A concept that my friend and I came up with. Maybe you've done something similar? I like them a lot, so I wanted to introduce it here too.
Life Arc Games are:
Games that encompass the entire life of a character.
A tool for creating authentic history/events in your setting. Worldbuilding through playing.
A great option when you only have 1 player + DM and limited time.
Awesome games of epic proportions
Games where you play through the entire life of character, perform amazing feats and shape the world.
Games that take place in the past, create natural details for important historical events or create whole new events.
99,99% improv (great improv practice for campaigns!)
Also a great format for when a campaign ends and you want to see what happened to the character afterwards.
We play these games with my friend whenever we head out to the cabin for a weekend. We even play in the sauna, which probably says a lot about how narrative and mechanically loose they can be when needed.
How to play?
Create a normal DnD 5e character. These characters become historically important figures by default and balance means very little, so we allow more homebrew stuff than usual.
I don't recommend making an actual existing historical figure. The DM already often has some ideas for them, which can mess with the natural development of the game and you end up simulating existing lore instead of creating new. If you want to, you can connect this story to the story of an existing figure/event.
Figure out where the game starts. Is the character already an adventurer, maybe a few levels in, or a child?
Don't plan too much ahead. Timeskips will mess up your plans anyway.
Play scenarios from the character's life in a chronological order. Usually the beginning feels a bit slow paced and rusty, but soon you'll start discovering pieces for the puzzle and getting ideas for where the game might lead.
Timeskips and generous levels. Sometimes we just have a phase of a lot of IC talking and setting something up. Then fast forward into the heat. Sometimes we skip 5-10 years in one skip and grant 3-4 levels at once. One elf once skipped 150 years in one skip. Epic boons, legendary resi and special features too. Typically these characters end up at lvl 20. They can be extremely powerful.
Important note: Keep in mind that these are not your typical PC, but rather the people of legends like Mordenkainen and Raistlin. That's why this is a great world building tool.
Go towards crazy epic stuff and take shortcuts. Sometimes the rules / sheets are more of a guideline, but some situations involve more actual game mechanics. A single player can take on pretty tough foes when getting there is straight forward and narrative and they have almost all of their features/slots available . To keep things dynamic, we often just ask the player to describe how they take out the guards or escapes the wave of enemies etc. The focus is on the bigger fights.
Collaboration! You build history together. In these games you can freely use player ideas and thoughts as prompts for the story. Encourage the player to strive for amazing things and enable them together.
Examples of Life Arcs
Victor Val Salvador was an evil priest who was chosen by Vecna to set him free from imprisonment and reclaim his realm. Victor eventually went on to discover the ancient tower of necromancy, resurrect ancient necromancers, raise an army, kill the usurper god with Vecna's help and release Vecna. He then spent the rest of his days in servitude.
Casper van Diem was a legendary paladin monster hunter who, in his later years, helped the first Avatar-Emperor of Alanor to find and retrieve the Ember (essence) of a god and end the second Witch War. Casper wasn't alive anymore when the Witch War ended, but was a crucial figure in the pre-work that led to it.
A gnome artificer, whose name I can't remember, found a way to revolutionize mana-crystal sustainability and provide nearly unlimited energy/fuel for an entire metropolis.
An aasimar paladin who was given a kiss and angel wings by the goddess of nature. As his greatest feat, he travelled to hell and killed the Lord of Hounds.
And many more. 😄
Our games are usually oneshots over the course of a weekend, but nothing stops you from having like a mini campaign instead. Would probably allow a smoother pace too. 😄
Feel free to ask for details and comment. It's a bit difficult to summarize.
I play DND solo (no dm) and am often looking for cool story ideas. Often time my games stall after a couple levels because I run out of ideas or I’ve paced it incorrectly. Sometimes that’s ok, but often times I feel like the storyline should be more epic. This sounds like a great way to address that. When things start to stall just skip ahead to the resolution or summarise it.
I like the idea of all the add-Ons to make a character ‘feel’ legendary. I mean DnD characters are already a cut above the average hedge knight anyway, but to be historically significant in the way you’re describing they would need to play like they’re more than that still. Like the difference between being a Jedi and being Yoda.
Would definitely be interested in hearing more. How do you tend to dish out things like legendary resistances and boons? Does the character have to earn these things?
All of the feats and boons etc are usually story-driven. They don't need to hold any ground. You can use them to direct the flow of the story or base them on the story
Like the angel wings in my examples. In the setting aasimar were descendants of actual angels who fought in a great war alongside people.
This aasimar paladin wanted so much to be an actual angel. Then he met one of the world's primary gods under unrelated circumstances. The goddess was so pleased with his valor that she gave him a kiss that caused angel wings to appear on his back and give him a flying speed of 80ft.
This gesture really drove him onward into becoming a true champion of humanity. Later, after more heroic deeds, he encountered a real angel, a Solar I recall. He brought a message from Heaven, saying that if he went to Hell and killed the Lord of Hellhounds, they would grant him entry into heaven and make him one of them.
It was an incredible risk, because in the setting, if you die in Hell, the gods can't retrieve your soul. Your soul would end up trapped In Between the worlds forever.
So either he'd return victorious and become an angel or lose his chance of any kind of afterlife.
Ah ok. That’s helpful to know. Thanks for taking the time to flesh this out for me. Awarding them in story driven way does make more sense.
May return with more questions, and would certainly be interested in some more fleshed out information. Perhaps even a homebrew supplement if you had the time/inclination.
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What are Life Arc games and what are they for?
A concept that my friend and I came up with. Maybe you've done something similar? I like them a lot, so I wanted to introduce it here too.
Life Arc Games are:
Games that encompass the entire life of a character.
We play these games with my friend whenever we head out to the cabin for a weekend. We even play in the sauna, which probably says a lot about how narrative and mechanically loose they can be when needed.
How to play?
Examples of Life Arcs
Victor Val Salvador was an evil priest who was chosen by Vecna to set him free from imprisonment and reclaim his realm. Victor eventually went on to discover the ancient tower of necromancy, resurrect ancient necromancers, raise an army, kill the usurper god with Vecna's help and release Vecna. He then spent the rest of his days in servitude.
Casper van Diem was a legendary paladin monster hunter who, in his later years, helped the first Avatar-Emperor of Alanor to find and retrieve the Ember (essence) of a god and end the second Witch War. Casper wasn't alive anymore when the Witch War ended, but was a crucial figure in the pre-work that led to it.
A gnome artificer, whose name I can't remember, found a way to revolutionize mana-crystal sustainability and provide nearly unlimited energy/fuel for an entire metropolis.
An aasimar paladin who was given a kiss and angel wings by the goddess of nature. As his greatest feat, he travelled to hell and killed the Lord of Hounds.
And many more. 😄
Our games are usually oneshots over the course of a weekend, but nothing stops you from having like a mini campaign instead. Would probably allow a smoother pace too. 😄
Feel free to ask for details and comment. It's a bit difficult to summarize.
Finland GMT/UTC +2
I love this! Thanks for sharing.
I play DND solo (no dm) and am often looking for cool story ideas. Often time my games stall after a couple levels because I run out of ideas or I’ve paced it incorrectly. Sometimes that’s ok, but often times I feel like the storyline should be more epic. This sounds like a great way to address that. When things start to stall just skip ahead to the resolution or summarise it.
I like the idea of all the add-Ons to make a character ‘feel’ legendary. I mean DnD characters are already a cut above the average hedge knight anyway, but to be historically significant in the way you’re describing they would need to play like they’re more than that still. Like the difference between being a Jedi and being Yoda.
Would definitely be interested in hearing more. How do you tend to dish out things like legendary resistances and boons? Does the character have to earn these things?
Sounds interesting, I might try to do something like this.
Thanks for the questions.
All of the feats and boons etc are usually story-driven. They don't need to hold any ground. You can use them to direct the flow of the story or base them on the story
Like the angel wings in my examples. In the setting aasimar were descendants of actual angels who fought in a great war alongside people.
This aasimar paladin wanted so much to be an actual angel. Then he met one of the world's primary gods under unrelated circumstances. The goddess was so pleased with his valor that she gave him a kiss that caused angel wings to appear on his back and give him a flying speed of 80ft.
This gesture really drove him onward into becoming a true champion of humanity. Later, after more heroic deeds, he encountered a real angel, a Solar I recall. He brought a message from Heaven, saying that if he went to Hell and killed the Lord of Hellhounds, they would grant him entry into heaven and make him one of them.
It was an incredible risk, because in the setting, if you die in Hell, the gods can't retrieve your soul. Your soul would end up trapped In Between the worlds forever.
So either he'd return victorious and become an angel or lose his chance of any kind of afterlife.
Finland GMT/UTC +2
Ah ok. That’s helpful to know. Thanks for taking the time to flesh this out for me. Awarding them in story driven way does make more sense.
May return with more questions, and would certainly be interested in some more fleshed out information. Perhaps even a homebrew supplement if you had the time/inclination.