Within my D&D group, my friend and I switch out being DMs after the other finishes his campaign. Well, I'm about to start a new campaign in my setting in about a month and I have a few ideas, but I wanted to run my main idea by you guys and see of y'all and feedback, options, or tips.
In my setting, there was a war between the humans and the Drow hundreds of years previous. Since then, the Human ruled Empire has placed many laws restricting and regulating the use of all forms of magic (arcane, divine, and natural). Anyone caught is strictly punished. My players are familiar with these rules from previous campaigns.
I thought about running a campaign with a strong political theme where players much choose between:
A.) A rebellion that is growing in the Empire. The Rebels are tired of the strict rules over magic, harsh tax with low return, and terrible punishment for even the smallest crimes.
Or
B.) The Empire which sees magic for the true danger it possesses. The Empire remembers the great power that came with magic and the great destruction that came from those spell casters with even the best intentions.
Has anyone ran a campaign like this? Was it the primary story drive or did you use it more of a side theme driving only minor story arks?
I am having flashbacks to Athas.... So I guess I have to ask: Have you ever heard of the Vieled Aliance?
In Athas (the Canon ADnD world of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting), magic use is punishable by death... Of course, so is breathing in a lot of places on that planet but still, there is the law and all of that for when people use magic. There were modules (I suppose there still are) that involve the PC's in both defying the Sorcerer Kings and serving the Sorcerer Kings and yet the limitations on magic use remained a factor in the PC's lives in either case. Another, non-DND, world of similar circumstance is that of the Elvenbane books. In that world being a Half-elf is a death sentence because it allows the use of magic to non-elven.
Now I must ask, "natural" magic use? Are we talking natal magic (like Elsa in Frozen) or Druidic magic?
How is the use of magic regulated? Is there a Cabal of Wizards monitoring for Magic use (like in the Southern City of Amn in the Forgotten Realms)? What about Psionics and the Mystic? Introducing this "New" perhaps undetectable form of "magic" could be the torch that lights the fire of Revolution for the repressed and down trodden would-be mages of your world. Your PC's could be the ones to discover this new magic or the Enforcers who learn that the rumors are true: there is a new magic we cannot detect! Either case could be a blast!
How does a government suppress religion when the religious can literally call down their God's might to defend the Faith? Does the faith secretly run the government and use it to supress other magic users? Could a rival (Good aligned) faith stand to oppose the status quo? Perhaps the PC's coudl be new converts and lay people of this new faith. A bit like Goldmoon in the Dragonlance saga. The roots of a revolution could grow from anywhere when all magic is so heavily restricted.
Give me an idea of what you would like to do and I will try to come up with a few ideas that may help you find inspiration.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do not like the word... prisoner. It implies a helpless state, and I assure you, I am never helpless.
Ill try to answer your question and explain them in order as best I can.
No I'm not familiar with Athas or the Veiled Alliance. I've mostly been playing on 5e with a splash of 3.5 over the past few years. I might look it up though to try and get some ideas from it.
Yeah, when I said "natural" magic, I meant Druidic Nature Magic. That would have made more sense.
Magic is regulated through the government sort of like modern day guns are. You gave to be registered and you have to have a permit to legally practice and/or cast. These permits, however, are very expensive. Leaving only the upper middle to higher class citizens with accessibility.
As to how magic users are detected, there are a few ways they are apprehended. One, rewards are offered to anyone that gives information leading to the apprehension of a magic user. Due to the high taxes of these cities, many citizens are more than willing to turn someone over for a chance for a financial break. Two, there are individuals known as the Blue Crest, Government wizards trained in the detection of magic. They investigate these claims or any other strange activity in the city.
When it comes to Religious magic or Divine magic, users of Divine magic are expected to members of the various temples within the Empire. Clerics and/or Priests are given a little leeway when it comes to the regulations, as long as use is documented and reported. Similar to the charting required for modern day hospitals and nursing facilities.
I would like to reinstate a statement I made at the top of this reply. Magic is not completely banned. Just regulated and restricted. However, crimes committed with magic would probably be judged harsher than the same crime committed without magic. Example: If two people each assaulted their neighbor, one with a club and one with magic, the club attacker might get fined and a few months in jail while the magic user might be sentenced to years in the Empire's high profile prisons.
Now, what I would like to do with the campaign. After sitting back and thinking on it for a little while, I think I would be pretty hard to make a full campaign ark about a magic uprising or civil rights for magic users kind of thing and also keep my players enthralled. I think I should maybe keep it as a background theme and let them decide later if its a part of my setting they want to interact with. Unless you can think of a cool way to incorporate a major villain and a deep plot behind this "magic regulation" that would appeal to them.
