Idea for a campaign

[Were-Sandwich]

I have an idea for a campaign, and would like to hear the communities thoughts on it. The premise is thus: Most campaign worlds have a Time Long Ago when all the L337 uber people were running around begin awesome, and everything was turned up a notch on the win-o-meter. So why do they always play in the period thousands of years later, when everything...isn't.

So, basically, we're playing in the campaign worlds Mythical Past with slightly over-powered characters, where everything is totally over-the-top and larger than life. Like Iron Heroes, with more magic and wierd stuff.

Anyone else tried this idea?

[squishycube]

I think this is what most D&D campaigns already are, it's just that in the fluff of many campaigns an old time is mentioned where gods could be challenged and heroes were even more of a hero.
My take on this would be: go with standard power levels, maybe use a high point buy and make the fluff of the campaign mention how there have never been characters as powerful as right now.

[Cade Shadow]

The reason is because it creates mysteries to explore, and gives you a reason for artifacts that cannot be made by common knowledge.

But i like the idea. You'd have to create an artifact-creating feat or say that you're in the declining period. If you really want to make the characters powerful, then make them gestalt or even three-class gestalt characters.

Also, if you still want the fall to happen, you might want your characters to somehow be involved in it, be it accidentally causing it, fighting it or purposely causing it, you might want them involved.

Also, be careful about how you give out character items, mainly because of the aforementioned artifact problem, but also because things will be really powerful.

[Were-Sandwich]

I was thinking use Iron Heroes, with a different casting system. Maybe some new Mastery chains. And the Damage Conversion variant form UA, because mythical heroes never die, just get Really Big Booboos.

Of course, in my campaign world in the period that corresponds with this, the only available races are the zillion elf sub-races. The other races aren't around yet.

[Emperor Tippy]

Remember that history has a way of changing over time.

The mythical hero's could have been just like normal hero's today, or even weaker, but a couple of bards came along and embellished a little and sung about their exploits. After a thousand years of this the mythical hero's are thought to be a lot more powerful than they really were.

[Were-Sandwich]

Remember that history has a way of changing over time.

The mythical hero's could have been just like normal hero's today, or even weaker, but a couple of bards came along and embellished a little and sung about their exploits. After a thousand years of this the mythical hero's are thought to be a lot more powerful than they really were.

Yeah, but were's the fun in that?

[The_Snark]

In order to make it apparent that you're playing in the mythical long-ago past, you could have a desperate band of heroes from the low-magic, less powerful future arrive and plead for your players' help.

[Piedmon_Sama]

i wud say if u want 2 capsur teh myffic feel teh 1st plaes 2 look isnt w/teh hereos but teh villens

1st put ur PCs up aggenst yuneek monsturs Remeber Hercules didnt fite "a" Hydra he fot TEH Hydra.... sos u mite be well servd 2 customise ur mobs leik craze; yews templaets n max out HD 2 maek overwise avraj monsturs memrabell. i wuns maed a Boneclaw (MMIII CR 5) on of teh tuffest fiets evr 4 my palyrs by giving it regeneration 5 so mix an match powrs freely 2 get wat u want

2nd dont haev "squads" of orcs. goblins. etc,. yews armees. 4 Dis yull need 2 develoep sum homebrew mekkaniks probbly cuz D20 ruels dont handell mass combat well atal der R sum good ideas in "Heroes of Battle" and personalee when I do it I just let my PCs one-hit-kill every mook w/out haffing 2 roll damage

Ur campayn sounds fun I hoep sum of dis were helpful for ye, good luck

[Emperor Tippy]

i wud say if u want 2 capsur teh myffic feel teh 1st plaes 2 look isnt w/teh hereos but teh villens

1st put ur PCs up aggenst yuneek monsturs Remeber Hercules didnt fite "a" Hydra he fot TEH Hydra.... sos u mite be well servd 2 customise ur mobs leik craze; yews templaets n max out HD 2 maek overwise avraj monsturs memrabell. i wuns maed a Boneclaw (MMIII CR 5) on of teh tuffest fiets evr 4 my palyrs by giving it regeneration 5 so mix an match powrs freely 2 get wat u want

2nd dont haev "squads" of orcs. goblins. etc,. yews armees. 4 Dis yull need 2 develoep sum homebrew mekkaniks probbly cuz D20 ruels dont handell mass combat well atal der R sum good ideas in "Heroes of Battle" and personalee when I do it I just let my PCs one-hit-kill every mook w/out haffing 2 roll damage

Ur campayn sounds fun I hoep sum of dis were helpful for ye, good luck

I would say that if you want 2 capture the mythic feel the 1st place to look isn't with the heroes but with the villains.

First put your PCs up against unique monsters; Hercules didn't fight "a" Hydra he fought THE Hydra....

