Victory *and* death

[Ry]

Or even: The world is going to end. But if you succeed this epic quest - which will guarantee you die, you can save the souls of this world and they will be born into the next.

 

[Edgewood]

I would play in this campaign, but as others have said, all of the players would have to be on board with the concept before play. The idea of doing good against hopelessness and inevitablilty would make for some great roleplaying.

 

[awayfarer]

I would only play a game like this in the event that the next campaign takes place in the aftermath. I want to see what happens even if it's with new, completely unrelated characters.

 

[shilsen]

I would so much rather play a campaign with the opposite premise... "You are going to die. Nothing you can do about it. BUT... if you succeed in this epic quest, you can die as a Big Damn Hero, and save the world."

Cheers, -- N

I would play in the vampire mouse's suggested campaign, but I would significantly prefer the penguin herder's option.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I would so much rather play a campaign with the opposite premise... "You are going to die. Nothing you can do about it. BUT... if you succeed in this epic quest, you can die as a Big Damn Hero, and save the world."

See, I like that idea too, but...

It seems (at least upon first consideration) to require a lot more in the way of overt rail-roading. It's easy for the DM to end the world. It's harder for the DM to guarantee the deaths of the PCs (without being really heavy-handed about it).

I agree it'd be a lot of fun--either to run or to play in--though.

(Then again, I've wanted to end a campaign with the destruction of the world for years, and the original idea lets me do that while still offering the PCs a victory of sorts... )

 

[Mouseferatu]

We ran a game like that a few years back. It started off well enough, but after a few months it started to wear thin. Our heroes became disenfranchised and started to devolve into an "ends justifying the means" group. They'd make the giant strides towards goodness and happiness, but they'd do it the most direct way possible. There's an evil cult in the town that needs to be stopped before they finish a ritual to awaken the Dark Lord Fluffy? Well, let's just kill everyone and raze the town. We win!

Ah. See, I was thinking that, due to the spiritual nature of what's happening--that is, the new world being modeled on the actions of a few people from the old--the means would be just as important as the ends.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I would play it but make sure that all the players are in the same mindset. I just played a game like this and it bombed because people came at it from different angles.

2 people wanted to make the world better. 1 Person wanted to make the world evil or atleast make a big part of it heavily evil. Another peson embraced true chaos and wanted to make the world one giant chaotic ball of whatever. Some of the players just didn't care and just showed up to play.

Oh, absolutely. I always talk to my players about the sort of game I'd like to run.

Thankfully, they're all happy with story-focused campaigns, and with campaigns that require good (or at least non-evil) characters. So the necessary restrictions to make it work wouldn't be too onerous.

 

[Ry]

I don't think it requires railroading so much as macguffinry (and a very low-level macguffinry). In OotS terms, the Snarl is possibly more vulnerable to mortals than it is to deities. If confronting it was a one-way ticket into an inescapable negative energy plane...

 

[Particle_Man]

Reminds me of Ragnarok.

Or Elric of Melnibone.

You can do it, but your players will probably at least want to hear the "ahppy ending" part, so they can taste teh victory.

 

[Nifft]

See, I like that idea too, but...

It seems (at least upon first consideration) to require a lot more in the way of overt rail-roading. It's easy for the DM to end the world. It's harder for the DM to guarantee the deaths of the PCs (without being really heavy-handed about it).

Here's how I'd do it:

1/ The world is going to end. The Lord of Nightmares will unleash his demonic army on the Earth, and blah doom blah blah doom.

2/ The only way to stop him is to defeat him. However... he lives in the Underworld, whence none have returned. Because you have to die to get there.

3/ So, gather the Quest MacGuffins (of Legacy!) and enact the Ritual of Travel... the fate of the world rests on your cold, dead shoulders.

Cheers, -- N