DM needs some help with his campaign

[RoGueNL]

Hi guys , I'm currently DM'ing a campaign for some friends (for the first time) and I'm stuck on the story. Hope you could give me some pointers: (the campaign thus far is in the spoilers)

The players have been tricked in killing an NPC that would bring peace to the entire world and was a 'gift' from the gods. Upon the discovery of the murder , the players we're celebrated by Asmodeus but we're shunned by Zaphkiel. Zaphkiel was brought to tears by the act and told that players that the Material Plane was corrupted beyond help and that they would be deserted by the gods.


Because of my (lack of) experience I've cornered myself : The main idea would be that all the deities , ranging from Pelor to Vecna , would abandon the Material Plane to make them suffer for their deed. However , I've got no idea how the 'world' would function without the divine power from deities. (could the sun still rise etc.)

The players allready know that they'll be hunted but I've got no idea how they could redeem themselves (if that's even possible).

Hope you can give a starting DM some pointers on this!

[Atentora]

I'd suggest that you stick with that redeeming idea you have.
Maybe think of some trials they have to go through, items they need to find, creatures the need to slay. Pick a hand full of deities and come up with a trial for each based on their portfolio. Finding out what these possibly ancient trials could easily be an adventure by itself.
An interesting idea would be to look at Pandorym in the Elder Evils book. There are effects that happen such as divine casters taking a cl penalty. If they are failing to complete these trials maybe a god will abandon the material plane, penalties to things that fall under its domain and portfolio.

[RoGueNL]

I'd suggest that you stick with that redeeming idea you have.
Maybe think of some trials they have to go through, items they need to find, creatures the need to slay. Pick a hand full of deities and come up with a trial for each based on their portfolio. Finding out what these possibly ancient trials could easily be an adventure by itself.
An interesting idea would be to look at Pandorym in the Elder Evils book. There are effects that happen such as divine casters taking a cl penalty. If they are failing to complete these trials maybe a god will abandon the material plane, penalties to things that fall under its domain and portfolio.

In my mind the deities had allready decided to abandon the plain , the fact that they might stay if certain challenges were achieved hadn't crossed my mind yet, thanks for that!

I'm currently not at home so don't have access to the Elder Evils book atm but I'll check it out :)

anyone else that has some ideas/tips or completely different ideas?

[Kornaki]

If everything deity related just halts then the world probably falls apart super fast, depending on your definition of deity. Asking questions like "By the rules is Pelor's presence required for the sun to rise?" Isn't very productive, since these things are probably not covered in general, and none of your players expect any such written rules to hold in your setting.

If you want the world to start falling apart, it should do so slowly. Maybe if Pelor leaves and the sun used to be propelled by him across the sky then the sun starts to slow down.... nobody notices for about a week, but then the days and nights begin to get noticeably longer. You can couple that with the tasks idea... Pelor leaves, but the players can complete a task to get him to return. They can take as long as they want but there are consequences for him being gone for a long period of time.

Some things can happen immediately - maybe the dead all rise from their graves, and the players need to fix that right away. But major long term effects should kick in slowly over time to give the feeling of an apocalypse - for example, all the trees can get a disease without the nature god's presence and start to slowly die. If the players don't fix this within a month all the forests in the world are dead

[RoGueNL]

If everything deity related just halts then the world probably falls apart super fast, depending on your definition of deity. Asking questions like "By the rules is Pelor's presence required for the sun to rise?" Isn't very productive, since these things are probably not covered in general, and none of your players expect any such written rules to hold in your setting.

If you want the world to start falling apart, it should do so slowly. Maybe if Pelor leaves and the sun used to be propelled by him across the sky then the sun starts to slow down.... nobody notices for about a week, but then the days and nights begin to get noticeably longer. You can couple that with the tasks idea... Pelor leaves, but the players can complete a task to get him to return. They can take as long as they want but there are consequences for him being gone for a long period of time.

Some things can happen immediately - maybe the dead all rise from their graves, and the players need to fix that right away. But major long term effects should kick in slowly over time to give the feeling of an apocalypse - for example, all the trees can get a disease without the nature god's presence and start to slowly die. If the players don't fix this within a month all the forests in the world are dead

The example of the sun needing Pelor might not have been worded properly (English isn't my native language , might be a language barrier there), it was something that came to mind : "does it work like the greek mythos in dnd"

The idea of the world slowly falling apart is pretty damn awesome to be honest. It gives me a lot of story arcs and material to work with ! Combining it with the challenges to gain favor with the gods should work

[ravagerofworlds]

The world must fail without the gods is a very Grecian concept of deities. In my own campaign, I have a cthulu-esque origin for our DnD campaign, where the Old Ones ruled before the New Gods imprisoned them... and everything is still a clockwork universe. This allows for new gods to arise, and old gods to die (just like in Faerun).

