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10 months ago ::
Sep 20, 2012 - 8:32PM
#1
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Date Joined:
May 14, 2010
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I thought of a campaign idea and need advise how to run it.
The Story.
The world been at peace for a long time. Good have won. There no evil tyrants, no dangerous monsters, evil dragons, or bandit hide out. Think of it like the world today, you can't find evil unless you look in the darkest corner of the world. After hunderds of years since evil been wiped out, most pepole gone neutral. There no paladins, no heroes, or crusader, because there hardly no evil to fight against. If people are going to fight, it would be for nationalism.
The players are people pretending to be villains to find heroes. I need help on the story on why they are doing this? I got a few ideas, hopefully you can share. ^.^
1. A dire message was given to the players that a great evil is coming and only good can defeat it. The players need help, but to do this they need to find more heroes like themselves.
2. (low or high lv campaign) Players are ancient heroes that return from the dead. Sad to see that a lot have change and there no heroes left. The players try to revive this dead culture by creating dungeons with monsters or creating villain scenario where the heroes come in save the day.
3. A group of people read a book about heroes and heroic deeds and try to revive this by becoming villains themselves. The group have a lot of authority or power so they can pretty much get away with it unless a hero stop them?
This ain't an evil campaign where PC slaughter a bunch of people until a hero shows up. This where heroes pretend to be villains to inspire more heroes. It's like a hero pretending to be the Joker to create a Bat Man.
Scenarios I am hoping to create with this theme.
NPC Hero death: A thug guild ambush and kill the hero. Players find out who they were and give sweet retrobution. One of the NPC Hero secretly watch the slaughter from a distance.
NPC HERO heard PCs Singing: The PCs singing a heroic folk song and were confuse by it.
NPC Witness A Kind Act From PC: As simple from giving a flower to a little girl or saving someone's life.
What your ideas on this? Have you ever run or play a campaign similiar to this?
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10 months ago ::
Sep 20, 2012 - 8:41PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2011
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I don't have any immediate ideas, but I'll think about the concept. One thought is that this type of campaign isn't one to spring on the players without advance warning, since it requires some very specific character motivations. So you should run it by your players and see what directions they think would be interesting, going off the initial idea.
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10 months ago ::
Sep 20, 2012 - 9:03PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 25, 2009
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I thought of a campaign idea and need advise how to run it.
The Story.
The world been at peace for a long time. Good have won. There no evil tyrants, no dangerous monsters, evil dragons, or bandit hide out. Think of it like the world today, you can't find evil unless you look in the darkest corner of the world. After hunderds of years since evil been wiped out, most pepole gone neutral. There no paladins, no heroes, or crusader, because there hardly no evil to fight against. If people are going to fight, it would be for nationalism.
The players are people pretending to be villains to find heroes. I need help on the story on why they are doing this? I got a few ideas, hopefully you can share. ^.^
1. A dire message was given to the players that a great evil is coming and only good can defeat it. The players need help, but to do this they need to find more heroes like themselves.
2. (low or high lv campaign) Players are ancient heroes that return from the dead. Sad to see that a lot have change and there no heroes left. The players try to revive this dead culture by creating dungeons with monsters or creating villain scenario where the heroes come in save the day.
3. A group of people read a book about heroes and heroic deeds and try to revive this by becoming villains themselves. The group have a lot of authority or power so they can pretty much get away with it unless a hero stop them?
This ain't an evil campaign where PC slaughter a bunch of people until a hero shows up. This where heroes pretend to be villains to inspire more heroes. It's like a hero pretending to be the Joker to create a Bat Man.
Scenarios I am hoping to create with this theme.
NPC Hero death: A thug guild ambush and kill the hero. Players find out who they were and give sweet retrobution. One of the NPC Hero secretly watch the slaughter from a distance.
NPC HERO heard PCs Singing: The PCs singing a heroic folk song and were confuse by it.
NPC Witness A Kind Act From PC: As simple from giving a flower to a little girl or saving someone's life.
What your ideas on this? Have you ever run or play a campaign similiar to this?
Hoo boy. That's one hell of a concept.
Let me be the first to recommend your first concept.
The heroes receive warning of impending doom/evil. Thus, they set out to inspire new heroes to save the world, because they themselves are not up to the task, at least, not alone...not in their numbers.
