d20 Modern AlterEarth: A New Campaign Built out of an Assignment!

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 01:46 AM

Okay, so I've finished my night classes and one of the assignments I did for my Distilled Prose class was a Media Promotion Kit. I got it back the other day and I'm happy to say I got a really good mark (92%).

Now, I designed this "media kit" a little bit differently than most of my classmates did. I went "way out there." Basically, I designed the kit for an NGO originally from another world. (I'll let you try to figure out what world.)

The NGO is called.... wait for it...

The Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League!

I was required to do several parts to the assignment including a news release, a feature release, a story memo, a factoid, 3 complete photo captions, copy for the event welcome page on a website, an op-ed submission, and 3 versions of unformatted advertising copy.

Now that the assignment is finished and marked, I have decided to use it help out an olf RPG idea I've had for a long time but never really delved into too much.

The campaign is called AlterEarth. It's core concept is a lot like Shadowrun but less futuristic. It might become influenced by Urban Arcana but it won't be based on that setting.

AlterEarth is basically our world up until 2005 but then it changes dramatically when portals from otherworlds starting appearing throughout the world. These portals are magical or psionic portals, not technological.

I haven't decided when the setting "date" is but I think it will be 2010 or later.

Anyway, I'me going to post the parts of my assignment first then use it to take AlterEarth forward...

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 01:50 AM

The Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League
801 Pyramid Lake Road
Jasper, AB T0E 1E0
(780) 852-xxxx

June 1, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

We are pleased to announce that the Multidimensional Theater Company (MTC) will be performing their renown variety show at the Village of Forest Town's 25th Annual Summer Fair beginning July 1. The show will be highlighted by the Orphan King's own performance of a magic and puppet show, which he made famous as a member of the MTC before gaining the Crown on an alternate plane of reality. The variety show is free to attend but patrons have the option to make money and food donations.

Company leader and ringmaster Archibald Windsong is thrilled about the chance to perform alongside his old colleague and mentor. “Hezekiah's participation in the show will be a real treat for those in attendance and for us as well. His magic and puppet show is a rare joy to behold, especially for children and pixies.”

“I am looking forward to entertaining Forest Town's youngsters and it is important for everyone to know that all monetary donations will be split between the Transdimensional Adoption League and the town's public school,” said the Orphan King. “It's a worthy endeavor for all.”

All food donations will go to Jasper's local Food Bank.

The Orphan King will have a special guest assistant for his performance — Sonny Tintall. He and his new family will be making the trip from Boston, Massachusetts, in order to show their support for the Transdimensional Adoption League and its mission. “It's going to be so much fun,” said Sonny by phone when asked about making the trip. “I can hardly wait!”

The MTC will be performing a total of three times during the fair — July 1, July 9, and

July 18. All three shows will start at Noon and run for an hour. The variety show will be held in a traditional big-top tent in the center of the village's fairgrounds. The show will include not only the Orphan King's unique show but also juggling acts, comedy theater, clowns from various dimensions, live operatic music, and interpretive dance.

The Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League is a multi-planar organization dedicated to finding homes for orphans from all realities and was founded over ten years ago by the Orphan King on his home plane. The League has existed on our world since 2005 and has successfully found homes for thousands of Earth orphans throughout the multi-planar cosmos.

The Multidimensional Theater Company (MTC) is a traveling variety show that has performed throughout the multi-planar cosmos in such famous cities as Cauldron, Chicago, Freeport, Greyhawk, London, New York, Paris, Waterdeep, and the planar city of Sigil. The MTC always donates a part of its proceeds to children's charities and orphanages throughout the multi-planar cosmos as many of its members were starving waifs and orphans in their youth.

The Village of Forest Town is a growing community of 624 located 55 kilometers northeast of Jasper, Alberta, along the north side of Highway 16. The village's annual fair is celebrating its 25th year. The fair begins on July 1 and ends on July 18.

#####

Contact for Additional Information
Robert Blezard, Media Advisor and Apprentice

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 01:51 AM

Off to see a movie. More later.

