how i came up with "the Gods' challenge"

I was chatting with a friend of mine one evening and we started talking about a certain deck of cards that causes much chaos. The bane of both players and GMs alike (though I’m down with the chaos that will ensue). We laughed and joked about what could happen if certain cards were drawn for nearly an hour then moved on in our conversation.

It hit me shortly after we got off the phone. What would it be like to actually have quests associated with certain cards? Well, being that this particular magic item causes my brain to hurt as a GM, I altered it of course. Instead of being associated with this item, I had it associated with a deck of tarot cards instead.

From there, I had to decide what kind of world I wanted to play in. Looking at my shelf, I saw “Arcana of the Ancients” (which I had dabbled in, but not completely embraced) and decided I wanted it to be a magic + science type of world. I then bought the campaign setting for 5e, “Beneath the Monolith” which is designed to work with the other book. That was it, the missing piece!

Based on what I was reading, the people of the world relied more on their machines and one particular group of people as their religious leaders. I thought…no gods? The light bulb turned on. In all the campaigns I’ve run, I pictured gods receiving power based on their followers (more followers = more power). What if the gods had diminished enough that they decided to take action to return? What if they had had enough of barely surviving and are ready to thrive once more? What would they do?

And I was off, researching gods and setting up how they interacted with one another. Creating challenges to go with the cards that the gods had provided. All this while also trying to keep the evil deities under some kind of control. Once the ideas were in place, I opened up the world and let the players jump right in. The rest is yet to come.

Note:
“Arcana of the Ancients” and “Beneath the Monolith” are published by Monte Cook Games.