poilbrun
Explorer
Hello all,
I have had an idea for a new campaign where the PCs would be agents sent by a god to a brand new world to serve as guides and leaders to the new inhabitants of the world.
I designed a pantheon based on the alignments with Dwarves (LG), Elves (CG), Goblins (LE) and Orcs (CE) at the extremes and five human gods representing the middle grounds.
I have used as the basis for the world a beautiful map by Pasis from the Cartographers Guild (Bretoria) on which I decided where the 9 seeds of civilizations would awaken.
The history of the world is pretty bare, with the oldest intelligent living creatures (dragons) no more than a century old. All nine humanoid races will awaken at the same time as I don't want the usual trope of Elves having a more advanced civilization than humans. At the moment, I don't have anything else set down in stone as I want to be able to react to the players' actions.
History will get written by chunks, as I will probably play one lifetime of the characters then advance the history several centuries when the players will create new characters and shape history once more, before another hiatus. Hopefully I will get the players interested enough to play as a group at first, but then to take the roles of the leaders of the various civilizations and play some kind of Birthright-like campaign, where their alliances and wars will write the way how the campaign world will shape.
But all this is still far in the future, as I am setting up the beginning of the campaign. So my request for advice is this: what would you do if thrown in the wilderness, with basically no technology or resource, as leaders of about a thousand young adults (no children, they will have to be made the traditional way - that also means the players will have to take good care of their people as this is all they will get for at least 15 years).
The people is not devoid of any knowledge, though. I see them a bit like Adam and Eve after being cast out of Eden: no one ever taught them anything, yet Adam is able to work the land and domesticate beasts. This knowledge will come straight from the god they serve (that way I can explain differences in technology between the various groups once contact occurs), all I need to decide is if the god will actually take an active hand or if it is knowledge he implanted in the characters before they awakened.
Here is the list of things I think off that you would have to do in this situation on the short term:
On the long term, the list is more or less the same at first, but then you run into civilization development. I plan to let the people set up in a network of caverns (that will need to be cleared of the wildlife inhabiting it), then the players will have to set up groups of hunters and gatherers as well as protection for their "home", to solve the short-term needs of the communities.
On the mid-term, though, how would such a society develop? What would be the next step? I guess I will let the community have it easy that way for about 5-10 years, enough to settle down and create a little surplus to enable some of the people to start working on developing the first infrastructures without fear of a lack of resources to last them during the first winter months (since people who work won't be able to gather resources).
If someone has knowledge or experience in such a campaign, I'd be interested to get feedback as I'm afraid the first sessions on the games will include a lot of improvisation to react to the ideas of the players. If I already had an inkling of what someone coming at it from a different angle might think, that would already be a tremendous help.
I have had an idea for a new campaign where the PCs would be agents sent by a god to a brand new world to serve as guides and leaders to the new inhabitants of the world.
I designed a pantheon based on the alignments with Dwarves (LG), Elves (CG), Goblins (LE) and Orcs (CE) at the extremes and five human gods representing the middle grounds.
I have used as the basis for the world a beautiful map by Pasis from the Cartographers Guild (Bretoria) on which I decided where the 9 seeds of civilizations would awaken.
The history of the world is pretty bare, with the oldest intelligent living creatures (dragons) no more than a century old. All nine humanoid races will awaken at the same time as I don't want the usual trope of Elves having a more advanced civilization than humans. At the moment, I don't have anything else set down in stone as I want to be able to react to the players' actions.
History will get written by chunks, as I will probably play one lifetime of the characters then advance the history several centuries when the players will create new characters and shape history once more, before another hiatus. Hopefully I will get the players interested enough to play as a group at first, but then to take the roles of the leaders of the various civilizations and play some kind of Birthright-like campaign, where their alliances and wars will write the way how the campaign world will shape.
But all this is still far in the future, as I am setting up the beginning of the campaign. So my request for advice is this: what would you do if thrown in the wilderness, with basically no technology or resource, as leaders of about a thousand young adults (no children, they will have to be made the traditional way - that also means the players will have to take good care of their people as this is all they will get for at least 15 years).
The people is not devoid of any knowledge, though. I see them a bit like Adam and Eve after being cast out of Eden: no one ever taught them anything, yet Adam is able to work the land and domesticate beasts. This knowledge will come straight from the god they serve (that way I can explain differences in technology between the various groups once contact occurs), all I need to decide is if the god will actually take an active hand or if it is knowledge he implanted in the characters before they awakened.
Here is the list of things I think off that you would have to do in this situation on the short term:
- Secure shelter
- Find a source of water
- Find a source of food
- Set up basic defenses against wildlife
On the long term, the list is more or less the same at first, but then you run into civilization development. I plan to let the people set up in a network of caverns (that will need to be cleared of the wildlife inhabiting it), then the players will have to set up groups of hunters and gatherers as well as protection for their "home", to solve the short-term needs of the communities.
On the mid-term, though, how would such a society develop? What would be the next step? I guess I will let the community have it easy that way for about 5-10 years, enough to settle down and create a little surplus to enable some of the people to start working on developing the first infrastructures without fear of a lack of resources to last them during the first winter months (since people who work won't be able to gather resources).
If someone has knowledge or experience in such a campaign, I'd be interested to get feedback as I'm afraid the first sessions on the games will include a lot of improvisation to react to the ideas of the players. If I already had an inkling of what someone coming at it from a different angle might think, that would already be a tremendous help.