Help Me Brainstorm- the Far Realm

[Yorrin]

So I have the beginnings of a shadow of an idea for a campaign, and was hoping you guys might have something to contribute to the incipient stages of my planning.

The basic idea came from the backstory of the Diaboli in Dragon Compendium. It says that the Diaboli live on a plane that closely borders the Far Realm, and the madness of that realm was bleeding over and forcing the exodus of the Diaboli. I read this shortly after reading over the section on Thoon out of MM5.

So the idea is that Thoon is manipulating the Diaboli into vacating their realm, forcing them onto the material plane (among other planes). Among other enigmatic motives Thoon wishes to expand the madness of the Far Realm into the realm of nightmares, using it as a bridge into other realms, the material plane included.

As a part of this campaign the PCs will no doubt be encountering plenty of things from the Far Realm- and this is where you all come in! I'm trying to figure out what all has been published that is supposed to be from the Far Realms. Thus far my memory and google-fu have given me the following list of creatures:
Aboleth? (MM)
Cloakers (MM)
Grells (MM)
Gibbering Mouthers (MM)
Kaorti (FF)
Rukanyr (FF)
Pseudonatural Creature Template (C.Arc)
Most stuff from LoM (Half-Farspawn Template, Tsochar, Psurlon, etc.)
In addition to all the Thoon stuff.

Which should be enough creatures that pertain to that realm, methinks. What I'm wondering if there are any terrain types, items, locations, etc. that have been themed after the Far Realm. If not, how would you do it?

[THEChanger]

Your d100.

Now, hear me out.

The Far Realm is a place which is ever-changing, ever-flowing, never ceasing. This is a place where not only do the laws of reality as we know them not apply, but aren't even internally constant. Yes, you have creatures(most aberrant creatures, for instance) which are born from interaction with the Far Realm. But ultimatly, these being only represent the infection. They are pieces of the Far Realm trapped within our own laws of existance, in constant pain, in constant fury, because this place traps them. The true creature of the Far Realm are incomprehensible. They defy any attempt to explain them, and certainly to stat them up. They don't just live in the Far Realm, they are the Far Realm. Their bodies make up its myriad layers, their strange, alien minds make its laws. Sure, things live on those layers and are subject to those laws. But even these smaller creatures are part of the greater whole. In the Far Realm, the concept of seperation is a false one. Everything flows into everything else. Everything is one. In the twisting, burning chaos, all minds, all spirits, all things mix and meld and seperate again. Literally nothing is constant.

To fight against the Far Realm, or in the Far Realm, is to fight against everything that ever was, wasn't, is, isn't, will be or won't be. Including yourself. To try and bring that into our world...that the results would be world-ending is to put it mildly. The person in question would have to be insane by the standards of both worlds.

But, if you really want to have an adventure in this hostile, otherworldly place, the d100 is your friend. Everything should be shifting at random, and the percentile die is a good way to represent this. The things the party fights, the terrain they stand on, even the party themselves should be in a constant state of flux. Though, for the sake of the party, you probably shouldn't be changing them too much. Players tend to get upset when their toys get taken from them.

As for what they fight...there are some things that have really cool abilities in the D&D universe. Things that warp the body and steal the mind. Take your average intelligent undead, for instance. They all eat parts of the living. Far Realm creatures probably do that too-their base existance is one of inter-connectedness, after all. Taking existing creatures with Ability Drain, Ability Damage, or Negative Level abilities and describing them in the most insane way possible might be a good place to start. Always be rolling that d100 in the background, possibly multiple ones. Never tell your players why you're rolling it. Roll it sometimes just for the hell of it. Keep them on their toes. Incorporeal creatures are also good in the Far Realm.

But above all, understand that, to the creatures of the Far Realm, things make sense. They can, to a certain extent, see patterns in all this madness-patterns which are completely incomprehensible to creatures from the Material Plane. Similarly, our world has patterns they have no understanding of. The creatures of our world are to them what gibbering mouthers and Tetramorphs are to our world.

[The Glyphstone]

But, if you really want to have an adventure in this hostile, otherworldly place, the d100 is your friend. Everything should be shifting at random, and the percentile die is a good way to represent this. The things the party fights, the terrain they stand on, even the party themselves should be in a constant state of flux. Though, for the sake of the party, you probably shouldn't be changing them too much. Players tend to get upset when their toys get taken from them.


Well, if they go into the Far Realms without seeking out or otherwise obtaining a MacGuffin to protect them, they deserve to be fluxxed like anyone else.:smallwink:

But yeah...there are Abberations, and then there are Far Realms entities.

Abberations are stuff like Aboleths, Grells, Beholders, and Chokers.

Far Realms entities have Banana hit points and purple AC, attack at +hysterical for fish/zero damage, and add maybe to all their saving throws. A Far Realms being intruding into the Prime Material might be forced to take on some manner of coherent shape, enough to at least to have stats and be killed - in its home plane, though, it should be close to impossible to even realize one is under attack, let alone how or by what, without a way to 'synch' the target's mind with the alien reality.

