Rate concepts

>post-apoc fantasy
>world swallowed by magical and mlignant semi-sentient darkness.
>all of the world's survivors consolidated in magitech cities that have powerfull enough magic/tech to keep its light from going out.
>some areas like lost cities, ruins and old battlegrounds hold more ancient deeper darkness.
>shades and other horrors live and feed from it.
>the darkness itself has adverse effects with prolonged exposure and it slowly But surely snuffs out light it is in contact with.
>managing resources and inventory limits should be a part of the preparation when heading out into the dark, But unsure how to make it simple and uncumbersome for players.

Plot hooks include foraging wood from close-lying Woods, delving into darkness-infested cities to reclaim lost tech/magic/lantern fuel or purging deeper-dark infested ruins that lairs night horrors and sentient shades.

The hook would be working for any of the three/fighting against any of the three. Naturally, unless you get into ultra high levels, none of the ultimate goals happen. None of them are truly irredeemably evil, but they are certainly bad people.

>Coke-fueled hyperviolent 80s Miami
>Warriors (1979) style gangs that control different parts of the city
>People start gaining low level superpowers at random
>Cartels start aggressively rolling out brutes and death squads to completely take over the city

Plot hook would be dealing with one of the small time gangs or cartel, or actually being a small time gang making their way up

A plague rips through a half-Victorian, half-medieval town. The cemeteries are overfilled, and so massive barges are filled with corpses to be transferred to other towns. A necromantic cult sinks the boats, poisoning the water with disease-ridden bodies.

pretty neat

Maybe slap in some of those World War II alliances Veeky Forums is so crazy about.

That sounds fun, I'd play it!

But, what do you define as "cumbersome"? Is the idea of buying food and keeping track of how many days of food you have and how far you have to travel in days something that your group finds cumbersome?

I don’t think I’ve stumbled across that, elaborate?

Also various ideologies are at least play, nanely monarchism, but there includes an Illuminati styled secret society pushing for democracy, and fascist military takeovers.

In the near future, humanity has gone extinct. The players are uplifted animals thriving in the ruins of human civilization. Gifted with human-like levels of intelligence their minds are still shackled to the urges and reflexes of their nonsapient progenitors. Other animals, sapient and not, have taken up residence in these ruins and challenge the PCs for access to resources necessary for survival. Playable races could include rats, ravens, cats, dogs, or chimpanzees.

IIRC there's a city in Exalted that's got a bit of that going on, Sidan or something.

I like it. Its nice and flavorful. If you did have magic in your setting I see the BBEG being a Necromancer trying to get a foothold in the city. I'm probably going to have my DM steal this

Was thinking more general on resource management.
>setting where light-sources are life important rather than a commodity.
>I carry a thousand torches at all times
Possible solutions could be really expensive light solutions or imposing some game-y cap. Like each character having 10 slots of inventory; armor takes 1, weapons 1, 5-pack with torches taking one, etc.
Would Also offer inventory expansion through pack-horses, backpacks and maybe NPC-followers.

All ideas and feedback would be appriciated.

>Four Suns, Four Gods, Four Fonts of Power
>The Fostering Sun: Spring, Dawn, Growth
>The Conquering Sun: Summer, Day, Apex
>The Harvesting Sun: Autumn, Dusk, Ending
>The Sheltering Sun (actually it's the moon): Winter, Night, Interregnum
>Power spills out from these suns, rarely empowerin or scouring the land in high concentrations, but mostly lightly influencing the world or pooling beneath the ground
>it is this light that spirits are formed and fed from, that nascent souls are nourished and healed by, and that wars are fought to claim pools of

I'm shit at explaining stuff so I'll greentext my concept

> Setting: Empire in the center of continent, radiating outwards are cities, towns, settlements, then nomadic peoples

> Traditional magic non-existent, Priests and Clerics act as direct vassals for Deities and Otherworldly beings, channeling divine and animistic power

> Temples, Shrines, and Altars act as links to their respective divine planes, so Channelers draw spells from the planes and cast them in the material plane

> to draw energy requires chanting and lengthy rituals, as well as proximity to the divine links; spell effectiveness decreasing and channel time increasing as distance to original temple/shrine/etc. increases

> To speed up individual spell rituals some devout priests bear ornate full body tattoos which act as part of a ritual

Sorry if im not really coherent but pls critique me

>implying "muh good necromancy" is interesting

Forgot to add that traditional temples and altars and cathedrals are found only in the major cities and empire, as you radiate out from the center the monuments become more primitive, like cave carvings and small shrines.