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:28 AM

June 1, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sonny Tintall had no where safe to go after the earthquake killed his family and destroyed his home. Claimed by the state, he was forced to live in a rundown orphanage in a heartless city on a backwater world. Sonny was a lost child, one of so many in the multi-planar cosmos. Forced to work for his infested bed and meager supper, Sonny lived as a slave in poverty at the Red Street Orphanage in the otherworldly city of Bottleneck.

He lived with no hope until that faithful day five years ago when the Orphan King arrived in his city and saw the conditions in which that the children were forced to live. The magician used his prestige and wealth to convince the local leaders to sell the Red Street Orphanage to the Transdimensional Adoption League, which allowed him to free the orphans from bondage. He used his personal wealth to help rebuild the orphanage and hired a new, benign staff to oversee the care of the children.

Soon afterwards, Sonny and his fellows began attending the orphanage's new privately funded school with lessons in language, mathematics, and social studies. Sonny took to the skills of mathematics with ease and moved to the head of his class. His headmistress, a Mrs. Daisy Frumm, had this to say about the boy, “He is a delight to teach and we will all miss him terribly when he leaves for his new home.”

That was three years ago.

Sonny now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his new family, the Bakersfields. The middle-class family of four were delighted to bring Sonny into their happy home. June and Will

Bakersfield had always wanted a son but were unable to have more children after the difficult birth of their twin girls.

Of course, it had not been easy to get the adoption approved. There was a considerable amount of resistance from the U.S. Federal government since Sonny wasn't a U.S. citizen not to mention a young boy from an otherworld. “We had nearly given up hope,” Will Bakersfield said after the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a previous ruling. “This process has been draining on our family but finally Sonny is coming home.”

It was this landmark case that allowed the Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League to gain official status as a NGO on Earth and the organization has been an advocate of the rights of children across the globe. Sonny Bakersfield now plays and goes to school with his new friends in Boston. “It's definitely strange living here,” Sonny said when asked how he was adjusting. “Boston's not like Bottleneck. It's a lot bigger and the culture is a lot different. However, my friends here are just like my old friends were in Red Street Orphanage. Well, except none of my new friends are dwarves or elves.”

#####

Contact for Additional Information
Robert Blezard, Media Advisor and Apprentice

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:30 AM

Variety Show Primer

Clown: An entertainer who does comical tricks; a fool, jester, or comedian in an entertainment (as a play).

Comedy: An amusing theatrical play performed on stage.

Company: A group of touring entertainers; a group of actors, singers, or dancers.

Interpretive Dance: A rhythmic series of movements performed to music that construes some overall meaning.

Juggler: An entertainer who continuously tosses and catches objects while keeping one or more in the air at any time.

Magician: A person with magical power; a conjurer; a master of illusions and prestidigitation.

Opera: A drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and orchestral overtures and interludes.

Opera Bouffe: A satirical comic opera.

Puppet: A model of a person or animal moved either by strings or by a hand inside it.

Ringmaster: A person who is in charge of performances in a ring (as of a circus).

Contact for Additional Information
Robert Blezard, Media Advisor and Apprentice

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:32 AM

To: Editors and News Directors
From: Robert Blezard, Media Advisor and Apprentice
Date: June 1, 2009
Re: Story Idea

David Walsh has been a thrill seeker for much of his adult life. He has climbed mountains, parasailed from Australia to New Zealand, and raced in the Baja 1000 desert race in a triple hybrid dune buggy (i.e. solar electric). However, his biggest thrill to date has been helping the Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League. He often performs feats of bravado in order to raise awareness of the NGOs cause.

David is a Canadian and an Albertan by birth, but he has lived all over the world. However, he still visits his home in the Village of Forest Town every year to donate his time and money to the community. He sleeps in his old bedroom, eats his mother's home cooking, and volunteers to to be 'dunked' in a tank by former classmates and neighbors as part of the community's Annual Summer Fair.

This year David has worked with the Transdimensional Adoption League to help bring the Multidimensional Theater Company to his small town in hopes of helping to raise awareness regarding the plight of orphans around the world and beyond.

