Post Apocalypse PFRPG Campaign

[shihansmurf]

“Ten years ago the stars were flung from the heavens shattering the world. We live in its grave.”

Sir Garrett the Grim


Sir Garret is correct. A decade ago a comet struck the Western Empire.The resultant tsunami and earthquakes caused widespread destruction and massive loss of life. The shockwave was so severe the Mount Nimro and Mount Nimrod erupted.The dust clouds thrown into the air has created a protracted drop in world wide temperatures and mass famine has resulted as crop production faltered and disease brought the specter of death to noble and lowborn as well.

Worse than any of the above was the opening of the rifts. The mass deaths of most of the Western Empire’s populace released Incredible amounts of potential psychic energy which tore open the fabric of reality. Monsters, demons, and worse came through the Rifts into Palladium from the seven major portals.

The world is now an apocalypse. Players must survive in a hostile world and will seek out ancient magics to seal the Rifts.


The game will use a mix of Palladium books, no MDC.

Core rules for the campaign will be PFRPG 1E with the magic and Psionic rules from 2E.

During the course of the game the PC’s will piece together the scattered parts of an ancient Grimoire that contains a ritual which can seal the Rifts. Once they do this they will undertake a journey to each of the seven major Rifts and close them before the PPE pouring in from the awakens the Old Ones.


Above is the pitch for my upcoming PFRPG game. I've got good buy in from my group and I'm putting this out for any ideas/critiques/issues I should look out for/thing I've overlooked.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Mark

[Lukterran]

I guessing this is more evolved than just the player characters using the level 14 "Close Rift" spell. Hopeful the ancient grimoire is either somehow linked to the comet and/or prophetic in predicting its coming along with the rifts.

The World:
- What is left and what are the primary sources of life on the planet?
- Who are the predators and who are the prey?
- Is the ecosystem failing or just morphed?

The Rifts:
- Where do they go and what is coming in from the other side? Are they demonic, divine or something else entirely?

The Gods:
- How have the gods reacted to the devastation of the Palladium World?
- Have the abandoned their followers and the world? Or have they helping to restore the world?
- Have new gods risen up to taken the place of the ones that have abandoned the world? Perhaps the darker gods are drawing strength from the chaos?

The Underworld:
- What about subterranean races? (Those not killed by the earthquakes) Maybe they have been more resistant to the changing environment isolated from the rest of the world locked away in there underground habitat.
- Perhaps they are using the new power vacuum as an opening to dominate the planet?

The Dragons:
- Dragons and other dimensional travelers would most likely not been effected by the cataclysm. Since they could have evacuated from the world. However once back they may find the new magic energy most useful.

[shihansmurf]

I guessing this is more evolved than just the player characters using the level 14 "Close Rift" spell. Hopeful the ancient grimoire is either somehow linked to the comet and/or prophetic in predicting its coming along with the rifts.

The World:
- What is left and what are the primary sources of life on the planet?
- Who are the predators and who are the prey?
- Is the ecosystem failing or just morphed?

The Rifts:
- Where do they go and what is coming in from the other side? Are they demonic, divine or something else entirely?

The Gods:
- How have the gods reacted to the devastation of the Palladium World?
- Have the abandoned their followers and the world? Or have they helping to restore the world?
- Have new gods risen up to taken the place of the ones that have abandoned the world? Perhaps the darker gods are drawing strength from the chaos?

The Underworld:
- What about subterranean races? (Those not killed by the earthquakes) Maybe they have been more resistant to the changing environment isolated from the rest of the world locked away in there underground habitat.
- Perhaps they are using the new power vacuum as an opening to dominate the planet?

The Dragons:
- Dragons and other dimensional travelers would most likely not been effected by the cataclysm. Since they could have evacuated from the world. However once back they may find the new magic energy most useful.

You raise some good points. I appreciate the input. The Palladium Forums seems really helpful and friendly.

The grimoire is indeed liked to what occurred but I working on the assumption that this grimoire will be the only source left for the Close Rift spell.

