Have you ever had a twist in your campaigns? How did your players take it when they found out?

Oh no, I'm dropping hints like a motherfucker. The fact that demons, which have no connection to dragons, show up and try to kill them every time they bust a seal, and that the astral projection keeps warning them not to tell anyone about their quest -even when five or six of the NPCs that they've got on a short call-list would be able to tell them that something DOES. NOT. ADD. UP.- when he tells them about the next location of an object, should be HUGE red flags. Second to last seal is going to get them brought before a demon prince who's going to actually explain that no, the dragon isn't controlled or kept from the world, in fact he's chilling in my parlour sippin on some tea, and by the way those scrolls release a thing I, A DEMON PRINCE CAPABLE OF WIPING A CITY WITH A SINGLE SPELL, am legit too scared to even mention the name of.

So take ypour turn DMing.
Its what our group does.
And if we feel what a player is doing is bad DMIng, we do the unthinkable and talk to them, sharing our own thoughts to try and improve for everyone.

The entire group gets attacked by weird looking monster people, that always appear when they get agitated or start having nightmares.

They are fetches and the original abducted changelings want to kill them and take back the lives they feel got stolen from them.

OK, I'm your player group.
We stop doing the quest.

Now what?

Nothing compared to the unquenchable rage of having a campaign you've spent tens of hours of your own free time creating just for your players to deconstruct it and then get maf when you can it four sessions in.

Can the players somehow deal with that shit, or will it be just like 'campaign ends, you lost, world explodes'?
If they can deal with whatever the demon does, or with the old godslayer (or the gods, if they are on his side), it's ok.
If you're just throwing in a few Elminsters, too powerful for the party to interact with meaningfully, in the campaign, you suck as a DM.

It kinda sounds like by defeating Frieza they are inadvertantly creating Cell. They may need to train more to beat him.

Depends on where you stop the quest.
Stop it now, and nothing happens, except maybe a few annoyed visits from the astral projection and the seer who initially wanted you to find the objects and collect them for him -but who torpedo'd his interaction with you by being a kinda smug jackass about it- saying how their both disappointed in you for a week or two.

Then you guys go back to figuring out another way to stop the crazy Elf Prince who is going to unleash a murderous bioweapon to kill all humans, while at the same time planning your eventual smackdown of Magical Hitler.
I mean, "the Dragon thing woulda been handy for dealing with the weapon while you deal with the Elf, but hey, we understand, you can't seal the deal" is what the Seer would say.
"So you actually WANT both the dragon and the bioweapon running amok?" is what the projection would say.

So basically you're railroading the players into thinking the path you laid out is the only solution.

Then you are just going to say HA HA, it was all a trick. When there is no other option even if they figured out it was a trick.

Whatever they'll fight, it's going to be an epic fight. Demon princes and godslayers? Epic level, for sure. They might need a LOT more training.
The lazy solution would be to recreate the ritual that bound the demon in the first place.
Do the scrolls describe how it's done?

Yeah, they can. The quest for each seal is long enough that the fight after each seal is broken is a level-up. if/when they reach the final seal confrontation, regardless of it being broken, they should be powerful enough to deal with the most immediate threat.
Essentially, you are correct.

Also, I am really appreciating your guys' criticism.
My players never have any complaints about the campaign when I ask them end of each session, and it occasionally worries me.

BBEG is consolidating power in my campaign. Every piece of the shattered catalyst stone he collects he gains 5 CR. He has 2 right now and is racing the party for the other 4. Party also has 2. When/if they kill the BBEG, one of them can take it and become the new BBEG. I have 2 evil PCs in my campaign so I think they might try it. Not even gonna mention it. But of someone tries, they can do it.

I quit that group, the rest was fine with the shit DMing even though it was always just an hour of railroading. Literally walking through a corridor to the next fight until the DM decides its bossfight time and ends it. With any off-chance at some freedom swiftly destroyed by some DM fiat. But they never knew otherwise, to them that was DnD and they seemed to enjoy it. Or atleast enjoy the once a month of reconnecting (more often every 2 months due to everytime atleast half the group sending in a literally last-minute cancellation) for a couple of hours.
I atleast suggested that some of the books offer some DMing tips they should look at atleast once but none of them ever even read so much as a players handbook. Always dependant on me to be a walking rulebook even when they were DMing themselves.

