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View Full Version : [3.5 e6] Campaign idea: The Flying Continent (sketching thoughts)



RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 01:59 AM
In E6 because that shortens the campaign length and also reduces possible cheese

The Flying Continent

You were all kids/teenagers in the real world, when a magical artifact brought you to this fantasy world, and you've all been transformed into the characters that you made up for a fantasy roleplaying game.

You're on a magical flying continent. It's surrounded by an impenetrable barrier so that you can't fall off of it, and even if you tried, all you see down there anyway is more sky.

This continent is not populated by any regular towns--only some humanoid/monstrous humanoid villages where you will likely be unwelcome (though not always so, necessarily). There are no merchants to buy from (though there may be wandering tinkers with a very specific array of items for barter), so gold is not all that useful. (see note)

The Hub

There is a small, metal shack where you begin, and you can rest there indefinitely without being bothered. There are enough cots in the bed for each of your party members, and there is closet space for your stuff. The box in the closet provides food, though it's not terribly exciting and is on par with gruel.

There is a cute mascot at the hub. He will explain things in general to our intrepid adventurers, such as the nature of the continent, how the hub works, and what to do. He can also be company/extremely annoying depending on how the DM feels.

You will always be restored to full health when you rest overnight in the hub. If you die anywhere on the continent, you will regenerate back at the hub within a day. Of course, you could try to abuse this, but keep in mind that it 1) takes a DC 30 Will save to off yourself on purpose, and 2) you lose all the items on your person if nobody's there to drag your corpse back anyway. (e6 helps this limitation stay limited but also helpful, as there is no raise dead at level 3 magic)

The Adventure!

There are seven magical amulets spread across the land. When you collect all seven, venture into the deep underbelly of the continent to open the gate to the Heart of the World.

There are also other things you can do: search for legendary weapons is always a good thing. Also, if you find specific special items and bring them back to the cute mascot, he will improve your hub for you, providing extra space for storage, to set up a laboratory, improve the standard of living and so on.

Otherwise: what in the world are we doing here?

Parts that need working:

Gold is a requirement for making magic items and other things. Is there a way to alter this mechanic so that it is not much more difficult to pull off than normal? Also I would like to keep my idea for the worthless-gold dragon caves: Scrooge's Money Bin style.

Other things?

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-08-06, 02:14 AM
Your Seven Magical Plot Tokens need to have properly different adventures associated with their acquisition, or the players will be bored after the second or third token.

Like, don't just have all of them in a series of dungeons with different themes - the Fire Dungeon, the Ice Dungeon or whatever. (But totally, given the style of game, you should have those two examples in there somewhere - every cheesy RPG has a volcano level and an ice level...)

Maybe you might want to tie six of the tokens to an ability score, theme the tasks associated with getting them around that ability. Strength would be a straight up slog of slaughter, Dexterity would be a tomb of traps and balance checks, Constitution would be a poisonous endurance task, Intelligence is all research and clue solving, Wisdom is religious and empathic, Charisma is diplomatic.
That leaves one last token, which should be all of the above. The PCs only get the clues to point them to the last token by collecting the others first.

Tyndmyr
2010-08-06, 02:29 AM
Seven identical mcguffins that must be retrieved, artificially, unexplained, inescapable world, transported to magical world from real...

It has too many elements of low budget video games, imo. Your best device is the hub. Playing with the idea that no matter what you do, you can't die permanently is interesting.

Possible alternative goals:

Figuring out exactly why you can't get off this continent, how it flies, and how you die when you jump off(death on jumpoff is likely more interesting than a flat out "you can't").

Breaking the regeneration device at last, allowing everyone to know the sweet, sweet release of death.

Figuring out how to get the hell out of this place.

Figuring out what is actually of value in a place where nobody can actually die, and figuring out how to get it. Being evil in such a place would hold special challenges.

Marnath
2010-08-06, 02:31 AM
Rather than religious, i would make the wisdom one a test of awareness like spotting tiny details that don't belong or hearing subtle changes in background noise.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 02:41 AM
Of COURSE it's going to be different for each one. And yes it's meant to feel partly video gamey.

I do think there is more to each dungeon than a series of skill checks. Or even apart from them being dungeons, or having stone walls on all sides and narrow mazes like Dungeon Hack. The macguffins don't HAVE to be at the end of a dungeon for each one.

I'm not especially practiced as a GM but I do know that I very much hate things feeling same-y all the time and will tend to not abide it. I like having unique things all around.

