J-H
Hero
We have some discussions going about why people don't play high level campaigns, and how there's not a lot written for that levels. Maybe someone will write something that will take off, prompted by this thread?
IRL I'm already running Baldur's Gate II from 1 to 20ish (2 years in), and re-running Castle Dracula (5-16ish, small party/extra levels) for my wife and kids.
On GITP I'm running Dracula's Curse (Castlevania 2) as a playtest (levels 2-10) before publishing on the DM's guild (1 year in, PBP playtesting is slow), and an "Epic Defense" module where there are about 15-16 battles at level 20 over a week in a demiplane the party is defending before publishing on the DM's Guild. My "Running games" meter is full.
Here's my contribution:
The Long Road Home
Inspirations: Yesterday's ACOUP blog post about the logistics of the teleporting orc army in Rings of Power Season 2, the Anabasis of Xenophon, and various other epic treks
The players: 13th-15th level (at the start) orcs/half-orcs (2024/2014).
The pitch: The Dark Lord is dead, slain by the forces of Good! Unfortunately, you (the players) were on his side, commanders and generals of a unified* army of orcs/half-orcs, one of several forces he brought to bear against the Alliance. You aren't interested in dying, and the Alliance isn't interested in 10,000 orcs, 70% of whom are armed and used to war, suddenly settling down in their territory. You need to get home, but it's a 3 month journey.
The gameplay:
Running as a fragment of the bad guy army means we have an opportunity to have the MM Celestials (or more) summoned against us as legitimate opponents, and helps explain why diplomacy is more likely to fail than not. Some players may try to kill everything in their path, while others might reform into a highly Lawful company and acquire a reputation for scrupulously following all agreements, allowing them to peacefully settle some challenges, or reduce them to a combat of champions (the players) if both sides can be trusted.
The party could level up every 3 long rests or once a month or after every four challenge completions, or something - TBD once the structure and pacing is fully fleshed out. The goal would be to run from 13-15 up to 19-20.
IRL I'm already running Baldur's Gate II from 1 to 20ish (2 years in), and re-running Castle Dracula (5-16ish, small party/extra levels) for my wife and kids.
On GITP I'm running Dracula's Curse (Castlevania 2) as a playtest (levels 2-10) before publishing on the DM's guild (1 year in, PBP playtesting is slow), and an "Epic Defense" module where there are about 15-16 battles at level 20 over a week in a demiplane the party is defending before publishing on the DM's Guild. My "Running games" meter is full.
Here's my contribution:
The Long Road Home
Inspirations: Yesterday's ACOUP blog post about the logistics of the teleporting orc army in Rings of Power Season 2, the Anabasis of Xenophon, and various other epic treks
The players: 13th-15th level (at the start) orcs/half-orcs (2024/2014).
The pitch: The Dark Lord is dead, slain by the forces of Good! Unfortunately, you (the players) were on his side, commanders and generals of a unified* army of orcs/half-orcs, one of several forces he brought to bear against the Alliance. You aren't interested in dying, and the Alliance isn't interested in 10,000 orcs, 70% of whom are armed and used to war, suddenly settling down in their territory. You need to get home, but it's a 3 month journey.
The gameplay:
- The players make decisions about what route the orc army takes, giving some replayability while preventing it from being a total sandbox.
- Supplies (food) are mostly abstracted. You can go a fast speed and not forage, a normal speed and forage to supply yourselves (aside from certain areas that are hostile or stripped), or maybe you can buy or bargain for supplies (do you have a party face? Have you been trustworthy in dealing with others?). If you run out, everyone starts taking -1 per day on every roll for every day you've been going hungry.
- You have so many people to get home that magic is not the answer, unless you have a magic flying fortress. Gate, Arcane Gate, etc., don't have enough throughput.
- Mass combat is optional, as that didn't seem to land too well. You are running away from the Forces of Light, so a mass field battle isn't going to happen. Your troops can handle minor challenges like 200 armed peasants or a chimera without needing your help.
- *There are actually several different factions. Balancing internal tensions is an optional mini-game, and will be more interesting if players lean into it at character creation by having a Conquest Paladin of Gruumsh, a cleric of Luthic, a Battlemaster who follows Ilneval, etc. Not all groups will want to deal with this. Optionally assigning each player a role (strategist; high priest; chief assassin; battle leader) gives each player a way to lean into solving some semi-scripted internal issues.
- Some form of "gritty long rest" will be in play for pacing reasons, probably a short rest each night and a long rest only when you stop and don't travel/fight for a day.
- Along the way, the player characters will have opportunities to engage in combat and small-group adventuring against level-appropriate challenges based on their routing choices, including such interesting level-appropriate threatsas:
- A major druid grove with several archdruids. Storm of Vengeance can wreck an army.
- One or more dangerous ruins rumored to hold loot at the bottom. Dungeons are still fun, and when you are dealing with characters like a 14th level barbarian who can't die from HP loss and a cleric who can bring back the dead, they can be deadly without making the DM feel very bad. At least one of these is a crashed flying fortress formerly belonging to the Dark Lord or one of his lieutenants.
- One or more Dark Lord lieutenants trying to take over your army (A Balor with some buddies? A Knockoff Nazgul able to cow everything with fewer than 10HD?)
- A cunning party of high-level adventurers trying to wear your forces down and delay them by destroying bridges, fouling rivers, etc. (hunting them down will be skill challenges + combat)
- Going slightly off-route to steal a moderate fleet of ships (theft/skill challenge or bribery, followed by some battles at sea).
- Going through a dwarven city can cut three weeks off your trip. Guess who has enough personal power to have a chance at cracking the outer defenses?
- Internal challenges
- Efreeti from the City of Brass who come to "hire" the army into their service (permanently). If diplomacy doesn't work, they'll try subverting the leadership (the party) with mental domination. Their salamanders/azers/etc. hold off the masses while the players fight the bosses.
- A territorial dragon whose lair is not accessible to large groups (requires flight/climbing/etc.)
Running as a fragment of the bad guy army means we have an opportunity to have the MM Celestials (or more) summoned against us as legitimate opponents, and helps explain why diplomacy is more likely to fail than not. Some players may try to kill everything in their path, while others might reform into a highly Lawful company and acquire a reputation for scrupulously following all agreements, allowing them to peacefully settle some challenges, or reduce them to a combat of champions (the players) if both sides can be trusted.
The party could level up every 3 long rests or once a month or after every four challenge completions, or something - TBD once the structure and pacing is fully fleshed out. The goal would be to run from 13-15 up to 19-20.
