I am almost done building my first world and as a new DM I am looking for feedback. I am basing my campaign around the Abyssal Plane and the demons that reside there. I am using the character Artorias from Dark Souls 1 as inspiration and was thinking of starting like this.
1. They travel to a town overrun with Demons from the Abyss. They are led by Manus (hehe dark souls reference) who is the new "king" of the Abyss. He sends a general to kill them, he turns them into an atomic paste as they are destroyed. 2. They all get resurrected one way or another and learn that the demons will destroy everything if they do not destroy Manus. He is currently on the 99th layer of the Abyssal Plane. 3. They need the Covenant of Artorias, a legendary Abyss Walker to traverse the Abyss. It is guarded by a legion of Abyss Walkers and the Great Grey Wolf Sif however.
Basically they have to become strong enough to get the Covenant and destroy Manus. They get items, allies, and overall experience along the way to become stronger. It is pretty straightforward but I feel as though there may be flaws in its design, which is why I would love some feedback.
The issues with your proposed game are that you are going to have to start at a higher level than 1st or even Tier 1. To adequately face challenges inherent in planeswalking and facing high level outsiders on their home turf, you are going to need to have the players start IMO at least at level 8. This is going to give you and the players some growing pains because in my opinion "level jumping" PCs are harder to play effectively, both from a mechanical and roleplaying perspective, than those that organically developed. Likewise, you are not going to have an idea how the party's abilities are used both individually and in concert which can lead to either steamrolls or TPKs far more often than you realized.
One last thing, allow the Players to believe in the sandbox. You are going to be very tempted to put them on rails. Fine, you can do that, but bury them deep in sand and allow for a number of nodes that allow free choice. When the party completes their exercise of free will just make sure the next "choice" leads back to the path you intended. Matt Mercer does this subtly all the time in his games.
I love the idea as I am a huge Dark Souls fan. However if you are a new DM, why do something so extreme? Dont you think you could be running into issues? Issues that you may be creating for yourself.
I'm going to strongly advise against the "defeated and resurrected" part. I did that once in a recent campaign and it sucks the fear of death right out of the players. If they've already been resurrected once, they will assume it will happen over and over. Turn the rest of the town into atomic paste, sure, but not the PCs (unless they get stupid and rush in, then paste them and have them roll up new characters).
I love the idea as I am a huge Dark Souls fan. However if you are a new DM, why do something so extreme? Dont you think you could be running into issues? Issues that you may be creating for yourself.
I've been a DM before for a oneshot me and my friend made. So although I not the best at the on the fly thinking I can make a pretty good story for them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I am almost done building my first world and as a new DM I am looking for feedback. I am basing my campaign around the Abyssal Plane and the demons that reside there. I am using the character Artorias from Dark Souls 1 as inspiration and was thinking of starting like this.
1. They travel to a town overrun with Demons from the Abyss. They are led by Manus (hehe dark souls reference) who is the new "king" of the Abyss. He sends a general to kill them, he turns them into an atomic paste as they are destroyed.
2. They all get resurrected one way or another and learn that the demons will destroy everything if they do not destroy Manus. He is currently on the 99th layer of the Abyssal Plane.
3. They need the Covenant of Artorias, a legendary Abyss Walker to traverse the Abyss. It is guarded by a legion of Abyss Walkers and the Great Grey Wolf Sif however.
Basically they have to become strong enough to get the Covenant and destroy Manus. They get items, allies, and overall experience along the way to become stronger. It is pretty straightforward but I feel as though there may be flaws in its design, which is why I would love some feedback.
Love the idea! How long does each layer of the Abyss take to complete? Or are you not going to fight in them? That part was for me slightly confusing.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
The issues with your proposed game are that you are going to have to start at a higher level than 1st or even Tier 1. To adequately face challenges inherent in planeswalking and facing high level outsiders on their home turf, you are going to need to have the players start IMO at least at level 8. This is going to give you and the players some growing pains because in my opinion "level jumping" PCs are harder to play effectively, both from a mechanical and roleplaying perspective, than those that organically developed. Likewise, you are not going to have an idea how the party's abilities are used both individually and in concert which can lead to either steamrolls or TPKs far more often than you realized.
One last thing, allow the Players to believe in the sandbox. You are going to be very tempted to put them on rails. Fine, you can do that, but bury them deep in sand and allow for a number of nodes that allow free choice. When the party completes their exercise of free will just make sure the next "choice" leads back to the path you intended. Matt Mercer does this subtly all the time in his games.
I love the idea as I am a huge Dark Souls fan. However if you are a new DM, why do something so extreme? Dont you think you could be running into issues? Issues that you may be creating for yourself.
I'm going to strongly advise against the "defeated and resurrected" part. I did that once in a recent campaign and it sucks the fear of death right out of the players. If they've already been resurrected once, they will assume it will happen over and over. Turn the rest of the town into atomic paste, sure, but not the PCs (unless they get stupid and rush in, then paste them and have them roll up new characters).
I've been a DM before for a oneshot me and my friend made. So although I not the best at the on the fly thinking I can make a pretty good story for them.