Hecatomb d20- The Campaign for World Destruction
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:23 am
Hecatomb was a small card game produced for about a year or two by Wizards of the Coast mechanically much like Magic the Gathering with a few unique quirks. You summoned monsters using mana, and tried to accumulate 20 things to win. A neat part of the game was that the cards were plastic pentagons with four clear edges, because creatures could be combined.
The big difference was the flavour. Where in MtG, the players represent dueling wizards in petty power squabbles or duels for fun, in Hecatomb, the players represented powerful villains who were part of a secret "game" in which players loosed horrible monsters upon the world in an attempt to gather souls and destroy worlds for their own personal power gain. There were a good number of people who were really captivated by this metaplot, but sadly, problems with card production (often packs would be opened to find cracked or warped cards, and the price of petroleum was increasing) led to cancelling of the game when a mere two expansions had been released. Players have speculated that it was cancelled due to money reasons, as it was well known that other players were few and far between, and the failed minis game Dreamblade with a similar flavour quickly followed it. Marketing was spartan, often not doing a great job explaining anything about the game, and the 15+ age suggestion didn't do enough to attract through forbidden fruit status (possibly because the average person has no clue what "hecatomb" means).
Regardless of the reasons, what could have been a big boost to WotC's revenue simply didn't work. But the idea still captivates those who played it, and could be a great game.
Thus, I bring you
Hecatomb d20 Table of Contents
Post 1- Introduction (above), Metaplot, the Dooms
Post 2- Races, Backgrounds
Post 3- Class
Post 4- Skills, Feats
Post 5- Equipment
Post 6- Magic and Gods
Post 7- Minions
Hecatomb is more a campaign style than setting. A Hecatomb campaign can take place in any campaign settin, and, due to the nature of the conflict, assumes the existence of multiple material planes. The average character within the game need not be aware of the other planes, but, if nothing else, the endbringers need to be aware of them, otherwise there'd be very few non-completely insane endbringers.
Players can play Endbringers, and in fact this would be the intended play style, but they can also play the minions of an endbringer, helping or working against him, or even the would be heroes who try to stop him
Whether there are would be heroes in the setting who know what's going on and are trying to stop the destruction of their world, the main conflict is between endbringers. It's largely believed by endbringers that only a single endbringer can capture the power released by the destruction of a world, but this need not be the case. In fact the easiest way to model "Gaining Power" is to reward XP, which is quite naturally and easily divided amongst the characters.
The Four Dooms
Hecatomb focuses on a division of effects much like Magic's colours or D&D's schools. The types of effects are known as Dooms, appropriately enough, each with associated effects, apocalypses, methods, and creatures.
Greed
the first doom
Greed is the power of unrestrained wealth, despotic political authority, and unholy desire.
Greed was the first Doom to assail the world. Greed is founded in the avarice, jealousy, and uninhibited primitive instincts of humanity’s ancestors. When tribes of protohumans first gathered to compare their skills, the fruits of each other's hunt, and their success in taking a comely mate, Greed was seeded. While some, when faced with their own inadequacy, strove to improve themselves, others lusted after the triumphs of their fellows. Greed blossomed and has deviled humanity in all the long millennia since.
Being the first doom, Greed is sometimes seen as the root of all evil, and the Doom by whose hand all of existence will eventually burn.
Color: Greed is green as the odiferous yolk in the heart of a rotten egg.
Opposed: The deadly lusts inspired by Greed can and do work hand in hand with the dooms of Destruction and Deceit. But Corruption, the doom of madness and otherworldly passions, is Greed's rival for the heart of humanity. Those who fall to Corruption care little for the ardor of avarice and envy--madness blots out every desire but those that propagate further lunacy.
Corruption
the second doom
Corruption is the power of mutation, madness, deformity, and knowledge that mortals were not meant to know.
Corruption was the last Doom to assail the world, although none of the four Dooms followed too far behind humanity's mental awakening. Corruption stems from the search for knowledge at any price, regardless of whether others pay that price or the cost is personal.
The undiluted answers that lie behind the sky and past the rain are too soul-shattering for a mortal mind to contain. Wrecked minds fall most easily into Corruption, and Corruption wrecks minds, creating a spiral that spells ultimate ruin.
As Corruption is the Doom through which reality's secrets can be laid bare, its fanatics hope to summon up the Great Old One whose arrival is Earth's funeral.
Color: Corruption is black as a cadaver's heart rotting in the sepulcher.
Opposed: The sick insights provided by Corruption are often useful to the aims of Destruction and Deceit, while these two Dooms often enough serve Corruption's final goals. But Greed, the doom of analytical austerity, is Corruption's rival for the heart of humanity. Those trapped by Greed are too cowardly to search beyond the sane edge of reason and thereby become mere instruments of greater beings--cold calculation froze Greedy hearts and minds long ago.
Deceit
the third doom
Deceit is the power of lies, trickery, shadow, and shapechanging--Deceit makes a lie of everything we think is true.
Deceit was the third Doom to assault the world. While Destruction may meet a force equal to its fury, Deceit wins the battle before the army takes the field. An army defeated by Deceit is just as beaten as one brought low by force, but with propaganda enough, it may itself fall into Deceit's service. Those who walk knowingly in the shadow of Deceit are master liars who spin fabrications of both fact and body for the sheer exuberance of controlling the destiny of other creatures through falsehood.
Because the perfect lie can make a willing servant of any creature, it may be that Deceit will be the Doom through which the apocalypse is finally triggered.
Color: Deceit is blue as a soldier's corpse betrayed by propaganda.
Opposed: Deceit may flow from frustrated Greed, but Destruction, the Doom of brutes and low-brow thinkers, is Deceit's ideological enemy. Why exert so much effort to destroy a foe when a well-placed lie makes your foe into your ally in the first place?
Destruction
the fourth and final doom
Destruction is the power of wild desire to sunder, crush, injure, and defeat friend and foe alike. Destruction glories in obliteration for it own sake.
Destruction was the second Doom to assault the world. Destruction's origin lies in the displeasure and the childlike frustration when desires, no matter how petty, are not fulfilled. When that frustration was first unleashed to maim and kill, Destruction arose. At its heart, Destruction embodies the rabid ferocity of the beast that kills not for food, but simply for the joy that bloodshed brings. Termination by an act of destruction -- such is the self-referential nature of this aggressive Doom.
Because it is the most assertive of the four Dooms, those who walk to Destruction's drumbeat assume that it will be the Doom that ends existence.
Color: Destruction is red as the steaming blood unleashed by a lunatic's axe.
Opposed: Destruction may flow from frustrated Greed, or sometimes grow from Corruption that grows too focused. But Deceit, the Doom of liars and cheats, is Destruction's enemy in action and philosophy. Why take the time to dissemble when a fist through the window accomplishes the same thing, and faster?
The big difference was the flavour. Where in MtG, the players represent dueling wizards in petty power squabbles or duels for fun, in Hecatomb, the players represented powerful villains who were part of a secret "game" in which players loosed horrible monsters upon the world in an attempt to gather souls and destroy worlds for their own personal power gain. There were a good number of people who were really captivated by this metaplot, but sadly, problems with card production (often packs would be opened to find cracked or warped cards, and the price of petroleum was increasing) led to cancelling of the game when a mere two expansions had been released. Players have speculated that it was cancelled due to money reasons, as it was well known that other players were few and far between, and the failed minis game Dreamblade with a similar flavour quickly followed it. Marketing was spartan, often not doing a great job explaining anything about the game, and the 15+ age suggestion didn't do enough to attract through forbidden fruit status (possibly because the average person has no clue what "hecatomb" means).
Regardless of the reasons, what could have been a big boost to WotC's revenue simply didn't work. But the idea still captivates those who played it, and could be a great game.
Thus, I bring you
Hecatomb d20 Table of Contents
Post 1- Introduction (above), Metaplot, the Dooms
Post 2- Races, Backgrounds
Post 3- Class
Post 4- Skills, Feats
Post 5- Equipment
Post 6- Magic and Gods
Post 7- Minions
Hecatomb is more a campaign style than setting. A Hecatomb campaign can take place in any campaign settin, and, due to the nature of the conflict, assumes the existence of multiple material planes. The average character within the game need not be aware of the other planes, but, if nothing else, the endbringers need to be aware of them, otherwise there'd be very few non-completely insane endbringers.
Players can play Endbringers, and in fact this would be the intended play style, but they can also play the minions of an endbringer, helping or working against him, or even the would be heroes who try to stop him
Whether there are would be heroes in the setting who know what's going on and are trying to stop the destruction of their world, the main conflict is between endbringers. It's largely believed by endbringers that only a single endbringer can capture the power released by the destruction of a world, but this need not be the case. In fact the easiest way to model "Gaining Power" is to reward XP, which is quite naturally and easily divided amongst the characters.
The Four Dooms
Hecatomb focuses on a division of effects much like Magic's colours or D&D's schools. The types of effects are known as Dooms, appropriately enough, each with associated effects, apocalypses, methods, and creatures.
Greed
the first doom
Greed is the power of unrestrained wealth, despotic political authority, and unholy desire.
Greed was the first Doom to assail the world. Greed is founded in the avarice, jealousy, and uninhibited primitive instincts of humanity’s ancestors. When tribes of protohumans first gathered to compare their skills, the fruits of each other's hunt, and their success in taking a comely mate, Greed was seeded. While some, when faced with their own inadequacy, strove to improve themselves, others lusted after the triumphs of their fellows. Greed blossomed and has deviled humanity in all the long millennia since.
Being the first doom, Greed is sometimes seen as the root of all evil, and the Doom by whose hand all of existence will eventually burn.
Color: Greed is green as the odiferous yolk in the heart of a rotten egg.
Opposed: The deadly lusts inspired by Greed can and do work hand in hand with the dooms of Destruction and Deceit. But Corruption, the doom of madness and otherworldly passions, is Greed's rival for the heart of humanity. Those who fall to Corruption care little for the ardor of avarice and envy--madness blots out every desire but those that propagate further lunacy.
Corruption
the second doom
Corruption is the power of mutation, madness, deformity, and knowledge that mortals were not meant to know.
Corruption was the last Doom to assail the world, although none of the four Dooms followed too far behind humanity's mental awakening. Corruption stems from the search for knowledge at any price, regardless of whether others pay that price or the cost is personal.
The undiluted answers that lie behind the sky and past the rain are too soul-shattering for a mortal mind to contain. Wrecked minds fall most easily into Corruption, and Corruption wrecks minds, creating a spiral that spells ultimate ruin.
As Corruption is the Doom through which reality's secrets can be laid bare, its fanatics hope to summon up the Great Old One whose arrival is Earth's funeral.
Color: Corruption is black as a cadaver's heart rotting in the sepulcher.
Opposed: The sick insights provided by Corruption are often useful to the aims of Destruction and Deceit, while these two Dooms often enough serve Corruption's final goals. But Greed, the doom of analytical austerity, is Corruption's rival for the heart of humanity. Those trapped by Greed are too cowardly to search beyond the sane edge of reason and thereby become mere instruments of greater beings--cold calculation froze Greedy hearts and minds long ago.
Deceit
the third doom
Deceit is the power of lies, trickery, shadow, and shapechanging--Deceit makes a lie of everything we think is true.
Deceit was the third Doom to assault the world. While Destruction may meet a force equal to its fury, Deceit wins the battle before the army takes the field. An army defeated by Deceit is just as beaten as one brought low by force, but with propaganda enough, it may itself fall into Deceit's service. Those who walk knowingly in the shadow of Deceit are master liars who spin fabrications of both fact and body for the sheer exuberance of controlling the destiny of other creatures through falsehood.
Because the perfect lie can make a willing servant of any creature, it may be that Deceit will be the Doom through which the apocalypse is finally triggered.
Color: Deceit is blue as a soldier's corpse betrayed by propaganda.
Opposed: Deceit may flow from frustrated Greed, but Destruction, the Doom of brutes and low-brow thinkers, is Deceit's ideological enemy. Why exert so much effort to destroy a foe when a well-placed lie makes your foe into your ally in the first place?
Destruction
the fourth and final doom
Destruction is the power of wild desire to sunder, crush, injure, and defeat friend and foe alike. Destruction glories in obliteration for it own sake.
Destruction was the second Doom to assault the world. Destruction's origin lies in the displeasure and the childlike frustration when desires, no matter how petty, are not fulfilled. When that frustration was first unleashed to maim and kill, Destruction arose. At its heart, Destruction embodies the rabid ferocity of the beast that kills not for food, but simply for the joy that bloodshed brings. Termination by an act of destruction -- such is the self-referential nature of this aggressive Doom.
Because it is the most assertive of the four Dooms, those who walk to Destruction's drumbeat assume that it will be the Doom that ends existence.
Color: Destruction is red as the steaming blood unleashed by a lunatic's axe.
Opposed: Destruction may flow from frustrated Greed, or sometimes grow from Corruption that grows too focused. But Deceit, the Doom of liars and cheats, is Destruction's enemy in action and philosophy. Why take the time to dissemble when a fist through the window accomplishes the same thing, and faster?