Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

[megaplayboy]

I'm not talking about how the campaign collapsed, but an actual planned "let's go out with a bang" kind of storyline, or even one that suggests the apparent end of the campaign(if the heroes fail).

Something with lots of foreshadowing, the shocking demise of a beloved NPC(or three), heroic sacrifices, a horrifying, seemingly unstoppable menace, and a final chance for the PCs to shine, more brightly than ever, in the spotlight that "one last time".

 

Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

[Savinien]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Seen it and have been involved in it. My campaigns never seem to last long enough to support such a situation, but I think it's great (with the caveat of 'done properly').

 

Some players don't like such surprises and may whine incessantly. I would suggest executing them.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I've been trying to get our high powered campaign to that point - apparently the GM keeps thinking we do enough to hold us on the brink instead of going over... We've got the unstoppable menace, whom we've forced to alter tactics - but haven't stopped them. In fact, we kind of lost and kind of won.

 

the world didn't end, but it was taken over more or less. We're falling back to a "maintain this new status quo" mostly preventing all of humanity from being assimilated... oh what a mess.

 

Not as much tragedy as I would have liked though... not enough NPCs died I think... but, can't have it all.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I've been trying to get our high powered campaign to that point - apparently the GM keeps thinking we do enough to hold us on the brink instead of going over... We've got the unstoppable menace, whom we've forced to alter tactics - but haven't stopped them. In fact, we kind of lost and kind of won.

 

the world didn't end, but it was taken over more or less. We're falling back to a "maintain this new status quo" mostly preventing all of humanity from being assimilated... oh what a mess.

 

Not as much tragedy as I would have liked though... not enough NPCs died I think... but, can't have it all.

well, GMs aren't always enthusiastic about killing off lots of NPCs...because they put a lot of effort into creating them, and they'll have to put more effort into creating new ones. So sometimes they're more merciful than they might otherwise need to be.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

well' date=' GMs aren't always enthusiastic about killing off lots of NPCs...because they put a lot of effort into creating them, and they'll have to put more effort into creating new ones. So sometimes they're more merciful than they might otherwise need to be.[/quote']

Yeah I know.. but a few deaths may have added a bit more edge.

 

Though, as it was most of the characters are barely hanging onto their sanity.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

My current group is breaking up this summer, so we've decided that we want to end the campaign with something world-devastating. I trust my players enough that I guess I can just warn them away from this thread:

 

Since I'm running a modified version of the CU, I've decided to use Takofanes as the precipitator for this crisis. He finally succeeds in capturing the Crowns of Krim; but rather than simply taking their crowns or binding them to his service, Takofanes uses the Crowns (artifacts and wearers) as the foci of a great ritual for something even worse. Takofanes summons six of the most powerful and destructive demonic entities abiding on the Earth: Samhain (Champions Universe), the Murk (Hidden Lands), the Living Sphinx, Survalesh, Li Chun the Destroyer, and Eclipsar (from Champions Worldwide). Even with the Crowns Takofanes cannot wholly control such powerful demons, but he can direct their natural destructiveness when and where he wishes.

 

The PCs will start hearing reports about these demons rampaging outside their normal areas of activity, then about two or three of them acting in concert. They'll encounter some of them, enough to give them a really tough fight but for neither side to have a clear victory. Then they'll learn of Takofanes enountering a major NPC superhero team; when several of these demons appear to support him the heroes are slaughtered. That's when the devastation begins in earnest. All these other activities were just trial runs - now Takofanes starts turning his hounds loose on anyone who might seriously oppose him, hero, villain, or nation.

 

I've lined up a few sources for clues to let the PCs know that the key to breaking up this threat lies with finding and freeing the Crowns of Krim, which will require them to penetrate Takofanes' defenses surrounding them. I'll probably have a very p.o.'d Tak return to confront them at that point, and the heroes may be forced to team with the Crowns to defeat him. Depending on how that goes I might throw one more complication at them: the demons actually like working together since their goals are mostly compatible, and continue to do so even when free of Takofanes' influence.