So based on your campaign world origins, you're going to have different effects if "the gods leave."

1) There is a power vacuum. Power abhors a vacuum. Prepare for new gods, or cults to rise up.
2) The fact that the messiah was slain by the PCs begs the question... how the eff did the gods not bother to protect their gift in the first place? Why didn't the effing evil gods, or demons/devils try to swat the gift?
3) This could be the plan for an evil deity to simply get Good to be stupid and leave with their ball. Sounds like a great way to have the villains be clerics and the heroes' not able to heal so well... and a way for Bards to shine. : P

[RoGueNL]

The world must fail without the gods is a very Grecian concept of deities. In my own campaign, I have a cthulu-esque origin for our DnD campaign, where the Old Ones ruled before the New Gods imprisoned them... and everything is still a clockwork universe. This allows for new gods to arise, and old gods to die (just like in Faerun).

So based on your campaign world origins, you're going to have different effects if "the gods leave."

1) There is a power vacuum. Power abhors a vacuum. Prepare for new gods, or cults to rise up.
2) The fact that the messiah was slain by the PCs begs the question... how the eff did the gods not bother to protect their gift in the first place? Why didn't the effing evil gods, or demons/devils try to swat the gift?
3) This could be the plan for an evil deity to simply get Good to be stupid and leave with their ball. Sounds like a great way to have the villains be clerics and the heroes' not able to heal so well... and a way for Bards to shine. : P

The Messiah being slain is bit ...strange , that's true : Some of the players were cursed by her blood (the players actually help with her birth, devil then planted to curse as a failsafe) , and we're under the impression that the rest of the world was cursed (everyone was happy , peace broke out everywhere) and that the messiah was using charms and mindcontrol to 'take over the world'. Devils , seeing this as a big problem tried to interfere but we're stopped from doing this by the gods themselves. The gods were too busy dealing with the devils that they didn't think that inhabitants of the plane would ever want to harm their messiah (Yes I know this seems a little far fetched but weaving an idea into a logical and good story is something I still need some experience with)

My first idea was to have divine magic disappear from the plane ; healing would become difficult, clerics and paladin would go mental and fall into depression or worse. Chaos would seep into the plane , devils could work without interference , corruption would become 'the new hot thing'.

After the ideas posted here ; I'm going to try and steer the campaign towards the 'world is falling apart...slowly' and see how the players react to it.

The players still have the have some way of getting their challenges though ; If they discover that the sun is failing , how would they know what to do to get back in favor with Pelor ? "Do this and i'll come back" seems a bit ...tacky

[Alaris]

Love the campaign idea. I love it.

As far as the rest of it is concerned, there are many ways to go about it.

You say Zaphkiel informed the PCs that the world is too corrupt, and the gods are abandoning it? Well, take it a step further. Make sure that the gods inform their followers that "YOU ARE NOT WORTHY." Really stamp it in there. This might get it into the player's heads that while they aren't worthy now, they could become worthy. They have to prove themselves.

From there, it is simply a matter of providing the proper NPCs and channels for them to learn how to prove themselves. Perhaps start with something another person has suggested; a cult.

A cult for a "new god" has taken over a local Temple of Pelor. Make it a really evil, nasty cult. Real baby-eaters. The PCs, being the [hopefully] heroes that they are, eradicate this infestation of cultists.

After that's said and done, let there be a sign. Something to show that Pelor approves of what they've done. That maybe, just maybe, there's still hope left. From there, you can hint at what else they can do to restore Pelor's faith in the material plane, and I'm sure you can take it from there.

Don't know if my ideas are too good, but I wish you the best of luck in your campaign. You'll need it!

[frost890]

I think that the trouble with any prophecy is often the interpretation. The Death might be the start of the journey(by the group) that brings true peace to your world. You could have them kill the evil gods or do something that separates your world from the influence of evil(the hells/lower planes) bringing peace. You can also borrow from other games like Earthdawn as an example. The gods were all killed off fighting Horrors(demons) and now people can rise to such power that they become the new gods. This might also be how the god of your world are naturally replaced. Like mortals they grow old and must pass there power on to those that are meant to replace them. Such power must be earned and can not be freely given. have them find ancient sites that they can use to claim the portfolio of a god. A paladin could claim the sun domain, while a druid could claim the seasons.

[Hyde]

Seems like you've pretty much solved it to me- your redemption path is the PCs attempting to fight back the ever-rising tide of demons and devils that attempt to take the plane after the gods abandon it.