Comments on: Mining Tropes for RPG nuggets: Grab a can of Evil

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:45:04 +0000

A new troper RPG DM is born! Far out J?rgen, I’m happy to see that the TV tropes wiki fired up your DM inspiration!

By: Jürgen Hubert

Jürgen Hubert — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:39:14 +0000

For Urbis, I recently came up with the idea that the molten core of the planet is inhabited by beings of flame who can’t survive on the surface because it’s too cold for them… but they are resentful of the fact that they are trapped down there. So they have recently managed to convince gnomes and dwarves worshiping them to build them bodies of sorts… which will allow them to escape and wreak havoc on the surface.

See here for details.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:18:00 +0000

It is an excellent mechanism, just the execution is more problematic than some. Edgar Rice Burroughs had it locked in with the Mars, Pellucidar and Venus stories, not to mention all the folks who came after.

By: PM

PM — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:04:00 +0000

Well.. as in any scenario, the bad guys have minion.. There are probably a number of cults that would be waiting for the appearance of our heroes… You can setup a support mechanism there.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:25:00 +0000

Damn, if I did that Write a 50 000 word Novel in a month thing (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), I would use this as the main plot!

Maybe next year!

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:22:00 +0000

I think it would make a great mini campaign or a short campaing arc.

I would include a clear ally (or organization), from the home world, near the beginning of the scenario to allow the players to anchor themselves on at least one point of comfort. It’s a good point.

I would also turn the tables on the plots and implicate the players in a similar plot to destroy their own world… who knows… if played correctly, they could convince the local world destroyers to send them back!!

By: Yan

Yan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:16:00 +0000

The thing with this is... In this kind of scenario you player don't have a safe haven to fall too.

When you're seen as the destroyer of the world, you know that everybody is there to get you!

From a players perspective, this is a constant stress as you cannot afford to let your guard down.

In my opinion it's an interesting setting to check for a few session (3 at the most I would say) but you can not have a full campaign in this kind of settings because once the novelty of the scenario will fall only the stress will remain.

And we know the golden rule don't we? People come to have fun...

Stress in small dose can lead to a fun release while stress as a constant can lead to burnout.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:40:00 +0000

Could this be alleviated by placing NPC who are natives of the original plane and help the PCs to get out so they too can leave?

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:34:00 +0000

I actually played in a campaign that within two adventures we experienced the whole, save the sacrifice, get sucked into an alternate plane idea. However care must be taken. Our group tired quickly of the pocket plane we were placed in and lost interest because any relationships we were building to assist us in getting out we knew were fleeting. We had nothing invested and grew bored quickly.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:31:00 +0000

Hot damn! Bacon flavoured Diet Coke? I’d be in heaven if such a thing existed….

As for having a newbie DM with crunch players like myself? I don’t think so… it be like inviting a hot girl to a Superman movie Marathon (Damn link is broken)

I’d rather Co-DM with him…