HoboKnight
2021-01-26, 04:08 AM
Hey guys,
I'm sketching together something that may or may not be a campaign after corona and I'd like your opinion on it. I'm trying to make a campaign with a powerful undertone of loss. Going for really depressing stuff.
Now, the drive for this is of course, our current situation. We have lost so much in so many ways with the pandemic, I really do not feel I'd be happy starting my post-corona d&d life with some out-of the box campaign, but with something that has strong mentioned undertones. We'll see how it goes, the grip of the idea may release me at the end, but at the moment, this is a conceptual origin I'm working with.
A STRONG disclaimer: Loss can be very uncomfortable for players. I play with a mature group that likes such themes. We tried many other things and I dare say, I can present them with things, they find emotionally impactful, yet they take them as an adults.
With all this said: How should I set up the campaign? I have a few ideas, but I bet playground can build upon them.
One thing I was thinking is - loss of character. Not death, but loss. Campaign starts with PCs souls being transported into other bodies with completelly different skills and powers (or lack of thereof) in an unknown world. I take their CSs and issue them with new ones.
Loss of THE KNOWN. Players expect medieval-ish standard FR campaign. I actually took al look at Domains of Dread for this one, the Bluetspur (http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Bluetspur), in fact. So no towns, villages, traders, goblins. Barren rock, fungi, brual lightning storms, purely evil Illythids underground. With an adittional caveat: Bodies, that die in this plane, their souls get reborn in the same plane. No departure this way. Only way to leave is finding a portal. (except for very powerful individuals that have proper ways of teleportation, ofc.)
Adittional layer of loss would be shaped by lore. This plane randomly teleports small parts of other planes into itself - their inhabitants and landscape. I guess you could find a bunch of abandoned and ruined stuff here - a reminder of all that could be. Or perhaps even a really beautifully looking castle in pristine state - just to find it empty, devoid of any soul.
As for the tone, I'm sort of going along the vibes of Dark Souls game (very few NPCs, lots of abandoned architecture, scattered, very alien to NPCs) and movie The Road by McCormack (empty farms, roads leading nowhere, burning woods. A nice house is full of cannibals).
I'm thinking of players being lvl 3 -ish.
So. This is what I have. They are rough ideas, some perhaps tonally wrong. But in short: Loss of PCs, blasted landscape, devoid of life and fun, rare, depressing NPCs, lack of resources.
How should I go about it?
I'm sketching together something that may or may not be a campaign after corona and I'd like your opinion on it. I'm trying to make a campaign with a powerful undertone of loss. Going for really depressing stuff.
Now, the drive for this is of course, our current situation. We have lost so much in so many ways with the pandemic, I really do not feel I'd be happy starting my post-corona d&d life with some out-of the box campaign, but with something that has strong mentioned undertones. We'll see how it goes, the grip of the idea may release me at the end, but at the moment, this is a conceptual origin I'm working with.
A STRONG disclaimer: Loss can be very uncomfortable for players. I play with a mature group that likes such themes. We tried many other things and I dare say, I can present them with things, they find emotionally impactful, yet they take them as an adults.
With all this said: How should I set up the campaign? I have a few ideas, but I bet playground can build upon them.
One thing I was thinking is - loss of character. Not death, but loss. Campaign starts with PCs souls being transported into other bodies with completelly different skills and powers (or lack of thereof) in an unknown world. I take their CSs and issue them with new ones.
Loss of THE KNOWN. Players expect medieval-ish standard FR campaign. I actually took al look at Domains of Dread for this one, the Bluetspur (http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Bluetspur), in fact. So no towns, villages, traders, goblins. Barren rock, fungi, brual lightning storms, purely evil Illythids underground. With an adittional caveat: Bodies, that die in this plane, their souls get reborn in the same plane. No departure this way. Only way to leave is finding a portal. (except for very powerful individuals that have proper ways of teleportation, ofc.)
Adittional layer of loss would be shaped by lore. This plane randomly teleports small parts of other planes into itself - their inhabitants and landscape. I guess you could find a bunch of abandoned and ruined stuff here - a reminder of all that could be. Or perhaps even a really beautifully looking castle in pristine state - just to find it empty, devoid of any soul.
As for the tone, I'm sort of going along the vibes of Dark Souls game (very few NPCs, lots of abandoned architecture, scattered, very alien to NPCs) and movie The Road by McCormack (empty farms, roads leading nowhere, burning woods. A nice house is full of cannibals).
I'm thinking of players being lvl 3 -ish.
So. This is what I have. They are rough ideas, some perhaps tonally wrong. But in short: Loss of PCs, blasted landscape, devoid of life and fun, rare, depressing NPCs, lack of resources.
How should I go about it?