Need an honest opinion about game theme

[LoPaC]

I was thinking of having a campaign for a group of PCs based loosely on the "Left Behind" book series. The story line is basiclly running that over half of humanity disappears for "some unknown reason", until its discovered that the people that disappeared where the choosen people of Christ. THe difference fromt eh books is that God has forsaken most of the world thats left, and so the PCs have to fend for themselves with possibly a new goverment, and also that "monsters" have become real, as some sign that evil is now incharge. The goal of the PCs would be a number of things, ranging from purely survival and possible power conrtol in this "new world order", to repentance to a god for their soul to be saved, and all spots inbetween.

The one catch to this game starts with a partially pre-made character. You may have to be a certain class, occupation, or have specific skills and/or feats, but all other aspects of the creation proccess is the players choice.

If you were introduced to this theme, would you be interested in playing it? Or, have you played something similar, and it either sucked, rocked, or was somewhere inbetween?

(Opinons wanted. Rude comments are neither required nor desired, thank you.)

 

[dwayne]

Galactic Order of Discovery

You could go two ways here the religious angle if your group is in to that or What I would do a nonreligious angle not atheism just a nonspecific angle example: G.O.D. could be the Galactic Order of Discovery could have ether seeded this planet or had a ship crash here along time ago. Demons = aliens. You go from there. But there again it depends on your group my group would go for the second one not many religious people in it I my self could see that yours or any of these would be kind of fun done right but on subject matter such as this it is touchy to some so be careful to no offend any one.

 

[Runesong42]

In my opinion, such a campaign setting would work great in a d20 Fantasy setting. In a Modern setting, though, there is much more to consider.

First and foremost, at what point in time will your campaign begin? Before humanity is taken, during, or after? Will the PC's know what has happened (or what will happen), and how will this information (or lack thereof) affect them?

Why does a PC have to start off a certain way? A better idea (and one that would be story-related) would be to work the PC's own idea of a character and then 'nudge' him towards the ideas you have for the characters, promising some sort of compensation for 'forcing' them to pick the requisite skills, feats etc.

I was running a similar campaign of epic good vs. evil, basing the concept VERY loosely on a campaign setting called 'In Nomine'. In effect, the PC's play Angels of a certain type (similar to clerics of certain Gods would be) and strive to further their Dominion and restrict other Evil Dominions by their interactions with mortals on Earth. I only had one player at the time.

We started him off as an Aasimar. Once he hit a certain level (7th, in my case) he gained all the abilities of a Half-Celestial. Once he hit 15th, I had planned for him to take on the abilities of one of the more powerful Celestials (in Modern terms, he could become an Avenging Angel [Urban Arcana]). In YOUR case, you could start the PC's off as regulars, then, as they gain levels and the necessary feats, you could award them a 'racial level' in Aasimar (giving them full abilities of the new race instead of a new level in a class) or just have them 'evolve' and become Aasimars. Then, have them become Half-Celestials and, at the peak of the campaign, have them become full Celestials and try to lead the people back to God.

Next, you have to ponder how religious you want the campaign to be, and if so, which religion you'd like to be the focal point. Be very careful your players are not hardcore religious types themselves, as you may risk offending them.

Of course, in campaigns like this, you have to assume that the PC's will WANT to be hereos. I find that, in d20 Modern, PC's are more likely to want to be scum - thieves, killers, pimps... but that could just be MY group.
If they're the good guys from the start, then all's gravy. What's MORE interesting is if they choose to be scum. Your story then becomes something much better -- by taking the requisite feats or skills that you require of them, they begin to redeem themselves and could even become avatars for the lost to follow.

As for dwayne's post, my "angels" were in fact aliens from "Heaven", another planet in "Earth's" solar system. I had a whole cosmology written up and everything. I may introduce this concept to my new gaming group. If I do, I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[talien]

I was thinking of having a campaign for a group of PCs based loosely on the "Left Behind" book series. The story line is basiclly running that over half of humanity disappears for "some unknown reason", until its discovered that the people that disappeared where the choosen people of Christ. THe difference fromt eh books is that God has forsaken most of the world thats left, and so the PCs have to fend for themselves with possibly a new goverment, and also that "monsters" have become real, as some sign that evil is now incharge. The goal of the PCs would be a number of things, ranging from purely survival and possible power conrtol in this "new world order", to repentance to a god for their soul to be saved, and all spots inbetween.

This game exists as a published setting, incidentally: http://www.tyrannygames.com/theend.htm

Now that I think of it, it's very possible The End came out before the Left Behind book series. Curious...

 

[LoPaC]

Sorry, I guess I could have a little more detail about the start off:

The story is going to begin at any point in time in modern life; yesterday, today, tomorrow. Sometime in late 04/early 05. Its close to 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday, and the PCs will all, at somepoint, meet at a local bar, not all knowing eah other yet. Shortly there after, a few people will just simply disappear (a few being like 2, hardly noticeable in a bar). A round might go by, and then a car crashes into the bar. Theres no driver. The PCs survey the damage, the area, and the scene, and controlled chaos begins. They find out that the disappearences are widespread, and eventually, find out why it happened.

