Triumph: A World of Evil

Triumph (Evil Won)

Campaign Themes: Post-War, Tyranny, Fantasy, Against-All-Odds

Description:

Ages ago, a grand battle was fought between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The battle raged for generations, until, finally, evil won.

This is the world after the triumph of evil.

The world of Triumph is much like other fantasy campaigns. The landscape is divided into kingdoms ruled by noble lines. There are monsters, dungeons, and other settings for adventures. The greatest difference is in the population.

After the forces of evil won, they set up a system to exterminate all good from the land. Much like the Witch Trials and the Inquisition, these forces would imprison or kill anyone performing charitable, honorable, or righteous deeds, along with anyone who witnessed and never reported them. Many people in the war-ravaged land saw this as an opportunity to report a rival farmer, a competitive business, a refused lover. After a few generations, there was no good left. If a man drops an apple, no one will stoop to pick it up. If a child is lost, no one will lead it home. If an elder falls in the street, people would sooner trample than assist.

Everyone is evil.

Except for the characters.

Are they crazy? Have they received some divine vision? Are they champions of a secret line of moral defenders? Or are they secretly evil, pretending to be good for the rewards until they turn their companions in?

How's it work?:

This campaign would be very similar to other fantasy campaigns, except the reward for each adventure would not just be gold or magical weapons... each adventure would win some small, tiny fraction of the population to the side of good.

One way to run this campaign would be to cluster adventures into different population centers. The first adventures might take place, for example, in a cluster of villages. The characters will fight ogres, skeletons, dire rats (all those early-level fodder), but they will be the only ones defending others! Their actions will at first bring great suspicion and fear, but again, after each adventure they've won over a few people.

A campaign like this needs a big threat. When I ran a similar campaign, I introduced the Knights of Zodr. These were holy knights trained from birth to seek out and defeat chaos (this world's name for 'good').

In each population center, you can have a counter that counts down how soon the Knights will be alerted to the actions of the characters. The characters might even have to weight the "cost" of each adventure. For example, fighting off that gang of trolls who gobble up travelers might be worth four marks, while assisting an injured farmer with his cattle drive is worth two marks (each mark bringing the attention of the Knights of Zodr closer).

Note that the solution for each social inequity or evil should lie in what adventurers do best: explore dungeons, fight monsters, etc. Thus, a DM would want to pair a problem with the population (slavery, for example) with a more standard fantasy problem (oh, let's say zombies).

Example:

Mark is playing Gullivan, a rogue whose Robin-Hood-esque band of do gooders was wiped out by the Knights of Zodr.

Tammy is playing Lyra, a paladin who escaped from prison after receiving visions from the last remaining of the ancient good-aligned gods.

Sebastian is playing Zogo, a barbarian so dumb he follows anyone. Lyra befriended him in prison and helped him escape, and so for now he is on the side of good.

The characters have arrived at the city of Qoyor. Its people are divided into a hierarchical class system that basically treats each class as a slave to the next. The city also suffers from extradimensional stalkers called Zinjis, terrible alien beasts who appear suddenly, kidnap individuals for meat or slaves, and vanish to their own hellish realm. The upper classes can afford magical protections from the Zinjis, each class affording more effective wards. The lower class is basically left as prey for these alien hunters.

Gullivan, Lyra and Zogo arrive on the fringes of town, and find out about the stalkers. In their first adventure, they defend a woman giving birth from a group of Zinji who wish to kidnap her baby. After finishing the adventure, the characters have brought a bit of good into this neighborhood, but also have raised their Impact by 2 marks. If their Impact reaches 12 marks, the Knights of Zodr will be alerted, and all those they helped will be in danger of imprisonment, torture and execution.

The characters now face a decision. They can continue to help the lower class, each adventure only worth a few marks of Impact. Or they can attempt to get into the upper classes, and through their adventures create awareness of the plight of the peons. However, each adventure would create a greater impact!

After some debate, the characters decide to take on guard duty for a merchant who travels between the fringes of the city and some inner market. While guarding this merchant's stall, a portal to the Zinji realm opens up, and the alien hunters pour out and start dragging people back in! The characters must leapt through the portal and (after a brief dungeon) destroy the device used to make it. (Yeah, I'm totally stealing from Oblivion now, but oh well!). They complete this adventure, and have gained the trust of a select group of merchants... but the adventure earned them 6 Impact! They may need to leave town soon and let things "cool down" before they try and bring good to the Upper Class of Qoyor.