Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => RMC/RM2 => Topic started by: Ginger McMurray on April 12, 2021, 09:53:41 AM
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It was super fun and had a major twist at the end so I figured I'd share some of the highlights. Scroll to the bottom for a TLDR.
- The cult of the spider was working to free Morgoth.
- The great plague was a symptom of the weakening barrier between the void and Arda.
- Sauron had decided that he would rather rule in Arda than destroy it, so he didn't want his old master freed.
- Along the way they met up with some servants of Sauron. At times they worked against each other. Other times they worked together.
- At one point their found their way into an Earthnode. It was a portal to The Dreaming, which is where dreamers go. It's in between the void and Arda. I adapted this awesome D&D 5 room dungeon (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/97528/Five-Room-Dungeon-The-Rabbit-Hole) if anyone is interested.
- While there they subconsciously manifested magical items which made their dreams physical. The most notable was the Nightblade creating a one-use arrow of slaying anything. She held onto it for the entire campaign up until the final session. I'd been hoping she would keep it in reserve but couldn't be sure. The final battle would probably have been impossible without it.
- I was running a highly modified Temple of Elemental Evil. In the penultimate story arc they went to the four elemental to destroy the corruption in each.
- It turned out that they had been tricked. They'd actually destroyed the nodes themselves, thrusting them into The Void.
- They were trapped by an entity (the rabbit from the 5-room dungeon) and would not be freed until one of them died. I had expected the NPC healer to take her own life. Her entire driving force had been to take the troubles of the world onto herself in order to save others. So this would be the culmination of her own story arc. Instead one of the players chose to die so the party would have a healer in what they expected was coming: a new and more dangerous battle.
- Mortal death by mortal hands was the last thing needed to break the barrier. They were thrust back into Arda. The shattering barrier opened holes in reality. First through were The Fingers of Morgoth (I used Clostoph from RMSS C&T). Next were the Eyes (Mrem from the same book).
- The battle was on a timer of rounds. Multiple characters died before the climax, which was The sky opening and Morgoth's massive face coming through. The Nightblade busted out her arrow and wounded him with one shot, pushing him back through into the void.
The twist at the end is that when that happened the ceiling above them collapsed, killing everyone. "Rocks fall, everybody dies." Their world went black and massive letters began scrolling past. They said things like "Congratulations on your victory!" and "Lead Game Designer Shiro Nakamura" plus a long list of software developers. After the credits rolled past, the party woke up hooked into metal and glass containers via wires and tubes. Outside was a sterile metal room with glowing panels covered in lights, panels, and screens.
They had just successfully stopped an AI from escaping its server. Had they lost then it would have escaped, completely changing the way I design the next campaign. It will be in the world of Shadowrun. Those who died in will be experiencing "dumpshock." That's Shadowrun's painful repercussions of being forcefully ejected from the matrix. They'll get to contend with difficulty distinguishing their matrix characters from their real world lives, including neurosis and hallucinations for the first few sessions. The player who took her own life will get to wake up first and have a little time to explore before the others regain consciousness.
We'll probably be using Savage Worlds as the system. I'd like to use Spacemaster but they want something less deadly and less complex. I've never played SW but one of the players swears by it. It sounds like a good system for high adventure and they have a sprawlrunners supplement designed specifically to work for a dystopian cyberpunk & magic setting.
I really wish I could have sprung it on the players as a true surprise but the "it was all a dream" ending is of of the worst things possible for any campaign. Or really for any entertainment medium except for Bob Newhart. I discussed it with them just prior to the last session and they thought it could be fun. We have a couple of other people wanting to take their first forays into the GM's seat so I've got quite a while to prep.
Please forgive any typos or confusing run-on sentences. I've got a meeting pending and don't have time to proof read.
TLDR: The Middle Earth campaign turned out to be the characters navigating a server's defenses to stop a rogue AI in the magic/cyberpunk world of Shadowrun.