You might be well served if you customize your mobs like crazy; use templates and max out HD to make otherwise average monsters memorable.

I once made a Boneclaw (MMIII, CR 5) on of the toughest fights my players ever faced by giving it regeneration 5, so mix an match powers freely to get what you want

Second, don't have "squads" of orcs. goblins. etc, use armies. To do this you will most likely need to develop some homebrew mechanics because D20 rules don't handle mass combat well at all. There are some good ideas in "Heroes of Battle" and, when I do it, I just let my PCs one-hit-kill every mook without having to roll damage.

Your campaign sounds fun, I hope some of this was helpful to you, good luck.

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Translated by Tippy Industries: So you don't have to waste any skill points on Decipher Script.

[Were-Sandwich]

i wud say if u want 2 capsur teh myffic feel teh 1st plaes 2 look isnt w/teh hereos but teh villens

1st put ur PCs up aggenst yuneek monsturs Remeber Hercules didnt fite "a" Hydra he fot TEH Hydra.... sos u mite be well servd 2 customise ur mobs leik craze; yews templaets n max out HD 2 maek overwise avraj monsturs memrabell. i wuns maed a Boneclaw (MMIII CR 5) on of teh tuffest fiets evr 4 my palyrs by giving it regeneration 5 so mix an match powrs freely 2 get wat u want

2nd dont haev "squads" of orcs. goblins. etc,. yews armees. 4 Dis yull need 2 develoep sum homebrew mekkaniks probbly cuz D20 ruels dont handell mass combat well atal der R sum good ideas in "Heroes of Battle" and personalee when I do it I just let my PCs one-hit-kill every mook w/out haffing 2 roll damage

Ur campayn sounds fun I hoep sum of dis were helpful for ye, good luck

Your advice is appreciated, but, please, tell me you are deliberately writing like that?

[TheThan]

yes, yes he is deliberately writing like that.

read this for an explination

[Emperor Tippy]

Your advice is appreciated, but, please, tell me you are deliberately writing like that?

He got annoyed at me for translating someone else's post so now he has decided to deliberately type like that.

[adanedhel9]

I've considered doing something similar; I had an idea for a short campaign that would take place in the past, around one of the most important events in my campaign world's history. I decided not to do it, since I didn't feel like dealing with the chance that the players would screw up the past of the regular campaign.

But, my ideas for making the heroes 'larger than life':
1) Start with point buy higher than normal.
2) Tweak all the races so that everyone's got the equivalent of LA +1 or +2 (but don't actually count that as part of LA).
3) Either ramp up the experience so that leveling is really fast (for the "homegrown heroes" feel) or just start higher (for the "everyone's special" feel, though this could also be done with #2).
4) Use an action point system (ala Eberron or d20Modern) and be generous with bonus points for theatrical descriptions and over-the-top speeches.

[Jack Mann]

Vorpal Tribble's running a campaign exactly like that. Shades of Delusion, I think it's called. A sort of Atlantean vibe running off of everything.

[Emperor Tippy]

Has he started it yet or is he still recruiting?

[Tengu]

Or play Exalted. It has exactly what you're looking for.

[Jack Mann]

It's been running for a while, as I understand it.

[Dark]

For a similar idea, the TSR module CM6 "Where Chaos Reigns" had the PCs going back in time to when the world was formed, and participate in key events. However, that ancient time was clearly more primitive, rather than being a golden age of gods and magic. The PCs could lord it over the natives with all their fancy spells and levels :)

I think the easiest way to capture the atmosphere of a golden age is to focus on things being made and decided. So instead of questing to find the artifact that will destroy the demon lord, quest to find the way to make that artifact. And don't have the demon lord be an ancient woken evil, but make him one of the creator-gods who seems to be one of the good guys until the plot is uncovered.

Then include lots of NPCs who can do weird stuff. One of the characters in the finnish Kalevala is a master-smith who claims to have made the sky. Of course that raises the question of whether the PCs can do things like that. One way to let them, without actually giving them godlike powers, is to make the environment very sensitive to what they do. Say, they defeat a being of great evil, but the battle causes the ground to be barren for miles around. But when the cleric cries over a fallen comrade, his tears turn into a waterfall that brings an oasis of pure water to that spot.

Players being players, they'll then try to have the cleric cry every day when they're thirsty. But then it doesn't work. It wasn't a power of the cleric, it was just the mythic currents (or whatever) responding to the situation.

[Ravyn]

Tengu:

...aside from the fact that all the build-stuff is balanced for the period thousands of years later and not the Time Long Ago, anyway, and while I'd heard they were trying to create a workaround I still doubt there's going to be enough of the proper fluff to do it justice. One of my friends had an idea for how to sidestep that, though.

Dark:

That's just awesome. About how sensitive would you consider the mythic currents to be?