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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6296931" data-attributes="member: 6669384">As our four year old campaign wends its way towards Epic levels, and closure, it's time to consider what we'll do next.For those unfamiliar with our play style, we use a "Round Robin" DM technique, whee the campaign is based on the pursuit of some long term goal, and where everyone has a chance to DM.The exact mechanics of our DM handoff are immaterial to this discussion.  What I'm looking for is inspiration for the setting and the long term goal.One of the group has an idea for a Middle Earth setting.  This would be in the years prior to Bilbo finding the One Ring.  He wants us to face a Dragon named Fog, and try to find a Siren's Pearl that must be placed in a giant clam before the Nazgul can get it.I see so many problems with that I don't know where to begin.  Aside from a distinct lack of originality, it lacks the scope needed for the way our games play out.Our goals tend to be somewhat nebulous.  Half the adventure is usually spent identifying the details of the problem we're facing.  In the past we've played in a game world that was lacking any and all 9th level spells, a great many Prestige Classes, and a lot of Feats (including all of the Craft Item feats that made permanent items).  Our goal was to find these "lost secrets" because the dark times were coming and the world had to be prepared.Another was to locate the fragments of the great World Crystal, an artifact that the gods had made as a model/parallel for our world.  It had been shattered and the shards scattered across the world.  Our world was slowly dying as a result.  There were no fixed number of shards, so we could play that one as long as we liked.  (We stopped at 30th level or so).Our most recent one was the Grecco/Roman campaign you've heard me talk about, where we're trying to locate the cause of a cloud of smoke and ash that blocks out the sun, sending the world into slow decline, as Rome falls around us.  The sheer wealth of material available in the mythology of the age made for some epic story telling, and will make this one a hard act to follow.Now Middle Earth might not be a bad place to start (I own a 1st edition of the Silmarilion, so I have a lot to work with), but we may want a less well defined goal.  Perhaps we're seeking the secret of creating the Silmarils, the legendary luminous stones that can guard a place against the True Darkness.  Three were made, but only one survives.Or we could go for something else like seeking the secrets of the Dark Emperor's apparent immortality, as a way to prevent his growing empire from covering the world.  This kind of thing gets invented as we play, which actually works out well, as you don't have to live up to some other writer's story.  Any ideas/suggestions?  Note, we need a long term challenge, but not necessarily a clever solution.  None of us need know the solution at the start, and in fact it's better if we don't.  That leaves us free to let each DM add details and complications as needed for plot development.  We won't know the solution until we're ready to close the campaign down.So throw me themes, challenges, setting ideas, please.</blockquote>

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