Crazy campaign idea: Paranoia meets the Masquerade meets generic fantasy.

Huw

First Post

• Jan 17, 2010

• #1

I'm on a weird tangent here, so bear with me. It started when I considered an entire party who looked human, but weren't. Werewolves, changelings, selkies, that sort of thing.

Then I got thinking. What if the whole world was like that, with no humans left? Every fishing village is entirely selkies (or deep ones...). Every backwoods village is populated by lycanthropes. The cities have shapechanging dragons, doppelgangers and rakshasa filling the upper classes.

Now imagine that they are all still trying to stay hidden, even though there are no humans left. Anyone who breaks this masquerade is hunted down by his fellow ... beings, just as if actual humans had found a monster in their midsts.

So, opinions please. Could this work as a campaign setting? If so, dark fantasy or dark comedy?

 

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(un)reason

Legend

• Jan 17, 2010

• #2

It could work. My old group once did an OWoD game where we had to guard someone, and it turned out it was because he was the only normal human left in the world. So it's not a new idea, or an untried one. You'll probably want to hold off on the big reveal for a while if you want it to be a remotely serious game though.

 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Staff member

Supporter

• Jan 18, 2010

• #3

Given the thread's title, I'm puzzled by the lack of Paranoia elements.

No PCs named Drak-U-LAH 4, no "The Palantir is your Friend" or ANYTHING...

 

Huw

First Post

• Jan 18, 2010

• #4

Dannyalcatraz said:

Given the thread's title, I'm puzzled by the lack of Paranoia elements.

No PCs named Drak-U-LAH 4, no "The Palantir is your Friend" or ANYTHING...

Click to expand...

The Paranoia element is that everyone has a secret, everyone is a traitor (to humanity). Another idea is for the characters to be part of some sort of monster hunting organisation led by an insane god. That could be made very paranoia like.

Not mentioned in the OP as I wanted to keep the idea as open as possible.

 

jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock

• Jan 18, 2010

• #5

This actually sounds like a very cool idea, not necessarily for dark fantasy, but just different fantasy. Right now, I'm really digging things like Planet Algol and my own Weirdlands - settings that really bring the weird. A setting where there aren't any humans, only different varieties of monstrous PCs masquerading as humans sounds like a lot of fun in that vein.

 

W

Wystan

Explorer

• Jan 18, 2010

• #6

Make the characters in secret with the players and make sure they know that the other players should not know they are not human, make them think they are the only one with the secret....

Then make them monster hunters...

Laughs and death ensue.

 

Crothian

First Post

• Jan 18, 2010

• #7

I was going to do something like this with all the White Woldf lines. There are just so mnay different supernatural beings out there that humans went extinct long ago without anyone realizing it. It was going to be a lot more tongue in cheek and not really worry about what that would actually mean to the world.

 

Voadam

Legend

• Jan 19, 2010

• #8

So vampires are usually feeding off of werewolves and changelings? Werewolves are usually breeding with changelings?

 

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Wolfwood2

Explorer

• Jan 19, 2010

• #9

Huw said:

So, opinions please. Could this work as a campaign setting? If so, dark fantasy or dark comedy?

Click to expand...

No, it couldn't work as a campaign setting. I think it would be a neat one-off joke, but I think the joke would get old really quickly. It doesn't have the legs to last a campaign.

Now you might say that Paranoia does something similiar with all the PCs being mutants and members of secret societies, but Paranoia is also a very structured game with plenty of levers for the GM to move the PCs around where they need to be, give them missions, and such. I just don't think it works for a fantasy D&D-esque game like I assume you mean.

 

N

NoWayJose

First Post

• Jan 19, 2010

• #10

It could work. You take the 4E points of light setting, and you emphasize the medieval paradigm of superstition and monsters lurking in the dark, and then turn it on its head. The villages of changelings, the nomadic werewolves, etc. they are all terrified of the Elder Ones, the great empire of Hu-mans, that spawned them all (and is why they bear a likeness to the hu-man overlords) and now haunt the wilds. Except that the human empire collapsed a long time ago, and all that remains are scattered dungeons and ancient tales.

A tiny minority of elite creatures know (or suspect) the truth, but it's in their interest to maintain the current status quo of a frightened and meek public -- so they continue to spread false rumours of evil hu-mans, preach in churches about hu-man damnation, and send assassins to hunt down anyone who might suspect the truth.

Even when the gimmick is run dry, you still have a typical 4e points of light setting (just no humans).

You can later a short, separate campaign - where the PCs are humans from another world who have stumbled into this strange parallel world.