So yeah, I say there's seven macguffins, don't make any specifics about them (as I am still formulating ideas for that), and everyone harps immediately that must mean it's a repetitive dungeon crawl?

Other than the macguffins, I would not expect the players to necessarily run after them. It is the overall quest that's GIVEN to the players, but they could otherwise do what they like. Why they are here is a mystery, and not necessarily one that will be forthcoming.

Added that to main for clarification.

EDIT: If I am sounding abrasive it is probably because I don't like people inserting their own assumptions. However, as a storyteller I tend heavily toward the deconstructionist side as a general rule. It may not have been obvious, then, that I view settings as having both potential for deconstruction and playing things straight, depending on what the players would like to do about it.

Tyndmyr
2010-08-06, 05:29 AM
Of COURSE it's going to be different for each one. And yes it's meant to feel partly video gamey.

I would avoid the video gamey feel in general. Unless it's a special game(say, .hack styled) in which virtual reality is actually part of the game, it tends to have an artificial feel.

Every medium has certain advantages and disadvantages. While you can of course draw parallels between video games and pen and paper games, it's roughly akin to comparing books and movies. Both are awesome, but what works in one may not be good for the other.


I'm not especially practiced as a GM but I do know that I very much hate things feeling same-y all the time and will tend to not abide it. I like having unique things all around.

Always good. A lack of variety often leads to boredom. Make sure that the variety takes place on all levels, not just in aesthetics, though. I believe that's what Altair was getting at. Make encounters that are mechanically varied, try to use very different situations, and present different character choices. After all, a large part of making an RPG engaging is about giving players interesting choices to make.


So yeah, I say there's seven macguffins, don't make any specifics about them (as I am still formulating ideas for that), and everyone harps immediately that must mean it's a repetitive dungeon crawl?

Meh, was more worried about the whole "collect x of y" quest format. It's...very common. A bit generic. Sure, that alone isn't going to ruin your campaign or anything, but avoid relying on too many cliches. If you want collection as a goal, add detail. Determine what the goal is, then make the macguffins integral pieces of that goal. Not fiat-pieces either, as in "he needs the seven gems of different colors to power his dohickey", but as in "he needs an item to prevent scrying, so others wont see his master plan, an anti-magic field to provide a safe place while master-plan magic is going off, etc" and let the players slowly discover this info, instead of providing it at the outset.

I'd ditch the cute animal at the beginning as far too video-gamey, unless this sort of thing is a frequent occurance in this world. In which case, you could probably make the cute animal quite bored and jaded with his job.

Mnemnosyne
2010-08-06, 05:59 AM
The Rod of Seven Parts. That is all.

Basically, the 'collect X number of things - especially 7' is hardly a video game specific idea, and has been around in D&D since 1976. It predates video game versions of 'collect 7 macguffins', in fact.

It's an interesting concept. I agree with the idea that 'you can't' isn't very interesting for trying to jump off. More along the lines of you die and get regenerated is better. If the existence of objects and such is meant to be zero-sum, then anything you throw off or carry with you when you jump off eventually reappears elsewhere in the world. If it's not meant to be zero-sum, then anything you toss off the edge is forever lost unless it's a plot device, in which case it comes back somehow.

Taking a DC30 will save to kill yourself doesn't make a lot of sense. Especially once the characters are well aware that death is impermanent. Adventurers in normal games are well-known for their 'well, just raise me if it doesn't work out' attitude, there's no reason why in a situation like this they'd have much hesitation about killing themselves if it solves the problem.

You didn't specify whether the players are the only ones with this immortality thing going. Does everyone else also auto-regenerate on death? Can people die of old age? What's the civilization like here? How does population size fluctuate, if nobody dies through violent or accidental means? What sort of unique challenges will exist in a society where no one ever dies except of old age - especially the players' foes? If only the player characters benefit from immortality, on the other hand, they will easily conquer the world. Nobody will directly oppose them if killing them just means they come back the next day, but them killing anyone else means they stay dead.

How long will it be before the players can somehow make peace with and live with the local villages? Or will they need to conquer those villages in order to do so? Will gold become useful once they do so? Or do the villages here not value gold and work purely on a barter system? Saying 'gold isn't useful' doesn't make a lot of sense since if a civilization uses it as a medium of exchange, you may have to offer many times the normal price but sufficient money tends to overcome hostility except in the most diametrically opposed of cases where the only possible reaction is 'kill or flee'.

