Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy (Pathfinder)

[Inerrant Lust]

A thousand years ago, the world's population was on the eve of reaching 10 billion. The dragons were nearly wiped out, the monsters and evil races of the realms were pushed to the frontier, and enchanted crops gave bountiful harvests year after year, providing for  the goodly races an unprecedented era of prosperity. The explosive growth of humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings began to plateau as they became less fertile.

Seven hundred years ago, the famines had begun in earnest. The magic that had sustained mankind began to fade from the world- the infrastructure of advanced civilizations began to fail and the farmland withered unto dust.

Three hundred years ago, clerics could no longer hear their Gods at all. They still drew scant power from the divine, but both divine and arcane magic was once again becoming a thing of myth- something unknown, something to be feared.

A hundred years ago, the barriers separating the planes began to weaken... Demons and devils began to roam the earth. There are places where time and space warps, where the planes break like waves upon the sand.

Now, less than 300 million people are estimated to eke out a living in the wastes. Many are infertile, others struggle to forage food from the toxic forests, all the while weathering the constant threat of the hellish invaders.

Game Concepts;
-High point buy (NPCs will probably have class levels and will be as tough as their world)
-Tough enemies will sometimes make outright fighting a pyrrhic solution. Think tabletop Dark Souls.
-Possibly... Tieflings as a playable race, though perhaps nerfed to reduce LA. They are one of the few races reliably fertile, and have been seeded into the material plane by the invading fiends to 'muddle the gene pool', most are unfortunate products of rape and inherently disdained.

[Marie Reynolds]

My interest has been piqued.

[Inerrant Lust]

For which one?

Obviously, a little more thought has been put into the first idea but that doesn't mean I have a preference for it. The second is simply more vague because a lot of it is up for the players to decide. And it's supposed to be a comedy- I want maximum creative freedom to create and nurture comedic situations.

[ExisD]

Ohhhh, very interesting on both counts and I'm definitely interested.

I think mine's a bit more toward the first and I'd definitely be happy to play a tiefling in such a world. Though I'm unsure what class, mostly that one depends on things like starting level, which system, and what sources are available. Though I tend toward martial adepts or casters overall.

[Muse]

*waves* 

I'd be quite interested in the first game.  :) 

Is magic playable in that world? 

[Inerrant Lust]

While my laptop is out of commission, I won't be able to do much crunch. Off the top of my head, I would say point buy around 30, level 3 perhaps.. It depends really, on where you guys would like to start.

This is a world where people huddle behind fortresses and only a few experienced fighters and rangers venture out to gather food. Although some communities are safe by way of being hidden or inaccessible. The highest level people around are the ones who are able to wander from place to place by themselves.

So if you're low level, it likely means you are either young or sheltered, kept behind the walls or living in a community relatively unscathed by the blight and the demons and whatnot.

Of course, this being a campaign and an adventure, you won't be there for long...

A higher level game means you're likely more active, either risking life and limb for your community or traveling with a group.

I think there are exceptions, low level characters who are able to hide and sneak around monsters would likely survive longer on their own. And some places are relatively untouched, an oasis of peace. Many people live as slaves the fiends as well. Tieflings are considered one step up, but ultimately still mortal and still beneath demonic contempt.

Oh, and yeah- magic is fine though it may be nerfed somewhat across-the-board. Granted you'd be doing mystical things that most people have never even seen before. Even a cantrip would turn heads.

[Muse]

  What sort of tech level is the post apocolytpic game comign out of?  And will it be pathfinder? 

  Were there guns?  Bycicles?  Or was the time of prosperity a blend of magic and good orginizaiton? 

  Oh, pantheons.  People might not remember the gods too well, but to those who do, will we use the Golarion Pantheon?  Or soemthing else/  Or a blend? 

[Ghostwheel]

Tabletop Dark Souls? *perks up with interest*

[Laughing Hyena]

I call shenanigans on that claim. But I do like the brass you have Lust. ^_^

But hey if you can pull it off then yer awesome. Seriously guys yer in the hands of a great DM here. Stick with him.

[Inerrant Lust]

For tech level, think Forgotten Realms at its zenith. Part of the reason there even were famines was because people had relied on magic so exclusively that even basic agricultural techniques were never developed. This made worse by toxic blight corrupting the land.

Basically magic was technology, and it started to go away..

To what few clerics and paladins exist, they draw divine power from
somewhere- they don't know who is granting them these things. Even to them, the Gods are esoteric beings that haven't really proven that they exist. Find an elf or a dwarf who was alive long enough ago to tell you...

Though infertility has hit the longer-lived races harder than most.

I do love Dark Souls very much. The undead may play a part in this as well, but it will hardly be as central a focus as it that game. I haven't yet figured out how or if I want to implement that... but I imagine ghosts and restless spirits are a common occurrence.

As for gameplay elements- challenges will not only be physical enemies but also some will just be dealing with the world. A pervasive blight has corrupted the earths largest forest and randomly shows it in patches outside of it. Burning blighted wood releases a toxin, eating corrupted flesh from animals is toxic.

I was toying with the idea of combining that element with the undead one- dying from the toxin makes you come back. Being bit by a blighted animal or something could lead to a nasty supernatural infection..

[Ghostwheel]

For what it's worth, as far as rules are concerned, I'd vote for Pathfinder, and higher-level at the start if possible.

It's just that there are so many games that start at a very low level and don't get anywhere that it'd be nice to start with some tools to keep things interesting for a change

[Inerrant Lust]

I'm inclined to agree, a higher level gives you slightly more freedom plotwise as well.