Animist shamans in the outerlands channel their lesser spirits directly into their own bodies

I dig the Ching-Chong style center-of-the-universe/civilization thing the empire has going.

Also: I take it that maintaining, expanding, and defending this... divine/planar infrastructure is of key concern to the empire? I mean, if that shit goes down say goodbye to every advantage you've got.

An endless, 18th century French estate. ENDLESS. The whole world is composed of this estate, with repeating patterns of architectural layout every few dozen square miles. No one knows how things used to be maintained, but it's about 150 years since society inside it collapsed. Inside this ornate, Versailles-like structure roam tribes of primitive murderer-cannibals, ferals, and people halfway there.

Small, heavily defended corners allow for civilization to be maintained, which is mainly constituted by the continued degeneracy of the indigenous nobility.

Despite the estate civilization falling apart over a century ago, something like a class structure still exists. You can tell someone descended from a noble from someone descended from their servants.

Bourgeious hopefuls venture from the confines of the (themselves hellish, in a different way) surviving civil bubbles to reach new pockets of society, rescure costy artefacts and artworks from lost portions of the estate, and enforce the will of their nobles.

Arbitrary but rigid norms of courtly behavior are still maintained. Sometimes even among the tribals.

Yeah i think u hit the nail on the head my guy

its kinda like how baboons in the wild form groups around valuable food resources; civilization and settlements formed around the powerful divine energy "wormholes" in order to harness it

i haven't quite decided yet but im thinking about implementing a system in which the "wormholes" can get 'plugged' or closed and the resource denied

this is fucking incredible I love it

>Your usual medieval fantasy setting
>Millions of years ago
>Primordial entities created during the formation of the game's planet
>All the untapped elemental energy floating around, entities begin fighting over who controls what
>The strongest of all is a hyper unstable fire elemental
>Planet is engulfed in flame and torment for a millennia
>new entities try to usurp the "fire tyrant"
>one of which is a Steadfast ice being
>Unstoppable Force meets Immovable object
>Bickering and war waged between the two
>Too stubborn to realize peace is the best option, yet not stupid enough to have an all out brawl, realizing their collective energy could destroy all they've worked for
>Split the planet into scorched earth and frozen tundra down the middle
>Still constant fighting between the two elemental "superpowers" with leagues of rogue minor elemental entities
>One of these entities is a life sprite, who uses charm and wits to climb the social latter
>Offers to occupy the land between both fire and ice beings, so they no longer have to deal with one another
>Both agree
>a Temperature gradient is achieved which allows life beyond primordial beings to grow
>Fast forward to present medieval day
>At the center of the world lies three thrones, Ice to the west, fire in the east, and a single throne of life in the center, where the three elementals sit in a trance like slumber
>Life elemental vanished unexpectedly overnight
>the area between the fire and ice begins to rot and decay, spreading over into their land
>they notice this and awake, realize the life elemental is missing and immediately believe the other one caused it
>Feud begins yet again, the planets climate thrown out of whack

I'll continue plot hooks with the next post. If anythings shit i'm sorry, not the best at explaining everything.I'm hoping my players use them effectively though to really interact with the environment.

The main goal is to find out what happened to the life elemental Kidnapped by lesser entities to induce an inevital apocalypse, resetting the order of power and starting the whole thing over again and bring it back to its throne to re-establish peace.

Plot hook is as the adventurers meet up and talk with new people, each one has their own preferred elemental, such as
>Azers who run a forge. prefers the fire elemental because the climate change caused the forge to freeze over
>Kuo Toa tribe preferring the ice elemental. they're found floating on ice caps, if they enter the water they'll literally be boiled.
>Bullywug tribe preferring fire elemental. their swamp froze over, and they're freezing to death.
>Body of a shriveled and almost lifeless ice devil found among volcanic craters. move it successfully and rehydrate for a vengeful ally, who obviously prefers ice

The players themselves get to choose through these interactions who they like better, and which outcome they'd prefer to have
>Locate the missing life elemental and restore balance between the three
>Rally up as many as they can and side with the fire elemental
>Rally up as many as they can and side with the ice elemental
>Locate the missing life elemental and rally to rid of both the fire and ice elementals
>Locate the missing life elemental and try to kill all three of them

My players at the moment seem to be taking a liking to the cold, as most of their backstories line up with being from the tundra.

