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View Full Version : Alien Invasion in D&D: Science Fantasy, Here I come!



Leliel
2008-04-07, 05:23 PM
Well, since my "Alien Invasion in Eberron" thread was a relative success on the Wizards forums (and an eye-opener: I had underestimated their knowledge of quantum physics, apparently), I decided to take a version of the thread around these boards and get their input as well. So without further ado...

The campaign world is a fairly normal fantasy world, but comes under the attack of a magically and technologically advanced race of extradimensional warriors, the Nic'en, who seek to turn it into a base to use in their million-year long war against another race, the Iul. Now the PCs have to find a way to defeat them, while dealing with a newfound sense of worthlessness. After all, a single Nic'en starfighter can take down a mighty dragon, and all the knowlege every sage has ever learned pales next to the Nic'en's scientific discoveries.

Is this a good idea? How would the how would the inhabitants of the campagin react when they realize that the Nic'en (the primary race of alien invaders), and their allies are not a race of outsiders or aberrations native to their cosmology or itself, but from different Prime worlds, both in this dimension and not? How should I illustrate the inside of Nic'en ships, so as to illustrate their millions of years of advancement in both science and magic?

Few notes about them:

1) For those of you who are wondering, the Nic'en are a race of warm-blooded avians, with an evolutionary path that has rendered them very similar to humanoids, albeit ones that look more like birdmen with wings more than humans. They are extremely intelligent, and have a great appreciation for all forms of art, especially poetry and literature. They're too big too fly, but they can use their wings to both run very fast and glide for long distances. They, like their archenemies the Iul, are extradimensional, using a type of "Skimmer Drive" to travel at FLT speeds and cross the borders between universes. They are also masters of AI, using a "hive structure" to coordinate the self-aware computers of their ships using a "mother brain", a semi-organic supercomputer with the ability to think outside it's directives and learn on it's own. In fact, this is the main weakness of the Nic'en: destroying the mother brain will cause the communication between the invading fleet to shut down entirely in some places, and confusing the AIs in others. Although this is only temporary in the long term (mother brains are replaceable), and not a viable option in many cases (The Nic'en have temporary backup computers just in case this happens, in which case they will also have to be destroyed in order cause the breakdown described above), but it will allow the opposing force enough time to launch a devastating attack against the Nic'en, or at least, build up defenses.

2) The Nic'en culture is similar in structure to feudal Japan, with the warriors expected to be poets and thinkers as well as conquerers and rulers. They are nomadic, divided across an unknown number of tribes. There is only one attacking Eberron, but their relatively low numbers are more then made up for by the fact that they have a tendency to assimilate cultures they come across, peacefully or not, into the individual tribe's fleet. The entirety of Nic'en society is dedicated to defeating and/or avoiding the Iul, a similar warrior race whose contact with forced the Nic'en to abandon their formerly peaceful ways. The countless eons that this war between the two races has more then whittled away at the Nic'en's collective sanity, and as a result, they have become dogmatic and fanatical in their search for a home safe from Iul attack. Ironically, if the Nic'en were able to forgive their enemies, they could probably live in peace with the Iul, who have grown equally tired of the constant war; If it weren't for Nic'en fanatics constantly arousing that race's instinctual paranoia via attacks against them, and their leaders not condemning them, or even supporting them, the Iul would happily form a truce that their honor would not allow them to break.

3) No, I do not plan on featuring the Iul in the first campaign I go about featuring the Nic'en. The next campaign, however...

Glyde
2008-04-07, 06:09 PM
The first thing you need to think about is if you want this to have anything to do with Spelljammer or not - I know some people act as if it's never existed, but I still think it's pretty neat. You might want to check it out and 'borrow' some things from it.

Mad Wizard
2008-04-07, 06:39 PM
I ran a campaign somewhat similar to this - a race of advanced aliens invaded the planet. It didn't last very long, but it was good while it lasted. Could you link the post on the wizards boards, please? I'm interested.

Leliel
2008-04-07, 07:05 PM
Sure. (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1007143)

Sorry about my initial assumption of Eberron's naivety. I didn't intially put that much thought into the post.

Prometheus
2008-04-08, 12:00 AM
I don't know much about the Ebberon setting, but it seems like inhabitants should be reasonably concerned about the dominion of beings that could easily crush them. From most people's perspective, science & technology would appear equivalent to arcane magic, divine magic, psionics, or monster special abilities, except, you know, slightly different.

There's a problem with all-powerful aliens versus all-powerful aliens, and that is that they are largely too powerful to effect. You need to ask yourself what kind of role you expect the players, or even material plane to take. Maybe they are just powerful enough to tip the balance. Maybe their technology can be spread and allow the players to progress in power in an unconventional manner. Maybe their society & technology has a fatal flaw, weakness, or inadequacy that makes the collective of humanity valuable in certain areas.