And also consider that if the player characters are modern, educated individuals they'll have entirely different ways of looking at things, and it's a lot easier to go into Tippyverse territory when you can't fall back on the excuse that such an idea would be unknown in the world. Indeed, if they don't come up with logical, scientifically applied solutions to problems it wouldn't make a lot of sense.

Ranos
2010-08-06, 07:06 AM
Just popping by to say that they'll make the will save to kill themselves eventually anyway. Just gotta roll enough to get a 20. Which isn't a problem really, anyone can kill himself given enough determination, especially if they're convinced they've got a life after death, but it gives them a moment of hesitation, which can be end up being extremely important. Makes it a bit hard to kill yourself in the middle of a fight against a mind-controlling wizard, or before you get buried alive, or any other fate worse than death.

Lysander
2010-08-06, 09:48 AM
Ultimately, the mystery of why they are there is the real story. The seven MacGuffins are just some bs their mysterious captors are testing them with. Just keep that in mind. The question is whether they were brought there to perform some heroic deed or whether there's a more sinister explanation behind it all. You can make this either a Narnia type of story, or more of a Portal/The Prisoner type of story.

Depending on this the cute mascot will either become a beloved Tumnus the faun, or the symbolic face of their hidden archenemy.

While you can take your time in providing answers, your players will ultimately be upset if you don't have a reason for who brought them there, who created the continent, and why.

arrowhen
2010-08-06, 10:36 AM
"Come on, guys, let's fight to the death in front of the spawn point over and over until we all hit the level cap!"

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-08-06, 10:52 AM
Of COURSE it's going to be different for each one. And yes it's meant to feel partly video gamey.

I do think there is more to each dungeon than a series of skill checks. Or even apart from them being dungeons, or having stone walls on all sides and narrow mazes like Dungeon Hack. The macguffins don't HAVE to be at the end of a dungeon for each one.

I'm not especially practiced as a GM but I do know that I very much hate things feeling same-y all the time and will tend to not abide it. I like having unique things all around.

So yeah, I say there's seven macguffins, don't make any specifics about them (as I am still formulating ideas for that), and everyone harps immediately that must mean it's a repetitive dungeon crawl?

Other than the macguffins, I would not expect the players to necessarily run after them. It is the overall quest that's GIVEN to the players, but they could otherwise do what they like. Why they are here is a mystery, and not necessarily one that will be forthcoming.

Added that to main for clarification.

EDIT: If I am sounding abrasive it is probably because I don't like people inserting their own assumptions. However, as a storyteller I tend heavily toward the deconstructionist side as a general rule. It may not have been obvious, then, that I view settings as having both potential for deconstruction and playing things straight, depending on what the players would like to do about it.
What I mean is that the tasks to retrieve the mcguffins must be clearly different from each other - no, they don't have to be dungeon crawls, nor does anyone expect you to make them so... but you need to have a significantly different feel to each adventure.

Good example: Fable II had three heroes that you needed to get on side to defeat the bad guy. Getting each hero to join was a widely different task, even within the limits of the cRPG.
Bad example: FF XIII is a series of random encounters and boss fights on rails. There's plenty of scenery variation, and plot exposition in between grinding encounters, but the whole story is out of your hands, and just trundles along with little to no input from you the player.

What you need to be sure of is that you don't fall into the same trap that a bunch of highly paid professional game writers have: enemy variation and scenery changes and complex revelatory plot do not make a good tabletop RPG.

And no, gaining the plot tokens shouldn't just be a bunch of skill checks - nothing in any game should be just down to a series of skill checks. I only suggested that you might want to theme the tokens around the ability scores so that the tasks required were inherently different to each other, by definition. You needn't announce the themes, either - just plan for a diplomatic, persuading type of mission, a violent slaughter, a clue-following puzzle treasure hunt...

Just my advice.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 12:04 PM
What I mean is that the tasks to retrieve the mcguffins must be clearly different from each other - no, they don't have to be dungeon crawls, nor does anyone expect you to make them so... but you need to have a significantly different feel to each adventure.

Good example: Fable II had three heroes that you needed to get on side to defeat the bad guy. Getting each hero to join was a widely different task, even within the limits of the cRPG.
Bad example: FF XIII is a series of random encounters and boss fights on rails. There's plenty of scenery variation, and plot exposition in between grinding encounters, but the whole story is out of your hands, and just trundles along with little to no input from you the player.

Well there's also the problem with FFXIII that most of the game can be played by pushing 'A' a lot. Personally, I like plenty of opportunities for good tactical combat insasmuch as the setup of each situation varies significantly (i.e. an issue I had with the original Final Fantasy Tactics was that 95% of all missions were either 'kill everyone' or 'kill this guy'); I thought giving the players the respawn and the level cap might encourage creative and risky plans of action to events higher than their level cap.


What you need to be sure of is that you don't fall into the same trap that a bunch of highly paid professional game writers have: enemy variation and scenery changes and complex revelatory plot do not make a good tabletop RPG.

If I have learned anything from video games, it's that the plot ought to be largely optional. If you strip away the plot and have basically the same minigame over and over, it's not a highly complex game, it's a very small game with a plot wrapped around it.

The Metal Gear series avoided this (for the most part) though it was plot-heavy--there were very often differently structured missions throughout the game, with spacing between missions that were similar to each other for pacing and also for callback purposes.


And no, gaining the plot tokens shouldn't just be a bunch of skill checks - nothing in any game should be just down to a series of skill checks. I only suggested that you might want to theme the tokens around the ability scores so that the tasks required were inherently different to each other, by definition. You needn't announce the themes, either - just plan for a diplomatic, persuading type of mission, a violent slaughter, a clue-following puzzle treasure hunt...

Just my advice.

Theming them is a good idea. Even if I go the Puzzle Boss route for some of them (not with a specific solution of firing an arrow onto the bomb plants to drop them into the boss's weak point . . . that's too silly, even for this) but having the bosses have certain abilities and defenses that will need to be overcome either by creative planning or some questing for an item that will help out.


"Come on, guys, let's fight to the death in front of the spawn point over and over until we all hit the level cap!"

So you played Final Fantasy II?

(Maybe I should add an XP penalty to the respawn?)

balistafreak
2010-08-06, 12:15 PM
(Maybe I should add an XP penalty to the respawn?)

Make it a free rez... but make it cost a level, just like Raise Dead does normally.

THAT should make your players afraid of dying.

... okay, seriously, to be fair, a mere XP penalty is probably fine, because no one likes losing levels. If you want, you could get even more complex with it, with a chart or something: You lose a level for direct suicide, lose a large proportion of XP for Yet Another Stupid Death (attempting to run through and weather a trap you knew was already there), a small proportion of XP for a "normal death" (bad dice, death when they at least try to avoid doing so), and zero or perhaps even an XP bonus if they die accomplishing something meaningful.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 12:17 PM
Make it a free rez... but make it cost a level, just like Raise Dead does normally.

THAT should make your players afraid of dying.

... okay, seriously, to be fair, a mere XP penalty is probably fine, because no one likes losing levels. If you want, you could get even more complex with it, with a chart or something: You lose a level for direct suicide, lose a large proportion of XP for Yet Another Stupid Death (attempting to run through and weather a trap you knew was already there), a small proportion of XP for a "normal death" (bad dice, death when they at least try to avoid doing so), and zero or perhaps even an XP bonus if they die accomplishing something meaningful.

Oooh, that sounds nifty

Mnemnosyne
2010-08-06, 12:30 PM
If the manner of death is significant, this needs to be seriously taken into account when considering what is providing this eternal resurrection service. In this case it must clearly be intelligent, capable of making its own judgements on what the right and wrong way to behave is, and consistently enforce its opinion.

The question of whether the infinite resurrections apply only to player characters is key regardless of how it's taken, and if it is only the player characters, beyond dealing with the obvious issue that even if they do lose exp when killed, they come back and nobody else does, there's also the issue of why they are unique in this manner, something else that will have to be explained as they unravel the mystery of the place.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 12:38 PM
You didn't specify whether the players are the only ones with this immortality thing going.

They're the only ones. The PCs are spechul.


How long will it be before the players can somehow make peace with and live with the local villages? Or will they need to conquer those villages in order to do so? Will gold become useful once they do so? Or do the villages here not value gold and work purely on a barter system? Saying 'gold isn't useful' doesn't make a lot of sense since if a civilization uses it as a medium of exchange, you may have to offer many times the normal price but sufficient money tends to overcome hostility except in the most diametrically opposed of cases where the only possible reaction is 'kill or flee'.

I suppose it depends on what the PCs do! But 'gold isn't useful' does make sense when the most technological of the tribes are bronze age (And not Babylon bronze age either). I suppose they could still use gold as a medium, but you're not going to get much from it, and they would be very racially divided so there would be less in the way of inns you could stay at for the night since they're not going to be expecting friendly travelers. (Befriend village, get to stay at private tent and/or some important friend's house etc.)


And also consider that if the player characters are modern, educated individuals they'll have entirely different ways of looking at things, and it's a lot easier to go into Tippyverse territory when you can't fall back on the excuse that such an idea would be unknown in the world. Indeed, if they don't come up with logical, scientifically applied solutions to problems it wouldn't make a lot of sense.

Of course they're going to do that. Though I did specify they were teenagers at most, so they could attempt to break things if they like, but their scientific rigor doesn't necessarily have to be off the scales.


If the manner of death is significant, this needs to be seriously taken into account when considering what is providing this eternal resurrection service. In this case it must clearly be intelligent, capable of making its own judgements on what the right and wrong way to behave is, and consistently enforce its opinion.

The question of whether the infinite resurrections apply only to player characters is key regardless of how it's taken, and if it is only the player characters, beyond dealing with the obvious issue that even if they do lose exp when killed, they come back and nobody else does, there's also the issue of why they are unique in this manner, something else that will have to be explained as they unravel the mystery of the place.

Which is also a likely possibility of what they'd like to do. I have had a story in the past where the transported-to world was controlled by some sort of shadowy puppet-master--but he doesn't have to be evil, maybe he could just be nice and providing a fun game for the players to interact with (whether or not the players agree that it is entirely right for him to do so without their consent)

*gasp* the shadow entity is Mortimer McMire

Mnemnosyne
2010-08-06, 01:49 PM
Yeah, if they don't use gold as a medium of exchange at all, then unless the PC's introduce the concept it's not likely to be particularly useful. In this case are you presuming a complete barter system economy, or does each village have its own unique type of currency? If each village has its own currency type then this probably encourages them to pick just one or two to befriend so that they don't have to deal in twenty different currencies. Pure barter makes it more neutral, but can be more of a hassle player-wise.

Being (modern) teenagers especially, once they figure out their immortality and the fact that no one else is immortal, as soon as they get comfortable with killing others, which we presume will happen quickly enough if the adventure contains the average amount of combat for a D&D game, they're going to want to run around doing anything they damn well please, even if they don't formally conquer anything - such characters may be likely to declare themselves kings or something, but unlikely to establish the necessary procedures to actually have conquered anything.

All intelligent creatures, even 'just monsters', should be considerably more hesitant to do battle with them once word spreads about their immortality, too. After all, if victory in battle only means your enemy might come back in a couple days, and losing means you die, you've got a lot of incentive to avoid battle at any cost, since the risk you take is so out of proportion with the potential gains.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 02:04 PM
All intelligent creatures, even 'just monsters', should be considerably more hesitant to do battle with them once word spreads about their immortality, too. After all, if victory in battle only means your enemy might come back in a couple days, and losing means you die, you've got a lot of incentive to avoid battle at any cost, since the risk you take is so out of proportion with the potential gains.

Now this is also an interesting way to consider the deconstruction: What do the monsters here feel? Assuming they're not just imaginary constructs also provided by the puppet-master, some may actually feel gypped when they learn that the PCs get to come back infinitely. Or even if they are imaginary constructs, some of the more intelligent ones might get all TNG Moriarty on the players and try and keep them from evaporating the world at the end of the game.

I suddenly had a Link's Awakening moment. Hold on.


I'd ditch the cute animal at the beginning as far too video-gamey, unless this sort of thing is a frequent occurance in this world. In which case, you could probably make the cute animal quite bored and jaded with his job.

I was actually thinking of having the mascot continue to be bright and cheerful even when explaining the various, horrible ways you could die on the continent, and/or if you're dragging yourselves back to the hub with severe injuries.

Lysander
2010-08-06, 02:29 PM
Now this is also an interesting way to consider the deconstruction: What do the monsters here feel? Assuming they're not just imaginary constructs also provided by the puppet-master, some may actually feel gypped when they learn that the PCs get to come back infinitely. Or even if they are imaginary constructs, some of the more intelligent ones might get all TNG Moriarty on the players and try and keep them from evaporating the world at the end of the game.

I suddenly had a Link's Awakening moment. Hold on.

Or they might camp out at the Hub in a large group and kill the PCs again each time they spawn. Or just keep them captive in a prison so they can't suicide. Or build a wall around the Hub and make it a prison.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 02:36 PM
Or they might camp out at the Hub in a large group and kill the PCs again each time they spawn. Or just keep them captive in a prison so they can't suicide. Or build a wall around the Hub and make it a prison.

Capturing the heroes would be the optimal route. The hub is supposed to be intentionally imperceptible to the other worlders so that it can act as a safe spot (though perceiving it might not beyond the ability of one of those Moriarty-types.)

Mnemnosyne
2010-08-06, 02:45 PM
Interesting question, what about disabling magic? Petrification, for instance? Would this trigger the regeneration at the hub, or would casting a successful Flesh to Stone permanently knock a character out, unless someone else reversed it? Consider also any other sort of long-term disabling magic that gives the character no chance to escape or even kill themselves.

Another thought. Cursed items. You know how a lot of cursed items you just can't get rid of. Toss it away, teleport a thousand miles and the next time you get into a fight, that cursed sword is going to pop right back into your hand. Equipment normally remains behind, but cursed items are specifically not easy to get rid of, so would they pop back into the character's possession after regeneration? If so, this could be taken advantage of. The people or monsters they're terrorizing might not be able to kill them, but give them a cursed item that they can't get rid of and it might seriously reduce their effectiveness.

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 02:56 PM
Nigh-permanent disabling like flesh-to-stone might trigger regeneration back at the hub, especially since it's not counterable in e6 without being handed stone-to-flesh scrolls or taking that very specific feat. Other non-permanet disabling would not, I think.

Hmm, are there any CL 10-12 beasties with access to trap the soul?

RickGriffin
2010-08-06, 11:46 PM
Other ideas: Make the players carry around pendants/rings/whatever in order to be rezzed; item comes with them if it's on their body, but not if it's taken from them. Has no effect on other creatures? Has SAME effect on other creatures?

Ajadea
2010-08-07, 12:26 AM
I like the idea of 8 ring/pendant/hat/whatevers that grant the people wearing them the ability to see the hut, access the hut, and benefit from the resurrection ability of the hut.

Flesh-to-stone should not be counterable in my book. It simply means you are stuck. There should be some NPCs at the hut, so that the players who get flesh-to-stoned or otherwise disabled can play while they go get their stuff back.

It seems very Animal-Crossing-y, light hearted cute little mascots. Work with this and make this Utopia a floating island that runs on Nightmare-Fuel. Remember...you can't leave. Ever. Not even death will save you. If there can be one, maybe there can be more. What if the BBEG has one, making this a losing battle until you destroy his resurrection thing-a-ma-jigger? What if, to gain the way to destroy the BBEG's resurrection MacGuffin/return to the real world, you have to destroy all eight amulets that let the PCs resurrect themselves? What if the BBEG was a kid like you, trapped here forever and gone insane because of it? Keep expanding at will.

Also, there could be a magical amulet hidden in a stereotypical dungeon crawl, one you have to steal, one that someone else already got (and therefore you must track them down), one that is somewhere in a non-stereotypical dungeon (dungeon inside a gigantic tree, or that keeps changing, or that is a gigantic illusion?), one that is also something else vital (I like the idea of one of the magical resurrection amulets being a Required MacGuffin), one that requires a really grisly sacrifice to get, and one that requires a trip into someone's subconscious/dreams.

Oh! New idea! At the Heart of the World is a gate back to Real Life. You need 8 amulets to get through. 7 amulets from your journey, and one at the Heart of the world. 8 Real-World people are needed to activate the portal. 7 can leave.

Randel
2010-08-07, 12:41 AM
I've been playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl recently so this gives me some ideas.

Setting:

The World of Miniatures

The players sit down to play DnD and select one of their minitures to act as their character. Suddenly, they find themselves whisked into the fantasy world and they are transformed into the character they created.

The world is populated with various monsters and creatures who are all ready to do battle at the drop of a hat. However, nobody ever dies from these fights. Whenever someone would normally die (or be taken out of play by being petrified or whatnot) then they are transformed into a miniature. There they remain statue-like and indestructible until someone touches their base and 'activates' them. Once someone is activated in this manner they become a living breathing person again at full health. They are not controlled by the person who activated them (though its considered good manners to do a favor for someone who saved you from being a miniature forever).

Everyone in this world knows about this and they don't really fear death. They do feel pain and dislike being stuck as minitures for too long but the idea of nonexistance doesn't occur to them. There are 'good guys' and 'bad guys' who fight eachother but many of the bad guys are cartoonishly evil... their world is literally just a game. Evil overlords capture princesses and hold them in dungeons while heroes try to rescue them back. There may be dastardly plots to 'conquer the world' or even cataclysmic wars or disasters but nobody dies and things can be easily fixed afterwards.