I was looking to toss themes of Revelations in there, too. And I'm not giving away the details of what really happened to the PC's easily, or without deception, because I have thought about changing it from a highly religious standpoint, to something less holy to more sci-fi. I'm considering having the Shadow-type characters from Urban Arcana become increasingly apparent, more than I was originally planning, like a Material Plane switch happened. I like the Aliens idea. That hadn't crossed my mind, though.

ANd the religious stand points of my players. Mainly agnostic. They believe in a christian God, but dont practice any form of worship or dimomination. Religion isnt really a touchy subject. One is a wiccan, also. I, myself, am a third grade sunday school teacher, so if anyone were to be offended, it would be me. And normally, the players look to be heros, not scum, though, this will leave it open for that, if they choose to take advantage of the world being in a critial state.

As for the forced roleplaying, Im doing it just for that reason. Not as a punishment, but as a break from the "creating yourself on a sheet or paper with badass abilities" that seems so habitual. Not that every character my players have ever made was a composite copy of themselves, but there was always a re-occuring theme. This is basically taking the concept from a video game format: you play and choose what to do, but theres certain aspects of your character that are already fleshed out for you, as to work with the story.

I hope that gives a bit more detail behind my idea.

 

[Krieg]

This game exists as a published setting, incidentally: The End

I just love the tag line for The End..."When God said that the meek shall inherit the Earth, it wasn't a promise...it was a threat." (Paraphrased but you get the gist).

The End (and it's supplements) is actually worth picking up if for no other reason than to steal ideas from. Mechanically it is a decent D20 book; but is extremely low powered, which fits the premise of the book but might put off some folks.

 

[The_Universe]

You could go two ways here the religious angle if your group is in to that or What I would do a nonreligious angle not atheism just a nonspecific angle example: G.O.D. could be the Galactic Order of Discovery could have ether seeded this planet or had a ship crash here along time ago. Demons = aliens. You go from there. But there again it depends on your group my group would go for the second one not many religious people in it I my self could see that yours or any of these would be kind of fun done right but on subject matter such as this it is touchy to some so be careful to no offend any one.

Eh - as long as your players all share a basically similar worldview (and/or are ok with playing a pretend game based on certain assumptions) I don't see any reason to purposefully distance the game from God-as-God.

Of course, adjust if someone is uncomfortable, but as long as they're ok - you're ok.

 

[Aaron2]

I was thinking of having a campaign for a group of PCs based loosely on the "Left Behind" book series. The story line is basiclly running that over half of humanity disappears for "some unknown reason", until its discovered that the people that disappeared where the choosen people of Christ.

"over half"? Man, your way more optomistic than I am. I tried a game with a similar theme but I set it so far in the future that the game broke up before the players figured out what happened.

If you just do the typical "cars without drivers" thing, you players will pick up on it and it will probably seem silly. What I suggest is that the rapture happen slowly over a period of years. Start the game off with one of the player's friends disappearing (he didn't show up for the superbowl party forex). As the PC investigate, news of other disappearances happen. Maybe there is a serial killer loose. NPCs that try to help the PC end up missing as well. Lead them on as long as possible before the crap hits the fan. Maybe the much loved police chief disappears and the guy that takes over is a real creep with links to organized crime. Stuff like that. It will seem more real if society falls apart gradually.


Aaron

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Going slowly and with far less than half would be the best way to go for the suspense angle. The world would have the ability, which I do not doubt it would take, to blindly ignore the dissapearances for a very long time. This would allow you to keep a relativly sane world for your PCs to live in while dealing with insane issues, very Cthullu. You could also mislead the PCs to other assumptions as to what is going on. The idea is to keep your options open, You can always wipe out half the world later on if you want an armmagedon situation in the world.

Also, give the PCs the chance to try to stop it, ala the seventh sign with Demi Moore. Wheather or not they actaully can stop the main event is up to you, and should not be revealed, EVER. Even if the end of days are avoided, leave them wondering if they stoped, or if it was destiny, a greater power, God saving the world for their sake, etc.

 

[ragboy]

If you just do the typical "cars without drivers" thing, you players will pick up on it and it will probably seem silly. What I suggest is that the rapture happen slowly over a period of years. Start the game off with one of the player's friends disappearing (he didn't show up for the superbowl party forex). As the PC investigate, news of other disappearances happen. Maybe there is a serial killer loose. NPCs that try to help the PC end up missing as well. Lead them on as long as possible before the crap hits the fan. Maybe the much loved police chief disappears and the guy that takes over is a real creep with links to organized crime. Stuff like that. It will seem more real if society falls apart gradually.

You probably have a vision already set for your game, but I really like this. Instead of having the characters meet in a bar, they could be on separate aspects of a missing persons investigation...or several. Bringing them together would seem a little less forced, I think and keep the game on theme. There's a lot of misdirection in the above that would really serve the story well...

Also, it's been a while since I read the Bible, but don't the graves empty out at some point? Having something like this happen over the course of the campaign (not all at once) could keep the characters guessing, as well... cult? undead? They'd probably never expect the Apocalypse... but then no one expects the Apocalypse.

Even fewer expect the Apocalypso...