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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 6176807" data-attributes="member: 2303">I like the idea of the players having to cooperate with some unusual/evil allies - like those psionic duergar - in order to oppose the far realms. It raises interesting questions - how far are we willing to go to save reality? It might also open up new and unusual paths to PCs - if we cooperate with a lesser evil to oppose a greater evil, then perhaps normally evil classes like necromancer and blackguard would be acceptable? Perhaps fiends turn out to have a greater degree of loyalty to this world than the gods do - the gods know they can move on to the next world if this one falls, but the fiends cannot, so they fight like cornered rats.I do NOT like the idea of having fiends be the ones granting PCs their divine spells. This does not involve any choice on the player's side - a character with several levels in a divine spellcaster class cannot really be expected to "just say no" and give up his powers. You have forced a PC to be a servant of evil without presenting it as an option or giving any alternatives. The coices above are interesting precisely because they are choices - if the players choose to stay on the straight and narrow, I feel you should let them. Still, it does enforce the alieness of the situation, the feeling that the rational rules of the universe are breaking down, so if you can present it properly it might work.As for the war, if the opposing kingdom has become an agent for the Far Realms, carefully consider how. It makes a big difference if a creature like Nyarlatotep has simply taken over the king of the hostile country or if that kingdom sees itself as buying time by offering sacrifices from the PCs kingdom instead of having their own kingdom suffer. To me, the last option is definitely the scariest - a human nation making the seemingly rational choice to appease the far realms to preserve themselves. Of course, this is ultimately futile as they too will die when the world ends. Will the players be able to convince them so, or will the human nations fight each other even as the far realms consume the world?  Also, the actual creatures of the far realms should be made as alien and incomprehensible as possible. If Nyarlatotep takes over an neighboring kingdom, that means Nyarlatotep is at least somewhat able to think like a human. What is most scary - Nyarlatotep  who is able to infiltrate humanity, or Azatoth that just mindlessly destroys? A creature like Azatoth does not make rational decisions - which can make it hard to use as an adversary, as it really should not use tactics as we understand it. It would make decisions that seem totally spurious to humans (both players and in-world), yet must still be powerful enough to get results out of it's weird actions, making it hard to build interesting and balanced fight scenes.  And what about the PCs learning about the far realms, gaining some of it's powers, but still fighting it? This is how things tend to end up in Call of Cthulhu - the only effective tools against the cosmic evil is the glimpses of their own powers that humans can comprehend.If this is intended to be a story for level 2 to 20, you will probably need a lot of "filler" material, adventures that do not deal directly with the threat of the Far Realm. If done right, such filler can set the contrast between the alieness of the far realm and the familiar feel of more mundane adventures, making the alien parts feel even more alien. If done wrong, the players will feel that these non-alien scenarios are irrelvant or bedside the point, distractions best avoided in the fight against the greater evil. All-in-all, it is a tough story you have chosen to tell, but one that has the potential to be very cool if it works out.</blockquote>

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