I kind of like the idea of the evil faith controlled government and a rise of a good faith to combat it. But I fear they might not enjoy it
You could consider starting the campaign with suspicion against magic users as part of the backdrop, but nothing more. That among certain factions (religious order, cultists) magic is an abomination. As the campaign progresses, the PCs increasingly find that the factions in mention are behind or related to whatever foe they’re fighting. While this happens the factions gather more and more power, ultimately being able to enforce their draconian laws or so against magic. A conflict is inevitable and the PC are forced to take a side. Then they end in the thick of it as the clash between those against and for magic takes place.
This sets the stage for a political campaign that the players not necessarily recognize as such until a while into it.
The first and simplest hook for your PCs could be an "honest mistake". One of your casters, a fully licensed and registered, law-abiding citizen is accused of magical misconduct of a sort beyond anything your Player could of dreamed of (ie: the illegal construction of a couple dozen flesh golemn creatures able to burrow like a bulette, breathe a caustic, flammable substance, and when not active, radiate no magic what-so-ever). This character, while in route to the nearest kangaroo courtroom is contacted by a ranking official of the Blue Crest who confides that it is "obvious" that he (the PC) has not "the skill or wit" to do the things he stands accused of but that the evidence (all magical and beyond the ability of anyone to produce) is incontrovertible. [At this point, if the PC has a relative or wealth that could be called upon to help. so be it, otherwise, the rest of the party is brought in] The official, who suspects something sinister in the upper echelons of the government, admits that he believes the Character is merely a fall-guy. He offers up a deal. You work for me (with this crew of hardies here assembled) and your paperwork gets misfiled so the charges disappear. Betray me and I may just have a back-up copy in the bottom of my desk. Now, this puts one PC under the thumb of a high ranking Law enforcer and may need tweaked to fit a background or two in the group.
The next thing to do would be to set the Party a task that could involve something as sinister as spying on members of the court believed by the Blue Crest to be involved or perhaps as innocuous as running messages to like-minded members of the other branches of the Blue Crest in other cities. Either way, the PCs should be able to have some marginal success with these tasks and after a few levels they could discover that the Blue Crest is actually trying to prove the government is secretly being ran by (evil clergy, undead lich, cabal of Warlocks, Doctor Strange or perhaps Jay and Silent Bob). Anyway, many members of the Crest feel that the laws they are expected to enforce fall on the Evil side of Lawful Neutral and are working to put an end to the tyranny. Because of the way I am, I would have the PC's discover there are members of the court running an "Underground Railroad" of sorts for those talented but too-poor-to-pay mages and leave them in the conflict of trust that would be: "If we tell the Blue Crest they may be able to get things done quicker with the additional, internal support as well as the help of several score powerful young MU's. But If we tell them and this all goes pear shaped they may burn all these young dreamers to save their own skins. (To say nothing of one of the PC's Uncles who may be supporting the cause)." -- Evil Smile enjoyed --
From there, and with alot of work on your part, you should have a fully invested party of adventurers shouting "give us liberty or we'll give you death!"
A few twists to consider: 1) the only person ever to accuse the PC of the Magical Wrongdoing is the Blue Crest who recruited him. 2) the evil puppetmaster(s) have hundreds of the golemn things and when some are found they find a patsy to fall for the creations. These are the "insurance policy" they employ against the world. 3) The Blue Crest that recruited the PC is a double agent in direct employ of the secret master(s) he KNOWS to be running the government - his job it to destroy the others hunting his master(s). 4) There is a land of sanctuary for mages far to the (somewhere you guys have never gone direction) perhaps where the "Railroad" allegedly leads. 5) You can never stop the clerics of the evil queen because she provides them with the power to know you are coming - all you will ever manage is to paint targets on your own heads!
Food for thought on the side of the rebellion. Hope you like something in there while I work on the Service of the Empire ideas.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I do not like the word... prisoner. It implies a helpless state, and I assure you, I am never helpless.
Its interesting that you bring up an "Underground Railroad" group. There is a city in my setting, Alahara, which is a port city and major trade junction for the Empire. Lots of markets and merchants. With the variety demographics that this city sees, there is also a high religious desire from the people inhabiting and visiting it. On the Easter edge of the town, furthest from the shore, is a Temple district with multiple churches, temples, and shrines each dedicated to approved gods.
However, within this district, there is a select few priests that are trained with detection magic. They will "read" the intentions of those who come to their temple. If they read that they would either be a magic user, be willing to protect their secret, and/or hold to malicious intent towards their organization, the priests will take the PC into a secret area of the temple, a closet with a larger room inside. A Narnia situation of sorts. Inside is a secret society where magic users can practice magic safely. The closet serves as a extra dimensional portal. This way the Blue Crest would only detect a slight bit of magic from the door rather than all the magic users together.
