A world ruled by 80s DnD players

[CoreBrute23]

I had the idea of a game where roleplayers from our world are brought into a fantasy world to deal with a problem. The problem being, the last time they brought roleplayers into this world to solve it's problems. Listen, it can't go wrong twice OK?

Anyway, the idea is that the original roleplayers were taken from the 80s, where their version of DnD was one of the older ones, like AD&D or 2nd Edition. The current players would be done in 5th edition (and for gameplay purposes, everything would be 5th edition for system balance).

What I want to know is, if roleplayers from the 80s took over a generic fantasy world and turned tyrant/corrupt, what kind of changes would they bring? It's not like they would bring computers or iphones, because that was after their time. So what sort of things would they do?

Just a note, the previous roleplayers all have classes that would have been available to them in the 80s, so some of them can cast magic, if that affects your answer. What classes etc I've not set in stone, so feel free to go nuts.

[Landis963]

I had the idea of a game where roleplayers from our world are brought into a fantasy world to deal with a problem. The problem being, the last time they brought roleplayers into this world to solve it's problems. Listen, it can't go wrong twice OK?

Anyway, the idea is that the original roleplayers were taken from the 80s, where their version of DnD was one of the older ones, like AD&D or 2nd Edition. The current players would be done in 5th edition (and for gameplay purposes, everything would be 5th edition for system balance).

What I want to know is, if roleplayers from the 80s took over a generic fantasy world and turned tyrant/corrupt, what kind of changes would they bring? It's not like they would bring computers or iphones, because that was after their time. So what sort of things would they do?

Just a note, the previous roleplayers all have classes that would have been available to them in the 80s, so some of them can cast magic, if that affects your answer. What classes etc I've not set in stone, so feel free to go nuts.

For starters, defining what the previous party would have done will go a long way towards defining what they did do. Which in turn will help define the problems that your current party will have to deal with. Second off, why was the original party summoned in the first place, and what problems were they tasked with fixing? Did they fix them all, or just apply bandaid solutions, or did they find the consequences of not dealing with those problems more appealing than the effort required to fix those problems?

I'm thinking that the original party were tasked with assassinating some evil overlord or other who was on the verge of finding/unleashing some superweapon. And once the party found/stole away the weapon, I'm thinking that they used it instead of the overlord (Over the objections of the token goody-two-shoes of the party, leading perhaps into some infighting). Problem fixed: Overlord is gone/no longer a threat. Problem created: the consequences of using the weapon. It could be a nuke metaphor, leaving the landscape blasted and uninhabitable, or it could be something that insidiously pushes one to use it more and more, for lesser and lesser offences, until the wielder is no better than the tyrant they replaced. The consequences involved could be myriad, and the weapon in specific hasn't been defined yet. (Although for the love of Tolkien don't make it a ring)

Does that work as a plot seed?

[Blackhawk748]

Make everything extremely Heavy Metal. Leather, spikes and motorcycles everywhere!

[Max_Killjoy]

Make everything extremely Heavy Metal. Leather, spikes and motorcycles everywhere!

Brutal Legend (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCtal_Legend#Plot)... the RPG.

[Blackhawk748]

Brutal Legend (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCtal_Legend#Plot)... the RPG.

Pretty much this.

[DoomHat]

It's worth remembering and acknowledging that high level AD&D often turned into something like a civ management game, as most classes gained growing armies and keeps to station them in as class features past a certain point.

[CoreBrute23]

It's worth remembering and acknowledging that high level AD&D often turned into something like a civ management game, as most classes gained growing armies and keeps to station them in as class features past a certain point.

Really? I didn't know that, that's interesting. It also explains why they so readily took to world ruling-their classes already encouraged them to be leaders, with an army waiting to heed their words.

Make everything extremely Heavy Metal. Leather, spikes and motorcycles everywhere!

Oh that's nice. I was thinking the previous players all had their own themes they enforced on their areas, so one being heavy metal bikers (or wyvern riders) could be super cool.

What other aesthetic from the 80s could we use, so the areas don't all feel uniform?


For starters, defining what the previous party would have done will go a long way towards defining what they did do. Which in turn will help define the problems that your current party will have to deal with. Second off, why was the original party summoned in the first place, and what problems were they tasked with fixing? Did they fix them all, or just apply bandaid solutions, or did they find the consequences of not dealing with those problems more appealing than the effort required to fix those problems?

I'm thinking that the original party were tasked with assassinating some evil overlord or other who was on the verge of finding/unleashing some superweapon. And once the party found/stole away the weapon, I'm thinking that they used it instead of the overlord (Over the objections of the token goody-two-shoes of the party, leading perhaps into some infighting). Problem fixed: Overlord is gone/no longer a threat. Problem created: the consequences of using the weapon. It could be a nuke metaphor, leaving the landscape blasted and uninhabitable, or it could be something that insidiously pushes one to use it more and more, for lesser and lesser offences, until the wielder is no better than the tyrant they replaced. The consequences involved could be myriad, and the weapon in specific hasn't been defined yet. (Although for the love of Tolkien don't make it a ring)

Does that work as a plot seed?

I hadn't settled on what exactly they had done, but assassinating an overlord sounds as good as any. Maybe the super weapon is now jealously divided by the old players. If one uses it, the others will react to destroy him. But they're all so tempted by the world shaping power of the weapon.

[dadada]

try something like this comic:http://www.erfworld.com/

[Telok]

I'd put together an xp circle. See in AD&D 1e you got xp for the gold value that you extracted from a dungeon. So cunning players who knew the rules of the world could abuse that. Since most classes get income and lands in addition to followers they could build their own dungeons, tailored to each other and just barely dangerous enough to qualify as an adventure. As long as you don't tell anyone about the dungeons you can keep swapping the same pile of treasure around and get xp for it each time.

Say you've got two fighters, a wizard, and a cleric. Fighter A (with help from the others) builds a dungeon for the wizard, specific to his spells, items, and knowledge. The wizard does the same but with a dungeon tailored to fighter B. B and the cleric follow suit, and the first dungeon is stocked with a bag of holding with 100,000 gold. Then fighter A sends a letter to the wizard saying "It's your turn". The wizard solos the dungeon and takes home the loot, gaining the xp. Then he stocks his dungeon with the loot and sends a letter to fighter B.

If each of them do the dungeons once a month then they'd get about 4 levels a year. Occasionally they may have to change some minor aspects of a dungeon to keep things from being too easy, but that should be ok. There will be an escape method or saftey in each dungeon, since they aren't trying to hurt each other.

[2D8HP]

Well this player of D&D in the 1970's and 80's has a big chip on his shoulder regarding the snooty Magic-User PC's at the 1981 DunDraCon

So burning Wizards at the stake is a start.
Also Warlocks are creepy, so there next.
Sorcerers? Charismatic and Spell Casting?
Get em!

Would Bards help out their follow spell casters and save them from the crazed tyrant "Lord" (level title for a 9th level and above Fighter)?

What would Clerics, Paladins, and Rangers do? (High level Thieves with their "read magic scrolls ability, would just wait for the easy pickings!)