Whimsical
Explorer
Sure, in fact such an event occuring just brings new opportunities for adventure for the PCs. But with the bonus of having their world shaken up and the rules changing. Did the bad guy win and conquer the world? Now the PCs are being hunted by the authorities and they have to learn to survive and preservere outside of the normal societal structures that they were used to. Heck, this would be a great time to transform your campaign to a Midnight campaign. You don't have to be heavy handed with the guilt and constant reminders that the PCs could have done something. Just be neutral in determining the outcome of the bad guys winning, then implement it. As long as the world didn't disintegrate, the game can continue.Galeros said:I am sure a lot of DMs have wanted to do world shattering events, the kind of events that change the world as the PCs know it, and often involves saving it. Now, what to do if your PCs just say "meh" and go on their way after hearing the dommsday omen from some mysterious figure. Would it be fair to have them adventure for normal for a while, then have the event occur because the PCs did nothing to stop it?
There was an example of this in one of my DM's 2nd ed. Forgotten Realms campaign. We were around 9th level or so when an NPC relative approached the PC of one of the new players of the game. After giving him the troubling news from home that things are going on, the player just listened and did nothing. Then the DM got upset at us and shut the game down because we didn't take the plot hook. He resented that we didn't do the heroic thing. I had to remind the DM that our group only SEEMED heroic because our plot hooks have always started with an NPC offering to pay us to do something for him, then after we completed it we were regarded as heroes. I also explained that he should just determine the logical consequenses of our inaction and just change his game so that instead of only spending one adventure shutting down the underdark invasion we would have to spend ten adventures that features our home region's war against the underdark who has a strong foothold where our PC's home town used to be. He then did this and it was fun because our characters became part of the region's military during this time and we earned some prestige with our successful missions.
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