On October 1st, I have a crucial session for a level 17-20 party, and I want to make sure it's memorable. The premise is as follows.
In the heart of the capital, a massive rift is opening between the Material Plane and the Negative Plane. It's not just any portal; it's a wound in reality. Beings of unfathomable power (beyond simple liches or vampires) are attempting to cross to devour all life and expand the rift, which would mean the end of the world.
I need ideas, opinions, and, above all, recommendations for manuals or homebrews to help me capture this catastrophe. How would you make this quest epic, desperate, and satisfying?
Epicness is tricky, because it often winds up involving a lot of moving parts, and management is boring. Make it as simple as you realistically can. As an example, the rift expands exponentially, doubling in size every round. In ten rounds, it will have swallowed the capital, in twenty, the world (I've no clue if the math adds up). And just keep it at that.
HP sponges, massive hordes of monsters, or whatever else feels fitting ... generally a boring, repetitive slog so reminiscent of work you tend to expect to be paid for it.
Or quite possibly that's just me.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'd be tempted by shadow versions of the PCs, nothing like a good 'fight yourself' plot.
Depends, if they are experienced players very likely they've already done that several times. On a WM server I'm a member of, some of the player characters are up to 5 times fighting shadow versions of themselves.
You could probably use stuff like Nightwalkers, an important tool you must use is environmental storytelling. It’s best to convey just how utterly destructive the rift is. It could be entire cities filled with corpses and undead to the party actively dying just by being close to the rift.
You could probably use a Draco-lich's Regional effects such as soul drain or sapping mist. The next thing you should do is probably try and establish the party into the world, the sense of tension heightens when the party understands what they can lose, show the good in people and the world before allowing the party to choose whether or not to defend them.
Epicness - to get the players to feel the epic-ness of something you need to put them in a situation where nearly the entire party is dead / dying / incapacitated and then have the last remaining PC take a hail-mary risk and for it to pay-off. It's extremely difficult to make that a predetermined outcome without the whole thing being staged. Alternatively, the "epic" feeling could be achieved by having multiple very different feeling situations - e.g. having a scene where the players see how it is affecting ordinary people like helping a crowd escape the city before the commoners are obliterated by the baddies, another where the sheer scale of the catastrophe is the challenge such as a chase or race through the affected area, and other showing even extremely powerful people are being defeated by the disaster - such as coming across the high mage / ruler cowering in the sewers.
Desperate - to get the players to feel desperate you have to drain their resources, a level 17-20 party going into the final battle with multiple level 6+ spell slots available per caster, full HP, and all their special abilities available will not feel desperate. Have the effects of the negative energy plane directly drain their resources, so that they have the feeling of "I'm using this because it is all I have left..." This means every in-game hour of the session should force them to expend spellslots and/or take damage and/or exhaustion. Alternatively, you have to have NPCs just as powerful as the PCs dying rapidly to the disaster.
Satisfying - the trick to making something feel satisfying is to have their choices have consequences, if they fail to save an NPC they should experience the loved ones of that NPC wailing and grieving, but similarly if they save them the NPC should be thankful & grateful. Often this means having the BBEG be defeated in a way that isn't as simple as just "deal damage until they are dead" because it doesn't require much thinking / choices to deal damage in D&D. If the players instead have to do XYZ to defeat the BBEG then the choice between directly trying to hurt / incapacitate the BBEG or healing their friends vs doing the things to achieve XYZ becomes meaningful & impactful. Likewise the XYZ should give each PC a way to shine / contribute, combat in D&D can become a competition between PCs to deal the most damage which leaves those who contribute less feeling unsatisfied, but if PCs have to work together to achieve XYZ then everyone feels like they were crucial contributors to the success.
Hello everyone
On October 1st, I have a crucial session for a level 17-20 party, and I want to make sure it's memorable. The premise is as follows.
In the heart of the capital, a massive rift is opening between the Material Plane and the Negative Plane. It's not just any portal; it's a wound in reality. Beings of unfathomable power (beyond simple liches or vampires) are attempting to cross to devour all life and expand the rift, which would mean the end of the world.
I need ideas, opinions, and, above all, recommendations for manuals or homebrews to help me capture this catastrophe. How would you make this quest epic, desperate, and satisfying?
I'd be tempted by shadow versions of the PCs, nothing like a good 'fight yourself' plot.
Epicness is tricky, because it often winds up involving a lot of moving parts, and management is boring. Make it as simple as you realistically can. As an example, the rift expands exponentially, doubling in size every round. In ten rounds, it will have swallowed the capital, in twenty, the world (I've no clue if the math adds up). And just keep it at that.
HP sponges, massive hordes of monsters, or whatever else feels fitting ... generally a boring, repetitive slog so reminiscent of work you tend to expect to be paid for it.
Or quite possibly that's just me.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Depends, if they are experienced players very likely they've already done that several times. On a WM server I'm a member of, some of the player characters are up to 5 times fighting shadow versions of themselves.
You could probably use stuff like Nightwalkers, an important tool you must use is environmental storytelling. It’s best to convey just how utterly destructive the rift is. It could be entire cities filled with corpses and undead to the party actively dying just by being close to the rift.
You could probably use a Draco-lich's Regional effects such as soul drain or sapping mist. The next thing you should do is probably try and establish the party into the world, the sense of tension heightens when the party understands what they can lose, show the good in people and the world before allowing the party to choose whether or not to defend them.
Here's some more concrete suggestions:
Epicness - to get the players to feel the epic-ness of something you need to put them in a situation where nearly the entire party is dead / dying / incapacitated and then have the last remaining PC take a hail-mary risk and for it to pay-off. It's extremely difficult to make that a predetermined outcome without the whole thing being staged. Alternatively, the "epic" feeling could be achieved by having multiple very different feeling situations - e.g. having a scene where the players see how it is affecting ordinary people like helping a crowd escape the city before the commoners are obliterated by the baddies, another where the sheer scale of the catastrophe is the challenge such as a chase or race through the affected area, and other showing even extremely powerful people are being defeated by the disaster - such as coming across the high mage / ruler cowering in the sewers.
Desperate - to get the players to feel desperate you have to drain their resources, a level 17-20 party going into the final battle with multiple level 6+ spell slots available per caster, full HP, and all their special abilities available will not feel desperate. Have the effects of the negative energy plane directly drain their resources, so that they have the feeling of "I'm using this because it is all I have left..." This means every in-game hour of the session should force them to expend spellslots and/or take damage and/or exhaustion. Alternatively, you have to have NPCs just as powerful as the PCs dying rapidly to the disaster.
Satisfying - the trick to making something feel satisfying is to have their choices have consequences, if they fail to save an NPC they should experience the loved ones of that NPC wailing and grieving, but similarly if they save them the NPC should be thankful & grateful. Often this means having the BBEG be defeated in a way that isn't as simple as just "deal damage until they are dead" because it doesn't require much thinking / choices to deal damage in D&D. If the players instead have to do XYZ to defeat the BBEG then the choice between directly trying to hurt / incapacitate the BBEG or healing their friends vs doing the things to achieve XYZ becomes meaningful & impactful. Likewise the XYZ should give each PC a way to shine / contribute, combat in D&D can become a competition between PCs to deal the most damage which leaves those who contribute less feeling unsatisfied, but if PCs have to work together to achieve XYZ then everyone feels like they were crucial contributors to the success.