Various factions fight eachother and there are lone monsters or bandits wandering around but their attacks and plots are almost playful, like stealing a farmers crops or enslaving him are just parts of a game played by anyone interested in playing.


The world itself is very large and filled with various landscapes and terrain which occasionally change. A mountain might be one place one day and move somewhere else another, castles move and grow or shrink seemingly at random (though these changes just mean the next 'game' will be different). The world is flat and despite the great size it is possible to pretty much see any landmarks you might want from anywhere. If a castle changes position you just need to climb a tree and scan the horizon until you see it again (there is also a magic roadway that changes with the transformation and the signs point to the new location). Sometimes mountains or castles or swamps will vanish entirely and new locations will pop into existence to replace them, but all the people on the old place will reappear somewhere else.

Your house and possessions may be destroyed or whisked away at any time, but you will always be there and you can always find your friends again.

However, on the outskirts of the world, things get a bit odd. Once you leave the grasslands and swamps an mountains you will always run into the Flatland which looks like a big empty desert or salt flats (though different people describe it differently... some swear it was made of wood or other bizarre substances). But beyond the Flatland you finally run into the Edge of the World which leads to an abrupt drop down into nothingness. Many people have jumped off the edge... and they all came back! They simply drop out of the sky a few days later in the form of miniatures.


The Widgets

However, in addition to the traditional orcs and goblins and monsters in the world who turn into miniatures when defeated, there are strange and bizarre things known only as Widgets.

Widgets can look like nearly anything... a paperclip, a pencil, an eraser or a penny... but strange and monstrous. A paperclip becomes a twisting metal snakelike thing with no head or tail, a pencil becomes a spear or a tree or rocket ship. Occasionally the inhabitants of this world may wake up one day to find a giant volcano looming on the horizon... a volcano that looks like a gigantic coffee cup!

Widgets don't seem to have any firmly defined powers or motivations, but they do flock to anyone who would use them. Many villains would love to get their hands on a few of these strange things and incorporate them into their latest fiendish plot! Once you get your hands on a Widget and bond it to yourself then you can pretty much call it whatever you want.

Widgets tend to get taken away though... whatever strange world they come from seems to want them back once they cause too much chaos in the world of miniatures.


======

Yeah, if you want to get pretty weird then you could have your adventure literally happen on your game table. All the figurines are living creatures who love to play in games and don't mind 'dying' that much... each of those goblin miniatures must have been through countless battles for dozens of employers. The bad guys and good guys don't necessarily hate eachother, in fact the baddies like to leave a few toys for the heroes to get (though hoarding magic items for themselves is always nice).

If a miniature wants to jump off the edge of the world then you (the DM) will just have someone pick them up and plop them onto the game board again.

If a coffee cup or a paperclip finds its way onto the table then it somehow will become part of the world... though its hard to tell just what it may become. Baddies love them because a mechanical pencil can easily become a submarine or a laser cannon or an ICBM set for their latest dastardly plan!

RickGriffin
2010-08-07, 02:04 AM
It seems very Animal-Crossing-y, light hearted cute little mascots. Work with this and make this Utopia a floating island that runs on Nightmare-Fuel. Remember...you can't leave. Ever. Not even death will save you. If there can be one, maybe there can be more. What if the BBEG has one, making this a losing battle until you destroy his resurrection thing-a-ma-jigger? What if, to gain the way to destroy the BBEG's resurrection MacGuffin/return to the real world, you have to destroy all eight amulets that let the PCs resurrect themselves? What if the BBEG was a kid like you, trapped here forever and gone insane because of it? Keep expanding at will.

I think the 'not even death will save you' is a bit of a hard sell on players, especially given that the campaign shouldn't even take more than a few months unless they drag it out.


Also, there could be a magical amulet hidden in a stereotypical dungeon crawl, one you have to steal, one that someone else already got (and therefore you must track them down), one that is somewhere in a non-stereotypical dungeon (dungeon inside a gigantic tree, or that keeps changing, or that is a gigantic illusion?), one that is also something else vital (I like the idea of one of the magical resurrection amulets being a Required MacGuffin), one that requires a really grisly sacrifice to get, and one that requires a trip into someone's subconscious/dreams.

Yes, these are more of the varied objectives I'm thinking of!


Oh! New idea! At the Heart of the World is a gate back to Real Life. You need 8 amulets to get through. 7 amulets from your journey, and one at the Heart of the world. 8 Real-World people are needed to activate the portal. 7 can leave.

