D&D 5E A Red and Pleasant Land (5e hack)

[JoeCrow]

Yeah, I've been thinking of ways to patch Red and Pleasant Land into my current campaign. There's a vamp-run realm off to the side of the kingdoms that the crew's based in, called the Wallach Marches. Up til now, it's just been an occasional source of vaguely creepy raiders and ominous rumors for them. But now I'm gonna hafta drag them into surreal-freaky-land! It's a moral imperative!

Not sure if I'm gonna have the whole realm as The Place of Unreason, or if i'm going to run it as the mundane side, and have the Place as the other side of the mirror there, and then drag them into that side.

 

[Anth]

Never heard of this! I was thinking of running the classic I6 Ravenloft adventure. What about plopping it right in the middle of this setting? Are they compatible?

It's more like "Vampires in Wonderland" than "Wonderland in Transylvania".

I think Dungeonland and The Land Beyond The Magic Mirror would fit better than Ravenloft.

 

[soulcatcher78]

Reskinning the creatures in the land of Unreason should vary with the level of play at your table IMO. For mid or low level characters that would put the King/Queen somewhere around Adult Dragon for lethality and the pawns equating to zombies...annoying but in large groups, deadly.

The royalty have some control over their environment and can keep their minions in line (through fear of reprisal). The typical understanding of D&D Vampires must be reexamined due to the various power levels of things referred to as vampires. Going head to head with the Royals should be a suicide run for any PCs below 8th level unless they have something that gives them a distinct advantage.

 

[Zak S]

I guess the Red King could be a Death Knight or a Liche.

In my conception, the royal vampires are very powerful, but stick mainly to traditional vampire activites: creeping around, turning into animals, biting people, charm, bossing around minions, being hard to kill.

Zaps and most overt spells are outside the vibe I was going for. But, hey--it's your game.

 

[psiconauta_retro]

In my conception, the royal vampires are very powerful, but stick mainly to traditional vampire activites: creeping around, turning into animals, biting people, charm, bossing around minions, being hard to kill.

Zaps and most overt spells are outside the vibe I was going for. But, hey--it's your game.

Your book is super awesome, I haven't finished reading it but, as most other people, I'm loving it.

Do you have any videos of actual play? I am very intrigued of watching how you run RaPL.

 

[Daern]

I played in a playtest of RPL. It was hilarious fun. My character was first level and totally survived bunch of crazy stuff until finally attempting one brave/stupid act too many and dying. Basically, everything was super dangerous but not necessarily hostile, so you really had to watch your step.

 

[Zak S]

Your book is super awesome, I haven't finished reading it but, as most other people, I'm loving it.

Thanks!

Do you have any videos of actual play? I am very intrigued of watching how you run RaPL.

There are lots of videos of us playing...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...Episode-18-200-lbs-Of-Meat-And-A-New-Fur-Coat
...but not of us specifically playing Red & Pleasant Land. At least not yet.

 

[psiconauta_retro]

Thanks!

There are lots of videos of us playing...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...Episode-18-200-lbs-Of-Meat-And-A-New-Fur-Coat
...but not of us specifically playing Red & Pleasant Land. At least not yet.

Most excellent, I´ll take a look, thanks!!

In another post I saw a comment that you have (or had) a blog in which you posted suggestions (or was it experiences?) from your own game. Is that still available? I can´t find that other post to get the link

While I read through the book I can hear in my mind pieces of the soundtrack of Donnie Darko. For my game I would use that as background music, along with some songs from Lacrimosa, Nine Inch Nails, the soundtrack from Dracula and also the one from Interview with the vampire. I'm enjoying the ride already!

 

[Zak S]

Most excellent, I´ll take a look, thanks!!

In another post I saw a comment that you have (or had) a blog in which you posted suggestions (or was it experiences?) from your own game. Is that still available? I can´t find that other post to get the link

My blog covers a lot of different angles of RPGing, although for the past 2 weeks I've been having a lot of guest entries because I'm running a contest, however, the rest of it is, since 2009:

Here are all the actual play reports:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/search/label/actual play

Useful game tools (like tables & rules) here:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/search/label/useful things

A general orientation with links to some of the other popular posts:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2012/01/mustorganizeuselessideas.html

 

[psiconauta_retro]

I played in a playtest of RPL. It was hilarious fun. My character was first level and totally survived bunch of crazy stuff until finally attempting one brave/stupid act too many and dying. Basically, everything was super dangerous but not necessarily hostile, so you really had to watch your step.

This is a very clear idea that I get from the setting, exactly as you said it can be super dangerous but if you are smooth enough and can get the right angle to deal with each threat it may be possible to come out in one piece (I wanted to say "alive" but with all those vampires I don't see how the PCs could remain human for long...).