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View Full Version : Campaign Setting over large spans of time (Idea!)



Prometheus
2009-01-04, 12:49 AM
This just seems like an unconventional way to run a game, but I think you could run a game spanning over inordinately large spans of in-game time (say, thousands of years). Of course, the PCs would all have to be "immortals" (in the sense that they nearly never die of old age) and likely immortals of the same type. Since this sense of time-scale couldn't occur if the PCs were constantly running around solving everyone's problems, there has to be a reason the PCs don't always intervene and part of the central part of the game would be to decide when to intervene. Of course, when the PCs do intervene, they probably do it on an epic enough scale that the consequences are powerful, so they have to consider overshooting as well as undershooting. The main motivation is to add an interesting dynamic to the decision making that goes into selecting quests (whether any quest at all should be selected) and give the PCs a sense of living that they really never will experience. Done correctly, it also brings the feeling of "Playing God" to the traditional sandbox game (sandbox games are ones in which the PCs direct the plot and the DM reacts). Here are a couple of scenarios in which this could occur:

-Angel-Demon Spy Games: To succeed at the game of Go (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)), is to play only the number of moves you need to succeed, and focusing yourself elsewhere when you are confident in that. Naturally, this means that when you play in a place, you provoke your opponent to play near there, and when an opponent plays somewhere, it provokes you to respond. Essentially, this is the mechanism for the Balance between Good and Evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil). There are just too many universes to be everywhere at once, and Good and Evil are long-lived to play their hand short. Therefore, they play this game of entering only when the other enters, initiated by someone who sees an opportunity that they believe they need the initiative on.
-The Secret Weapon: The PCs are some kind of fey or spirit that exists in the world primarily as a legend (presumably, this would be a low-magic setting, or a setting in which things like the PCs are a rarity). They understand the most influential events are dictated by careful calculations of the balance of power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_power_in_international_relations) in conflicting nations, and therefore intervene when they can catch people by surprise and tip the scales (essentially by being the Median Voter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_voter_theorem)). However, they have to appear only rarely less people find out the secret of their society - not only ruining their source of influence, but potentially destroying them altogether.
-The Sands of Time: Time just slips out of your fingers doesn't it? You have no idea. The PCs are some sort of giant, beast, dragon, elemental, or spirit which goes through great periods of rest, before waking and unleashing their mighty power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tarrasque.htm). Whereas this kind of game could work with a fixed rest period and limited time to be spent while waking, I think it would be better if they had some small awareness of the outsider world, even through a distorted lense.
-When Kings go to war: The PCs are nobility in a long-living race (probably dwarfs or elves, with exaggerated lifespans if necessary) and therefore have great power at their disposal. However, they know that when they intervene, they speak for the entire nation - and therefore must act not only so that they keep themselves alive, but so that their nation isn't held responsible for any toes they step on. As a long-living race with a low-birth rate, they should be much more heavily concerned about opportunity than ability.
-I smell Flesh: For a somewhat gruesome (and oddly enough, short lived in RL) campaign, the players are all terrible beasts or undead that live very isolated from their food sources (Negative energy plane, the tundra, and the desert come to mind). No matter, they can subsist on nearly nothing. But when prey does come, it is time to spring into action. Their meals-on-wheels comes in different forms and presents different challenges, but ultimately the PCs have to relish in chasing down screaming innocents to truly appreciate this kind of game. There is, of course, RP challenges in the form of competition with other gangs of their species, and bizarre evolutions resulting from their sporadic meals. In truth, the sense of time here is mostly just to reinforce the theme of necessary survival, rather than having an in-game effect.
-Cost Benefit Analysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_benefit_analysis) Thieves: Thieves can't take every job they see, or else they will get caught and subsequently raided by the police. There is a great deal of risk and a great deal of planning that goes into every crime. In some cases, however, there is a great deal of competition as well. Therefore, you have to pick and chose, as well as gauge the time you wait, very carefully. Of course this type of game is compatible with a very long-living species of thieves, but there is no reason it actually has to be over larger spans of time than say, months or years (for the entire campaign).

So, I have some questions for you:
-In general, what do you think about this idea?
-If you were going to organize a setting around this concept, how would you do it?
-Which of my ideas do you like, and which do you definitely not like?

EDIT: By "immortal", I mean never dying of old age rather than unable to be killed. But some of these formats do work with characters the don't die.

Grail
2009-01-04, 02:29 AM
It's something that I've done before.... well, sort of. I haven't run it over thousands of years, but I've run one over hundreds.

It can work, and work well, or it can crash and burn. Like any campaign.

The characters don't have to be immortal. When I ran it, the players played multiple characters in a single story arc that covered the large timespan. I also had the original characters descendants as other characters, and allowed them to start with heirlooms etc.

Was pretty good, and told a pretty cool story.

As to what do i like/dislike of your story, i don't think I can look at it like that. I'd probably try and avoid the characters being "immortal", but maybe you could have the characters enter a sleep state for a couple hundred years every now and then. I've used this concept before and it was cool, but I ran it as a one off adventure, where the characters woke up to find everything they'd worked for destroyed, the world changed, their people slain and their king crazy.

A game that spans this much time should be impressively epic, grand and cinematically OTT.

Ellisande
2009-01-04, 06:23 AM
Just glancing at your topics, the "Secret Weapon" theme holds the most allure for me.

What I really stopped in to suggest, though, is that you pick up a copy of Ars Magica--your OP really reminded me of it. Characters aren't immortal, but near enough, and I think it'd be very applicable if you are going to try something like this.

Malacode
2009-01-04, 06:56 AM
I'm planning on doing this soon, with a little spell I like to call Flesh to Stone. Flesh to Stone the PC's, they then get "revived" coupla hundred years later.

Tsotha-lanti
2009-01-04, 07:52 AM
This sounds like Nephilim? Basically the PCs are immortal spirits reborn into new bodies over thousands of years of human history, or something like that.

Cheesegear
2009-01-04, 08:20 AM
Another option, is to put in a Planar adventure somewhere, just whack some demons in. It's fairly easy to mock one up. Then when your players get back to their home plane after dealing with all the stuff in the other plane, they find that 100/200/500? years have passed whilst they've been gone.

Tequila Sunrise
2009-01-04, 12:02 PM
This sounds like it could be really fun! I'd definitely try the Secret Weapons or the When Kings War campaigns.

TS

Learnedguy
2009-01-04, 12:08 PM
I liked how Half-Life 2 pulled this trick off. It's basically The Secret Weapon scenario.

AppleChips
2009-01-04, 12:10 PM
That sounds pretty interesting! You could use epic destinies as one form of immortalty- from what I've read, they look like they would fit perfectly.

hamishspence
2009-01-04, 12:13 PM
and Dragon mag online, before becoming pay-only, had in an earlier one, 3.5 versions of Epic Destinies. Which are still accessible with the free membership.

I was a little annoyed at the pay-only coming halfway through a mag edition though.

Artanis
2009-01-04, 12:34 PM
So, I have some questions for you:
-In general, what do you think about this idea?
-If you were going to organize a setting around this concept, how would you do it?
-Which of my ideas do you like, and which do you definitely not like?

EDIT: By "immortal", I mean never dying of old age rather than unable to be killed. But some of these formats do work with characters the don't die.
1) It sounds cool!

2) Exalted would be perfect for this. The Mandate of Heaven supplementary rules (that both editions have a version of) are basically purpose-built for what you describe:
*The players run their own nation.
*The players are (technically) killable immortals.
*You can fit anything you want into the setting. There's room for whatever you want to have in Creation.
*The very nature of Exalts means that they aren't going to bother to personally intervene in every little thing, but things that do require their direct intervention are going to be Truly Epic.
*Some types of Exalts are better suited to some of the listed scenarios than others. For instance, if you so choose you could have a Solar player doing "The Secret Weapon", a Lunar player doing "I Smell Flesh", and a Dragonblood player doing "Thieves".

Prometheus
2009-01-04, 07:29 PM
I'm glad for the positive feedback.

I only recently heard about Epic Destinies (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080428) (from the alternative epic rules thread a while back), and I think that would make a good edition to the campaign even if the players aren't epic.

I can't say I'm familiar with either Nephilim or Exalted. While my idea was one that I'm sure a lot of systems could use, I mostly had in the back of my mind (although didn't say,) D&D.

Here's another question I'm split on: How much do you think technology should advance over the course of the campaign? It would defeat the point of large spans of time to do one without the rise of technology, but of course, most people prefer the traditional fantasy setting to a sci-fi one.

Tequila Sunrise
2009-01-04, 09:10 PM
I think it'd be cool to start right at the beginning with the Stone Age and end with the Renaissance, at the latest. Once guns get advanced enough to become the norm, the fantasy loses its charm IMO.

Alternatively, if the world is wracked by enough infighting, plagues, draughts and other miscellaneous disasters, technology could remain at a standstill indefinitely.

TS