Earth Town Meets D&D

[Aholibamah]

Snapdragyn: Wow, those are really good. A few things you've made me consider:

1. Police officers I think should be 1st-2nd on average as warriors, with perhaps an armed response team with an average of 3rd.

2. I might have a reeanactment group in the city--maybe Civil War or something--that has bayonets, swords, that kind of thing. Maybe a few medieval/renaissance reenactors instead or as well.

3. The diffrerent POV of what is happening is brilliant--of course that makes a lot of sense and adds an interesting complication, since it will affect how the surviving leadership makes any decisions.

 

[jmucchiello]

Are the PCs townies or are the natives of the fantasy world? Having an adventure group stumble onto this could be surreal.

Remember, if you have a telephone switch in the town (not unlikely), cell phones should work as long as the switch's backup power supply lasts.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Let them have working guns, but just don't let it be created again (maybe gunpowder doesn't function when combined together in the new world, except for the stuff that was brought over).

It's the ultimate limited resource and will add tension from the game, rather than reducing it. Yeah, they can drop the orc bandits with a bullet. But they've heard bigger and scarier stuff in the mountains and someone said they saw something BIG with bat wings fly across the moon. Do you really want to waste bullets on bandits, whatever they might look like?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Ok, here's the thing about gunpowder: if it doesn't work, neither does fire! So unless the local gods have already made up thier minds to prevent gunpowder from working, it will. If this is a rural hunting town there will be enough black powder buffs who will know how to make the stuff. And maybe even the guns too.

Sorcerers? What spells will they know? Even if they are RPGers they won't know any actual spells. (Ok, how do you cast Magic Missile? Oops, that isn't mentioned anywhere.) Being able to use magic and knowing magic spells are two entirely different things. Wild magic, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother ball game.

 

[Aholibamah]

I'm thinking I will allow guns. I'm thinking of making it an English or Welsh town anyway so it's not going to be that big a deal--in fact I'm also thinking of those old modules like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Temple of the Frog, City of the Gods--I was looking at them recently (my gaming store sells out of date materials sometimes).

And yeah, the combustion thing was bugging me. It doesn't mean fire wouldn't work, but it would mean that chemistry is somehow off...and I don't really want to go there actually.

Ed_Lapgrade: Wild magic might be even better. Good point.

Whizbang-Dustyboots: Notice my English/Welsh idea--I think yes that bullets/ammo will be a limited resource. It won't be a military base or anything, that's for sure.

jmuchiello: I am going to have it be my current pcs. They actually did have a sojourn into the other world before as part of a quest, and I was really happy with how they rp'd it--partly no modesty aside due to my DMing it in an enigmatic way to make the technology and customs mysterious.

thanks for the telephone idea, that's a good one.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ok, here's the thing about gunpowder: if it doesn't work, neither does fire!

I'm reasonably certain that a world with dragons in it doesn't abide by the same rules of physics.

 

[WayneLigon]

And yeah, the combustion thing was bugging me. It doesn't mean fire wouldn't work, but it would mean that chemistry is somehow off...and I don't really want to go there actually.

You can always go with whatever it is that happens in Dies the Fire: suddenly, chemical reactions over a certain speed simply don't work anymore. At first, it seems like a change in physics, but they also discover that steam engines won't work past a certain point as well. I haven't gone very far into the series, so I don't know the actual cause, yet

I'd say that keeping guns would be a good idea. This again is where the character and nature of your town is of prime importance. You spirit away a bunch of yuppie tourists and you can almost guarentee that the locals will never invent firearms. You have some black-powder recreationists and you'll have guns in the setting inside of a couple years. They'll probably have to re-make the same mistakes that Earth people did, which means in the normal span of a campaign, the impact will be negligable.

 

[Ambrus]

Rather than having a working cell-phone microwave transmitter/receiver tower in town, why not fall back on a simpler and more reliable form of communication: CB radio. Naturally the police and emergency services people would likely have a fair number of these units on hand to coordinate their efforts, at least until the batteries run out. A handful of civilians can likewise borrow their children's toy walkie talkies to stay in the loop.

Also, don't overlook the fact that this town contains a finite amount of precious resources, possibly unique artifacts in the campaign setting. Smart people will seek to acquire and/or control those resources in a bid to survive and prosper. It's inevitable that looting will follow the initial crisis. Some callous and greedy opportunists will likely begin raiding the stores and shops that crossed over along with the town or simply seize and fortify them as permanent bases:

• Hardware stores are akin to makeshift armories full of potential weapons.
• Service stations have huge reserves of precious refined gasoline and parts needed to operate those precious generators and motor vehicles that crossed over.
• Grocery and corner stores contain all of the towns readily available food supplies and bottled water.
• Drugstores have all of the rare and precious drugs as well as a rack-full of ultra-rare batteries.
• The jewelry store has pounds and pounds of silver, gold and gems sitting on its shelves.

Those who survive the initial undead crisis and who hold these precious resources will emerge as the town's de-facto rulers later on.

 

[haakon1]

I was thinking the idea of spontaneous "character class" generation makes sense. In particular the transformations I'd see in an English/Welsh town:
-- Priest/minister/imam becoming a cleric. This is interesting stuff, I think. IMC, I'd allow priest and ministers to gain spells from St. Cuthbert, as my backstory has him sent by God (the real one) to the D&D universe for reasons know only to . . . you get the idea.
-- Sorcerers. These people should probably all be of the same bloodline.
-- Paladins. Perhaps the local cop.

As for the "normal" classes, I think almost everyone in a 20th century town is an expert, not a commoner, due to greater education and economic specialization. Even the cops should be experts, not warriors, if you think about it from a skills perspective. Warriors might be street thugs or drunks. Aristocrats should also be quite rare, but possible.

The Stargate d20 can help with thinking about 20th century technology (including battery life issues), skills, and classes. For crossover to my campaign, I believe the primary classes I used were Expert (Scientist), Rogue (works in any setting), and a variant on Ranger for modern soldiers, adding some modern skills (first-aid, electronics) and modern weapon feats, but dropping magic and preferred enemy rules.

As for reactions, if it's a small town, I think most people will try to group together and help out, and look for a strong leader. A bunker mentality is likely to prevail.

Another idea I had is what if there's a group of gamers in town? You could get funky with this and rule that the warped reality has caused the players to become their characters, and the DM to just disappear, perhaps returning as a boss monster, or as the DM in the D&D cartoon.

 

[Aholibamah]

Ambrus: The phone idea is cool, thanks for that. I like the idea of using shortwaves or walkie talkies, CB and that kinda thing. Your point about the resources is well taken--also need to decide what might be looted or not, that kind of thing.

haakon1: Even if I never have new pcs join via the town some of your ideas sound fun. It could always be a source of interesting cohorts.

As for your ideas on classes:
1. Cops: I think you have a good point, though I would still make for instance Armed Response Teams and suchlike warriors instead of experts.
2. Regular citizens: experts makes sense--the average person in the 20th/21st century tends to fit the bill for this. I'll have to think of applicable skills and such--I may consult D20 Modern for that.
3. The gamer idea...I dunnno, part of me says it's fun, part of me says it's too tongue in cheek...