Forgotten Realms Isekai Campaign

[HamsterKun]

I’ve recently found out on the Forgotten Realms that some people from Toril have gone to our Earth for some reason or another, such as Elminster Aumar meeting Ed Greenwood on Earth to make the first publication Forgotten Realms campaign setting. (I am dead serious) Then I an idea:

If people from Toril have come to Earth, why not have a story/campaign where a high school student from Earth (probably either West Cost US or Japan) was transported to Toril?

Not a particularly ORIGINAL plot idea, but having a go at the isekai genre has been an interest of mine for quite some time now. I want to do one that takes a metric ass-ton of tropes among the fantasy and isekai genres and play with them in as many was as possible.

Maybe have where the main protagonist is the only guy in the party, but rejects the idea of turning his party into a harem. That would be kinda cool IMO.

Any thoughts or opinions?

[Zevox]

Entirely possible. Canonically, people and even gods from Earth have crossed over into the Realms - Mulhorand being the biggest example, with the people being Egyptians who were kidnapped to be slaves by the Imaskari, and whose gods followed them over. Tyr is another example: he's not just based on the Norse god, he's actually supposed to be him, having come over from Earth. (No reason why he did was ever given, he just did.)

As to the campaign idea, not my cup of tea, but if you had people who were interested, why not?

[HamsterKun]

I’m not sure about whether the Gate spell to an alternate Material Plane (Toril to Earth) would be the base 9th Level spell or 10th.

I mean, travelling between alternate Material Planes has GOT to be harder that between planes of existence in the same universe, right?

[Lethologica]

'Protagonist-kun is the only guy in the party but this definitely isn't a harem story' is probably the second most common harem story. Easier to just not have the harem party setup, if avoiding the harem is your goal.

Apart from that, I say, if you like the idea, absolutely, go for it. There's very little to be gained from premise feedback, because almost any premise can make a great or terrible story depending on execution. All there is for it is to develop ideas you like. The development is what will end up paying off down the line, regardless of whether or not this particular idea works out.

[HamsterKun]

'Protagonist-kun is the only guy in the party but this definitely isn't a harem story' is probably the second most common harem story. Easier to just not have the harem party setup, if avoiding the harem is your goal

And the most common being...?

[Coretron03]

And the most common being...?

The party being his harem, i’d imagine.

[Lethologica]

And the most common being...?
'Protagonist-kun is the only guy in the party, and yes, this is a harem story.'

The least common and least harem-like of these is 'Protagonist-kun is the only guy in the party, but there's too much other stuff going on for anyone to think about harems.' The more people are thinking about harems, whether to participate in them or deny them, the more harem-like the story.

[Dragonus45]

I’m not sure about whether the Gate spell to an alternate Material Plane (Toril to Earth) would be the base 9th Level spell or 10th.

I mean, travelling between alternate Material Planes has GOT to be harder that between planes of existence in the same universe, right?

Actually that kind of thing was what spelljammer was all about. Way more complicated then even a 10th level spell.

[Kitten Champion]

That's essentially the premise to the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

Granted, I don't think that was actually supposed to be Forgotten Realms those poor kids got dropped in, but it's similar enough.

As to doing it as a campaign, if the players have no issue doing the mundane-person-thrown-into-a-fantasy-world for their PCs then I don't see a problem. It's adding an extra layer of performance to it in terms of role-playing, and the question of how to extract skills/stats/abilities of the game from real-world people would be a thing to discuss first. It does open itself to the basic goal of how (or whether) to return to their reality, which is nice for an overall structure -- like the cartoon.

[HamsterKun]

That's essentially the premise to the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

Granted, I don't think that was actually supposed to be Forgotten Realms those poor kids got dropped in, but it's similar enough.

I bet that cartoon was set in Greyhawk being it was made in the ’80s.

[Razade]

I bet that cartoon was set in Greyhawk being it was made in the ’80s.

