So I have a campaign idea.. start end and next setting possibly. Starts off long ago wizard guild found a way ancient book. Took to deciphering the book. Book was on how the gods got their powers. So are the wizard guild is unraveling the book they are getting stronger till the gods take notice. By this time the guild strong enough to hold off the gods so the gods did the only thing they could. Locked away magic from the races and sealed themselves away in their domains. Magic is locked away in the final dungeon and their is one god at the final door you have to contend with. But you also have to acquire the other keys. Now since magic is locked away you dont know if you have magical items or not etc. In each of the key dungeons there is 3 choices for chests 1 magical items to help with the mountain 2 just regular items 3 cursed items. Now magic so powerful that its leaking out of the doors its locked behind and out into the mountain So once you hit the mountain you have a 10% chance your magic items will work the closer you get to the final door the percentage goes up. Now since magic got locked away the races got devastated from sickness and hunger etc. Goal to release magic back into the world.
Thoughts anyone feel up too filling in the middle spots...
Is that a brief overview of the campaign? I got lost a few times during it, could just be the one-paragraph format. You don't have to answer these, they are just food for thought and inspiration.
Apologies for asking questions that have been answered, I wrote these bullet points as I progressed through the paragraph:
Who wrote the book? Where did it come from? Did the gods figure magic out and make themselves gods? Did the gods tell mortals and they wrote it down?
If the Wizards have no magic at the final dungeon, then they have no magical way of "defeating" that one god at "the final door".
Why does the god not destroy them?
Can it be convinced to help them?
Where does this door lead to?
What's so special about this door, what's beyond it, or the dungeon it's in?
Where is this dungeon? How did they find it? Where is this mountain? Did the gods put it here? Or worshipers?
Is most of the campaign hovering around a book, or are book pages "unlocked" by going to certain places, touching the page with certain magical items or creature parts?
Why is the door locked, who locked it, who built this place and thought locking the door would be a good idea?
Is it a physical door, metaphorical, or ethereal?
Having the keys being cursed objects would be an idea.
Do the characters know they can't use magic? I feel that magical users would be able to tell instantly that magic was cut off, just like in Wheel of Time when a character can feel the power.
If magic is leaking out, then do only low level magics work? Or does all magic work randomly? Or does magic have random consequences?
Since the magic appears to be behind the door, surely it's not just a physical door and physical dungeon, and that it's godlike powers holding it in. Since the gods put it in there, why would they leave the keys in the physical world, instead of taking the keys with them to their planes? Unless they require a physical anchor in this plane? In which case, would the gods know that these physical anchor keys are being touched and moved? Do the keys need to be "activated"?
If the mountain is being flooded with trapped magical energy, then does the magic affect the creatures and plantlife? Does it bring the mountain to life as a final obstacle?
If magical items are affected, what about spells? Are all gods in on this? Would a benevolent god who cares about their followers be OK with stopping magic to their healing worshipers?
Also, I've just discovered https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com (rabbit hole of lore YIKES), I would suggest maybe looking at the mythology of how the Forgotten Realms were created (fast forward to Ao, and his tablets).
I just came across the Era of Upheaval, where "Wild" and "Dead-magic zones" occur, due to the Time of Troubles.
Not so much input to the Campaign ideas, but into the Game, Table, and World.
Up front I'm not saying don't do this, nor am I saying it's a bad idea. It is - however - going to take a lot of thought, work, and world design to make work consistently and believability.
This is going to be a no-to-low magic Campaign. If magic has been sealed away, you have no casters. Are your Players on board with that? Bob who hates playing Fighters and Rogues, but loves his Sorcerer Characters is going to be unhappy. Player buy-in is going to be required here, or you'll find yourself with a partially/completely empty table.
Encounter design is going to be tricky. In 5e there is a lot of magic woven into almost every class ( Arcane Trickster, Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight ), so you're starting by nerfing almost all your Characters. Again - how do your Players feel about that? Also, designing an Encounter which could devolve into combat, you have to be careful since many of the Classes/Characters won't have access to some of the abilities that the game balance assumes they have. Or is this going to be a Party of all Barbarians - which admittedly would be a good fit for this kind of setting.
Also - magical ecology. Are magical creatures cut off from magic as well? If not, why not? If not, can an evil Wizard slaughter a unicorn and harness its inherent magic to fuel their spells? How does that work? If they are cut off, what has happened to them? Are all the beholders all grounded ( the image of a beholder which has crashed, rolled upside down into a corner, and is feebly waving its eyestalks is amusing )? Can Dragons no longer use beath weapons? Did the Elementals all dissipate?
