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An Argument for the End Times

January 3rd, 2012

Joshua Zaback

Grave Plots Archive

            Hello everyone, and welcome to what will in all likelihood be the last ever Grave Plots, where we have brought you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week.  As those of you who caught Alex’s article yesterday will know by now, after this week Necromancers of the Northwest will be going through some rather dramatic and unexpected changes. It is then perhaps fitting that this last week of NNW as we have all come to be familiar with it has been designated Apocalypse Week.  As this is what amounts to the article equivalent of the end times for Grave Plots, I’ve been doing a little bit of reflecting on the article which is not long for this world.  In general I’ve been pleased with how Grave Plots has gotten on; for my part, at least, it’s never been dull or boring, and I sincerely hope you’ve found some entertainment here as well.

            However, as I thought about it more and more, one thing began to bother me: that sentence at the beginning of every Grave Plots for as long as I can remember. You know the one, about providing new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week; in retrospect it’s not strictly true.  In fact, a lot of Grave Plots, particularly Grave Plots that fall on theme weeks, actually consist of me giving out some personal opinions and general advice about running a game of a certain style or using a particular element in your campaign. 

            My intention with these kinds of articles, in addition to and perhaps more so than providing what I think are some helpful bits of advice, has always been to inspire you to create a more exotic and fulfilling adventure, much as is the case with the average plot.  In thinking back upon my time writing Grave Plots, I feel now that perhaps that first sentence should read: Welcome to Grave Plots, where I strive to inspire DMs and empower your creative process.  Speaking of which, you didn’t decide to scroll over to Grave Plots on Apocalypse Week to hear a eulogy for the Tuesday article, so if you please, allow me to try to pique your interest and inspire your imagination one last time.

 Why an Apocalypse?

            In the interests of inspiring you, I’ve decided to skip all the advice you probably don’t need and skip straight to the point of explaining why you should consider an apocalypse.  Frankly, an apocalypse isn’t for everyone’s game, but there are a number of good reasons why you would want to include one of these game-changing events in your campaign, and if you need some convincing, you’re in luck, because we’re about to take a look at some of the key points. 

            Firstly, if you ever wanted to set an epic tone to something, you can’t really beat a good apocalypse.  The grand unveiling, the revelation of a world-shattering truth, and the accompanying grand acts of sweeping, existence-altering change inspire some of the most dire and desperate emotions in all of us.  As we watch the world we thought we knew crumble around us, replaced by the horrifying, the alien, and the wondrous, we can’t help but stand in awe, even as we desperately struggle against the tide or abandon the old and embrace the new mystery.  The spectrum of grand imagery available to you during and leading up to an apocalypse are endless; just keep in mind that the world wasn’t created in day and destroying it should take longer than a full-round action, and you should be fine.

            Secondly, stories of apocalypse are particularly powerful, more so than virtually any other kind of story.  They inspire cults, convert nonbelievers, sell books and movies, drive men mad searching the internet for the inside scoop on the upcoming end of the world, and generally leave us huddled up asking the wise and mighty among us for reassurance that everything’s going to be okay, only to be rewarded with their own uncertainty.  Why tales of apocalypse are particularly powerful is beyond my simple mind: perhaps it’s because they inspire primal fears of change and death; perhaps it’s because they often come tempered with assurances of salvation; and perhaps it’s because they remind us of our own insignificance when faced with the might of a universe which is infinitely larger and greater than ourselves. 

            Whatever the case, running an apocalypse at the game table lets you tap into those powerful emotions and get a little something extra in the players’ responses while you explore these kinds of strong feelings in a safe setting.  If you’re worried that your story can’t possibly have so profound an effect on your players, I wouldn’t be so sure; after all, when you strip away all the faith, the prophetic wording, and scholarly interest, all those famous examples of apocalypse are essentially just stories.  No one’s ever lived through an apocalypse firsthand, so if your storytelling is good enough (and with enough effort there isn’t any reason it couldn’t be), you should be able to pack just as much punch as Snorri Sturluson or Saint John the Divine.

            To that end, the single best reason to make an apocalypse part of your game is that it makes for some of the best storytelling you will ever get the chance to do.  As I stated above, you basically get your choice of imagery: everything from the sun dying out, to water becoming replaced with blood, to the sudden appearance of golden marble palaces in the sky and the emergence of new gods is on the table.  In fact, nothing is really off the table; you get to use the whole damn playbook when writing an apocalypse, and you get full license to go overboard. After all, it’s the end of the world as we know it.  Choosing how to outfit your vision of a world’s end times can be great fun and a great creative exercise, and sharing that vision with an appreciative audience can be a very rewarding moment as a DM.  In addition to getting to create your own end times, apocalypses make for a virtually endless source of plot seeds, allowing you to send the PCs off to perform numerous kinds of activities in a dire and cataclysmic world. 

            While you might think that you can’t really do anything with an apocalypse until the end of the campaign, banish the notion – in fact, an apocalypse can serve as a great backdrop for adventures throughout the campaign and can begin whenever you choose.  When you plunge your world into chaos is ultimately up to you, but depending on just how gradually you want to destroy things, you can get a lot of mileage out of a long, drawn-out apocalypse.

 

            Well, that’s it for Grave Plots for the time being, I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did, and I would like to thank you all for reading.  I do hope to see some of you back here in the future, however, for a slew of great new articles, and even a podcast with Alex and myself devoted to improving the gaming experience. Until then, allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.