AnonymousPepper
2014-12-07, 02:00 PM
RPG and anybody else who's on here that plays in my game, you can stop righting right now.
Putting most of the thread into a spoiler segment just because reasons of not having an ugly long wordy OP the instant you click on the thread.
Anyway, because Sigil, we've got a huge planehopping adventure going on that's currently visited Eberron, Golarion, and Abeir-Toril. This has mostly served as an in-universe rationale for running an anything-goes 3.PF campaign mostly, but I think it's actually held up quite well. The general idea is that around 40ish years ago, some mad tinkerer in the Forgotten Realms managed to either create or find a portal into Sigil - which for her own inscrutable reasons the Lady of Pain allowed, bear with me here - and thus prompted an interplanar trade boom and contact of some form or another between most of the nations of the known planes. For lack of a better thing to compare it to, think of Sigil as Mass Effect's Citadel and the portals as its mass relays. The PCs work for a (mostly) universally-sanctioned interplanar UN of sorts (which gains its muscle from having some of the more prominent figures from the various realms on its payroll in one way or another) as basically mercenary peacekeepers. It's not a particularly serious setting (as can be seen with all the contrivances and plot holes), it's more of a just-for-fun sort of thing, but it works.
This is all entirely in my head at this point, it hasn't yet become relevant - though Sigil has served to connect literally all of the material planes, there has been little to no reference to Athas. Which is of course to preserve the status quo there - nothing good can ever happen to Athas; I don't make the rules, I just follow them. Presumably, in-universe, this is due to the Sorcerer-Kings bearing a good dose of xenophobia and a healthy fear/respect of the strange magic and technology and raw resources of the other realities, and the other planes in turn really not wanting to risk picking a fight with the Sorcerer-Kings. Some trade relations at the highest levels, but you don't see Athasian refugees streaming out en masse, for example; the SKs just don't allow it in order to preserve the status quo and even somebody like Elminster isn't inclined to try and force the issue.
Now, my thinking was that very late in the game, final arc (I'm talking 18+ at the start of it, going into early-mid epic and/or mythic), perhaps Rajaat can escape. This would be an interplanar emergency of significant enough proportions to get everybody onboard with dealing with it, especially given that Rajaat could, if desired, escape Athas entirely and enforce his genocidal will on literally everyone, and no matter what the outcome, it's bad news for all involved. The PCs' final mission would be to deal with this threat in whatever way they see fit.
This was inspired when I noticed a thread today in which somebody statted Rajaat, and coincidentally I'd started wondering earlier just why it was that the PCs haven't encountered any refugees from Athas.
My question is, where can I find decent material for running Athas in a 3.PF sort of setting? (I'm not averse to using fluff material and adapting crunch from other editions - after all, I did just get done running an adventure in Skullport and I used the 2e Skullport sourcebook for that.) How would an off-world caster - arcane or divine - function? How can I make my concept work, if it's even feasible at all?
Putting most of the thread into a spoiler segment just because reasons of not having an ugly long wordy OP the instant you click on the thread.
Anyway, because Sigil, we've got a huge planehopping adventure going on that's currently visited Eberron, Golarion, and Abeir-Toril. This has mostly served as an in-universe rationale for running an anything-goes 3.PF campaign mostly, but I think it's actually held up quite well. The general idea is that around 40ish years ago, some mad tinkerer in the Forgotten Realms managed to either create or find a portal into Sigil - which for her own inscrutable reasons the Lady of Pain allowed, bear with me here - and thus prompted an interplanar trade boom and contact of some form or another between most of the nations of the known planes. For lack of a better thing to compare it to, think of Sigil as Mass Effect's Citadel and the portals as its mass relays. The PCs work for a (mostly) universally-sanctioned interplanar UN of sorts (which gains its muscle from having some of the more prominent figures from the various realms on its payroll in one way or another) as basically mercenary peacekeepers. It's not a particularly serious setting (as can be seen with all the contrivances and plot holes), it's more of a just-for-fun sort of thing, but it works.
This is all entirely in my head at this point, it hasn't yet become relevant - though Sigil has served to connect literally all of the material planes, there has been little to no reference to Athas. Which is of course to preserve the status quo there - nothing good can ever happen to Athas; I don't make the rules, I just follow them. Presumably, in-universe, this is due to the Sorcerer-Kings bearing a good dose of xenophobia and a healthy fear/respect of the strange magic and technology and raw resources of the other realities, and the other planes in turn really not wanting to risk picking a fight with the Sorcerer-Kings. Some trade relations at the highest levels, but you don't see Athasian refugees streaming out en masse, for example; the SKs just don't allow it in order to preserve the status quo and even somebody like Elminster isn't inclined to try and force the issue.
Now, my thinking was that very late in the game, final arc (I'm talking 18+ at the start of it, going into early-mid epic and/or mythic), perhaps Rajaat can escape. This would be an interplanar emergency of significant enough proportions to get everybody onboard with dealing with it, especially given that Rajaat could, if desired, escape Athas entirely and enforce his genocidal will on literally everyone, and no matter what the outcome, it's bad news for all involved. The PCs' final mission would be to deal with this threat in whatever way they see fit.
This was inspired when I noticed a thread today in which somebody statted Rajaat, and coincidentally I'd started wondering earlier just why it was that the PCs haven't encountered any refugees from Athas.
My question is, where can I find decent material for running Athas in a 3.PF sort of setting? (I'm not averse to using fluff material and adapting crunch from other editions - after all, I did just get done running an adventure in Skullport and I used the 2e Skullport sourcebook for that.) How would an off-world caster - arcane or divine - function? How can I make my concept work, if it's even feasible at all?