Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: Thot on December 07, 2022, 08:08:39 AM
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So, with RMU now out, I am thinking about running a campaign with it.
Sort of inspired by the Stranger in "Rings of Power", I have the general idea that the player characters used to be gods, then something happened, and now the PC's (and hundreds or thousands of other former gods in the game world) are mere level 1 characters for some reason. The campaign would center around them collecting parts of their former power (physical objects that grant immediate Experience Points) as well as figuring out what exactly happened to them.
I am currently in the brainstorming phase (and won't start the campaign before I have at least the new Spell Law, and preferably some software support), but there's a few things that I'd love to read opinions from this fine community about:
- The players will have to build their character as well as the god they used to be, including mythology about the deity. What could I do with conflicting mythology, like two different gods having created the world on their own? I'd rather not have a multiverse with this setting, but they might have been worshiped in different countries. How would you decide what "actually happened" in those mythical times?
- Magical items – gods usually have those, like Thor's hammer, for example. As RMU doesn't at present offer options on how to gain such items at character creation (or does it?) – what would you do about this?
- What are fun idea for what caused such a cataclysm that kicked the gods from their thrones? Obviously I have ideas, but in the course of the campaign, they will probably have various encounters suggesting reasons for what happened – some of which may be intentionally misleading. So I am looking for even more ideas.
- What are some things and problems I haven't thought of yet?
This is, again, at a very early planning stage, but I think it's fun to contemplate such things together at this point.
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With respect to the characters having powerful items at the beginning of the campaign, we had one in RMU where the characters were representing a very influential group, so each got to choose a magic item that best served their skills. I asked each player what kind of item they wanted, then designed one for each, using the Treasure Law beta, all items had a maximum number of crafting days that could be spent on them.
On the used to be gods part, an RMFRP campaign we played included a former Air Spirit, with no memories of her origins, that started at the same level as other characters. She had an idea that she might have once been powerful, mostly because a priest was bothering her, attending to her needs, and calling her "your highness" or something like that. Once the party travelled to the plane of Air, and found other Air Spirits, she understood she used to be one of them, and decided to force herself out of that plane because it was evident that something was hunting and hurting spirits like her.
So, in your campaign, I'd suggest using the idea that they don't remember, but actively de-powered themselves not to call to attention some unknown pursuer, and left clues to understand the situation, and not be powerful enough to be detected until they have enough information to do something about the danger that threatens them (and the world of course!).
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I played in a Pathfinder campaign that was very, very similar to this years ago. FWIW, here's the basic framing and my reaction as a player.
Our characters started at 1st level, we did not know that we were the remnants of gods that were sundered millennia ago. We adventured "normally" and started finding magic items that were suited to specific characters - anyone could have taken them, but the war hammer made more sense for my barbarian than for the alchemist or mage.
As we leveled up, our items started gaining abilities. At first, they were dictated by the GM. We also picked up other items, and the items started to have synergies with each other. As plot unfolded, we discovered we were the remnants, and our powers had been hidden in these artifacts when we were sundered. The party mage had, as a god back when, sundered all of us in order to keep one god from stealing all of our powers. The current campaign was our opportunity to return to god-hood, and to stop that other god once and for all. (That god was also a much weakened god when we started, but as we were recovering our powers, so was he.)
As a player, I thought our GM did an amazing job of rolling out the plot. The information we got came at times when we were getting new powers and wondered why. He also did a great job letting us make the characters we wanted and shaping his world and plot to accommodate those characters in his story. He encouraged us to think about our mythology as we developed, and we did start developing followers when we helped out someone.
The biggest challenge as a player was the item powers. Each time we leveled up, we got new powers for one or more of our artifacts. We played to 20th level, and at that point my 4 artifacts had probably 25-30 powers total, some of them interactions between items. Each round of combat I had to figure out which powers I might use, or not, and it really slowed down as we gained levels.
If I were going to try this sort of thing in RM, I would avoid adding unique abilities as they level up. Go with fewer abilities, but increase their potency as level goes up. But these are artifacts, if they're god-items. Don't feel totally constrained by RM logic/rules, though stick close to them while the characters are lower level.
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Thanks, I should have known others have tried something like this already. :) I like both approaches, and will use them as red herrings, I believe.