Oh Yeah!
Thirsting for salvation
You're off to find the stairway
Novice on your never ending ride
Whatever you may find dare to take it higher
Here's your instigation on your trip into the light
Standing at the temple
Where the wizard shall arise
You listen to the beauty of a song
A melody of promise calling from the dark
Tear down the portal and then go on and
Come and fly away with me
And your eyes are gonna see it all
And sleep with the fire - do you feel me?
Go obtain divinity, be the one you wanna be
And don't be afraid to give in
A ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
Ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
The piper never dies
Entities are screaming, enticing from inside
Creatures you had never ever seen
And on the back of haughtiness
You leave into the light
The spirit on a mission in the shell of a beast
The ferryman is gentle
And promises are made
The other side may hold a lot to see
He's gonna take you over
And then he'll name the fare
Oh, you gamble with the devil, fool
The ferryman is me
Come and fly away with me
And your eyes are gonna see it all
And sleep with the fire - do you feel me?
Go obtain divinity, be the one you wanna be
And don't be afraid to give in
And ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
Ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
The piper never dies
No, the piper never dies
Balance on the edge of day and night
Not afraid of falling
Time has come to see all wrong from right
Something's calling
Heaven and hell is it all the same
And just a different grade
Now I gotta know the point of change
Where love turns to hate
Balance on the edge of day and night
Dive into the haze and kiss the light
Many of the tales you've been told
Never written for the brave and bold
Come and take my hand tonight
Come and sleep with me tonight
Certainly I'm gonna take you there
Showing you around everywhere
Do you believe that you're devil-may-care
As you jump into the fire?
Do you believe that you're devil-may-care
As you jump into the fire?
Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer, dreaming dreamer, dreamer, dreamer, dreamer
A ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies, no
Ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
Ride into the shadows
The piper never dies, never dies
Alright, the piper never dies, I got you hypnotized
Come with me and witness, see Babylon arise
The whore is fading light, let us step inside
I got you paralyzed child, the piper never dies
The pied piper plays the song, beautiful but strong
He was never born, never he'll be gone
Oh the piper never dies
He never dies, never, never dies...
So let me unpack what I'm thinking here for a game.
That first verse sounds like the start of an adventure. The character's are novices, just starting out, on a never ending quest seeking the light and salvation in an almost entirely dark world. But what started off, or instigated, this journey? That's where the second verse comes in.
What began all of this was a scene at a temple. They were summoned there by an enchanting song from the night. Since we're dealing with a piper, a pied one in fact, we can assume they didn't go there entirely willingly as well.
The song mentions a wizard arising at the temple, I have to assume this is the Piper of the title, and after summoning them with his melody of promise, he makes them an offer. They can come with him, fly high and see everything, on a quest to decide their destinies. He doesn't offer guarantees, they may have to admit defeat in this, but divinity itself is at stake.
And then they are off into a dark and shadowy world, guided by the immortal wizard The Piper who draws them onwards in their quest for the light of godhood.
But the character's are not the same people who entered the temple, no, they've been changed by their pact with the Piper. They have 'entities' inside them, they are now shells for spirits on a mission, and these spirits, this fire they carry inside, is the begining of the godbeings they will become, already arrogant and superior though they are only fledgling deities.
The adventure will lead them to new places and challenges, including to the underworld, the realm of the ferryman. They will have to ask the ferryman to take them to the other side, but the cost of that will be their mortality, they will no longer be human after that. And it's at that point that they will see if the spark inside is strong enough to survive to godhood.
If the heroes do survive with their mortality stripped away, then they are the worlds new deities, deciding what is good and what is not, finding a balanced way to rule (or maybe not) and using their abilities to rebuild the world and civilisation, as a new 'Babylon'.
But what about the Piper? The Piper still remains, he never dies, even with new gods and a new light established for the world, he still remains. And he will possibly return one day, when these new gods are also gone and more are needed...
In summary, ordinary people are chosen to become the new pantheon of a dying world that has lost it's gods, and must quest to build up their godly strength before finally ascending and rebuilding the world in their own images.
How I'd Run It
Man I like this idea. It's the ultimate fantasy adventure from nothing to absolute deity.
I think the term 'The Piper's Call' is a catchy term for the song they are hearing that draws them onwards, so I'll be using that for now.
Things to include in the game: many candidates for godhood besides the PCs, the hazards of a dying world, a grey sun giving off a harsh monochrome light, the troubles of the ordinary people they pass by, the remnants of a previous civilisation and the dangerous magics they left behind, mythological creatures of all sorts, travelling across many lands, a passage of time that feels abstracted implying this is not all happening within a single lifetime, trials set for them by the Piper to test their worthiness to be gods, jealous rivals who many get in the way or try to take the PCs out, reasons to work together in spite of their differences and fools who refuse to, truly huge and monsterous creatures to defeat, a way to determine who survives to become a god, opportunities to bolster NPCs to take them into the pantheon as well, and an epilogue for the players to describe their new world.
It's all well and good having an epic sweeping tale of ordinary people chosen to become gods, but what system is going to see this quest through and what modifications are they going to need?
Here's the options I would pick. They aren't in order from most likely pick to least likely or anything like that, but just in the order I thought them up.
