Collaborative World Ending…

[5lippers]

I’m thinking of starting a fantasy post-apocalyptic campaign that’s set in a more ‘traditional’ fantasy era (rather than modern/urban fantasy). However, to really get that post-apocalyptic feel, rather than starting X years after the cataclysmic event, I want to start the players off at the time the event actually happens, so they have to live through it.

Thus, Act I of the campaign would be about the players (as low-powered normal folk who are victims, rather than architects, of the apocalypse ) just trying to survive the ensuing chaos and Act II would focus on rebuilding and expansion (possibly moving towards using the kingdom game rules in the Ultimate Base).

However, I’m a bit stuck on coming up with a really good (for want of a better term) apocalypse event that would provide interesting ways for the players to survive, moral dilemma and opportunities for some great campaigning during Act I.

Anyway, this is where I was hoping all the wonderful people on the Hero Boards might be able to help me…

 

If you were going to inflict an apocalypse on your campaign world, what would it be and how would folk survive?

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

The one I did (although it was done as 60 years later) was based on the book The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven.

 

Literally, the world was dependent on magic much like ours is dependent on oil and electricity and suddenly without warning, magic stops working within a few days. Floating city-castles crash to the ground.

 

The elves started to get sick and die, unable to live in low to non-existent magic. Half-orcs, half-elves and humans survived. Dwarves drank themselves to death after losing their amazing tolerance for alcohol but not their thirst. Dragons slowly collapse under their own weight. There are famines as food was magically created or farmed with powerful magics. And getting fresh water is now a challenge.

 

The illusion on all the gold pieces went away. The vast majority of huge piles of gold turned back into worthless yellow rocks (or shells or wooden coins).

 

The moral challenge is magic will still work, occasionally, in distant parts, but will quickly run out from use. So, how do you find and use the remaining magic?

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Hi Blue Jogger,

 

I’ve never read The Magic Goes Away, but sounds like one that I ought to. I was thinking about a world reliant on magi-tech (or some such) as a possibility because it would help capture the feel of modern apocalypse novels – people have become so reliant upon technology that they’re not sure how to function without it…

 

…also makes for some nice post-apocalyptic style scavenging & fixing if the game ended up going that way!

 

I’ve always been intrigued about using a finite magic model in a campaign but never done so – how did it work? This approach would be especially interesting in Act II as certain magically rich areas would be hot property in a Kingdoms-style game (and also introduce conflict around whether the mana “resource” should be used at all).

 

5.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

It would also be possible to go in the other direction. Start off with a low- or no-magic world, and bring in a sudden massive influx of magic. Magic spells become dramatically more powerful; animals, plants, and sapients start to mutate; gods and demons begin to manifest in the world. The problem is, no one is prepared or trained to handle this new level of power. Spells spin out of control, with devastating effects to the populace and the environment. The new or more powerful "monsters" overthrow the ecological balance. The mightiest of empowered beings are driven mad by the experience, warring with each other or just rampaging across the world.

 

Besides the struggle to survive, your PCs will also gradually learn to master the potential abilities available in this new world; which would provide a direct justification for them gaining "Experience" and becoming stronger.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Blue Jogger's suggestion sounds like it fits you pretty well already.

 

But here's a few more possibilities that might work.

 

The Final War. They threw a war and everybody came. Pick one or more of the following. Good vs evil. Law vs Chaos. Gods vs demons. Men vs Orcs. Mages vs each other. Elves vs Dwarves. Werewolves vs Vampires. Ninjas vs Pirates. Dragons vs everybody. Magical fallout devastates the environment while the combatants slaughter each other.

 

The Dark Lord Wins, briefly. Having conquered the world the Dark Lord is destroyed by a mysterious force. Now the tattered survivors of his rule have the chance to claw their way back to some semblance of civilisation.

 

Zombie Plague. The gates of the Underworld have opened.

 

Dragons Did It. At least one Fantasy setting involves hordes of extradimensional dragons who could descend on the world in unprecedented numbers if only they could find the way in.

[Beast]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

I would say that those that survive either have some power of their own and where on the edges of the apocalypse to survive

or somewhere else far away from the destruction to survive

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Blue Jogger's suggestion sounds like it fits you pretty well already.

 

But here's a few more possibilities that might work.

