I've occasionally lamented that most campaigns are not sweeping enough or long enough or enough enough for the "aging" rules to come in to play. I've considered throwing a Pendragon homebrew into my mix but am kinda afraid of player revolt so it always get put on my back burner.
And then my weekend reading flipped a switch. I found this! I read the whole thing. I read it AGAIN. I read the links. I took notes. And I pulled up my trusty Chatgpt. And my next campaign began to take shape.
Here's the pitch. First 5 levels are sandbox. Following plot hooks. Killing things. Helping people. Finding stuff. Then in tier two the flow changes. Characters follow a hook to another plane. Fey? Shadow? Who knows. And when they come back they've all moved into the next age category. From young adult to mature. STR and WIS improve. 20-25 years have passed. I can use ChatGPT to figure out some of the big picture changes. That village they were from? Grown to a town. The local noble house they were serving. Maybe now they're the ruling family in the realm. Or vanished. We play a level or so and then they're summoned by a higher power to another planer adventure. Perhaps the four elemental planes? Gets us to tier III. And when they come back they're middle aged. Maybe 50 years have passed this time. The world is different. They spend a level figuring things out. And then called away again. To another plane or three.
Upon return the players are now old. Death lurks around corners. Maybe one or two have died. Another level on the material plane and then the final summoning. Upon this return they are venerable (if they survive the travel.) And they play out their old age on the material plane.
If a player dies they are replaced by descendant, a fan, a family member. To hold the thread.
Think it'll work?
Will it work ?
ReplyDeleteHrm. I don't know. Although the whole plane hopping aspect seems *very* interesting to me, I am *personally* not so sure about the whole aging mechanism. It might be a really good fit for your group though, as you obviously will be in a far better position to estimate whether this will work for your group - or not - than me. Again, for me *personally*, I like kinda it when 'Peter Parker' (aka Spider-Man) stays a student for all eternity, without ever growing up. YMMV.
Along with the plane jumping I'm thinking some time travel as well. The 1e DMG mentioned using Boot Hill and Gamma World for plane travel. Throw in some time travel - perhaps the Triassic or just a jumbled dinosaur world? Into the future? Mars?
ReplyDeleteAnd I TRULY appreciate your Peter Parker thing, although with the new movies he DOESN'T stay a student! He changes ethnicity, sexual preference, gender, age and SPECIES! Never forget Spider-pig.
Perhaps it's MY advanced age leading me to want my table to face the similar march of time? Regardless I'll surely post again should it come to pass.
Yes, I realize that Spider-Man went through changes along the way ('Ultimate Spider-Man' Miles Moralis, Spider-Gwen from another earth/dimension/universe, and who knows what 'into the spider-verse' has brought us ?), but I was just stating a personal preference.
DeleteAnd, indeed: Never forget 'Peter Porker', 'Spider-Ham' !