How Does This Campaign Setting Sit With You?

[Umbran]

I say this not to be negative to the idea, but to give a chance to come up with counter-strategies.

An intelligent questioner can glean a lot of information out of what you cannot be brought to say. Intelligence on the Well becomes an exercise in using negative space - poking around the edges until you have the shape of the thing.

I mean, this is what the Insight skill is all about - what's going on that the person isn't saying? You don't even have to use magic - just watching for that twitch at the corner of your eye when you're asked a question you can't answer....

 

[Ulfgeir]

I absolutely hate the premise. Now, if there was some way to slip the chain and disappear into the underground of this new city, I might go for it, if the party was willing. But unless we were doing something like that, or somehow going to be in short order helping to destroy the new jackass overlords in short order, I'd nope out. You're either going to serve this group of Nazis or that group of Nazis? Hell, no.

I think my comment was the closest to that. I did NOT say they were nazis. I said the mark gave vibes of the identifying coloured patches certain groups of people were forced to wear in WWII Germany, and that that could rub some people the wrong way.

 

[MattW]

I like the idea. Like many earlier posters, I don't see any major problems. IF YOUR PLAYERS ARE OK WITH IT.

But, I do have a suggested change.

The "neutral/safe space" only exists because the Overlord permits it to exist. It's always useful to have a trade nexus where diplomats and spies can operate. Refugees are tolerated, but they are trying to get to other (safer) places. Some of the locals are sympathetic, some oppose the Overlord, some support him. Think of the movie 'Casablanca'. The big difference is that the Overlord's forces are present (although they can't "officially" intervene).

The Adventurers aren't indentured (unless that's essential to the plot); they are trying to get payment for their services. This payment is in the form of passage to a safer world for some of their people. (A few dozen at a time for each successful mission, perhaps).

This should open up a number of options
1. "Slider" adventures (as you already intend)
2. "Magnificent Seven" adventures (defending the colonists in the allegedly safer world)
3. "Resistance" adventures (Making life difficult for the Overlord's forces and secretly trading for supplies/weapons). The Maquis from Star Trek might be an inspiration
4. You'd have a nice villain (Major Strasser of the Third Reich, er.... The Overlord's Forces).

 

[aramis erak]

The PCs are refugees from the various Realms they come from, which were subjugated by the Overlord. They are rescued to take refuge in a giant bazaar city called Lakk_Szatz'i (The Well of Worlds), which rests in the center of an unending but hidden desert Realm. Here they take an oath to become indentured Treasure Hunters to begin a new life.

This is the part where it hits the ick factor for me: There's no indication of choice. The PC's seem to be conscripts with a forced oath. In other words, draftees. Slaves of the state. ("Slaves of the state" has been used in some anti-prison-labor arguments, as well as anti-selective service rhetoric, for decades.)

If you're "rescued" into servitude, you're not rescued, you're kidnapped.

 

[Big J Money]

This is the part where it hits the ick factor for me: There's no indication of choice. The PC's seem to be conscripts with a forced oath. In other words, draftees. Slaves of the state. ("Slaves of the state" has been used in some anti-prison-labor arguments, as well as anti-selective service rhetoric, for decades.)

If you're "rescued" into servitude, you're not rescued, you're kidnapped.

I can't tell if you mean there's no indication of player choice or player character choice.

Regarding player choice, you're correct. That's why a lot of poeple so far have said "your players need to be okay with this setting". I personally thought this was obvious, since it's GMing 101, but just in case it's not obvious, I agree with everyone who has pointed out that when you have any kind of hard restrictions on a campaing setting, the players need to be told ahead of time what's up to make sure they are okay with it.

Regarding character choice... I don't have a very enlightening comment. You're also right there, but it's opinion. The PCs simply don't have a choice here; it's baked into the initial state of the campaign. There are a lot of things I could say about that. In life, we often don't have choices about certain aspects of our destiny. That's one of the appeals of playing a fantasy game; to face the challenges of dramatic stakes to a gratuitously high level that would be unfathomable in real life (like having to defend onseself against terrifying monsters, for example). In this case the theme is "your previous life was stripped from you, and now you only have a sliver of opportunity; what will you do with it?" Like any RPG, they actually do have a choice during the meaningful part of play, which is everything they do after they've taken the oath. But the oath-taking is a part of charcter creation. All newly created character have taken the oath. It's no different than running an RPG where every character is a detective. You might not like that there is no alternative choice for your PC - you must be a detective - but then why did you sign up for the detective Campaign? What it ultimately boils down to is that when I advertise this Campaign, people who find this theme distasteful will not wish to play and that's fine.