So far, it has stayed under the radar from the Blue Crest because of the normal radiation of magic energy from the Temples. For now at least lol
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Within my D&D group, my friend and I switch out being DMs after the other finishes his campaign. Well, I'm about to start a new campaign in my setting in about a month and I have a few ideas, but I wanted to run my main idea by you guys and see of y'all and feedback, options, or tips.
In my setting, there was a war between the humans and the Drow hundreds of years previous. Since then, the Human ruled Empire has placed many laws restricting and regulating the use of all forms of magic (arcane, divine, and natural). Anyone caught is strictly punished. My players are familiar with these rules from previous campaigns.
I thought about running a campaign with a strong political theme where players much choose between:
A.) A rebellion that is growing in the Empire. The Rebels are tired of the strict rules over magic, harsh tax with low return, and terrible punishment for even the smallest crimes.
Or
B.) The Empire which sees magic for the true danger it possesses. The Empire remembers the great power that came with magic and the great destruction that came from those spell casters with even the best intentions.
Has anyone ran a campaign like this? Was it the primary story drive or did you use it more of a side theme driving only minor story arks?
I am having flashbacks to Athas.... So I guess I have to ask: Have you ever heard of the Vieled Aliance?
In Athas (the Canon ADnD world of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting), magic use is punishable by death... Of course, so is breathing in a lot of places on that planet but still, there is the law and all of that for when people use magic. There were modules (I suppose there still are) that involve the PC's in both defying the Sorcerer Kings and serving the Sorcerer Kings and yet the limitations on magic use remained a factor in the PC's lives in either case. Another, non-DND, world of similar circumstance is that of the Elvenbane books. In that world being a Half-elf is a death sentence because it allows the use of magic to non-elven.
Now I must ask, "natural" magic use? Are we talking natal magic (like Elsa in Frozen) or Druidic magic?
How is the use of magic regulated? Is there a Cabal of Wizards monitoring for Magic use (like in the Southern City of Amn in the Forgotten Realms)? What about Psionics and the Mystic? Introducing this "New" perhaps undetectable form of "magic" could be the torch that lights the fire of Revolution for the repressed and down trodden would-be mages of your world. Your PC's could be the ones to discover this new magic or the Enforcers who learn that the rumors are true: there is a new magic we cannot detect! Either case could be a blast!
How does a government suppress religion when the religious can literally call down their God's might to defend the Faith? Does the faith secretly run the government and use it to supress other magic users? Could a rival (Good aligned) faith stand to oppose the status quo? Perhaps the PC's coudl be new converts and lay people of this new faith. A bit like Goldmoon in the Dragonlance saga. The roots of a revolution could grow from anywhere when all magic is so heavily restricted.
Give me an idea of what you would like to do and I will try to come up with a few ideas that may help you find inspiration.
I do not like the word... prisoner. It implies a helpless state, and I assure you, I am never helpless.
--Artemis Entreri
Ill try to answer your question and explain them in order as best I can.
No I'm not familiar with Athas or the Veiled Alliance. I've mostly been playing on 5e with a splash of 3.5 over the past few years. I might look it up though to try and get some ideas from it.
Yeah, when I said "natural" magic, I meant Druidic Nature Magic. That would have made more sense.
Magic is regulated through the government sort of like modern day guns are. You gave to be registered and you have to have a permit to legally practice and/or cast. These permits, however, are very expensive. Leaving only the upper middle to higher class citizens with accessibility.
As to how magic users are detected, there are a few ways they are apprehended. One, rewards are offered to anyone that gives information leading to the apprehension of a magic user. Due to the high taxes of these cities, many citizens are more than willing to turn someone over for a chance for a financial break. Two, there are individuals known as the Blue Crest, Government wizards trained in the detection of magic. They investigate these claims or any other strange activity in the city.
When it comes to Religious magic or Divine magic, users of Divine magic are expected to members of the various temples within the Empire. Clerics and/or Priests are given a little leeway when it comes to the regulations, as long as use is documented and reported. Similar to the charting required for modern day hospitals and nursing facilities.
I would like to reinstate a statement I made at the top of this reply. Magic is not completely banned. Just regulated and restricted. However, crimes committed with magic would probably be judged harsher than the same crime committed without magic. Example: If two people each assaulted their neighbor, one with a club and one with magic, the club attacker might get fined and a few months in jail while the magic user might be sentenced to years in the Empire's high profile prisons.
Now, what I would like to do with the campaign. After sitting back and thinking on it for a little while, I think I would be pretty hard to make a full campaign ark about a magic uprising or civil rights for magic users kind of thing and also keep my players enthralled. I think I should maybe keep it as a background theme and let them decide later if its a part of my setting they want to interact with. Unless you can think of a cool way to incorporate a major villain and a deep plot behind this "magic regulation" that would appeal to them.