[Darrin]

When I took my PCs into the Far Realm, I just stole stuff from old Call of Cthulhu scenarios. More specifically, I took them to Carcosa, using material from Tatterdemalion and John Tyne's "The Road to Hali (http://theunspeakableoath.com/home/?p=76)".

They didn't stay long enough to discover this, but I also switched around some of the physical properties of energy effects, so that any large burst of energy was experienced in a different way.

Acid: red glow dissolves matter into sound, producing ear-shattering screaching
Cold: flickering purplish sparks that deal acid damage
Fire: black tar-like foaming bubbles that deal electricity damage
Electricity: blue vapor rapidly melts solids/freezes liquids, dealing fire/cold damage
Sonic: cascading irridescent multihued colors spreading out from the point of origin

Toss in some Reverse Gravity (or Random Obtuse Angle Gravity) zones, mix with the usual reality-bending funhouse effects, and stir until the PCs are afraid to touch even their own equipment.

[ILM]

This is how I'd do things: http://i.qkme.me/3p5yl7.jpg

But actually, everything THEChanger said.

[Slipperychicken]

The creatures of our world are to them what gibbering mouthers and Tetramorphs are to our world.

Now I just have the mental image of this epic timeless being begging for its... well, kind-of-existence when encountering a human. Of course, such begging (if they even have that concept) would be indistinguishable from all the incomprehensible, brain-snapping **** one encounters in Far Realm anyway...


Side note:
"Standard" Gods could totally go to Far Realm, and auto-save against insanity every hour. I wonder what they think of it?

[nedz]

Telepathic Pseudonatural Mouthless Green Badgers with Pink Masks and levels in various psionic classes.
Levitating Yellow Whales who charge around and play tennis with their tails using the PCs as balls.
Inside out Elephant Warlocks.
Suicidal Exploding Orange Lemmings.
and some things even I can't imagine which sound like a still life of fruit in a bowl.

[The Glyphstone]

Side note:
"Standard" Gods could totally go to Far Realm, and auto-save against insanity every hour. I wonder what they think of it?

Who says that natural 20's auto-succeed on saves in the Far Realms, assuming it has a saving throw at all?:smallconfused: Maybe you only auto-succeed if you roll exactly half+1 on the die, or an unmodified negative number.

[Bit Fiend]

Far Realms entities have Banana hit points and purple AC, attack at +hysterical for fish/zero damage, and add maybe to all their saving throws.

Mind if I sig that part? It's hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

[The Glyphstone]

Mind if I sig that part? It's hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

Go for it.:smallbiggrin:

[Roguenewb]

I sent my players to the Far Realms once. They stepped into a portal, and it didn't work, or so they thought.... After they attempted entry, they felt that their goal had failed, and that they couldn't get the Artifact that would help them against the Big Bad, so they started a series of quests from their "patron", but reality began to slowly unravel. Things didn't work quite right, and there were many, many d100 rolls, until finally they were fighting in a mountaintop monastery rising through the depths of the ocean towards a dark sun that would freeze them if it's light touched them. My players are still confused about that one =)

[FMArthur]

Just keep in mind that the Far Realm is not necessarily hostile chaos all the time. Portals in connection to the Far Realm might spew out a thousand disturbing monsters before getting plugged by the biggest creature in the cosmos, but they could also do things like plant a village or city that was sucked into a rift at some point and spent several thousand years preserved, having lucked into relative protection by the plane instead of being ripped apart by it.

That establishment is actually something I did for a Far Realm adventure.
The people of the village are insane and if confused they break down. This may not be obvious because only their sounds directly reflect their emotions; they appear to be laughing when you hear them crying, and they appear to be crying when they are actually laughing. They only even look human when being directly spoken to - you're their only anchor into reality. This is not something they acknowledge; you are another phantasm of the rift, monstrous in form and nonsensical in purpose.
The interior of houses seem to be defined by their owners' perspective in a literal sense - furniture sometimes doesn't resemble what it was, might be resting on the ceiling, and reflects that particular villager's mental problems in not-quite-abstract ways. I'm being vague here because I winged it as they entered each place; those are starting parameters I ran with.
Nobody has been able to have children. They find this upsetting and some of them cradle ragged care-worn artifacts from their pasts. The objects have small hints of baby-like features here and there, and on occasion fail to be truly inanimate.
Everyone has the Regeneration feature and are surprised every time by its miraculous occurrance when injured.
There is a wizard laboratory underneath the town's square. The inhabiting wizards were responsible for producing the original vortex and were possibly responsible for the village's ejection from the Far Realm when the last portal opened. The wizards all appear to be the same man. They each possess small mutations that differentiate them; a tentacle draped down from a mouth or nose. A small patch of blue-green skin. A single milky-white eye. In my games, the phrase "Illithid Heritage" has a very different meaning.
Everyone believes that they have been mistakenly transported deeper into the Far Realm just now. The real world is terrifying and unnatural. Eventually they work out a way to go back.

This was just a base of operations for the PCs in a ruined world for a couple sessions, so proper quest hooks were not even part of this flavor-piece village. You could change that easily.

[NichG]

Well there's different conceptions of the Far Realm. One conception could be as a place that is constantly changing; Limbo but worse. For a place like that, the way I ran it was that exposure would provoke a random chance (not save, just flat chance) per unit time that something would change. This had a certain chance of being a held item, but if it wasn't a held item it was a randomly chosen thing on the person's character sheet. This morphed item/feat/class ability/template/race would be replaced with something randomly chosen from the same sort of list, but not belonging at all to the current game system. For example, someone's Toughness feat could be replaced with a 2ed D&D Non-weapon-proficiency. Or more psychedelically, someone's race could be replaced by a new spell from a different game, leaving them without even the concept of being 'a race'. Of course, with that mechanic, players will not go there or stay there, so there needs to be something that provides a modicum of protection. However, the creatures of that place cause this effect on contact, and the protection is only so good...

However, I think the Far Realms are more interesting if they're actually internally self-consistent to a logic beyond the grasp of beings not from there. Rather than everything just changing randomly, it obeys rules that just defy understanding but exist. An example of this would be, the Far Realm is perceived as a series of criss-crossing semi-transparent, rubbery tunnels in a vast void. PCs walk down their own tunnels, which are connected only by small gaps to eachothers'. They also find that these tunnels seem to slope 'down' at a 45 degree angle, and are under constant compression, squeezing into them from all sides. The tunnels seem to change shape in response to the PCs actions, but its unclear how. Actually bursting a tunnel wall causes the PC in it to suffer grievous wounds corresponding to whatever force was used against the tunnel, and spawns an array of thin, elastic threads that shoot out from the tunnel wall into the void and can make contact with other tunnels. Worse, this happens if anyone stays back and attacks a section of the tunnels behind the inhabitant (upwards), as waves cascade along the tunnel, but NOT if they attack a section ahead of them (downwards).

The creatures of this realm are made of these tunnels, and move them around freely, while existing beyond them. The PCs may find themselves being 'eaten' as their tunnels merge with those of a creature, and various oddities are inflicted upon the tunnel as it is contorted and changed.

Weirder still, occasionally a tunnel will split, and a doppelganger of the inhabitant will emerge from them at the split. This is an itchy process and it seems like every cell in the body is physically separating, but it causes no damage. The doppelganger has the personality of the PC but with minor differences. Occasionally, tunnels will merge and a doppelganger will try to leap into a given PC. If they succeed, some minor aspects of the PC are altered. The PCs may find that strong belief, doubt, introspection, and/or examination can influence the occurrence of these branchings/mergings. In addition, psionic powers seem to cause a massive unfurling of these lines, including the scariest of events - a tunnel simply ending. PCs who come to tunnel ends have one round to turn back, or they find that they simply do not continue existing beyond that point and are lost.

Upward is backwards in time, downwards is forwards in time, and the tunnels are the world-lines of physical matter trapped in the Far Realm.

[Slipperychicken]

Who says that natural 20's auto-succeed on saves in the Far Realms, assuming it has a saving throw at all?:smallconfused: Maybe you only auto-succeed if you roll exactly half+1 on the die, or an unmodified negative number.

Seems pretty clear to me. I mean, the only effect which explicitly grants a save is the Maddening, and it doesn't make such an exception for it. It does feel appropriate to mess with the d20 mechanic, considering how strange the place is, although the Manual of the Planes Entry doesn't really talk about messing with base mechanics.



Manual of the Planes
Maddening: Moving through the Far Realm is to see,
hear, and think in a way that mortal brains are not
designed for. Travelers might sprout eyes on their
palms, relive a hundred childhoods simultaneously
wherein their parents were secretly Far Realm wights,
or backward speaking begin. Entry into the Far Realm
requires nonnatives to succeed at a Will save (DC 20) to
stave off insanity (as the insanity spell). Visitors must
make will saves when they first enter the Far Realm and
every hour thereafter.

As far as the rules are concerned, it's just a normal Will save, subject to immunities against Enchantment, Compulsions, and Mind-Affecting. Of course, that creates way too much certainty :smallamused:. Probably better to do it your way.

[Toliudar]

To adjudicate adventures in the Far Realms:

Start by showing the players a cubist painting.

Have the players state their actions in writing.

Cut up the sentences and piece together the words in random order to determine what they actually do.

Slowly push your head through the cubist painting while singing nursery rhymes in Farsi.

--

The difficulty with actually going to the far realms is that it's hard for the reality of them to ever be as weird as what you THINK that they should be. IMO, the Far Realms should be inexplicably and inhumanly 'other', and it's hard for any one thing - no matter how shifty and quirky - to remain 'other'.

My favourite thing about your concept is that the far realms stuff you're dealing with could be completely normal things that have just the slightest touch of Far Realms oddness to them - and as a consequence are now bats*** insane and terrifying.

In short, the further offstage and around the corner you keep the far realms stuff, the better.