Divine magic; is it gone as well since the Gods "sealed themselves away in their domains"? If not, why? If so, I guess there are no Clerics or Paladins in the Party now. This is another huge impact on game balance, as they Party loses most of their ability to heal, and all of their ability to heal in combat ( since magic items are also nerfed ).
Druids pull their power from "nature". That's still around. Do Druids have partial access to magic? full access? no access? Why, and how does that work?
How about Bards? In your world, do they gain power from their words and music, or merely use words and music to shape the magic in the world around them? Your answer will affect if-and-how they are affected by this.
Are Warlocks now super-powerful because their Patons and funneling them magic from whatever Plane they are on, and thus they are among the few casters not affected?
From your OP I suspect you're only considering the effects on magic items, when this would have very basic and wide reaching impacts on the world. By analogy, you can't design a game world where gravity no longer exists, and then expect the only impact on the game to be whether or not the Characters can carry their luggage.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Not so much input to the Campaign ideas, but into the Game, Table, and World.
Up front I'm not saying don't do this, nor am I saying it's a bad idea. It is - however - going to take a lot of thought, work, and world design to make work consistently and believability.
This is going to be a no-to-low magic Campaign. If magic has been sealed away, you have no casters. Are your Players on board with that? Bob who hates playing Fighters and Rogues, but loves his Sorcerer Characters is going to be unhappy. Player buy-in is going to be required here, or you'll find yourself with a partially/completely empty table.
Encounter design is going to be tricky. In 5e there is a lot of magic woven into almost every class ( Arcane Trickster, Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight ), so you're starting by nerfing almost all your Characters. Again - how do your Players feel about that? Also, designing an Encounter which could devolve into combat, you have to be careful since many of the Classes/Characters won't have access to some of the abilities that the game balance assumes they have. Or is this going to be a Party of all Barbarians - which admittedly would be a good fit for this kind of setting.
Also - magical ecology. Are magical creatures cut off from magic as well? If not, why not? If not, can an evil Wizard slaughter a unicorn and harness its inherent magic to fuel their spells? How does that work? If they are cut off, what has happened to them? Are all the beholders all grounded ( the image of a beholder which has crashed, rolled upside down into a corner, and is feebly waving its eyestalks is amusing )? Can Dragons no longer use beath weapons? Did the Elementals all dissipate?
Divine magic; is it gone as well since the Gods "sealed themselves away in their domains"? If not, why? If so, I guess there are no Clerics or Paladins in the Party now. This is another huge impact on game balance, as they Party loses most of their ability to heal, and all of their ability to heal in combat ( since magic items are also nerfed ).
Druids pull their power from "nature". That's still around. Do Druids have partial access to magic? full access? no access? Why, and how does that work?
How about Bards? In your world, do they gain power from their words and music, or merely use words and music to shape the magic in the world around them? Your answer will affect if-and-how they are affected by this.
Are Warlocks now super-powerful because their Patons and funneling them magic from whatever Plane they are on, and thus they are among the few casters not affected?
From your OP I suspect you're only considering the effects on magic items, when this would have very basic and wide reaching impacts on the world. By analogy, you can't design a game world where gravity no longer exists, and then expect the only impact on the game to be whether or not the Characters can carry their luggage.
Basically all magic is cut off.. all the magical creatures to live would have to be on the mountain. the more powerful creatures would be close to where the magic is seeping out as thats the strongest point. warlocks no go.. as far as healing would go.. would give them the healer feat if they wanted to run a cleric and run health packs. so yes this would be like a barbarian fighter rouge more campaign as NOTHING magical would work in the slightest till you hit the mountain. then the closer you got to where magic is locked away the better the chance your magical equipment spells etc would work. Yes I did say there was a god at the end. everyone assuming you have to fight the god. Why cant you talk to the god. As far as the world... world would have been thrown into chaos and death not only from the loss of magic but also from the war between the gods and the wizards of long ago. Granted some places are doing better then others but went from what I would say Golden age to the Dark ages.. Bards they can still give encouraging words and such to bolster your confidence and all but their magic again is gone... Anything magical would happen when you hit the mountain. So yes if you came across a beholder that didnt make it to the mountain in time would be on the ground in wobbling around if its still alive. This battle would have taken place hundreds of years ago. So those people who took over a wizards tower when magic is back in the world well they pry not gonna be too happy etc. Does this answer your questions??
Is that a brief overview of the campaign? I got lost a few times during it, could just be the one-paragraph format. You don't have to answer these, they are just food for thought and inspiration.