I don't know, I'm probably being a spoilsport since they were all fine with it but I wasn't having fun so I left that.

>Yeah, they can
Well, that settles it.

For the crazy Elf, is the party any good at infiltrating? If they can get in, it's just a question of assassinating the right people, or sabotaging the research, or going away with enough info to develop a vaccine.
Or, more likely, burning the whole palace down.

Yes, but in a dead language, and their language expert is having fuck-all luck finding any sources from that time, because in setting that shit's borderline nonexistent.
He'll figure it out eventually, though. He's on the right track at the moment.
No, there are plenty of other options, it's just they're hell bent on not letting the Elf prince unleash that creature, and the Seer suggested that if they control this dragon they could totally stop the bioweapon with kaiju battel, then Projection came along and said "that dudes lying, he just wants the dragon to himself. Bust those scrolls while you look for those keys to the bioweapon Elf prince is looking for. Ya know, i-if you're in the area."
And they were like: "Boy, that seer is a dick! Let's help this other, more mysterious, dude out while we search for the keys."

I think he's giving them another BBEG if they do it. No reward. It's a shit twist and a shit story and he thinks it's clever.

I would hate to be your player.

I would hate to be his player.*

Do you mean HIS player?
Because I'm not really pro this idea myself.

As others have pointed out, it seems like it could very easily feel like a giant fuck you to the players.

>Is the party any good at infiltrating?
Unfortunately no. One can teleport, but that's about it. And the bioweapon is not a virus. It's kinda a living artifact made of hate and dead elf souls, and the size of a city.
It's also only being used as a distraction by Elf Prince, because he doesn't want anyone getting in his way when he goes to reactivate an ancient technomagical battlestation that is his real means of killing all humans.

The setting is rather out there, sometimes.

Ok, it's a 'destroy the Death Star' mission. Could be fun.
Does the party even know that the Prince is fucking around with the magitech battlestation, or is that going to be a full blown asspull?

The thousand year old man fights the party and attempts to finsih the job himself? I mean i'm not the DM but the consequences of inaction seem pretty clear.

It's been done before but the main twist in the game i'm in at the moment is the guy who hired us to help take back his homeland was evil the whole time, betrayed us and then stole the sun.

I'm not all stick, anons. There're rewards in store. But I can't outright say what, because my players' needs and whims shift dependent on where the story takes them.
I do know, if the Demon gets released and they put it down, or at least help put it down, they're getting free Development points to throw into monster powers, and a massive bump in their supernatural presence.
If they take down the seer, they're getting meetings/gifts from literally the gods themselves.

Lemme he this straight.

Break a seal to control a Dragon...
SURPRISE ITS A DEMON
DOUBLE SURPRISE ALSO A GOD SLAYER DUDE

Have to stop an Elf Prince and hoi's city sized Bio Weapon.
SURPRISE THE CITY SIZE BIOWEAPON IS JUST A DISTRACTION FOR AN EVEN BIGGER DEATH MACHINE!!!

If I was your players I'd never feel like I had achieved anything because no victory is real.

OoC, one player knows about the battlestation, and is probably a bit confused as to why they have to deal with Filisnogos first. But he's good enough not to metagame, which I appreciate. There's going to be a huge hint drop next session, though, that the prince is up to more than just waking the doomsday tentacles.

Then its a fucking railroad.

>Okay guys you come to split in the road, one heads up to the mountain, the other continues on the low ground
>"WOW WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS RAILROADING DUDE"
Fuck off dude

The issue is that if you take the low road, the world ends.
That's a railroad.

My campaign is building up to a twist, but rather than it being THINGS ARE WORSE THAN EXPECTED it's THINGS ARE BETTER THAN EXPECTED

The ancient evil the bad guy wants to unseal is just a guy who was too edgy, ruthless and hardcore for the euphoric precursor race but will fucking love being able to be an enforcer for a bona fide evil empire.

So it's not an elder god, it's just a really strong warrior whose reputation got blown out of proportion.

It sounds like the only winning plan would be to subvert Elven society, set up an insurrection, behead the prince, and establish a democracy.
But let me guess, there are other forces at work doing just that, are they not?

