Homebrew help

[SoulsFury]

I'm not sure if this is the forum to put it in, there used to be a homebrew forum I thought, but I couldn't find a better place for this..

The Fall of the Towers of the Grand

My oldest son, and the last to remain alive, looked up at me. "They are coming. I never thought evil could win. Father, is it possible?"

"They might have our world, but they won't have our lives! Get your friends ready, we must go. It is time," I said to him. I was afraid. For the first time in my life, I thought magic would fail me. Me! The most powerful wizard in the known worlds. I've defeated a God in open battle, but this, this evil was too powerful. Never before has evil been so organized, never before has evil worked so well together.

Minutes later, we stood atop the tower, surrounded by more demons, devils and even the dead than you can imagine. The Hellcats dove at the protective shield surrounding us. Wraiths slammed themselves into the barrier trying to get through. A myriad of black, red and blue dragons circled over head. The sky had turned completely black. The screams of loved ones, friends and complete strangers could be heard over the deafening sound of the falling towers. Beholders struggled to bring down my magical shield.

Similar scenes could be seen among the Towers of the Grand. We were the greatest. All wizards who had spent centuries on other worlds have always left their realms to live here. We protected magic. We studied magic. Some of us were thousands of years old, but looked twenty. We thought we were invincible, until we fought a God. Yes, the God fell, but his minions were more powerful than we thought. Everything attack us. All at once. Was this the plan of the God all along? Did we fall prey to an evil trap? I hope not.

I could see shields falling, the greatest of wizards were dying. I knew I had to create the gate, but the shield would fall as soon as I cast the other spell. Daren was supposed to be here to help, I know now that he was already dead.

"Get ready!" I quickly uttered the words to the spell, and the gate opened. The plan was for everyone to meet on the world of Alteran. It was a weak world. We could easily rebuild our towers with little hassle. Maybe even return to our old home to take it back. That idea was lost. My son and his friends piled through the gate and I leaped for the opening and everything went dark.

****

The light came, and it was bright. I knew where I was. I was dead. Now from my seat in the heavens, I watch my son and his friends. They will never be able to rebuild the tower. What happened to the rest of them? What went wrong? How did I die? These questions continuously went through my head. How could this have happened? I am tired. I am weak.

****

When I finally awoke, she stood over. My Goddess was with me.

"You are mortal no more. Walk among the immortal, the souls of the afterlife. You have been here before on visits, now it is your home. Walk among my realm."

I looked around. It was marvelous. This is where I belong now. I can fight the heavenly battles. I tried searching for my son, but I couldn't grasp him. She knew what troubled me.

"Only those who are prayed to, can see the worlds below."

****


Okay, what I need help with, is the world they have landed on. I envision a world that is pretty standard medieval world with a low to mid level magic. As suggested above the powerful wizards left this world (as well as the other worlds) for the world that is now taken over. So suddenly, the are no, I'd say lvl 15+ wizards since before, all wizards were literally forced to live in the previous world and, at least to the knowledge of the PCs, the wizards are all dead and weren't allowed to stay outside of the world for more than a short duration of time (weeks, months, to be determined). Now we have a world, that has no powerful magics, but there will be those who do gain the power since they're is no place to move on. Now, there should be few wizards as is, say 1d2+ community modifier for highest lvl wizard, which would mean the highest is 14th lvl and would fit right into all 15+s have left and are now presumed dead. Questions I need help with:

Where do Sorcerers fall into all of this?

How available are magical items? Since there are roughly half the amount of lower leveled wizards, will they be that much harder to come by, or will certain items just be harder to come by?

I'd like a slow pace campaign, with leveling being quite slow for normal standards, is there a player base for this?

The campaign should be determined by the players, their characters just got thrown into a world they've never been too. They have foreign gold (which is still good here) and probably a magic item or two they brought through the gate, maybe a backpack of holding and a lightly enchanted weapon, they are young, and fathers tend to not give their kids the best of stuff until they earned it. Do you think it is feasible for the players to decide where they want to go with their characters, or should I have at least a path painted for them?

What should the are around them be like? Perhaps one this discourages outsiders? One that welcomes them as their own? A hostile area? A wilderness area?

I really just need something to get my creative juices flowing for the world and the campaign itself. I love having the players create the campaign and me create the encounters. If they as a group want a Holy Sword of Dogs (not really but its late) then I will create the way to get it. Will they want to try and find other survivors? Will they want to grow powerful and make a counter attack? Some options I have been thinking are:
1) The father, in his lack of concentration, cast the gate to the wrong place and the other wizards actually made it through, and somewhere on this planet, there is a cluster of wizards that are raising grand towers.
2) The other wizards didn't make it, or at least less than 1% of the other wizards didn't.
3) An evil, powerful wizard made it, and is quickly gaining followers.

Help! Hope you made it this far!

Nik

 

[Tonguez]

I'd actually have them come through to Medieval Earth a world in which Wizards don't exists and low level 'Scorcerers' are legendary figures.

This then sets up the PCs as the only ones with access to magic items (the ones they are carrying). Any other magic item is an legendary artifact (the Holy Grail, Excalibur, Beowulfs horn, The Mace of St Cuthbert).

Spellcasters exists but are witches, alchemist and scholar-mages (think Roger Bacon and John Dee - who use Kabala and other hermetic traditions to cast spells)

The native population is human and superstitous, the Human PCs can pass themselves off in the cities, however other races aren't so lucky. dwarfs can appear as 'circus freaks' (medieval equivalent), gnomes and even halflings can pretend to be fey folk (who might be real species in the world) but Elves and Half-orcs are seen as evil/unlucky and so have to stay concealed and disguised.

Now some Wizards did get through, but most are dead or trapped. An evil survivor becomes the BBEG, a few demons also came through and are searching for the children, as did a few other randome and now wild monsters

There are four great sciences ... Of these sciences the gate and key is mathematics, which the saints discovered at the beginning of the world.

Opus Magus - Bacon, R

 

[SoulsFury]

Actually, I wanted to use more magic than that, so as to avoid things like that. I'd like this world to easily accomodate elves, dwarves and high level spellcasters. The only reason it doesn't have high level spellcasters and as many lower level spellcasters is because so many leave to apprentice at the now destroyed world.

I was thinking a magic level somewhere between Dragonlance and Greyhawk.

Any other ideas? I know you guys like long winded stuff...

Nik

 

[Lu Wei Fong]

How about this? The father, obviously pre-occupied with all the hordes of evil destroying everything he holds dear and other minor inconveniences didn't pay attention to the gate he was casting. As a result, it opened up a random gate and the PCs were chucked onto one of the worlds dominated by the forces of eeeevil; dragons, demons, devils, lawyers, a mix, or anything else that tickles your DM bone
So anywho, there is of course a resistance to their dominance, and that resistance comes from the underdark ironically enough, which is just where the PCs happened to land. The resistance consists of many races, especially those who escaped slavery and/or slaughter on the surface. These refugees have fallen in with the Deurgar, believe it or not. The Deurgar are not allied with the other evils of the world, who are seeking their destruction as well. They offer the refugees a home, knowledge of the underdark, and powerfull allies. The refugees offer the Deurgar added might in their stuggle to stay alive, especially in the fight against their hated enemies, the drow (who have of course allied with the greater evil forces).
Although the PCs were unfortunate enough to be thrown onto this world, they were fortunate enough to land in or near a Deurgar resistance city. The resistance is fairly powerful, and this is where those 14th levelwizards you mentioned would be found. However, the resistance is very severely out-numbered by all their enemies, and the fight is a desperate one.
This scenerio is a good way for the PCs to start their counter-attack, as pretty much anything they fight will already be in league with the greater enemy. Your campaign seems like a pretty grim dystopia (at least in the background) -which I think is really fun, by the way - and this world would be a good way to incorperate that. Not only that, but it definately has the whole good vs. evil thing going, but at the same time leaves room for the really fun gray stuff. Maybe the PCs quest through the under-dark, trying to sway other inhabitants to their cause. Swallowing their pride and many principles they long held true, the characters have to apporach the illithids, rogue aboliths and other things in order to try and ally with them before they ally with the enemy.
Anywho, just an idea, do with it what you will. Hope it made sense and maybe even helped

 

[random user]

OK, here's my spin.

The world they landed on was indeed the right place, but no wizards made it to the new world. None. Of course the party doesn't know that, and will probably spend some time chasing rumors and red herrings of wizards that did make it.

The world they landed on is very primitive, but not in the normal sense. They have just learned that other planes actually exist (as opposed to some weird metaphysical "heaven" or "hell"). Any spells dealing with a plane that a 14th wizard would know can have "just been discovered." Anything higher of course they won't have access to yet so it's not a problem. Any magic items that deal with other worlds, if they exist, have also just been invented/discovered.

The players, while low level, still understand a lot of theory about magic, and thus will be highly sought after. Various factions will try and vie for their attention, some with honey, some with "other forms of persuassion". (What, there is a spell called "Gate"? What are the matieral components? How long does it take to cast? Anything you can tell me will help me research how to create this spell!)

Ah about what about an overarching plot? One that ties back into the original world. Well, the BBEG's have other things to deal with at the moment... after all they just conquered a powerful world, but they still have a vendatta to wipe out every last remaining wizard from that world. Unfortunately, because they weren't sure which world exactly the survivors gated to (there were almost certainly other survivors, though where they ended up isn't known), they have to send scouts out to find them. And because there are so many scouts, the initial ones are fairly low powered (the party can probably encounter them around level 3 or so -- and hopefully the party is smart enough to kill it).

After the scouts don't return for a while, there will be more scouts sent, and eventually someone of middling level to check out why all the scouts are dying. Eventually it will be confirmed that the annoying party killing scouts are indeed survivors of the world, and now the real encounters start. Of course, by then, hopefully the party has grown in power, allied with some faction, and is able to deal with them in some capacity.

Optional stuff:

Eventually, the party may learn of the possibility of suvivors on other worlds -- more quests/hooks for the party. Some of the other survivors may be eager to fight. Others may have given up that life and want to live out the remainder of their lives in peace.

The BBEG's are going to get distracted from hunting down the party (answering the question "if the BBEG's are so powerful why don't they kill them immediately) both because there are many survivors they are hunting down, so they won't bring 100% of their force to bear, and some other evil (or good) faction has started warring on their new conquest, in an attempt to capture it for themselves.


Anyways, that's my basic idea. As you said, a lot of this can be modified by the players.

Just my 2cp.

 

[SoulsFury]

I defiantely like those ideas! All sorts of diabolical plots are now forming in my head. I'm sure the PCs will be asking around about other new comers, so sending them on a wild goose chase one minute, and after a disguised demon the next (and possibly a real survivor here and there, good way to add people to the party). Maybe even kidnapped for their knowledge on planar travel.

Keep 'em coming guys!

Nik