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mr.farche
2010-08-05, 06:29 PM
I'm currently running a GURPS solo campaign with a long distance friend of mine, and I need some ideas for long term goals in the campaign.

A little background about my world:

The world is called Airostaan

Medium Fantasy- There is magic and monsters but no elves or dwarves, only humans

Time Period- Dark Ages -100 years

History
• “The Lore of the Light” is the history and legend of god-like beings that populated this world before humans
• This god-like society somehow crumbled or collapsed, and its inhabitants created another plane of existence, and retreated there and hid from some greater evil (which is probably fizzled away now, but maybe it could start an apocalypse? maybe I should look at the Elder Evils DnD book...)
• Humans have yet to explore some of the further reaching areas of the world thus many of the god ruins haven’t been discovered.

Magic
The magic in my world is syntactic, so mages combine different runes in a certain order to create a large number of effects Mages are called "evokers" and cast magic from runes that must be scribed, engraved, or tattooed. Once the runes have been scribed, evokers must trace the runes with their fingers successfully to cast the spell. Evokers that use tattoos are called "tattooists" (surprise, surprise!), and are generally from more primitive societies, while evokers that use books to cast their runes out of are called "scribes". Magic saps fatigue points and is therefore limited. Evokers are usually few and far between (due to the years of study and practice to be a mage), but many of them find themselves in adventuring groups because of the versatility of magic due to its syntactic properties. Societies either fear, loathe, embrace, choose not to use, or are ignorant of magic, sometimes more than one at the same time!

Races of Airostaan
• All Human; No Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, or Gnomes
• Subterranean humans that discovered the "language of the light" (Magic). These people are burly, hairless humans, with milky white eyes but have abnormally keen senses of smell and hearing. These humans build high magic societies underground.
• Tribes that live in the deepest jungles (similar to South Americans)
• Desert Folk (similar to Egyptians and Arabs)
• Aquatic Humans that have learned to use magic to transform their bodies to be amphibious in order to create protected, underwater societies (high magic societies). These humans have gills under their jawline, webbed hands and feet, and a second set of eyelids, like a crocodile.
• Northfolk- a common name for all arctic dwelling humans, on the north or south poles, they are adapted to cold climates.

The characters in the campaign are:

Lee: a former mercenary, bit of a scoundrel (but still a loyal and moral person) and trained in the arts of larceny. He is motivated by treasure (of course) and by friendship. This is my friends character.

Ella: an evoker who is sort of an amazon, she comes from a society of amphibious people in the deep jungles. She is very intelligent and motivated by the study and research of magic, she cares very little for gold and material wealth, and respects nature and lives off it's bounty. This is a major NPC that I control.

Alright, I'm thinking that a few things I could do are:
-A big treasure hunt: Gaining magical knowledge for Ella and gold for Lee
-Stopping an apocalypse maybe?
-Giving Lee cursed dreams that he has to track down and eliminate the scource

Any ideas, comments, or criticism?

W3bDragon
2010-08-05, 07:07 PM
Off the top of my head...

Using Airostaan as inspiration, let's say that the gods that retreated were "Air" gods, with dominion over the sky. The "Evil" ones could be gods as well, "Water" gods with dominion over the seas and oceans. The Water gods are still around, staying out of sight in the far reaches of the world, and are slowly manipulating humanity to become an amphibious race, thus come completely under the control of the Water gods.

The Air gods are benevolent and, contrary to popular belief (spread by the Water gods) they weren't defeated, but instead decided to retreat rather than wage a war of gods on the land of man, which would have assuredly destroyed most of civilization. The agreement was that in exchange for their retreat, the Water gods would not meddle in the affairs of humanity. The Air gods watch from afar, ready to intervene if the Water gods push too far. That is why the Water gods are resorting to manipulation, hoping to make it look like the humans decided to "take to the seas" of their own volition.

In the campaign, this can start with encounters with the Ella's people asking for her help in spreading their amphibious nature to other societies. Stuff like "irreverent city folk can benefit from some wisdom of the sea" or some such.

Slowly the plot unfolds and the PCs realize that what they're helping to do is more sinister than they thought. Ella has to choose between her people, and what Lee tells her is the right thing to do. She chooses him, and they embark on a journey to learn more of the reasons behind what's happening.

Eh.. You might get something useful from that I guess.

mr.farche
2010-08-08, 12:47 AM
This is actually a pretty good idea to adapt from thanks!

Yahzi
2010-08-08, 01:29 AM
Eh.. You might get something useful from that I guess.
Pretty good stuff! :smallsmile:

Morph Bark
2010-08-08, 05:35 AM
That is extra funny in a way considering Cthulhu seems to like water...

The way magic works here reminds me of some ideas I had for a spellcaster class that basically does that. Are there any spellcasting classes banned, or are you using homebrew classes?

Accersitus
2010-08-08, 07:02 AM
I like the idea about cursed dreams.
In our current campaign, the GM is having lots of fun confusing us with dreams, to the point where we can't really tell if our characters are dreaming or not.
It's starting to drive our characters mad :D
We have done a lot of weird stuff because we were convinced we were still dreaming ^^, and had great escapes ruined because we thought we were awake, but were still dreaming.