d20 Modern players in Sigil

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, I guess I'm too much of a scientist - and avid reader of Ken Hite's "Suppressed Transmissions" - to ignore any connections like that in an attempt to make a setting more logical...

And it probably helps that all my players are either university students or graduates (with a doctor of mathematics thrown into the mix) - I know them well enough to figure out what kinds of questions they would ask if I threw their players into a situation like this.

But to each his own...

 

[Nightfall]

Jurgun,

Well that's understandable...and I do have a draw of university students. However not all are as logical and methodical as math students. But even they have to admit there are times when the universe can't be predicted based on rational thought. If that were so, half of the world events wouldn't have unfolded the way they did.

Just stating one crazy posting man's opinion.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Jurgun,

Well that's understandable...and I do have a draw of university students. However not all are as logical and methodical as math students. But even they have to admit there are times when the universe can't be predicted based on rational thought.

Well, it may not be predictable - in fact, it isn't, as elementary chaos theory proves (just ask any math or physics geek about the "Three Body Problem") - but that doesn't keep the universe from being logical.

Even the universe of the Cthulhu Mythos is logical in it's own way. It is just that no human can understand that logic without becoming insane.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

And that works really swell for role-playing games. Give the PCs a sense that yes, there is a logic that underlies the world, instead of just random bits of weirdness - even if they never really understand the big rules, the sense that they exist somewhere out there will help the players swallow their suspension of disbelief...

 

[Nightfall]

Well I can understand that point Jurgen. I guess my point is when you step from the mean streets of Chicago into a world of Tolkeinesque fantasy...and then you're expected to interact with it, most of your normal everyday "logic" kind of flies out the window until you find a way to understand it all. That's kind of my point with the whole going from modern to Sigil.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Come to think of it, maybe you should give us a few more details on your campaign, Labmonkey.

For example, what do the mafia know of the Outer Planes and the assassin? If they don't know anything, what's to keep the PCs from lying low on some other plane until the mafia guy looses interest?

And how did the PCs know how and why to contact the ferryman in the first place? And what do they know of their target? Have any of them dismissed the entire thing as a drug trip?
Any further information could make helping you a lot easier...

 

[Labmonkey-XL]

Sorry, haven't been on the boards in a while.

The Campaign in a nutshell:

The PC's are regular nightlife hustlers. A gambler, A Drugdealer, The Drugdealers Muscle, A Con Artist, And a Docter who lost his license to practice due to a drug abuse problem.

The PC's went to an underground Casino run by mafia for an illegal boxing match. The Con Artist used to be a boxer, so the group had to go. Anyways the Jamaicans we're there and they didn't like one of the PC's friends Alex (for a scuffle at the club earlier), and Alex was the drugdealers major sellers at a local nightclub. So one of the Jamaicans decided to sell one of Alex's friends a pill that pretty much made the guy spray his internal organs out of his mouth. (strange pill eh?)

The Jamaicans dipped, and the entire night was ruined, and the PCs were the only ones left standing. Lou Giovanni, Mafia Head of all of NYC and NJ was pissed about the fact that a hit was performed in his establishment and told the PCs they have 1 week to find the Jamaican who did this or else he will hold the PC's personally responsible.

So they go to a bar where the Jamaicans usually hang out and find that its completely empty. They go inside and a strange (tiefling) bartender told the PCs that Abdula (The Jamaican) was gone. The PC's threaten the bartender, so the bartender tries to calm them down with free drinks.

Of course a successfull sense motive check reveals that the Bartender has no reason to harm the PCs in anyway, he was just doing his job (whatever that is...) so they each take one of his drinks. He then tells them to walk through a steel door.

They walk through the steal door, and in my Campaign the Plane of Shadow Borders our world. The Bartender co-exists in the Plane of Shadow and enlists the help of Aya, a Human NPC who was trapped a loooong time ago and now works for the Bartender to guide the PCs to the only place that can take the PCs where they want to go. The River Styx.

Now The backstory is that Abdula was always dabbling with the occult, it started with Voodoo and eventually led to a downward spiral. Abdula talked with a nameless spirit years ago (how Abdula contacted this spirit is unknown to the PCs). This spirit offered Abdula knowledge, and in turn Abdula would tell the Spirit about his world.

Soon a gatekeeper was sent to Abdula, and a Door to other worlds was open to the back of his bar. It took alot of effort since Earth's pattern works with Science, so its hard to get something like this done, but it gets done. Abdula had to adhere to Planar Laws.

Unfortunate for him he didn't, and he brought *something* back with him that he shouldn't have during one of his journeys to the outer planes. Something that killed the PCs friend.

For all the PCs know they think the bartender just dropped lethal doses of LSD and they are just hallucinating. Either way they are on a mission.

In short, the Planes are a completely different cosmology with different laws and physics (duh!). Earth was shut off from the planes looong long ago and was never re-visited until now. Since Earth has gone in the ways of Science it is now a completely different pattern at work, so a trade route hasn't really been established. The PCs will learn few of the Many Planar laws from a defect "Inevitable" they will soon meet. And one of the Laws is that upon establishing a doorway to a new Plane/World representatives from Mechanus are suppose to meet with the leaders of that Plane/World. Therefore some other unknown entity is at work.

And with the bloodwars going on again, who knows who contacted Abdula.

BTW Dreamscapes run alllll through the cosmology. Plane's/World's like Earth have dreamscapes too, but Humans aren't mentally capable (unless aided with other forms of stimuli) to navigate them or interact with them correctly, so most dreams end up being lucid, or vivid, and easily forgotten. Of course if Earth becomes part of the Grand Cosmology again, they can start working magic again.

The PC's will have a HUGE problem to deal with. I think I got most of the Plot covered, if there is any other questions just ask. I'm leaving alot of it out. I got about 40+ pages of notes for the campaign world alone here.