"DM's...Campaign transition help?" Topic

I've been running a 5E campaign in your traditional fantasy setting. I'm about to throw my players into chaos and introduce them to the world of MIDNIGHT, where evil rules the land and hope is all but lost. There will be a major battle, and evil wins. That's all the transition I've got so far. Anybody ever made this kind of jump mid-campaign or have any further ideas of how to make the transition?

I've made transitions from one campaign setting to another before. I think you need to decide if its purposeful, the players know they are about to leave the world they are in for another – in which case some type of fixed portal is likely: the wardrobe in Narnia, the stargate etc. Or if it is accidental, the players are unaware that they have stumbled into another world – in which case some type of natural seeming event is the cause: The tornado that brings Dorothy and Toto to Oz, sailing through a thick mist which brings them to the land that time forgot or finding a medallion which transports a copy of the character to another world like John Carter of Mars. You might also have your players summoned to the new campaign setting by someone who needs their help

Well, I wasn't completely clear…this will be a continuance of events in their current world, not a totally new world. In their current setting, the northern part of the world is inhabited by generally peaceful races while the southern part is populated with orcs, goblins, and the like.
What's about to happen is something like this; There is war in the heavens and the evil god Izrador is cast down. But when he is defeated, he manages to trigger the Sundering, cutting off access to the benevolent gods. Eventually, he will raise an army that defeats the humans, elves, dwarfs, and the like, and the land will be ruled by him and his minions. The land becomes desolate, the inhabitants always fearful. Magic is punishable by death, as is the possession of weapons or armor. Gold is worthless, clerics are useless, and magical healing is almost nonexistent.
So it's not so much an entire other world, as it is the desolation of their current one.

Are they continuing with the same characters? If so, then they probably need to live through the events. If they have an established campaign "base" – a castle or village they go back to after each adventure, then consider the effects on that.

AN alternative is to have the events happen "off camera" take the players out of the action for a while – have them go on a long sea journey and get shipwreckd. They then experience the sundering at a distance – flashes of light in the sky and strangely coloured lightning and aurora, ominous storms that last for days with the sounds of screams carried on the wind, magic stops working and so on. Maybe have the island invaded by newly emboldened sea creatures – Shaughn and the like. Eventually they get rescued or repair their ship and sail back to civilisation to see the thriving port they left is a blasted ruin populated by a fraction of the former inhabitants. Maybe the evil forces are now in control – squads of Orcs or Hobgoblin soldiers patrol the streets. Gnoll pirates and raiders brawl in the taverns and bully the few humans, dwarfs and elves that are left.

Finally, if you are making up new characters, then treat it as the start of a new campaign. Give them the background they know and introduce other bits as time goes on. In that case the status quo of evil ruling the land will already be known, and they won't have experienced anything else. Finding the legends and stories of a time before the sundering could be what spurs them into action. A nice little touch might be that restoring the vil god to its place in the godly realms might reconnect the good gods back to the people. You have to elevate the most evil being in existence to bring back the good old days. Even though their goal is for the best, suddenly the players are seen as evil cultists trying to bring the dark one back to life!

G.

First thing first: make sure your players are OK with this.

If your players joined this campaign thinking it will be a standard fantasy medieval setting and then suddenly has this sprung onto them, they might not welcome it – particularly the guy who really wanted to play a cleric/mage, or the guy playing the character who accumulated a lot of gold.

Discuss it with them beforehand to get their buy-in, even if it takes away some of the surprise.

If I am running this campaign, I will make the PCs the agent of this Sundering. They go on a quest thinking it is for good, but it turns out they are made use of by an evil cultist to bring Izrador to this world (in hindsight, the name Rodarzi should have raised some red flags…).

If you want to fast-forward the story (from Episode III to Episode IV, as it were) then the PCs are caught in a stasis field when Izrador manifests. A generation later, an intrepid band of adventurers follows a prophecy to the place when Izrador descended and release them from their stasis. The adventurers think the PCs are angels sent by the other gods to save the world. Maybe they alone in the world can still work magic.

The PCs must now undo the evil they released and redeem themselves, knowing that if they send Izrador back their own bodies will decay, no longer protected from the passage of time. Or something like that.

Yea, I echo Pedrobear on this; MAKE SURE the players on board with this. This is super-duper important if one of the players is a Cleric (or Paladin, or Druid, or another class with access to healing magic); you should strongly consider giving them access to some other 'cool' spells to offset this loss. The Rouge with the giant pile of gold might also be ticked off but that is a more manageable issue (SOMEONE will still want the gold, I suspect; it just gets harder to spend it).

And I'd also strongly consider making the PCs some of the central players in the 'fall' story; that way they 'own' the change and aren't having it completely thrust upon them. Even if the PC's can't stop it, you might consider having the PC's act in a way that allows the situation from being *worse*. Maybe Izrador's followers had some ritual going on that would have immediately possessed/converted/mind controlled/something all the priests of the good Gods once they lost contact, and the players manage to prevent this. Or some other scenario. That way the PCs manage to salvage some sort of victory from the situation, even if they 'loose' overall.

All this said, sometimes a world-changing event can revitalize a campaign, so good luck!

-Will

Echoing others, so long as the players are OK with the change. You have to bring it up in a way that does not delve into all the details, I'd imagine.

So it depends on the players. If they are emotionally invested in their PC's powers and abilities, they may rebel against this kind of thing. Happy-go-lucky players or those who are into the evolving story will be on board even if they are stripped of most of their power, because it is about the story to them.

Evil or Good winning should always be only temporary until the next time they are overthrown. So if evil wins for a spell (or decades/centuries) until some good guys are powerful enough to potentially attempt, "immortaldom," themselves and change that status-quo… all the better.

Thanks for all the input, guys! Some great advice in there and I'll definitely be using some of it! My players are typically along for the story, and the only cleric in the bunch is the one I run to help keep them alive. I don't think any of them will balk at the idea…after all, it's my son and nephews…I'll smack 'em around if they give me grief! :) I plan to take them through a series of normal scenarios that will lead up to this point. Love the idea of involving them in the ultimate triggering of events though…I'll have to figure a way to get that in there. And I think I may send them on a long adventure into the north mountains and when they return they'll find that things have quickly deteriorated. They may encounter things getting worse and worse as they move south (which is where the evil forces will be coming from).