Fey vs Shadow

[Baz King]

To the OP: why are they on war on your campaign? What happened?

In my game, they aren't seperate planes exactly, they are geographically part of the world.
Its all about territory really.
However, your question is one that I want to answer in game, probably at the end of the heroic tier. Then its about picking sides, then about prosecution.

 

[avin]

Roger that.

I'm not particularly fond of huge wars in my games, at least not in "epic" sense. When there's need of it as a game plot I always try to keep it closer to what was (war) on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and with Fallout's opening in mind:

"War... war never changes...
the romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth
spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory
hitler shaped a battered germany into an economic superpower
but war never changes... "

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I'd let the players choose their side and eventually they'd win the war--turning part of the losing side's domain into the winner's domain (so if the Fey won, part of the Shadowfell would be invaded, colonized and turned into a Feywild realm). This would unbalance the dynamic between the two and the heroes would have to work to restore the balance.

 

[MrMyth]

Shadowfell wins, because it more fun when the bad guys win!

Who says the Shadowfell are the bad guys? ~grin~

There are some creepy, creepy fey out there. I can see some of them starting up a plan to conquer or use the Shadowfell in some way. I can even see them drawing the heroes in initially thinking the fey are the good guys, and halfway through realizing it is the Shadowfell that needs protecting (or that they need to try and stop the entire war just to keep the world itself safe!)

 

[LightPhoenix]

Yeah, I'm sort of ripping off the comic book Fables. Shh. Different adversary, anyways.

There are a lot of worse things you could be ripping off from.

 

[Piratecat]

there are a lot of worse things you could be ripping off from.

"Gilligannnnn!" "Yes, Skipper?" "Why is there an island on the island?" "I give up, Skipper. Why IS there an owlbear on the island?"

Yes. Yes, there is.

 

[Baz King]

There are a lot of worse things you could be ripping off from.

My fave bit of the DMG? 'A DMs job is not to be original, its to entertain.'

 

[hong]

Roger that.

I'm not particularly fond of huge wars in my games, at least not in "epic" sense. When there's need of it as a game plot I always try to keep it closer to what was (war) on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and with Fallout's opening in mind:

"War... war never changes...
the romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth
spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory
hitler shaped a battered germany into an economic superpower
but war never changes... "

That works at heroic, but for paragon and epic you probably want a theme with a bit more oomph (whether that involves a huge war or otherwise). Otherwise you really will be doing the same thing from 1-30, just with bigger numbers.