Whats so special about the Far Realm?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm not thinking about the tentacled appearence and Lovecraftian background, but rather its motivations. Usually, these are described as being unfathomable. However, very often it just boils down to "destroy the universe". This is very boring, IMHO, and it makes the star-creatures a bit too similar to demons (who are the ultimate "destroy Creation" type of entities in D&D, whereas devils seek to enslave Creation). An alternative would be that the Far Realm seeks to absorb Creation, and "devour" it, turning it into an extension of the Far Realm. (This reminds me of the Tyranids from Warhammer 40K.) BTW, I really like the idea that the stars in the default D&D world are actually malevolent, sentient entities.

Any other suggestions as to what the Far Realm's motivations are?

I can't give you an unfathomable motivation.

Well, I could. Illithids want to kelvire the tridoxkuf and enjoy belsom kiffani turkas. Unfortunately, it's even unfathomable to me what this is. I just know it requires them to eat brains and conquer the world.

A "unifying" theme of the Far Realms might be that there is no unified goal. The different aberrant creatures all act differently. We just "know" that they don't come from here, and that the laws of physics (including magic) don't work like ours. How they can even exist here? No real clue. It seems as if they are capable of adapting to our laws - but some are also capable of adapting our world to their laws.

Some seem to have the goal of getting more inside our world. Some seem to have the goal to get out. Some seem to desire conquest. Some seem to desire destruction.

Maybe they all actually follow the same goals (but why do they fight each other occassionally?). Maybe they all have different goals. Maybe even those that seem to cooperate? Who knows? Pi is probably 3i in their world, at least on sundays if they fall on a wednesday after yotz.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Another funny thing is that while their motivations may not be fathonable, a human came up with the idea and a human describes the idea, so it's fathomable for the DM.

I think a DM can easily come up with a bizarre scene and have no rationale in his head why the bizarre scene is occurring. (Heck, any run of the mill random encounter generator can do this!)

All you need is a "what", no "why" is required.

 

[Kannon]

I used the far plane analog as a great big eldritch abomination that spanned universes and really liked eating multiverses with a high level of magical (or life) energy. Abberations were either the mad fever dreams of the universe eating monstrosity or things it deliberately created to destabilize other universes, I left it vague as to how exactly they came into being.

Either way, it worked. Fun universe hopping campaign. (From the typical D&D universe, to Dark Sun by way of getting knocked off-course into Ebberon)

 

[Ahnehnois]

The value of the Far Realm is that it is far. Which is to say, it doesn't interact with the Material Plane or have any close relationship with humans or other mortal beings. The creatures there have no identifiable connection with the other creatures and ideas with D&D. Conversely, demons have an interest in corrupting the Material Plane, fighting angels, fighting devils, etc. Your character (or a player) can pick up a book and read the histories of demon lords or demon races and understand them. There's very little information on the Far Realm, as it should be.

The point of using the Far Realm and what makes it Lovecraftian is that it establishes that the universe does not revolve around human interests. In the Great Wheel, outer planes exist based to human morals; adding the Far Realm is a statement that human morality doesn't define the universe.

You might not use it all the time, but intellectually, the idea of the Far Realm is a very good thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, I could. Illithids want to kelvire the tridoxkuf and enjoy belsom kiffani turkas. Unfortunately, it's even unfathomable to me what this is. I just know it requires them to eat brains and conquer the world.

Belsom kiffani turkas taste great and accelerate surprisingly well!





As for the Far Realms, I see them not only as Lovecraftian, but also Moorcockian. The demons & princes of Chaos may have forms they adopt for interacting with mortals, but in the rare occasion MM describes Chaos, it has a similarly mind-bending quality as HPL's creatures from beyond.

The main difference is that the royalty of Chaos actively engages with mortals to achieve their goals, whereas the HPL aliens don't really care about us one way or another.

 

[Hussar]

DannyA, I can get behind that.

I'd look at it like this. Demons are the other side in a war for creation. They want to actively destroy creation and return the Primordials back to power. Spin back the dial to when everything was just big C Chaos. Everything they do should be directed at that specific goal.

Far Realms creatures are more like parasites, or, as was mentioned, a sort of reality cancer. They don't really have the goal of Destroy Everything the same way that a parasite has no real goal of killing its host. However, just like a parasite or cancer, destroying everything around them is generally the end result.