Where does food come from? I feel like there's going to be a lot of logistical questions to this one.

In an age past the end of humanity, a fledgeling alien race has launched its first mission to a closeby world with what seems to be signs of alien life. When they arrive, however, they find an inhospital wasteland of a planet, and its artificial ring that encircles it, a massive hulk of metal that seems to act like a ringworld of sorts. The group investigates the station to find a dead quiet landscape of strange buildings and flickering holograms of alien figures and various relics of the past. The robots that inhabit this pristine place are immensely hostile, and will attempt to kill anyone on sight.
The ringworld is a massive human shopping arcade and the PCs are uplifted dogs

I was thinking about this and honestly I have no idea. I'm open to whatever solution sounds coolest. Just appears, like a Borges "Library of Babel" situation? Used to appear but stopped, causing the collapse? Courtyards every once in awhile stocked with marie antionette's dream of perfumed sheep?

>BBEG builds their own sandbox world
>Manipulates and watches people interact through the world from working behind the scenes
>Party goes along and explores this sandbox they got thrown into
>Solves problems and have no idea they are being judged for their actions taken in solving problems
>Party learns they are in this world and there is a bigger hand at play here
>In the final confrontation BBEG goes on this rant that the "heroes" who are trying to free people from this sandbox world are not heroes and tells them that all their "resolutions" are just tipping scales of balance of his world to fit what they believe is correct and just which is a load of shit.
>The speechs leads into how the protags are just like him except with a different belief system and they are also pieces of shit because what he did wasn't bad due to the fact they lived a life that they believed they were free in.

Also BBEG is a circus clown who just lives to fuck with everyone and everything for enjoyment because he can't take anything seriously ever and wishes to be the stage director instead of a mindless player on the stage of life. But everyone else around him are incredibly serious and follow him due to his incredible charisma and ability to emotionally break people and feed them the desire to help manipulate the world around them instead of being part of the play he puts on.

Give me some feedback here guys, trying out some concept building for this world.

>no humans have to be orc/elf/dwarf/kobold

>kobolds worship slumbering dragon god deity, religiously collecting things of value from gold to memories of a loved one, run *treasure* ships from their small island country where they ferry all wealth back to,
>Elves live until somthing kills them like old cranky alligators but have huge family vendetta blood feuds and can only have 5 kids tops after *bonding* turn to hardened wax when they die and look sort of plastic. Great traders, shipwrites and artisans. Spain/venice exp
Revenge vs letting go
>Dwarfs are Prussian exerpt with heavy serfdom and conservative culture attmepting modern advancement bordering the orc plains that constantly raid outlying villages, though none have ever conquored the summer palaces, owing to the folklore evil that protects the nation at the cost of rural sacrifice.
the theme being superstition vs industrlisation.

>orcs are amber eyed with dark skin night dusk hunters and nomaid horse archers. Throat singers are dangerous necromancers dancing the dead to life with their songs and wild magic
theme of Old kingdom vs New capital mirroring Mongolian adoption of Chinese imperal culture in the khanite.

My Idea for the plot was to have a group of traders transport an artifact from the the sea to the old kingdom of the orcs to the new capital of the red spire, where it is said and angel of god sits in the heighest garden.

The city resides in the noonlands, where the world is permenatly in the sunset of the late afternoon, pink and orange hazely fill the sky. It is a tempral loop of a kind where any settlement outside the city attracts storms that rips the souls out of ones body and leaves the shambling bodies. Travelers and merchants must take pilgrim like land ships to the capital, avoiding the dead, bandits and long grass predators, while not staying 3 days in any one spot.

There are halls of edible walls and forniture. They don't get stale, but people need to relocate.

The city would look like more vertical lost isolith or ankgor wat, covered in human terekotta warriors and ancient artifacts.
The city has been held for man diffrent races and superpowers that all vanish mysteriously, leaving only their grand artifacts and treasure, making the city a fine capital. the orc nomads currently rule it as the New kingdom though more conserative voices fear they are losing their culture by adoping the styles and wepons of the former residents.

Any damage to the structure seemily gets put back together when it is unexpected and any renovations seem to fall apart. It appears the city and surrounding area rubber bands itself into being fixed in a certian point in time.

