoted to preventing the rediscovery of the legendary homeland of the elves. Or an wizard whose obsession with the properties of a strange mineral found near a planar rift leads to the invention of runic portals which allow for easy and accurate teleportation from city to city or continent to continent; they are known "Symmari portals" for their inventor.

For villains, you can have an evil cleric driven by his faith in his god's teachings to become the Saint of Slaughter and uniting his brethren in a (un)holy war against the Shining Kingdom. Or a warlord, fearing a prophecy that foretells his death at the hands of "the stonekin", who initiates a purge to eliminate the dwarven race.