The Age of Aberration [Archive] - Wizards Community

The Age of Aberration [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:10 AM This is my first post on this forum, though I've been lurking here for a while. There's been some great work here. I thought I'd contribute (or try to) by posting some pieces of my favorite campaign.

It ends up that this campaign might as well have been lifted straight from Lords of Madness, even though I wrote it two years before that book came out. Since then, I've updated some things. Note that, while AoA resembles a horror game in a number of ways, we never played it that way.

Aside from the core books, the following are required: Monster Manual II, Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds, Manual of the Planes, Lords of Madness, Heroes of Horror

The Age of Aberration

Introduction

“In the dark, forgotten corners of the world, one can glimpse a menagerie of curious creatures. They hide from the light, sulking in places where civilization doesn’t reach. They are strange and alien, misshapen and dull-witted. They dress in rags, live in filth, and plot against the civilized races. They hate and despise knowledge and the light of day. They are dangerous, and we must be ever vigilant lest they destroy all that we have built.”

What pathetic beings are these, you ask? The answer may surprise you: humans.
The Age of Aberration reverses one of the most fundamental relationships in most fantasy worlds: that between demihumans and monsters. In most campaigns, the demihuman races are the guardians of civilization, loved (if not favored) by the gods, and blessed with some degree of wealth, knowledge, and power. Meanwhile, aberrations, fiends, and undead of all types hide in forgotten corners and deep holes, skulking and plotting. In the Age of Aberrations, these roles are reversed. It is monsters that rule, and men who hide.

The Beholders rule a vast empire built by human slaves. The Neogi control a worldwide slave trading network. The Avolakia use sentient beings as cattle, or worse. The Aboleth rule beneath the waves, spreading the insane cult of their tentacled god. The The Grell feast on humanoid flesh. Perhaps worst of all, the mysterious Ethergaunts scour the globe in search of ancient and terrible secrets that even the other aberrations think are best forgotten. The aberrations wage an eternal struggle for control of the world, and war against each other constantly. The sole exception to this is the beholders, who are too busy warring against each other to fight anyone else.

Though the majority of demihumans are slaves to the aberrations, who are in turn servants to terrible entities from outside space and time, there is yet hope. In a distant corner of a savage continent, men have forged a civilization. At least men call it civilization; the aberrations call it savagery (we moderns would recognize it as akin to the Dark Ages). Temples to the gods of men, elves and dwarves watch over their pitiful towns, though it is unclear whether the gods themselves watch or not. Warriors and mages have won a handful of victories against the oppressor. Slaves have risen up in revolt, and civil war has shaken the Beholder’s empire. If ever there has been a time for humans and their kin to free themselves from the aberrations, it is now.

In a typical D&D game, humanity would expect its gods to stand with them against the aberrations, but not in AoA. The gods of men, elves, and the rest are weak and indifferent. They are little more than demigods, unable and unwilling to help mankind throw off the yoke of oppression and insanity. They grant spells to their priests, but little more. Luckily, many of the aberrant gods are no better; the beholder’s Great Mother and the aboleth’s Kraken, for example. Ancient tomes sometimes tell of powerful elder deities from the regions beyond space and sanity, but men have had little direct contact with the servants of such beings, and the aberrations seem as fearful of such gods as men are.

The peculiar pantheon of AoA likely results from its peculiar cosmology. While the standard D&D campaign features planes numbering in the tens and twenties, AoA features only four: the Beyond (the Far Realms), the Between (the Ethereal), Earth (the Material plane), and the mysterious realm of dreams. Further, in AoA, the relative size of these planes differs from a standard D&D cosmology. The realm of dreams and the Between dwarf Earth, while the Beyond is vast beyond imagining. In AoA, the Far Realms are the normal order of the universe, while Earth and the rest are something like lucky accidents.

In a Multiverse like this, it is difficult to be good in the traditional sense. One must sometime fight fire with fire. Servants of the light must sometimes be cruel: witch-hunters exterminate the innocent if they might be tainted, priests see suffering and pain as a just penance for mankind, lords are hard and inflexible in ruling their subjects. Yet all these characters might be lawful good! "We ARE the good," said a half-ogre paladin of Tyranny devoted to the destruction of the Beholder empire. The line between good and evil is so fuzzy that very often it can't be seen at all.
What IS clear is the line between corruption and purity, innocence and insanity. This is what separates the heroes from the villains in AoA.