[The Glyphstone]

Seems pretty clear to me. I mean, the only effect which explicitly grants a save is the Maddening, and it doesn't make such an exception for it. It does feel appropriate to mess with the d20 mechanic, considering how strange the place is, although the Manual of the Planes Entry doesn't really talk about messing with base mechanics.



As far as the rules are concerned, it's just a normal Will save, subject to immunities against Enchantment, Compulsions, and Mind-Affecting. Of course, that creates way too much certainty :smallamused:. Probably better to do it your way.

Oh, there's actual rules for the Far Realms in MoP? Well, that's boring.:smallcool:

[Particle_Man]

[QUOTE=Yorrin;13186226Pseudonatural Creature Template (C.Arc)[/QUOTE]

Well, there is always the "other" pseudonatural template if you are feeling mean.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/pseudonaturalCreature.htm

[Roguenewb]

There is some great stuff in this thread. I'm stealing all of it when I run Ragnorra in the near future. Event hook ideas:

-Everything works at right angles to everything else. Kind of like that section of Alice in Wonderland (or through the looking glass, I can never tell those two apart) where to go forwards you have to walk backwards. Except here, its not the direct opposite that gets you where you wanna go, but the refracted idea. So, the obvious way to cast an Evocation spell in reverse would be through a Abjuration slot right? Well, here you need a conjuration slot. Because, conjuration is like evocation in that draws things into existence, but it does so from another place instead of from energy, see...right angles. Make up a bunch of rules like this, except that every time a player figures one out and tells you that they do, or it becomes clear they figured it out...hit them with Wisdom loss (not damage, not drain... LOSS) as their minds are slowly shifting into a Far Realm sensibility.

-Change up what counts as cause and effect. On Prime we injure things by disrupting them (Fireball etc) but in the Far Realm, things are injured by imitating them, so... When you cast Polymorph into something, it takes 1d6 per caster level damage as you imitate it. You heal things by forgetting about them? I dunno, you could up a bunch more of these, and again, as your players figure them out, hit 'em with the "you're becoming a far realm thinker take WIS loss" tax.

Thats what I got so far...

[BIGMamaSloth]

Oh, there's actual rules for the Far Realms in MoP? Well, that's boring.:smallcool:

Correct me if I'm wrong but if I remember MoP correctly, there is only that rule for the Far realm. Thats also how it should be. If you're doing a far realms campaign, I'd suggest staying in this multiverse and just using things affected or infected by the far realm, as the whole beyond mortal comprehension thing would make the far realm pretty hard to comprehend.

[Yorrin]

You've all provided some wonderful pointers and ideas for a Far Realms type setting and how the PCs might interact with it. As per usual I applaud the creativity of the Playground.

The more I think about it, however, the more I think that entry into the Far Realms should be absolutely minimal- the final fractional percentage of the campaign at most. Rather there will be exposure to.... "pockets" of madness. Much of the ideas contained herein would be included in such pockets, making for some truly bizarre moments.

I'm thinking that a strong necessity is to tell the players that their characters are going to be subject to numerous uncontrollable and unpredictable changes over the course of the campaign right from the outset. That way they'll be somewhat mentally prepared for the fact that their Wizard now permanently uses his ranks in Jump to cast from the Ranger spell list. Or that their once human Paladin now has a breath weapon primarily composed of bubbles and salt water that causes all affected creatures to have an insatiable craving for cold iron.

[THEChanger]

That is probably the best way to go about it. While this sounds like a game that I would be estatic to play in, I wouldn't want to have this sprung on me. I would want to know before hand that things are going to change dramatically at the drop of a pin.

However, before you head away to tormet your players with the pure madness that is the Far Realm, I have a couple more things I should suggest.
First, Xenothurgy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122103). For when you need a pocket of the Far Realm inflitrating the Material Realm through a more subtle messanger than an aboleth or ithilid, you could do far worse than a True Xenothurgist. Indeed, the section on Incursions is good to describe the effects caused when a bit of the Far Realm just bleeds over, no mortal intermediary required.

Now, if we have a system of magic that occurs when creatures of this world or the Far Realm call upon that place's power to affect the Material Plane, it stands to reason there is a system of magic which affects the Far Realm with the power of the Material Plane. In my personal opinion, there is something that WotC has published that fills this position very well: Incarnum. Yes, it's flavored as magic powered by pure soul energy. But it relies on binding and shaping that raw soul energy into a solid form. And in my interpretation of the Far Realm, guess what it's made of?

So, consider giving Incarnum some special interactions with the Far Realm, if any of your players use it. An example might be the Planar Ward Soulmeld-have it bring a bit of the Material with them, much as an Incursion or a Katori Cyst brings a little bit of the Far Realm here.

That's all for now. I love the Far Realm, so I'll be keeping an eye on any developments here. I expect updates Yorrin!

[Eldan]

To adjudicate adventures in the Far Realms:

Start by showing the players a cubist painting.

Have the players state their actions in writing.

Cut up the sentences and piece together the words in random order to determine what they actually do.

Slowly push your head through the cubist painting while singing nursery rhymes in Farsi.

--.

You, Sir, are a Gentleman of rare talent and taste.

May I quote you?

