This is an idea for my second Campaign I'm running with my group. We're supposed to finish the first one hopefully sometime within the century (just kidding - year). Now I've gone over a lot of material about our new world with my players. This idea spawned from me scrolling back over a scrapped idea to have cults based off of nursery rhymes.
The campaign will start with a trial of sorts. The Divination Wizards of the arcane country in the world are insisting that the players are going to become monsters and bring ruin upon the world. The Sorcerer's Assembly, the group in charge of the Arcane Courts, refuses to imprison or execute the party, and instead opts to banish them to another dimension - this dimension being the Storied Realms. Thus it becomes an Isekai campaign of sorts.
Now the Storied Realms are a bit. . . different than the original story would say. Like Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf are gangsters rivaling with the Three Little Pigs. Snow White and the Seven Redcaps are cannibals, Sleeping Beauty is a nigh immortal serial killer, Jill is really a spirit that bashes all Jacks' heads in that come to the well to fetch water, Pinnochio is a Warforged that wears a skinsuit made of flesh so he can be a real boy, ect.
The party meets an old woman who promises to bring them home, but alas, she must gather the materials, which could take many months or years. However, she is actually a he who is actually a cultist serving an Archdevil. He seeks to grab seven relics from various Fairy Tales by assuming various forms while the party attempts to bring a happy ending to the Storied Realms. Now what happens at the end is that he releases his master using the relics after taunting the party by taking the various helpful NPCs they met. The Archdevil, being the lawful evil being he is, agrees to help the deal of returning them home, but gives them an additional reward: He makes them his heralds. He brings every bit of darkness in them to the surface, twisting and corrupting them, and then he sends them home to wreck havoc on the world in his name, basically fulfilling the Divination Guild's foresight from the start.
Basically, they become the BBEGs of the next campaign. After all, you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.
What I don't want to do is make them angry about it. Like I want to handle it in a way that's really cool and exciting. They are usually excited about my plot twists, but I'm scared they won't take it well. I planned an ambush/kidnapping of the party for months because I was scared of how they would take it - this is literally taking a character they love and twisting it. I'm scared that even the player who is super attached to her character will actually cry. I think this would be a fun campaign idea, but I don't know if they will take it well or not. I don't want to be a jerk DM, but I also want to make this campaign exciting. I'm certain that there's at least one guy in our group who would love it.
What do you think? How would you and/or your group react to something like this? I know all groups are different, but I don't want to make my players hate me over something like this. And how would you recommend I implement the ending?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE STORY, it takes a whole new aspect or at least one I haven't seen (I am new keep that in mind) and honestly I would love to DM this story let alone play it! I'm already captivated just by this overview. I'm sure your party will love playing the villain, I know mine would. For the ending I think what you have right now is good but if you would consider maybe adding a part to the story where the players get to wreak havoc on the place they once called home until the are inevitably stopped and arrested or killed. If the do get arrested maybe you could add a sequel campaign where the adventurers break out of jail and live the criminal life or maybe they await trail and say they were under a spell and try to do good after the evil they have done. No matter what you do I think it is an OUTSTANDING idea and think you should go for it 100%, if only I could have wrote this story I'm actually jealous!
Love the story, love the setting, would love to play in this game!!!
That said. If I got that "twist" ending, I would be sad. And then I would be pissed.
Here are my two suggestions so that doesn't happen.
1: Discuss it with them beforehand. Not in-depth, but "oh, how would you feel if we played a campaign that ended with you as the BBEGs of the next campaign?" Make sure they know that it's a possibility, but not how, when, or whether it's for sure.
2: Give them a chance to refuse the deal, but at the cost of never returning home. If they choose to fight the archdevil, disprove the prophecy, and try to achieve a "happy" ending, they may eventually succeed (maybe by regaining all the relics so they can unsummon him), but only by stranding themselves in a strange and twisted world for the rest of their lives. After all, even after the heroes "win," the Storied Realms sound like an awful place to live. This gives players who really do just want to be heroes the chance to be epic martyrs for a cause. If everyone's comfortable with this, players could even end up choosing opposite sides and fighting each other.
Good luck! Sounds like you've got an awesome game ahead!
Love the story, love the setting, would love to play in this game!!!
That said. If I got that "twist" ending, I would be sad. And then I would be pissed.
Here are my two suggestions so that doesn't happen.
1: Discuss it with them beforehand. Not in-depth, but "oh, how would you feel if we played a campaign that ended with you as the BBEGs of the next campaign?" Make sure they know that it's a possibility, but not how, when, or whether it's for sure.
