so here's my problem.....

[ForceUser]

You might consider Planescape or Beyond Countless Doorways by Malhavoc Press. Planar campaigns are essentially infinite.

 

[Stormborn]

i apologize for the offense.

ive tried putting more of the horror element in (particularly cthulhu mythos material) and i took the sanity monitoring system from call of cthulhu and incorporated it. my world is huge now and since its a ringed planet like saturn i even turned the outermost ring into a world like HALO. im just wondering about new ideas for spatial constructs or extra terrestrial races (i already used the Fraal from alternity) and perhaps a broader scope without incorprating tooo much sci fi. id like to hold to fantasy structure of the game.

i didnt mean to be so vague. thanks for pointing that out to me.

Oh, no offense taken- just a differnce of opinion. They are allowed around here.

Hmmm...given what you say about sanity and what you want how about this:

Small cults begin to appear in major cities around the world. The cult promises to help the unfortunate "ascend" beyond the bounds of worldly cares. Perhaps drawing in artists and muscians through their dreams. And slowly small numbers of each group are, in a full ceremony they simply disappear. Meanwhile the ones who are not disappearing are drawing their holy symbols, strange spiral glyphs, as grafitti everywhere and hanging little banners and odd collections of metal and glass beads in public places. An nuisance that most of the cities can't be bothered to police.

What's really going on: The founders of the cult are emissaries of an extradiminsional god/city. The ascended cult members are being turned into cannon fodder like soldiers or being used a fuel for some terrible machine that will draw the god-city into the material realm where it will supplant a material city. Thats what all the graffiti and baubles are for, they are spell components for a giant summoning spell.

Your PCs can combat the cult in whatever city they are likely to be in or most fond of, but the cult is wide spread and can't be stopped everywhere. Somewhere they are going to succeed and bring they god-city through. Then begins the invasion.

The god-city sends outs armies, supported by hideous lovecraftian beast-generals, and slowly transforms the surrounding land into a twisted combination of the material world and the far realm. Settlments are given the simple choice of fighting back and dying or being transformed into more soldiers.

The PCs can then deal with the invasion, and somewhere along the way one of the gods of your world - perhaps an evil one - will come to them in a vision and tell them what they have to do to unsummon the god-city. Que world spanning quest- one where they cannot be sure if they have compromised with evil to save the world, or are beignused as pawns in some greater divine game.

That should work for a good long while.

 

[BroccoliRage]

perfect. is all that original? if so, kick ass. if not, still kick ass.
oh, i also wanted to break away from the old school model of the outer planes. some of them are redundant or stupid. is the 3e manual of the planes a worthwhile purchase? im looking for books to order ive bought out the comic store (they had mostly hackmaster anyway).

 

[Arrellion]

Have you checked out the Wizards website? They have some interesting articles and ideas listed there.

On another note, the changes from earlier editions to 3rd are not as bad as you may think.
Did you ever see the PDF of the conversion booklet? I can send you a zipped copy if you are interested. It is about 3 MB.

When I have more time maybe I will throw some ideas your way.

E-mail if interested is arrellion@earthlink.net

Later,

Arrel

 

[BroccoliRage]

send away. email is BroccoliRage@yahoo.com put all the ideas you like here, maybe someone else will find it useful too. the idea that was just posted is definitely getting used.

 

[Mark Hope]

I would definitely check out the Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set and the Player's Guide to the WIlderlands. In addition to being excellent products that you can pull apart and insert piecemeal into your setting (or use as-is, if you wish), they also feature some of the sf overtones that you have mentioned without it being too obtrusive. Enough material there to keep you going for years.

I'd also second the recommendation for Beyond Countless Doorways from Malhavoc - another great product with plenty of ideas that you can pull apart and insert into your own setting. It also completely abandons the old model of the planes in favour of something much more evocative. Manual of the Planes, while mainly using the old model, also provides some ideas and approaches for taking a different approach to the planes.

You'll probably find something of use or inspiration in Eberron - it has so many elements from so many other settings and genres crammed in there that it's hard to open the book and not find something that you can use or steal. The warforged are a real hoot, and it's another setting that uses an non-standard approach to the planes - its system of planar interations and relationships is very cool.

And seeing that you are also a Dark Sun fan, I would be remiss if I didn't plug athas.org, the 3e Dark Sun site. Check out the link in my sig ...

 

[Stormborn]

perfect. is all that original? if so, kick ass. if not, still kick ass.
oh, i also wanted to break away from the old school model of the outer planes. some of them are redundant or stupid. is the 3e manual of the planes a worthwhile purchase? im looking for books to order ive bought out the comic store (they had mostly hackmaster anyway).

Mostly original, cobbled from pieces here and there. Its something I have thought about building a campaign around. As far as planar stuff goes: this is where I think "winging it" works. Do any of the PCs have a reason to know how the planes work? Do any prominent NPCs that they might run into know how the planes work? If no, then why do you have to have a well thought out model of how they work? Theoretical physics involving the nature of space and time is something that only the brightest in the real world have any clue about, no reason to saddle the average PC with that kind of knowledge. Just say that there is the Material Realm (and perhaps as functions of it the elemental and spirit realms) or possibly realms and then there is the Realm of Madness where the god-city originates, which sort of lies above and between them. This is a very Cthuloid kindof scenario, mortal creatures shouldn't even know that other planes exist before all this happens, much less be able to grasp how the planes work.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

colonel, huh? army? navy here.

Just a screen name. Gary Gygax goes by Col_Pladoh around here, by the way.

By the way, the 3e Manual of the Planes is one of my favorite D&D books. It gives tons of ideas for customizing one's campaign world, especially if one looks past the concrete examples of planes given and considers the implications of what is there. That is, one could apply the guidelines for an evil-dominant plane to areas on one's campaign world, creating areas or regions in the campaign world where the land itself actually helps the bad guys and hinders the good guys. And this is only one aspect that is detailed in the book. I think it's worth a look.

Oh yeah, here's another "take a look" recommendation for "Beyond Countless Doorways."

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

im just trying my damndest to keep it exciting.

while im replying, has there ever been a roleplaying game based on the redwall series? if so, id like to order it.

Does your computer, perchance, feature a SHIFT key? They are a remarkable tool for implementing orthodox capitalization.

 

[BroccoliRage]

BroccoliRage: changin' mah thread heah boss...
Morrus: change the thread there, broccoli....
Luke: takin it off heah boss...
Morrus: take it off there, Luke...

all in good fun, morrus. no offense intended.