Apologies for asking questions that have been answered, I wrote these bullet points as I progressed through the paragraph:
Who wrote the book? The Gods wrote the book when they were born from magic.. Where did it come from? Did the gods figure magic out and make themselves gods? Yes gods figured out magic and made themselves gods. Did the gods tell mortals and they wrote it down? No the gods did not tell mortals at all. they wrote it down in their language in case something happened.
If the Wizards have no magic at the final dungeon, then they have no magical way of "defeating" that one god at "the final door".
Why does the god not destroy them?
Can it be convinced to help them? You can either fight the god or talk to the god or try and just walk past the god to unlock the door or leave. All up to the party
Where does this door lead to? Door leads to nowhere essentially just a dimentional space to hold magic
What's so special about this door, what's beyond it, or the dungeon it's in? TSpecial about the door is the gods crafted it to hold back and contain magic in the world
Where is this dungeon? How did they find it? Where is this mountain? Did the gods put it here? Or worshipers? The gods made the dungeons Not to be impassible but to regress mankind and as a punishment. Each dungeon has a key inside you have to get. then make your way to the mountain of the gods. yes the gods made the mountain specifically for the purpose of magical creatures to live and to hold back magic
Is most of the campaign hovering around a book, or are book pages "unlocked" by going to certain places, touching the page with certain magical items or creature parts? The book was magical so when magic got locked away it vanished. No mortal knows where the book went too
Why is the door locked, who locked it, who built this place and thought locking the door would be a good idea? the gods did
Is it a physical door, metaphorical, or ethereal? door is both physical and ertheral
Having the keys being cursed objects would be an idea. would be an idea yes..
Do the characters know they can't use magic? I feel that magical users would be able to tell instantly that magic was cut off, just like in Wheel of Time when a character can feel the power. yes they know they cant weild magic this didnt happen over night been hundreds of years
If magic is leaking out, then do only low level magics work? Or does all magic work randomly? Or does magic have random consequences? works randomly on and in the final mountain. Closer you get to the final door the better your magic items and magic you wield would work.
Since the magic appears to be behind the door, surely it's not just a physical door and physical dungeon, and that it's godlike powers holding it in. Since the gods put it in there, why would they leave the keys in the physical world, instead of taking the keys with them to their planes? Unless they require a physical anchor in this plane? In which case, would the gods know that these physical anchor keys are being touched and moved? Do the keys need to be "activated"? The god left the keys behind for when someone(s) would be able to find and obtain them and release magic back into the world again ( back when magic was part of everything everyone became dependent on it for the most part. So taken magic away plunged all the races into dark period.
If the mountain is being flooded with trapped magical energy, then does the magic affect the creatures and plantlife? Does it bring the mountain to life as a final obstacle?
If magical items are affected, what about spells? Are all gods in on this? Would a benevolent god who cares about their followers be OK with stopping magic to their healing worshipers? Yes all gods are in on this. The magical creatures made their homes in and on the mountain. The more magic required by the creature the closer to the door its gonna be.
I hope I answered everyones questions. I didn't say this was an easy idea as its not. No this would not be for everyone to play until magic is released back into the world then their would be a second part. But gotta tackle first part before can think on the second one.
I don't need to know the answers ( so, sorry, but I didn't read through your all your design choices ) - but as the Campaign's DM, you do.
I disagree that you need to build your Campaign before you figure out the implications of the changes for the world ( if that's what you're saying ). The state of the world will reflect what your Campaign is going to be, and how the Players pursue it. I think that for this to work, you need to do some serious world building ( or editing ).
I also think that you still need to have a serioustalk with your Players as to whether or not they're up for this kind of Campaign ( not all Players will be ), and I think you need to strongly consider how you're altering game balance.
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So I have a campaign idea.. start end and next setting possibly. Starts off long ago wizard guild found a way ancient book. Took to deciphering the book. Book was on how the gods got their powers. So are the wizard guild is unraveling the book they are getting stronger till the gods take notice. By this time the guild strong enough to hold off the gods so the gods did the only thing they could. Locked away magic from the races and sealed themselves away in their domains. Magic is locked away in the final dungeon and their is one god at the final door you have to contend with. But you also have to acquire the other keys. Now since magic is locked away you dont know if you have magical items or not etc. In each of the key dungeons there is 3 choices for chests 1 magical items to help with the mountain 2 just regular items 3 cursed items.
Now magic so powerful that its leaking out of the doors its locked behind and out into the mountain
So once you hit the mountain you have a 10% chance your magic items will work the closer you get to the final door the percentage goes up.
Now since magic got locked away the races got devastated from sickness and hunger etc. Goal to release magic back into the world.
Thoughts anyone feel up too filling in the middle spots...
Is that a brief overview of the campaign? I got lost a few times during it, could just be the one-paragraph format. You don't have to answer these, they are just food for thought and inspiration.