The World: I'm looking at most of the larger animals as dying out but I haven't decided yet. I ordered a couple of books on the mass extinctions so I'll dig into that a bit more once I've learned a bit more.

The Rifts: It depends on which of the seven. Certainly demons and devils. I like the idea of the Nightbane but I would have to tame them down a bit. I am thinking about a couple of the stranger things from the Rifter and other books. I've very fond of the random D-Bee table. I like the idea of the rifts being themed, so to speak.

The gods: I have them as being pretty distant as it is since my group prefers that religion not play much of a part in our games so I'm thinking that they eithr abandon the world or be prevented from acting.
I do like the idea of the darker gods taking the opportunity.

The underworld: The idea of the underworld races expanding their power in light of these events is intriguing. I'll add that.

Dragons: I hadn't thought of the idea of the heightened magics making dragons stronger. As one of the main set piece battles I'm planning is with an ancient Ice Dragon, this will make that fight a lot more interesting.

[Veknironth]

Well, here are some other thoughts.

What happens to the Land of the Damned? Do the dead start pouring out?

Is there an increased amount of PPE in the air? This is essentially what happened in Rifts, right?

Are there more or fewer ley lines?

What are the temperatures? Are the PC's going to need to worry about keeping warm? Might want to check out the Northern Hinterlands books for cold weather.

Where are the portals and how to the PC's travel from one to another?

Does this have any effect on the shimmering wall at the edge of the sea?

Do the Old Ones still sleep?

Are the fire based beings dying out in greater numbers, and conversely are the cold based ones flourishing?

-Vek
"Why can't high level Warlocks just fix all of these problems?"

[shihansmurf]

Well, here are some other thoughts.

What happens to the Land of the Damned? Do the dead start pouring out?

Is there an increased amount of PPE in the air? This is essentially what happened in Rifts, right?

Are there more or fewer ley lines?

What are the temperatures? Are the PC's going to need to worry about keeping warm? Might want to check out the Northern Hinterlands books for cold weather.

Where are the portals and how to the PC's travel from one to another?

Does this have any effect on the shimmering wall at the edge of the sea?

Do the Old Ones still sleep?

Are the fire based beings dying out in greater numbers, and conversely are the cold based ones flourishing?

-Vek
"Why can't high level Warlocks just fix all of these problems?"

I don't have the land of the damned books yet but if they are full of undead then I will certainly have them be a major threat in the game.

The Old Ones still sleep.

The shimmering wall will still be in place but it won't impact the game in any meaningful way. I'm not currently planning any real maritime portions for the campaign.

I figure that the cold based monsters are flourishing and the fire based beings will certainly be having issues/become concentrated around the volcanos.

More ley lines and nexus points and I like the idea that they are visible like in Rifts but we don't want to increase the useable PPE in the air to maintain game balance.

I'm still working out locations for the portals. Any suggestions would be welcome.

I think that the Warlocks magic, like most magic, is a pretty localized phenomenon. My view is that the general scale of the destruction is so massive they, although they would be working on it, the clean up would be a massive undertaking and will take a very long time to stabilize.

You have raised some very good points and I appreciate your input.
Thanks!
Mark

[Veknironth]

Well, as for locations, I'd place them at existing nexus points on the Palladium World. But I don't know how high level these characters are and I don't know how much travel you want. With the world destroyed it would be very difficult to go from A to B. So, having them flung across the map might not be the best idea.

-Vek
"Or, spread them out and show the destruction of each area."

[Whiskeyjack]

The great rift in the land of the damned would be two portals linked to dyval and hades. The Devils Mark in Ophids grasslands. The nexus under the millenium tree in Glade. Maybe this one is linked to a plane of light? Mount Nimrod or Nimro has a permanent link to the elemental plane of fire. You could include this as well. Reconnecting one to the Gromek homeworld would be cool too. Hundreds of thousands of Gromek and life force wizards would make for a pretty deadly landscape. You could also look at one in either the great northern wilderness or yin sloth jungles.
I like the idea of the massive shockwave from the meteor causing a section of the northern mountains to collapse, releasing the denizens of the LOTD.