Heroes from Earth

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I know that most recent fiction doesn't portray heroes from the ordinary world entering a fantastic one (other than a little known character called Harry Potter), but at one time, there were a great number of such books, and I've always been surprised that D&D never had any rules to give the stats (and skills) of a regular person from our world taken into D&D (as opposed to doing it 100 percent D20 Modern).

Dragon magazine has done it a few times over the decades, but are there any such rules for 3e?

Have you ever played a character that came from Earth? Or even yourself (shades of the original version of World of Darkness)?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Earth-The 'Loths Private Playground

This was about four to five years back and more background than continuing plot. But there was one player who wanted to try it, and we concocted a background that worked. Had him stumbling onto the one single entrance of the Infinite Staircase on earth and ending up in the planes.

The deal with Earth was that it was a private project of a certain group of 'loths. From way back they'd manipulated things to slowly cut it off from the divine. Then once they had it completely isolated from the other planes, it became a sort of exclusive retreat. With 'loths that were part of the group using it as part experiment in corruption, part vacation. Setting their hooks in and causing horror, anguish, atrocity, loss of faith, apathy, the whole nine yards. Anything really bad in history you can think of they originated and spent a long time laughing as the pitiful humans of that little place fell right in line.

But that's just background for how I handled earth. The player was handled fairly normally. Since his characters background was that he was a soldier who stumbled through the doorway by accident we worked up a variant fighter class that was somewhere between fighter and ranger without the "nature boy" flavor. He got free proficiency in firearms given the background. I was using a homebrewed weapons group system since this was before UA, and he got proficiency in spears and polearms(a rifle with fixed bayonet is basically a polearm), daggers, shortswords, and clubs and maces. Patched together an extra skill for improvising things flammable or destructive and identifying how best to destroy objects.

 

[Hypersmurf]

... but at one time, there were a great number of such books...

I think the phrase you're looking for is "too many"

-Hyp.

 

[Kaodi]

Well...

If I recall correctly, you can be from Earth in Forgotten Realms, no problems, and um... I think you just use the normal rules. There isn't really a need for conversion rules... I think you'd probably just want to limit skills and feats to ones that would translate from the real word. So, you could have knowledge (architecture) maybe, and knowledge (nature), and other real world knowledge skills just wouldn't apply. Feat wise, you'd have to cut out any related to supernatural effects, but ones like iron will, alterness, improved initiative, combat expertise, combat reflexes, etc, would all work just fine.

 

[Abe.ebA]

I think the phrase you're looking for is "too many"

-Hyp.

Or, to find the happy medium: There were a number that didn't suck.

Back to the topic: Back in 2e I played an earthling for...approximately 7 years. He was a Scot whose great, great-grandfather was a planewalker who'd off'd the queen of the Tanar'ri (or Tanari'i, or wherever you want to aprostriphize it) and retired to Earth to avoid the wrath of her henchmen. William (my PC) started at 1st level with a non-magical sword he'd inherited from his ancestor. Played him up through 15th and then dual classed over to mage. Played him up to 10th as a mage, then in one brief adventure as a godling (using converted rules from the old 1e immortals book) and have since retired him. By the end the sword he'd started with was a major artifact and his spellbook was bound in the leather from the boots he walked off of Earth with (the DM ruled that being made of Earth-origin material made the boots (and thereby the spellbook) proof against most magical effects). Stats-wise, he was a human fighter with fairly mediocre ability scores. We used the dwarf racial adjustments to model a Scottsman from the 1500s or so and gave him the dwarven resistence to poisons but none of the other dwarf bonuses. He was also 5'1".

In 3e I'd probably do largely the same if they were a middle-ages human (dwarf bonuses, some resistance to poisons) since people back then had to be pretty tough. No magic around to help clean things up or make working less back-breakingly difficult. If it were a modern-age human I'd probably give them the elven racial adjustments. Leave the bonus feat and skills in place. Don't think I've ever seen any published rules for it. People would probably be tempted to do it by ethnicity or by region and then everyone would get up in arms about racism or nationalism or something.