Thus, they have to enact certain kinds of terrorism upon the world to get people to wake up/stand up for what they believe in. But they know the world will not stand up by simply telling them impending doom is approaching. In fact, I would make that a large factor in the first few sessions. Let the heroes try to warn the world. And then have the world tell them "piss off, we don't believe you". Then, they have to rig up various acts where the world faces loss at the hands of "evil" by the heroes. This gets more interesting if the heroes want to ensure that no innocent lives are lost. Blowing up a building is fine, but make sure there's no one in it...then, as DM, you complicate matters by having an innocent bystander wander into the building at an inopportune moment. Leaving the heroes with the predicament of trying to possibly save him before blowing it up, or just destroying it. Possibly even, unknowingly killing him and finding out afterwards. That can have all kinds of wondrous effects. :D
My username should actually read: Lunar Savage (damn you WotC!)
*Tips top hat, adjusts monocle, and walks away with cane* and yes, that IS Mr. Peanut laying unconscious on the curb.
http://asylumjournals.tumblr.com/
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10 months ago ::
Sep 20, 2012 - 10:58PM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 14, 2010
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One hell of a concept.
I know all these villain stuff is going to be fun. Since the PCs are avoiding to kill the innocents, the NPC heroes will try to capture not kill the PCs.
Pcs capture some villagers and leaves a map to their hide out. PC chat with villagers for some good roleplaying. The NPC Heroes come and defeat(not really) the PCs and free the villagers.
NPC party got their ass kicked and one of the PC came in and saved them. One of the NPC had enough stamina to wake up long enough to witness PC single handly wipe out the encounter by herself.
The story leads up to where NPC Heroes finds out what is realy going on, but small hints will be given out through out the campaign.
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 4:16AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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The world been at peace for a long time. Good have won. There no evil tyrants, no dangerous monsters, evil dragons, or bandit hide out. Think of it like the world today, you can't find evil unless you look in the darkest corner of the world. After hunderds of years since evil been wiped out, most pepole gone neutral. There no paladins, no heroes, or crusader, because there hardly no evil to fight against. If people are going to fight, it would be for nationalism.
Be aware that if you want to make a world like that work, you have to abolish common antagonists in D&D like monsters (intelligent and otherwise), evil gods (maybe even organized religion in general), and wars between nations. There also has to be a peace between the different races of the world. World War 2 was a good example of what can happen when one powerful "race" really has it in for another.
If you also want to abolish crime (organized and otherwise), everyone either has to have enough money to live a good life or the penalty for criminal activity has to be too high to even consider it. In the latter case you effectively create a policestate.
What could make such a world happen? Well, we have our own as an example. Prosperity is a great catalyst of peace, which in turn increases happiness and diminishes the urge to do evil. Prosperity means having enough money to live a good life. So make everyone rich, or at the very least put a governmental system into place that supports its citizens if they can't make it on their own. If you want to keep the fantasy feel of the world instead of recreating our own, use magic to make it happen. The mystical powers have finally been harnessed in such a way that rulers and citizens can use them responsibly to live good lives.
The players are people pretending to be villains to find heroes. I need help on the story on why they are doing this?
In a world where everyone has everything they need to live a good life, I think boredom is the biggest drive behind schemes like this. Reminds me of D&D itself: we play the game because our world is boring enough that we want to pretend to be heroes in a world where evil runs rampant. I mean, you're basically asking the players to be Dungeon Masters in their world, where everyone else is just a player.
...wow, that's pretty meta.
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 5:02AM
#6
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Don't forget the concept that the reason evil does not exist is because good is just that terrible a force by comparison. The Justice Lords of DC comic fame, for example, have transformed their world into a peaceful one through force. They kill, imprison, harm, fine, penalize and make examples of any who break the laws that they lay down, however minor and offense it may be or young/old the offender may be. You could use this idea to your advantage as well. When the heroes of old are the villains of new, it makes everyone think twice about what is good and bad. This can help to push the moral dilemma side of the campaign idea you've made. There's also the concept that evil is not gone, just banished or hiding. Sure, the natural world may be fine, but the other worlds in the cosmos may be suffering by comparison. Evil could have been banished to outer worlds. Opening portals to these worlds may even be illegal in the modern world due to how overpopulated they are with wicked beings. Evil may also still exist in the natural world, but it is so weak that any attempt to act would crush it, without aid from others. To that note, the cataclysm the PCs are suppose to stop is important. The classic five questions need to be answered about it before you can stop it. The nature of the cataclysm also aids in setting the stage for what the PCs are suppose to do to round up other heroes to help fight it. Good turned evil, as mentioned above, may make it so that the PCs learn through interaction with great old heroes who govern the new world, and make it so the PCs must seek aid from more common folk who have had enough of the oppressive control of the old heroes. Rebirth of old evil may make seeking knowledge from those that slayed it their only salvation, which might be further complicated if those beings have long since passed. Ris eof new evil may lead to the question of why now and what could have triggered it. It may be possible that the PCs weren't the only ones who thought to take such measures as to play the villain to lure out the heroes, but they may be the only ones who were not absorbed into their own wickedness. Hope this all helps. Sounds like a great campaign idea. Happy Gaming 
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 2:26PM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 14, 2010
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I like the idea that Prosperity bring happiness and peace for a long time, but people forgot what it was like to be heroic.
Thank guys for support. I thought of a really good story idea could be a really good campaign idea.
Just wish I found some DMs who already play this style of campaign so I can get some good feedbacks.
The main reason why the PCs have to be the villains to creat heroics is not only to inspire heroics but to make them stronger. There not a lot of monsters or a big evil kingdom to fight so PCs have to become the villains themselves to make the NPC heroics stronger.
I like the dire threat route. An ancient evil is coming to threat the peace and prosperity the world have. Something to do with the Good wiping them out. Maybe this baddy got free from his imprisonment?
Any ideas for what the big bad boss should be like?
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 3:11PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jun 12, 2009
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svendj, you just went so awesomely deep that I can't reach you with my ten-foot pole. 
We summoned a devil once. All we used was the D&D books, too. It was pretty kwazy.
God of Arrested Development and Intelligence 
Resident Left Hand of Stalin and Banana Stand Grandstander
Pie-Cooling-On-A-Windowsill of the House of Trolls
In the morning HK'll be sober but you'll still be a meatbag.
I know I misspell "Danke" in my posts. It's an inside joke.
"Ten cents gets you nuts." -George Michael
Spoiler:
Show
''Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening.''
—Bill Clinton
Marketing and design are two different things. For instance the snuggy was designed for people in wheel chairs and marketed to people that are too incompetent to operate a blanket.
You are not a moral man. There are not enough middle fingers in the world for you.
Why do I get a silly PG-13 man giggle going everytime I see Fist Of The Forest ?
I do not understand. I can't give a game to a friend?
You can, but only once. That friend can't give it to anyone else. The holy corporation has spoken. Stop complaining and give them all your money.
But how will they know?
I do not play video games.
then why do you care? 
Why do you care that I care?
i'm curious
You are? Cool! Here is a hornet's nest. Stick your [redacted] in it to see what happens.
And do not call me a Yank. I am a Québecois, basically your better.
I heard samsung is making shoes that are making you run faster too.
Liar. Hipsters don't run. It's too mainstream.
Actually, Santa just didn't like you. However, you weren't on the Naughty List, so he had to give you something "better" than coal.
I'd take coal. Heating your house is expesive, and engery cost arn't going down.
Mabey if i beat enough homeless people, i won't have to be cold this year. 
"Heroes"...I wish I had those. I remember in my first-ever campaign one PC went around shootin all the unconscious baddies in the head to gain Dark Side Points...
Whaaaaaat?!??
Wow...way to waste perfectly good potential slaves.
Er...no wait I mean..uh...something not evil!
(Quotes screwed up on the next one, won't give the poster's name. It's in the Best Lines thread on the D&D forum)
First, an experience from a game I played in a few years back. Our DM didn't like 3.5 as a whole but liked parts of it. So he hands us a big ass rules packet for his modified FR campaign, complete with quotes from important NPC's on the front. I can't remember most of the HRs, just that some how gods like Cyric and Bhaal existed at the same time, despite the obvious problems there. In the end the game became a problem more because of the railroading than the HRs, but it ended with this classic line, after our ranger tried to disarm the strange woman following us WITH HIS BOW: DM: You just killed (insert random noble sounding name here) JP: Was she important? Jack: Dude, she's quoted on the front of the rules packet!
