So how stupid is this campaign idea?

[Green Knight]

Ok, this is my idea.

Get six players. Have them write up 3rd-level D20 Modern characters. One Strong Hero, one Fast Hero, one Tough Hero, one Smart Hero, one Dedicated Hero, and one Charismatic Hero. They all have to be teenagers in high school. The only requirements are that the Strong Hero is possibly taking Boxing classes, and so should have the Increased Melee Damage Talents. The Fast Hero has to have some skills like Move Silently and Sleight of Hand, possibly garnered through Drama class. The Tough Hero has to be an athlete, with some skills in archery, since that's what he does. The Smart Hero has to take a lot of Craft skills, preferably Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing (he's a Renaissace Fair geek). The Dedicated Hero has to have some hand-to-hand Feats and acrobatic type skills (Balance, Jump, Tumble, etc), because this kid takes Martial Arts classes and is also a Gymnast in school. And the Charismatic Hero is a rich kid who has to have lots of Diplomacy and Ride (his dad has his own horses and stable and everything).

These six kids then go to an amusement park (either together or separately, although they all know each other from school), and get on an amusement ride called Dungeons & Dragons, which also happens to be a mystical portal, and they end up stranded in a strange world of sorcery and monsters. There they meet a Gnome Wizard who calls himself "Dungeon Master" and who helps them out, including giving them the necessary skills to survive in that world, and thus the six kids gain classes based on their personalities and skills (either Dungeon Master finds them trainers, or he imparts the knowledge through a spell). The Strong Hero gains a level of Barbarian. The Fast Hero gains a level of Rogue. The Tough Hero gains a level of Ranger (And must use his bonus Ranger Feats for Archery Feats, assuming that he doesn't have those specific Feats, already). The Smart Hero gains a level of Wizard. The Dedicated Hero gains a level of Monk (And must increase his/her ranks in Balance, Jump, Tumble, and so on). And the Charismatic Hero gains a level of Fighter (Only requirement being that he has to take Mounted Feats, and must take the Cavalier Prestige Class as soon as possible).

"Dungeon Master" then gives them each individual weapons which increase in power over time as the kids level up and imbue these weapons with XP (Like the Ancestral Relic Feat in Book of Exalted Deeds, or similar items in Oriental Adventures). Aside from these weapons, though, the kids have to select equipment as normal 1st-level characters (They've got their D20 Modern abilities to balance them out with other equivalent level characters, like their Defense Bonus and Action Points), and can also collect other magic items along the way. But the weapons they're given by Dungeon Master they must keep at all costs. During the course of their adventures, the kids will face two recurring villains. An Aspect of Tiamat (from the Miniatures Handbook), and a Tiefling Wizard who's taken to calling himself "Venger", who wants to take their special weapons from them, as they try to find a portal which'll take them home.

So what do you folks think? And yes, I HAVE been watching a lot of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, lately. It's held up pretty well over time, I'm glad to say. And the premise isn't half bad, although personally, I'd make the world they dropped into the Forgotten Realms, and the Dungeon Master would be Elminster in disguise, with Venger being his kid from who knows when.

 

[Soullessweare]

Uhm

I voted for the immensely stupid, beyond description option. Then I read the idea. Depends on the players really, I can see how it would be fun though.

Can't change my vote, can tell you this

 

[ironmani]

For real? All you'll end up doing is rehashing the old cartoon.

 

[yennico]

The idea sounds like the idea from a book, not a cartoon, which I wanted to read. In that book real-world persons are transfered into a fantasy world and must acomplish things to get back in to the real world.
I remember the old "Fez the Wizard"-books from Role Aids, in which a wizard who mastered time and dimension travel uses real world persons in adventures to help him to defeat a dragon.
Your approach of this idea sounds like: Real world kids are transfered in something like a video game.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

For real? All you'll end up doing is rehashing the old cartoon.

Why not, people keep trying to rehash the nostalgia for 1e/OD&D, why not do it for the cartoon?

 

[Insight]

I almost did this in one of my current groups. I was so tempted to do it that I went and bought a bunch of the OD&D mods. In the end, I decided it was too complicated and went with a 3.5 conversion of Keep on the Borderlands (see sig - shameless plug). Turned out pretty well so far.

 

[shilsen]

Way too scripted for me. You're essentially giving people characters to play and even deciding what their character progression will be, and while that's fine for a few sessions, it can be a serious pain over a long-term campaign.

I'd suggest retaining the "people from our world in a D&D setting" aspect and not trying to exactly copy the cartoon.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Ok, so yeah, it's been done. I've done it. (Wrote a movie about a group of LARPers being poofed away to fantasy land when one of them turned out to be an elven princess.) And yes, it's corny as can be. But if your group likes the idea of a nostalgic sort of light hearted game, then go for it. I think I might have fun in such a game if it was well run. So my suggestion is to run the premise by them and go from there. Also, consider that if you do go through with it, this should have a very light tone. Low lethality, throw in plenty of cliches, that sort of thing. Make it funny. Remember that the characters won't be as tough minded as your run of the mill adventurer. They've never killed anything to survive or seen giant centipedes chew up party members. This of course depends on how your players play them. But still, I think that it has the potential to be tremendous fun.

 

[iwatt]

Way too scripted for me. You're essentially giving people characters to play and even deciding what their character progression will be, and while that's fine for a few sessions, it can be a serious pain over a long-term campaign.

I'd suggest retaining the "people from our world in a D&D setting" aspect and not trying to exactly copy the cartoon.

I'd agree with this. I have no trouble if you have them start with a given "ability" hero which can't be the same for each. But you've even scripted their future paths (feats to take, Prestige Classes, etc..) Playing Pre-gens can be fun if you at least are given some control on their future development. Take away this and I don't see myself remaining interested past a 5-6 sessions unless I really click with the concept.

 

[DragonLancer]

Strangely, I'm thinking of doing something similar, based on the idea from a short British TV show from several years ago called "The Last Train"

In that show, a group of people travelling by train become stuck when the train derails, and a experimental cryonic gas escapes filling the carriage. The woman with that works for a Government agency that has been informed by the bods at NASA that an asteroid is headed for Earth. The cryonic gas was meant to store and protect the British government, but before she can get it to the secret site in Scotland the rock hits. Fifty years later they thaw into this new world.

The show was a survivalist type thing, over about 7 episodes.


I have been thinking of doing the same thing but the players create themselves as best they can, and I try and combine that with D&D. Something about the asteroid has allowed creatures to mutate into what we know from D&D (the players & characters will recognise as such). Still working out the finer details.