It was neither. It was it's own setting. Most of the characters have fairly generic classes that people have linked to actual classes. Hank and Bobby are the only ones with actual classes in the game. Tiamat also shows up. Everything else is just generic fantasy.

[Prime32]

I’m not sure about whether the Gate spell to an alternate Material Plane (Toril to Earth) would be the base 9th Level spell or 10th.

I mean, travelling between alternate Material Planes has GOT to be harder that between planes of existence in the same universe, right?A lot of D&D tropes are rooted in Sword and Planet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_planet) ("multiverse" is a fairly new concept in fantasy) and Dying Earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth). The implicit assumption for D&D settings was "set on another planet, which long ago suffered an apocalypse that destroyed their technological societies and introduced magic". Travel between those settings and Earth wasn't common, but having it in the background was considered important enough to "the D&D feel" that the idea of Realms whose passageways to Earth are Forgotten was considered novel (IIRC Gygax wrote about how PCs in a D&D game should be able to see or hear about weapons that are obviously machineguns... but never get their hands on one).

Also, D&D's paladin class (along with stuff like trolls and the alignment system) is derived from Three Hearts and Three Lions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hearts_and_Three_Lions), itself an isekai story.

[Traab]

The problem with the story idea is, will he be able to learn various class based skills? If so, how? If not, how will he survive? Its one thing when its "Dude replaces the character he is role playing as" or something along those lines but you, yes you, going to D&D is probably not going to be a very fun adventure as you did not roll any 18s before you were born. Even if technically you could learn the same skills and such as anyone else, your lack of olympian physical stats would make you a terrible warrior, your lack of an iq of 150 and decades of study means your magical power is going to be weak. I suppose you could do a story where you use your setting knowledge to be their wise sage, guiding a party on its own adventure while they keep you alive because you know what that monster is and what its weak to while they dont.

[Fyraltari]

Shouldn’t this thread be in one of the gaming subforums?

[Metahuman1]

That's what I wanted to know actually.




Also, regarding D&D cartoon. A few other things did crop up, like the idea of Vacin spell casting occasionally (Unicorns can only teleport 1/day.), or Lolth showing up at one point and the party having to escape a death trap involving her.

[HamsterKun]

I found this homebrew backgroundthat is relevant to the matter.

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1W13hYPFZ

[Tvtyrant]

I’ve recently found out on the Forgotten Realms that some people from Toril have gone to our Earth for some reason or another, such as Elminster Aumar meeting Ed Greenwood on Earth to make the first publication Forgotten Realms campaign setting. (I am dead serious) Then I an idea:

If people from Toril have come to Earth, why not have a story/campaign where a high school student from Earth (probably either West Cost US or Japan) was transported to Toril?

Not a particularly ORIGINAL plot idea, but having a go at the isekai genre has been an interest of mine for quite some time now. I want to do one that takes a metric ass-ton of tropes among the fantasy and isekai genres and play with them in as many was as possible.

Maybe have where the main protagonist is the only guy in the party, but rejects the idea of turning his party into a harem. That would be kinda cool IMO.

Any thoughts or opinions?
I think a fun way to do it would be havw them transported to the wrong edition and so their encyclopedic knowledge is wrong. Someone who played in AD&D is transported to 4E or 5E with all the accompanying changes would be cool.

[Reddish Mage]

This belongs in the D&D subforum.

Also, if you are considering 3.5 check out BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) d20. This anime set of races, classes, and powers is meant to be combined with D&D proper (there's even a section on how to power up the classes to compete with the new ones). One of the classes is literally a high-school student and the sample adventures contains a town seeded with isekai characters and magical girls plopped right into the fantasy setting.

Setting a game in Forgotten Realms removes the biggest limitation of BESM, that the sourcebook doesn't bring in enough new material on its own to do anime outside a fantasy setting.

[Lethologica]

The OP was considering writing a story, which would make it reasonable to post here. Of course, in that case one piece of advice has to be filing off the serial numbers if the story is meant to be more than a writing exercise.