...and there's absolutely no manipulation or concealment on your part? No "roll dice... hmmmm, 19,18,19,19... Nope, the sword looks perfectly harmless, I mean, all things considering. It just lies there, on the altar, glows with bright red runes and there's, like, an aura of total darkness surrounding it, but don't they all look like that?"
I haven't found any need for manipulation or concealment.
I mean, when their spirits were summoned to the Celestial bureaucracy to meet a bureaucrat, and it went fine. Then somehow, someone stopped their way to the bodies, and an old hermit asked them to bring a certain specific stone with an ominous-sounding name to another hermit, suggesting they would be rewarded.
Because it totally wasn't someone hijacking their spirits to make a counter-offer, you know...who would do that:)?They did as they were asked, and I set up a timer in my notes - time until religious wars start to break out. They'd just released the Demon of Religious Wars. This was the world-spanning threat... we didn't have one at the start.
The same player also entrusted the command of her army detachment to her student, "because she's better with logistics". The same student that she knew lacks compassion, manipulates people, uses her powers for fun and profit, and thinks her Teacher the PC only cares about the results.
Three sessions in, she noticed everybody else in the army has started erecting walls around their camps, and didn't mix with her soldiers. Her mindwiped (she never found that out), controlled by a system of rewards and punishments, soldiers with iron discipline and total lack of compassion... It was great fun when she did find out:D!
That's from the same campaign, BTW.
Kinda?
That might have been a slight understatement.
Side note: Tekumel is mentioned pretty often here. Funny thing is, that I rarely hear about it elsewhere, and I move a lot.
You hear about what people are playing, and most people play what they hear others had fun with. Play more Tekumel, and others will imitate you. Then you'd hear about it more, too;)!
Out of curiosity: does any of your gaming group spent considerably long time in any setting void of "The Big Threat" without succumbing to a boredom? I'm not suggesting its inevitable - I'm interested in other people's experience.
All my campaigns that pass the three-session mark last for years. From the last five that have concluded, only one had a Big Bad Evil...something, and that's the one I referred to upthread.
Doesn't seem like they're about to get bored. World-spanning disasters seem to be just a GM shortcut, not something most players want or need.
But uncle Asen, aside of the last one each of your examples make perfect motivation for the Big Bad Evil Guy or war, and they in turn might be/become the Big Threat himself.
Even if the PCs become the Big Threat, it's not one I've needed to put in the setting;).
And yes, NPCs have those motivations, too. The question is, however, whether any NPC or group has the means to be(come) more than a local threat, and the answer, most often, is a resounding "nope"
!