the banality of evil
Apr. 2nd, 2012 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brushwolfRather than talking about what's eating me right now (there is a lot of it), I will talk about D&D thanks to reading something Tod wrote.
For a while, I've wanted to do a game which is a higher level buddy roadtrip through Hell. (Yes, I loved A Paladin in Hell, and think it's one of the finest things Monte Cook ever produced.)
I've always imagined D&D Hell being this very Confucian setting - things are done the way they've always been done because that's the way they should be done because that's the way they will be done - and of course, all of these people who are only kinda sorta devoted to the system trying to carve out little mini-fiefdoms for themselves. The bureaucratic office tyrant, the career officer, the eager young lieutenant trying to snag up credit for stuff which doesn't really change anything. Some of the Archdukes/Dukes are militaristic jackboots who actually keep an eye on their fiefdoms and others are fine with anything happening there so long as there's no revolts and they're getting what they'd like. Although all the inhabitants are monsters and nominally evil, they're basically people; the system and a few key beneficiaries are what's really evil.
The planes within Hell may be separate, but the great river Styx flows through all of them and is a little like the Mekong meets the Danube meets the Seine meets the Hwang Ho. On steroids. Small communities of outcasts live in raft cities; night hags trade larvae; occasionally Hell's organized criminals will use the forgetful qualities of the place; Styx devils, the only people who can swim in the river without any problems, make a lively income on anything they catch in the river, which is occasionally monstrous crap capable of taking out whole regiments. Naturally to travel on the Styx requires either a really sealed hull (stone, devilish flesh, bronze, a mimic, etc) or the toxic atmosphere will slowwwwwwly take away all memory and individuality in people not fortunate enough to have one.
But every diabolical ruler has little checkpoints on where the river flows through his or her realm, and anyone, from Styx-devil fishing boats to big barges of heavily armed anti-paladins/Blackguards/Hellknights/etc, will need to go through them. That means bureaucracy, official papers, and bribes. I'm inspired here by how Edo period travel was restricted to ensure the Tokugawas stayed safely in power.
Two adventure ideas I'd like to use with this setting. The first is a batch of mortal plane adventurers finding out about and acquiring basically a block seal or a scroll or something which allows free passage down the river (this doesn't prevent the local authorities from trying to extort the PCs however and they still need to deal with challenges like finding a boat). The second though is that the player characters are all devils - rank and file soldiers or bureaucrats. Life in Hell has always been, will always be, the same. Until one day the PCs help stand off and defeat an attack by a batch of paladins and their celestial allies. For the first time ever our heros have discovered that there's something out there other than more Hell, this endless dogmatic place of heat and red clay soil; that rather than being impoverished, terrible planes of existence without the right guidance of Hellish standards, those other places might actually be sort of nice. They resolve to leave Hell and go there instead. Unfortunately doing so requires a lot of traveling through the Hells, which isn't always easy, and even once they get out, how do they keep very angry angels from killing them off before they have a chance to explain themselves?
For a while, I've wanted to do a game which is a higher level buddy roadtrip through Hell. (Yes, I loved A Paladin in Hell, and think it's one of the finest things Monte Cook ever produced.)
I've always imagined D&D Hell being this very Confucian setting - things are done the way they've always been done because that's the way they should be done because that's the way they will be done - and of course, all of these people who are only kinda sorta devoted to the system trying to carve out little mini-fiefdoms for themselves. The bureaucratic office tyrant, the career officer, the eager young lieutenant trying to snag up credit for stuff which doesn't really change anything. Some of the Archdukes/Dukes are militaristic jackboots who actually keep an eye on their fiefdoms and others are fine with anything happening there so long as there's no revolts and they're getting what they'd like. Although all the inhabitants are monsters and nominally evil, they're basically people; the system and a few key beneficiaries are what's really evil.
The planes within Hell may be separate, but the great river Styx flows through all of them and is a little like the Mekong meets the Danube meets the Seine meets the Hwang Ho. On steroids. Small communities of outcasts live in raft cities; night hags trade larvae; occasionally Hell's organized criminals will use the forgetful qualities of the place; Styx devils, the only people who can swim in the river without any problems, make a lively income on anything they catch in the river, which is occasionally monstrous crap capable of taking out whole regiments. Naturally to travel on the Styx requires either a really sealed hull (stone, devilish flesh, bronze, a mimic, etc) or the toxic atmosphere will slowwwwwwly take away all memory and individuality in people not fortunate enough to have one.
But every diabolical ruler has little checkpoints on where the river flows through his or her realm, and anyone, from Styx-devil fishing boats to big barges of heavily armed anti-paladins/Blackguards/Hellknights/etc, will need to go through them. That means bureaucracy, official papers, and bribes. I'm inspired here by how Edo period travel was restricted to ensure the Tokugawas stayed safely in power.
Two adventure ideas I'd like to use with this setting. The first is a batch of mortal plane adventurers finding out about and acquiring basically a block seal or a scroll or something which allows free passage down the river (this doesn't prevent the local authorities from trying to extort the PCs however and they still need to deal with challenges like finding a boat). The second though is that the player characters are all devils - rank and file soldiers or bureaucrats. Life in Hell has always been, will always be, the same. Until one day the PCs help stand off and defeat an attack by a batch of paladins and their celestial allies. For the first time ever our heros have discovered that there's something out there other than more Hell, this endless dogmatic place of heat and red clay soil; that rather than being impoverished, terrible planes of existence without the right guidance of Hellish standards, those other places might actually be sort of nice. They resolve to leave Hell and go there instead. Unfortunately doing so requires a lot of traveling through the Hells, which isn't always easy, and even once they get out, how do they keep very angry angels from killing them off before they have a chance to explain themselves?