I hope you guys can offer some assistance here!
This is the campaign I am developing. I am a very experience GM and my players are likewise very experienced. We have all been playing Table-Top since the 1980s and 90s.
Consequently, they all know my style, my tricks, and how I do things for the most part (I'm always the GM). I am reaching out to get some fresh ideas - maybe I can surprise them a bit?
Campaign Concept
Imagine a world where the heroes failed to fulfill a prophesy and the evil bad guy won...
Imagine if this immortal evil bad guy ruled the world unchallenged for four centuries...
Imagine if even the concept of hope no longer existed among the enslaved peoples of the world...
Then, in a stroke of fate, a few slaves make a discovery that awakes dormant powers within them.
With enough good decisions, experience and luck, these new heroes might, just might, have a chance to overthrow the Overlord and restore hope, peace and balance to the world.
Here is the criteria I have gotten from my 7 players:
System MUST be Fantasy Hero (they have grown tired of Pathfinder in our last 2 year campaign).
Campaign MUST be gritty, deadly and very difficult (not just in combat) - to the point that a permanent character death every 2-3 adventures wouldn't be out of place.
Campaign MUST last 18-24 months with us playing 1 per month (we play from noon to midnight each game session).
Society MUST be detailed, political and oppressive so the characters will need to work within the shadows to get things accomplished. Even minor slip ups could result in them being captured and executed.
Characters MUST start out as normals, or just slight better, and grow through experience into heroes.
Not all adventures should be successes to show the difficulty of the world and plot. Kind of a 3-steps forward, 2-steps back feel.
I am just starting with world creation and could use any and all suggestions to feed off of. I have 4 months to build the campaign before our first adventure.
My biggest questions right now are:
Starting Power Level - What do you think starting character points be?
Ending Power Level - How many character points should they be near the end of the campaign?
Experience - With the first two questions answered, I can calculate the number of XP to give out per adventure.
Character Deaths - How to bring in new character (after a death for example) and not have them start completely over but at the same time have a penalty for dying?
Races - I like the standard FH races, but they would be different after 400 years of living in slavery. Any suggestions on how to alter them?
Powers - Should I use one of the Fantasy Hero magic systems or create a unique system for this game? Suggestions?
Optional Rules - What optional rules should be used (from FH or other books) to portray the hard, gritty, deadly world that my players want?
That's plenty of questions for now. I'm sure others will crop up as this discussion continues...
Thanks In Advance,