PDA

View Full Version : Forgotten Realms Isekai Campaign



HamsterKun
2019-03-18, 10:01 PM
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?

Particle_Man
2019-03-19, 12:48 AM
Wasn't there a tv show based on this? :smallsmile:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085011/

HamsterKun
2019-03-19, 07:24 AM
Wasn't there a tv show based on this? :smallsmile:

Similar, except I was thinking of where only the main protagonist is sent to Toril, and all his companions are native to the world.

And no, he is NOT overpowered like in In Another World With My Smartphone.

SirGraystone
2019-03-19, 08:11 AM
In Dragon magazine there was a serie of articles "Wizards Three" in which Elminster from Forgotten Realms, Mordekainen from Greyhawk and Dalamar from Dragonlance would meet in Ed Greenwood kitchen and talks about magic.

Particle_Man
2019-03-19, 08:27 AM
Since the game lore exists in our world, how much would your protagonist already know about the forgotten realms?

HamsterKun
2019-03-19, 09:23 AM
Since the game lore exists in our world, how much would your protagonist already know about the forgotten realms?

Actually, I thought about having where he’s played D&D (primarily 3.5e), but while he’s played Greyhawk and Eberron, he’s never done a Forgotten Realms campaign.

Roderick_BR
2019-03-19, 03:06 PM
I imagine something like GwenPool, where she knows she's in a comic book, or at least an alternate world that is nearly a 100% match to the comics she read back at her own home. (4th wall breaking powers are up to the DM)

We could mention Superboy Prime too (he was the only superhero in his world, and the comics there reproduced exactly what happened in the other worlds), tough a more complex one.

Anyway, the PCs could either be based completely on the player themselves, or the players could just play "normal" people from a modern-eath like world, finding their way through a medieval fantasy world. If they know it's a specific game place, or just some random magical world, it's up to the group.

LibraryOgre
2019-03-20, 06:10 PM
I actually have played in something sorta similar. It was in high school, but a Vampire Storyteller decided he'd rather be playing Forgotten Realms, so he threw us into there, and decided the sun of the Realms didn't burn us.

It went south quickly. Not because of the concept, but because we were all douchecanoes in high school.

EDIT: I should also mention the somewhat similar-in-concept series, The Guardians of the Flame, by Joel Rosenberg (https://amzn.to/2TlHdyX) (link the first book, The Sleeping Dragon), where a DM sends his entire group to their game world for reasons unknown, and how various people respond to this.

Clistenes
2019-03-22, 04:46 PM
Does he magically receive skills that help him survive, or is he just your average high schooler? Even somebody with training in say martial arts, fencing and archery (and I doubt there is one in a billion people who have learned the three disciplines before 18 years old...) would be woefully underprepared to survive an adventure in Faerun...

As for using real world science and technology, even a genius couldn't know all the chemistry, metalurgy, engineering...etc. needed to create every part of even the most basic machine... If he is a real techie nerd and he could recruit some native metalworkers and alchemists, he could maybe create basic batteries, and if he could buy some huge magnets from the natives (there must be somebody in Faerun who know how to make magnets using magic...), he could build a dynamo, which would allow to create a basic telegraph, a basic phone, and a basic radio-transmitter... early XX century tech... Eventually, he could maybe make low power vacuum bulbs...

But as far as I now, patents don't exist in Faerun, so it wouldn't take long for a smart artificer to take these inventions apart and replicate then... And the minute some powerful native takes an interest in him and decides to kidnap him, it's game over, he becomes a pawn...

Now, if you use "summoned from Earth" as a background, and assume he has had time to train and adapt and learn a class before the beginning of the adventure, then you could have a more normal adventure...

Constructman
2019-03-22, 05:01 PM
Does he magically receive skills that help him survive, or is he just your average high schooler? Even somebody with training in say martial arts, fencing and archery (and I doubt there is one in a billion people who have learned the three disciplines before 18 years old...) would be woefully underprepared to survive an adventure in Faerun...

...

Now, if you use "summoned from Earth" as a background, and assume he has had time to train and adapt and learn a class before the beginning of the adventure, then you could have a more normal adventure...

