Sailors on the River of Worlds- Update

[Psion]

Are you going to be using the Far Realm from WoTC in any way? Perhaps an Alienists or aspiring one could help lead the party into all sorts of trouble. Reaper has a new mini that looks like a miniature Cthulhu that could come in handy for those things. Any use of d20 Call of Cthulhu? Not quite Chaos, but they do have all sorts of 'weird' science going on.

I won't be directly riffing off of CoC, but I picture the realm that the Galchutt come from to be, in essence, the Far Realm, a sea of chaos and possibility which now remain as the dregs of the primordial seed from which the structured multiverse was created.

And the Galchutt want their building materials back.

 

[Soul]

Gith pirates seem like they could be a good choice for extra villians to help break things up. Also, it could be interesting to take a cue from spelljammer and bring in some neogi/umberhulks for extra fun. Also, for episodics references have you seen the Joss Whedon show Firefly? That could be a good inspiration for not only episodic scenerio ideas, but also just a sort of shwashbuckling type theme even though its more 'wild west' influenced.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In terms of the River itself, are you going to have it have multiple variants? For example, one time they're on the river, it actually links to the Blood Sea from the Scarred Lands.

Another time as they're going through, they see another boat going the opposite way, and it's them, but older and wiser, nearly concealed through the fog and mists.

Have you picked apart anything from Liber Mortis yet? One thing I was thinking for my multi-planar campaign, is ripping off the Sand Man and having a city of the dead who study death rites in all it's forms and using one of the templates from this book (or was it a PrC) to stat out some of the inhabitants. Maybe show where some heroes, gods, and vile villains have died and when they look around, note that there are empty tombs for beings that are past the gods... Then the Astral Stalkers show up and they have to beat it...

 

[Psion]

Gith pirates seem like they could be a good choice for extra villians to help break things up. Also, it could be interesting to take a cue from spelljammer and bring in some neogi/umberhulks for extra fun.

Heh... already partway there. I did kick the spelljammer cosmology to the curb, but I did take its wallet while it was down. I've renamed pirates of gith "Gith'hadra"; that name was originally slated for a new gith variant I was making years ago, but the idea of ship-borne Gith in a seafaring/worldhopping campaign just made TOO MUCH sense to pass up. It so happens I already worked them into my random NPC generator table I worked up for this game. Sample excerpts:

Planar Bleaker Githhadra Sorcerer/Jewel Mage
Planar Fated Githhadra Kineticist
Planar Githhadra Seer/Ranger/Slayer
Planar Planewright Githhadra Telepath/Sentinel/Planewright (that's an interesting combo I'd have trouble explaining)
Planar Transendant Order Githhadra Psychic Warrior/Rogue/Faction Class
Planar Bleaker Githhadra Nomad/Faction Class

Also, for episodics references have you seen the Joss Whedon show Firefly?

Some of my old players talked about it constantly, but I have never seen it.

 

[Psion]

In terms of the River itself, are you going to have it have multiple variants? For example, one time they're on the river, it actually links to the Blood Sea from the Scarred Lands.

Erm, not sure what you mean here. It sounds like I could do that with the River of Worlds as-is. The players tamper with a portal not knowing what is on the other side, and end up on a blood red sea. (It just so happens that Blood Sea was one of the books in my latest batch of Scarred-Lands-catchup orders). The players will also have an interesting time when they go through the portal to the acid seas of Ouno (from Beyond Countless Doorways)

Another time as they're going through, they see another boat going the opposite way, and it's them, but older and wiser, nearly concealed through the fog and mists.

Now that's something I hadn't contemplated, though it bears resemblance to a scenario I was considering running from En Route II

Have you picked apart anything from Liber Mortis yet?

I ordered it. It has yet to arrive. (I was waiting for a book to order it with on Amazon or Booksamillion to save shipping. Then it showed up on Overstock...)

 

[Nightfall]

Psion,

I think what Joe was getting at was/is the fact since the Blood Sea is kind of more "magical" than just something named "Blood Sea.", might be cool to have a small planar conjuctive point some where in the Blood Sea...possibly in the middle of a left over from the Blood Monsoon. (Typhoon perhaps?)

 

[Psion]

I think what Joe was getting at was/is the fact since the Blood Sea is kind of more "magical" than just something named "Blood Sea.", might be cool to have a small planar conjuctive point some where in the Blood Sea...possibly in the middle of a left over from the Blood Monsoon. (Typhoon perhaps?)

Heh... that's pretty much how all portals to the River of Worlds worked.

For example, I already named my "home" campaign world's portal "the Heart of Storms", and is purportedly a spot perpetually embroiled in storms.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So have you made any major NPC's yet?

Whose going to captain the ship? I still dig Micahel Moorcock's blind captain leading his boat. Great idea there.

Are the PC's all going to come from one prime, or are they going to be hailing from a multiplanar city like Sigil?

 

[Psion]

Whose going to captain the ship? I still dig Micahel Moorcock's blind captain leading his boat. Great idea there.

The current captain is a man by the name of Kirst Damenly, a minor son of a noble house with big dreams of bringing fortune back to his family.

Are the PC's all going to come from one prime, or are they going to be hailing from a multiplanar city like Sigil?

Currently, they are from my "classic" game world. I told them to make backups, and that I could be really flexible with the ideas for the backups. They don't know it's a planar game yet.

 

[shady]

One source that I didn't see mentioned was the old Fringeworthy RPG - the background was similar to Stargate ... a series of portals - some portals would move across time, some would move across space (to other star systems), some would go to alternate realities, some would go to other gateway complexes, and yet others would go to mini planes built by the ancient creators of the system. Only certain individuals were capable of traversing the gateways - ie the fringeworthy of the title.

Alot of deficiencies as a game, but a great framework and far more possibilities than the stargate idea. There was a set of tables for randomly generating new gateway destinations in each category.

Similar idea executed in (I think) Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt.