Jolly Giant
First Post
I was hoping somebody could brainstorm a little with me here, to help flesh out an idea for a new campaign. Some background: I've been using the same high fantasy homebrew setting since the release of 3.0. Some time back I decided to shake things up a bit.
A campaign that lasted for several years ended at the height of a planes-spanning war, in which all evil forces united against the forces of good. Even the Blood War was put on hold, as demons, devils and yugoloths fought side by side with just about every evil deity against the good deities and their champions. The battles raged from plane to plane; armies of mortals destroying each other, celestial lords fighting fiendish lords, gods fighting gods.
The material plane was a mess. A fimbul winter covered the world in ince and snow for 3 years. People were starving and freezing to death. The world's largest city was razed to the ground. A nation was wiped out by a single casting of an epic spell. Commoners, heroes and kings were dying everywhere.
Eventually the war and the winter ended. The evil alliance fell apart, because evil gods were backstabbing each other to settle old scores. In the end none of the old gods were left, but some of their divine essence was picked up by their mortal champions, and now they are minor deities. A new pantheon is in the process of being formed.
So at the moment the people on the material plane are busy rebuilding their world. The LG and LN churches are trying to implement new, stricter laws to regulate the use of magic (since spellcasting was what caused the worst disasters that befell the world during the war). They want all spellcasters to be kept under controll, so that nothing like this will ever happen again. The common people support this whole-heartedly; they certainly don't want another Gods' War.
From now on, all spellcaster must have a magic user's license from an approved guild, order, church or druid circle. Anyone using magic offensively will loose their license; although a magic user can get away with it, if he can prove he only did it to save the life of himself, his family or his closest friends. All guilds, orders, whatever are obliged to uphold these rules, or they will loose the right to issue licenses.
On a side note, my world never used to have gunpowder. It was invented several times by various alchemists, but LG and LN deities feared the chaos that might be caused by something that powerful becoming widespread, and made sure that the gunpowder never left the inventors' houses. Those gods are dead now though...
*Phew!* That was a lot more background than I thought I was gonna write; sorry about that. So here's what I'm planning for my next campaign:
The LG and LN folks of the world is getting things their way these days. The people is terrified of the chaos and evil that have wracked their world the last few years, and they're all for strict laws and regulations. The people want leaders that are LG/LN, in other words.
But what if the lawfull guys get a little too eager after a while? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and all that. Think McCarthyism in the 1950s USA. Imagine representatives of a (brand new!) LG church ransacking people's homes on the hunt for an evil magic item that might have been taken from a slain fiend. Imagine an old married couple being held for questioning for days (or weeks!), because one of their children fought on the side of evil during the war and is now in hiding. Imagine children being kept under constant surveilance, because one of their parents was a summoner who (according to rumours) used to summon fiends.
Ok, I'm suppose you understand the scenario I'm talking about. (Unless you've all tired of my endless ranting and have stopped reading by now!) In this setting, I'd like to start a campaign with 1st level, non-evil, non-lawfull PCs. Good, decent people from the CG corner of the alignment box. PCs who will applaude the good intentions of their current leaders, but will balk at the methods they use.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much all I have so far; a campaing with free-thinking (possibly rebellious) PCs in an oppressively lawfull society. Obviously, it needs a lot of fleshing out. Any ideas you might have is more than welcome. I still need a lot more ideas about what kind of people should rise to positions of power in this setting, and in what ways such well-meaning leaders could go wrong/too far. I also need some actual plots for the campaigns; all I really have so far is the backdrop.
So please feel free to vent any ideas or inspirations you might get from this. And to those of you who are still with me, thanks for taking the time to read my way-to-long post!
A campaign that lasted for several years ended at the height of a planes-spanning war, in which all evil forces united against the forces of good. Even the Blood War was put on hold, as demons, devils and yugoloths fought side by side with just about every evil deity against the good deities and their champions. The battles raged from plane to plane; armies of mortals destroying each other, celestial lords fighting fiendish lords, gods fighting gods.
The material plane was a mess. A fimbul winter covered the world in ince and snow for 3 years. People were starving and freezing to death. The world's largest city was razed to the ground. A nation was wiped out by a single casting of an epic spell. Commoners, heroes and kings were dying everywhere.
Eventually the war and the winter ended. The evil alliance fell apart, because evil gods were backstabbing each other to settle old scores. In the end none of the old gods were left, but some of their divine essence was picked up by their mortal champions, and now they are minor deities. A new pantheon is in the process of being formed.
So at the moment the people on the material plane are busy rebuilding their world. The LG and LN churches are trying to implement new, stricter laws to regulate the use of magic (since spellcasting was what caused the worst disasters that befell the world during the war). They want all spellcasters to be kept under controll, so that nothing like this will ever happen again. The common people support this whole-heartedly; they certainly don't want another Gods' War.
From now on, all spellcaster must have a magic user's license from an approved guild, order, church or druid circle. Anyone using magic offensively will loose their license; although a magic user can get away with it, if he can prove he only did it to save the life of himself, his family or his closest friends. All guilds, orders, whatever are obliged to uphold these rules, or they will loose the right to issue licenses.
On a side note, my world never used to have gunpowder. It was invented several times by various alchemists, but LG and LN deities feared the chaos that might be caused by something that powerful becoming widespread, and made sure that the gunpowder never left the inventors' houses. Those gods are dead now though...
*Phew!* That was a lot more background than I thought I was gonna write; sorry about that. So here's what I'm planning for my next campaign:
The LG and LN folks of the world is getting things their way these days. The people is terrified of the chaos and evil that have wracked their world the last few years, and they're all for strict laws and regulations. The people want leaders that are LG/LN, in other words.
But what if the lawfull guys get a little too eager after a while? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and all that. Think McCarthyism in the 1950s USA. Imagine representatives of a (brand new!) LG church ransacking people's homes on the hunt for an evil magic item that might have been taken from a slain fiend. Imagine an old married couple being held for questioning for days (or weeks!), because one of their children fought on the side of evil during the war and is now in hiding. Imagine children being kept under constant surveilance, because one of their parents was a summoner who (according to rumours) used to summon fiends.
Ok, I'm suppose you understand the scenario I'm talking about. (Unless you've all tired of my endless ranting and have stopped reading by now!) In this setting, I'd like to start a campaign with 1st level, non-evil, non-lawfull PCs. Good, decent people from the CG corner of the alignment box. PCs who will applaude the good intentions of their current leaders, but will balk at the methods they use.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much all I have so far; a campaing with free-thinking (possibly rebellious) PCs in an oppressively lawfull society. Obviously, it needs a lot of fleshing out. Any ideas you might have is more than welcome. I still need a lot more ideas about what kind of people should rise to positions of power in this setting, and in what ways such well-meaning leaders could go wrong/too far. I also need some actual plots for the campaigns; all I really have so far is the backdrop.
So please feel free to vent any ideas or inspirations you might get from this. And to those of you who are still with me, thanks for taking the time to read my way-to-long post!
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