UPDATE on alignment warped campaign setting!

[Lucius Foxhound]

My players please don't read ... it would ruin all the fun.













I'm starting a new campaign with a bunch 3rd level characters. They've been adventuring in the Forgotten Realms - around the region of Thesk. The characters have just finished sealing a rift between Faerun and hell - or so they thought. In order to breathe life into our dying campaign, all the characters are going to be sucked into a parallel dimension.

The rules are the same as the FRCS book, except everyone's alignment is switched. The gods are the same gods, but those who should have been born with LG alignment are now CE, etc.

Elminster the Tyrant has taken over most of Cormyr. Waterdeep is a lawless place (the good residents have fled to Skullport). The good-aligned Zhents are losing ground, but still struggling to maintain order and justice in the world, and the good Red Wizards of Thay are doing their best to free the slaves of Thesk.

Orc are mostly farmers, wild packs of evil pegasi roam the forests of Lethyr, Drow are enslaved by surface elves, and evil Gold Dragons hunt good Red Dragons for sport.

It's a fun idea... but I need help working things out!! The plot is pretty loose right now. Any ideas on how to make this a fun adventure?

Thanks!

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

bump

 

[Zappo]

Ok, this is just weird. I like it! Inverting the alignments of everyone on Faerun would produce a world where evil is very, very strong!

You could try keeping the PCs relatively away from large cities for a while; this way, they can't just ask someone and learn everything about the situation of this parallel world. Make them only bump into small villages for a while, places where information about far away lands isn't available. This way, they'll learn the truth only slowly, and you can keep the sense of astonishment alive for as long as possible.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

The City of Shade has returned to offer much needed aid to the Realms in their time of need. The noble Phaerim also have finally escaped the bonds put on them by the diabolical Elder Sharn. Bane has returned from death to lead the good peoples of the realm against the tyrannical rule of the unholy triumvirate of Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater.

Have them run into a group of Purple Dragons herding people together for auction on the slaving block.

 

[CCamfield]

Sweet...

The first thing that comes to mind is, if the players haven't got there yet, they may wonder if this is an alternate dimension or if some mind-bogglingly powerful magic swept over the place. Which raises the question of whether this alternate dimension WAS ever similar to the standard FR; was there some huge magical event that changed things in the past? That could send the players on a globe-trotting adventure trying to piece things together and break the spell.

Or, if it's the way the dimension has always been... introduce it to them slowly. Maybe they get picked up by a patrol from some city that "used" to be good, that "offers" to escort them into town. Once they're there, the patrol takes them before a judge for some crimes or other (possession of magical items? wandering the countryside without a permit?), and all of a sudden they're on the run in a world where nothing is the way they expect...

 

[Nifft]

Just so everyone knows it's a parallel dimension, you need to start handing out goatees.

"The man looking down at you with a horrific amalgum of contempt and malice is undoubtably Elminster, except that his flowing white beard has been trimmed into a neat yet strangely menacing goatee!"

-- N

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Hah! Actually, I really did consider using a goatee on the head of the town guard in the village they just came from. But I know if I did that, they'd all scream out, "Oh! We're in an alternative evil dimension."

I really dig the idea of the City of Shade returning to help the realms in their time of need. I'm definitely using that!

I thought it would be much easier to just leave the gods as their original alignment. It just got very, very complicated otherwise. But I'm not sure on this now.

And also, great idea for storytelling to stretch it out as much as possible. First, they'll meet some good-aligned orcs (whom they'll likely attack). Then they'll go to a small town where things seem very out of place. I think only when they meet their first good Red Wizard will they begin to suspect what's really going on.

Amazingly, I've plotted the entire adventure out except the end. The Red Wizards will somehow find them a way back home, though I'm not sure how. What I'd like the last battle to be is the characters going through the portal, only to fight themselves! (What's the CR on something like that?). I'm certain the True Neutral Sorceress will find a way to avoid fighting herself, but the others (all LG Paladin, Cleric, and Monk) will have fun fighting their evil (goatee wearing) selves.

Plus, the follow up adventure will be how they save their reputations in the original world since the other characters have been carving a path of blood and destruction throughout the countryside.

 

[kolvar]

Wow, if all gods are inverted, magic is evil, too, and the shadow weave is the salvation. Liches are good. And at last all can play Illithids freely (the noble empire, that ruled honorably and justly). And than, when they have figured out everything, someone with the alignment un-warped shows up.

 

[Kyramus]

Somehow, somewhere during the reading of this thread, I got the image of Crisis of the Infinite Worlds view.

Hmm Good Mystra vs Bad Mystra?
Evil Corellon Larethian with Evil Gruumsh vs Good Corellon Larethian and Good Gruumsh?

just weird image and funny.

Worse yet, pcs good face pcs bad with pcs neutral on the sidelines cheering the underdog, whoever it is at the time. lol

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Wow, if all gods are inverted, magic is evil, too, and the shadow weave is the salvation. Liches are good. And at last all can play Illithids freely (the noble empire, that ruled honorably and justly). And than, when they have figured out everything, someone with the alignment un-warped shows up.

Yep... this is why I wanted to leave the gods alone. It makes things a bit crazy.

And I'm not sure how to handle undead.... I think undead have to stay evil. If the gods are the same, and the basic rules are the same, undead is evil magic. It's just alignments that have been screwed with.

But Illithids are definitely good! In fact, Skullport is quite a fun, happy place.