Disclaimer: all of this except the villains part is to be shown to players during session 0. Characters are not yet made.
Campaign Elevator Pitch
Prevent the awakening of the God of Entropy.
Six Truths of this Campaign
What are the six most important things you want your players to understand about the world and the campaign? Share these with your players.
• An evil cult is gaining power, spreading chaos, nihilism, and madness. Beings driven by anger and dissatisfaction join them, often without fully understanding the extent of their intentions.
• The fragile balance of the world is threatened. The intricate web of runes, glyphs, and magical barriers that protect the Empire and ensure the safety of the Midland Sea is weakening, allowing monstrous creatures to invade the realm. Many icons are on the brink of conflict, vying for dominance.
• Whispered rumor speaks of the emperors wife, Empress Izarra, dabbling in dark magics and secrets beyond mortal purview. Her past is shrouded in mystery, but the loving emperor protects her well.
• The discovery of a strange fiery glyph in the night sky, seemingly embedded in the ring that encircles the world, has sparked curiosity and concern. Its purpose is unknown, but its appearance heralds a shift in cosmic forces that could have far reaching consequences.
• The fabric of reality is unraveling in many places, revealing hidden and unexplored locations. Ancient civilizations have left traces of their existence, and living dungeons emerge from the depths, devouring and assimilating everything in their path. The world above and beneath the surface is full of wonders and dangers.
• The gods are distant and mysterious, their gaze turned away from mortals. No avatars or divine interventions protect the world. Only the Priestess can hear the faint whispers of the gods. Clerics and paladins are confident that they receive their magic from the gods.
Villains
• Front: Empress Izarra & Cult of Tharizdun Goal: A fanatical group of followers devoted toTharizdun, spreading his ideology of destruction, nihilism, and the corruption of the world. They will do everything in their power to break the chains that hold Tharizdun captive and free him.
o First Dark Portent: The Cult of Tharizdun seeks the stones that form
Tharizdun's prison seals. Many have already been found over the ages.
o Second Dark Portent: The cult members perform cruel rituals and sacrifices to
break Tharizdun's seals and manifest his power.
o Third Dark Portent: The cult summons Tharizdun's Avatar.
• Front: Shadow Legion Goal: A dark coalition of demons and undead pursuing their own sinister interests and seeking to control Tharizdun to reshape the world in their image.
o First Dark Portent: The shadow beings of the pact infiltrate key government and power structures, pulling the strings behind the scenes and sowing chaos.
o Second Dark Portent: The coalition opens Hellholes, allowing demonic hordes to pour into the world, spreading death and destruction.
o Third Dark Portent: Recovery of an ancient essence of evil, intended to control Tharizdun with.
• Front: The Elemental Brotherhood Goal: A powerful alliance of elemental beings that has allied itself with Tharizdun to destroy the natural order and plunge the world into a chaotic whirlwind of elemental forces. They hope to surpass the gods in the newly formed world.
o First dark portent: The Elemental Lords unleash mighty storms, earthquakes, and floods to devastate entire regions and demonstrate the power of the elements.
o Second dark portent: The Elemental Brotherhood has made a secret agreement with the Gold Wyrm/Crusader Icon. They see Tharizdun as their chance to eradicate all demons and evil, creating a new, virtuous world.
o Third dark portent: The Elemental Brotherhood plans to open a dimensional portal that blurs the boundaries between the elemental planes and the material world. The merging of these planes creates chaotic zones where elemental beings roam freely, threatening the natural order.
Incorporate Player Backgrounds!!!!!
Character Options and House Rules
In this campaign, you can use any of the 13th Age resourcesI have provided. As for house rules, we will incorporate Skill Challenges/Extended Challenges.
Patrons and Factions
Join an Icon!!
Or here are some possible more neutral patrons and factions your characters can align themselves with:
- Adventurer's Guild: A prominent organization that recruits and supports adventurers. They provide quests, resources, and connections to powerful individuals or Icons.
- Coalition of Icons: A secretive task force formed by multiple Icons that recognizes the growing threats to the world. You are the task force and operate behind the scenes, pulling strings and gathering forces to combat the cult's influence.
- The Seekers: A clandestine society dedicated to uncovering ancient secrets and forgotten knowledge. They are fascinated by unexplored and hidden places in the world. The Seekers offer support to adventurers in exchange for valuable artifacts, relics, or information discovered during their quests.
Or use personal relationships instead of a group patron:
• Sibling of…
• Saved by…
• Served with…
• Protected by…
• Adventured with…
• Friendly rival of…
• Childhood friend of…
• Magically bound to…
• Survived with…
• Escaped with…
• Apprentice of…
• Acolyte of…
• Idolizes…
• Drinking buddies with…
• Business associate of…
• Lost a bet to…
• Indebted to…
• trained by…
• Dueling partner of…
• On the run with…
Safety Tools
To ensure a comfortable and enjoyable gaming experience, we will use the following safety tools:
- RPG Consent Checklist
- Lines & Veils
- X-Card
Campaign Inspiration
The campaign draws inspiration from various sources, including:
• Forgotten Realms & Eberron
• Lovecraft (light)
• Lord of the Rings/Song of Ice and Fire/Name of the Wind
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld
• Sapkowski's Witcher Mythos
• Marvel Comics and similar superhero universes
• The Wheel of Time
Like it. Would join. 😊
I would not give them six "truths" but rather six "rumors". Stuff normal people in this world would know. The point about Empress Izarra is a rumor like I would suggest. However, "The fragile balance of the world is threatened" is an infodump which a character would probably not know from the start.
Likewise, the Coalition of Icons is probably something to discover during play. Why would everybody know about a secretive task force?
Also, by providing rumors instead of truths, the GM is free to change it. Rumors can be false.
Thank you for taking the time to reply! The six truths are something I am also not fully happy with. I'd be happy about your input
Their purpose is to give the players material to build a character off of that fit the campaign, allowing them to take back stories and hooks of things that are related to the adventure, i. E 'I want to find out what the glyph is about' 'the cult ate my dog' 'my job is to find out why suddenly monsters appear in the midland sea' 'I was the empress handmaiden until...'. They are also supposed to show how this campaign is different from others and what central themes will be
The ones given in examples, I feel, are more short, to the point and campaign specific. Mine are a bit meandering, and some are too much world lore - I mean, which fantasy world isn't in imbalance or full of wonder and danger? Basically, three of them are standard assumptions of the game systems provided world: the part about silent gods, the part about the glyphs and runes and stuff keeping monsters out of the heartlands and the one about all the weird and wondrous places and living dungeons.
Sly goes into detail that they are not supposed to be secrets and clues, but rumors would work! You could even frame it as both: the truth is that there is a rumor that...
The 'neutral' group patrons are not really what I want, designed as catch-alls if the players can't decide on a common icon as an employer (icons in this game are archetypical fantasy characters, like the high druid, emperor or orc lord. I would prefer using this existing system). The purpose of the group patron is to allow me to craft a start: if they choose the task force, the game can start with them being drafted for it, for example. As the game is already ripe with NPCs and their associated factions through the icons, if they don't pick something from this list, it won't exist!
Im also not fully happy with the Villains. I feel the elementals and the demon/undead are a bit samey - i might replace one of them with an icon many players have negative association with or spring for a more worldly thing like giants. I also have to develop specific npcs that are allied with these villains, but im hoping to use some player backstory for this.
One approach for the truths could be to zoom in to something specific which is known. For example, instead of
Zoom in to one specific conflict:
This sounds like something ordinary citizen talk about in the taverns.