 

The Final War. They threw a war and everybody came. Pick one or more of the following. Good vs evil. Law vs Chaos. Gods vs demons. Men vs Orcs. Mages vs each other. Elves vs Dwarves. Werewolves vs Vampires. Ninjas vs Pirates. Dragons vs everybody. Magical fallout devastates the environment while the combatants slaughter each other.

 

The Dark Lord Wins, briefly. Having conquered the world the Dark Lord is destroyed by a mysterious force. Now the tattered survivors of his rule have the chance to claw their way back to some semblance of civilisation.

....

 

I was going to suggest something like this, so rep to you, Shadowsoul. Think of it as an "alternate" ending Lord of the Rings, sheltered herdsmen descending Mindolluin and finding the White City destroyed, bodies everywhere. The Old World has passed away in fire and blood, and a New World has just begun. (Cue orchestral swell.)

And in the darkness, Shelob is stirring, testing the powers of her new Ring....

[Kristopher]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

It would also be possible to go in the other direction. Start off with a low- or no-magic world, and bring in a sudden massive influx of magic. Magic spells become dramatically more powerful; animals, plants, and sapients start to mutate; gods and demons begin to manifest in the world. The problem is, no one is prepared or trained to handle this new level of power. Spells spin out of control, with devastating effects to the populace and the environment. The new or more powerful "monsters" overthrow the ecological balance. The mightiest of empowered beings are driven mad by the experience, warring with each other or just rampaging across the world.

 

Besides the struggle to survive, your PCs will also gradually learn to master the potential abilities available in this new world; which would provide a direct justification for them gaining "Experience" and becoming stronger.

 

I like this suggestion.

[spaceprincessecho]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

It could also be the Starfall:

 

Pieces of the sun have descended to earth, alighting the sky and causing great devastation where they land. Worse, these are actually cosmically powerful fire elementals that proceed to rampage around the countryside, hellishly annihilating all in their path.

[Curufea]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

My first Western Shores campaign the PCs were instrumental in the apocalyptic event. The majority of them were royalty of the Elvish empire (except one, an escaped reptillian slave). The apocalypse was caused by a human slave, who caused a pivotal figure in Elvish history to have never been born, changing the timeline fundamentally to be more like the the current version of the Western Shores (lots of balkanised dominantly human nations, the Elves a minority). The only reason the PCs survived (otherwise they would have never been born) was becuase they were given talismans to protect them while they gathered the components for the artifact that did this terrible thing.

 

That campaign eventually fell apart when the players moved on/ were unable to continue, however it had two good outcomes for the campaign world I used in later campaigns-

1) Legendary figures wandering the world that are out of place with it.

2) Myths about a "Golden Age of the Elves" which never existed.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

I’ve always been intrigued about using a finite magic model in a campaign but never done so – how did it work? This approach would be especially interesting in Act II as certain magically rich areas would be hot property in a Kingdoms-style game (and also introduce conflict around whether the mana “resource” should be used at all).

 

It took awhile for the players to catch on to the unspoken rule that magic can help solve problems, but it can't solve the adventure. Everytime they tried to use magic to solve the adventure, it had terrible side effects. Eventually, they learned to stop using magic and start using their brains, but it took awhile.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

It would also be possible to go in the other direction. Start off with a low- or no-magic world, and bring in a sudden massive influx of magic. Magic spells become dramatically more powerful; animals, plants, and sapients start to mutate; gods and demons begin to manifest in the world. The problem is, no one is prepared or trained to handle this new level of power. Spells spin out of control, with devastating effects to the populace and the environment. The new or more powerful "monsters" overthrow the ecological balance. The mightiest of empowered beings are driven mad by the experience, warring with each other or just rampaging across the world.

 

Besides the struggle to survive, your PCs will also gradually learn to master the potential abilities available in this new world; which would provide a direct justification for them gaining "Experience" and becoming stronger.

 

And techniques of self discipline might turn out to be more important than all the magic in the world. (Paging Sarek!)

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books are postapocalyptic in this sense. Not-quite magic (psionic technology) runs rampant, and the survivors learn the importance of emotional (okay, mainly sexual) self-control.

There were later developments in the novels, and one of her key point was that repression was oversold, but in light of issues in Bradley's personal life, we probably don't want to go to that place.