First is Fate by Evil Hat Productions. The main reason I would consider it is that it's flexible in what it can handle and easy to modify. For those who don't know Fate, it builds characters out of skills, which are flat bonuses to the dice, stunts, which are abilities the character has beyond the standard skills list, and aspects, which are traits a character possesses that can be good or bad and can influence play in various ways.
I'd start off with the basics from the core, with three standard aspects to represent who the character was before they heard the Piper's call. Then, have their fourth aspect represent the growing spark inside them and the god they will one day become, in both temperament and abilities. Something like "Arrogant lord of flames" or "Cunning trickster of shadow". For a fifth aspect, I'd leave that open to start and tell the players to pick based on the events of the game, preferably focused on events they shared with another PC to reflect the bond between their characters.
Skills would need a more fantasy style to them but shouldn't be too different to that standard set. Stunts could represent either their natural abilities or their growing god-like powers, whichever they preferred, though I would limit them initially when the adventure is first starting out.
Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Fun system and one I've had most use out of with a many years long Hellfrost campaign. Haven't had a chance to use the new 'SWADE' version so this might be a good opportunity. SW definitely has more focus on combat and action and less on character backstories than Fate, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Player's can bring as much or as little of a backstory to the table as they want to with SW and with the campaign being more focused on where the characters are going than where they've been, that could be an improvement.
Character's in SW have attributes and skills to represent what they can do, and these are rated in dice types. d4 means you are weaker in that attribute or a novice at a skill, d12 means you are better than most people and at the height of your abilities. At least, it does for standard characters. For our setting, since we are talking gods, I would increase the maximum to d12+4. Since most unmodified dice rolls require a 4 or more on the dice, this would mean a character at the true pinnacle of their powers would be able to defeat most mundane challenges with ease and difficulties wouldn't slow them down much, but it would take a long time to get there.
Another part of SW is that main character's roll a 'wild die', an extra d6 that can succeed if their main attribute or skill dice gets less than the target number. As is, this already puts the focus on the PCs as better than average, so this is an advantage for SW. Not sure yet whether the other prospective gods, the rivals and allies, would get this as well, something to consider.
SW also has edges which modify characters further, giving them boosts to skills in certain circumstances and new ways to fight in combat. The standard list can be included without much change but more might be better as the character's grow to divinity. I'm not sure whether I would write these up ahead of time, or work them out with a player as they advanced and had an idea of what they would want. There are plenty of higher powered settings out there to draw on for an expanded list so more research is needed here.
Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. Oh Cypher system, you fickle mistress. I've run two long campaigns of this system for the Numenera setting, and both have been good once the players have gotten used to the system and figured out the ways it works, but that has taken some time and some players just don't take to it sadly. It's weird compared to most systems and that always gives me pause, but once it gets some momentum behind it, it can be a very flexible system and very easy to use on the fly. The reason for this is that every single task is rated 1 to 10 in difficulty, and the target number for the dice is the difficulty number multiplied by 3. So a monster that is difficulty 3 requires a 9 to do anything to it, convince it, shoot it, poison it etc. This makes it very easy to work out what the players need to roll for whatever they are trying to do to work.
Another advantage Cypher has is that the setting 'Gods of the Fall' is already written and that's about people advancing to godhood. A brief skim of the book says it works much like the other Cypher games but does have a short section on advancing beyond the usual maximum. A little less than I would like considering we're talking deities but it's something.
The Cypher system is named after cyphers, single use magical or technological items that players can deploy whenever they feel it would help. Good for a more open exploration setting but for a more fixed story that I think we're going for here, it's nice but not a big selling point.
Last but not least, City of Mist by Son of Oak Game Studio. This is a game in the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) style which I like, it's got a straightforward system. Roll 2d6 + whatever appropriate stat you have in that setting (usually set out in the rules of that setting) and if you get 7-9, you succeed with cost, and on a 10+, you succeed without cost or to a greater degree. City of Mist is a game about people with powers of folklore figures like literary characters, legends, and (of course) deities as well. It does away with the idea of stats and instead has players design four facets of their characters, called mythos if they are from their folklore side and logos if they are from their mundane life, and pick a number of ways these facets can be applied. If the thing you are trying to do falls under one of these facets, you add a +1 to the dice roll. So someone with water powers going for a swim adds a bonus, but someone who is a scuba instructor also adds a +1, someone with both adds +2 and so on.
It's very flexible in what abilities it can allow which is good. It would need some changes to the advancement system though as the characters in the original game are supposed to balance their mundane and supernatural side, and for this setting, I want the supernatural side to grow bigger and bigger. But it's a good starting point.
Those are the strongest four for me to run this personally. There are definitely others I've used in the past that might work but they just don't seem right for this, or have a lot of work required, and those four give me enough options.
One last thing I'd need is some sort of progression to godhood. Ideally, I'd want it to reflect the challenges the world with throw at them and that the Piper will set for them, but also be able to reward the odd moments where the group says "that was cool!" too. It really depends on which system I choose, so I will develop this idea once the system is in place.
So dear reader, what system would you pick for this concept? And are there any songs that inspire you for gaming? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment