MTGNexus

Okay, so, last year I started running D&D at my FLGS, and it's mostly gone pretty well, but I started a new campaign a couple months ago and it ran off the rails amazingly fast.

I decided to give it a bit of a Magic theme, with the overarching plot being dormant Phyrexian machines being awakened and the party having to stop the apocalypse of machine zombies.

But like, things immediately went nuts. In the first session the lizardfolk started drinking the glistening oil that the machine zombies bled and has yet to stop. By the third session both clerics in the party started worshipping different aspects of Yawgmoth as their patron deity. We're about ten sessions deep, the rogue is possessed by Gix and the cleric that decided to start worshipping "The Father of Machines" has zombified a wyvern, forced it to skin itself, then crafted new metal armor for it. That's right. He Compleated a wyvern.

Only one of these people has ever played Magic, and she is the only one who didn't join up with the Phyrexians so far.

Here's something I got an artist friend of mine to draw, a visual aid for the compleated wyvern.

I see this as an absolute win

You basically brought the scars of mirrodin block to your D&D setting. It will end with a new New Phyrexia

I mean, yeah. It's been fun. I just have no idea how to DM it. XD

That sounds amazing. So was it sortof a "that sounds cool as hell" response that lead the other players (aside from the one with MTG experience) to the Phyrexian side?

Basically, yeah. Several of them also left backstory stuff open for me to fill in, and phyrexian oil kind of oozed into those vacancies.

They fought slaad on Saturday.

Now I get to decide what happens when a slaad egg gestates in a body suffused with glistening oil.

That sounds like a group I wish I could join!

I've actually decided to just turn into the skid.

Gonna offer them the chance to fully align themselves with the Phyrexians. Offer them the rank of Praetor.

This all sounds fantastic. Team Evil is always more fun anyway. Or is it Team Black in this case? Hmmm....

....I ran a campaign a while ago with a heavy amount of homebrew. One of the recurring themes was that all the major bosses were taken from non-D&D games. So, when I needed to end the campaign, I had the party fight a Blightsteel Colossus as the final boss. They maaaaybe could have taken it out.... if half the party didn't immediately switch sides and take out the other half of the party, dooming the entire plane in the process.

....I'd like to say I was surprised by the outcome, but I really, truly wasn't.

Very understandable.

Should I offer them the rank of Praetor or the rank of Evincar? Which seems cooler?

I would say Praetor is the top, and they have to fight for it. Maybe even fight each other for it (since the Praetors in-fight, too). So maybe other ranks first. Exarch, Evincar, etc.

Phyrexia seems like the sort of place where people work themselves up the ladder - start at the bottom, impress your superiors, and gain influence over time. Or alternatively, sabotage / eliminate someone higher on the food chain and take their position. If this were New Phyrexia, each of the different Phyrexian Factions definitely has their own criteria for becoming more influential - green prizes strength, blue would probably prioritize experimental results, while black seems like it would mostly be about backstabbing. Don't know if your version of Phyrexia has different factions for each color, but could be an interesting thing to consider.

Becoming Praetor may be an end goal, but I wouldn't start players there. Depends on the party's current level though, I suppose - if they're already a pretty high level, may be appropriate for them to start in a more influential position.

So I did the big speech, then asked for opinions out of character.

They decided to resist phyrexia and yawgmoth, both out of and in character, except the in character lizardfolk who'd been drinking the glistening oil.

He uploaded his soul into a phyrexian machine, and his body was stolen by the wyvern zombie and dissapeared.

I'm thinking I'll bring him back as a giant metal zombie abomination.

How does The Blightsteel Lich sound good?

Last session they rejected phyrexia, but this week I decided to have Karn show up and straighten them out.

Details, my friend, please!