[Shadowknight12]

My personal take on the Far Realm is as follows:

The Far Realm is not a place. You do not open a portal and go to the Far Realm. You open a portal and the Far Realm goes into you. Everything that happens, happens in your mind, the Far Realm hijacking your cognitive processes, memories and imagination to manifest some sort of reality. Had a fear of heights, a love of puppies and a domineering father? The Far Realm warps your perceptions of reality with enormous dogs slobbering all over you, while the ground opens into unfathomable chasms and every person you see is an older man barking orders at you with a stern look of disapproval in his face.

The ground is not the ground, the sky is not the sky and people are not people. Things that are not there harm you as though they were, and bystanders see you warped in some sort of ungodly supernatural field that changes depending on how you look at it. And the thing is, the Far Realm likes you. It likes to make a home in your mind and warp your thoughts and perceptions for its own random designs. Even if you find a way to exorcise it and regain some semblance of normality, you still find yourself experiencing oddities from time to time. Side effects? Brain damage? Or is it that the Far Realm is just messing with you and it was never truly gone? What if the Far Realm is just biding its time until it can warp your perceptions to commit some terrible, atrocious tragedy that dooms the Material Plane? What if the portal killed you, and you really are in the Far Realm, trapped for all eternity?

The Far Realm is not something you take lightly. You can be an epic-level wizard, and it will still own you like a pimp on payday. And what's worse, it will definitely twist your epic-level wizardry to wreck the Material Plane and further the incomprehensible goals of the Far Realm, rest assured.

EDIT: TL;DR: The Far Realm, as I see it, is "Silent Hill by David Lynch meets all of the psychological horror tropes."

[Toliudar]

You, Sir, are a Gentleman of rare talent and taste.

May I quote you?

It would be my honour.

[Absol197]

I'm positive that I read an amazing thread on these very forums that dealt extensively with the Far Realm. I can't seem to find it, though. Perhaps someone with much better Google-fu than mine will be able to, and re-link us, so that we might explore that swirling maddness further.

EDIT: It appears that someone already did. It was part of the Xenotheurgy thread. For some reason, I had it in my head that they were separate threads, and that the one I was thinking of had been made by NeoSeph.

[Bit Fiend]

I think an interesting (if hardly practical) mechanical approach would be to run the Far Realm entities on a different but possibly slightly similar system. 3.Xe vs. 4e maybe or something along these lines (ha, 4e as an Eldritch Abomination :smallamused:). After all the entities operate under completely alien laws of physics so it's not always clear if and how they can affect the PCs in the first place and vice versa. Of course it's a LOT of work for the DM to find and stat out the interactions between the systems but maybe worth a shot.

Edit: Of course don't let the players know what you've done there. The confused look on their faces as they struggle to figure out what the hell is going on must be priceless. :smallbiggrin:

[Darth Stabber]

I am using something similar to the far realm in a campaign I am currenntly running. In the beginning of mortal magic chronomancy was a full school of magic (like conjuration or necromancy), and the far realm was "storm drain", providing an outlet for things destroyed and/or never existed by temporal paradox. As things progressed powerful effects designed to protect against being "never existed" caused even greater paradox forces. As the battles between wizards grew in intensity, this run off realm was afflicted with more content inconsistant with itself, and since it exists to contain these things, the very laws of magic and physics stretched to accomadate. The souls of the neverborn were twisted and warped by the confluence of new and old magical laws. Any magic they were effected by in life was echoed in this realm, though often unrecognizably so. The realm's coexistence with every other plane (to enable the swift removal of paradoxical material and energy) made it a popular means of traveling between planes easily (though not safely). To travel through the realm was to be exposed to millions of things that literally could not be. Also entities from these realms could be used brought forth via magical effects, but this caused even greater paradox, as these things were already removed once for being impossible, and still they affect the world.

Finally/originally a great battle occurred between two factions at the first moments of the beginning of existance. In a final act of desperation Tharizdun, the god of time brought back 1,000 versions of himself to remove chronomancy from the fabric of existence. In doing so he ripped himself and all of the combatants present into the far realm, and sealed it off from the rest of existence, a seal which only the most powerful and strangest magics can even peer through.

Tharizdun himself as become as warped as the rest of the realm, wishing to destroy the reality from which he was removed, and replacing with the plagued realm in which he currently resides.

[Larkas]

long text

This matches just right with what I think of the Far Realm. I mean, have you read the plane's description in MoP? In there it says that one minute in the Far Realm equals no time in the Material Plane. Please, note that it's not a LITTLE time, it is no time at all. So we have two scenarios: either you went to the Far Realm and came back, but since no time passed you are certain you are completely mad and somehow hallucinated for a moment (or forever), or you have a paradox, where you went to the Far Realm and never came back. Since no time passed on the Material, you couldn't vanish from one moment to the other: that implies passage of time. The only way for reality to accommodate to this change is simply wiping out your existence retroactively. Something vanishing to the Far Realm literally changes the history of the world.