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:34 AM

Our changing world: one voice amongst many
June 1, 2009

It's a date that will go down in in the annals of history: March 12, 2005. It was on this date that our world changed forever. A gateway was opened and new worlds were discovered. There was shock and fear and even tragedy. How could we hope to survive an onslaught of otherworldly life as it invaded our world? It was the question being asked from Los Angeles to Paris to Tokyo.

However, the 'invasion' never came. Instead, we discovered that these 'otherworlds' lived more in fear of us then we did of them. We discovered worlds stricken by disease and poverty and inhabited by creatures torn right out of the texts of our own mythologies. It was a sobering experience to learn that mythical creatures walked these otherworlds and that they might have actually walked our own in the past.

We also discovered humanity on these otherworlds and reached out to our own. It was in that first year of change and conflict that the Orphan King first came to Earth. A man, a human man, dedicated to the protection of children of all races (what a phrase that is now) throughout the multi-planar cosmos. This man, named only Hezekiah, fought the 'powers-that-be' of our world by showing them the folly of otherworlds that had rejected the future of their own children. Worlds now burnt away by war and greed.

He has worked towards helping us save ourselves without asking us to call him our savior. He and the Transdimensional Adoption League have found homes on Earth for lost children from hundreds of otherworlds and vice versa. Our world is changing and, for once, it's changing for the better. We are not alone anymore.

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:36 AM

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, December 15, 2008 - - BAKERSFIELD FAMILY: Eight-year-old Sonny Tintall stands in front of his house in Boston, Massachusetts, with his new family, the Bakersfields. From left to right: Will (father), Debbie (sister), Sonny, Megan (sister), and June (mother). Sitting in the front is the family's golden retriever, Max.
(Photo by Raymond Verger)

Short Version: Sonny Tintall with his new family, the Bakersfields in Boston.

FOREST TOWN, May 15 - - DUNK TANK: Renown Canadian adventurer and activist David Walsh stands beside the Village of Forest Town's yellow and black dunk tank while pointing at where he'll be sitting every day starting on July 1. He's smiling now but will he be smiling when he's all wet?
(Photo by Leeann Wakefield)

Short Version: David Walsh will be getting dunked a lot starting July 1.

JASPER, June 1 - - KING AND MAYORS: Hezekiah, the Orphan King, shakes the hand of Dan Peters, the mayor of the Village of Forest Town while the mayor of Jasper looks on. This just after the Orphan King announced that the Multidimensional Theater Company (MTC) will be performing at Forest Town's 25th Annual Summer Fair.
(Photo by Andrew Roth)

Short Version: The Orphan King shakes hands with the mayor of Forest Town.

Contact for Additional Information
Robert Blezard, Media Advisor and Apprentice
The Orphan King's Transdimensional Adoption League
801 Pyramid Lake Road
Jasper, AB T0E 1E0
(780) 852-xxxx

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:42 AM

^The Orphan King's Transdimensional
Adoption League

{image: The rebuilt Red Light Street Orphanage
in the otherworldly city of Bottleneck.
The freed orphans and their new headmistress are standing in front.}

We have been working to change the lives of lost children since 1998.
Our adoption program has been approved by Earth's U.N. since 2005.
We measure success by the number of happy homes in the Multiverse.

801 Pyramid Lake Road
Jasper, AB T0E 1E0
(780) 852-0777

“Changing the Lives of Children Across Dimensions.”

Knightfall · 17th December 2008, 05:47 AM

I decided to only post the main ad for the assignment since the other two ads are basically the same thing but for a half-page ad and a quarter-page ad.

The attached file on this post is for the "event copy" of the NGOs "website."

Knightfall · 30th December 2008, 06:37 PM

Okay, so an interesting idea I came up with for this campaign concept is that every person on Earth has a double somewhere on one of the otherworlds.

This includes both PCs and NPCs from AlterEarth. It could include famous people from Earth's history or just someone I know from real life. I think it would be fun to turn an old friend into a RPG character on an otherworld.

Opinions?

KF72

Reveille · 31st December 2008, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightfall1972

Okay, so an interesting idea I came up with for this campaign concept is that every person on Earth has a double somewhere on one of the otherworlds.