 

I'll try to make clear some of the weaknesses of their various opponents during play so that the PCs have a chance when directly confronting them. That includes the demons' collective personalities - they're unused to cooperating with anyone so their teamwork will be poor, and they all have monumental egos which the heroes may be able to use to turn them against each other.

 

However, my whole group expects and wants a truly epic threat, and are quite prepared to confront the deaths of beloved NPCs, and probably some heroic PC deaths.

 

I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

When I knew I was wrapping up my game, I tied off subplots, and ran a world shattering adventure...

 

Earth was invaded by three things, at the same time.

 

A demonic invasion from another plane.

The Subterrans invading the surface world.

While those were getting wrapped up, and resources were low, an alien invasion hit.

 

The Campaign ended with the Aliens beaten off, but huge amounts of devastation, and the Heroes standing tall in the center swearing to rebuild.

 

A number of NPCs were killed off, and a couple of PCs went that way too (at the requests of the players invovled).

 

Well that was what was intended. Half my players moved away before it all came together. But that is how I wrote it in a sequel campaign.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I wrapped up my last Champions campaign like this. To make a very long story very short, the apocolypse was threatened by an uber-powerful mystical figure of immense evil (whose rise to power was -- inadvertantly -- largely made possible by the PCs, appropriately enough). The PCs eventually learned that the only way to defeat him and rid the universe of his evil, was to rid the universe of magic. Since superpowers are (ultimately) made possible by magic, this essentially meant that the PCs sacrificed their powers to save the world.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I don't do this as a GM, but I have been in the middle of them. If I end a campaign I do so in a way that allows for it to come back in a new form. In 20+ yrs I have found that works as well as creating a apocalyptic ending.

 

Now when I have played in them, it can be fun to know that what your C is working to do in the long run is to just servive or die to save everything, it all depends on the game.

 

I have to be honest I don't run this because I can't bring myself to nuke what I spent so many hours creating, playing in and watching grow. It feels as if I killed a part of myself. That make any sence?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I've had PCs flub a 'save the world' plot before, but I've never performed a planned apocalypse like that. Once they failed to save the world, well ... time to come up with a new campaign.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

[Campaign] Apocalypse Champions (GM'ed by radioKAOS)

http://herogame.dans.cust.servlets.n...ad.php?t=43014

 

 

 

Enjoy

 

QM

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Uhm... the link, she is broken on my end....

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Try this http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43014&highlight=%5BCampaign%5D+Apocalypse+Champions

or you could just Search [Campaign] Apocalypse Champions

 

Cheers

 

QM

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Ah, that one. ^^

[CandidGamera]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I had a three-tier superhero campaign - really three linked campaigns in three eras - the overarching plot was Atlantean sorcerors trying to summon up the local equivalents of the Old Ones, bind them to their will, and take over the world. They performed the first part of the ritual in the first campaign, the second in the next, and finished it in the final one.

 

The PCs got to take on Cthulhu's immense form, bound to the will of a sorceress, while other superteams dealt with the other two abominations. Pretty fun.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Actually, thinking back, I *did* have one that was more than just a plan. Sadly, it never actually finished - an online game that fell apart with the players lost interest.

 

At any rate, Oblivion (the mystical entity representing pure entropy) finally managed to break loose. The group fought him across the better part of two campaign cities before they finally fingured out that, in order to beat him, they'd have to resort to something more than 'throw bigger attacks at him.'

 

Of course, by then, most of the NPC heroes had been killed off, a good chunk of both cities reduced to dust, and a couple of the PC's had bought it too, including one McLeod-ian Immortal who effectively had the Quickening pulled right out of them (now *that* one got them scared - and I cleared it by the player first).

 

Sadly, the schoolyear ended and the BBS system we were using was wiped... and nobody wanted to go to the work of starting it up again.

[Richard Logue]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Whatever the rpg, I tend to start a campaign with thoughts of how to end it in apocalyptic misery. (There's gotta be a psych lim in there somewhere.) My current Champions millieu has been one that I've been developing for several years now and I use it as the setting for all my Champions games and campaigns. As a fundamental law of my world, the existence of superpowers is due to tears in the relatively thin membrane between the natural "universe" and the "universe" of magic.