Finally, remember that planes are not the only division amongst creatures. Doubtlessly the groups on the material plane will react to the invaders differently or reorganize themselves to reflect the new hazards and opportunities brought by the world. Similarly, the Nic'en will have their own demographic and inner politics.

Leliel
2008-04-08, 05:55 PM
There's a problem with all-powerful aliens versus all-powerful aliens, and that is that they are largely too powerful to effect. You need to ask yourself what kind of role you expect the players, or even material plane to take. Maybe they are just powerful enough to tip the balance. Maybe their technology can be spread and allow the players to progress in power in an unconventional manner. Maybe their society & technology has a fatal flaw, weakness, or inadequacy that makes the collective of humanity valuable in certain areas.



They do.

Remember what I put about the "mother brain"?

Lazy Zomb
2008-04-08, 06:20 PM
Wouldn't they be aberrations though? Other creatures that've travelled through space or time are called aberrations...


It would be interesting nonetheless, in any case, though if the race is magically AND technologically superior to Eberron's inhabitants, it doesn't leave much chance of a heroic campaign.

Oh yeah, and not really important, but I wanna ask anyhow: how do your skimmer drives work?

Yvian
2008-04-08, 06:50 PM
There is a problem with all powerful aliens against all power wizards [or other magical items]. It would be very hard to get the balance just right. This is twice as true for some nomads.

Any creature that can reach orbit will have great powers. Dropping small rocks from orbit can wipe out small castles. A decent telescope and a decent energy weapon should be able to take out a dragon, etc.

On the other hand, any wizard that can dominate a alien would have a huge leg up. Would they have any defenses? Would they even have the common sense it know about defenses? [I am assuming they don’t have access to magic].

In short, you are not going to have a stable system. You have to find a way to balance the system. In D20, in theory, a decked out 20th level wizard should equal a decked out 20th level fighter. Let us say you have a decked out 20th level Nic'en. Would a fight between them and a fighter or a wizard be equal? That is the question you have to ask for yourself.

As an aside, there is a classical solution – gimp the aliens. Have them crash land. Have the “physics” work differently. Make the plant a “hunting reserve” so the aliens can bring their big guns. Etc. But you have to get them out of orbit and you have to make sure they can’t manufacture alien artifacts. [Because, let’s face it, most of the alien technology would be near artifact power levels – you don’t want an assembly line going].

Crowheart
2008-04-08, 06:56 PM
Don't forget that in Eberron, specifically, the whole of Khorvaire has just been through a 101 year war. All the nations know war very well by now. They built elemental skyships, warforged titans, and other "technology" through this conflict and others similar to it.

While they be technologically outmatched on the onset of such an invasion, I would figure that the peoples of the Five Nations would react very quickly to the attack.

This idea brings out all sorts of interesting RP points too... This event throws the whole world back into war: What do the warforged think of all this? Will the Lord of Blades oppose the invaders or try to join them in taking over? Will the Five Nations finally band together for mutual victory? How will the dragons of the Chamber see the invaders? Is it all part of the Draconic Prophesy?

Good stuff, Leliel.

Leliel
2008-04-09, 03:09 PM
Don't forget that in Eberron, specifically, the whole of Khorvaire has just been through a 101 year war. All the nations know war very well by now. They built elemental skyships, warforged titans, and other "technology" through this conflict and others similar to it.

While they be technologically outmatched on the onset of such an invasion, I would figure that the peoples of the Five Nations would react very quickly to the attack.

Yeah, that's what I realized during the intial thread.

This idea brings out all sorts of interesting RP points too... This event throws the whole world back into war: What do the warforged think of all this?

(Computer voice)Survey unfeasible. Excess in opinions differing by case-to-case basis has rendered data uncatagorizable.

Will the Lord of Blades oppose the invaders or try to join them in taking over?

Intially, he, like any other wannabe supervillain, will align himself with the Nic'en so that they can help him create his warforged paradise-until he realizes that they don't care what he wants, and that they plan to enslave the warforged as well.

Will the Five Nations finally band together for mutual victory?

Not intially, no. At least they won't until they realize what the Nic'en's leader, Areis Maen (first name pronounced Ares) is capable of. It starts with "gen", and ends with "cide". He's...not nice.

How will the dragons of the Chamber see the invaders? Is it all part of the Draconic Prophesy?

Initially, they won't know what to think of him-after learning of what he does to his Sarlonan captives though, they'll realize he's the "Lord of Fire" mentioned in the Draconic Prophecy. Why? Just a fun fact: Did you know that "holocaust" in it's original Hebrew, meant "burnt offering"?


Good stuff, Leliel.

Why, thank you.:smallredface: