Most Epic Plot You've Run

Cthulhu_Wakes

Cthulhu_Wakes

Black Sun in a White World
Let's hear it folks. The Fae invade, FaFL comes crashing through, the Defense Grid opens a Class 10 can of Whoop Ass on the Threshold. No holds barred war, hell even a grand TRADE game.


What are your most epic tales you've run? In any system for that matter. Exalted preferrably, but let's have the others too.


For me, it would have to be Age of Air and the Twilight of an Age.


EPIC games. Age of Air ran six months and behld grand wars fought, the Civil War of the Realm, the emergence of airship power and the rebirth of Vanelith as something...more.


The Twilight of an Age...dear God...what is there to say? An entire year of Exalted, start to finish it was grand, touching all the Directions in it's scope, leaving them shaken and battered in it's wake. An Emperor arose to the Throne, conquered anew, a Fourth Invasion, magitech of unparalled power. The touch of a Primordial shook the world and left it changed with it's Fall, the destruction of Imperial Mountain, and the birth of the shattered kingdoms laying claim to the broken Isle.


Out of Exalted, had to be my first campaign, post Apocalypse WoD game. Simply too much to describe, but following the story and changing lives of a pack of werewolves throughout a decade on a hellacious earth. Characters came and went, each as significant as the other. Many a moving moment.


Anyone else care to share?
 
I'm afraid I can't boast much for Epic, especially not in Exalted games, which I've had poor luck getting off the ground.


The most epic thing that's happened in my games was in a d20 Warcraft game, when a sorceress flipped out and used the Orb of Storms to destroy a city, castle and all, tapping into the dark power of the Twisting Nether to maximise its destructive power.
 
Five year Cyberpunk game, with converted Palladium rules. Eight casts.  Three groups.


Started investigating a bad shipment of drugs, which led to an illegal clone lab, which led to corrupt government officials, which led to Tycho Dome being blown on Luna, which was linked to an odd cult, who tainted the drugs, was involved with the illegal clones, which was tied to an invasion by an alien Hive ship, in Jupitor orbit, who had been infiltrating and preparing since they were blown out of their Warp trajectory by the death screams of Hiroshima, and their first infiltrator drones crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.


Discovering an alien ship several miles in length was just the first step, as military forces went to engage it, and drove it back to Saturn orbit, but with 80% casualties for the entire fleet.


Enter the Psi and Genies--genetically altered--who had been building their underground, with the assistance of Luna and the break away Martian government, who put aside their dreams of rebellion to save the Solar System from the threat of the Hive aliens.  


The PCs wound up joining the effort, and the Black Watch eventually inserts a kill order to the Hive Ship to absorb the combatant units, assisted by a Hive Caste that was designed to understand human technology, instead of their own biotech.


Years later, another Hive Ship is spotted, this time with altered humans who were still loyal to the dead Hivers, and who had been their Doomsday Plan, this time embroiling every sentient species on this arm of the galexy--and by the time this thing had ended, the PCs had discovered seven different species, but then the real plan was revealed, that the entire thing was part of a grand war between intelligences spawned within the plasma of stars, and their "dead" brothers, who had faded to black holes.  


The Stars and the Dark warred, and each used intelligent species as their pawns, the Dark throwing the Hive off course just enough to be affected by the death knell of Hiroshima, sparking what they had hoped to be another anihillation of a noisy sentient race, but instead ran afoul of the effort by the Stars, who had awoken humanity's psi potential, not just to save humanity, but to lead them to defeat the greater plot to extinguish stars all along the galactic arm, thus swelling the ranks of the Dark, and turning the war in their favor...


That epic enough?
 
In Exalted, I ran a game that involved the potential destruction of the east. an army of combined third circle demons and Ancient raksha. the players had to fight a war against the fair folk, the demons, and grey forks. the dragonblooded blamed the anathema fr the war and attacked. in the end they managed to win, but it was very close. battles from chanta to rathess, and massive armies, and a reshaping of the east. it was a good game.
 
