Faolyn
(she/her)
Yeah, so I'm being bad because I've become totally focused on a minuscule subplot that has a large chance of not even being picked up, but...
The setting: mostly city-based, Victorian-flavored. In the background, they've discovered and are in the process of colonizing another plane of existence, Novastia (this is an openly-known thing in the setting--it's sort of a "live the good life in the off-world colonies" deal). This plane thus far seemed to be devoid of intelligent beings with cultures, and thus was ripe for grabbing all its natural resources. Can I just say how happy I am that Planestrider's is going to discuss planar resources? Makes my life so much easier.
The complication: creatures (I'm using spell weavers) from a third plane are doing the same thing--Novastia is resource-rich, after all. Novastia and the spell weaver's plane are very alien in nature, and while the spell weavers are not evil, they're also not entirely sure the people from our plane are truly sentient beings and tend to think of the PC heritages as animals, like clever termites who are capable of building amazing structures and communicating in odd ways.
Some of them, though, are not so sure and want to gather more data, and they are sending their vat-grown minions observe. I'm using the keepers--I've loved them since they were first introduced in Planescape back in 2e and this is a perfect chance to use them. If you don't know what keepers are, imagine an entire race of Men In Black.
One of them will be observing in the area where the PCs should end up within the first session or two. This was mostly going to be a background thing, with at most the innkeeper maybe mentioning that this guy is weird and creepy but he pays a lot for his room so he (the innkeeper) is putting up with the weirdness for now. With a bit of luck, it would be an introduction to some planar weirdness and a hint of what's going on in the background.
Then I realized that the players are going to see a guy, dressed in mysterious dark clothes, wearing mysterious smoked-lens glasses, sitting in a dark corner of a bar while being mysterious. I might as well have put a neon sign over its head saying "Get Quests Here." Even though nobody at my table has ever used this sort of thing before, it's so very traditional it's basically been written into the DNA of every gamer. Then I also realize that the keeper might decide to test the PCs to see what data it can collect.
So, what sort of weird alientests jobs can I have it offer? I'm drawing a blank and could use a poke.
The setting: mostly city-based, Victorian-flavored. In the background, they've discovered and are in the process of colonizing another plane of existence, Novastia (this is an openly-known thing in the setting--it's sort of a "live the good life in the off-world colonies" deal). This plane thus far seemed to be devoid of intelligent beings with cultures, and thus was ripe for grabbing all its natural resources. Can I just say how happy I am that Planestrider's is going to discuss planar resources? Makes my life so much easier.
The complication: creatures (I'm using spell weavers) from a third plane are doing the same thing--Novastia is resource-rich, after all. Novastia and the spell weaver's plane are very alien in nature, and while the spell weavers are not evil, they're also not entirely sure the people from our plane are truly sentient beings and tend to think of the PC heritages as animals, like clever termites who are capable of building amazing structures and communicating in odd ways.
Some of them, though, are not so sure and want to gather more data, and they are sending their vat-grown minions observe. I'm using the keepers--I've loved them since they were first introduced in Planescape back in 2e and this is a perfect chance to use them. If you don't know what keepers are, imagine an entire race of Men In Black.
One of them will be observing in the area where the PCs should end up within the first session or two. This was mostly going to be a background thing, with at most the innkeeper maybe mentioning that this guy is weird and creepy but he pays a lot for his room so he (the innkeeper) is putting up with the weirdness for now. With a bit of luck, it would be an introduction to some planar weirdness and a hint of what's going on in the background.
Then I realized that the players are going to see a guy, dressed in mysterious dark clothes, wearing mysterious smoked-lens glasses, sitting in a dark corner of a bar while being mysterious. I might as well have put a neon sign over its head saying "Get Quests Here." Even though nobody at my table has ever used this sort of thing before, it's so very traditional it's basically been written into the DNA of every gamer. Then I also realize that the keeper might decide to test the PCs to see what data it can collect.
So, what sort of weird alien