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View Full Version : What do you think fo this setting idea?



Chaosvii7
2014-12-02, 09:30 AM
I don't think I posted this before, but stop me if you've heard this idea for a campaign setting. There's a power vacuum caused by one of the DM's in our gaming circle at our FLGS cancelling his most recent campaign, but I've had so many people ask me to run something that I think I might be able to fill up my own table in addition to whatever game would take the place of that one. This is an idea I kicked around in my head for some time but I didn't think it was very workable, and then I came back and cleaned it up a bit.

Every (core) race besides the Humans that has emerged on the world has brought with them a spark of magic of a particular school. Each race bringing a spark of magic does not mean that they are forced to use that school, it simply means that they happened to be the key to the discovery of that magic. In a system of 8 races and 8 schools of magic, that leaves 1 school with an ambiguous origin: Necromancy. A very ambitious man discovers the power of Necromancy and turns himself into the first Lich, creating an empire of undead to follow him and sets his sights on world domination, as well as becoming a god. The races of the world mobilize against him, as he is collecting enough arcane power and has learned a ritual that he could perform to actually become a demigod, and in a final confrontation, his spellbook and notes are destroyed.

As a consequence of his toiling with magic beyond his comprehension - that is to say, the magic of gods - he is struck from the pages of existence forever. His name is forgotten. His race is forgotten. His phylactery is destroyed. All traces of his magic are gone. People remember a big fight against an evil lich, but remember absolutely nothing else about the event that led up to his destruction.

What's worse, this has caused an interesting side effect- none of the races of civilized society are aware of where any magic came from, less alone their own. This has caused various races to disassociate with one another and sort of "unform" society as they knew it, as tensions are high because all the races of the world don't know who this famous Nercomancer was and suspect each other of bringing Necromancy into the world. The way things are shaping up, it's looking like the world is in favor of abandoning the practice of magic and returning to the stone ages, but there's a loud majority who do not want this to happen. The only way to truly unite the race again is to rediscover the origins of magic in all the races and discover the truth of the Lich, which means standing toe to toe with the very gods for answers.

I was wondering if this setting sounds like something worthwhile for exploring. I'm in no short supply for imagining plots and designing campaigns, but I want to have a good foundation to work around. I just wanted to know if everyone thinks this is a workable world history that makes for an interesting world to explore.

Comet
2014-12-02, 09:59 AM
Sounds cool, players can go exploring the ruins of this lich empire and find evidence of their culture and then argue about what that evidence actually means. And the gods acting as gatekeepers for this immense mystery is also an interesting source of conflict for the players and the world.

Jay R
2014-12-02, 10:08 AM
It's an interesting approach, but you haven't mentioned anything that will affect gaming, except in the vaguest sense. So I conclude that this world background could be used well or used poorly, and I have no clue which it will be.

Tell us about some details about the scenarios that will use this concept, and how the history of magic will affect what the PCs do.

Chaosvii7
2014-12-02, 10:49 AM
It's an interesting approach, but you haven't mentioned anything that will affect gaming, except in the vaguest sense. So I conclude that this world background could be used well or used poorly, and I have no clue which it will be.

Tell us about some details about the scenarios that will use this concept, and how the history of magic will affect what the PCs do.

Some ideas for scenarios include exploring the history of the people who destroyed the Lich's big book of magic which seemingly caused this whole mess, raising the society of necromancy back up from the ashes, trying to convince the gods to answer the questions about the world and magic that the people have forgotten, reuniting the shattered races after the schism between them all, stopping those who want magic abolished or forgotten after all the problems it's caused, finding the reason for the spark of necromancy existing, and the connection between the other races that have magical capabilities, like fey and demons, and what the fundamental change in magic means for them.

Mechanically I don't want to put a dampener on anything right now because I want my playerbase to decide what they might want to do as inhabitants of this world. After I get a good idea of where they want to go I'm sure the ideas and any mechanical changes we have to make will more clearly arise. Really anything I just suggested could be from the perspective of people who are more open-minded to the idea of unity of the races or it could be all about people who are disgusted with what magic has done to humanity and against it, and everything in between.