The more intelligent Far Realms beasties actually recognize that their presence is inimical to reality, but, likely, don't care. They want to turn their new home into a more comfortable place for them. They get to spread out, colonize, take over and become top dog in a new place, just like a parasite invading a new host. When the host dies, the parasite doesn't (usually), it just moves on to a new host.

Just like the Far Realms critter moves on to a new area once it exhausts the current one. It's not so much malevolent as malignant. The goal isn't "Take over the world" or "Destroy everything and eat their souls", it's "Make this place just like home".

Sort of combining the Borg (or Alien) concept with the cancer or parasite model.

Actually, thinking about it, Alien makes a really good analogy in my mind. The Aliens invade a new space, begin breeding, change the climate of the planet to match what they want and so on. They aren't out to destroy, necessarily, but, the processes they follow will inevitably destroy the present ecosystem.

 

[WayneLigon]

An alternative would be that the Far Realm seeks to absorb Creation, and "devour" it, turning it into an extension of the Far Realm. (This reminds me of the Tyranids from Warhammer 40K.) BTW, I really like the idea that the stars in the default D&D world are actually malevolent, sentient entities.

I like the idea of it being more like a poison. The play 'The King in Yellow' acts as a psychological poison on it's victims, and the mere presence of the Far Realms could do the same. Gradually changing, leeching vitality, building up the Realms at the same time, etc.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Ok, it is now time for me to hit the sack and i saw this thread. unfortunately I won't be able to sleep until i post this. If it is incoherrent, i appologize afrehand and will fix it later.

Which brings me to content. If this has been mentioned already, i am sorry to wasted your reading time.

What if psionics is the 'magic of the far realm' where magic is what is the 'proper bending of reality' si supposed to bed. What if the dream realm is the far realm- a quasi eatherial realm that is like wht is, but slightly different, and can only reach people throught dreams , typically. What if the far realm of the old ones is an area that is the crossing of the dreams of those who are and the dreans of the old ones, and that the scienceo of the psi is the effect of mental touching between the old ones and those who are and the 'those who are' that have the skills of psi ared those who have survived the touchinng?

Hope this was coherent, cause it really is quite a bunch of vague ramblings, it seems.

 

[On Puget Sound]

One way to play up the weirdness of aberrations is in their tactics. Most monsters react somewhat predictably to stimuli. They approach food, treasure or easy prey, and react to a hard hit with either fear or ferocity. But maybe aberrations don't do that, or at least not always.

One creature might always attack the character that did the most damage to it last round, because it is a white corpuscle in the body of the Far Realm and that's its job. Another creature might use area effects indiscriminately, incidentally hitting its allies, because it's contemptuous of any ally that would be so weak or stupid as to get hit. One might always move at least 3 squares between attacks, because if you don't the grumions will bite your knees, everyone knows that! (And an invisible grumion might bite the knees of anyone who doesn't move at least 3 squares every round, because it loves tasty knees but it's too slow to catch fast-moving targets).

Marking might have different effects (use this with caution; constantly nerfing defenders is bad, m'kay?) - some far realm creatures react differently than others to perceived threats. One might respect the first to mark it, and pursue only that character for the rest of the combat, because it has been challenged and must answer. If it kills that character, it might leave, feeling it's done with the fight - anything that didn't mark it is not a true enemy. Another might not notice the mark at all. Creatures might choose targets based on height, race, gender, charisma, metal content, or who is carrying the light source.

If the tactical decision tree you've chosen for your aberrations is likely to make it easier to fight, add a few more monsters. Ideally, characters should be able to gain some advantage from figuring out the creatures' motivations... sometimes. "The gray ones seem to fear trees, and the purple ones really hate halflings; they ignored everyone else to attack Frito. I have a plan..."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One way to play up the weirdness of aberrations is in their tactics. Most monsters react somewhat predictably to stimuli. They approach food, treasure or easy prey, and react to a hard hit with either fear or ferocity. But maybe aberrations don't do that, or at least not always.

Anyone else ever see From Beyond?

At first, the only "aberration" attacks occur when humans pierce the veil into their dimension, and then only when certain other things happen, like when humans react to their presence. Eventually, though, more powerful sentient beings begin to take notice, and they begin to seep into our reality. They pick targets a little more intelligently.

This could work well in a game...

Other, very powerful aberrations might attack anything in their path, but because we are "beneath their notice", might not deviate from that path unless an attack does it great harm...