Apologies for asking questions that have been answered, I wrote these bullet points as I progressed through the paragraph:
Also, I've just discovered https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com (rabbit hole of lore YIKES), I would suggest maybe looking at the mythology of how the Forgotten Realms were created (fast forward to Ao, and his tablets).
I just came across the Era of Upheaval, where "Wild" and "Dead-magic zones" occur, due to the Time of Troubles.
Not so much input to the Campaign ideas, but into the Game, Table, and World.
Up front I'm not saying don't do this, nor am I saying it's a bad idea. It is - however - going to take a lot of thought, work, and world design to make work consistently and believability.
This is going to be a no-to-low magic Campaign. If magic has been sealed away, you have no casters. Are your Players on board with that? Bob who hates playing Fighters and Rogues, but loves his Sorcerer Characters is going to be unhappy. Player buy-in is going to be required here, or you'll find yourself with a partially/completely empty table.
Encounter design is going to be tricky. In 5e there is a lot of magic woven into almost every class ( Arcane Trickster, Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight ), so you're starting by nerfing almost all your Characters. Again - how do your Players feel about that? Also, designing an Encounter which could devolve into combat, you have to be careful since many of the Classes/Characters won't have access to some of the abilities that the game balance assumes they have. Or is this going to be a Party of all Barbarians - which admittedly would be a good fit for this kind of setting.
Also - magical ecology. Are magical creatures cut off from magic as well? If not, why not? If not, can an evil Wizard slaughter a unicorn and harness its inherent magic to fuel their spells? How does that work? If they are cut off, what has happened to them? Are all the beholders all grounded ( the image of a beholder which has crashed, rolled upside down into a corner, and is feebly waving its eyestalks is amusing )? Can Dragons no longer use beath weapons? Did the Elementals all dissipate?
Divine magic; is it gone as well since the Gods "sealed themselves away in their domains"? If not, why? If so, I guess there are no Clerics or Paladins in the Party now. This is another huge impact on game balance, as they Party loses most of their ability to heal, and all of their ability to heal in combat ( since magic items are also nerfed ).
Druids pull their power from "nature". That's still around. Do Druids have partial access to magic? full access? no access? Why, and how does that work?
How about Bards? In your world, do they gain power from their words and music, or merely use words and music to shape the magic in the world around them? Your answer will affect if-and-how they are affected by this.
Are Warlocks now super-powerful because their Patons and funneling them magic from whatever Plane they are on, and thus they are among the few casters not affected?
From your OP I suspect you're only considering the effects on magic items, when this would have very basic and wide reaching impacts on the world. By analogy, you can't design a game world where gravity no longer exists, and then expect the only impact on the game to be whether or not the Characters can carry their luggage.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Basically all magic is cut off.. all the magical creatures to live would have to be on the mountain. the more powerful creatures would be close to where the magic is seeping out as thats the strongest point. warlocks no go.. as far as healing would go.. would give them the healer feat if they wanted to run a cleric and run health packs. so yes this would be like a barbarian fighter rouge more campaign as NOTHING magical would work in the slightest till you hit the mountain. then the closer you got to where magic is locked away the better the chance your magical equipment spells etc would work. Yes I did say there was a god at the end. everyone assuming you have to fight the god. Why cant you talk to the god. As far as the world... world would have been thrown into chaos and death not only from the loss of magic but also from the war between the gods and the wizards of long ago. Granted some places are doing better then others but went from what I would say Golden age to the Dark ages.. Bards they can still give encouraging words and such to bolster your confidence and all but their magic again is gone... Anything magical would happen when you hit the mountain. So yes if you came across a beholder that didnt make it to the mountain in time would be on the ground in wobbling around if its still alive. This battle would have taken place hundreds of years ago. So those people who took over a wizards tower when magic is back in the world well they pry not gonna be too happy etc. Does this answer your questions??
I hope I answered everyones questions. I didn't say this was an easy idea as its not. No this would not be for everyone to play until magic is released back into the world then their would be a second part. But gotta tackle first part before can think on the second one.
I don't need to know the answers ( so, sorry, but I didn't read through your all your design choices ) - but as the Campaign's DM, you do.
I disagree that you need to build your Campaign before you figure out the implications of the changes for the world ( if that's what you're saying ). The state of the world will reflect what your Campaign is going to be, and how the Players pursue it. I think that for this to work, you need to do some serious world building ( or editing ).
I also think that you still need to have a serious talk with your Players as to whether or not they're up for this kind of Campaign ( not all Players will be ), and I think you need to strongly consider how you're altering game balance.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.