...Thinking about the Far Realm is weird. If you live in US, see this (http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/clip/spongebob-129-full-episode.html). Yeah, I know, Spongebob. But the part when Squidward goes OUTSIDE of time and is all alone is how I picture how the Far Realm should be. May be. Might be. Hell, it's how it might present itself to someone. (And if you can't see the video, you're not alone: I can't see it either, but I can't find another legal link.)

[Slipperychicken]

...Thinking about the Far Realm is weird. If you live in US, see this (http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/clip/spongebob-129-full-episode.html). Yeah, I know, Spongebob. But the part when Squidward goes OUTSIDE of time and is all alone is how I picture how the Far Realm should be.

To spare anyone else from scouring the whole video to find it, the relevant section is around 10:20.

[Larkas]

Yeah, thanks for that, I couldn't really check it :smallbiggrin:

[Steward]

I think an interesting (if hardly practical) mechanical approach would be to run the Far Realm entities on a different but possibly slightly similar system. 3.Xe vs. 4e maybe or something along these lines (ha, 4e as an Eldritch Abomination :smallamused:). After all the entities operate under completely alien laws of physics so it's not always clear if and how they can affect the PCs in the first place and vice versa. Of course it's a LOT of work for the DM to find and stat out the interactions between the systems but maybe worth a shot.

Edit: Of course don't let the players know what you've done there. The confused look on their faces as they struggle to figure out what the hell is going on must be priceless. :smallbiggrin:

I really like this idea, especially if you play up the "different rules" aspect of it. The tricky part would be adapting the characters to the new rules. The only thing I can think of is to make new character sheets for each PC, adapted to the changed edition, and have them sort of 'figure out' what's going on. Alternatively, you could keep their characters the same, but just have their actions have different effects. This works if they're not used to other systems.

[NichG]

Honestly, leave the characters in 3.5 or whatever mechanics, and just have the Far Realm entities use the mechanics from another system directly. Specifically do not prepare the players for how interactions will work - this is the Far Realm, its supposed to be incomprehensible.

For example, you could use something like 7th Sea mechanics for Far Realms creatures and D&D 3.5 for the players. The players find that their enemies seem to funnel their wounds into a single point on their form, while all their other wounds heal on the spot (due to fleshwounds converting to Dramatics, rather than being a linear hp scale). Instead of rolling a d20 they roll a fistful of d10s (no need for the PCs to know that these d10s are the entirety of their roll, and there's no bonus applied). To-hit will be high and damage low if you use this route, FYI, so some rebalancing is needed.

The more psychedelic way to do it is to inflict alien mechanics on the PCs without telling them that you're doing it. For instance, use L5R's death spiral where you take penalties based on how wounded you are. An enemy attacks a PC and suddenly they're taking -5 to rolls for some reason. They get healed for damage, it goes away. For L5R and 7th Sea, the numbers are close enough you could just use them directly more or less.

For odder crossovers, some conversion will be needed. For Exalted or other White Wolf stuff, a success is probably somewhere between 5 to 10 on a roll. Maybe 10+5*successes. Plus two actions a round due to the time differential. Injuries: 1 health level per 10-15hp of damage in a single attack, round down. Soak is DR/- equal to 5*soak, with nonlethal soak being DR/slashing or piercing.

[Bit Fiend]

In my opinion the ineresting part comes up when either side tries to use an action which isn't even covered in the interactions you worked out. The action just fails because it's impossible. Tell your players so. If it's something completely mundane, like tripping or even taking a 5 foot step, they're sure to freak out.

[Particle_Man]

You could pull a David Lynch on them, give them new character sheets for a modern game, and tell them these modern characters were roleplaying the fantasy characters but now have to stop, go to sleep, and prepare for work/school the next day. Start dramatizing the problems of the new world (modern with something weird coming through the cracks?). It doesn't have to last for long to make the players sweat a bit. :smallbiggrin:

[willpell]

Assuming this is all 3.5, one correction - Grell are not from the Far Realm. As stated in Lords of Madness, they're from an "alternate Material Plane" and traveled through the Shadow Plane to reach the gameworld.

My 2cp: the Far Realm is very hard to do justice to in D&D without introducing some new mechanic to represent your character's capability to process sensory input that just doesn't work with a human(oid) brain. As described, the FR is multiple realities simultaneously coexisting just out of phase, with entities present on several of them at once; there's really no rules support for that kind of thing. The FR aims to be somewhat Lovecraftian, but D&D doesn't have the mechanics it needs to really do justice to that. You might look into the d20 version of Call of Cthulhu and see if you can figure something out.

[NM020110]

Hmmm...I can think of an easy way and a hard way to build stats for the far realm. You can decide which is easy and which is hard...

1.) Deprive yourself of sleep as long as possible, then write out a rules system. After you've recovered, use that system literally, taking no effort to correct, and without informing your players of the rules.

2.) Without informing the players, declare the players and the characters to be reality warpers. What they disbelieve is what is, within the local area. If the player rolls a natural 20, which would cause them to hit, then they miss, because they believe that they hit. If the player rolls a natural 1, causing them to believe that they miss, then they hit. If uncertainty exists, then all states occur at the same time. So, for example, if they are not certain whether time flows forward or backwards, it will do both.

