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Choco
2010-01-11, 10:08 AM
I had this idea after reading a bit of the "why the Tippyverse doesn't happen" thread, and thought it would be an interesting one to develop further:

We all know of the many settings and homebrew campaigns that take place long after the fall of some utopian empire (Dark Sun, for instance), where the world is just a barren wasteland, not even doing justice to it's former self. But how about playing a campaign during the actual fall of the utopian empire?

The entire world will be united under one utopian empire, which will basically be the Tippyverse made manifest. There is no hunger because magic creates infinite food, no disease because magic cures everything, no wars because everyone has everything they want via magic (not to say there wont be rival individuals or organizations fighting, but no all-out war). The intelligent races don't have to do much of anything because they have magical constructs to do all the work for them, so all they need to do is learn magic. Basically magic fixes all problems and does everything.

And then the world starts crumbling. Turns out the source of magic is from the fabric that makes up the world itself (haven't decided yet if anyone will know this), and it has almost all been used up. Now the world is falling apart, and the all-powerful magic that has been used for centuries to solve all problems is not only powerless to stop it, but is speeding up the destruction. Holes start popping up all over the world, with chunks of it breaking off and crumbling into oblivion. Magic can be use to stop the destruction of one particular area, but at the cost of having the destruction happen elsewhere at an accelerated pace. Note that if other planes exist and are known of, this will likely lead to a multiverse-wide war should the residents of the material plane try to rape another plane of it's magic to save themselves and maintain their standard of living. Well, not so much a war as every other plane of existance ganging up on them.

The campaign would take place after a good deal of destruction has happened already, with everyone freaking out about the destruction and their complete inability to stop it. There would of course be a faction that is dedicated to developing a powerful enough magic to stop the destruction, a rebel faction that realizes magic is the problem and resorts to terrorist attacks against anyone who attempts to use it carelessly, another faction actually trying to learn the nature of magic and if the destruction is reversible in any way, etc. Then there are the PC's, either thrown in there on their own or working for one of the major factions.

A good chunk of the campaign would probably be the PC's learning why the world is crumbling, which would be followed by them realizing the only way to stop it is to stop using magic, and perhaps they can try to find a way to heal the damage that has been done (or maybe discover the world will slowly regenerate itself if allowed to). There will lie the major problem: The PC's have to convince or force everyone in the world to give up magic. This is akin to us in the modern world giving up all our technology and going back to a middle ages quality of life, or cave men even. Not easy to convince people to do that, as I am sure you are realizing :smallbiggrin:.

So yeah, now that the intro is done, what are your thoughts on this? I hope to build up this setting/campaign using your input, because no matter how long I work on this myself there will always be plenty of good ideas I will miss. Some ideas for villains, adventures, factions, challenges, world fluff, etc. is what I am looking for. If this goes well maybe I will get un-lazy and write up a homebrew setting in the Homebrew section.

bosssmiley
2010-01-11, 10:28 AM
The Fall of the Alphatian Empire in the Wrath of the Immortals and the Poor Wizards Almanac series was a case study in this.

There really is nothing new under the sun. :smallwink:

Choco
2010-01-11, 10:32 AM
The Fall of the Alphatian Empire in the Wrath of the Immortals and the Poor Wizards Almanac series was a case study in this.

There really is nothing new under the sun. :smallwink:

Yeah I know, there is really nothing new these days because everything has already been done (SIMPSONS DID IT!). Best we can do is put a new and original twist on one of the infinite existing ideas, and this is one you don't see too often in PnP campaigns. At least not as often as most of the other cliches.

Optimystik
2010-01-11, 11:24 AM
Plenty of ideas here. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndManGrewProud)

TheCountAlucard
2010-01-11, 01:29 PM
Ever read "The Magic Goes Away?" Sounds a lot like what you're looking for, aside from the world being united under one government bit....

In Case You Intend To Read It, Here Be Spoilers

Been years since I read it, but if my memory serves me, it features a world in which magic is a finite resource - generations ago, people were using magical flight just for mundane errands, but now, it looks like the magic is almost gone - perhaps forever. The story begins with the sinking of Atlantis, after which point a group of magicians decide to try and muster what little magic remains to summon an overdeity to crash the moon into the Earth - after all, perhaps the moon's magic hasn't yet been depleted - to hopefully restore the magic of old.

And yeah, you can tell it's just chock-full of allegories.

Aldizog
2010-01-11, 01:58 PM
I've wanted to run a campaign set during the Bronze Age Collapse (c. 1200 BC). So many interesting historical and mythical figures active around that time, from Ramses the Great to Fu Hao to Achilles... a collapse at least partially precipitated by some mysterious "Sea Peoples", which offers all kinds of interesting explanations.

And the Trojan War of this era was seen as the end of the Greek Age of Heroes (most Greek heroes were believed to have lived before it, IIRC). So perhaps at the end of this age you could have some world-shaking event that ends most of the magic and brings people "down to earth." Humans in this age could be much tougher -- maybe Fast Healing, more HP, higher ability scores, and so on. Then at the end of the campaign, the PCs have to make some choice to either avert or cause the Bronze Age Collapse. Possibly if they don't cause the Collapse, something even worse will happen?

Choco
2010-01-11, 02:06 PM
I've wanted to run a campaign set during the Bronze Age Collapse (c. 1200 BC). So many interesting historical and mythical figures active around that time, from Ramses the Great to Fu Hao to Achilles... a collapse at least partially precipitated by some mysterious "Sea Peoples", which offers all kinds of interesting explanations.

And the Trojan War of this era was seen as the end of the Greek Age of Heroes (most Greek heroes were believed to have lived before it, IIRC). So perhaps at the end of this age you could have some world-shaking event that ends most of the magic and brings people "down to earth." Humans in this age could be much tougher -- maybe Fast Healing, more HP, higher ability scores, and so on. Then at the end of the campaign, the PCs have to make some choice to either avert or cause the Bronze Age Collapse. Possibly if they don't cause the Collapse, something even worse will happen?

That's almost what I was thinking. They either force the collapse of the magic system the world has grown to rely on (because the majority of people will not let go voluntarily) or the world gets destroyed. Of course half the fun is the PC's realizing that this is necessary in the first place.

Kris Strife
2010-01-11, 02:28 PM
Theres a third party setting for 3.0 thats supposedly set just before the collapse of the magical utopia. Morning something or other I think?