Better for us nerds to cherish a hope, however mad, that self-control will be rewarded with the love of some nice gamer girl, if not mighty psychic powers, than to learn that the real route to power lies in sticking it in everything that moves.*

 

 

 

*So, uhm, for those who are, how's that working out for you?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

The Darkover series was one of the precedents I had in mind with my example. The cultural and environmental trappings of that setting make "psionics" into "magic" in all but name.

 

(And I try never to let a creator's personal life taint my enjoyment of their creations. All the feet of clay would trample my fun.)

[薔薇語]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

To add in an alternate idea, why not a simple plague? Something akin to Jeremiah. This gives one an avenue of approach distinctly different than most other Apocalyptic tragedies. The Thing the PCs would be mostly fighting against was the other survivors, not some heinous force out to kill them. This leads to many more distinct early game dilemmas where the PCs much make the choice between being a "good" person or opting for survival (Do we turn away the possibly infected mother n' child or bring them in?). For the Curious bunch of PCs, this scenario can leads you to most of the general "what caused this" plot lines that the others provide as well.

 

Just thought I'd throw out an idea.

 

La Rose

[Odraude]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Post Apocalyptic eh? There are some pretty good ideas to go with so far up there. I guess here is a big list of what i've used so far.

 

The Clash of the Gods: The Gods have a massive disagreement, causing a war in heaven. And as above, so below upon the Earth, where the gods choose champions to fight for them and claim kingdoms under their patron's name. The world is devastated by the war.

 

Outsiders Driven Away: Nothing like a good ol "Alien" invasion. Powerful servants of a primordial/god/archdevil mate with humans and the spawn enslave the world. Centuries of darkness prevails until the spirits of nature themselves step in. They summon a massive amount of arcane energy and systematically kill all of them, with many Earthling casualties and perhaps the landscape changing a bit (shattered continent)

 

Nature Strikes Back: Years of nature being destroyed by the civilizations have caused the anima to fight back. After destroying massive cities, they now are in charge, with pockets of survivors turning to them and appeasing them.

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Hi All,

 

Wow – there’s some great ideas here (and it’s just plain interesting reading about the types of campaigns you’ve run in the past!).

 

Now you’ve given me a dilemma of options! Am I allowed to use them all?

 

The ideas of a plague (thanks Rose!) and a sudden uncontrollable surge in magic (thanks Lord Liaden) got me thinking along the lines of a magical plague where magic is actually a disease: people ‘catch’ the ability to use magic, but can’t control it as it is an entirely ‘new’ phenomena. I also like the idea of the PC’s accidentally triggering the event (thanks Curufea) as it adds some nice role-playing opportunities centred on guilt and accountability.

 

Probably needs a bit more thought as I’ve only just this minute come up with it so I’ll have a think – perhaps magic is corrupting and dangerous? The main problem I can spot so far is working out how people survived: were they magically inert (i.e. immune) or did they manage to control magic? Either of these options constrains the players to “magic user” or “non-magic user” archetypes, but not both. Might be interesting but i'm don't like limiting the player's creativity too much (within reason, of course!).

 

Any views on the above suggestion? Also still interested to hear other peoples apocalyptic campaigns and ideas!

 

5.

 

(P.S. Rep to all when I get to that 50 posts marker – yep, only figured that one out a few days ago...)

[Markdoc]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

I actually have had two global apocalyptic events in the my game world. The first is an "extradimensional invasion" by high magic-using cultures (this is where the færie races come from: a world further from the sun than our own and with a slightly different chemistry: that explains their intolerance for some metals and their dislike of bright sunlight and heat It also explains the existence of different, but unrelated sentient races). After over-running the world (and erecting a magical shield to reduce sunlight, provoking something of an environmental apocalypse), the few surviving human cultures, dug in (literally: going underground to avoid attack in some cases, thus providing ready-made underground labyrinths) eventually enhanced their magic, fought back and re-conquered the world.

 

Much later, the two largest empires that emerged from that reconquest, went to war - the war ending in waves of magical plagues and magically attracted meteors crashing from the skies in droves. The resulting environmental disturbance this time melted the polar ice caps, changing the coastlines and throwing civilization back into the early iron-age again.

 

In the current game, things are much less apocalyptic - but there's something you can use for your "magic is corrupting and dangerous" idea. There are new religious cults that have arisen. In these cults, members take a patron spirit (thought to be an aspect of the Gods) - and these spirits can teach magic more powerful than that commonly used. There is a catch of course - if you are not careful, using this magic can be corrupting, driving the users insane, or "gifting" them with obscene marks - tentacles, non-healing sores, third eyes that look into dimensions best unseen - that sort of thing.