2: Give them a chance to refuse the deal, but at the cost of never returning home. If they choose to fight the archdevil, disprove the prophecy, and try to achieve a "happy" ending, they may eventually succeed (maybe by regaining all the relics so they can unsummon him), but only by stranding themselves in a strange and twisted world for the rest of their lives. After all, even after the heroes "win," the Storied Realms sound like an awful place to live. This gives players who really do just want to be heroes the chance to be epic martyrs for a cause. If everyone's comfortable with this, players could even end up choosing opposite sides and fighting each other.
Good luck! Sounds like you've got an awesome game ahead!
Ok, so I've done 1. I'll work on 2. The sensitive players are ok with it and the player I knew was gonna be on board with it, and I was worried that the ending would be too railroady as 2 helps with.
With all being said, I appreciate the help and feedback you've given, and will keep your advice in mind.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."
Taking away player agency is difficult. You're doing it twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. An added problem is that you're going to have to keep all PC's alive for the prophecy to be 100% correct. Your players won't be able to switch characters mid campaign if their character gets boring or doesn't contribute much to the game, so you might want to allow your players to alter their characters if that happens.
Your story reminds me of City of Mist. I think that would fit the tone of the storied realms much better. You might want to check it out, unless you and your players don't want to invest time and money in a new RPG. You'd probably have to change the story a bit, but it's not impossible. The good thing is that, as Gateways, your players could be the bad guys from the start. It's also possible that they realize that they are gateways, but don't know which fairytale/myth they're supposed to be from. You also wouldn't have to take away character agency at the beginning as the players are already in the City of Mist.
One trick you could use is the quantum ogre. You let the players choose between the left road or the right road. It doesn't matter which road they pick, they'll always run into an ogre. If you play it well, the players will never find out how you tricked them.
Your players might want to take revenge on the Divination Wizards and Sorcerers Assembly after they come back. Make the players think that that's the right thing to do and set the Sorcerers and Wizards up as enemies. Let them take the bait. The players are probably not the only threat to the world, so while they are busy murdering all the wizards, they accidentally on purpose activate the doomsday device the wizards stashed away for safekeeping. (Quantum ogre maybe?)
Or you could just skip the whole thing and do a short adventure in which a bunch of great heroes get killed by the invading force. You then start a new campaign with new characters that face the same invasion. In the end they have to defeat the zombified versions of their old characters. It's a bit different from your idea, but it might work better because killing a bunch of characters in a one shot is not that big a deal. You also wouldn't have to get through an entire campaign just to get to the next one.
I get what you mean by that and that kind of was addressed. What I could do on the other hand is allow them to make a choice at the end: be the Heralds of Darkness or remain trapped in the Storied Realms. Either way it's a fun story. And if they choose to take one for the team and stay, I could always revert to the original idea of creating a dark clone of the characters in question to use as heralds.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."
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This is an idea for my second Campaign I'm running with my group. We're supposed to finish the first one hopefully sometime within the century (just kidding - year). Now I've gone over a lot of material about our new world with my players. This idea spawned from me scrolling back over a scrapped idea to have cults based off of nursery rhymes.
The campaign will start with a trial of sorts. The Divination Wizards of the arcane country in the world are insisting that the players are going to become monsters and bring ruin upon the world. The Sorcerer's Assembly, the group in charge of the Arcane Courts, refuses to imprison or execute the party, and instead opts to banish them to another dimension - this dimension being the Storied Realms. Thus it becomes an Isekai campaign of sorts.
Now the Storied Realms are a bit. . . different than the original story would say. Like Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf are gangsters rivaling with the Three Little Pigs. Snow White and the Seven Redcaps are cannibals, Sleeping Beauty is a nigh immortal serial killer, Jill is really a spirit that bashes all Jacks' heads in that come to the well to fetch water, Pinnochio is a Warforged that wears a skinsuit made of flesh so he can be a real boy, ect.
The party meets an old woman who promises to bring them home, but alas, she must gather the materials, which could take many months or years. However, she is actually a he who is actually a cultist serving an Archdevil. He seeks to grab seven relics from various Fairy Tales by assuming various forms while the party attempts to bring a happy ending to the Storied Realms. Now what happens at the end is that he releases his master using the relics after taunting the party by taking the various helpful NPCs they met. The Archdevil, being the lawful evil being he is, agrees to help the deal of returning them home, but gives them an additional reward: He makes them his heralds. He brings every bit of darkness in them to the surface, twisting and corrupting them, and then he sends them home to wreck havoc on the world in his name, basically fulfilling the Divination Guild's foresight from the start.
Basically, they become the BBEGs of the next campaign. After all, you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.
