Retrograde experience adventure

[robjh]

I had a curious notion for an adventure. The players begin with a party of high level characters, totally twinked out with magic items, spells, and the works. They are travelling through a plane of evil on a mission of dire urgency. Just as they are about to achieve their objective, however, a powerful deity curses them to "return from whence they came". This doesn't quite mean what it sounds like, however, as the characters begin to slowly but steadily revert to their youth.

To save themselves they find a clue leading them to campaign setting X, where a mythical tower contains the means to revert a curse of the gods. They enter this world and begin to search for the tower, all the time steadily losing XPs. (They can, however, slow down the process by gaining XPs in turn.) They steadily descend in experience and levels, with their precious magic being magically replaced by earlier possessions. The campaign culminates with the party down to levels 1-3, and finally finding the tower. (Finding the tower involves first destroying a major faction, and then working backward down through the surviving periphery allies, each weaker than the last.)

Once the tower is achieved, they gain back their former XPs, powers, and a big bunch of bonus XPs for this mission.

So... do you think a group of demi-munchkin players would stand for this kind of abuse? Any treasure they picked up along the way would have to deteriorate in power along with the characters.

 

[calypso15]

I had a curious notion for an adventure. The players begin with a party of high level characters, totally twinked out with magic items, spells, and the works. They are travelling through a plane of evil on a mission of dire urgency. Just as they are about to achieve their objective, however, a powerful deity curses them to "return from whence they came". This doesn't quite mean what it sounds like, however, as the characters begin to slowly but steadily revert to their youth.

To save themselves they find a clue leading them to campaign setting X, where a mythical tower contains the means to revert a curse of the gods. They enter this world and begin to search for the tower, all the time steadily losing XPs. (They can, however, slow down the process by gaining XPs in turn.) They steadily descend in experience and levels, with their precious magic being magically replaced by earlier possessions. The campaign culminates with the party down to levels 1-3, and finally finding the tower. (Finding the tower involves first destroying a major faction, and then working backward down through the surviving periphery allies, each weaker than the last.)

Once the tower is achieved, they gain back their former XPs, powers, and a big bunch of bonus XPs for this mission.

So... do you think a group of demi-munchkin players would stand for this kind of abuse? Any treasure they picked up along the way would have to deteriorate in power along with the characters.

Sounds like fun! Whether they'd stand for it or not, I can't say, but it still sounds like a good time. As for magic items... either implement some sort of "magic encumberance" that depends on level... or... I dunno. You can't really just degrade their items, unless that's also part of the curse.

Calypso

 

[maggot]

Sounds like fun to me. At first I thought you were going to go the "Momento" approach where you have the characters start out as high-level dudes doing something for some unknown reason and then in a sequence of progressively earlier flashbacks, you explain the situtation.

But your approach has the same degenerative, traveling backwards in time feel, but without the actual traveling backwards in time thing. Nifty.

One thing to keep in mind is that getting new abilities and stuff is one of the joys of playing a character long term. If you keep losing stuff, you will not have that joy and may tire of the game. So I would not plan to run this campaign very long unless you can figure out a way around that.

 

[RandomPrecision]

I've had some very similar ideas before. One of the more recent versions was a Ravenloft campaign where a darklord and his/her minions would redeem themselves, losing their evil abiliities in the process, but gaining experience, such that at the end of the adventure, they would be roughly as powerful as before, but free of influence from the Dark Powers.

Basically, there are two ways to increase difficulty. Either make the monsters tougher, or make the players weaker. Generally, DM's follow the first choice, but I think it could always be an interesting change to try the second.

 

[robjh]

One thing to keep in mind is that getting new abilities and stuff is one of the joys of playing a character long term. If you keep losing stuff, you will not have that joy and may tire of the game. So I would not plan to run this campaign very long unless you can figure out a way around that.

Yup that's true. They might not lose their stuff, but instead have it gradually reduce in power along with their own decline in level. The +4 flame tongue longsword gradually decreases in power until it is just a masterwork sword, yet retains its shape and appears very strongly magical with a detect magic spell. They could also possibly find some stuff that they can only use once they return to full power for the "end game" part of the scenario, after they remove the curse.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I don't know if this would work, but I'll toss out the idea anyway:

1. Give full experience only for enemies defeated in combat.

2. Have this experience count negative.

That's the entire effect of the curse. If they are smart players, they'll find non-combat ways to achieve their objectives. And (like some DMs) you'll give them partial or no experience for this; which'll be exactly what they want, since experience makes them weaker.

 

[LeapingShark]

Sounds fun!
I would probably rework it as a short term adventure. The players start at high lvl, the story unfolds as they begin losing one lvl per day. Their magic items (and gold/resources) begin to disappear too, starting with the most powerful, till they have none. They find the tower in the nick of time (it's a race against death at lvl 0). Then in the aftermath they are reinstated to original lvl + any experience gained during the ordeal.

 

[Quickleaf]

The idea sounds fun. However, it could be seen by some players as taking away the things which they aspire to gain, like levels and magic items. If they are starting with new characters, then they only have a sketched out background - as GM you can use this to introduce plot elements, perhaps making the character "relive" certain defining experiences in their character's lives. Do old enemies suddenly come back from the dead? What about old family members?

Perhaps this option would work: "Child of Fate" substitution levels for characters who embrace their return to childhood. here's the idea: Each time you lose 2 levels, you have the option of taking a "Child of Fate" substitution level, which you replace your current level's abilities with. "Child of Fate" substitution levels are the last ones to be lost, such that a 15th level fighter with 3 Child of Fate substitution levels loses the 12 un-substituted levels first before losing any of the Child of Fate levels. The abilities offered to a "Child of Fate" might include the ability to control other's aging, or Diplomacy checks to change other's alignments, I don't know. Make them abilities that would be useful in the final showdown at the magic tower.

 

[pntbllr]

I kind of like it, maybe with a little tweaking I can work it into my campaign.Thanks for the idea.
hmm.......(DM begins laughing maniacally).....