D&D General Weird: Do you introduce weird elements in your campaigns?

[Orius]

Define 'weird'.

Weird is not weird is the colloquial sense; to me weird throws in elements like Lovecraft, the Far Realm, or things that feel like that, or a lot of dark or black magic.

Gonzo OTOH, is a lot of really out of place genre mixing, with a pretty high power level. Think of the later Mystara material or maybe Gamma World for a low key version of gonzo, really gonzo is RIFTS or especially Synnibar.

 

[Voadam]

I am running a 5e Iron Gods campaign, so D&D in the backyard of an ancient supertech spaceship crash site. The PCs are a magical robot artificer, a Wile E. Coyote themed kobold bard, and two White Wolf Werewolf the Apocalypse themed characters.

There are sci-fi and shadowrun themes interacting with savage spirit world cosmology and some of the bad guys are Technocracy Mages. The second module looks like it will be a big part Mad Max Bartertown.

Thundarr the Barbarian is a direct inspiration for me in running the game.

 

[Bitbrain]

I like mixing genres in my tabletop RPG experience. Few things are more interesting to me as a DM than dropping some sci-fi elements into a supposedly typical western fantasy setting.

However, when it comes to Eberron, I tend to go a bit overboard and things get surreal, at least according to my players.

 

[Reynard]

I am running a 5e Iron Gods campaign, so D&D in the backyard of an ancient supertech spaceship crash site. The PCs are a magical robot artificer, a Wile E. Coyote themed kobold bard, and two White Wolf Werewolf the Apocalypse themed characters.

There are sci-fi and shadowrun themes interacting with savage spirit world cosmology and some of the bad guys are Technocracy Mages. The second module looks like it will be a big part Mad Max Bartertown.

Thundarr the Barbarian is a direct inspiration for me in running the game.

I live science fantasy, and still want to run Iron Gods (just not in PF) one day, but I don't think it is "weird fantasy" if the PCs are part of the weird. I think "weird" is defined in opposition to the PCs and their normal experience. That isn't to say the psionic robo monkey brain PC can experience "weird" just that the bar is wet higher.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Will definitely have to look into that 4e Underdark setting book @Hexmage-EN. I'm doing some planning work for my DW game and that sounds quite useful.

And, as the above sentence might imply: I'm comfortable adding weirdness into my game. I've had mindflayers with spaceships and artificial planes and clockwork assassins. The Desert--and the cosmos at large--is a strange place, a place full of wonders and wickedness, mysteries and miracles, terrors and treasures. Many things lie buried, waiting to be found.

 

[hopeless]

Does introducing Stingray into my 5e Exandria game count?
As a background note I mentioned humanity first arrived at Exandria via massive generation ships, but had to gain permission from the settlers (mostly elves at the time) who allowed 3 of their city ships to land off the coast with limited access to the coast for settling.
Of course humans being humans they screwed up and their city ships were sunk leaving those on the shore cut off from the other colonists.
The tech they brought survived in one form or another.
The dwarves taking advantage of the submarine technology developed a version that allowed them to perform maintenance underwater for the bridge that spanned the middle of the capital city of Gilieam.
That bridge was designed to be able to lift and move allowing large masted sailing ships to pass through and go upstream to dock.
However that submarine was of course based quite literally on Stingray I'm not sure they actually paid attention to that mind you but its there!

 

[Voadam]

I live science fantasy, and still want to run Iron Gods (just not in PF) one day, but I don't think it is "weird fantasy" if the PCs are part of the weird. I think "weird" is defined in opposition to the PCs and their normal experience. That isn't to say the psionic robo monkey brain PC can experience "weird" just that the bar is wet higher.

I think in Thundarr the fact that for the three protagonists the weird is just part of their world does not take it out of weird fantasy. Same thing for He-Man with its weird mix of magic and tech which the good guys use. Robots and monsters are all just mostly enemies for the PC type perspective within the weird fantasy genre.

I think weird fantasy is more simply a contrast for our perspective of normal high fantasy. Integrating the PCs into the weird elements or not simply defines whether the character would have culture shock in hitting the weird and can hit different characters in different ways.

For my game the Kellid barbarian tribes who shun tech are perfect Werewolf Garou and kinfolk and they react accordingly to the alien tech they encounter while the newly activated robot is thrown off when I riff a Werewolf Spirit World encounter where things are less physical reality or subject to his data analysis.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I frequently put weird stuff into my campaigns. Quite a few of my players have been playing for 20-30 years and they find traditional fantasy a little vanilla. Weird elements really appeal to them. I enjoy them myself when I'm a player.

 

[ph0rk]

A wizard's tower being what is recognizable (upon reaching the top) a derelict skyscraper? Sure. Although thats really true to the inspirational material, if one has read it.