Two Topics: Crossbreeding and Theme Campaigns

[stevelabny]

Way back when I was but a wee lad in the only campaign I ever attempted to run one of the main NPC's was the demented wizard involved in cross-breeding. This gave me the ability to play mix and match with monsters and their special powers/weaknesses. I enjoyed it. The players enjoyed it. A good time was had by all.

When I eventually get around to running my 3.o, um 3.5 (um, by then it might be 4.0) campaign, I was gonna try to rehash this idea, but was wondering what the general public opinion on mix-and-match monsters are. fun? cliche? boring? I also know there is a cross-breeding book out there, but I've never gotten to look through it. Has anyone? (already read the 3 enworld reviews)

Further thinking this through, I decided to make demented crossbreeding wizard into the key guy in the world's history. After growing bored with merging different animals and monsters, he decided to shoot for the ultimate goal. Merging man and god. He fails miserably of course, ripping a hole in the very fabric of reality and having world-spanning consequences. This will be the "reset" point for the timeline, where the calendar was rest at year 0, magic was decimated, new gods emerged, new races emerged, etc etc
thus not bogging players down with too much previous information at day one.

Of course, toying with the concepts of monster+monster, man+monster, and man+god, led me to continue having fun. I already know I love the idea of promoting the concept of a "group" for the PCs. Letting them bond and name themselves and possibly eventually getting special priveleges from being a group.
Yet another concept of "joining" or merging. I followed this some more thinking of some of the usual settings for adventures. A wedding (probably of a noble) , two kingdoms uniting (probably to stop a greater evil) etc.
Throw in the little things (two harmless ingredients mix to form a deadly poison, two kinds of metal or magic or magic item combine to make something even more powerful) and
NPCs who spout "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; united we stand, divided we fall; and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" and/or form adventures around these phrases and i think you can run with this for 20 levels.
Plus, I'm sure theres plenty of ideas on this I'm missing...feel free to throw more at me

So..how ridiculous is a theme campaign? where you try to tie all the adventures in to the overall concept? how difficult is it without almost planning everything out? Would the group ever catch on without you being obvious? Would they appreciate it or roll their eyes?

Opinions from both sides of the DMs screen are welcome.

steve

 

[Richards]

Well, it's fair to say that I've had a chance to look through Encyclopaedia Arcane: Crossbreeding...since I wrote it. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Those three reviews you read on EN World's d20 Reviews page all gave it four stars and the reviewers were overall pretty positive about it. But there are other opinions out there, if you wish to do some further investigating before committing to a purchase: HERE is a review on the GameWyrd site. The reviewer gave it a "7 out of 10 (good)." HERE is a review on the RPGnet site. The reviewer gave it a "3 (average)." His biggest criticism (and a quite valid one) was that the chart showing which creature type results from "creature type A crossed with creature type B" was too confining, and he gives several good examples of how he could create a crossbreed that should probably be classified as a different creature type than what the chart indicates. It looks like you may have to make some judgment calls despite what the chart says. (Of course, that's true of most DMs anyway - many like to tweak what the "official rules" say to make them fit best into their world, and more power to them.)

I should also point out that the book was written under the 3.5 rules, so you'll have to ignore some things like "Beast" being referenced as a creature type and "Shapeshifter" being a creature type as opposed to a subtype. It should take very little effort to convert to 3.5, though.

If you have any questions about the book, I'd be more than happy to answer them for you.

Good luck with the (eventual) campaign. I like playing with crossbreeds in my campaigns as well. (Oh, and there will be a crossbreeding adventure in issue #6 of Mongoose's Signs & Portents magazine, due out in December I think.)

Johnathan

 

[Tonguez]

I once used a crossbreeder Protagonist named Doctor Yakub - he used a huge 'Blood Cauldron' to both rejuvenate his own body (he was Human and over 300 yrs old) and to combine the dead bits of various animals to create hybrids. The Cauldron was 'powered' by the blood of various victims which Dr Yakub had abducted and drained over the years, then using their bodies as raw material for his experiments

Anyway Dr Yakub was part of a secret Cabal that ruled the city, and his various failed experiments lived in the swamp where the cities sewerage flowed. The PCs got involved when one of the Cabal members decided to expose Dr Yakub and his reign of terror. Of course a set of hybrids was sent to kill him and thus the PCs got involved. The finale involved the cauldro spilling out over the ground and the various bits of body, wood and other stuff combining to form a huge abberation with Dr Yakubs mind!

Okay I like the idea of the campaign you are imagining and think it would work well. Personally I'd make the PCs part of a Religious sect whose mission is to ensure that the Hybrids are exterminated and that any knowledge of the Bad Guys work is eliminated for fear that it might happen again.

The theme of the sum are greater than its parts could involve a race between the PCs and the bad guys to find the peices of the Combo-Machine and or the lost books of Bad Guy X or ...

 

[BrooklynKnight]

www.valarproject.com

i think you wanna go there buddy.

 

[stevelabny]

i think you wanna go there buddy.

no, i definitely DON'T want to go there. i'm not looking for rules on breeding, i was talking about a villian who crossbreeds monsters. you know, cool fun things like medusataurs and ghoulgoyles. not gnome porn.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

no, i definitely DON'T want to go there. i'm not looking for rules on breeding, i was talking about a villian who crossbreeds monsters. you know, cool fun things like medusataurs and ghoulgoyles. not gnome porn.

There is a section in Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs on cross-breeding animals, as well as a prestige class (druid-barbarian) devoted to the concept that might work for your villain-- though it's very definitely NOT a wizard concept.

Perhaps such a change of pace is good... You may deflect the PCs suspicions onto the local wizard, when in fact it's the local druid up to no good.

If you email me at badaxegames.com, I will be happy to pull both rules and prestige class out into a PDF and send them to you. (At which point, hopefully, you'll buy a copy, natch.)

Oh, almost forgot: There's no porn in Half-Orcs, though there is some excellent gratuitous cartoon violence and one picture of an old, saggy-breasted half-orc hoodoo.

Wulf