My original idea was that the escape was down there, but having to sacrifice one party member would be an idea.

Cute mascot = former player

Marnath
2010-08-07, 03:40 PM
*Awesome stuff*

That's awesome and wierd. :smallbiggrin: I like the idea.

Randel
2010-08-07, 06:49 PM
Lets see:

A world inhabited by minatures who never die.
"I challenge you to a battle to the Death! Oh, and afterwards lets go out for scones."

A world where the terrain, houses, and landscape can change from day to day.
"Hey Mt. Doom is within walking distance of my house this week. That's convenient."

A world where history is malleable and can be changed at a whim.
"Lord Darkness, your thousand years of oppression ends today!"

A world where good and evil are at constant war.
"Okay, I know Sir Valiant beat us last time but time we will win for sure. Just keep Princess Polychrome in the tower until we marry on Sunday. Valiant agrees to buy pizza if we make it this time."

A world in constant danger.
"Fools! In just a few minutes the arcane energies held in this mountain will overload and Mt. DOOM will erupt with the force unheard since the dawn of the world! The sky will blacken! The oceans will turn to steam! Every living thing in this miserable world will die in flaming agony! ... oh, and by the way breaking the blue gem stops the volcano while breaking the red one makes it go off sooner. Just in case you forgot what happened last time!"

A world where anything can kill you.
"Okay guys on your toes, its a pencil. Dang, its got some smoke on the eraser end... is it a dragon snake? A missile? What are those goblins doing? Holy crap, its a rocket sled! Elmond, rocket sled at ten o'clock. I think the goblin near the front is the pilot! *Boom* *Fwoosh* Spread out, its got lasers! Darn you goblins, this is not historically accurate!"

A world where all you truly have is eachother.
"Mary, the moon is setting. Soon, I may no longer be a guard in this castle, I may not be in this kingdom, and I may not even be on the side of good. But I promise, I will find you and I will be here with you before the moon sets again. In the meantime, lets enjoy these moments we ha-"

And not even death can stop you.
"Ever jump off the edge of the world? Its fantastic... you fall for ages, the wind and the clouds rushing past you... then you see the Ground. Not just the ground we walk on... the honest to god Ground that the whole world sits on. It looks... lit looks kind of like a carpet that goes on forever in all directions. Heh, saw it myself. I fell for ages until I hit the Ground... then I turned into metal again and the last thing I saw was a giant hand picking me up. Next thing I know I was a member of Lord Darknesss army of evil ready to lay siege to the Ivory Kingdom. Now, if you don't mind I have to kill so we can capture the Princess. If we meet again, I'll show you the Ground myself."




As for the McGuffins...

Maybe the world has seven or eight location, like a kingdom of good guys, a big mountain, kingdom of bad guys, elf forest... etc. Each of those locations moves around after each 'chapter' or whatnot. Maybe there is an artifact tied to each location which allows the user some degree of control over that place. The players start with an artifact tied to their hideout which lets them move it or hide it in certain circumstances. If someone were to collect all the artifacts that control all the locations of the world then they would either become the masters of this world or could find a way to 'exit' it and return to the real world.


Or there could be Game Pieces. Like how a DM creates a world or a 'game' for the players to play in. Characters, Story, Setting, Plot, Conflict... just take various storytelling concepts and turn them into artifact forms. Each of these artifacts goes to characters in the story... like the players get the Sword of the Protagonist while the Big Bad gets the Helm of Conflict due to him being a driving force of conflict in the story. Wisened characters could have artifacts that let them see (or alter) past events so that they can tell prophicies or there could be a wand that brings clusure to the story.

Each of these artifacts are in the hands of characters in this world which let them create the stories they live through every day. If the players take the bad guys helm of Conflict that gives him his power then they not only take him down but remove a source of conflict from the world. Same goes with prohecy or closure or whatnot. Once the players collect all the artifacts then they pretty much solve everything in this world and can return to reality.


Though, going with my 'every creature in this world is a miniature' idea... I think there should be an artifact called The Box. Normally if a creature is killed in this world they just turn into a figurene and can be revived. The Box however has the ability to remove them from play permanantly... if someone is truly evil they could use The Box to ensure that all their enemies don't revive after defeated or even bring actual "death" to this world. The players could use it to put all the bad guys away (though this freaks out alot of people) or a bad guy could use this figuring that its a cool new way to have a big epic story where the heroes will have to stop him.