Heroes Fall (Redux)

[jdrakeh]

There's just something very alluring about taking a familiar heroic setting and injecting it with a dose of cynicism. Former PCs as some of the last true, uncompromised, heroes being put down by supposed allies, wit the descendents of said heroes joining with former allies of their ancestors to set things right? That premise just drips with cool, specifically because we get to see some old heroes find themselves again in the name of justice. Which got me thinking. . .

What say you? What different ways can you think of to handle this premise in a campaign? Do you think a variation on this theme would work better? Give me your ideas, ENWorld!

 

[Alzrius]

I'd guess that in order for this to work, there needs to be some sort of new status quo brought about by some sort of malevolent new force. The idea here is that former heroes now fight for this evil power because they think things will be even worse if the new status quo isn't maintained.

The comic book version of this is that the public and/or government is now overtly hostile towards superheroes, and most of them go underground for survival; out of sight is out of mind. However, the one person who refuses to compromise then becomes a threat, because his continued actions keep all of them (by association) in the public consciousness. Ergo, to take the heat off of all of them, they need to put their overzealous companion down.

This doesn't seem to work quite as well in a high fantasy game, since adventurers seem perhaps too ubiquitous, and too necessary (evil monsters and all) to be suppressed by a local government (and the people, without newspapers or TV or the internet, will be slower to form a far-reaching opinion).

The way I'd do that in a high fantasy setting is to set it in an area controlled by a despotic overlord who recently rose to power. The Incursion campaign (where the githyanki invade) seems well-suited for that sort of thing; a few decades after Vlaakith has conquered the world, many of the former heroes now fight for her to police humanity (and the other races) so that she doesn't decide they're too troublesome to be allowed to live. Thus, the heroes have to fight against their own before they can move on to the real evil mastermind.

And just as a note, Grayson isn't spelled with an "e."

 

[Herobizkit]

In the same vein, you could run a Japanese-style adventure where only the nobility and people in power are permitted to carry weapons. Then, have the local lord "hire" all of the "adventurers" in the area, tattoo them, then have the same nobility seek out and destroy all "adventurers" who refuse to join. Hilarity ensues as the "heroes" try to help the townsfolk while drawing the ire of those in power.