Humans as an invasionary force

[DMH]

Somewhere there in the multiverse there is an alien race that desires control over all others. It is an ancient species that has lost more battles than can be counted until it found a solution to most of its problems- humanity. The aliens seed worlds where humans can survive and watch. After humans spread across the globe and wipe out all dangerous forms of life (and unlife) off the planet, the aliens come in, use something along the lines of The Screwfly Solution to remove the remaining humans from their new planet.

The PCs are great heros on their homeworld and have finally defeated the last of the yuan-ti/drow resistance to human dominance. Then everything goes wrong and humans suddenly have mass insanity and kill each other in droves. Will they, and the few others not affected, be able to repel the invaders? Or should they abandon the planet and try to help others?

Though it is sci-fi in feel, I think using ethergaunts or something similar can making it as fantastic as the DM desires.

 

[thundershot]

"If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing and if we're very very lucky, they'll do it in that order." - Zoe from Firefly

Reavers!

 

[Huw]

Wasn't this the plot of a Farscape episode?

Spoiler:

Spoiler

Bone to be Wild. Aliens drop of a race of carnivorous plants to sterilise the planet of animal life. The plants then die off - or are meant to.

 

[DMH]

Yes. Humans (we) are an invasive species- why not use the concept in a game that features them?

 

[Mr. Draco]

Sounds cool! I'd go with it.

 

[DMH]

I may or may not run it, but for a sci-fi setting, it would be very creepy to discover a section of space filled with worlds covered in ruined human cities. And none of them ever made it past PL 5.

 

[Chimera]

Consider if a 'wormhole' or gateway were to have opened between part of this world at (pick any time in history, any place in the world) and an as-yet Humanless D&D world.

To the humans of this world, at least from most of our history and most of our cultures, the races of the D&D world would be nothing more than monsters to be exploited, hunted or driven off.

Imagine the Crusade if such a gate had been found in medieval Europe.

"Riches untold. Gold, Silver and Gems undreamed of. Rich lands, ripe for plunder. Comely races to be enslaved. Terrible demons to be put to the sword. A young man could make his name, could make his fortune in such a place."

 

[genshou]

Awesome.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I just feel reminded of an idea about the German RPG "Das Schwarze Auge"/"Dark Eye" I had.

The main continent of the story (Aventurien, IIRC) was settled by humans several centuries ago. The original inhabitants were Orc, who today are just a bunch of primitives threatening the human civilisation from time to time (and wandering adventurers, for sure).

It might have been interesting to run a game set in the time of the colonisation of this continent. INvasion doesn't have to be on another planet, a continent might suffice.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I started a campaign once in which humans were the "evil" race, but never got very far into it before the group broke up.

The basic premise was that the demihuman races, esp. the elves, were similar to the American Indians. They were the only inhabitants of the continent originally. Humans came to the new continent from another continent, colonized it, and then started pushing the demihumans to the west. The humans used orcs and hobgoblins as shock troops in their armies.

When the campaign started, the humans had pushed most of the demihumans as far west as the campaign-world's equivalent of the Mississippi River. The elves had a nomadic, horse-based culture much like the Plains Indians. The dwarves and gnomes inhabited the Rockie Mountains. The halflings were traders accepted by all the races, and could travel freely in all lands; they acted as sort of go-betweens or middle men in trade between the demihumans and the humans.