That was a busy session

[Wik]

So, in about three and a half hours of play, in my 4e campaign, the following happened:

1) The Queen of the Drow nobly committed suicide, and in so doing brought massive political change to the feywild and eliminated the evil eladrin king as a threat.
2) Two new fey races (the Luscarites and the Zaharim) were created in the resulting political turmoil.
3) The fey city of Mithrendain began a political revolution.
4) PCs seized control of the fey army.
5) Deals were made and a ruling provisional council was formed
6) The mages' guild organized and began to rule as a subversive power
7) The PCs discovered that their foremost drow ally, the new "queen" Guineadh, is actually the biological daughter of their former (and now dead) enemy, Ciara M'Sari.

Three and a half hours that has completely changed the campaign. So much fun was had as a GM. And the PCs have had a huge impact on who has seized power and how the revolution is shaping up.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

2) Two new fey races (the Luscarites and the Zaharim) were created in the resulting political turmoil.

Very cool! Who are the Luscarites and Zaharim? What makes them unique? Are they playable races?

 

[Piratecat]

Bravo! I love games like this, because it makes the GM sit back and have to reevaluate all his plot threads and plans on the fly.

Had you expected these changes?

 

[Dungeoneer]

Nice! Like Piratecat, I'm wondering how much was planned and how much you had to 'adjust' for.

 

[Wik]

Very cool! Who are the Luscarites and Zaharim? What makes them unique? Are they playable races?

Okay, so campaign notes. First, in my campaign, the Eladrin and Drow are the same race - basically, just political factions. If you switch factions, you essentially change "race". There are also "half-breeds" that are half eladrin, half-drow (mechanically, Shadar-kai). With the death of the Queen, the political structure changed radically, and two factions of half-breeds were formed into new races. Luscar was one of the leaders of a faction... Zahar (a PC) was the other.

So I told Zahar's player to write me up game stats for the Zaharim. He is actually the original member of the race. In future campaigns in this world, both will be playable races.

The Luscarites are fey that look sort of Tiefling-esque. The Zaharim have skin that is constantly changing (as agents of chaos) - it looks sort of like Rohrschact's mask from The Watchmen.

Had you expected these changes?

I had a few expectations, but I presented the situation in such a way that the players could interfere. They basically actually came in and did what they could to let the queen carry forward her plan - essentially, trying to stop people from preventing her from committing suicide. It was kind of bizarre.

But as for the PCs' involvement in the new forming government - I basically left it open for their interpretation, using my history degree (especially in human rights) to fill out the details of a city undergoing revolution. Many of the questions that I put forward to the PCs, I had no idea how they'd respond, and then stored away their responses to be used either later in this campaign or (more likely) to be used in "the next campaign".

It was a lot of fun. The PCs have played a huge role in a major change in the campaign. I also got a chance to set up their next set of villains (the tieflings), and I did it by making them allies during this revolution - showing that the tieflings are not always evil monsters, and will help out people in need even when there's no chance for instant gain. I like shades of gray, you see.