What I don't want to do is make them angry about it. Like I want to handle it in a way that's really cool and exciting. They are usually excited about my plot twists, but I'm scared they won't take it well. I planned an ambush/kidnapping of the party for months because I was scared of how they would take it - this is literally taking a character they love and twisting it. I'm scared that even the player who is super attached to her character will actually cry. I think this would be a fun campaign idea, but I don't know if they will take it well or not. I don't want to be a jerk DM, but I also want to make this campaign exciting. I'm certain that there's at least one guy in our group who would love it.
What do you think? How would you and/or your group react to something like this? I know all groups are different, but I don't want to make my players hate me over something like this. And how would you recommend I implement the ending?
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE STORY, it takes a whole new aspect or at least one I haven't seen (I am new keep that in mind) and honestly I would love to DM this story let alone play it! I'm already captivated just by this overview. I'm sure your party will love playing the villain, I know mine would. For the ending I think what you have right now is good but if you would consider maybe adding a part to the story where the players get to wreak havoc on the place they once called home until the are inevitably stopped and arrested or killed. If the do get arrested maybe you could add a sequel campaign where the adventurers break out of jail and live the criminal life or maybe they await trail and say they were under a spell and try to do good after the evil they have done. No matter what you do I think it is an OUTSTANDING idea and think you should go for it 100%, if only I could have wrote this story I'm actually jealous!
You should post this as a homebrew!
Love the story, love the setting, would love to play in this game!!!
That said. If I got that "twist" ending, I would be sad. And then I would be pissed.
Here are my two suggestions so that doesn't happen.
1: Discuss it with them beforehand. Not in-depth, but "oh, how would you feel if we played a campaign that ended with you as the BBEGs of the next campaign?" Make sure they know that it's a possibility, but not how, when, or whether it's for sure.
2: Give them a chance to refuse the deal, but at the cost of never returning home. If they choose to fight the archdevil, disprove the prophecy, and try to achieve a "happy" ending, they may eventually succeed (maybe by regaining all the relics so they can unsummon him), but only by stranding themselves in a strange and twisted world for the rest of their lives. After all, even after the heroes "win," the Storied Realms sound like an awful place to live. This gives players who really do just want to be heroes the chance to be epic martyrs for a cause. If everyone's comfortable with this, players could even end up choosing opposite sides and fighting each other.
Good luck! Sounds like you've got an awesome game ahead!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Ok, so I've done 1. I'll work on 2. The sensitive players are ok with it and the player I knew was gonna be on board with it, and I was worried that the ending would be too railroady as 2 helps with.
With all being said, I appreciate the help and feedback you've given, and will keep your advice in mind.
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."
Taking away player agency is difficult. You're doing it twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. An added problem is that you're going to have to keep all PC's alive for the prophecy to be 100% correct. Your players won't be able to switch characters mid campaign if their character gets boring or doesn't contribute much to the game, so you might want to allow your players to alter their characters if that happens.
Your story reminds me of City of Mist. I think that would fit the tone of the storied realms much better. You might want to check it out, unless you and your players don't want to invest time and money in a new RPG. You'd probably have to change the story a bit, but it's not impossible. The good thing is that, as Gateways, your players could be the bad guys from the start. It's also possible that they realize that they are gateways, but don't know which fairytale/myth they're supposed to be from. You also wouldn't have to take away character agency at the beginning as the players are already in the City of Mist.
One trick you could use is the quantum ogre. You let the players choose between the left road or the right road. It doesn't matter which road they pick, they'll always run into an ogre. If you play it well, the players will never find out how you tricked them.
Your players might want to take revenge on the Divination Wizards and Sorcerers Assembly after they come back. Make the players think that that's the right thing to do and set the Sorcerers and Wizards up as enemies. Let them take the bait. The players are probably not the only threat to the world, so while they are busy murdering all the wizards, they accidentally on purpose activate the doomsday device the wizards stashed away for safekeeping. (Quantum ogre maybe?)
Or you could just skip the whole thing and do a short adventure in which a bunch of great heroes get killed by the invading force. You then start a new campaign with new characters that face the same invasion. In the end they have to defeat the zombified versions of their old characters. It's a bit different from your idea, but it might work better because killing a bunch of characters in a one shot is not that big a deal. You also wouldn't have to get through an entire campaign just to get to the next one.
I get what you mean by that and that kind of was addressed. What I could do on the other hand is allow them to make a choice at the end: be the Heralds of Darkness or remain trapped in the Storied Realms. Either way it's a fun story. And if they choose to take one for the team and stay, I could always revert to the original idea of creating a dark clone of the characters in question to use as heralds.
At every session, I say, "Everyone's here, except Waluigi."