"Eclectic" Campaign: Help with naming

[FlyMolo]

I had an idea for a campaign the other day at 3:25 AM while trying to sleep. Levels 1-epic, although you could start or stop anywhere.

The basic idea is:

A very long time in the future, there's a wizard. He discovers immortality without going the lich route. Temporal magic and circular aging, y'see. Eventually, he ascends to godhood. He becomes a god of time. But he's not interested in mortals and doesn't grant spells. He gets bored, and gambles with Asmodeus to pass the time. They start out playing dice. But that gets boring. The games become increasingly complex and cluttered over the millenia, until eventually they're playing with the most random and unpredictable thing imaginable: People.

The basic idea here is that Asmodeus and this wizard gather a team(read: party) and play them against each other and monsters in a bizarre tournament. Between each "match", the PCs get downtime in a demiplane, set apart from time, so that temporal commerce can take place without causing paradoxes/paradoxi (?)all over the place. Some matches will involve dropping the PCs into other storylines, and having them complete an objective to get back out into the demiplane to rest. Puzzles, monsters, occasional direct Team Asmodeus vs Team Wizard matchups, etc etc. Whatever I can think of.

The PCs can come from any universe, at any time. They've been thrown together and have to cooperate to survive. (Actually, they don't, it's just simpler and easier to survive if they cooperate). I can throw whatever challenges I like at them, either as "training" provided by the wizard, or "challenges" they have to overcome. (Finally, a use for those random dungeon room generators that actually makes sense!) PC characters can die off and be replaced easily (If there's more than one team, the PCs could run across a sole survivor of an earlier group.)

My problem is: I have no idea what to call the wizard or the campaign as a whole.

My second problem is: I have no idea whether people would actually want to play this. So: Do you?

[Valairn]

Strangely enough this reminds me of the game portal. Interesting idea!

[Abjurer]

They are being shifted off to some sort of Limbo plane to do battle. That's awesome.
You should call the game (/war) "Limbo".

[ZeroNumerous]

Call the Wizard Safex. Props if you know where it comes from. :smalltongue:

[FlyMolo]

Call the Wizard Safex. Props if you know where it comes from. :smalltongue:
Sorry. No clue who you're talking about.

The internet tells me South African Futures Exchange and a German amateur radio project carried aboard the Colombia. Mission STS-55.

Not entirely helpful, on the whole.

[Vadin]

I'd recommend not naming the wizard after a brand of condoms.

Interesting. I had an idea like this a few years ago, and tried out a few adventures like this in Star Wars d20. Overall, they went very well. A note: the players never actually got rewarded by the Hutt Force Adpet who controlled them (in his neverending game against an immortal Sith Lord). Instead, they simply got to keep most of what they could carry back with them when the dropship came to pick them up. The Hutt, of course, got first picks of the loot they gathered, but he was (by and large) only looking for magical items (yes, I had quite a bit of magic- mostly incarnum) and Jedi artifacts.

Maybe you could name the wizard Red. Or Blue. Or Green. It just seems that after that long, your real name might be forgotten/erased, leaving you with only a few commonly used descriptors, like the dominant color you wear or an obvious adjective or noun associated with you. Black. Dice. Short but powerful terms.

[F.L.]

You could name the wizard "dungeon master", but that positively reeks of 80's cartoons.

And I wouldn't ever see a wizard using their real, actual name for anything. True names hold power. Maybe "Eternal En-urta" or something.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Or maybe just "Master"

[FlyMolo]

Edit @ Vadin: Found that reference too. Figured I wouldn't mention it in polite conversation. :smalltongue:

I was thinking maybe a few thinly-disguised Doctor Who references. Lord of Time and all that. Of course that means I have to throw together some homebrewed Daleks. I was hoping to throw some obscure references at the players, and if they get them, there's some kind of tactical advantage gained.

A rebus puzzle, along the lines of some popular quote, with a word left blank.
I was thinking "Madness?!, THIS IS SPARTA!!!", and the solvable-only-with-OOC-knowledge "I can has Cheezburger nao plz?". Or even "I'm from the internet, gluing captions to your cats." Int checks for a hint.

But what I was really hoping to gauge is the level of interest in a campaign like this. "Tests" and "Quizzes" and "Training Exercises" and infinite, endless, variety. Puzzles involving lava and moving blocks. Stock adventures ripped off blatantly from the back of splatbooks interspersed seemingly at random with completely homebrewed missions.

So, hands up. Who would consider playing in such a campaign?

[ZeroNumerous]

Sorry. No clue who you're talking about.

Safex is Xefas backwards. Man you people read too much into this crap.

[Icewalker]

Pretty cool idea. I like it.

Also, the idea of naming the Wizard Dice as his name is lost in time is pretty awesome.

[Xuincherguixe]

Maybe he doesn't have a name at all :P He might just be "The Wizard"

But being as he was born, chances are he has a name.

Uh, how about Arthur Crowley?

[F.L.]

Or maybe just "Master"

But then he'd have a cohort named blaster, and then who'd rule Bartertown?

[FlyMolo]

Maybe he doesn't have a name at all :P He might just be "The Wizard"

But being as he was born, chances are he has a name.

Uh, how about Arthur Crowley?
Or Alphonse Ziraphale? I like the idea of some of these, and I might use them all. After all, if he's that old, he could be known by a lot of names.

And okay, safex is xefas spelled backwards. I still have no idea why the wizard should be called safex or xefas. Sorry.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I would play!

[Mr.Bookworm]

*agrees*

This sounds awesome.

I also vote the Wizard as a "name". You'd have to throw in Powerglove references, though.

[ZeroNumerous]

And okay, safex is xefas spelled backwards. I still have no idea why the wizard should be called safex or xefas. Sorry.

It was a joke aluding to your signature. :smallsigh:

[togapika]

Name him Crayak. Bonus points if you get that one.
I'd play in it also.

[FlyMolo]

I would totally start a recruiting thread RIGHT NOW, except I have no DMing experience. That could be a problem.

Hey, what the hell. Life is short, right? :smallbiggrin: I'm going to go start one.

[BisectedBrioche]

Strangely enough this reminds me of the game portal. Interesting idea!

I'll assume that you're not talking about the recently released game titled "Portal" released by Valve....

[DracoDei]

Crayak is from Animorphs and he plays such a cosmic game with the Elemist as his opponent.

[Fireball.Man.Guy.]

Actually Valve's portal is exactly what this reminds me of.

[TheLogman]

Sounds a lot like a game of Rifts. If you don't have Rifts, I would suggest looking over D20 modern and deciding how to balance it with the Supernatural world of D&D. I would play this if my group was willing to play. However, be wary of players who prefer linier storylines. Warn your characters that this is a chain of activities. Remember, without the usual storyline, you have the advantage of stranger areas, or maybe better, competeing teams, talking about the different area.

Area names

-Waterbog?
-Blood Gulch?
-Desert Wilds?

[HellFencer]

I would totally play in a game like this! A buddy of mine ran a Spelljammer game last year where there was a space race. Needless to say, many many strange occurances happen in space... Damned aboleth... My point here, is that random games like this have ALOT of potential.

I think the Wizard should keep a non-descript name to keep up his mysteriousness. Perhaps just give him lots of titles instead, too. "The Lord of Time" and/or "He Who Watches"/"He Whom Guides"

Would this allow fantasy heroes to bump shoulders with modern heroes (just out of curiosity)?

[Umarth]

My vote is for Hat Guy... 'cause you know he has a wizards hat.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

But then he'd have a cohort named blaster, and then who'd rule Bartertown?

Roflsause!

I would play!

[Vuzzmop]

I named my own wizard "Phineus Lockwood", because it sounded geeky enough.

[F.L.]

As an aside (and an idea) you could use the riddle of the Monty Hall problem (not to be confused with a Monty Haul problem), which could be set up in this way:

The players enter a square room. They entered through 1 door, and there are 3 available choices to exit. There is a key on a pedestal. When the key is inserted into any keyhole, one of the other doors opens or turns tranparent, revealing that there's a monster in that room. There is another monster in one of the remaining 2 rooms, and the other holds treasure instead. The players may then opt to switch the key to the other unopened door.

Or have some sort of NPC explain the rules of this game. Oddly enough, their chances of a reward double if they switch doors midway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

[Rigon]

okay, the player are "resting" on a demi-plane...
but was that demi-plane entirely created by the wizard?
is that a "full working" material plane? or simply a limited space with artificial enviroment (like this stupid example: Kami's training room in Dragon Ball Z / Cell Saga)?
how much do the player characters know? where they created by the wizard? born on the demi-plane? taken from another plane? where do the games take place (i mean "plane-wise")? are the PCs in the God Team or in the Wizard Team?

i would say the wizard's name could come from the position he's taking. some ideas:
-"Governor" as he governs the event's of the resting demi-plane (story idea: the PCs end up in the demi-plane after a rough fight and they find it convenient to rest there... then the "Governor" contacts them and ask them to help "protect" his "Elysium" and remove threats approaching it)
-"Adviser" as he contacts the party often to support it with critical information (story idea: the PCs are about to lose a fight against some sort of "you could win if know my weak point, BUT YOU DON'T! HAHA!" enemy when the "Adviser" tells them. ++the "god-wiz" game could contain rules about how, how many times, and when to allow helping the party)
-<some random name>(maybe something with a meaning in common/english or something like a real name in actual time) which actually means "wizard" in a long dead language, and if the players make a ridiculously high knowledge check (like 35-50) they realize it too (story idea: the PCs are in a dungeon when they are randomly teleported into a mage's tower, the mage almost kills them, and the he offers to leave them alive if the fulfill some minor... errands... yes. the tower is the demi-plane)
-"The voice in *'s head" as the wizard contacts only ONE party member, and that PC is only getting informations through "mindchat"... which can be opened/closed by the wizard at will... and we might add a crunch of spice to it, like if the PC being mindchatted must make a will save OR FAINT for 1d6 minutes. of course the chat would take place that way too, but it looks way to funny when a warrior goes ZZZZZZZzzzzzz in the middle of a battle)