STARP_Social_Officer
First Post
Okay, so I had this incredible idea for a mini-campaign. Epic on every level.
The background to my specific idea is that it is a follow-up to my most successful campaign, the 2E/3E/3.5E campaign which ended in the PCs becoming 20th level and saving the world etc. etc. And this campaign was itself a sequel to another campaign I ran several years before that on the same world with different PCs.
SO, my mini-campaign idea is this:
The world is on the brink of a magic-and-steam hybrid form of an Industrial Revolution. The powerful Mages Guild are about to begin a momentous experiment - a magical energy generator which taps directly into the mana field surrounding the world. The inventors' hope is that the machine will convert the mana directly into power, generating many times the energy of steam. But they don't realise they are being manipulated by something more powerful than they ever imagined. A godlike being who is so powerful he keeps the Tarrasque as a pet is secretly manipulating events on hundreds of worlds across hundreds of dimensions and parallel realities, and other mages guilds and similar organisations are constructing the same device. Then, the godlike being arranges for all the machines to be activated at precisely the same moment. The resulting energy tears a massive rip in the fabric of reality.
The first hints the PCs get that something is happening is through seeing 'flashes' of other realities; momentarily entering parallel universes and seeing monsters and characters from other campaign worlds. Slowly more things start to happen that give clues that reality is breaking down, such as the appearance of Earth historical figures and so on. Then things start to get worse. The BBEG creature's plan is to destroy the whole of creation - the breaking down of the dimensional barriers is the start of a chain reaction that will consume and destroy everything, in every universe and dimension, everywhere - except for a pocket plane inhabited by the BBEG, who plans to become the Creator of a whole new multiverse, starting from scratch. Obviously, the PCs attempt to prevent this. They are aided by a dimensional traveller who acts as plot exposition, the PCs from the previous campaign and a group of secret mages (I call them the Mages In Black) who deal with very dangerous magical threats.
So the first adventure sees the PCs fighting dimensional leaks (Aliens? Nazis? Evil vampire versions of themselves?). The second adventure sees them journeying across the world (dimensional travel will make everything worse, or send the travellers into another universe completely) fighting even worse things. In adventure three, they deliberately travel into another universe or campaign world (Toril? Oerth? Ravenloft? Krynn?) to deal with a threat there or recover someone or something they need to fight the BBEG or solve the problem. We progressively see the problem get worse and the bad guys more and more difficult to beat (and these guys are Epic, remember), until a final confrontation on the pocket plane with the BBEG himself, and then finding some way of sealing the dimensional breach and saving all of creation. I also have this cool idea that certain people, like Amelia Earhart, get 'left behind' after the breach is sealed which explains what happened to them.
I know I have a lot of fleshing out to do but this sounds like a really cool idea. And saving the whole of creation is a pretty big victory by anybody's standards, so my players will love it.
What do people think?
The background to my specific idea is that it is a follow-up to my most successful campaign, the 2E/3E/3.5E campaign which ended in the PCs becoming 20th level and saving the world etc. etc. And this campaign was itself a sequel to another campaign I ran several years before that on the same world with different PCs.
SO, my mini-campaign idea is this:
The world is on the brink of a magic-and-steam hybrid form of an Industrial Revolution. The powerful Mages Guild are about to begin a momentous experiment - a magical energy generator which taps directly into the mana field surrounding the world. The inventors' hope is that the machine will convert the mana directly into power, generating many times the energy of steam. But they don't realise they are being manipulated by something more powerful than they ever imagined. A godlike being who is so powerful he keeps the Tarrasque as a pet is secretly manipulating events on hundreds of worlds across hundreds of dimensions and parallel realities, and other mages guilds and similar organisations are constructing the same device. Then, the godlike being arranges for all the machines to be activated at precisely the same moment. The resulting energy tears a massive rip in the fabric of reality.
The first hints the PCs get that something is happening is through seeing 'flashes' of other realities; momentarily entering parallel universes and seeing monsters and characters from other campaign worlds. Slowly more things start to happen that give clues that reality is breaking down, such as the appearance of Earth historical figures and so on. Then things start to get worse. The BBEG creature's plan is to destroy the whole of creation - the breaking down of the dimensional barriers is the start of a chain reaction that will consume and destroy everything, in every universe and dimension, everywhere - except for a pocket plane inhabited by the BBEG, who plans to become the Creator of a whole new multiverse, starting from scratch. Obviously, the PCs attempt to prevent this. They are aided by a dimensional traveller who acts as plot exposition, the PCs from the previous campaign and a group of secret mages (I call them the Mages In Black) who deal with very dangerous magical threats.
So the first adventure sees the PCs fighting dimensional leaks (Aliens? Nazis? Evil vampire versions of themselves?). The second adventure sees them journeying across the world (dimensional travel will make everything worse, or send the travellers into another universe completely) fighting even worse things. In adventure three, they deliberately travel into another universe or campaign world (Toril? Oerth? Ravenloft? Krynn?) to deal with a threat there or recover someone or something they need to fight the BBEG or solve the problem. We progressively see the problem get worse and the bad guys more and more difficult to beat (and these guys are Epic, remember), until a final confrontation on the pocket plane with the BBEG himself, and then finding some way of sealing the dimensional breach and saving all of creation. I also have this cool idea that certain people, like Amelia Earhart, get 'left behind' after the breach is sealed which explains what happened to them.
I know I have a lot of fleshing out to do but this sounds like a really cool idea. And saving the whole of creation is a pretty big victory by anybody's standards, so my players will love it.
What do people think?
