Idea: Between ice and fire

[Merkuri]

Does this sound like a good adventure idea? It's something that I've been tossing around my head for a while, and all I have is this sketch of the idea. I think it would be fun to play, and I wanted to see if others agreed.

The characters are adventuring in a desert landscape. During the day they pass ruins and other ancient things. One night they go to sleep (if they put up a scout, the scout succumbs to magical slumber) and they wake up in a world of ice. Everything is covered in snow, and it's very cold. Any heat-specific gear they have (including magical items that cause or protect from fire damage) has been magically changed to the equivalent cold gear so they are not at a disadvantage if they prepared for hot weather and fire-based enemies. The ruins they passed the day before are new. Eventually it becomes clear to the party that they have traveled several hundred or thousand years into the past when the region was icy cold. Each night they go to sleep they wake up in the other world (their gear changed appropriately), going between times of fire and ice.

I haven't decided exactly what they need to do in this scenario, but probably something that involves either changing the past or retrieving an item that was lost before the realm became the desert it is in the present. The magical effect that sends them back and forth through time is somehow only limited to them, and only happens in a certain area, though the area is large. It would probably be the most fun if the party enters this area, not sure how they're going to accomplish their goal, but knowing they have to start here, then they start switching back and forth unexplainably and eventually they realize they can use this to accomplish what they set out to do. If the players like the idea, they can re-enter the area to go through more adventures.

The only flaw I can see in making this fun would be if someone in the party doesn't need to sleep, like elves or warforged. Perhaps they could experience some unexplained time loss, and not know how they spent that 8 hours that the party slept. They couldn't say how the landscape changed.

So does this sound like an aventure that would be fun to play? Would it be too annoying to go back and forth in time each night?

 

[Dykstrav]

Sounds like fun to me. The idea of switching between the regular world and an "other world" has some very creepy Lovecraftian/Silent Hill tones to it.

Perhaps the area once hosted a bloody, ancient god that reveled in alien depravity. Think something with lots of tentacles. This evil thing is slowly dying in the ice age, and has extended its consciousness across time itself in its death throes to touch the minds of future generations. If it can convince them to spread its worship in other times and places, then perhaps it can survive the ice age after all...

Think how crazy/scary it would be to be making a trip toward the temple of an evil Cthulhu-type creature in both a frozen world and a desert world. Will the thing survive their attack in the past? Has it contacted others who are also seeking the temple? That'd make my skin crawl as a player.

 

[jgbrowning]

We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.

Sorry, just had to.....

joe b.

 

[Felix]

It worked wonders in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64.

Play that game and take notes on how they introduce the time-shifting, how changes in the past affect the future, and work out what the PCs need to do exactly, but allow them latitude to solve the problem the way they want to so they don't feel like they're railroaded.

Alternatively, you could take notes from Final Fantasy VIII, where you shift between two parties adventuring at different times.

Either way, I'd have the time-shifting mechanism PC controlled instead of every night.

 

[Merkuri]

Either way, I'd have the time-shifting mechanism PC controlled instead of every night.

I dunno, I feel like having them shift every time they sleep gives them more of a feel of oh-my-god-what's-happening-to-us, at least in the beginning. I was thinking that they could learn to control it by their own sleeping patterns. If they really needed to accomplish something during one timeline quickly then they would have to fight sleeping, because as soon as they sleep they shift to the other timeline. I was pondering coming up with rules for characters falling asleep, like after a certain time of night they had to make a will save every couple hours. If they fail, they fall asleep. The DC would depend on what they were doing (fighting would have a very easy to beat DC, but riding a walking horse would have a harder DC), and the more PCs who were already asleep the harder it would be to stay awake. I suppose at one point letting them find a device to control this time shifting would make things easier for the PCs, but it also takes some of the scariness and urgency out of it.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

The only flaw I can see in making this fun would be if someone in the party doesn't need to sleep, like elves or warforged. Perhaps they could experience some unexplained time loss, and not know how they spent that 8 hours that the party slept. They couldn't say how the landscape changed.

I'd re-think the Whole "Whenever you Sleep" Idea.

In order for your idea to work it has to become "You ALL WILL SLEEP NOW". & can quickly turn into the Railroad Express Special.

Also, there are a lot of ways for at least one PC to be up at all times & forcing that PC to fall Asleep EVERY SINGLE TIME, will get darn annoying for your players.

I'd recommend making the Switch happen at irregular times.

The first time, they should find a Cave or some other structure with no outside views. Then, in the morning, you can do the "Welcome to the Ice Age" Theme.

Then, randomly choose when to switch from 1 to the other. Perhaps they go through an Arch of Rock & suddenly find themselves in the Other World.

The random skipping will remove your need to do DM Fiat every 24 hours.

 

[Merkuri]

See my post right above yours. Once the PCs learn what's happening they can try to force themselves to stay awake into the night, but it'll be hard, and the more PCs that sucumb to sleep the harder it'll be to stay awake. There's a magical something (the same something that causes them to go back and forth) that is causing them to get very sleepy once it's dark.

Though I can see the benefit of making the changes happen randomly, I kinda like the idea of waking up in a different world each morning.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Consider the possibility that they'll start sleeping in short, overlapping shifts in order to prevent the switch. If everything they do to prevent it doesn't work, don't be surprised if they just up and leave the area in pure frustration. A railroad is a railroad, no matter how cool you think it is. In fact, since you obviously think it's too cool to allow the players any real way to affect it... choo choo!

 

[Maester Luwin]

I like this idea. Maybe the key to this is there are 6-8 crystals. Half are found on each side. Maybe some powerful wizard/ God uses the weather to control the poeple on this different world/time. He/It has survived over the many years. Yet if the characters can find the crystals & return them back to their proper time/ place(perhaps having to figure out a certian configuration) the weather cahnges back to normal & the world is saved.

Maybe the heroes have a patron/ good God who eventually helps them learn how to control the crystals themseles which allows them to pass from one world/ time to the next.

Another ting you can do is make magic different in each world or time.

Just some suggestions. Thanks for a nice concept. Maester Luwin

 

[Merkuri]

Consider the possibility that they'll start sleeping in short, overlapping shifts in order to prevent the switch.

That's fine. The awake PCs will have a harder time staying awake because their fellows are sleeping, but if they can power through it then nothing else will stop them.

Does this really sound like that much of a railroad, more than the switches happening randomly no matter what the PCs do? If the switches happen randomly then the PCs have absolutely no control over it at all. I actually like the idea of PCs trying their hardest to stay awake (and possibly suffering fatigue penalties) to try and stop the change from happening. It gives it a more horror feel... "We can't go to sleep! Wake up Jim! Wake up!"