a campaign idea

[big teej]

hey playgrounders, I posted this in the "deck of many things thread" but nobody took to it, but I was still curious as to what people would think.

so I present to you....
the set up for a CAMPAIGN based on the Deck of Many Things



this thread calls to mind a campaign idea I had some time ago.

call every player I know
have every player show up.
have every player make a level 10 character.
have every player draw a card from The Deck Of Many Things

DM builds plot/story based on results.
DM belatedly remembers to tell players to expect casualties during character creation.

thoughts?

[Cog]

DM belatedly remembers to tell players to expect casualties during character creation.
The DM among them.

[dextercorvia]

It might be fun for a one-shot, but there are going to be crippling differences between the characters.

[big teej]

well the idea is any character 'too crippled' bows out (or 'fixing' them is the first quest)

hence casualties during creation, and having so many players.

[dextercorvia]

I meant the fact that you will have about a two level disparity between your characters. Some of them will have fantastic goodies while others will have just survived. Bob the Bardblade, who just lost a bunch of Int is still playable (although he just lost access to Words of Creation). But, he is standing next to Willie the Wizard who just leveled almost twice and now has 6th level spells.

For one session, that isn't too bad. For a whole campaign, it will feel like everybody but you is giving the DM favors under the table.

[big teej]

I meant the fact that you will have about a two level disparity between your characters. Some of them will have fantastic goodies while others will have just survived. Bob the Bardblade, who just lost a bunch of Int is still playable (although he just lost access to Words of Creation). But, he is standing next to Willie the Wizard who just leveled almost twice and now has 6th level spells.

For one session, that isn't too bad. For a whole campaign, it will feel like everybody but you is giving the DM favors under the table.

fair enough, I suppose I hadn't thought of it like that. it just struck me as a wonderfully random idea to generate plot hooks


do you think it'd be more workable (long term) to give them an option of rolling a set of rogue's dice OR drawing from the deck?

[NichG]

You could make a campaign about fixing damage caused by DoMT draws, as it passes through the countryside. I.e. stop a war from when someone suddenly gains a keep in the middle of previously owned territory, stop the outsider from Flames from rampaging around after their target, rescue the soul of someone important from the Void, who was placed there by being forced to draw.

You could sort the cards by the level needed to deal with the card's consequences and use it for an accelerated pace mini-campaign. I don't know what card it'd necessarily culminate in, possibly a multidraw or something (the BBEG starts farming magic items, wealth, and wishes by forcing their army of minions to draw repeatedly).