I kind of like the idea of the evil faith controlled government and a rise of a good faith to combat it. But I fear they might not enjoy it
You could consider starting the campaign with suspicion against magic users as part of the backdrop, but nothing more. That among certain factions (religious order, cultists) magic is an abomination. As the campaign progresses, the PCs increasingly find that the factions in mention are behind or related to whatever foe they’re fighting. While this happens the factions gather more and more power, ultimately being able to enforce their draconian laws or so against magic. A conflict is inevitable and the PC are forced to take a side. Then they end in the thick of it as the clash between those against and for magic takes place.
This sets the stage for a political campaign that the players not necessarily recognize as such until a while into it.
Track one: In the name of Freedom.
The first and simplest hook for your PCs could be an "honest mistake". One of your casters, a fully licensed and registered, law-abiding citizen is accused of magical misconduct of a sort beyond anything your Player could of dreamed of (ie: the illegal construction of a couple dozen flesh golemn creatures able to burrow like a bulette, breathe a caustic, flammable substance, and when not active, radiate no magic what-so-ever). This character, while in route to the nearest kangaroo courtroom is contacted by a ranking official of the Blue Crest who confides that it is "obvious" that he (the PC) has not "the skill or wit" to do the things he stands accused of but that the evidence (all magical and beyond the ability of anyone to produce) is incontrovertible. [At this point, if the PC has a relative or wealth that could be called upon to help. so be it, otherwise, the rest of the party is brought in] The official, who suspects something sinister in the upper echelons of the government, admits that he believes the Character is merely a fall-guy. He offers up a deal. You work for me (with this crew of hardies here assembled) and your paperwork gets misfiled so the charges disappear. Betray me and I may just have a back-up copy in the bottom of my desk. Now, this puts one PC under the thumb of a high ranking Law enforcer and may need tweaked to fit a background or two in the group.
The next thing to do would be to set the Party a task that could involve something as sinister as spying on members of the court believed by the Blue Crest to be involved or perhaps as innocuous as running messages to like-minded members of the other branches of the Blue Crest in other cities. Either way, the PCs should be able to have some marginal success with these tasks and after a few levels they could discover that the Blue Crest is actually trying to prove the government is secretly being ran by (evil clergy, undead lich, cabal of Warlocks, Doctor Strange or perhaps Jay and Silent Bob). Anyway, many members of the Crest feel that the laws they are expected to enforce fall on the Evil side of Lawful Neutral and are working to put an end to the tyranny. Because of the way I am, I would have the PC's discover there are members of the court running an "Underground Railroad" of sorts for those talented but too-poor-to-pay mages and leave them in the conflict of trust that would be: "If we tell the Blue Crest they may be able to get things done quicker with the additional, internal support as well as the help of several score powerful young MU's. But If we tell them and this all goes pear shaped they may burn all these young dreamers to save their own skins. (To say nothing of one of the PC's Uncles who may be supporting the cause)." -- Evil Smile enjoyed --
From there, and with alot of work on your part, you should have a fully invested party of adventurers shouting "give us liberty or we'll give you death!"
A few twists to consider: 1) the only person ever to accuse the PC of the Magical Wrongdoing is the Blue Crest who recruited him. 2) the evil puppetmaster(s) have hundreds of the golemn things and when some are found they find a patsy to fall for the creations. These are the "insurance policy" they employ against the world. 3) The Blue Crest that recruited the PC is a double agent in direct employ of the secret master(s) he KNOWS to be running the government - his job it to destroy the others hunting his master(s). 4) There is a land of sanctuary for mages far to the (somewhere you guys have never gone direction) perhaps where the "Railroad" allegedly leads. 5) You can never stop the clerics of the evil queen because she provides them with the power to know you are coming - all you will ever manage is to paint targets on your own heads!
Food for thought on the side of the rebellion. Hope you like something in there while I work on the Service of the Empire ideas.
I do not like the word... prisoner. It implies a helpless state, and I assure you, I am never helpless.
--Artemis Entreri
Its interesting that you bring up an "Underground Railroad" group. There is a city in my setting, Alahara, which is a port city and major trade junction for the Empire. Lots of markets and merchants. With the variety demographics that this city sees, there is also a high religious desire from the people inhabiting and visiting it. On the Easter edge of the town, furthest from the shore, is a Temple district with multiple churches, temples, and shrines each dedicated to approved gods.
However, within this district, there is a select few priests that are trained with detection magic. They will "read" the intentions of those who come to their temple. If they read that they would either be a magic user, be willing to protect their secret, and/or hold to malicious intent towards their organization, the priests will take the PC into a secret area of the temple, a closet with a larger room inside. A Narnia situation of sorts. Inside is a secret society where magic users can practice magic safely. The closet serves as a extra dimensional portal. This way the Blue Crest would only detect a slight bit of magic from the door rather than all the magic users together.
So far, it has stayed under the radar from the Blue Crest because of the normal radiation of magic energy from the Temples. For now at least lol