It is, its magic residue from the human forunners Dewemering their entire race into a simulated reality where they could live as gods.
the artifact you're transporting can wake the remenant golems of the city which makes it so dangerous

unbeknown to anybody though the powers that keep the city afixed also *purify* it every 444 years back into the day humanity did the ritual The whole plot is a journey to the moral choice thatThe party can save the city and everybody in, but they have to destory the simulation housing the human souls, and the city loses the temporal protection, or else escape and let the storms rush over the countryside

or merge into the simulations themselves
The idea becomes, do you empathise with the characters you've been playing as for a while and everbody you've come to know, especially if you're roleplaying, or do you push towards humanity?

Could be fun.

Really like this.

This is nice too, wanted to make something similar myself.

Cool, but I'd change the chimps for some other monkeys, like macaques or something, something more monkey-like, chimps are too human.

I... uh... don't get the appeal, or the purpose of this.

>people of Aryania Alba lived in peace and propserity
>Slave Tzardom and in the east and Kingdom of Blackness in the South became jealous of their prosperity
>soon two hordes invade at once

Can players defend their nation form hordes of monsters (pic related) from east and south?

As I've thought about this more and more, uplifted primates could exist but not as player characters. Not only are they very human but a party with any number of chimpanzees would probably result in party infighting. Treating them as violent, carnivorous giants though, would be an amazing experience for a party of rats.

I was thinking over the mechanics in my head. One aspect I could incorporate would be size vs bulk and intellect vs instinct. Characters of small size would have small bulk, so they would suffer a penalty to actions like lifting heavy objects or grappling but would gain a bonus to evasion or tight cornering. This characteristic would be dependent on species. Intellect vs instinct would be a player-determined measure of how animal the Character is. If instinct is given a bonus, intellect gets an equal penalty. A character with high intellect would be better at abstract reasoning or crafting, while a player with high instinct would be better at sensing danger.

Okay . . . What's the point? You've set up what could be a good setting for a story but I'm not sure how this setting would be integral to a ttrpg

Interconnected Subterranean larders, the settings dungeon equivalent filled with ancient wines, edible molds and mushrooms growing upon old breads and swine's and chicken populations is my suggestion.

Maybe a class of subterranean peasants grows the food underground? Or perhaps the estate is the seat of an interdimensional empire and tribute is gathered from other planes through portals.

For quite some time I had an idea of universe composed of nothing but rooms. You get there and it's just endless rooms in all directions. Small rooms, large rooms, all sorts of designs, just endless rooms. Some even seem to occupy the same space.

But I don't know what I can do with it.

>Dark Age fantasy setting, nordic folklore inspired
>trolls are evil, half blind ugly wizards in the northern mountains
>elves are werebeast forest spirits in a country sized forest
>dwarves are anti-human mountain raiders wedged between the trolls and man.
>humans are generic vikings, aside from one kingdom, who are renaissance-level vikings with blackpowder weaponry, advanced smithing and production
>only other power that can challenge them is in disarray due to a break in the chain of the King's succession. While the Princess is off becoming a trickster hero, the Jarls carve it up, as their enemies pick them off

Players are tasked with finding the missing princess and saving their home kingdom.
would you play in this setting Veeky Forums?

Weird, and not in a good way. Like, seriously, for what purpose and why would people want to play this?

What's so good about it?

Pearl of Wisdom
>A motherfucker takes a drop of blood, a drop of sweat, and a teardrop and stirs them with his finger in a little bowl or cup
>That same motherfucker remembers a violent memory while he does it
>The motherfucker then finds himself with a pearl about the same color as his skin, and the memory is a lot hazier
>The motherfucker just deducted a given number of experience points from his character sheet and stored it in that pearl, to be transferred to whoever breaks it
>But God help that motherfucker if he deducts enough to lose a level, because he'll be rolling a death saving throw, with failure meaning he's not getting that thing removed until he gets some downtime

tl;dr version: How to make a boss fight out of a lesser NPC who's working for something like a dragon.

I'd sure as shit would.

>There were once eight Gods
>Each had their own domain and source of power
>Except the eighth God, who had no power at all
>He is mocked relentlessly by the other seven for centuries
>Finally, he becomes sour
>He begins to sow the seeds of discord between the seven other Gods
>Incited by his white lies and half-truths, wars break out
>The Gods kill each other off one by one
>Ultimately, only the eighth God is left, and he is no longer powerless
>He has become the God of War, and his very existence in the divine realm imbues the souls of man with mistrust and hatred
>As long as he exists, war will be a universal constant, and any attempts to make peace will invariably fail
>Now alone in his empty realm, he watches the humans kill eachother, smiling sadly
R8.

