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Post by chronovore on May 18, 2017 21:49:25 GMT -8
I'm running a FATE Core game in a setting which reaches back to college for me. When discussing the setting for the current campaign, the group wanted intrigue in a large-ish city setting, against the backdrop of a siege which will eventually "arrive on the city's doorstep."
Previously the campaign featured a transdimensional incursion by chronovores (hence my handle), as well as trips to the Land of Eternal Twilight (faerie realm), and a brief, pants-shittingly tense trip to R'lyeh.
The "siege" in this campaign should be thematically similar, but qualitatively different than those previous realms. And then whatever that realm's inhabitants, in some form, will lay a type of siege to the city. I'm still unsure as to the where, why, and how of it all. I'm open to suggestions…
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Post by chronovore on May 18, 2017 21:51:34 GMT -8
FWIW, the Fate "Issues" they elected for - are described thusly:
IMPENDING – The impending siege! Rallying the city to approach the siege. City rulers/elders and the Fey realize a siege is coming from outside the known realms. Current magic only allows for Earth/Fey travel - but there is a THIRD realm with its own interests. Will the Fey help?
- CURRENT – Institutional corruption! Every group has its own agenda to survive the siege with an improved position. Who can be trusted?
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Post by chronovore on May 22, 2017 2:04:21 GMT -8
I guess the trouble I'm having is the idea of a siege, where a group constructs a barrier to prevent ingress or egress around an area – how would that work with the inhabitants of another realm? If it's a realm that exists in parallel to ours, isn't a portion of it already co-incident with the PC's own world?
How about preventing only some kind of energy? Or time? What if the transdimensional siege blocks the ability to sleep, or dream? What if it blots out the sun, and the city is constantly cast into darkness?
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Post by The Northman on May 22, 2017 2:30:50 GMT -8
Could the 'siege' be a prophesied event of some kind? Thing X is happening, and there's nothing they can do about it. With it comes this incursion of locust-like invaders (literal or figurative) who sweep through. The game becomes about forging alliances to protect resources and wealth, or earn favor in the aftermath, in addition to making sure the city as a whole is capable of surviving in any shape for those things to be of value.
And the clock is ticking...
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Post by chronovore on May 22, 2017 15:19:22 GMT -8
Could the 'siege' be a prophesied event of some kind? Thing X is happening, and there's nothing they can do about it. With it comes this incursion of locust-like invaders (literal or figurative) who sweep through. The game becomes about forging alliances to protect resources and wealth, or earn favor in the aftermath, in addition to making sure the city as a whole is capable of surviving in any shape for those things to be of value. And the clock is ticking... I like the prophesy idea. The setting is such that the players have heard of this problem, that the siege will come, and that the majority of the people in the city either do not know of it yet or do not believe it will come. With a prophecy I can offer a different interpretation of the words, an alternate interpretation of events presaging the oncoming strife. Thanks! Any ideas on how a siege, itself, might work from another plane?
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Post by The Northman on May 22, 2017 15:21:03 GMT -8
There are a few, but the first would be ancient wards incorporated into the actual construction of the city with this event in mind. They can 'port in all around them but not inside the walls.
That opens up some early plot involving potential saboteurs inside the city. Maybe doomsday cults or somesuch.
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Post by chronovore on May 22, 2017 15:28:51 GMT -8
There are a few, but the first would be ancient wards incorporated into the actual construction of the city with this event in mind. They can 'port in all around them but not inside the walls. That opens up some early plot involving potential saboteurs inside the city. Maybe doomsday cults or somesuch. I LOVE IT. Thanks, this is a whole new branch for me. I can even work it into an existing plot thread: We've got a breach in one of the walls, and there is a very petty discussion about who should pay for its restoration. With it becoming a critical piece in the city's defense, as well as whether or not restoring the ward will be handled in secrecy or publicly – well, that's a lot of good stuff to work with. YAHOO!
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Post by The Northman on May 22, 2017 15:29:48 GMT -8
Glad to help.
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Post by chronovore on May 22, 2017 15:30:38 GMT -8
I stealth edited for clarity.
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Post by zoomfarg on May 24, 2017 21:05:53 GMT -8
chronovore, I've been super intrigued by this topic ever since I read it a couple days ago. Have you thought more about who might besiege and why? A couple thoughts that popped into my head: Maybe some ancient heroes/villains obtained/stole a powerful artifact from the other dimension. Maybe its absence plunged the realm into an age of darkness or famine or some such. Is the city generally a just city? Maybe it's an invasion by criminals/villains/enemies put to death by the city, whose souls have been waiting in the other dimension until they gather enough power to regain corporeal form and seek revenge. Is the city generally unjust/corrupt? Maybe similar to the above, but the invaders are those wrongfully put do death.
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Post by chronovore on May 25, 2017 0:33:30 GMT -8
chronovore , I've been super intrigued by this topic ever since I read it a couple days ago. Have you thought more about who might besiege and why? A couple thoughts that popped into my head: Maybe some ancient heroes/villains obtained/stole a powerful artifact from the other dimension. Maybe its absence plunged the realm into an age of darkness or famine or some such. Is the city generally a just city? Maybe it's an invasion by criminals/villains/enemies put to death by the city, whose souls have been waiting in the other dimension until they gather enough power to regain corporeal form and seek revenge. Is the city generally unjust/corrupt? Maybe similar to the above, but the invaders are those wrongfully put do death. These are good suggestions, though the latter ones I might use for a different city in the game, if this group ever ventures out. It's a large, semi-industrialized city near a substantial inland bay. The previous campaign's banishing of the chronovore threat tore open a rift which allowed dragons back into the world, in a flooding rush through that brief opening. I'm not interested in bringing back the chronovores, but there is definitely a possibility in wondering "Why did the dragons /want/ to come back?" They have been pretty well-behaved, so possibly the bad ones were left behind in that other place. Maybe the current set of a few dozen dragons were fleeing something worse? Or fleeing to a realm in which they would be able to mount a defense, due to different properties or rules? Out of the dozens of dragons which came through, the most apparently-benevolent of them, "DEM," (Draco Ex Machina) took up residence in the PCs' city and has been the de facto mayor for the last three decades. He is largely a background figure, with a few human representatives carrying out his few diplomatic dictates. Perhaps DEM has been preparing this city as his own holdfast. Lately he's been spotted less frequently than usual. With that broken tower I mentioned, I'm considering that the current MacGuffin is a resource with which the city could repair the wards, should the walls also be re-built.
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dnddad
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Post by dnddad on Jul 5, 2017 12:11:12 GMT -8
Sounds a lot like the Siege of Kharkanas from the Malazan series.
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Post by chronovore on Aug 30, 2017 1:29:03 GMT -8
Sounds a lot like the Siege of Kharkanas from the Malazan series. Somehow, I missed this response. I've only read the first book of the Malazan, and that was a few years back. Is this the same as the siege of Capustan?
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SirGuido
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Post by SirGuido on Aug 31, 2017 6:06:04 GMT -8
Kaiju.
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Post by chronovore on Aug 31, 2017 8:14:09 GMT -8
Epic! Probably too epic for the "small fish in a big pond" theme of this campaign, but I'll keep it holstered for When Things Go Horribly Wrong.
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