An Age of Chaos and an Age of Heroes -- a campaign background

[Jay R]

Here is the background of the 3.5e world I am starting to run. I realize that I am committing several heresies. This is on purpose. I think 3.5e assumes far more magic in the world, and far more power, than makes sense to me. So this is my way of running a 3.5e system in a more medieval, less magic-overwhelmed world. [Note that there will not be much in the way of magic shops – at least not for awhile.] As the PCs grow more powerful, so will the rest of the world.

Yes, in their first session, the PCs will get a huge power increase – +1 to all abilities, one level increase immediately, and a wish. I’ve wanted to see what people would do with a wish at first level for awhile. The wish can only affect things at the ball of force at the moment he is freed, so they can’t wish for the fissures to be fixed, or health for their parents, or anything like that. And nobody gets upset when the go from first to second level.

Their starting ability scores were given with the +1 figured in. Half their abilities have odd scores, so powers based on those will be improved immediately.

I’d be interested in your thoughts about the world structure. You’re critiquing a mostly finished product, not suggesting corrections. This is going into play on Sunday. I can make minor changes now, but this is the basis for the entire campaign.

Throughout the known history of Gaea, there have been Ages of Heroes. Paradoxically, these times are started by an influx of Chaos, Evil, and the Wild. Civilizations are beaten back or crumble, and the forces of Chaos grow strong. Eventually, heroes develop who are strong enough to push back against the encroaching Wild, force them back, and re-establish a civilized culture that can slowly grow.

In the 200 years B.P.C. (Before Player Characters), the wilderlands have been (mostly) quiet, and the civilized forces has slowly grown. That does not mean universal peace, of course, but it has been generally good times. The village Stamford on the very edge of the wilderness was established about 100 years ago, and in many other places, the empire has expanded. The monsters in the wilderness are still there, but they are … sleepy. They don’t have the drive to mount attacks on civilization. The underground is not connected to the surface, and most people on both sides have forgotten that there was ever another world above or below them.

There is not universal peace, however. 100-120 years ago, the dwarves were wiped out in the dwarf-frost giant wars up north, and there is a low rolling revolution going on in the empire. The [emperor died nearly 20 years ago, and five different claimants are warring over the succession. They are so busy with each other that the far-flung provinces have been ignored. Some are falling apart; some are declaring themselves independent. Lord Angmar is holding the westernmost province together in nominal loyalty to the empire, but even he doesn’t know the emperor is dead. And he hasn’t been able to get around to his borderlands.

The world is quiet; the wilderness is quiet; even magic is quiet. There are very few casters of any sort. The prime material plane has had no visitors from other planes. Magic items are forgotten, or treated as legends. Except for a few minor casters here and there, this is basically an ordinary medieval world.

At the start of year 1 A.P.C., the ball of force that is Chicxulub’s prison comes to earth. Chicxulub is a god-equivalent from another plane, usually not connected to any of the standard D&D planes. He was imprisoned on this plane in a ball of universal force (arcane, divine, bardic, electric, fire, cold – everything). He has near infinite power, but at present cannot affect anything outside the ball of force.

When the PCs investigate the earthquakes and fissures, they will discover him imprisoned within a ball of force, banging on the sides causing more quakes and fissures. They can prevent this only by releasing him. As soon as he is released, he will leave this plane (and any plane usually connected with it) forever.

The sheer physical impact of its landing has opened up new entrances to the underworld. When he is freed, there will be an expanding wave of cosmic forces extending outward. For who are standing next to it will be filled with the force so much that they will go up one level, gain +1 on every ability score, and have one wish fulfilled. [The purpose of this is to mark the PCs as special.]

Slightly further out, people will gain one level. This will only affect the kobold scouts who will arrive not long afterward. Further out than that, dead bodies will become zombies or skeletons. [Whatever the PCs killed to get there, they will need to kill them again to get back out.]

The release of this much power on the Prime Material plane has caught the attention of the most powerful denizens of other planes, and there will be travel from them soon.

The wave of magical force will spread out, eventually hitting the entire world, ushering in a new Age of Chaos (with accompanying Age of Heroes). Moribund or latent magic will be awakened. People will discover their arcane or divine potential. Monsters will develop into major threats.

In short, a D&D game is about to break out.

if you have any ideas for the kinds of encounters one gets when magic starts being more active, people start discovering arcane or divine powers they never knew they had, the monsters are getting more active, and the underworld is suddenly connected to the surface, I'd love to hear them.

I originally posted this is the 3.5e forum, but while the game is set there, this post is about a campaign idea, not a ruleset.

[Lord Torath]

First, did Chicxulub visit Earth by chance? Maybe 65 million years or so ago? :smallamused:

In your third paragraph, you say the empire died 20 years ago. I presume you mean the emperor?

In your eighth paragraph, you use 'further' when you should use 'farther', since you're talking about physical distances that be measured with an appropriately-sized measuring tape. 'Further' is used for metaphorical distances. I could elaborate further, if you'd like, but I've probably gone on about 300 words more than anyone can really be expected to maintain focus for.

Giant insects suddenly attack? Fireflies become wisps? Butterflies become fairies? Nixies start interfering with river traffic. Treasure Hunters come in search of the meteorite (even though it wasn't really one), and bandits follow.

Orc scouting parties are followed by raiding parties.

What are the other intelligent races up to? Elves, gnomes, halflings, etc. We know the dwarves are dead (or at least the only known population of them in the region).

[ShedShadow]

Sounds like a blast! What encounters you are looking for depends on the type of game you are looking for. I am a more serious roleplayer, and less of a silly roleplayer, so my adventures tend to the darker/grittier side. If you're into that, you might start looking into the various types of undead based on psychological trauma, which I know 3.5 has a few of.