I claim no responsibility for any psychological, physical, emotional, or other damages resulting from the above.

[Spuddles]

Brainstorm sounds like something you need help escaping from in the Far Realm.

"It's raining minds!"

[nedz]

Use Babel (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt) to translate the SRD into German, then into French and then back into English.

Example

Removed
Verzauberung (forced) [influences]
level: FRG 0, SOR/Wiz of 0
elements: V, S, M
time of casting out of cast iron: 1 standard activity
outdistances: Close (25 ft. + 5 levels ft. /2)
objective: Humanoidgeschöpf of 4 CV or small
duration: approximately 1 jet of
memory: she answers negatively
resistance of changing: Yes

these Verzauberung bewölkt l' understanding d' Humanoidgeschöpfs with 4 or few cubes d' impact, so qu' she does not take measures. Of Humanoids of 5 or more than CV are not concerned you. A topic betäubtes n' is not décontenancé, attackers thus do not receive d' favours special against him.

Material element a collar that to want or similar substance.

[Spuddles]

Use Babel (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt) to translate the SRD into German, then into French and then back into English.

Example

Removed
Verzauberung (forced) [influences]
level: FRG 0, SOR/Wiz of 0
elements: V, S, M
time of casting out of cast iron: 1 standard activity
outdistances: Close (25 ft. + 5 levels ft. /2)
objective: Humanoidgeschöpf of 4 CV or small
duration: approximately 1 jet of
memory: she answers negatively
resistance of changing: Yes

these Verzauberung bewölkt l' understanding d' Humanoidgeschöpfs with 4 or few cubes d' impact, so qu' she does not take measures. Of Humanoids of 5 or more than CV are not concerned you. A topic betäubtes n' is not décontenancé, attackers thus do not receive d' favours special against him.

Material element a collar that to want or similar substance.

/slow clap

[Shadowknight12]

"memory: she answers negatively"

That phrase will haunt me for weeks. It's so... ominous.

[Darth Stabber]

1.) Deprive yourself of sleep as long as possible, then write out a rules system. After you've recovered, use that system literally, taking no effort to correct, and without informing your players of the rules.

I've been preparing for running the far realms without even trying. Of course I don't bother with recovering, that's for wimps. Running your sessions on a careful mix of not having slept for days, and on enough caffeine to cause a small dog a heart attack, is the way to go. In fact, that's how software is written as well. My coding is at it's best when I can't even speak coherently.

[THEChanger]

Use Babel (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt) to translate the SRD into German, then into French and then back into English.

Example

Removed
Verzauberung (forced) [influences]
level: FRG 0, SOR/Wiz of 0
elements: V, S, M
time of casting out of cast iron: 1 standard activity
outdistances: Close (25 ft. + 5 levels ft. /2)
objective: Humanoidgeschöpf of 4 CV or small
duration: approximately 1 jet of
memory: she answers negatively
resistance of changing: Yes

these Verzauberung bewölkt l' understanding d' Humanoidgeschöpfs with 4 or few cubes d' impact, so qu' she does not take measures. Of Humanoids of 5 or more than CV are not concerned you. A topic betäubtes n' is not décontenancé, attackers thus do not receive d' favours special against him.

Material element a collar that to want or similar substance.

...Can I get the original text of whatever spell this is? Because I have no idea what it might be.

[Shadowknight12]

...Can I get the original text of whatever spell this is? Because I have no idea what it might be.

Daze (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/daze.htm), obviously.

[Slipperychicken]

Use Babel (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt) to translate the SRD into German, then into French and then back into English.

Example


You need a Weirder language, like Japanese. And use Translationparty (http://translationparty.com/#10255519), not Babel. Once it's done, scroll to the bottom and read the resulting insanity.



Daze
Cast Sor Wiz Brd 0
0components: (required) many levels of mind, magic eye candy: V, S, or m:
1 standard action:
humanoid 1 hit resistance slow humanoid creatures HD receiver and 4 check student
25 ft + 5 ft 2 level also spelled)
refused to rise to prevent the: 1:04: affected by the clouds of mystery of the robot. Visual effects action.5 glitter and won the victory of the attacker. Pinch the material wool or similar material composition.



Fireball
Sor Wiz 3 components: casting a brisk level [V, S and m:
Fireball: 1 standard action
range: long term (20: half spell 400, low reflection level radius area resistance extension feet 40 feet
+: Yes

, 1 d 6 point fireball spell, each fire damage caster level 6 ） and 声声 explosion sound. Automatic object space, and detonates all creatures increased, 10 D flame damage roaring low voice. Most explosive pressure. Size, solid wall firework ball, beans, shiny fringe material. Instead burst regulations, distance, height point fireball 20 reference beads finger: (shocked the first explosion. Results ） do? Contacts, slit, a kiloton range class, narrow aisle barrier collision attack each bead beads filed ", we mentioned. Hits. Set the fire fireball combustible objects area of the damages. It is the metal of low melting point, lead, gold, copper, silver and copper. Continue to access the outside of the walls of the potential fire ball stock wall space; ball, batguano, sulfur, check, spell check, wall stops especially some parts.


