[Kromm]

As I was eating, I thought of a workable campaign frame:

The multiverse is the dominion of a whole host of primordial Higher Powers who have always been and always will be. (Perhaps there's another reality "one level up," but that's irrelevant – if true, the Even Higher Powers refuse to intervene.) No one of these Powers is supreme. To accomplish anything at all, they must ally and act collectively. Most of what's carried out is ineffable. The one overriding Divine Law is that Powers can directly create but only their creations can directly destroy.

For whatever reason, a group of Powers created The World, and on it, life. For equally arcane reasons, a second bunch decided to try to wipe out that life by inventing things like monsters, flaming Volcanoes o' Doom, and hateful emotions. The first gang wanted to protect their experimental mortal creations, but just as Divine Law forbade Powers to unmake life, it prohibited them from wishing away the bad things. Instead, they did what Divine Law allowed and created something else: Havens.

In a Haven, a mortal can die only of old age or infirmity, or by his own hand (i.e., accident or suicide). Any attempt to harm others produces a mere illusion of the effect: Weapons land blows that don't draw blood, break bones, etc. Harmful spells – fireballs, mind-control magic, curses, and so on – generate only a spectacular sound-and-light show. Traps and tricks refuse to trigger, and poison is inert, on those who don't want to die. Monsters can neither enter a Haven nor project inimical effects across its borders.

Outside a Haven, The World is a hell of monsters, deadly terrain, fire storms, falling ice daggers, etc. Only the toughest mortals can survive. Fortunately for mortals, death out there is temporary. Upon dying, they're reconstituted whole at a Haven. This is usually but not always the nearest Haven. Monsters "respawn" too, but in their lairs, not in Havens!

Before long, all mortals were concentrated in Havens. The lucky ones found them and stayed there. The not-so-lucky ones died and ended up there. Havens became villages and then towns, even small cities. At this point in the story, all mortal communities are in Havens.

Why would mortals venture out of Havens? Entropy, mostly. Buildings fall down, tools break, magical energy runs out . . . all thanks to mortals' actions. But there's lots of good stuff sitting out in The World, and Collectors brave hell to go fetch it. Cynics believe that the nastier Higher Powers deliberately put goodies out there to tempt people, and they're probably right.

The reason why this cynical belief seems plausible is this: The meddlesome Higher Powers who created the hell outside the Havens can "skim a little off the top" whenever a mortal dies and returns to a Haven. They snatch life force (unspent character points) when they can, take back material gains ($ and gear) if that's all they can get. The mortals' creators can't prevent this – that's a flaw in the Havens, and they just have to deal with it.

Among the troublemaking Higher Powers, there are those who aren't satisfied with receiving a small percentage and/or who see the Havens as a puzzle to solve. They've discovered that mortals aren't bound by Divine Law, and that siphoned-off mortal life force can actually alter the Law and perhaps even collapse the Havens. Not that the creative Powers couldn't just create new worlds and new life . . .

. . . but of course these mortals have a vested interest in not being wiped out. Thus, the other reason to venture out of Havens is to defeat progressively scarier monsters and dangers in order to learn about the Powers that created them. By winning the right battles and accumulating appropriate knowledge, they can use their mortal immunity to Divine Law to cast down the Powers who would destroy them.

Naturally, mortals see their creators as "good" and the would-be destroyers of Havens as "evil." They view these two groups as factions fighting a war. That isn't accurate – the Powers are closer to gamers playing at being rules-lawyers. Still, the mortals do enjoy whatever tacit aid Divine Law allows their makers to provide. And naturally, the monsters outside the Havens get similar help from their designers.

The campaign is about a group of mortal Collectors. Their early missions are about gathering goods for life in the Havens. As they do, they'll learn the secrets of the Powers and Divine Law, and start fighting the fight to exist. The opposing Powers will tempt them out with loot and then hurl the worst kinds of monsters at them. If the heroes prevail, though, they'll grow in might and eventually have a crack at taking down the monsters' masters.