Exorcists and Wizard-Hunters: Alternate D&D Frameworks

(This is another ancient draft, probably going on two years and 3 or 4 versions old at this point.) 

The basic D&D / OSR outline provides us with two very important and equally under-appreciated facts.

Fact 1: Clerics have "Turn Away Undead" as a class feature.

Fact 2: "Charm Person" is a 1st-level wizard spell.

These can be extrapolated out into an entire campaign with little effort, and I think they can provide fruitful alternatives to the assumed modes of play.

Campaign Framework: Exorcists

Of the four core classes, the cleric's main mechanical specialty provides it with a clear direction in how it interacts with the rest of the setting: they’re anti-undead specialists.

This is typically overshadowed by their use as healers, especially in modern editions, but the implication remains of a setting where undead and/or demonic threats are both common enough and understood enough that there are people specially trained to deal with them. That leads to some very fruitful questions.

• What is the parent religion of this cleric?
• How centralized is this religion?
• How does this religion view these entities?
• How common are these entities?
• How well-understood are these entities?
• What is the relationship between the religion and its neighboring traditions?
• What is the relationship between the religion and the apparatus of the state?
• What is the relationship between the specialists and the rest of their religion?
• How much of the religion’s beliefs actually reflect the metaphysics in play here?
• What social standing does this religion (and by extension, clerics of this religion) have in this particular region and among this particular population?

Put all together, and the campaign practically writes itself. Build around the cleric, either as a PC or NPC. Take a hex or point crawl, dump some settlements and dungeons on it, stick some demons and undead in the points of interest, figure out what influence those demons and undead have on their surroundings, and let the rest come up as it will.

(It would be remiss of me to not mention Donn Stroud's exorcism system as featured in The Lesser Key, which is much better than bog-standard Turn Away Undead)

• Why does the party exist? - They're the cleric's protectors while out on the road, and will provide a lot of the muscle of the operation. They too are specialists, covering for the things that the cleric cannot do.
• Why is the party adventuring in dungeons? - They've been sent there specifically to deal with the undead/demons, either a single instance or a greater outbreak.
• But what about treasure? - Maybe  the bishop writes you a check. Maybe you get paid by the demon. Maybe basic supplies aren't a problem because you're agents of the church. Maybe the alms are enough. Maybe the demon-infested ruins still have a lot of stuff in them that people might offer rewards for, or maybe no one will mind if it goes missing. And so on.

Campaign Framework: Wizard-Killers

Imagine a setting where Charm Person sits within reach of every sociopath, malignant narcissist, fascist ideologue, sexual predator, human trafficker, abusive spouse and undifferentiated Just Kind of a Piece of Shit in the world. Think for a moment about how easy it would be to kill someone with Mage Hand and Shape Water.

That alone is more than sufficient to build a wizard-hunting campaign on, but wizards provide a great deal more practical benefit than just that. Why is there a dungeon that violates the laws of nature? Wizard did it. Why are their horrible monsters shambling through the hills feasting on travelers? Wizard did it. Why is there a nameless horror from beyond the stars with its sights set on our placid isle of ignorance? A wizard god-damn did it. Power corrupts because power is the ability to get what you want, and the more power you have the less anyone can get in between you and the thing you want.

Like before, we can get ourselves some good places with some follow up questions:

• Who is this wizard and what did he do that made people call in the wizard-killers?
• Are you part of a wizard-killing organization, representatives of state power, or an informal posse?
• How are wizards, evil or otherwise, handled in this society anyway? Why aren’t the wizards in charge, if they aren’t already in charge?
• What safeguards does this society normally have against evil wizards?
• What does this culture consider good vs bad magic, and why?
• What are this wizard’s obsessions?
• What are this wizard’s relations with other wizards?

The wizard-killer framework lends itself to a sort of fantasy Delta Green. Here’s the wizard of the week, go raid his sanctum and 86 the bastard. String a few of these together and you have a campaign.

(The sandbox approach could also work here, just as demon-of-the-week could work for the exorcist framework - I’m dividing the two primarily just to have symmetry. You could very easily merge them, since evil wizards no doubt are dabbling with dark forces people want exorcized. Honestly, why would you even become an evil wizard if not to dabble in dark forces and ponder your orb.)

• Why does the party exist? - You're specialists called in to kill the evil wizard.
• Why is the party adventuring in dungeons? - The evil wizard is in there.
• But what about treasure? - Wizards, naturally, are sitting on enormous hoards of weird / valuable / plot-relevant items and they certainly aren't going to have any use for them now that you've shown them a bit of praxis. This will definitely have no downsides and cannot possibly be part of a tragic cycle of hubris and violence.