 

Now this is the big secret of my world that has not been revealed to any of my players over the past six or seven years that I've been using this millieu. Fortunately (and often unfortunately), none of the players I've had have utilized the Hero Discussion Boards.

 

As these rips become larger, more supers are created, which in turn, cause the rips to become larger. Its a cycle that, if unstopped, will lead to the uncontrollable, catastrophic demise of both universes. Also, as the rips become larger, metahumans become more unstable mentally and sometimes physically. Heroes start becoming criminals and metacriminals become sociopathic or psychotic. If you're a super in my millieu, PC or NPC, that's the (long) road you're on. Those whose powers and abilities are technology-based (like Iron Man) or skill-based (such as Batman) are unaffected by this eventuality. Also, the ones who are mentalists or mentally-based (such as Charles Xavier) are unaffected. Curiously, magic-based metas tend to be more stable, but not immune, to the effect. Maybe its because they tap into the magic universe directly instead of indirectly.

 

I have a timeline for the world that includes the eventual apocalyptic end of everything. On Earth, where the omniversal membrane is thinnest and most damaged, there will be a final, titanic conflict just before the end of everything. By this time (around 2020 at the moment), all the folks with superpowers will have all become criminals, and insanity will run rampant within their ranks. All the folks, hero and "villain," with tech-based or skill-based powers and abilities will be "at war" with them.

 

In my current campaign I plan to show the players a glimpse of the horrible and heinous future with a brief time travel scenario. I'll show them the extreme polarization between tech and skill-based folks (whom the war-torn and utterly devastated society will generally deem "good") and power and magic-based folks (whom society will show fear of and intolerance for). Many of the NPCs the players know as heroes will be villains of the highest order. The ones they know as villains will have become the saviours to the people despite their past transgressions. But it will be obvious to them that they haven't gone to some whacky "mirror universe" dimension because many of the villains and heroes they are familiar with will still be villains and heroes respectively. They'll have to think outside the box a bit and realize that motivations (and sanity) have become based on origin of power for these people in the near future. Of course it will be important for the players to not have much real interaction with the knowledge base of the future. I dont want them asking their future selves what happened because I want them to figure it out (or not figure it out) on their own. In either case, I want them to be skurred and confoozed when they return home.

 

Do I work "the end" into every campaign I run using this world? No, certainly not. Can "the end" be stopped? I don't know, I havent tried yet. If I get bored with this millieu, will I run "the end" campaign? Probably.

[Richard Logue]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I've killed another good thread.

[Korvar]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Threadpocalypse?

 

Do you enter each thread with thoughts on how to end it in "apocalyptic misery"?

[Spiral]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

I have played in two of these both happened when the PC's messed up in a major way. One was a high level champions game and the other was in a dnd game funny thing both was GM by the same guy and I think he took great pleasure in us watching the worlds we fought so hard to save be destoyed before our eyes.

 

I also had planned on doing this with my current champions game but just couldn't after putting in over three years of work into it and hours of writing side stories for the player characters so instead it is being rebooted and the others players are all going to get their own city in my world to run so I can play more often.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Not a planned apocalypse, but I've had several Cyberpunk campaigns come to a crashing end when the odd firefight turns sour for the PC's. Three of those happened on the first session, too.

 

Matt "I-am-NOT-a-killer-GM-just-more-enthusiastic-about-NPC-success-than-most-GM's" Frisbee

[Zed-F]

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one?

 

Closest I've got is having the apocalypse happen as part of the premise of the game, i.e. an alien invasion occurs on a world much like our own, with current technology levels and no supers. However, another alien faction opposed to the invaders but whose presence in this part of the multiverse is too small to fight them directly, slips humanity some 'help', thereby creating the world's first supers, good and bad alike. So now a society that has no experience with metahumans and how much of a destabilizing influence they can be, also has to deal with an alien invasion simultaneously. Much fun ensues as society tries to find a way to adapt.