 

The way this works is that the commonest form of magic (Temple magic) uses a VPP. The cost of the VPP means that you really have to sink a lot of points into it to get powerful spells. In addition all mages must take "limited number of powers". You can't make up spells on the fly, but have to learn them or slowly research them. This allows the GM to control access, and I do so by filtering magic through the "official" Temple cults. If you belong to a cult dedicated to the goddess of the sea, you can't expect to learn fire spells, for example, so temple-trained mages tend to be restricted in both raw power (ie: active points) and in the type of magic they can do. Temples might teach battle magic if you belong to the warrior cult but they are unlikely to teach spells that can poison, or curse. The upside is that Temple magic has no side effects - over the centuries temple magicians have worked all the bugs out of the spells they teach. They might not always work, but a spell failure won't do you- or anyone around you - harm.

 

The cults that have patron spirits, however, while still restricted in the kinds of spells they can learn, have no such "moral" restrictions. And they use multipowers, sacrificing a little (but only a little) flexibility in return for far more raw power. As example, one player in my game has recently converted to such a cult. I allowed him to swap out the points in his Temple magic VPP for a multipower. He retained all his spells, but went from spells with a maximum of 30 active points to spells with a maximum of 65 active points!

 

Here's the catch. All magic requires a power skill roll, with a penalty based on active points. Spirit cult magic also requires a side effect triggered by a failed skill roll. Of course the more active points you have to play with, the more likely you are to fail - so there's that temptation aspect. The side effect itself is a transform, affecting the body, spirit or mind, turning the caster mutant, alien or mad Generally the side effect from a single failed roll is not going to be enough to have any effect - you need to fail multiple rolls to get "transformed". But if you use magic a lot that is going to happen, eventually. The last refinement - which I stole from Valdorian age - is that this transformation damage does not heal normally: you can only dispose of it by either a) offloading it on a scapegoat or performing a service for your patron. As a result spirit cultists - if not actually mad - often behave like they are, since the requests of patrons are otherworldy, inexplicable - and often dangerous. Spirit cultists undertake long fraught quests to obtain a certain type of flower at a certain place or time, dig up the long dead to remove a lock of hair from the corpse, murder an old woman to collect her gallstone - or give away all their possessions to the poor, etc.

 

I could see multiple ways in which you could weave this approach into your apocalypse

 

cheers, Mark

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Hi Mark,

 

I really like your systems (***frantically scribbling down notes***) – I love the way they encourage ‘flavourful’ casters rather than utility casters and come packaged with obligations to the temple/cult, etc.

 

Ever since the days of playing WHFR*, I’ve always liked magic that play risk off against reward: it’s a really nice approach to tackling those PCs that, despite your best efforts as a GM, use magic as a solution to everything!

 

As an aside one of the ideas I was (theoretically) playing around with for Esoterica (http://www.killershrike.info/AllPages.aspx?Cat=Esoterica) was using the aid power to represent a type of dark pact (rather than a unique magic system) that could be used by any caster with a skill-based magic system (there’s quite a lot of magic in Esoterica due to the nature of the setting).

 

The basic idea was that the Aid boosted the casters magic skill but at the cost of some extra END and the risk of ‘corrupting’ side effects. I didn’t get much further than that but was thinking along similar lines to your ‘corruption points’: after a certain threshold the character starts to manifest all sorts of nasty complications (physical, mental and social). The added twist to the system was to somehow try and ‘reward’ players who roleplay their newly acquired dark side well with further bonuses/boosts to magic. Obviously the aid power would need to be cheaper than the dafter option of just buying a load of magic skill levels but I never got round to do the sums on that one!

 

Thanks for sharing the system and world history!

 

Even more great ideas to be me started - thanks all. Assuming it gets started, I'll use the forums or blog to post the campaign on the boards so people can use bits and/or add their own thoughts. Saying that, even if the campaign doesn't get started, I'll probably develop the setting anyway in case people are interested in the material!

 

5.

 

* With the exception of when I first started RP’ing and had one-of-those-GMs in a Darksun game, I don’t think I’ve ever gone through PC’s as fast as in WHFR (and actually enjoyed it, unlike the aforementioned D&D game)...