You could also start lower level encounters with natural things becoming sentient/abberations, such as cave formations becoming darkmantles or earth elementals, various plant creatures, animallike-monsters, etc. From there, you could maybe get into sorcerers, since they don't need to study for a bazillion years before their power develops, or other spontaneous casters coming into the scene.

[Lord Torath]

A population of mosquitos suddenly morphs into stirges.

[Palanan]

As noted above, this event will likely draw several waves of treasure hunters, bandits, con artists and affiliated parasites, enough to structure much of the early campaign around. Any authorities nearby (town reeves, provincial governors, imperial witch-guard, etc.) will be sending their own teams to investigate, which will be arriving in stages according to their distance and degree of concern. Imperial arcanists and independent scholars may mount their own expeditions to study this phenomenon, as well as druid-circles, fey courts, and perhaps even a league of the wise and powerful, à la the White Council. This in addition to the oracles, seers, hedge-prophets and other quasi-spiritual stragglers who will be filtering in.

Everyone will be interested in this event, either to harness its power, understand its cosmic import, or just to get a leg up on the competition. Town officials, especially those who have just gained a level and are feeling uncommon mighty, will likely be the first to arrive, followed fairly soon by druid-scouts using tree stride and wild shape, and representatives of other parties who may have teleported a long way, but are still dropping out a safe distance from the site itself.

As for Lord Angmar, you know him best, but I would suspect he’d send a top lieutenant with a detachment of fast riders, perhaps with a few homing doves for updates along the way. I would also expect him to be requesting divinations from every member of clergy capable of posing divine requests, in hopes of learning as much as he can as early as possible. The celestial switchboards will likely be overloaded with divination requests from all across the continent, if not around the world.

And don’t neglect the monsters, some of whom may have the sudden drive to discover the source of their newfound power and attempt to drain even more of it. That won’t be possible, but they won’t necessarily know that, and I’d think quite a few of them would be converging on this location—a parallel set of arrivals overlapping with the humanoid authorities, researchers and other mixed nuts. I’d even expect one or more teams of other low-level adventurers, PCs in all but name, who have taken it upon themselves to save the world from whatever’s just happened—and with that fresh new level, they’re feeling more capable and righteous than ever….

[Jay R]

Some excellent thoughts here; you’re really helping me flesh this campaign out.

People seeking “star-metal” is a great idea. I had toyed with the idea of putting a rock surface around the globe so there would be some, but it’s much better for everybody who knows about it to be convinced that it’s here, and come looking for it.

Lord Torath, I certainly chose the name Chicxulub for that reason, but this is the first giant crater he’s ever caused.

I have an idea that when the last Age of Chaos was ended, the material plane was split into two nearly identical ones side-by side, and the fey (and many magical monsters) were on the other one. That has been undone, and suddenly they are sharing the world with the mundane creatures again. There are now suddenly nixies in pools that never had them before, and satyrs dancing in formerly quiet forests.

Elves don’t exist. When they appear, sometime later, they will be the elves from Terry Pratchett’s, Lords and Ladies:


“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”

Everybody knows that the dwarves were almost entirely wiped out in the dwarf-frost giant wars. Everybody knows it, but it isn’t true. They were enslaved. Eventually, the PCs will meet frost giants with new dwarf-made weapons, and that will (hopefully) start a dwarf-freeing campaign. [One of my players wrote in his dwarf PC’s backstory that his brother disappeared in the wars, and the family has no idea what happened. They may wind up freeing him and re-uniting the family.]

I’ve already planned for the PCs to meet the party sent by Lord Angmar to investigate the quakes. There will be telling a tale that will be, quite frankly, unbelievable.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about it. We ended that threat yesterday. There should be no more quakes.”
“You’re lying. Some wave of force from it hit us only eight hours ago.”
This will be most of the PCs' first interaction with any official above the village level.

Shedshadow, I want it to slowly morph from a quiet, sleepy universe with little magic into a huge, chaotic mess of the sort that lots of D&D level magic would cause. Think of The Hobbit (the book, not the movies). It starts as a gentle little fairy tale, with small adventures, but on the level where you can plausibly care about pocket handkerchiefs and cleaning dishes, and slowly grows into a grand epic, ending with a Battle of Five Armies.

Palanan, nobody will get a bonus level unless they were within a couple hundred yards of the ball of force when it gave way, releasing the power. That effect should only include the PCs and the threat that is already approaching. The rest will feel it go by, but will not see any immediate effects.

There won’t be much in the way of divinations available. This is really a magically repressed world. Most people can't cast spells at all; it's very rare. It’s been really hard to gain experience, and most of the people who will be able to cast magic after the wave hits them never could before. Besides the PCs, the only casters in the village are a 3rd level druid (to help the PC druid get started, and a 4th level bard (to help train the bard PC). The wizard PC has just fled from deeper in the province, and had a magic tutor there, but she’s the only wizard in the village right now.

[With just mundane threats, it's been easier for martial classes to gain experience. There are a fair number of mid-level martials like Angmar. But most people can't develop as casters at all, and the few who can, aren't out "adventuring", so they are pretty low level.

By the time the PCs get to mid-levels, there will be lots more mid-level NPCs. They will find casters above their level, but not many, and not very far above them. My intent is to make most of the real threats in the world reasonable encounters for the PCs. Aside from a hermit far away, a pixie ultimate magus, a druid who is the only sentient being on her subcontinent, and a necromancer on another continent (who may or may not exist), there just aren’t any really high level casters in this world (yet).

The PCs will get to be the heroes.

Thanks for all the ideas. Keep them coming. Some of what I wrote above was developed since my last post. [A little of it was developed while writing this one.] Your thoughts are keeping me busy expanding the world.