This includes both PCs and NPCs from AlterEarth. It could include famous people from Earth's history or just someone I know from real life. I think it would be fun to turn an old friend into a RPG character on an otherworld.

Oh hells yes. This idea was made popular in Sliders. It is one of my favorite ideas about parallel realities. One ep of Sliders featured an evil double of the inventor of sliding of the opposite gender, so keep this in mind.

Knightfall · 31st December 2008, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reveille

Oh hells yes. This idea was made popular in Sliders. It is one of my favorite ideas about parallel realities. One ep of Sliders featured an evil double of the inventor of sliding of the opposite gender, so keep this in mind.

Sliders was one of my favorite shows; although, I tended to watch it irregularly. I don't think I saw that episode but I do know about it.

The otherworlds in this campaign will include several of my homebrewed worlds, some new worlds, and the core D&D worlds such as Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. I'll likely use Beyond Countless Doorways with it as well. I haven't decided yet.

Slider-like Earths might be possible but I don't want to focus on that (*). More specifically, I want to create a connection from Kulan, Maran, and Rielun to AlterEarth. Regardless of which campaigns that AlterEarth connects, this campaign will be a d20 Modern campaign. Thus, if characters were to travel to AlterEarth from, say, Toril, those characters would have to be revised into a d20 Modern format.

Portals may have existed in AlterEarth's past (likely) but either these portals went dormant or were closed by some unseen force. Now, the portals are opening again.

The "current year" of this campaign will be, at earliest, 2020. That's when things start to become more "adventure worthy" as borders between certain otherworlds begin to invade upon AlterEarth.

Rielun is one such world that will "mix" a lot with AlterEarth but it is primarily one-way towards Rielun. Kulan's link is more restrictive as I want to keep it isolated from too much advanced technology. As a result, Maran is even one step further removed from AlterEarth since its link is only through Kulan.

I haven't considered my other "otherworlds" yet.

Connections are stronger to Oerth and Toril and weaker to Krynn and Mystara. Athas doesn't have any connections but The Great Wheel does connect to AlterEarth through the D&D Worlds. (The connection isn't direct.) AlterEarth isn't directly connected to my Mirrored Cosmology but that cosmology is accessible, tentitively, through Kulan.

_________________________________________________

*Gamma World, likely. Dark Matter, not as likely. Guardian Earth, um, no.

Knightfall · 31st December 2008, 09:50 AM

Check this out...

Reveille · 1st January 2009, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightfall1972

Portal Connections

Check this out...

Hmm. Where's Seracia?

Reveille · 1st January 2009, 02:55 AM

Knightfall, check your email.

Knightfall · 1st January 2009, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reveille

Hmm. Where's Seracia?

Actually, I had considered that but I don't know enough about how your altered cosmology works to incorporate it in. Plus, I only had so much room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reveille

Knightfall, check your email.

Done and replied.

Knightwind1972 · 1st January 2009, 05:08 AM

Sounds pretty spiffy. If you don't already have it I highly recommend Tangents, an Alternity supplement.

I may have to get my husband to run a game of this for me. Of course, we use Modern20.

Knightfall · 1st January 2009, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightwind1972

Sounds pretty spiffy. If you don't already have it I highly recommend Tangents, an Alternity supplement.

I may have to get my husband to run a game of this for me. Of course, we use Modern20.

I had Tangents back in Alternity's heyday. I sold it and a lot of my Alternity products quite some time ago. I only kept a few of the main Alternity books including my Limited Edition Player's Handbook.

Reveille · 4th January 2009, 11:23 PM

Knightfall, I just had an idea regarding doubles. Perhaps some earths have a slower rotation speed than others, thus making it seem like one is tyime-traveling when going to another Earth. The thing to keep in mind thaought is that 'Quantum Tunneling' between Earth's is never time travel.

One the Earth's that have a slower rotation speed, you can use to sprinboard doubles of figures that have long been dead on our Earth or just younger versions of NPCs and/or PCs.

With this idea, it might be possible to interven in the doubles character development by having the other, older double, intervene at key points in the youger doubls life.