Yes. You now need Magic Eye Candy to cast Daze :smallcool:


EDIT: Hell, just have them write out everything they say, put it into Translationparty, then have everyone hear that. Makes it a lot more surreal.

[willpell]

Now I want to play Mystery of the Robot. :smallbiggrin:

[nedz]

Hell, just have them write out everything they say, put it into Translationparty, then have everyone hear that. Makes it a lot more surreal.

Shame you can't wire that up for an online game ?
That would be far out.

[Slipperychicken]

Shame you can't wire that up for an online game ?
That would be far out.

I'm sure someone *could*. It just would require far more computer acumen than I will ever possess.

[rweird]

This is how you make an attack roll:


D' bread; A d' attacked; bread; Attack represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your revolution in a circle. As it a d' bread make; You roll and add attack a d20 your d' discount in addition; Attack. (D' others modificateurs know likewise s' to apply to this bread.) If your result entsprech or the l' class strikes; You strike armament of the goal, and you occupy damage. Automatic one of Ms and blows 1 normal (the d20 directs 1 toward) on a d' bread; Attack is always a missed blow. 20 normal (the d20 directs 20 toward), is always a blow. 20 normal is likewise a possible critical blow Bedrohung-ein.

About using different systems, 2nd edition THAC0 means that the tank will almost always be hit and the Shock Trooper charger will be hit only on a 20. :smallbiggrin:

Use Google translate for the languages, don't speak at all, click the microphone icon on google translate and make it say whatever your going to say, after changing it to 1d20 different languages and then back to English, have all players text or email you all there actions for you to translate, also, don't sit at the table, sit under the table and have an assortment of items found wherever you store things away you aren't using scattered around under the table. Set some timers a amount of time between 1 minute and two hours and don't turn them off until the end of the session. Borrow music for a friend and play it on shuffle all the while. Finally, in combat, alphabetize all rolls made so on rounds that are prime numbers. If you roll a twenty on a climb check, but someone else attacks, they get the twenty. Ties in the alphabet are resolved by a staring contest while you have a tumb war with one hand and a arm wrestle with the other you can designate 0-3 other players to stare/arm wrestle/thumb war in you place, best 2/3 wins/loses depending on a coin toss.

[Eldan]

Attack is always a missed blow.


In other words: it is impossible to hit far realms entities in close combat.

[NichG]

Comprehensive Far Realms rules. For every action, roll on this chart:

http://www.traykon.com/pdf/The_Net_Libram_of_Random_Magical_Effects.pdf

[Shadowknight12]

Comprehensive Far Realms rules. For every action, roll on this chart:

http://www.traykon.com/pdf/The_Net_Libram_of_Random_Magical_Effects.pdf

Yoinked so hard it left a tear in the space-time continuum.

[nedz]

Its no good trying to attack things until you first understand the basics of your character, or letter apparently.

Capacity (streptocoque)
to be able measurement your letter ’ S of the muscles and a physical energy. This capacity is particularly important for combatants, cash, of Paladine, Förster and monks, parce qu' it helps them to prevail in the fight. The capacity limits also the quantity of l' equipment which your letter can carry.

L' skill (Dex)
skill measures l' eyes of Korrdination hand, mobility, reflexes and balance. This capacity is however him ’ the S so high most important for of Gauner, on the list for the letters which, do not carry usually luminous or an average preparation (Förster and cash) or of preparation to all (monks, magicians and magicians), and for everyone which would like to be tested contactors of elbow.

The constitution (fraud)
constitution represents your letter ’ S health and perseverance. A premium of constitution increases the points letter ’ d' an S d' impact, therefore the capacity is important for all the categories.

L' intelligence (Int)
intelligence notes, at which point your letter learns well and concludes. This capacity is important for magicians, parce qu' it influences, how much a changing it to throw can, for which point it is necessary to resist its changings hard and as its changings can be effective. He ’ S so important for a letter which would like to have a broad composition of capacities.

L' intelligence (WIS)
intelligence describes letter ’ S a force of will, a healthy human understanding, a presentation and an intuition. While l' intelligence represents a ’ S capacity to analyze information, l' intelligence represents its in the melody with and in conscious ’ an S besieging. L' intelligence is the most important capacity for of Klerikere and Druiden, and it is also important for of Paladine and Förster. If you have your letter acute directions wish, you use a high notch in an intelligence. Each creature has a notch d' intelligence.

The charisma (Cha)
charisma measures letter ’ S a force of Pers5onlichkeit to lead Persuasiveness, personal magnetism, the capacity and l' physical attraction. This capacity does not represent only the effective capacity of Pers5onlichkeit, such qu' one is felt different in a social adjustment. The charisma is most important for of Paladine, the magicians and Barden. It is also important for of Klerikere, puisqu' it influences its capacity to turn of Undead. Each creature has Charismakerbe.

Ed: Apparantly Barbarians are very wealthy in the Far Realms.