Cool backstory for a setting. Wat do now?

wizards rule the world(irectly or indirectly) and actively stifle scientific and technologic advancement because it will reduce their power.

Fire Emblem style conquer-the-map campaign, except you can only get the true ending by investigating obscure legends and rumors about the War God and finally finding and banishing him.

>A forest near a small town, directly between it and whatever objective the PCs are wanting to get to
>About a week's journey to go around, just two to get to the goal if they go through
>If they stay in the forest overnight, giant spiders with tentacle-faces attack
>They're just the latest victims of some bizarre mind flayer scheme, but they lack the intelligence or power to be a dangerous psionic threat
>They struck a deal with the mayor of the town they came from, agreeing not to hunt outside of the forest for brains to eat in exchange for the mayor swearing not to tell anyone about them or send an extermination team
>They're smart enough to surrender if they're beaten and alone, speaking Common and begging for the PCs to accept a ransom for their lives
>The surviving spider can relay a question they have to the spider collective through their web, Morse-code style, and get an answer from it
>Answers are typically pooled from whatever they've gleaned from the victims they've eaten over the years

I'unno. Been kicking the idea around for a while, but never felt satisfied with it. Might just have to run it and see where it starts to fall apart.

It's pretty cool honestly. What dissatisfies you about it?

I don't think that it's dissatisfying, only that it's not quite satisfying to me, yet.

It just doesn't feel like there's something that it could escalate to, if the PCs in question decide that they hate the idea of brainspiders enough to drop what they're doing and try to wipe them out. There's only so many times you can pit them against the Giant Spider stat block before you have to step it up to an Elder Brain or an Aboleth or some nonsense like that, right?

There's a lot to like about this idea. Perhaps they need a bit more intelligence though. Maybe the majority of the spiders are of low or animal intelligence, guided by one monstrous and intelligent spider at the center.

It could be that the mayor won't respond because they have taken his son or daughter hostage in exchange for his cooperation. He won't even mention the spiders as a threat because the little ones in his office report back to the hive.

They could also use the forest to their advantage. Perhapd there's a series of strings that form a forest-wide alarm system, so when the PCs tug on them it alerts the spiders without the PCs' knowing.

Pull a Tucker's Kobolds on them. Start with straightforward fights against giant spiders so they get comfy. Then show the spiders adapting their defenses to the PCs and utilizing the terrain to their advantage.

>Webbing over pit traps
>Snares and nets
>Trapdoor spiders
>Walls made of timber and webbing, to turn the lower part of the forest into a maze.

Give a giant spider rudimentary cunning and a home court advantage and you'll have your players pissing themselves in no time.

what system to run this ?

>PCs are born inside an evil empire the size of China, where the culture itself is sadistic, savage and full of betrayal, like Drows for example or the nation of fire in Avatar
>the outside world is full of monsters and awful creatures, dinosaurs, maybe demons invading from hell or aliens from space like Edge of Tomorrow
>in order to survive, the empire became evil and savage as to weed out weak genes and make sure everyone is constantly on their guard
>it's a mix of stalinism, paranoia and Equilibrium's atmosphere
>on the periphery of the empire, some tribes are allowed to remain and maintain their cults and gods but in return they must serve as a shield to the empire against the outside menace
>mostly warrior cultures (samurai, orcs, mujahideen... that kind of thing)
>when the great menace came, the world changed, biological matter increased violently
>now cattle produce x times more food and gardens and fields are x times lusher
>culture and education doesn't revolve against producing anymore, but around maintaining belongings and social status, maybe even appropriating some more
>meteorites fall more frequently also, and it's unpredictable where in the empire they will next fall
>legends speak of weak cultures that took another road, and everyone thinks they must've gone extinct, it's used as a story to educate kids to be douchebags or else
>one day, a person is found dead/unconscious at the door of a stronghold after a "blood moon", a night where monsters go crazy and attack everything
>word has it that they come from one of these other cultures

so did they come because their nation fell to the monsters ?
but if they exist, then it means it's possible to live in a normal culture and still make it
the nobles can't decide if it's worth it to send an expedition to conquer that hypothetical kingdom, because it's very dangerous and we're not even sure they exist
will the PCs go and try to find them ? warn them ? maybe live among them ?

I like this.

this mixed with Dishonored would be pretty comfy

NecromancerHeavyBreathing.png

Sounds like a location to me.