Nice. I've done my share of Fae invasions. Did a massive on once, about half a million Fae, kind of a long await counter offensive from the Contagion era. I remember from the Fae book that they don't measure time like we do, so they're slower in reaction. So this was it.


War lasted a looooooooooooooooooooong time. Had a lot of operations, sieges and what not. These Fae came to conquer, they were inspired by the deeds of the Wyld War, plus the ideology of the Balorian Crusade, so it was an odd and (of course) chaotic attack.
 
Unfortunately, due to my cross-country move, I didn't get to move my games into the grand epic I wanted it to be...one of the circle had just finally gotten 3rd circle spells, so I was steering them towards the south, where I was going to introduce the autobots. I was gonna run the entire death of Autochthon by the FaFL plotline, and right as the MASSIVE shadowlands was spreading, the sky was gonna turn green and chime with the sound of wedding bells. Yes, I am evil, bwahaha...never got to run it though...
 
I don't do epic... no really. ^_^


Sure... I have a game running where the starting characters have 1000 xp and the world is DOOMED... but it isn't THAT epic... ^_-


I've had Godzilla show up, the Heartless, Hinata Hyuuga as a kickass lunar, Caster and Saber... but really... it's not that epic... not even when the characters are facing off in a 3 way battle royale with an army of fae, Caster + Saber in a giant warstrider + an army of Heartless.
 
I can not say... this is because my PCs have been known to visit this place...


But I should be able to show and tell next week
 
Well... they're demons... kind of... a very special breed of 1st circle demons... ^_^
 
I haven't run an epic game - I've only had a few zombie hunter VtM games and being an AST in a LARP as experience in actual STing (I can post that one later).  Me and my brother-in-law, however, did make a plan for an OWoD LARP campaign by the name of Requiem Falls that spanned not only all the different titles but also the different time periods.  It was inspired by Silent Hill and the premise of it is that it would be a Technocracy game, but would flit back and forth between a Technocracy game and the other OWoD games.  What the player's supernatural characters did in the past determined what would happen to the player's Technocratic character in the present.


DARK AGES - VAMPIRE


The vampires are asked by a prince in Ireland to investigate the inquisition murdering withces and heretics.  It just happens to be a Baali cult.  Marcus, a young Nephandi, is being taught by the Baali elder.  The Baali wants to enact a powerful ritual and he needs the young Nephandus’ help.  The ritual requires the deaths of many faithful innocents, which is why the witches are being killed.  For vengeance, the witches and Verbena are attacking the Christians in the city.  This actually helps the Baali gather more souls for their ritual.  The ritual causes the wraiths of the faithful souls to focus on a creature and fill him with dark power.  For Baali, they reach Golconda.  For a mage, the ritual increases the power of his Avatar.  The vampires must discover the Baali and a Verbena master will give them a black stake.  On a successful attack, the Black Stake automatically sucks in the soul of the Methusalah.  The elder Baali can be trapped inside the stake, but can’t be killed.  The vampires are suppose to then take it to the Verbena master, who will watch over it and safeguard it.


DARK AGES AFTERMATH


The Technocrats hear of strange deaths in Ireland.  They are sent to investigate.  The Nephandi have looked for the Black Stake to try to free the Baali Methusalah.  They need his knowledge and his power to reenact the ritual to merge the Avatar back together again without the resistance of the two girls.  Unfortunately, the Baali went fucking nuts and the Nephandi can’t control him.  The Technocracy tries to kill the Methusalah but the Nephandi are countering their attempts.  Madame Lenni is one of the ones doing it.


WYLD WEST - GAROU


In the town of Paradise Stands, a town not far from Requiem Falls, the Black Spiral Dancers are making more and more attacks and they have more and more power.  There is a great hellhole there, one that the Garous can’t handle.  Marcus comes around to help the Garou in return for the werewolves letting him use the caern and study there.  He knows that if he keeps his dark texts at a good caern, it will be less likely that he’ll be found out by Nephandi hunters.  The Garou fight the Black Spirals until they reluctantly agrees.  What they do not know is that Marcus is actually spurring the BSDs on so the Garou will be more inclined to agree with him.  His helper is Madame Lenni, who is a kinfolk mage apprentice to Marcus.


WYLD WEST AFTERMATH


The gypsy woman Madame Lenni is searching for Marcus’ haven in Paradise Stands so she can find and use his journals.  The thing is his haven is being protected by the Gaian Garou.  The Garou don’t know all the details because all of those Garou who were around are either dead or at other caerns.  As far as the local Garou know, the place is taboo for a reason and they dare not break it.  The Technocrats have to invade because the reality deviance is becoming far, far too much.  They have to fight the Garou while the Nephandi fight the Garou, helping the Black Spiral Dancers take the caern so she can get at her lover’s journals.


WORLD WAR II - TRADITION MAGES


The Traditions have discovered that the Nephandi are after an ancient artifact, the Heart of Darkness.  It is the heart of one of the Malfeans slumbering in the Underworld.  It allows a mage to channeling directly the power of these ever-sleeping Neverborn.  The Traditions are after it, led by Madame Lenni.  The Technocracy, however, do not trust the Traditions to look after this treasure, which is why they’re sending their own team, which just so happens to be inclined towards the Nazis.  One of these is Mr. Ivory from Control, who is a Man in Grey at this time and is called Mr. Ash.  He is being helped by Marcus, who has passed himself off as a Technocrat and is a colonel in the German military.  Marcus and Madame Lenni are working together to manipulate the two groups.  There is a third group though, Ireilas, a mad Nephandus, who wishes to use the Heart of Darkness himself to awaken the Neverborn.  The reason why Marcus and Lenni are after it is because they don’t want Ireilas to awaken it because for a Malfean to awaken causes the Nephandi to lose their powers.  Marcus does not want that and will do everything he can to stop Ireilas.    Should the Traditions or the Technocracy take it, Marcus and Lenni will steal it and take it to the concentration camp.  Ireilas follows them, but Marcus uses his magick to entomb Ireilas in the Gauntlet at the concentration camp.  Marcus decides that a concentration camp would be a very good place to make all the sacrifices necessary to empower his Avatar.  Marcus, however, decides to consume the Heart of Darkness to increase the power of his own Avatar.  This causes his Avatar to split into pieces, and Lenni is heartbroken.  She swears to find a way to bring him back, but leaves and dodges capture.


WORLD WAR II TRADITIONS AFTERMATH


Mr. Ivory tells the amalgam that there’s a great surge in negative energy at the concentration camp and they discover that it’s infested with zombies.  What happened is Ireilas absorbed enough resonance from the Heart of Darkness that he can act as a Quintessence channel to it, even when it’s lost.  Lenni has freed Ireilas and needs a part of him to find the Heart of Darkness, but the Ireilas has awakened and has plans of his own.  Able in the arts of necromancy, he raises ghosts and zombies to help him take over the world!  At the end of the game, Lenni needs Ireilas' head to find the Heart of Darkness, which is part and parcel of Marcus' Avatar.  She takes it away to Requiem Falls.  One piece of his Avatar was embedded into her and another was embedded into one of the Technocrats.  These shards will later manifest themselves into their children.


MODERN NIGHTMARES


There was a great Nightmare invading the Dreaming and the Changelings must push it out of the Dreaming.  The Dreaming around the city of Requiem Falls is becoming a Nightmare and the Changelings there are moving into Liberty Meadows.  The Changelings of Liberty Meadows must send a band of heroes into the Nightmare of Requiem Falls and find the source of the Nightmare.  The source of the Nightmare is Lord Ozwalt, a Shadow Sidhe is directing the Nightmare to wreak havoc in the Dreaming.  He makes monsters and terrors that the Changelings are hard pressed to fight directly.  Instead, they must find the source of his powers.  They discover that this power lies within Sybil, a girl who was kidnapped by the mortal seeming of Lord Ozwalt.  In the physical world, the Changelings must solve the mystery before more of the Dreaming is corrupted.  When they do, they realize that Sybil is the source of the Nightmare.  Although she is not fae, she does have a seeming in the Dreaming, and she has such great power that she cannot be killed.  The Changelings, however, can craft a glamour for her that will not make her afraid anymore, for her Nightmares are merely protectors of those things she fears.  Once she stops being afraid, the Nightmare will end.  And so the changelings turn her Nightmare into a Dream of paradise.  She must stay locked in this Dream, however, or else other Changelings could use the vast dark powers within her.  Once the Changelings enact this Glamour on the child, they return her to her mother, a woman by the name of Lenni...


MODERN NIGHTMARES AFTERMATH


It has been 10 years since Requiem Falls was almost succumb to the Nightmare of Sybil.  When it happened, Lenni realized that her daughter contained half of her beloved's Avatar.  So she knew that it must be within someone else.  To that end, she uses the Head of Ireilas to summon the other half, which is a girl named Cassandra, who was born to Technocrat.  This Technocrat demands Mr. Ivory's team to find her and her last coordinates was Requim Falls.  There, the Gauntlet is torn very much and on a spiritual level there is a battle going on.  Cassandra is trying to help Sybil in her Dream keep Lenni out, but Lenni is able to have some control over it because of the Head of Ireilas.  Because Cassandra and Sybil are manifestations of the Avatars, and because they want to keep it out of the wrong hands, they've shattered the power of Marcus into nine items of power.  The Technocrats go in and try to bring reality back, and in so doing inadvertently bring the items of power into one place, which is a statue, but one that looks worn all over and is featureless.  For every item of power brought to it, the statue resembles more and more Marcus!  When they're all brought in one place, Marcus' soul is rebuilt.  However, his Avatar is split between him and Sybil and Cassandra!  A battle for the control of the Avatar takes place, and the Technocrats must choose sides.


That's the general jist.  These were just my notes, and I made up that last part on the spot going by my memories, and I know there are a lot of plot holes I'd have to clear up, but that's what I had planned for my players.
 
I'm currently on an extended break from Exalted for the time being and am in the process of planning out a nWoD mage game (I know, some of you truly do despise the new system).  I like to think that it'll be pretty epic in scope.


I've got 7 players and I'm going to be creating their characters for them.  I'm not even going to be warning them that the game is starting; they're gonna show up expecting to play a totally different game.


The premise is that they are all kids who have been abducted and taken into a nightmarish labyrinth.  None of them remember anything about their lives prior to waking up in this hell-hole, right down to their names; which is why I'm not prepping them for the game... I want them to be confused.  Resting at the center of this labyrinth is the being that brought them there, supposedly to exploit their supernatural powers.  In order to reclaim their old lives (in exalted terms, they are essentially outside of fate at this point and unable to fully reenter) they must navigate the labyrinth and confront this being.


The catch is that there, of course, is no straight way through, in fact the labyrinth weaves in and out of the real world at many different points.  They will find themselves lost amid small town america, dealing with serial killers, crazy evangalists, draconian institutions for transient adolescents and all the freaky smalltown insanity I can dream up.  And of course, since they escaped the clutches of this being, forces are hunting them at every turn, shadows that are woven out of aspects of their stolen memories.  As they defeat these shadows they begin to unravel aspects of their past, but the problem is that the more they know about their former lives the more entrenched in reality they become, and the labyrinth becomes more abstract and horrifying.


So it's a band of kids, without resources, family or even identity, trying to survive in a dark, lovecraftian americana setting, navigating their way to a dark force deep within the abyss in order to reclaim their former lives.


I think it'll be pretty cool and definitely epic.
 
I've been trying to digest all the three systems, compile all the information I need in order to run 7 people through the game totally blind while trying to subtley wage a propaganda war lauding the new system to a staunchly oWoD purist.


So far though, I really like some of the stuff I've seen.  It's different, way different in a lot of points, but over all I really like it.
 
Most Epic Exalted Game: bunch of baby 1t age solars ripped through time by the US to Gehenna/Apocalypse time in WOD


this was with the 'with a BANG not a whimper' style endings


They ended up uniting the Garou and many of the other changing breeds


They became the leaders of the Hunters (who turned out to be something akin to half caste solars)


They whacked an Antideluvian (Giovanni) After He had control of Chicago


They were heroes in the Human/Vampire war


and THAT was just the prelude to the actual campaign...


in other systems I ran a 20 month shadowrun campaign which ended with the party Nuking an Aztech Teocalli, by accident


My players protested that one after half the party died campaign died there as 3 players walked out
 
Nice Kremlin, having Exalts in the modern era is always a good time IMHO


The most epic game I've ever run Exalted or otherwise was titled Chronciles of Nexus in which the characters saved the city from a joint invasion of the Realm, Ma-Ha-Suchi and MoW with Juggernaut. They then fought the schemes of an Abyssal/nacsent DeathLord named The Song of Autumn, then once the Song of Autumn slew one of the original Deathlords at the behest of his maelific lord, the FaFL slew him in vengeance, then launched his war on creation, for the next year's worth of sessions the character organized a new world spanning theocracy, restored denansdor and made Vanileth it's city father thereby making him sane, killed Mnemon and pilfered the matle of brigid, used the five metal shrike to fly into Juggernaut and destroy him and MoW, one of the dragon blooded players fought walking on laughter in a duel on a wind swept grass plane and won...kind of... the south was engulfed in shadow as the legion sanguinary made its way across the world and finally (this was before the necromancy sourcebook mind you) the FaFL revealed his UBER WEAPON a mile long airship with the skull of the newly dead kukla mounted on the fron and an essence cannon not unlike the godspear, he parked it over Stygia to create a shadow land on the blessed isle and finish creations defenders, the charcters showed up at his citidel in stygia (by this point they were all essence 7-9, fought him several players died sacrificing themselves to destroy the airship while the others dealt with the FaFL, amazingly enough the Dragon Blooded player struck the killing blow, bringing the second age of man to a close and brought the underworld's dual monarchy into friendly contact with the nations of creation
 
I'm in the process of novelizing my two most epic campaigns in Exalted.


Ummm...if anyone from the Freedom Stone visits and actually reads my stuff there, don't read on as it will utterly spoil it.  Hah.


First Campaign:


Set in the Realm, Solar circle gets gathered by a Sidereal to break into the Imperial Manse, using an incredibly difficult (ie. the whole campaign) set of steps to access it by a security backdoor.  Along the way, Sidereal, Dragonblooded and a particular Day Caste Abyssal compete to get there first.


And when they succeeded, the Sidereal revealed himself as a First Age Solar who'd been hiding inside the body of the Sidereal, just waiting for access to the Manse.  Without writing pages here, he used systems in the Manse to remove certain protections from the Elemental Pole of Earth.  The party promptly had to go after him and stop him from destroying it, as he wanted to remake Creation in his image.  Mwa.


Second Campaign:


First-Age Solar is dead but the protections are gone and something's gone wrong with the Imperial Mountain.  A badass Infernal Sidereal from the Primordial War finally got out (couldn't escape unless someone was more trecherous than he was, which that Solar/Sidereal guy was) and 'tainted' the Elemental Pole of Earth.


So, the party has to find out what happened and find a way to undo it before the taint gets bad enough that Creation and Malfaes become indistinguishable from each other.  Final battle involves that Sidereal, the Scarlet Empress, a few others, and there's even an Abyssal Redemption in there.


That's about it.
 
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