 

[Abe.ebA]

So, you could have knowledge (architecture) maybe, and knowledge (nature), and other real world knowledge skills just wouldn't apply.

I'd say no to knowledge(nature) if the PC was supposed to be fresh from Earth. Our ecosystem is probably nothing like the one in any d&d world and knowledge(nature) lets you identify monsters (or at least it has in all the 3e games I've played ) which wouldn't be the case for someone trained in outdoorsy stuff on Earth. I might let them take a special knowledge(mythology) that'd give them a slightly worse chance of identifying monsters but wouldn't help at all for identifying common d&d world plants and such. Definitely no knowledge(dungeoneering) or knowledge(religion) and I'd let them take knowledge(arcana) but give them a 75% chance of getting any particular question completely wrong, regardless of whether they hit the DC or not (decreasing 25% for every additional rank they buy after leaving Earth, maybe).
I also wouldn't allow them to play any class that gives them access to divine casting immediately after arriving from Earth, but arcane casting I'd allow provided they had a good backstory (Earth arcanist who stumbled across a tome of Real magic that led them through the gate or whatever). I think 99% of the books previously mentioned involved the Earthling being able to cast spells once he reached a fantasy world, so not allowing that would be kind of odd. Maybe force all Earthlings who somehow reach d&d worlds to take a level of sorcerer to reflect the fact that everyone who does is miraculously a spellcaster ;P

 

[Iku Rex]

I was planning a campaign like that once. (Never got started.) The PCs were to be the result of a magical cloning experiment intended to duplicate great and powerful heroes (level 10) as a last ditch effort to win a war. The clones were created to have all the skill and knowledge of their progenitors, yet without any potentially "inefficient" personality quirks.

The clones are brought to life by imbuing them with souls dragged from an alien realm. Earth. Before the process is completed and the PC's minds wiped clean, enemy troops burst into the lab. Equipment is smashed and the supervising magicians are killed. The campaign starts as the confused PCs/players awaken in opening clone-pods, new skills and combat instincts flooding their minds as they become aware of the carnage in front of them and heavily armed strangers advancing menacingly...

(Today I'd probably make them advanced warforged prototypes in the Eberron campaign setting, possibly discovered when a curious adventuerer pushes a button in an ancient lab in Xen'Drik.)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I'd say no to knowledge(nature) if the PC was supposed to be fresh from Earth. Our ecosystem is probably nothing like the one in any d&d world and knowledge(nature) lets you identify monsters (or at least it has in all the 3e games I've played ) which wouldn't be the case for someone trained in outdoorsy stuff on Earth. I might let them take a special knowledge(mythology) that'd give them a slightly worse chance of identifying monsters but wouldn't help at all for identifying common d&d world plants and such. Definitely no knowledge(dungeoneering) or knowledge(religion) and I'd let them take knowledge(arcana) but give them a 75% chance of getting any particular question completely wrong, regardless of whether they hit the DC or not (decreasing 25% for every additional rank they buy after leaving Earth, maybe).
I also wouldn't allow them to play any class that gives them access to divine casting immediately after arriving from Earth, but arcane casting I'd allow provided they had a good backstory (Earth arcanist who stumbled across a tome of Real magic that led them through the gate or whatever). I think 99% of the books previously mentioned involved the Earthling being able to cast spells once he reached a fantasy world, so not allowing that would be kind of odd. Maybe force all Earthlings who somehow reach d&d worlds to take a level of sorcerer to reflect the fact that everyone who does is miraculously a spellcaster ;P

I don't see how you could do Knowledge skills at all. "Look, what's that monster? We've never seen one like it before!" "Oh, that's a triceratops, a plant eating dinosaur. Just leave it alone." And what if the PC is a... D&D player!?

 

[Iku Rex]

And what if the PC is a... D&D player!?

It doesn't have to be a major problem. You'd have to trust the players to keep game mechanical knowledge (not to be used IC, except as a joke) apart from world-knowledge (can be used freely). Sometimes the line is hard to draw, but that can't be helped.