Raishi Fox
2012-02-22, 01:03 PM
So here's the dilemma. I'm a semi-experienced GM, I've run several long running games, almost all 3.5E and Pathfinder, as well as a bit of VtM. I've had a campaign storyline in my head for years now that I've been working on a bit at a time, and it's almost at the point where I'm ready to pitch it to some of my preferred players and try to get it started.
The one remaining detail being, I can't find a system that works well for all parts of it.
The issue that's making things difficult is that the campaign I have in my head includes a drastic power level and style shift halfway though. Basically...okay, I'm not sure how well I can explain what I need without some idea of the campaign, so let me sum it up as quickly as I can...though it still likely won't be that quick, sorry.
The campaign setting is a world composed of one large main continent and a massive chain of distant islands at "the edge of the world". In the past, the islands were considered less hospitable, and humanity lived almost entirely on the mainland. Long in the past, magic was discovered and refined, and used to create a perhaps not quite utopian, but certainly very pleasant society. Unfortunately, as with any source of power, some could never get enough, and in the end, experiments with the land's magic went out of control; it took on a life of its own and after a long and doomed fight, the land itself became too dangerous for human survival; the remaining peoples all fled to the islands and started a new, magic-less, primarily nautical civilization there.
A couple of hundred years later, their knowledge of their old home is little more than mythology. They know it's -there-, of course, but what remains of it is an unknown. Law forbids travel there, to prevent accidentally bringing back the magic that they feel destroyed their civilization. Religions have sprung up over it, the dominant one believing that it's essentially hell itself. Humanity being humanity, of course there have been attempts to go back, but they have never succeeded; most explorers never return, the few that did were turned back almost immediately by conditions they barely survived. Now, most are content to consider it another world and keep to their own on the islands.
The land's magic is beginning to reach further into the waters around it than anyone realizes, though, and one ship on a cross-oceanic voyage is about to come a little too close. The players begin shipwrecked on the island with little in the way of tools or knowledge to survive a hostile land, and the first part of the campaign is going to stick mostly with this theme.
The trick is that, they'll eventually find the means to send a message back to their home for help - without realizing that their government has been taken over by a religious faction, who views the land as basically an evil remnant of humanity's past, which needs to be eradicated for them to redeem themselves, destroying all traces of magic in the process if possible. They'll be pumped for information, only to find out that they've just helped launch a holy war against the land - just in time to start discovering the truth about it. The magic that their ancestors unleashed has grown into something literally alive, and while it's still wild and dangerous, it's only because it's still very much a child, with no understanding of humanity. Already though, it's becoming something beautiful beyond anything in history - now that they've set into motion a machine that plans to grind it to dust.
This part's going to be tricky, since I need to play the players' feelings about the land, and keep it timed just right so that they quite drastically change their minds about it just a -bit- too late, but the players are going to find themselves going from trying to escape the land by any means necessary to desperately trying to find a way to protect it against the combined might of the largest army humanity has but together in a century.
Fortunately, aligning themselves with an untamed child god has its advantages. As their allegiance shifts toward protecting the land and they grow attached to it, the land's magic begins to lend itself to the player characters and become part of its new guardians; they'll gradually go from ordinary survivors to essentially near-demigods themselves.
This is the catching point for me. I need a classless system, as I don't want any sort of linear character progression; at first they'll be developing survival skills, but later on they'll be taking on extensive supernatural powers. I don't want the players confined to predetermined roles, either, I want them to develop the abilities the land grants them according to their own styles. The tough part is, I need a system that will be able to handle both ends of the power scale. So far I've had GURPS and Hero system recommended to me, but GURPS seems like it will handle the first half of the game well but mostly fall apart and become extremely cumbersome at high power levels, where Hero System seems like it's not going to lack detail in the first half of the game, as well as being perhaps just a bit awkward in places, like the speed table.
Also, I'm trying to keep the campaign RP heavy, with fewer battles, but making the ones that do happen actually important (no random goblin mashes, the vast majority of battles should feel like they matter). I'd like to make them fairly big, tactical battles, so I don't want a system that's too rules-light, I want something with a solid combat component.
So, I'm leaning towards Hero System for the moment, despite my misgivings, since it seems like it's at least closest to what I need, and it will give the players a lot of freedom with developing their powers when they attain them later in the game. However, I'm definitely open to any other suggestions; I'm sure there are tons of great systems I don't know anything about, or some I may have overlooked for the wrong reasons. For anyone that's still reading by this point...thoughts?
