Stargate Thingy.

[Agamon]

Otherwise, every world they go to starts to look like British Columbia.

LOL!

 

[Acid_crash]

I was going to introduce Stargate stuff in my Arcana Evolved campaign.

I plan on having the characters find a hidden chamber with a portal-like structure in the middle off the room, but it will be in a octagon shape (gotta be different). It's standing straight up, with nothing apparently holding it up. On the gate are different symbols, gotta have the cryptic symbols.

On one wall is what appears to be a phrase in a forgotten language, so it will require someone with Decipher Script to unlock it. Once unlocked and they say the phrase, an obelisk will rise from the ground, with strange symbols on it. Symbols match symbols on gate. By touching a symbol, it lights up with a red glow, and the matching symbol glows on gate.

Once they touch seven symbols, the gate will shimmer a dark red.

And then the Strangers will walk through, and they aren't using magic.

 

[Sir Elton]

Man, Hunter Village really stinks of a "my ideal society" setup. Maybe that's cool with you, but I'd rather introduce some shades of gray. Maybe give them some social strife or economic problems, or maybe their definition of "perversion" is unreasonably strict or loose, or just hypocritical in its application. Or maybe--and this is pretty likely--their loose legal system is taken advantage of by criminals both foreign and domestic (think shady offshore tax shelters and money-laundering operations, or extradition policies that protect both political dissidents and war criminals).

Yep, my "Ideal Society." As for corruption, it does exist. The Illuminati is operating in this kingdom, its just that the freedom everyone enjoys just constantly frustrates them. Unfortunately, the Illuminati can't establish their kind of Laws, so they spread general corruption. They generally control the courts of the Kingdom by manipulating corrupt judges.

But I'm actually really interested in the alternate earth you're envisioning, here. Sounds like kind of a magical modern setup, and I'm wondering how it would work, and why you're bothering to use earth at all.

Earth is too easy, too strange, and too wonderful and not "bogus." I've seen enough glaring problems in how Wizards' set up their campaign worlds that I'd rather have the main campaign set on Earth. Earth is lavishly designed and evolved. Plus, it gives the players a common ground to work from.

If you're keeping the real world's religions, I think I'd keep divine magic out of the setting all together. The Rangers can be replaced with the non-spellcasting version from Complete Warrior, but I guess the Paladins would pretty much have to go. ...But then it sounds like you're keeping all the old D&D worlds mostly unchanged, so I guess removing divine magic isn't an option. And, hell, functional Clerics of real-world religions could actually be pretty interesting; you'd just have to ditch the modern concept of true monotheism in favor of a henotheistic norm.

Actually, I don't have to keep Divine Magic out of the setting altogether. But it is interesting that you mention a henotheistic form. But I'd rather not go into that. I'll just say that all the religions of the world are valid, but I don't want the real world problems that go along with including clerics of real world religions.