PC's From Earth!

[Oni]

The thread regarding how the Forgotten Realms got it's name and it's connections earth inspired this.


How many of you out there have run or participated in games where the Player Characters were from modern day earth (or heck not even modern day)? What sort of plot lines were used? How did the game go over? How did the PC's learn the skills necessary to survive? What sorts of worlds did you transport them to? et c.

So lets hear your war stories on this subject, and if you don't have any why not just pipe up with your opinion of what this sort of game would be like, or how you would run it, or just about anything more or less related to the subject at hand. (Can you tell I'm looking for something to entertain me?)

 

[Angelsboi]

Ive done it. i had this campaign all worked up right? It was going to involve Tiamat and another BBEG.

Well it all starts with them going to an ammusement park, right? And then things go awry and they land in this other realm. The guy playing the barbarian got tackled by this baby unicorn (hes really sucky but his older sister was playing and, hey, i needed a rogue ok?). So then the guy whose ALWAYS hogging the spotlight, Hank, spots the thing chasing the baby unicorn. It was the big dragon Tiamat. Then their mysterious benefactor shows up and gives them each a special weapon and they drive it off ...



WHAT!!??

OH!!! You meant *me* personally. Nope, sorry.

 

[Oni]

LOL, I was expecting that, just not in the first response. However I am serious, I would really like to know all of your thoughts on the subject. I think while the idea might be a little cliched, it certainly has potential.

 

[tsadkiel]

You're not the only one.

http://www.second-world-simulations.com

 

[Angelsboi]

well, im running Ravenloft. I was thinking maybe of having the mists claim them and deposit them on our world (the characters) during the Jack the Ripper Time Period.

"You awake on the cold, damp cobblestone street, lined with gaslit lamps. Something shiny lies to your left. You notice it s a bloody scalpel. Whistles and the sound of feet beating the cobblestone can be heard."

Then have them framed for the murders and they have to race against Scottland Yard to find the real killer just in time for the Mists to come and claim them again ...

Like i said, im working on it ...

 

[Wikidogre]

well, i had been tossing around the idea of human astronaughts who are testing jump drives for the first time. after the jump they found themselves entering the atmosphere of what they thought was earth. well as they crash, they find that they are far from home, armed with pistols, and advanced tech, they are found out, and become hunted by thay. but then as i was writing the camp background, i got an emial about a game called dragonstar, and well.....bye bye human astronaughts

 

[Fade]

I picked up a character from someone who'd left that was similar to that - it was a norse-mythology themed world, and the character was a soldier who'd died in Vietnam and who's soul had been transported here to help the quest. The campaign ended before I got to it again, probably fortunately since I realised that just off the top of my head I know how to make a variety of interesting chemical compounds (not just gunpowder) from stuff found in a typical D&D world, and a soldier would probably know even more. Not to mention things like combined arms.

 

[Jamdin]

My first DM had the players transported to another realm. He never really revealed "how" or "why" we went to the other world but we just "woke up" there. Eventually, we became heroes, legends, demi-gods & then gods.

In my poems devoted to those adventures, I used different methods for each character. The bard went to the other realm via dreams, the ranger went via doorway portal after a long stairway & the warrior arrived by falling into a black pond. In all three cases, strange music was heard.

We made the characters based on what knowledge & skills we had the time. Then we had to try to survive in the other world.

The DM still has his notes but he has never shared any of all of his plans with us. He has moved & we lost all contact with him (well, maybe I hear from him once a year).

 

[Dragongirl]

John Norman's Gor series is a similar idea. There is an earthlike planet on the exact opposite position from Earth around the Sun. On this planet there is a high tech alien species that has stolen people from earth to populate this planet over time. The world itself it no high tech, crossbows being about the highest it gets (enforced by the aliens). It is not a magical world, but it has the same kind of feel as many D&D worlds.

 

[WayneLigon]

... There is an earthlike planet on the exact opposite position from Earth around the Sun.

Hmmm. How about a planet that is the almost exact opposite of Earth in some critical ways. 76% land, for instance. They've always had a technological culture, with inventors held as public heroes. But magic has always existed, though it's been the province of a small group of people that really haven't changed the world much. They've only have access to, say, 0-level spells. Enough to say 'hey, I can do magic' but not much else. Now, for the last hundred years or so, Magic has been on the upswing. A dramatic upswing. It's replaced most of the machines, and kids today can't really imagine what it must have been like to plod along the ground in a wheeled steam vehicle when they can just cast Fly . As technology goes 'up' here, it goes 'down', there.