Valiant Pilgrimage
September 13, 2024
Last time I did a brainstorm session like this was for Persona: 1, 2, 3. This one's way shorter though. The idea is to flesh out some kind of specific JRPG-inspired campaign structure for Valiant Horizon.
So let's say there's these crystals, right? Used to be 12 of them - nowadays there's, uh, let's say 3-5 PCs crystals remaining. Each of them has the power to maintain the last few villages that stand in the world and prevent them from being swallowed up by the darkness that has consumed the rest. The crystals' power is not infinite. Every decade since the beginning of known history, each crystal chooses a Hero: someone to carry on its legacy to perform the Ritual of Rebirth at the origin of life, which imbues the crystal with their soul for the sake of all. The herald of life then returns their crystals to their village to maintain it until next time. There's never been any resistance on the road of rebirth: it's still hallowed ground, after all.
This year, the journey meets resistance.
The general setup
Each player chooses a class to be the origin of their village's heroic crystal. When PCs are chosen, they're that class. Each session starts at the foot of the road of rebirth, on their way to the origin of life. Aim for about 1 session to get there and perform the ritual. When they have been turned to crystal, the herald of life returns them to their villages and tells those of their courage.
Draw a quick map in the center of whatever canvas you have: 1 village per player near the origin of life.
For every crystal that doesn't get chosen, determine a short, appropriate curse that affects the world outside the crystals, something like:
- Bard: Songs fall flat.
- Berserker: Tempers go up with ease.
- Blazemagus: Fires scorch the land.
- Champion: Courage sways easily.
- Commander: Consensus is easily undermined.
- Dark Knight: The souls of the dead linger.
- Earthmagus: No crops will grow.
- Frostmagus: The world is encased in eternal winter.
- Knight: Walls and defenses crumble.
- Ranger: Wildlife is nowhere to be found.
- Tactician: Great plans go awry.
- Windmagus: The wind does not ever blow.
These are not present in a short area surrounding the heroes, because their crystals protect them. Outside that area? Well, everything is laid to ruin and nobody can live there. Or so the story goes.
If a pilgrimage takes more than one session, at the start of the next one, describe how your villages are starting to fail. Better get a move on. If a pilgrimage fails on the road of rebirth? Well, it's not ideal, but the herald can usually continue the ritual and bring crystals back to their respective villages nonetheless. Try again next pilgrimage. If a pilgrimage fails outside of the road of rebirth? We'll get there.
At the end of a generation, determine whose story the people sing the most between generations. Everyone else gains a Relationship with that hero, and their next hero gains an extra Determination.
Fledgling Tier, levels 1-3
This is the first year that the pilgrimage meets resistance. Pick one of the following to desecrate the hallowed ground of the road of rebirth:
- Strange people, armed and armored, try to block your path.
- Monsters are rampant on the road of rebirth.
- The fragments of souls linger and strike out in anger.
Once you reach the pinnacle to perform the ritual, determine what the Herald tells the next generation based on what opposed you:
- A great and terrible empire has sustained itself by creating its own crystals from fragmented souls.
- Monsters and wild beasts rampage towards crystal energy.
- Fragmented souls seek out crystals to tear asunder.
Draw that threat somewhere on your otherwise pretty empty map: an empire, a wildlife area, and a ruined spooky place. Add a level for each threat outlined in this way.
This gets you to level 4.
Famous tier, levels 4-6
At the start of this, the Herald has news: the other crystals remain, but they're greatly diminished. They could be restored with the ritual, however.
The GM distributes these as necessary across those 3 threat areas, and gives rumors for each. Heroes now have a choice: complete the pilgrimage as before, or try to regain more. If they choose the latter, they'll find that the world outside is not what they know: people do exist, though much more furtively. Wondrous things abound. The world is ruined but wild and beautiful.
- For each crystal regained, increase the size of one of those villages: those are the ones that are getting doubled up. Players can now choose a hero from one of those crystals to be a "PC" one in a new generation. (Your old one still gets a hero, but they're an NPC or just offscreen.) If you regain all crystals in a region patrolled by a "threat", gain a level.
- If your heroes should be fully lost outside the road of rebirth...well, it's a lot harder for the Herald to retrieve everyone. One of the crystals must be regained and the next generation of heroes can't have a character with that Class until it is. That curse ravages the land and their village is destroyed or diminished, depending on if you have a crystal to replace it.
This gets you to level 7.
Renowned tier, levels 7-9
When the last crystal is regained, depending on the nature of where the last one was located, the heroes learn one of these three terrible truths about the state of the world and, unbeknownst to the Herald, pass it onto the next generation:
- If it's the empire, the ritual was created to imprison a great and terrible creation made by the first emperor to usurp the natural order. (You should figure out what the nature of it is.) The horrors that befall the world outside of the crystals' light are either the outgrowths of the backlash from a poor attempt at holding off the horror and a punishment for it or the lashing-out of that terror. The Herald is someone related to that ritual, either an opposition to or creator of it, who will stop at nothing to keep that terror imprisoned.
- If it's the beasts, the ritual keeps a sleeping god whose body is the world asleep. If they should ever wake, they will surely ruin what's left of the world. The monsters of this world are their outgrowths. The Herald is someone who knew that god when they were awake, for better or worse, and will stop at nothing to keep them asleep.
- If it's the fragmented souls, the ritual was designed to maintain the regeneration of intact souls when a terrible mistake or blasphemy started to fragment them long ago. If the ritual should ever be fully forsaken, the Age of Souls ends and all souls will fragment. The Fragmented Souls know this and seek to disrupt it. The Herald is a dear friend of the first heroes who sacrificed themselves in this manner and will stop at nothing to continue it.
At this point you can ditch the generation setup. This generation is the last one. There will be no more sacrifices, because these heroes will finally stop the ritual by addressing the root cause. Add further Relationships periodically and add Reputations when people do cool things.
To oppose them as they seek to learn more about the threat kept at bay, bring in old heroes (their former PCs!) brought to life by the Herald; and whatever forces yet remain to oppose them of those 3 that were set up. Aim to have them learn the last thing they need and defeat the Herald at level 9. Then...
There's a level 10???
What's even the point of this if you don't defeat a false god, an actual god, or some kind of indistinct force of darkness at the end? You know what to do from here. Go get 'em, tiger.
h/t Aura whose good post and playing through Visions of Mana made me think about this. RIP to Ouka. RIP to Cohost. One day we will break our own cycles of pointless sacrifice.
(Read the original on cohost here!)