The one remaining detail being, I can't find a system that works well for all parts of it.
The issue that's making things difficult is that the campaign I have in my head includes a drastic power level and style shift halfway though. Basically...okay, I'm not sure how well I can explain what I need without some idea of the campaign, so let me sum it up as quickly as I can...though it still likely won't be that quick, sorry.
The campaign setting is a world composed of one large main continent and a massive chain of distant islands at "the edge of the world". In the past, the islands were considered less hospitable, and humanity lived almost entirely on the mainland. Long in the past, magic was discovered and refined, and used to create a perhaps not quite utopian, but certainly very pleasant society. Unfortunately, as with any source of power, some could never get enough, and in the end, experiments with the land's magic went out of control; it took on a life of its own and after a long and doomed fight, the land itself became too dangerous for human survival; the remaining peoples all fled to the islands and started a new, magic-less, primarily nautical civilization there.
A couple of hundred years later, their knowledge of their old home is little more than mythology. They know it's -there-, of course, but what remains of it is an unknown. Law forbids travel there, to prevent accidentally bringing back the magic that they feel destroyed their civilization. Religions have sprung up over it, the dominant one believing that it's essentially hell itself. Humanity being humanity, of course there have been attempts to go back, but they have never succeeded; most explorers never return, the few that did were turned back almost immediately by conditions they barely survived. Now, most are content to consider it another world and keep to their own on the islands.
The land's magic is beginning to reach further into the waters around it than anyone realizes, though, and one ship on a cross-oceanic voyage is about to come a little too close. The players begin shipwrecked on the island with little in the way of tools or knowledge to survive a hostile land, and the first part of the campaign is going to stick mostly with this theme.
The trick is that, they'll eventually find the means to send a message back to their home for help - without realizing that their government has been taken over by a religious faction, who views the land as basically an evil remnant of humanity's past, which needs to be eradicated for them to redeem themselves, destroying all traces of magic in the process if possible. They'll be pumped for information, only to find out that they've just helped launch a holy war against the land - just in time to start discovering the truth about it. The magic that their ancestors unleashed has grown into something literally alive, and while it's still wild and dangerous, it's only because it's still very much a child, with no understanding of humanity. Already though, it's becoming something beautiful beyond anything in history - now that they've set into motion a machine that plans to grind it to dust.
This part's going to be tricky, since I need to play the players' feelings about the land, and keep it timed just right so that they quite drastically change their minds about it just a -bit- too late, but the players are going to find themselves going from trying to escape the land by any means necessary to desperately trying to find a way to protect it against the combined might of the largest army humanity has but together in a century.
Fortunately, aligning themselves with an untamed child god has its advantages. As their allegiance shifts toward protecting the land and they grow attached to it, the land's magic begins to lend itself to the player characters and become part of its new guardians; they'll gradually go from ordinary survivors to essentially near-demigods themselves.
This is the catching point for me. I need a classless system, as I don't want any sort of linear character progression; at first they'll be developing survival skills, but later on they'll be taking on extensive supernatural powers. I don't want the players confined to predetermined roles, either, I want them to develop the abilities the land grants them according to their own styles. The tough part is, I need a system that will be able to handle both ends of the power scale. So far I've had GURPS and Hero system recommended to me, but GURPS seems like it will handle the first half of the game well but mostly fall apart and become extremely cumbersome at high power levels, where Hero System seems like it's not going to lack detail in the first half of the game, as well as being perhaps just a bit awkward in places, like the speed table.
Also, I'm trying to keep the campaign RP heavy, with fewer battles, but making the ones that do happen actually important (no random goblin mashes, the vast majority of battles should feel like they matter). I'd like to make them fairly big, tactical battles, so I don't want a system that's too rules-light, I want something with a solid combat component.
So, I'm leaning towards Hero System for the moment, despite my misgivings, since it seems like it's at least closest to what I need, and it will give the players a lot of freedom with developing their powers when they attain them later in the game. However, I'm definitely open to any other suggestions; I'm sure there are tons of great systems I don't know anything about, or some I may have overlooked for the wrong reasons. For anyone that's still reading by this point...thoughts?