#syuzhet

[corruptionpoints]

Do you ever run elaborate self-made worlds wherein your PCs pull off some really phenomenal shit and ascend to infamy, godhood, or some combination thereof? If so, do you follow up with a future setting drastically altered by PCs of the previous campaign? Got any cool stories regarding this subject?

Why yes, yes I do!

For example, the current Shadowrun campaign I am holding is a direct reflection of the Shadowrun campaign we had previously completed. (season one, and season two, if you will)

At the end of Shadowrun: Season One, the players were running into the Tenochtitlan pyramid to prevent a long running conspiracy of using magic to resurrect an ancient Aztec god, which would destroy and recreate the world in an effort to cleanse impurities.

Thankfully, the runners were able to prevent this from happening. 

As Shadowrun: Season Two came about, the players were in an environment directly reflective of the world they had created based on the consequences of their actions previously.

The corporation that was attempting to summon the Aztec god (Aztechnology) was subject to many criticisms, allowing the rest of the AAA Corps to take their share of the previous properties (almost for free), heavily unbalancing the corporate power of the Sixth World. 

The corporation that was a direct benefactor of the PCs previously (Ares Macrotech) took advantage of this heavily, and created a campaign to promote “American Technology” over “Foreign” magic. This led to a persecution of the magically inclined, which the players must attempt to reverse!

I’m a firm believer of “No singular objective good” in most games, and especially in something like Shadowrun. For that reason, one corp or another, someone will always be trying to tip the world into their power. The PCs learned that lesson the hard way!

[corruptionpoints]

Consider a scenario wherein magical talent is hereditary, and a magocratic empire retains its control over all of its constituency by enforcing a eugenics program for over eight centuries that seeks to divide its people into a peasant class with no hereditary capacity for magic, and a nobility that serves the empire and is rewarded by positions of power and luxury. To further cement the control of the empire, religion is outlawed and technology is suppressed. How would you run this seting?

This is amazingly cool. I like this idea. 

If I were to run this campaign setting, I would set the Empire as the (somewhat obvious) antagonist to the PCs. Then I would position the PCs as normal, run-of-the-mill citizens of the peasant class with a healthy amount of unrest. 

Then I would either MacGuffin the PCs into finding some advanced technology, or allow them to accidentally meet someone who has found some advanced technology, and see what they do with that power.

Theoretically, in my dream situation, the PCs would rise against the tyrannical Empire with their technology and live out every 90s Mech-Fantasy I’ve ever had. 

Realistically, they’d probably just blow themselves up. 

I would run a harsher setting with great reward over a LONG period of time wherein the PCs would be working to undermine the Empire through technological methods, because eugenically cleansing the peasant class of magic is butts.

magic butts.

Alternatively, if I instead wanted to run this from the top downward, I would have the PCs as the noble class with power who seek to change the hierarchy for the good of the people, but I find the low-to-high route more interesting. 

[corruptionpoints]

Might I ask for a moment of your time for which you explain to me the complexities and nuances of establishing a pantheon for an original setting? I'm trying to identify recurring traits among religions created solely for the sake of narrative.

I've only homebrewed a pantheon once, as I've only had to do so once. It was in a homebrewed D&D 3.5 game, if i remember correctly.

I started by writing a story about a group of people. A regular story about regular people in a regular town, assuming that the town has every profession necessary to have it run without outside influence.  These people would be based on the "Seven Heavenly Virtues". 

Then, I extrapolated the concepts. The farmer was a provider of food rather than a farmer. The soldier was the bastion of defense rather than a soldier. The lord was a benevolent overseer rather than a lord.

I let these normal people assume the major characteristics they embody: diligence, patience, kindness, humility. These people may or may not have actually existed in world lore, but that's irrelevant.

Advance history by some incredibly large amount of time, and assign each virtue to a different part of the world. The town expanded, and each of the original members claimed their own section of the world.

If I were to be direct, which I will for the sake of example, there would be seven kingdoms based around these seven concepts, each having their own god based on the original story.

It's boring to have that much objective good, and therefore each town based on Godly virtue would be tempered by its respective vice.

Perhaps the leaders in the Kingdom under diligence were lazy, and allowed their people to do all the work instead. The Kingdom based on temperance would be filled with lusty sections and alleys.

I like to assume that the virtues are always a basic guideline for how good humanity can be, and vices are the result when a divergent path is chosen instead. I like to assume the same for my personal pantheons in original settings.

Realistically, and this rings true in any game I run, I find the best villains are the ones who truly believe what they are doing is correct, and a "villain" is always someone who is attempting to do something outside of the set virtue. 

I hope this rather rambling post was helpful!