>Conclude the story in one way or another way
That's not railroading, that's not railroading at all, the consequences have been made clear of what each action will do, the story's ending, it doesn't matter if you win or lose because the story is ending, railroading isn't putting players through authored content, railroading is refusing rational descisions made under authored circumstance, stopping a player from doing something is railroading, giving them consequences for doing something is called making a story.

yep im DMing one that the players have not hit yet.
suspiciously similar to the one above.

players found a scroll speaking of BBEG. demons are sacrificing people to summon him.
on the scroll (which was translated by an NPC) it speaks of a hero of old, who used his 4 magical items to protect the land from evil. the NPC suggests that perhaps gathering the 4 artifacts could help empower the group to defeat the BBEG. and if the scroll speaks of the artifacts, the demons probably know of their power and will want to gather them as well, to prevent the heroes from using them, or to use them themselves.

PCs are currently gathering the artifacts, and any time they get close, they encounter the demons.
little do the PCs know, the ancient hero of old IS the BBEG who has been warped by centuries in the afterlife, and by collecting the artifacts, they are actually summoning him.

If nothing else it feels like the whole twist of "suddenly a bigger threat" trope will get dull as fuck.

Unless the players get a magitech mech each, and tafter a while learn how to combine them into an even bigger mech.
That would save the campaign.

>>Conclude the story in one way or another way
>One way is lol demon
>The other one is lol demon
>"That's not railroading"

You are making a fucking cop out and you know it.

If one choice leads to the end of the campaign because you did the wrong thing, then the only real choice was the railroad.

If Star Wars ended with a Stormtrooper resisting Obi Wan's force powers then shooting Luke, yes, it would be an ending. But it wouldn't be as satisfying or entertaining as playing out the plot.

If the choice is:
Play Out The Plot
OR
GAME OVER

That is a fucking railroad.

No, it's:
>Elf prince is a dick and trying to wake doomsday tentacles.
>Seer: "If you gather these scrolls, you could summon and control a powerful dragon that could KAIJU BATTLE Tentacles to death."
>Projection: Don't trust that asshole. He's just looking to use the dragon for his own ends, and will betray you.
>Party: yeah he's not trustworthy, is he. You seem cool though. We'll listen to you.
>Projection: No questions?
>Party: Nope.

Later on, before last seal.
>Demon prince: Guys, stop. Seriously what the hell are you trying to do? That unmentionable thing gets loose, we're all fucked.
>party: Whoops. We'll fix it.
>Party thrashes projection next time he shows his mug.
>Demon is not freed.
>Seer: well fuck, those plans just got pissed on.

Meanwhile
>Loli Empress: Help me defeat Magic Hitler, please. There's this big battle.
>Party: For you? Hell yes we will!

>Magical Hitler: Soon, I shall slay the Loli Empress and become new emperor.
>Elf: FILISNOGOS, I CHOOSE YOU.
>Party, Magical Hitler, and Loli Empress: Holy balls.
>Friends the party has acquired: We got yer back, famalam.
>Elf: Shit, it's dead. Oh well, Deathstar time.
>Magical Hitler: WARHAMMER TO THE FACE, MY ONLY WEAKNESS!
>Party: Aww Yuss!
>Elf: DEATHSTAR TIME!
>Party & Friends: The fuck you do!
>Elf: Ow my everything!

I always felt that tomb of horrors needed more Voltron.

Elves are all but gone because they lost a war with humanity(Deus VULT). Elf prince has other nonhumans at his disposal to work towards his ends. However this puts him at odds with others on the Nonhuman Organization's council. The players have befriended those others, and are getting information sent to them on the movements of Elf Prince, though the info is usually a day or so late, it is helpful.

Less Voltron, more each is getting their own Kamen Rider outfit eventually. Need more than three mech to form Voltron, anyway.

You really don't get it do you?

Every time your party "achieves" anything in either plot, you're going to say LOL JUST AS PLANNED and invalidate their victory.

And you already admitted that if they refuse to "unseal the dragon" you'll hget your NPCs to whine and bitch at them until they do it.

To beat the tentacles, they need this dragon. That is what you have told them.
But the dragon is a lie.
But the tentacles they need to beat are also a lie concealing a death star.

Tricking your players as a DM isn't hard. Ypou are the only means they have to interact with your world. If you say such and such is true, the very conventions of the game mean they are forced to trust that it is so.

Bit it seems like you are lying to them about everything as ypou force them along your series of clever twists.

What happens after the death star?

Was that just the egg of an even bigger world ending horror too?

Just the seal twist I could buy, maybe. But you are overdoing it.

The BBEG was actually just trying to kill all life on the planet so that an interdimensional being that devours positive energy wouldn't show up, kill everything anyway, and become even more powerful.
Their reaction was akin to "Why didn't he just tell us about this instead of going straight to fighting us when we tried to stop him?"

>Implying there's no such thing as a gattai of three mecha
The core Mecha in Hurricaneger/Ninja Storm called, also Go Busters.

They were right to. That shit is dumb.

What's the deal with the Seer, in all that?
They've just burned away precious time (and narratively speaking, wasted story time, which is worse).
What is left for the players to do, other than lay down and let the story happen to them? Your plot twists are cool, but you're using them the wrong way. Maybe it's just the party not following your expectations and walking into obvious traps.
They don't, because THEY don't have aces up their sleeves. Give them those aces.
Give them Voltron.

The battlestation scenario is if they don't somehow kill Elf before then. Knowing them, they might just find and kill him by accident waaay beforehand.
They have been told they don't need the dragon, just that it might help. The Seer actually told them of a relic sword that could help, and that one player ACTUALLY HAS KNOWLEDGE OF BECAUSE IT'S A SACRED WEAPON TO HIS CHARACTER'S PEOPLE. And the Projection is telling them to bust the scrolls so the dragon DOESN'T SHOW UP.

Post-Deathstar, if it gets to that, will be seer showing up and congratulating them on ruining several plans he had in motion, but could they be so kind as to give working for him a shot. There are these other shadowy figures who are trying to mess with humanity and he'd be oh-so-willing to give them goodies for whooping ass.
The truth is the seer has a standing non-aggression pact with the other shadow powers, and can't directly attack them without wrecking the entire plane. So why not use the loophole that is the players to do his dirty work?

If the players see through that(they probably will), then he's probably going to fuck off and try to harass/kill them through intermediaries, until they get annoyed enough to go pull his bitch ass of his chair and stomp a mudhole in his back.

Kinda feels like your players are secondary to the rest of the universe.
And now you've introduced yet another guy who's lying about sucjh and such because such and such who's going to use the players...
It all just sounds so bloody dull.

It feels like no matter what they do they are just pawns to some GMPC or other.

The "seer" is actually a several-thousand-year-old human best described as the Ultimate Fedoratheist/HFY asshole. By Lore, he's hell bent on killing the gods and the fates because humanity should be left to it's own devices. Unfortunately for the setting itself, his idea of "Humanity" is "Me and these supersoldiers I created with pieces of Old Gods." the humans on Gaia(earth) are considered Sheeple or fodder.
Also, said seer is responsible for the superdemon actually coming into existence, and is the creator of the God-killing weapons.

>Players have to be the strongest being in the universe
>NPC can't lie, ever, and can't have hidden intentions

Your game seem dull.

The relics the main (overall-good-but-prone-to-rash-action) church worship are actually parts of the archlich soul.

He knows they would never destroy their godly items
Archlich is safe forever.

You're putting words in my mouth, but yes, the players should be the protagonists of the game.

And sure, NPCs can very often deceive. But it seems like everything in this guys PLOT is a deception, or trick, or a more powerful being playing the players.

I'm not saying its inherently wrong, I'm saying this guy is fucking overdoing it.

>"If the game isn't a clusterfuck of JUST AS PLANNED by all powerful beings then it has to be the opposite, no middle ground"

I'm just copying the plot of golden sun

>the players should be the protagonists of the game.
Yeah, that doesn't mean they should be the strongest or they should succeed everytime. There is a bunch of royalty, gods, old hero, well, that's fine.

> But it seems like everything in this guys PLOT is a deception, or trick, or a more powerful being playing the players.
The players just seem to have been led by other people and didn't ask anything about it.

Coupla things.
1. This is only my second time running a campaign. My first that's gone on more than a few months.
1.5 I was asked to take over GMing early by the original GM, who asked me to come up with a good story, as he "can't into in-depth story"
2. The players have agency, it's just that they're at this high level where they're drawing the attention of some serious powers-that-be in a big way.
3. They rarely actually interact with these uberpowers or their underlings, more often I leave a clue or hint, and they go about solving it their own way. Usually with a lot of violence.
4. They have regularly expressed enjoyment of the campaign so far. If they voice concerns, I listen to them. If they tell me that the twist is unfair, I'll fix it somehow. I want to be a good GM for them, since they're my friends and all.

Actually, one of the most deceptive NPCs in the entire setting is never, ever, dishonest towards them, and indeed is a huge fan of theirs. Like, total humaboo, created a TCG of exemplary human figures and has cards with the PCs autographs in hardcases in his lair, fan.

No, it doesn't. Nor did I ever suggest that.
What I'm saying is that if the protagonists are never effecting change and are always pawns, how are they really protagonists?

Yes, they don't inherently ndistreust the DM because if the social convention of tjhe game. But again, you miss the point.
I'm not against fooling players.
I'm not against a Just As Planned moment.
I'm not even against God Like adversaries.

I'm against the LEVEL AND FREQUNECY this guy is using those things. From the outside it looks like they are being overused to the point that his players are secondary to his plot. It feels railroadish or at the very least, it robs the players of victory constantly in favour of the same just as planned twist every time.

It sounds like the part with the Seer and Projection isn't really going anywhere.
Yeah, grey eminences plotting and scheming with the pcs while an asshole builds up his doomsday device, you've overdone it.
The pcs need some way to overcome the elf (why? because otherwise rock falls, everybody dies. that's why you don't make enemies THIS big, give the pcs space to fail), have nowhere to turn, nobody they can trust, time is running out... and has for a while.
Too much, drop a climax. Let a couple of plots converge, instead of diverging. Maybe the holy weapon and the hints from the dead language scrolls will tell them where to find some mechs, or something, your build-up is getting too long.

I have a twist that hasn't come up yet.

Firstly one of the party has an ailment, that they are trying to cure.

I have introduced them to two wizards, one being obviously evil, the other being a drunk.

They freed a powerful being that wasn't sure how long it was captive but it told them a great and powerful wizard couple cure the person of their curse. He also mentioned he had met the wizard in a tavern.

Everyone instantly assumed the drunk wizard is the one to cure the party member.

Meanwhile the evil wizard has been alive for over 1000 years and met the powerful creature a few hundred years ago when he wasn't so evil.

Party is now searching for a drunk wizard that is just going to give them shitty magical items and be of absolutely no real help.

Maybe rather than just making excuses then, you could listen to people with more experience.

Ultimately if your players are having fun, great.

But maybe, just MAAAYBE you could rethink ways this could play out other than players being pawns and unwilling underlings.

Also, you sound like you're planning too much. If players don't do X then Y will happen. Plan only enough to improvise, a good group will always throw you a curveball.

If you are too set on telling your own story, you end up missing out on what players can create.

could cure the person*
not couple, woops.

TOO LATE.
now the wizard will couple cure the person, making the curse twice as strong!
he's obviously evil, after all. or drunk.

The plots will converge somewhat next session. I cannot say how, as there is a better than none chance that one of the players MIGHT be on Veeky Forums at this moment.

Also there'll be a later reveal to the players that after I consulted the dice gods near the first session it turns out that two of them have ancient magitech nanomachines in their blood, and thus can control some of the ancient magitech weapons that still exist.

what is getter, godsigma, zambot 3, goshogun

Turns out the cute girl they were saving was a catalyst to summon an ancient evil by her father, whom they hand delivered her to. They didn't take too kindly to it.

I'll ask them if they think I'm holding the reins too much. If they want more freedom, then I'll scrap the Demon/Seer plot, or set it aside until after they've dealt with Elf and Hitler.
But yeah, I do worry that I overthink it frequently. But overthinking everything is kinda how my mind's wired, so it's difficult to NOT do that.

Yeah, but the problem with over thinking every possible action players could take is that you end up unknowingly forcing them into the choices you have foreseen.

Like you, I used to think of it all as branching diagrams of player choice and without knowing it, as soon as a suggestion arrived outside of what I assumed were exhaustive choices, I'd find ways to shut it down.

The best time I have at the table is throwing players into a scenario where I haven't come up with a single solution and letting their imaginations loose, where I have no idea of the outcome.

I know how my campaign starts, I know that several events will happen in the middle and I have a rough idea of the end. Everything in the middle is up to players. Even those core events can be thwarted if the players are in the right place at the right time.

Just give it a try, you'll find that by planning enough to improvise, your world ends up feeling richer and more real as a result. Just because you didn't plan for the players to do X, doesn't mean X shouldn't be an option.