[Markdoc]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

A couple of comments that might be useful: I introduced the church magic system for three reasons.

1. I wanted to make the church integral to the culture. Since the church is the major source of magic, they serve as the "hub" of most towns - hospital, telecommunications centre and library rolled into one.

2. By splitting the priesthood up into cults worshipping one of the 12 gods, each jealously guarding their "cult secrets" I ameliorated the problem of "Swiss army mages" who have a VPP and can whip up a spell for any occasion. Players have to choose which aspects they want to pursue if they are mages and the challenges of becoming a cult initiate or adept provides roleplaying hooks and levers galore for the GM. Since the cult hierarchy also demands support from initiates and adepts, it involves the players more. In a lot of fantasy games, the temple is a place to get healing and the occasional divination, which you buy the same way you buy a sword. The obligations can be simple (ie: a tithe for the church) but more often for Adepts are services. They can be typical adventur-y things (Go the Castle of Arrrgh and recover the artifact of Woss' name) or plot-hook things (do a two-week round of these villages and cast temple magic for the faithful: healing, crop blessings, anti-house fire protection, etc)

3. To give a clear alternative to Spirit-cult magic. Interestingly, there is nothing "evil" per se in the spirit cults - although don't try convincing the players of that! The penultimate goal of this particular campaign is when the players discover that the "good temple" they have been helping - and have mostly joined - is also a spirit cult! And that it is altering them .....

 

cheers, Mark

 

Edit: as far as "Dark Pact Magic" goes rather than Aid, what about "summon?" Summon gets you mucho bang for the buck, but has the disadvantage that you have to deal with whatever you have summoned. In such a system, instead of casting spells you call up and either bind to your will (if you are good ... well, goodish) or bribe (if you are bad) the summoned spirit. This is the core idea behind magic in Valdorian age, but they still suggest buying powers an just using the summoning as a "special effect". You could instead just cut out the middleman. If the mage wants to toast some enemies he doesn't (can't) Fireball them - but he can say a word of power and trigger that summoning he so carefully set up back in his sanctum sanctorum, bringing a fire elemental to perform its one agreed-upon task ... A good range of interaction skills might be useful to get the summoned beings to do what you want, and knowledge skills about otherworldly beings would be a good idea, but the only actual power you need is Summon. That would create a magic system that is simple, flavourful, and unpredictable.

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Hi Mark,

 

Thanks for taking the time to go through your campaign ideas in detail – it’s really helping me get a campaign idea started (I’ll post the idea later today, if I get chance - it’s gone a bit “pulpy” rather than traditional fantasy but hopefully people will still enjoy the concept!)

 

I’m one of those weird people that doesn’t really buy setting books but the more I read/hear about the Valdorian Age, the more I like the sound of it (Hero Store here I come…). Players summoning beings and then being made to roleplay/persuade said summoned being to FB thine enemies is a great a take on magic and I bet it’s more satisfying for the player rather than saying “I cast one of my five memorised fireballs at the hoard of Kobolds”.

 

Anyway, the info/campaign that will follow is best described as “pulpy, punky, kissmy[censored] fantasy”…

 

 

Here are some flavour strap-lines:

• Crazy, drug-using magical outlaws
  
• Zealotic (just made it up, not even on Urban Dictionary yet - think psychotic zealots), isolationist pure-bloods on a clean up mission
  
• Fragile, fledgling communities just trying to get by
  
• (Secret cults out to blame someone ... well anyone really.)
  

5.

 

P.S. sorry for the tease…

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Hi All,

 

Well, this setting isn’t quite what I originally had in mind and it might be a little on the mad side, but I’m going to run with it and see what happens! Interested to hear any thoughts you all might have and thanks for the ideas / inspiration so far

 

Below are some notes on the setting – not all of these things will be in the campaign at the start but will appear over time.

 

Language/Tone/Themes.

 

• I think the setting is going to end up with a slight anti-establishment feel: those that seize power and try to rebuild are going to be fairly ruthless. Some might be evil, but others might be idealists, amoral or just misguided in their convictions.
  
• It’s definitely going to be pulp, possibly with a hint of Victoriana so I’ll try and use language that reflects this (even if it’s made up and just sounds pulpy or Victorian!)
  
• I'll also try to write notes and campaign info in a way that captures the attitude and feel of the setting.
  
