Dire Panda
2012-08-06, 10:11 PM
Forewarning: If you game with a rotund bearded guy who designs neutron sources for a living, this topic may very well contain spoilers for our next campaign.
It all started with the common fantasy trope that powerful wizards tend to go mad from studying That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know. But surely it can't just be wizards? Show me a cleric who's been worshiping a particular god for the past twenty levels, and I'll show you someone who's so committed to his belief system (one that grants him world-shaking power, no less) that he's completely unable to consider alternate points of view of view. Or what about the high-level fighter who spent years butchering sentient, screaming creatures, witnessing at close range every conceivable type of bodily harm?
In other words, what if gaining levels has a direct mechanical impact on one's sanity?
I've been developing this campaign seed for a couple of days now and would appreciate feedback and suggestions. My ideas so far:
Every level beyond first applies a cumulative derangement to the character, starting small but rapidly escalating. Each class applies different effects (wizards might develop megalomania, while rogues may become paranoid), but there should be multiple options per class for the player to choose. They'd all include roleplaying elements as well as mechanical penalties, the overall effect being to make high-level characters difficult to play.
It would be common knowledge that powerful people tend to go mad - so much so that forming teams to hunt down higher-level adventurers is a major part of any adventurer's life. Kingdoms rapidly rise through conquest and fall when their leaders are inevitably slain... or go mad and marry all their heirs to a koi pond, dooming their line. As such, the world is stuck in a dark age.
Early in the campaign, the PCs would discover some spell/ritual/artifact that grants selective amnesia to a willing character, lowering their level while letting them keep their memories. (It's safer than finding some critter to level-drain them!) They'd level up after every game session, so strategic use of the artifact would be critical - too high-level and they can't function, too low-level and they get slaughtered.
Eventually the PCs discover that the Powers That Be - not necessarily the gods worshiped by mortals - intentionally designed the world like this to ensure that mortal society was in a state of constant flux. Perhaps the mortals of the previous world had experienced enough positive feedback - powerful adventurers acquired resources and rapidly gained additional power - that they challenged the Powers That Be and the ensuing conflict destroyed their world. The current system ensures that any high-level character either destroys himself or is torn down by the next generation... and keeps the world alive, at the cost of continual violence. The PCs would have the choice of working to undo the phenomenon.
What do you think?
It all started with the common fantasy trope that powerful wizards tend to go mad from studying That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know. But surely it can't just be wizards? Show me a cleric who's been worshiping a particular god for the past twenty levels, and I'll show you someone who's so committed to his belief system (one that grants him world-shaking power, no less) that he's completely unable to consider alternate points of view of view. Or what about the high-level fighter who spent years butchering sentient, screaming creatures, witnessing at close range every conceivable type of bodily harm?
In other words, what if gaining levels has a direct mechanical impact on one's sanity?
I've been developing this campaign seed for a couple of days now and would appreciate feedback and suggestions. My ideas so far:
Every level beyond first applies a cumulative derangement to the character, starting small but rapidly escalating. Each class applies different effects (wizards might develop megalomania, while rogues may become paranoid), but there should be multiple options per class for the player to choose. They'd all include roleplaying elements as well as mechanical penalties, the overall effect being to make high-level characters difficult to play.
It would be common knowledge that powerful people tend to go mad - so much so that forming teams to hunt down higher-level adventurers is a major part of any adventurer's life. Kingdoms rapidly rise through conquest and fall when their leaders are inevitably slain... or go mad and marry all their heirs to a koi pond, dooming their line. As such, the world is stuck in a dark age.
Early in the campaign, the PCs would discover some spell/ritual/artifact that grants selective amnesia to a willing character, lowering their level while letting them keep their memories. (It's safer than finding some critter to level-drain them!) They'd level up after every game session, so strategic use of the artifact would be critical - too high-level and they can't function, too low-level and they get slaughtered.
Eventually the PCs discover that the Powers That Be - not necessarily the gods worshiped by mortals - intentionally designed the world like this to ensure that mortal society was in a state of constant flux. Perhaps the mortals of the previous world had experienced enough positive feedback - powerful adventurers acquired resources and rapidly gained additional power - that they challenged the Powers That Be and the ensuing conflict destroyed their world. The current system ensures that any high-level character either destroys himself or is torn down by the next generation... and keeps the world alive, at the cost of continual violence. The PCs would have the choice of working to undo the phenomenon.
What do you think?