Edit: I had another thought after I posted this. If the reason this lack of character choice is an ick-factor for you, it could be that the part you enjoy about RPGS is when some of them give you a blank slate to make your character with, and they don't require you to have specific major parts of your character be predetermined. If that's a hangup for you, then this clearly would not be the kind of campaign you'd be interested in. I'm only going to be looking for players who don't require that level of freedom during character creation. Another example: stats and character traits will be rolled randomly. Some people really don't like that either, but that's the system I'm running.

 

[Big J Money]

• If these folks are in debt rather than enthralled, what happens when they earn out of it? (Can they realistically earn out of it?)

Yes, there are actually no strings attached, it's just a very large sum. If their PC dies, a new PC will have to start over, however.

• Can the debt assignment/recruitment process appear a little less predatory? (Maybe rather than being sent back into certain death they're put into a segregated colony/ghetto.)

Well it's funny you say that. I didn't mention it, but in the backstory there is another option. Refugees are given 3 options: become Omi Gari, become Ru Gari, or be returned to their home Realm. Omi Gari are the Treasure Hunter servants and Ru Gari are more traditional indentured servants.

However, this is just window-dressing because this "recruitment process" isn't a part of play. It's a part of the setting. When players make their PCs, they are making Omi Gari. There is no option in the campaign to be anything else. It's like if I told the players we're going to play an RPG pirate campaign where the PCs are pirates, and thus every PC they create is some form of pirate.

• Can the debtors ultimately be raised in societal status or will they always be "othered"? Can they be provided "one of the good others" status?

Once they pay the debt, they are raised in social status. However, clever players could come up with other ways to find favor with the wealthy ruling class. I'm certainly open to their ideas.

 

[Big J Money]

I mean, this is what the Insight skill is all about - what's going on that the person isn't saying? You don't even have to use magic - just watching for that twitch at the corner of your eye when you're asked a question you can't answer....

Keep in mind that this won't be D&D but a homebrew OSR dungeoncrawl game I'm working on. Social skills like Insight (at least the way they work in D&D) won't be part of the game. If players wish to know something they either roleplay it straight, or roleplay it with the aid of specialized skills (like Herbology) to allow their expertise in areas aid their efforts to glean new information.

I'm not saying your concept is impossible, just that there wouldn't be any skill rolls that NPCs or players can make to determine the emotions / intentions of other characters. To be honest, I don't even run D&D that way. Although that's one reason I don't play D&D anymore anyway. It's too heavy on the "I roll a d20 to do anything" style of gameplay I don't care for. I don't need to turn this into that discussion, I only mention it here to say that relying on D&D gameplay techniques doesn't really apply to this topic.

 

[Umbran]

I'm not saying your concept is impossible, just that there wouldn't be any skill rolls that NPCs or players can make to determine the emotions / intentions of other characters. To be honest, I don't even run D&D that way. Although that's one reason I don't play D&D anymore anyway. It's too heavy on the "I roll a d20 to do anything" style of gameplay I don't care for. I don't need to turn this into that discussion, I only mention it here to say that relying on D&D gameplay techniques doesn't really apply to this topic..

So, this is hardly a D&D technique. Most games these days have ways of denoting a character who is more socially savvy than others, and who have skills and abilities the players don't have.

 

[Deset Gled]

Like any RPG, they actually do have a choice during the meaningful part of play, which is everything they do after they've taken the oath. But the oath-taking is a part of charcter creation. All newly created character have taken the oath. It's no different than running an RPG where every character is a detective. You might not like that there is no alternative choice for your PC - you must be a detective - but then why did you sign up for the detective Campaign? What it ultimately boils down to is that when I advertise this Campaign, people who find this theme distasteful will not wish to play and that's fine.

I think it's worth noting that (so far) people have only made comments about the Oath. No one has complained about being forced into a backstory where their characters are destitute refugees from war torn worlds, being chased by a genocidal Overlord, with no connection to their old homes or families.

 

[Tonguez]

I think it's worth noting that (so far) people have only made comments about the Oath. No one has complained about being forced into a backstory where their characters are destitute refugees from war torn worlds, being chased by a genocidal Overlord, with no connection to their old homes or families.

isnt that the backstory of every teenagers PC anyway? “yeah okay, I’m the last survivor of a raid on my village, where my whole family was killed. I was taken into slavery and had to fight as a gladiator until I earned my freedom - now I want revenge on Thulsa Doom!”