I suppose this issue would be slightly lessened if MC-kun was of a class that needs relatively less training? Probably a Sorcerer learning to control a sudden manifestation of innate power, or a Warlock whose Patron is holding them by the hand for the first few levels? All the other clsses require either a level of physicality not commonly seen in modern society or a certain background and level of knowledge that might be contrived for a high schooler to have.

(Though I do have a character concept of an Isekai protag who got classed into Paladin but can't figure out how their spells work or wield anything more sophisticated than a warhammer...)

Clistenes
2019-03-22, 06:18 PM
I suppose this issue would be slightly lessened if MC-kun was of a class that needs relatively less training? Probably a Sorcerer learning to control a sudden manifestation of innate power, or a Warlock whose Patron is holding them by the hand for the first few levels? All the other clsses require either a level of physicality not commonly seen in modern society or a certain background and level of knowledge that might be contrived for a high schooler to have.

(Though I do have a character concept of an Isekai protag who got classed into Paladin but can't figure out how their spells work or wield anything more sophisticated than a warhammer...)

Sorcerer would work fine. Warlock too... he could have struck a pact with some fey without even realizing it...

A Cleric could work too... he could be a religious person (hell, many Planescape deities are still worshipped in Earth... the whole Hinduist, Shinto, Traditional Chinese, many African, Afro-Caribbean and Native American gods, Mithra, who is both a Hindu a Zoroastrian god... the character could worship any of those...) who suddenly gets clerical powers when he arrives to Faerun...

The character could be a Shaman too... There are plenty cultures in our world who still have Shamans and similar figures around.

A Paladin could work too, but he would be quite a lame Paladin... no proficiency with heavy armor, martial weapons or shields... he would be a zero level Paladin...

NichG
2019-03-23, 01:59 AM
Factotum would model the random esoteric real-world and meta-game knowledge, generalist education profile which would be more likely to be found in a noble than your average person in a medieval setting (though not sure if that would still be true with Toril), and also would sort of cover the 'I haven't been trained in any of these classes, but I'm picking things up rapidly on exposure' aspect of things.

LibraryOgre
2019-03-23, 09:54 AM
You might also go with some models from other "Normal Person in Fantasy World" novels.

I've mentioned Guardians of the Flame, where they get the abilities of the PCs whose bodies they've inhabited (and learn that they have trouble getting past the set abilities they inherited; I have a theory about that, and it might mean you put them in the body of a X level character, but with 0 XP... they can't advance their PC until they have sufficient XP to do so, which means they seem plateau'd for a while). You WERE playing Drasst D'tongue, outcast dark elf, and now you're here, in his body, and you can do his weapon things but don't get any better until you've learned enough about them to exceed them.

In "Her Majesty's Wizard (https://amzn.to/2OkPWQU)" (a decent book with some really forgettable sequels... Jesus, there were 8 books in the series?), the main character finds that the skills he learned in the real world have unexpected benefits there... since poetry is how wizards work, his background as an English Major means he's got a store of appropriate poetry to work with. Who knows... maybe being able to program in Python (https://www.xkcd.com/353/) lets you do magic in the Realms.

There's Three Hearts and Three Lions (https://amzn.to/2OluVWh) and Glory Road (https://amzn.to/2Oltuam), the main characters come with the skills they need... competent people doing competent things in weird situations.

And, there's always the "special powers" option... "You would've been a powerful sorcerer, but your world doesn't really allow that, but this one does."

HamsterKun
2019-03-24, 06:03 PM
And, there's always the "special powers" option... "You would've been a powerful sorcerer, but your world doesn't really allow that, but this one does."

You mean like in oh-so-many isekai anime where the main protagonist gets some unique power when sent to the fantasy world? I’d definitely do that, so long as it’s balanced.

Having the protagonist be their own spellcasting focus comes to mind, if you know what I mean.

LibraryOgre
2019-03-24, 08:02 PM
You mean like in oh-so-many isekai anime where the main protagonist gets some unique power when sent to the fantasy world? I’d definitely do that, so long as it’s balanced.

Having the protagonist be their own spellcasting focus comes to mind, if you know what I mean.

Or, something they have in their possession just happens to be a powerful/adequate spellcasting focus. Something completely alien to the world... like, they can cast via their iPhone, or something like that.