It's just a city in the setting, that's the entire idea.

>since the fauna got so lush with carnivorous plants, giant insects (Zergs), poisonous fumes and endless lakes in the jungles that circle the empire
>the empire is so great it contains inland seas where there's extensive fishing and even transportation by boat
>if they want to get out, the best way is to get enrolled in the army and leave/assassinate everybody while on a patrol outside the Great Wall
>PCs got word of a crazy old man who either was caught outside after escaping or returned for unknown reasons who knew his way outside of the empire
>to get to him they need to sneak inside a prison and bribe him for info while making sure he won't betray them to their hierarchy
what if he's interested in something else than money ? what could it be ? is it linked to the reason that brought him back from freedom ?
>before being silenced, he used to babble about a heaven-like region where everything was safe and beautiful, was it the booze or does it really exist ?
>drug use is prevalent within the empire, it's one of the best ways to deal with the constant stress since spirituality is outlawed (except for the barbarian tribes) and it also temporarily increases int in order to scheme against others or avoid being betrayed
>drugs are very dangerous and addictive (duh), but since almost everybody depends on them (they're also legal btw) the whole culture synched with the annual/monthly production like the IRL oil price
>crazy old guy is among the rare who are clean

I dig it, but I think people may not take it seriously. It reminds me of that infinite IKEA SCP. Maybe aim for something more like Fallen London/Sunless Sea instead. Less quirky, more playable.

In practice, some elements could be toned down or restricted to specific locations. For example, the repeating geographical anomaly and the fact people use mutated customs they don't remember the origin of could be restricted to one continent/island/etc.

There was a thread about something like this months ago. A castleworld and the people who live in it ("We're not sure what's beyond the twelve kitchens" style)

A mechanic for 5e or any game really. The rules would mostly just to encourage being dramatic and give players a bonus when working towards their goals.

Vows
When you make a vow, you try your utmost to honor your word. A vow can be anything from, "I vow to protect you until we reach your destination" to "I promise I'll kill you! You'll regret the day you let me live!" to "I'm going to finish my father's research even if it's the last thing I do". Three times per long rest, when you are making a roll that is directly related to your vow, you may claim advantage. You can only have one vow at a time.

A vow is lost when you fulfill it, (You escorted your charge to safety), fail to fulfill it (Your charge died on the journey), or if you break your vow (you abandoned your charge). Not fulfilling a vow or breaking a vow reduces the number of times you can claim advantage from vows by 1. If this number is reduced to 0, you can no longer make vows.

How bad is it?

Ancient formerly powerful civilization that worships dragons and the populace look like a strange mix of elf and human, however they are in fact dragonborn and their draconic ancestry becomes more prevalent the higher their standing with their god is. Though even in their "human" form their eyes range from black to dark red and they randomly have immunities to certain element damage.

In 1957, the first scientific evidence of life after death was discovered at the University of Chicago, via the now-famous Schafer-Donaldson experiment. By 1963, five other universities had confirmed the result, and a journal had been founded. The race to explore the afterlife was on.

I really don’t know where to take this.

I like it.

I had an idea for an experimental campaign I'd like to run with my regular group:

>Everyone starts without a character sheet in a cold, dark, endless place. A place so lonely and eternal it feels like time itself has frozen solid.
>Then, suddenly, a warm light appears in the distance, beckoning them on.
>They approach it and find themselves in a dark room, long abandoned by the look of it. On the floor is a young woman, clutching her bleeding leg. Before her, painted on the floor in blood, are mystical symbols.
>She regards the PCs with a weary expression.
>"My name is Lucy D'Angelo. I'm sorry to do this but we don't have time to argue right now. The fact if the matter is, you all are dead, and I have bound your spirits to me. I'm sorry for that. Once I get clear I can release you if you want, but if you leave me I will not live throughout the night. Please, I need your help."
>Each of the symbols on the floor is legible only to one player: Hunter, Guard, Healer, Scout, etc.
>At this point I would lay out envelopes emblazoned with the rune for each character type. Each player would select an envelope, which contains an incomplete character sheet.
>Over the campaign the players will gradually fill in their skills and attributes as they are discovered in gameplay, and along with me they would figure out who they were in life and what unfinished business keeps them from moving on.

I'm not sure what system to use or where this will go but I find it a fascinating idea all the same.

