Idea: "Mirror Universe" Campagin

[Leliel]

On the Wizards board, there's a thread for the Star Trek-style Mirrorverse counterparts for various deities. That got me thinking: What would happen if the core D&D worlds were opened up to a Mirror-type universe of their very own. So, here's the kicker:

Planar campagin takes place after a suitably evil BBEG opens up a "mirror rift" during his experiments with the fabric of reality. He contacts the nasty version of the elven race there, and conspires with them to take over both realities via finding a way to re-open the gateway to Pandoyrm's (if you haven't read Elder Evils, he's basically a sentient doomsday weapon with exactly the sort of personality you don't want anywhere near a doomsday weapon) dimension, and finding another suitably powerful alien to help them out. Given that this isn't exactly what either universe's best interests, PCs are eventually contacted by that dimension's drow (who are more of an "oppressed underground civilization" in that reality) to help them in defeating this guy he causes irreparable damage to both worlds. So...

How would you set this up? What should I do to foreshadow the reveal of the Mirror Multiverse? How should I make some of the villains sympathetic? Should I throw in a confrontation with the PC's "mirror selves"?

Few notes:

1) The nerra have nothing to do with this. Although I might throw in a few nerra subordinate as a red herring, I'd also like to subvert the whole "impending alien invasion" angle of the nerra. In fact, I'd like to have this sort of campagin being exactly what they don't want, and reveal that their entire manipulation of us mortals is to prevent the dimentions from mixing. They are as afraid of Pandoyrm's kind as we are.

2) This isn't an exact negative. Certain events that happened in one universe won't happen in another, and people that exist in one universe won't exist in another, or they will exist, but they aren't dynamic oppposites. Still, what happens in one universe will affect another one, and it's pretty much guarenteed that the "aligned" races are opposites (The baatezu are the primary race of CG outsiders, and Shar is a sweet, somewhat naive old gal (although she hates being called "old")).

donpser esaelP.

(It's harder to type that than you think)

EDIT: And proving that above point, I apperently typed "Uvvadum" for "respond" when trying to type the English version in reverse.

And if you want to know what the nerra are, I think their OGL, and if not, they're in Fiend Folio.

[seedjar]

What's a pesnod? And more seriously, what book are the nerra in?

Sounds like an interesting idea, and something I might like to run one day. If I were designing this kind of campaign, I'd probably try to create a set of general rules that I could use to translate actions in one world into consequences in the other. I know you said that they aren't precise opposites, but it would be nice to have some hidden mechanics to the duality if only for the purpose of designing puzzles and confounding the PCs.

~Joe

[Forrestfire]

the nerra are in the fiend folio

[Emperor Demonking]

Seems like a good idea.

You could forshadow it by saying people are doing experiments on mirrors of oppisition.

[kpenguin]

Boccob would care.

[Leliel]

Boccob would care.

Hehehe...Well, not our Boccob, at least not at first. Then he realizes how this affects the nature of magic, and then he gets intrested.

[SoD]

Hehehe...Well, not our Boccob, at least not at first. Then he realizes how this affects the nature of magic, and then he gets intrested.

Not quite what he meant, I don't think...I beleive it's a reference to Boccobs title: The Uncaring.

[Leliel]

Not quite what he meant, I don't think...I beleive it's a reference to Boccobs title: The Uncaring.

I know. I got the joke. You, apperently, didn't get mine.

[mikeejimbo]

Everyone from the mirror universe has a goatee, right?

[Lochar]

Everyone from the mirror universe has a goatee, right?

Except the drow. Our version of the drow gain an unexplainable need to grow them.

[mikeejimbo]

Ah yes, makes perfect sense.

The funniest thing is of course the dwarves: They have beards and grow goatees over them.

[Arakune]

Who is this Pandoyrm guy?

Some nasty D&D version of the omega weapon?

[Leliel]

He's the toughest Elder Evil as presented in the book of the same name.

Basically, a civilization of idio-uh, wizards grew tired of their war with a bunch of jealous gods, and, as a doomsday weapon, summoned a being-Pandorym (I misspelled his name)-from a dimension perpendicular to the Material Plane and separated his mind from his body, putting them in separate cages. Realizing that leaving an uberpowerful and psychopathic weapon in the care of nutty mages was a bad idea, the gods wiped them out, but were forced to leave Pandorym intact. Given that a shard of his mind is a CR 23 psion, with the nasty power to rip peoples' minds from their bodies and make them his slaves, and his body is a living Sphere of Annihilation, they probably weren't able to.

[Vael Nir]

this has potential... evil drizzt! an evil outcast of the chaotic good drow! :D

[Jothki]

The problem with using a universe that's opposite all the way down is that you miss out on a "I could have been like this if I had made different decisions" effect when you throw the party's doubles at them.

[Leliel]

The problem with using a universe that's opposite all the way down is that you miss out on a "I could have been like this if I had made different decisions" effect when you throw the party's doubles at them.

Oh, I have every intention of throwing the PCs doubles at them.