• The setting isn’t Earth, but it could be if you wanted it to be.
  
• What’s left of society might be backwards-looking, mourning what was lost rather than forward-looking.
  

Overview Notes / Thoughts

• The world before was non magical
  
• The world before was fairly advanced, possibly steampunk level (N.B. This would be weird science steampunk, not magi-tech). This is purely because a non-magical world means no Ancient Artefact of Woss' Name (guarded by a mighty creature known as Markdoc ), magic gear or things to scavenge and fix which might not suit all the players.
  
• In Year Zero a highly contagious magical "plague" appears from nowhere. The plague somehow spreads from creature to creature, sowing chaos. Creatures who are infected become "hyper aware" conduits of magical energy which they cannot control. The energy is dangerous and warping.
  
• Something Taken, Something Given: for every ‘gift’ that the plague bestowed upon a creature, it took something away. What was taken will later be bestowed upon another creature. Whether this is by accident or design will remain a mystery.
  
• After a certain period of time, the surviving creatures start to regain some control over the plague: subconsciously, they learn to suppress their hyper-awareness. The twisted warping effects of the plague remain though.
  
• I’ll probably knock-up a quick "future history" of the world which will act as a timeline / guide for events that are happening whilst the players are struggling through the apocalypse. It’s not meant to constrain players from shaping the new world but provide a general guide as to when certain things appear / happen.
  

Races

• No 'traditional' fantasy races (sorry!).
  
• There will be “pureblood” humans (as they call themselves) who are magically inert and were thus unaffected by the plague. It from these ranks that the zealots mentioned above will appear. It is unlikely that these guys will be playable (not without a really, really good character concept, at least) as they despise/fear “the impure” and would be unlikely to hang around with them getting up to the kinds of things PCs get up to. Their magical inertness means they can never learn magic, but they do possess the ability to suppress/drain it.
  
• There will be norms who got off quite lightly and were only changed ever so slightly by the plague. They can have a limited set of ‘mutations’ but they’re heavily capped. On the plus side, the purebloods might mistake a norm for one of themselves therefore sparing them from eradication.
  
• There will be Twists who are basically more ‘mutated’ than the norms. They get a slightly higher AP limit on mutations. The Purebloods really don't like Twists.
  
• Mutations must be reasonably mutant-y. Night vision and weird eyes are fine, but eyes that shoot lightning are probably not. This is because if you want to shoot lighting from your eyes, you need to take “herbal suppressants” and ‘do magic’ (see below).
  

Magic

• The reason people are no longer walking magical disasters is because the subconscious somehow learnt to adapt to, and suppress, the heightened awareness of the plague.
  
• The only way people can regain this awareness is to use a herb/natural drug to suppress the subconscious block enough to channel some magic. The herb is addictive, illegal (because it’s for magic, which no one likes and everyone blames for what happened), and sufficiently rare that it grows only under certain conditions. Although the herb is rare, it’s still common enough and cheap enough to allow players to ‘top up’ between adventures. I'm not sure at what point, or how, the effects of the plant get discovered.
  
• Magic is dangerous and channelling it can have unfortunate side effects (warping, corrupting, maddening, etc).
  
• Everyone (except other magic wielders) has a grudge against magic users and blames them for what happened (well they blame the gods too - in fact, most people are pretty good at blaming things and do so on a regular basis). As a matter of fact, magic users don’t really like each other either as they see a potential rival / threat /competitor in other users.
  
• The nature of magic means that hanging around with mages is a fairly dangerous past-time.
  

Religion

• I’m not sure where to go with yet, but I’m thinking that the survivors will blame the gods for the disaster and may even outlaw religion. Thus worship becomes something that takes place secretly. I think i’ll try and work some of Markdoc’s great cult ideas into here somehow.
  
• I’m also not quite sure what religion will do in game terms. One idea might be that the gods reward those that have remained faithful with the ability to call upon their aid from time to time. Aid will take the form of one of the gods “signature creatures” appearing and assisting. I think I’ll go down the Valdorian route here with definite bonuses on the summon power rewarded to those PCs who have been especially pious in following their patron's teachings.
  
• No idea on what the gods will be but, since the magic probably won’t be domain-based, this might be an opportunity to use Greyhawk-style gods who embody certain philosophies/values.
  

Technology

Magic and technology won’t be mutually exclusive but will interfere with each other. Channeling near a device will make it unreliable and possessing tech upon one’s person may put a temporary AP limit on spell casting.

 

 

 

To Do:

• Come up with better names for norms and twists.
  
• Come up with a really, really cool campaign name – this one’s up for grabs if you fine people have some suggestions!
  
• Come up with a really, really cool name for the subconscious-suppressing herb/drug that mages use – this one’s up for grabs too!
  
• Determine the exact magical mechanism and side effects. It’ll probably use a VPP but it definitely won’t be cosmic!
  
• Rep everyone who’s ideas I’ve pinched, used, been inspired by.
  

Any thoughts?

 

5.

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Some introduction & flavour text for the campaign below...

 

5.

 

A Future History Part I: The World Before

 

The world before what we now call Year Zero was an enlightened, progressive place. Spearheading this revolution in rationalism were the three great cities of the old world: Cantona (of Matrida), Syonne (of Bayol) and Exminster (of Mersa). Great advances were being made in the sciences, particularly that of Alchemy, Biology and Geology. Neither were humanities nor the arts neglected: at the forefront of the new anti-art and modernist post-sculpture movements was the Pantheon-Syonne with its heady concoction of avant-garde revolutionaries, socialist thinkers, political writers and bohemian artists. Whilst, at the University of Exminster, there seemed no end to its progress in the fields of alchemy and subsequently medicine.

 

Society was becoming more secular, and much of the traditional religious thinking that had dogged the old world for hundreds of years was in decline. Churches and Cathedrals to The Octad were falling into disrepair; being put to other, more practical uses; or simply being preserved for their beauty and ascetics alone. Occasionally, travellers newly arrived from the colonies - on Zeppelin - would bring with them rumours of miracles and saints, but people paid them little heed, seeing them more as useful fodder for authors of modern romantic fiction, than factual information.

 

Magic was something of the past; something of mythology; something for one’s governess to read to one’s children before bedtime. Oh how we scoffed and pitied the primitives of the New World, as we told tales over port and cigars of those backwards people who danced around fires; grovelled to witchdoctors, begging them to cure their many ails, either through exorcism of evil spirits, or through transferance of their ailments to another.

 

Oh yes, the World before was a great place, a time of invention, intellectual discovery and opportunity. I’m wise enough now to know that things weren’t perfect: for every great and wonderful thing that was publically paraded celebrated, five distasteful things existed. But it didn’t matter for the distasteful was often out of sight and in decline.

 

It was on the Second Day of the Great Exhibition that the world changed. And yet, despite the wealth of culture and invention that had been gathered by the great and good of Exminster, it is one image that comes back to haunt me. I remember it clearly, for I too am a sufferer of air sickness and travel by zeppelin and aerostat suits me little. The image is of two foreign gentlemen, newly arrived from the Colonies, as they disembarked from the Pride of Evon, looking rather unsteady and worse for wear. At the time, I had watched with pride as the police of our great nation quickly greeted and assisted the unfortunate gentlemen, escorting them through customs and, I presumed, to the nearest tonic-seller. Now, having seen what I have seen, I cannot but have doubts that something was already afoot, even then, several days before Year Zero and that parliament may have been aware of it...

 

Every day, I ask myself, “What of my daughter? What of Cantona? Syonne? The whole World even? Do they all still live on, afraid to set foot upon Mersan soil? Or have they too passed into history?” Perhaps one day, if it is soon in coming, I shall find out...

[Markdoc]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

One possibility for the "Something Taken, Something Given" mechanism. I didn't mention it in the earlier posts, but there are actually three types of magic in my current FH game. The third unmentioned one doesn't play a big role in the current game, but runs something along these lines. It's called "Gifts of the Forest man" and is basically olde-timey, peasant magic, from the days before the current culture conquered the archipelago where the game is set.

 

Mechanistically, it works like this:

 

Magic of the Forest Man uses the following rules:

 

Followers of this path do not use "spells" as such - instead they have gifts. All "gifts" must be bought as separate powers (No frameworks). No gift may take the Focus limitation and in general external indicators like incantations and gestures are rare (though some gifts might have them as a required part of the magic). Unlike spells, Gifts do not cost Mana - they are a part of the character, in much the same way as a magical creature's powers.

