My New Lords of Olympus Campaign: It's Going to be... Anderson-esque

[RPGPundit]

Last night we created characters for my first Lords of Olympus campaign in years!




And now that I have the characters made, I spent a good part of today crafting the remainder of my campaign. Because you  can't really finish deciding what kind of campaign you'll be having until you know what kind of PCs you have.

It's a lot of work.





We have 8 players (3 women, 5 men). Because only half of the party has prior experience with either LoO or Amber, we're starting the campaign in "tutorial" mode. All but 1 of the PCs will start out as mortal, all but 1 will not know who their divine parent is. Those two honors, as well as the chance to be the only player who starts with a given power (Scrying, Metamorphosis, Elementalism, Ineffable Names, and Glamor) were each auctioned that way, the remaining powers are not available to start. My plan is to have us easing into a gradual revelation of the bigger multiverse, with the PCs starting in a few different locations (some of them will be starting in a school, some in a secret organization, and some as prisoners in a strange city).

Our youngest and least experienced player (she's not really all that young at 18, but we're all just ancient compared to that) managed to win 2 of the 4 1st-class ability slots in the bidding war (Might and Prowess), and won the bid for immortality.  She's showing herself to be a menace. She's starting out as a kind of wild-child who lives in a zoo next to the hippos.

Then we have a guy who is a descendant of his own PC from our Dark Albion campaign, he's now a student for the magisterium at Oxford. He's got 1st class in Ego.

Then there's the guy who was raised as an orphan in the streets of a dark-pulp Cairo, and became a grave-robber in a world where undead are real. He has 1st class in Fortitude. He also has, by far, the worst luck out of anyone. And he's the only one who knows who his divine parent is.

After that we have a guy who is a complete social introvert. A genius, he works for the police engaging in observation with CCTV cameras. He has incredible physical abilities that he doesn't know the origin of (having been raised in foster care). He's also completely unable to understand people, or relationships, so at night he prowls around watching people through their windows.

Then there's the guy who is the hereditary Emperor of a world where Rome never completely fell, and is a modern non-democratic imperial superpower rivaling the American Republic. He imagines himself to be a benevolent philosopher-king. He believes his amazing abilities to be a gift from the gods, particularly having been encouraged in this by a secret society who he thinks bred him as a kind of perfect human, and who trained him in how to change shape.  He has a bit of Caligula complex except that in his case it's totally justified.

Then we have a guy who's a kind of genius hacker, working in security; a kind of everyman who leads a kind of average life, enjoys sailing and motorcycles, and the general ease of a life where everything comes easy to him. The people he thought were his parents died in a fire, so he's never understood why he's just incredibly better at things than everyone else.

After that we have a gal who was raised in a fairly normal family in Bangor, Maine; only to start to develop eerie psychic abilities that manifested at an early age (she's the one who took Scrying). She learned how to work that power to see visions, and has tried to do good with them but the more powerful her visions became, the more people in her community became afraid of her. She's shy and introverted and dreams of when she'll be able to get out of this town and explore the whole wide world.

Finally, another gal who was raised by a family of 'sorcerers', cultists in a secret sect of Heavy Metal fans/occultists. She has been trained all her life by her parents to eventually become a member of this cult, being taught the occult from a young age (and, presumably, that Ozzy rules).


All of this fits pretty well with the kind of campaign I want to run. It'll have action and intrigue, of course, but it will be a bit less like a Greek tragedy or The Borgias or whatever, and a bit more like this:





Next time, the fun begins!


RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti A-grade + Image Latakia

[Headless]

Good luck.  Sounds great.  

Do you run it all in person or do you do supliment with email or something else?  8 is a lot of players, it doesn't sound like they are all in the same place, and they might want to do secret stuff.  Do you do break put sessions in another room?  

8 players one DM time management seems demanding.

[RPGPundit]

Good luck.  Sounds great.  

Do you run it all in person or do you do supliment with email or something else?  8 is a lot of players, it doesn't sound like they are all in the same place, and they might want to do secret stuff.  Do you do break put sessions in another room?  

8 players one DM time management seems demanding.

It's all in person.  The only modification from earlier days is that nowadays instead of a flurry of note-handling, all the secret messages to the GM are sent via Whatsapp.

[finarvyn]

I must be missing something. What makes this campaign "Anderson-esque"?  I thought at first you meant Poul Anderson, he of the Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions fame (which would make an awesome campaign in itself), but otherwise I don't get the reference.

[zircher]

Seconded, because curious minds and all.  :-)

[Headless]

Thats Wes Anderson of the Royal Tenanbaums

[zircher]

Ah, thanks.  Never watched any of his movies and thus failed to make the connection.

[finarvyn]

Hmmmm, I never heard of him nor (as far as I know) have ever seen his movies.

[RPGPundit]

I must be missing something. What makes this campaign "Anderson-esque"?  I thought at first you meant Poul Anderson, he of the Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions fame (which would make an awesome campaign in itself), but otherwise I don't get the reference.

Wes Anderson.

Quirkiness. Eccentric people with weird projects. Dysfunctional families. Fathers and Sons. Whimsy. Recurring actors. Nostalgia or retro-style. Story-within-story. Defining or understanding Family. Clippy dialogue. Appreciation of art or beauty in weird ways. Finding or losing love. Incredibly self-obsessed characters. Idle wealth leading to weird behavior. People wearing funny uniforms. Men wearing shorts. The ridiculous being treated as if it's totally normal. Exceptionally mature children or teens. Exceptionally immature adults. Bill Murray probably shows up at some point.

[RPGPundit]

Hmmmm, I never heard of him nor (as far as I know) have ever seen his movies.

You don't know what you're missing. He's my favorite living film-maker.

[Norbert G. Matausch]

Pundit, this sounds great! As an old Amber GM, I'm so glad your game keeps the diceless flame burning.

You mention one player won the auction for immortality. I have never played LoO, so please excuse my asking: Is Immortality a power you can buy?

What I'm also interested in is how you handle the growing-into-godlings thing. How do you manage that? Can the players buy powers during campaign? Do you guide them towards opportunities to gain powers?

Looking forward to your replies. Thanks!

[RPGPundit]

In Lords of Olympus, the bidding war is for only the four ability scores. However, GMs are encouraged that they could add other items to the bidding war to suit their campaign. In my campaign, since the PCs are staring out low-powered and without access to divinity, having one player already be divine would be a tempting option, and indeed it was.

The players will be able to buy powers during the campaign, based on what they've been roleplaying. I don't guide them inherently; in my experience PCs have little trouble with seeking out power all by themselves.