I had a twist for a campaign I never got to use because the group broke apart halfway through it

That's what I'm trying to do. Part of the problem is, they're not super creative on their own, most of the time. It'd also help to have more than two players and a helper/healer NPC, but everyone else who RPs is either set in their systems(usually D&D) or intimidated by Anima's front-heaviness and tables.

...And what was it?

They don't need to be super creative, and maybe they will just do what you expect. But my point is that overplanning leads to a railroad, just be flexible and try to make a few of your plot threads lead to something other than more Just as Planned twists.

The campaign's current twist hasn't boiled out yet, but a man who was introduced very recently is the BBEG.
Another important character from a different campaign is secretly the daughter of a former player character. The party has a chance to redeem her before she goes down the path of evil.

Working on that.
Hell, one of the seal plots led to the Summoner getting a pact with an Aeon, and an earlier plot had them wind up as celebs in the entire empire because they were instrumental in driving back an entire army of demon-possessed barbarians.
Both of them have to wade through a massive amount of fanmail whenever they head back to their home base.
Half of it's from the humaboo dragon, though.

Nothing interesting, just that the court member assigned to the party to search for an unknown mercenary group was in cahoots and is the younger sister of the court's spymaster, who herself was manipulating and bribing the duke of the region. Both sisters are also vampires, although the party was aware that there was a vampire in the region, which was the second reason as to why they were there.

Younger sister basically makes the party fuck off to other places and cut off loose ends for their own benefits, while keeping them oblivious to the big picture. If necessary, the younger sister would sacrifice herself by revealing her to be a vampire, and the party would think the big danger is over. As things were going until the last session though, civil war was inevitable, so they'd have to deal with that and pick sides.

After some time though, the spymaster's Master Plan™ would be revealed, where she was weakening the region to reincarnate the ancient vampire civilization she was once a part of through blood sacrifices, and the friendly help of the Lich the party thought they had killed last session. The civil war was just a guarantee that the region would be weakened, and the party would have to fight two great evils and an awakened group of Ancient Vampires, Pillar Men style

Those ancient vampires were hinted at a few cultist groups the party had stumbled upon while under the service of Younger Sister.

>Villains willing to die for their plans and ideals
Always gets me diamonds. It makes an enemy loads more respectable.

>Nothing interesting,
Literaly the most interesting twist in the whole thread

>Running short on ideas for some side quests/details for the overarching campaign, it's pretty straightforward and barren
>Player outside of game bantering "Haha what if the king was a fake this whole time that'd be hilarious"
>Me: "Haha yeah what if."

One of the people who the party has happily filed under 'Extremely capable ally' is the BBEG's right hand woman.

She literally just rearranged the letters in her name, honestly expecting the party to work it out in a couple of minutes and then fight her, but when she realised that they genuinely believed her, she changed her plans and went undercover.

She is still flabbergasted that they haven't worked it out, and plans to mock them relentlessly for it when it comes time for the reveal. The anagram doesn't even sound like a name, it's just a string of near-random syllables.

I ran a game where BBEG1.0 ended up having the party at his mercy in his stronghold, but instead told them to train for 2 weeks while they recouperate and that he would speak with them at that time. They were confused for a moment, but embraced the "extra skill from role play" that was offered.

When they face him, he informs them that the guy who first hired them was even more evil and wanted a world ending thing (as opposed to being a content criminal warlord) and that they should be fighting him.

He then nearly killed half the party because they had been fuckin' with his operations. They were totally pumped for that fight on impotent rage that they were being played.

There were hints that this was the case, but no one really committed to calling it

That's retarded.
>Hey this shit doesn't add up lets stop
>LOL some ancient man that was manipulating the guy manipulating you attacks you
I wouldn't call it railroading but its punishing making choices.

The plot twist was that the DM was shit at anything involving story but fantastic at preparing interesting battles and dungeons. We like to rib on him that he's Michael Bay as a DM.

big fantasy world in this crater valley. Players make PC's but the backstories are kinda vague. They think I'm half-assing the setting, but in fact...

...the whole world of theirs was really a micro-climate community inside the blast crater where their colony ship landed. Corrupted AI and nano-fabrication led to the world getting shaped into a novel fantasy land around the ship. The people were infused with powers due to the AI/bots in their systems, and the ones with admin codes could do "magic"

It was a few sessions, but still a bit of a throwaway game. No real cohesive plot/theme to keep them coming back beyond the grand reveal