"Why in the wide,wide, world of all things irrational would I help you?
-Daniel Jackson
"Fun will now commence."
-Seven of Nine
"Excellent."
-Mr. Burns.
Whey is a crotch.
Cut the last encounter on your way out after dealing with the Darth. He's the BBEG. Treat him as such. Play up that Darth Revan is THAT much of a badarse. When the shuttle landed, I had no less than 13 JEDI MASTERS step off the shuttle. The PCs were slack-jawed. After the meetup with Bastila (as she's carrying Revan's body), only TWO jedi masters remained with her. Let me tell you, the player whining about not getting to fight Revan himself shut up pretty quickly when he saw that. 
There's so much you can do with insanity, especially when it has alot of resources.
1. Cleric cast protection from fire on Tank.
2. Tank goes in and get surrounded by enemies.
3. Wizard cast fireball and blows them up.
4. ???
5. Profit
I go by the saying," If it ain't friendly fire then it's not working."
And the greatest post moderation of all time...
I gave that (Content Removed) a to-scale Lego replica. (Content Removed) love to-scale Lego replicas.
(ORC_Cerberus: Edited - Vulgarity is against the Code of Conduct)
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 3:36PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Nov 17, 2011
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Actually D&D nicely has a solution to the problem of "innocent bystanders."
Resurrection magic.
Normally it's something DMs flinch at because it makes a lot of sacrifices really minor, but why not run with it? Why not have a world where magic is pervasive, and has solved most problems? People don't need to work hard to grow crops, druids perform a few rituals and then artificer constructs go out and harvest it. Shelter? Housing is constructed by golems and magic on the cheap. Maybe there's even a fashion for dueling. People duel to the death and then pay a small fee and resurrect someone (they've long since mastered resurrection magic to the point where it's quite cheap).
Hell, that last could explain why there's people with enough combat experience to challenge the PCs - they duel for fun. Disputes between countries could be settled in a giant arena (we're talking 30 square miles or more) with huge battles between armies of constructs, humans, all of that, and everything is rebuilt and everyone is resurrected afterwards. In fact you can make a point about how certain weapons and types of constructs are banned to avoid from damaging the scrying portals that show everyone the entertaining match (and it can be billed as harmless entertainment). When everything you want can be made readily available through magic, what's even the point of stealing?
Heh, here's a good backstory: The good gods won. They sealed off the Abyss from the other planes. Shadowfell was severed too. At first the feywild remained connected, but then it began to drift off as the chaos and life that inspired the fey faded from the world, and now both the Feywild and Shadowfell are legends (like King Arthur or something).
In other words, it's practically a Utopia. The PCs kill someone? That person gets resurrected. They blow up a building? It gets rebuilt. Hell, a huge theme might be how far the PCs even need to go to inspire heroic acts. "Oh, they burned down a village and everyone died? We rebuilt it in a few days, and raised everyone too. You know kids, they get up to the darndest things." Hell, maybe even have Psions remove some memories of death, so that people aren't even disturbed by the memories.
Make it so the PCs have to stoop to truly evil deeds to actually inspire anyone to give a ****.
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10 months ago ::
Sep 21, 2012 - 4:46PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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Dropping the PCs in a magical Utopia could be fun, if only to challenge them to think in creative new ways to reinvent evil, and thus the need for heroics. A good drive could be the fight against apathy. If everyone is so used to an easy life of luxury without any danger, they quickly stop caring if someone blew up a building or mass murdered a school of children. Sure, they would disapprove but in the end it would be fixed without permanent negative consequences. Then why should anyone even get out of their chair to stop those things from happening?
The mission would quickly become to sabotage this Utopia in order to remind people how it feels to actually care about things like ownership, decent behaviour and even life itself. They would have to go after the mageocracy that makes this whole world possible. That would create some resistance all right. And hopefully inspire people to actually get up and protect their cozy way of life. The PCs could become public enemy number one, and/or later heroes who taught people a valuable lesson about caring for what they love.
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