 

All Gifts must cost END. While it is possible to have gifts that have the reduced END advantage, they must at least have the limitation "Costs END to start (-1/4)" in which the END cost is only paid when the spell is cast

All Gifts must take the limitation "Extra time" - to at least a full phase level (-1/2).

All gifts must take the limitation "requires a skill roll" (-1/4). Unlike the magic of the Twelve, this is an EGO roll. It is not a power skill, and is not affected by elemental conjunctions, or the active points of the Gift.

Finally, all spells of the Forest Man must take the limitation "Independent" (-2). This is a very special aspect of the magic of the Forest Man - when a cult member learns a "gift" from the cult, as part of the ritual, he or she pledges some of their life force, releasing it into the world around them and receives a mark or a Geas from the god. Generally this is related to the gift - a cult member who learned a "Dangersense" spell might receive a geas never to attack a foe from ambush. If the geas is not obeyed, the gift - and the character points spent on it - are lost permanently. This is not an extra limitation - it is a way of applying the "universal" limitation without a focus. At the GM's option, a quest might be taken to regain the power, but this is by no means certain. There is one other feature of the Gifts of the Forest Man - just as gifts can be lost, so they can also be stolen, or given away. Again the method varies depending on the gift - a strength spell might be stolen by beating the possessor in a contest of strength - or by killing him and eating his stomach (the source of Strength in cult lore). Finding out how to steal another's gift is rarely easy, though. Although a worshipper of the Twelve might cause someone to lose their gift - by causing them to break a geas, for example - they cannot steal the power unless they are also a worshipper of the Forest Man. However, a gift given freely can be given to anyone - but it must also come with a mark or geas.

In addition, no Gift can have any ranged effect - every Gift originates within the possessor.

 

cheers, Mark

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

One possible source for ideas:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun

[5lippers]

Re: Collaborative World Ending…

 

Finally, all spells of the Forest Man must take the limitation "Independent" (-2). This is a very special aspect of the magic of the Forest Man - when a cult member learns a "gift" from the cult, as part of the ritual, he or she pledges some of their life force, releasing it into the world around them and receives a mark or a Geas from the god. Generally this is related to the gift - a cult member who learned a "Dangersense" spell might receive a geas never to attack a foe from ambush. If the geas is not obeyed, the gift - and the character points spent on it - are lost permanently.

 

Hi Mark,

 

Wow, what a great idea – I’m sure I’m not the only one, but it’s never occurred to me to link specific geas/codes of conducts to actual powers! It’s a neat idea, gives each character a lot more flavour, and one I’m going to pinch if I can! Thanks (rep to follow!).

 

I can see this working really nicely for the faith-based magic (rather than having an overall code of conduct), as each of the Octad represents concepts such as “Personal Growth through Knowledge Alone” (sort of a god of knowledge) or “Personal Growth through Guidance (sort of a god of law and government). I can’t remember the exact list I noted down on Saturday but the above should give you a general feel.

 

A bit more about magic in the campaign (still WIP):

 

I’ve had to rethink the magic/faith element a little bit so that it’s a bit more coherent. As you’ve probably noticed from the flavour text above, the gods were starting to be forgotten and so the power of faith-based magic was diminishing (rather than not existing). As such miraculous events became rarer, people had less faith in the gods and so on…

 

I’m going down a similar route with magic: in the World Before there are occasional rumours of limited tribal-magic but most people pay them no heed, citing rational explanations such as placebo effects and so on. I haven’t quite got the concept pinned down, but Magic will be something that ‘flows’ underneath reality. Some people can tap into this ‘sea of possibility’ by altering their mental state, suppressing a subconscious evolutionary 'safety-barrier' which has developed over time. They then channel the power through them and try to shape it. It’s dangerous and can have all sorts of nasty side effects. In the World Before, this psychological barrier was stronger and so magical effects were extremely limited.

 

The virus that ripped through the World Before, altered people's mental states and somehow removed this subconscious barrier: people suddenly became aware of the magical ‘sea of possibility’, becoming unwilling conduits for raw magical energy. The exposure to the ‘sea of possibility’ also drove many mad. There is the hint of 'design' behind the virus as it leapt from being to being, taking something, bestowing something. This last bit probably needs a bit more work.

 

As with any virus, the body’s natural defences fought back, and eventually an equilibrium of sorts was restored. However the subconscious barrier is now weakened and greater (and also more dangerous) magic is possible.

 

5.