>Race of sentient plan folk. Slightly taller than Humans, more bulky but humanoid. Skin is green, men are flecked with Bark, women have flowers/moss as hair and on shoulders/back. When they die their bodies go through rigor mortis immediately, immortalizing their pose, and their blood ferments into a potent spirit that, when drunk, allows others of the species to experience the memories of the deceased. Due to this they have a death worshipping society with large religous halls where they go when they are ready to die. They get pierced with essentially a wine tap that drains their fermenting blood into a pool that younger generations can drink from to learn from the elders. They could potentially live for extremely long times but living longer than it takes your children to grow up is seen as extremely poor social form, as is dying prior to having children. Social recluses and hermits may be forced to leave society if they hold on to life too long. Reproduce through spores, one family can contain up to 10 children in a generation generally.

I personally love it as I am a fan of puzzles, investigations and experimentations. 10/10 would play.
However it takes a certain group to play, and i know people Who would hate it on the sole reason of playing with imperfect information.

It's cool, but the campaign revolving around essentially a DMPC would be difficult to do well

Your post was pretty self-explanatory, that guy just lacks basic reading comprehension. Sounds like a cool idea, it would end up looking like a halloween town or something with all the gravestones and mausoleums and probably have some morbid tourism surrounding it.

True, it's not for every group. Mine tends to run a lot of Delta Green, so investigation isn't outside their wheelhouse.

Not necessarily any more than any other campaign. The DMPC would be a magic user of minor talent who herself has no idea of who the PCs were in life.

>Everyman PCs run into an eccentrically dressed weirdo during their morning commute
>He bumps into them, knocking the smartphone they're plastered to our of their hands
>It bounces off the pavement, players hear something snap and see the familiar sight of a cracked screen
>Weirdo quickly picks it up, obscuring it from view for a split second
>Hands it back with a quick apology
>The phone is absolutely fine
>Weirdo's gone before anyone figures out what's going on

I want this weirdo to be a mentor figure that takes the normal, everyday PCs on a hero's journey through an iron-age sword & sorcery world, but I'm trying to build up to the actual flip to fantasyland. Does this sound slow and steady enough, as a first introduction?

Fuck, I like it.

But then, I like stuff that makes my players afraid to waste it, because they're the kinds of players that throw themselves at eldritch abominations without really caring.

>Setting is a High Fantasy, Mid Magic Setting where Elves rule the world and have enslaved most other sentient races
>Humans are Catholic British revolutionaries who beleive in Democracy
>Dwarves are Pagan worshipping Scotts who really, really prefer having a king
>Halflings are Protestants
>Giants are norsemen who beleive in the power of fate, the power of mankind over the gods, and who have never been enslaved but want to reunite the human races against the elves and for freedom
>If a slave is dies in the prime of their life or their skills do no wither with age, they're sent to the Drow and raised as sentient undead
>High Elves genuinely do not age and have very, very intact fae blood while the other elf species only live up to 300 years at a time. They'd consider mating with a human or other elf too abstract to even think about.
>They have a French Society with a more Aztec Religion
>Wood Elves are pretty much the confederate South and share a religion with hallings and thus refuse to enslave them
>Drow are drow
>Ice Elves have a conservative, populist, magicentric society in which everyone practices magic as a hobby whether or not it's useful to their craft but to call one's self a mage is comparable to going to college for origami. Their clothing and architecture is just like the North Pole from the last airbender.
>Earth Elves are more genie warlock centric Arabs.
That's pretty much my entire idea for a setting. Better for an MMO than anything Veeky Forums related if you ask me.

>It has been five hundred years since the world was sundered by the War of the Earthquakes
>Five hundred years since man was closed off from the heavens and left bereft of magic
>Mankind struggles to survive in the ruins of the cataclysm, facing death by starvation, the sword, and the terrifying Golems
>Into the silence of the wastelands trod the armored warriors of the Order of the Knights Adamant
>Their charge: to slay Golems wherever they arise, and to seek the answers of the old world

>The Lich is just a really old necromancer who has secluded himself from the rest of the world
>was a huge threat..eons ago
>made himself immortal, but his mind and body didnt particulary age well after all dem adventures and failed schemes
>now reduced to a angry senile skeleton who ocassionally lashes out at the modern generations of necromancers
>alas, there are rumours and tales of the ancient Lich that travel through the lands and they sometimes fool parties of adventurers

> being this unimaginative
You are the cancer killing rpgs

Isn't this just warp storms from 40k but on a localised level?