Though of course... If I had to quantify the challenge rating of each part of the world... Deep in the forest would be epic level. The various little fiefdoms carved out by the fiends would be 10th to 20th level challenges, and everywhere else would be CR 9 or lower. Granted, given that the first two are steady expanding each year...

[Marie Reynolds]

Hmm i think the first idea is fun, Post Apocalyptic sounds good to me.

[Muse]

  well, my current best concept involves a sort of archaeologist determined to bring back the knowledge of true magic.  At level 8-10 she could have already begun the Loremaster prestige class. 

[Ghostwheel]

Good thing classes and when you find out what in-character can be reflavored ^_^

[ExisD]

Ohhh, my vague idea is sounding more and more fun now, tiefling alchemist. I'm not sure whether to do the fun that is Jekyll and Hyde or the hilarity the Mad Bomber, but party makeup would probably help make that decision.

Either way I'm thinking a mad scientist type who's convinced that there's a way to fix the blight if only we understood it more. Thanks to how much of a likely horrible idea this is and being overly passionate about it she probably met with even more scorn than her race normally would call for.

[Inerrant Lust]

I love it. I was considering directions to take the campaign and one of them was an undermountain-esque like trek to find an ancient city buried deep in the great forest. You'd be in a fairly large group of NPCs, but there wouldn't be any towns or exotic vistas to explore but the forest and the ruins within it. Both your characters would certainly fit in such an expedition.

I'm considering graduating 'breeds' of tieflings. There's ones directly sired by a demon, or by two tieflings. There's one with only a single tiefling parent. And maybe some 1/4 blood or somesuch. Anything further would be purely cosmetic. I imagine a lot of the half bloods living amongst humans are the children of raped women. Nobody wants their son or daughter hanging around them. Some communities would likely throw them out, but I figure others wouldn't be able to refuse another body to do work. Of course... For almost all of then, the allure of going over to the fiends and serving them is there.

And with the tieflings being one of the few reliably fertile races left... I imagine a lot of the men are loathed by both genders, but women are an object of lust to some men.

Oh, Muse- that works fine. It'd fit in perfect with the concept above. The ruins are full of ancient secrets...

If we do go with the above campaign, it's probably going to take you to epic levels...

[Videospirit]

Will the gunslinger class be available?

[Inerrant Lust]

Hmmm. Rudimentary firearms might have existed a thousand years ago. The propellant might have even been magical rather than explosive. No doubt it'd be a potent weapon and not a thing people would want to forget how to make...

But procuring the ingredients for black powder might be difficult.

I should mention I intend to keep track of things like food and ammunition, since both may be scarce. Imagine the equipment load management of dark souls if you had to worry about food and supplies

Anyways, as for the gunslinger- if you can justify it in the backstory and fluff, I'd have no qualms.

[Videospirit]

Considering a halfling musketman from a heavily fortified mountain city which is desperately looking for new methods to fight back against the encroaching demons and devils. They've even gone so far as to revive the highly dangerous art of making firearms, which are known for exploding and killing young gunslingers in training. He's not too well liked by his superiors, and is always getting sent out into the wilds on "suicide" missions he somehow manages to survive. He despises evil outsiders of all sorts, blaming them entirely for the gradual destruction of the world, and likely worships Iomedae if specific deities still exist as a concept at all.

[Inerrant Lust]

If this campaign traveled around civilization much, one of the themes I wanted to explore was the tenacity of the survivors. Anyone ever play Legend of Legaia? It was a weird post-apoc rpg where a pervasive mist was full of sentient machines that would attach themselves to you and turn you into a mindless thrall.

Half the towns you visited were full of these thralls which needed to be rescued before you could advance the plot or rest and buy equipment. The other half included a town with huge walls, a monastery with airlock-like entrances. A town with wind mills that kept the mist out. A town underground and a town so high up that the mist only settled in the lower levels.

I wanted to do the same thing, so a mountain town that mines saltpeter and makes black powder to defend itself certainly fits in cozily with the setting. Sounds like it could have been a dwarven settlement that didn't make it for one reason or another.

Although i would say they'd probably be pretty good at making firearms if they've lived there for more than a generation or two.

[Videospirit]

Well I have no problems with them being "good" at firearms. I just kind of... defaulted to early firearms only, since that's up to you and it took hundreds of years for more advanced firearms technology to develop in our own history. Early firearms have the whole firearms explode when you roll badly enough. If they've developed advanced firearms as well all the better I suppose, it wasn't even remotely critical to the character concept to be restricted to early firearms only.

[Inerrant Lust]

I meant that they'd probably be extremely cautious around them.

I'm trying to figure out a way to reflect the weakness of magic without nerfing it beyond recognition. One option is perhaps a level limit. Ie; forced multiclassing, you can only have half of your class levels contain arcane or divine spell casting. For classes like the paladin or ranger, going beyond that limit only advances their non-magical abilities.

[Mysterica]

I think a Magus could be an entertaining class for this game concept.  Not as strong as a fighter, yet not a real mage either.  Adventuring both to grow stronger, and to learn more about the arcane arts of old.

And should that idea not work out so well, I could just multiclass a fighter/wizard or fighter/sorcerer to make up for the no more than half your lvl in casting classes.  Either way is fine as it will be played roughly the same way anyways.

[Videospirit]

No more than half your levels in classes that have casting abilities is certainly an easy nerf to do mechanically, and in theory, doesn't affect the balance of the game too negatively. It significantly impacts a casters ability to cast, but gives them the opportunity to pursue other classes a caster typically wouldn't branch out into.

I'm not playing a caster though, so it doesn't matter to me too much either way.