Adventures in the Far Realms!

[HamHam]

So my players are heading out on an expedition to the Far Realms.

What the heck do I do for actual encounters in the Far Realms?

Also, what sort of constant effects would there be.

What I have come up with so far:

In addition to the traits as described in Manual of the Planes:
Teleportation, DD, etc don't work because a) not coterminous with the Astral or Ethereal really, and b) distance is a meaningless concept in the Far Realms.
Avoid Planar Effects has a 10% of failing whenever it would prevent a madness check because the Far Realms are just that insane.
Rope Trick, Magnificent Mansion, etc will still produce a reasonable safe heaven, but it will be warped and won't protect from the madness trait.
Possibly Taint effects of some kind?

For encounters:
Illumian expedition that has become warped and gone mad. Led by a Fleshwarper, they seek fresh bodies to experiment on.
Psurlons
Pseudonatural giant dire shark
An unimaginable Elder Evil of some kind that they land on and have to fight it's spawn.

So yeah, ideas would be appreciated.

[FMArthur]

I've never enjoyed being afflicted with insanity by effects I can't prevent, and your players probably won't either. Just leave "the far realm drives people insane" as fluff and have them face maddenning horrors and beings from other planes gone insane to get the actual point across.

Spacial shenanigans are difficult to manage but decent mindscrew material, and just keep emphasizing the sheer unpredictability of the alien plane. Pseudonatural creatures aren't the limit: make monsters that get worse when slain. Make the party face mutated versions of themselves. Make creatures mimic the sounds and voices of past victims even as they approach and do battle with the players. Make a peaceful peasant village that is just a little too nice to them, a little too quiet, and shows signs of being unimaginably old, but literally nothing more (just harmless constructs of the unpredictable Far Realm; it could be an imperfectly replicated piece of a world thrown into it, depending on how deep your players like to dig for clues. And make sure your players don't know it's harmless; it will freak them out to no end). Anything and everything disturbing.

An adventure in the Far Realm is the ultimate demonstration of DM skill IMO. Flex your mental muscle and make your players freak out to the best of your ability.

[herrhauptmann]

Watch some old looneytunes (and tiny toons) episodes with wackyland. Just to get yourself into the right mindset.
Maybe play a few games of Call of Cthulhu with a different group as well.

Get your players to agree to act out the madness inducing effects of the plane, that way you can avoid enforcing it via rules (which never works very well, and tends to lead to 10 page discussions on the nature of insanity here in the forums).
Once they leave, arrange some downtime where they can recover their sanity, perhaps fishing, or going to the local temple, sitting in an oubliette, whatever.

[Vilyathas]

I recommend glancing through Marvel Comics' "The Thanos Imperative".

Summary: a rift opened, leading to a parallel universe where nothing ever dies, and the universe is ruled by huge eldritch abominations (think HP Lovecraft's universe and you're there). In one scene, the heroes meet alternate versions of themselves, killed them, and watched them get up and become even more mutated versions.

For encounters: use the normal encounter tables and add the Pseudonatural template. For further mindscrew, toss aquatic creatures that flies through the air, Colossal monsters that pop into smaller creatures if dealt damage, or even have the PCs fight the landscape itself. If you really want to emphasize the "insanity effects", just give every monster they meet an Insanity Aura.

My other ideas:
1. % chance of wild magic on every spell cast by the PCs.
2. 5% chance of random polymorphing every hour. And not just limited to the PCs, but on their items as well. More powerful magic items get better saves to resist.
3. Reverse the effects of all divine spells. Cure becomes Inflict, Protection from Evil becomes Protection from Good, etc.

[Exthalion]

Or, to avoid players hating you, have then go on a short question to get a spell that has a duration of concentration and creates a zone of protection against the insanity and all that.

I recommend reading about the Warp from 40k Pure chaos + Hell = Mindscrew

[Lhurgyof]

Play some really annoying song constantly until the players' minds melt. That'll pretty much be as close to the far realm as you can get.

Narwhales?
Loutima?
Countries of the World?

[Lamech]

Isn't that place fairly stuipidly deadly? And just about impossible to get back from? I mean if it was possible to escape in a reasonable (finite) time frame, every creature there would escape instantly, as measured on the prime, due to the flowing time trait. Also note that any expedition there will have been there forever. Literally an eternity.
I thought as far as movement goes one can just will themselves to whatever layer. Which will screw with combat to no end. And the fluff implies that the entities there will have little trouble against the party.

[The_Snark]

Switch to a completely different game system for the duration of the expedition. Try to find one that has radically different mechanics, and that none of your players are familiar with. Don't tell them about this in advance; just convert their characters sheets to the new system before the session, and tell them what to roll for each action.

Whenever they ask what's going on, just grin and ask for a Will save against madness.

If they succeed, let them have their new character sheet (but don't feel obliged to explain what it means); on a failure, they take Wisdom damage as their mind fails to comprehend the alien laws of the Far Realm. If you feel like going all-out, you could have several different systems ready, and switch between them every so often.

[dsmiles]

Switch to a completely different game system for the duration of the expedition. Try to find one that has radically different mechanics, and that none of your players are familiar with. Don't tell them about this in advance; just convert their characters sheets to the new system before the session, and tell them what to roll for each action.

Whenever they ask what's going on, just grin and ask for a Will save against madness.

If they succeed, let them have their new character sheet (but don't feel obliged to explain what it means); on a failure, they take Wisdom damage as their mind fails to comprehend the alien laws of the Far Realm. If you feel like going all-out, you could have several different systems ready, and switch between them every so often.

I recommend using Toon.

[Radar]

Isn't that place fairly stuipidly deadly? And just about impossible to get back from? I mean if it was possible to escape in a reasonable (finite) time frame, every creature there would escape instantly, as measured on the prime, due to the flowing time trait. Also note that any expedition there will have been there forever. Literally an eternity.
(...)

Not quite, since going back to the Prime Material might throw you into a random point in time (Far Realms are like that AFAIK) - it was used in the most advanced version of Pun-Pun.

Other features: empty illusions, illusions hiding something real, something real things looking like an illusion, looped multilayered illusions.

You might consider going Escher on your players as well.

[Eldan]

In the true Far Realms?

They should probably start by reading the smell of the colour table from last monday with their pancreas to avoid moving the next hour towards the tiger salad.

Or in other words, it's pretty impossible.

If you want to send them there, you need to protect them. Make a pre-realms dimension where the laws of physics haven't broken down entirely yet: everyone loses their sense of smell and can teleport at will, but only in one direction. Or let them land in a pocket dimension in the far realms, a new multiverse being formed from the dream of an elder god. Somewhere where at least cause and effect exist and there are still things like time and space.

[HamHam]

I like the idea of switching systems, but I think it would be too much work. Especially since to really work I would need something not-d20 and I don't have anything really applicable lying around.

Other ideas are also good. An Escher building or hyper-cube might be just the thing to get across the complete failure of normal geometry.

However I'm keeping the maddening trait because it adds a sense of urgency. Get in, get to the objective, and get out before someone fails a save they can't recover from.

[FMArthur]

Wait, hold on... there are actual rules for the Far Realm? That ruins the whole thing!

Well in my campaigns The Far Realm is still the unknown and unknowable. Sorry about my misleading post earlier.

[Volthawk]

Have a look at this.

[HamHam]

Have a look at this.

That is an amazing resource. Thanks a lot!

[dsmiles]

Have a look at this.

This is good stuff, but it is also unfortunate. I still like the idea of using Toon to emulate the Far Realm. Comic wackiness at it's finest.