Perhaps adventuring in the Age of Aberrations is hopeless. Even though the aberrations are weaker today than they very were. The PCs face alien horrors that worship insane gods, and their own gods are of little help. Their filthy and oppressed fellow humans are more liability than anything, as desperate slaves will sell out their own to improve their standing with their cruel masters. The universe itself is a vast region of chaos and evil that makes the Abyss look like a playground. There seems to be no reason to bother?

Yet some do bother, and a rare few have even succeeded. There are tales of ancient heroes, dwarves, elves and even some humans, who have battled the Aberrations and won. They made clever use of the small blessings granted by the gods. Some of them acquired arcane or martial knowledge while slaves. A few discovered ancient artifacts of great power and unknown origins. These brave few held off the darkness for a while. The PCs must hold it off a bit longer.

Behind the Curtain: The Age of Aberrations

Though created several years before the publication of Lords of Madness, you might think of AoA as a campaign based on that supplement. Aberrations, the Far Realms with its pseudonatural monstrosities, madness, evil, and epic-level play are all central themes in an AoA campaign. In some respects, AoA resembles a horror game like Call of Cthulhu (CoC). In others, it is run of the mill D&D featuring dungeon crawling, wealth acquisition, and epic adventure.

Despite superficial similarities, AoA is not Cthulhu D&D. Lovecraft’s influence on the storyline (and on Lords of Madness itself) is pretty clearly visible , but it’s only influence. In the CoC, the heroes don’t last long. If they aren’t smashed, eaten, corrupted or driven insane, then they’ve been very successful at running away and not finishing any adventures. Nothing of the sort is the case in AoA.

AoA is not horror roleplaying. The setting is not designed to scare players, make them nervous, or anything of the sort. If you don’t like horror role playing, you might still like AoA.

Then what is AoA? It is a grim and gritty world of darkness and evil, but it is also a world of high adventure. The heroes (if they can be called such; see below) are an insignificant illumination in the vastness of black corruption. They face overwhelming odds, with scant help from their distant and unreliable gods. But there is hope. If they are clever and capable, they might hold the darkness back for a while. If they have help, they might keep it back indefinitely.

Unlike horror and Cthulhu-inspired games, AoA is well suited to power gaming as well as deep-immersion story telling. It is superbly adapted to a mixture of both.
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:11 AM reserved
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:12 AM reserved for deities
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:14 AM reserved for cosmology
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:16 AM reserved for magic
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:16 AM reserved for variant rules
Sigfried
10-10-07, 02:17 AM reserved for whatever
fodigg
10-10-07, 02:02 PM This idea has a whole bundle of potential on multiple levels. As its own campaign setting As a variant version of a setting (Forgotten realms where humans rule the underdark?) As a forgotten age in a current setting (This screams lost age in Eberron to me, in a good way!)

My questions: Are the PCs meant to be humans (goodly races)? Or is this a campaign where people would role up vampires and adventure against the goodly races? Do the monsters have any reason to fear the humans (goodly races)? How did this come about? Long attrition? A dark god manifesting on the mortal plane? A demonic invasion from another plane? (etc)

Great campaign concept! Please write more!
Sigfried
10-10-07, 03:07 PM Thanks for the encouragement Fodigg. I especially like your ideas about using it as a previous age (or future age) in an established setting.

Are the PCs meant to be humans (goodly races)? Or is this a campaign where people would role up vampires and adventure against the goodly races?

When we played this campaign, we had two parties. One dedicated to resisting the aberrations, and another dedicated to the worship of the dark gods. :coolcthul

Do the monsters have any reason to fear the humans (goodly races)?

None whatsoever. The goodly races have a chance precisely because the evil races DON'T fear them, and don't consider them a threat. The aberrations are too busy trying to defeat each other to worry about the pitiful descendants of escaped slaves.

How did this come about? Long attrition? A dark god manifesting on the mortal plane? A demonic invasion from another plane? (etc)

More on the history later, but the short answer is that this is the natural state of the multiverse. In a perverse accident, a region of the Beyond (i.e. the Far Realms) calmed down briefly, long enough for the material plane to be born and normal animals to evolve (or be created, or whatever). Many of the aberrations hail from distant material planes that are much more similar to the Beyond. They arrived long before the first human, or even first elf.

As I rewrite my old notes, I'll post things about geography, history, religion, etc. Note that I added a crucial paragraph about alignment to the introduction.
Lobsopdoy
10-16-07, 02:09 PM Are only humans and Elves and such against the Abberations? Or can any race be used as a PC? (Within reason, of course)
Sigfried
10-16-07, 02:18 PM Are only humans and Elves and such against the Abberations? Or can any race be used as a PC? (Within reason, of course)

Pretty much only the core races. I would be open to adding any race that fit the campaign's flavor. For example, I don't think Tieflings work, but Warforged might (constructed by the Ethergaunts, perhaps).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:10 AM	This is my first post on this forum, though I've been lurking here for a while. There's been some great work here. I thought I'd contribute (or try to) by posting some pieces of my favorite campaign. It ends up that this campaign might as well have been lifted straight from Lords of Madness, even though I wrote it two years before that book came out. Since then, I've updated some things. Note that, while AoA resembles a horror game in a number of ways, we never played it that way. Aside from the core books, the following are required: Monster Manual II, Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds, Manual of the Planes, Lords of Madness, Heroes of Horror The Age of Aberration Introduction “In the dark, forgotten corners of the world, one can glimpse a menagerie of curious creatures. They hide from the light, sulking in places where civilization doesn’t reach. They are strange and alien, misshapen and dull-witted. They dress in rags, live in filth, and plot against the civilized races. They hate and despise knowledge and the light of day. They are dangerous, and we must be ever vigilant lest they destroy all that we have built.” What pathetic beings are these, you ask? The answer may surprise you: humans. The Age of Aberration reverses one of the most fundamental relationships in most fantasy worlds: that between demihumans and monsters. In most campaigns, the demihuman races are the guardians of civilization, loved (if not favored) by the gods, and blessed with some degree of wealth, knowledge, and power. Meanwhile, aberrations, fiends, and undead of all types hide in forgotten corners and deep holes, skulking and plotting. In the Age of Aberrations, these roles are reversed. It is monsters that rule, and men who hide. The Beholders rule a vast empire built by human slaves. The Neogi control a worldwide slave trading network. The Avolakia use sentient beings as cattle, or worse. The Aboleth rule beneath the waves, spreading the insane cult of their tentacled god. The The Grell feast on humanoid flesh. Perhaps worst of all, the mysterious Ethergaunts scour the globe in search of ancient and terrible secrets that even the other aberrations think are best forgotten. The aberrations wage an eternal struggle for control of the world, and war against each other constantly. The sole exception to this is the beholders, who are too busy warring against each other to fight anyone else. Though the majority of demihumans are slaves to the aberrations, who are in turn servants to terrible entities from outside space and time, there is yet hope. In a distant corner of a savage continent, men have forged a civilization. At least men call it civilization; the aberrations call it savagery (we moderns would recognize it as akin to the Dark Ages). Temples to the gods of men, elves and dwarves watch over their pitiful towns, though it is unclear whether the gods themselves watch or not. Warriors and mages have won a handful of victories against the oppressor. Slaves have risen up in revolt, and civil war has shaken the Beholder’s empire. If ever there has been a time for humans and their kin to free themselves from the aberrations, it is now. In a typical D&D game, humanity would expect its gods to stand with them against the aberrations, but not in AoA. The gods of men, elves, and the rest are weak and indifferent. They are little more than demigods, unable and unwilling to help mankind throw off the yoke of oppression and insanity. They grant spells to their priests, but little more. Luckily, many of the aberrant gods are no better; the beholder’s Great Mother and the aboleth’s Kraken, for example. Ancient tomes sometimes tell of powerful elder deities from the regions beyond space and sanity, but men have had little direct contact with the servants of such beings, and the aberrations seem as fearful of such gods as men are. The peculiar pantheon of AoA likely results from its peculiar cosmology. While the standard D&D campaign features planes numbering in the tens and twenties, AoA features only four: the Beyond (the Far Realms), the Between (the Ethereal), Earth (the Material plane), and the mysterious realm of dreams. Further, in AoA, the relative size of these planes differs from a standard D&D cosmology. The realm of dreams and the Between dwarf Earth, while the Beyond is vast beyond imagining. In AoA, the Far Realms are the normal order of the universe, while Earth and the rest are something like lucky accidents. In a Multiverse like this, it is difficult to be good in the traditional sense. One must sometime fight fire with fire. Servants of the light must sometimes be cruel: witch-hunters exterminate the innocent if they might be tainted, priests see suffering and pain as a just penance for mankind, lords are hard and inflexible in ruling their subjects. Yet all these characters might be lawful good! "We ARE the good," said a half-ogre paladin of Tyranny devoted to the destruction of the Beholder empire. The line between good and evil is so fuzzy that very often it can't be seen at all. What IS clear is the line between corruption and purity, innocence and insanity. This is what separates the heroes from the villains in AoA. Perhaps adventuring in the Age of Aberrations is hopeless. Even though the aberrations are weaker today than they very were. The PCs face alien horrors that worship insane gods, and their own gods are of little help. Their filthy and oppressed fellow humans are more liability than anything, as desperate slaves will sell out their own to improve their standing with their cruel masters. The universe itself is a vast region of chaos and evil that makes the Abyss look like a playground. There seems to be no reason to bother? Yet some do bother, and a rare few have even succeeded. There are tales of ancient heroes, dwarves, elves and even some humans, who have battled the Aberrations and won. They made clever use of the small blessings granted by the gods. Some of them acquired arcane or martial knowledge while slaves. A few discovered ancient artifacts of great power and unknown origins. These brave few held off the darkness for a while. The PCs must hold it off a bit longer. Behind the Curtain: The Age of Aberrations Though created several years before the publication of Lords of Madness, you might think of AoA as a campaign based on that supplement. Aberrations, the Far Realms with its pseudonatural monstrosities, madness, evil, and epic-level play are all central themes in an AoA campaign. In some respects, AoA resembles a horror game like Call of Cthulhu (CoC). In others, it is run of the mill D&D featuring dungeon crawling, wealth acquisition, and epic adventure. Despite superficial similarities, AoA is not Cthulhu D&D. Lovecraft’s influence on the storyline (and on Lords of Madness itself) is pretty clearly visible , but it’s only influence. In the CoC, the heroes don’t last long. If they aren’t smashed, eaten, corrupted or driven insane, then they’ve been very successful at running away and not finishing any adventures. Nothing of the sort is the case in AoA. AoA is not horror roleplaying. The setting is not designed to scare players, make them nervous, or anything of the sort. If you don’t like horror role playing, you might still like AoA. Then what is AoA? It is a grim and gritty world of darkness and evil, but it is also a world of high adventure. The heroes (if they can be called such; see below) are an insignificant illumination in the vastness of black corruption. They face overwhelming odds, with scant help from their distant and unreliable gods. But there is hope. If they are clever and capable, they might hold the darkness back for a while. If they have help, they might keep it back indefinitely. Unlike horror and Cthulhu-inspired games, AoA is well suited to power gaming as well as deep-immersion story telling. It is superbly adapted to a mixture of both.
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:11 AM	reserved
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:12 AM	reserved for deities
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:14 AM	reserved for cosmology
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:16 AM	reserved for magic
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:16 AM	reserved for variant rules
Sigfried 10-10-07, 02:17 AM	reserved for whatever
fodigg 10-10-07, 02:02 PM	This idea has a whole bundle of potential on multiple levels. As its own campaign setting As a variant version of a setting (Forgotten realms where humans rule the underdark?) As a forgotten age in a current setting (This screams lost age in Eberron to me, in a good way!) My questions: Are the PCs meant to be humans (goodly races)? Or is this a campaign where people would role up vampires and adventure against the goodly races? Do the monsters have any reason to fear the humans (goodly races)? How did this come about? Long attrition? A dark god manifesting on the mortal plane? A demonic invasion from another plane? (etc) Great campaign concept! Please write more!
Sigfried 10-10-07, 03:07 PM	Thanks for the encouragement Fodigg. I especially like your ideas about using it as a previous age (or future age) in an established setting. Are the PCs meant to be humans (goodly races)? Or is this a campaign where people would role up vampires and adventure against the goodly races? When we played this campaign, we had two parties. One dedicated to resisting the aberrations, and another dedicated to the worship of the dark gods. :coolcthul Do the monsters have any reason to fear the humans (goodly races)? None whatsoever. The goodly races have a chance precisely because the evil races DON'T fear them, and don't consider them a threat. The aberrations are too busy trying to defeat each other to worry about the pitiful descendants of escaped slaves. How did this come about? Long attrition? A dark god manifesting on the mortal plane? A demonic invasion from another plane? (etc) More on the history later, but the short answer is that this is the natural state of the multiverse. In a perverse accident, a region of the Beyond (i.e. the Far Realms) calmed down briefly, long enough for the material plane to be born and normal animals to evolve (or be created, or whatever). Many of the aberrations hail from distant material planes that are much more similar to the Beyond. They arrived long before the first human, or even first elf. As I rewrite my old notes, I'll post things about geography, history, religion, etc. Note that I added a crucial paragraph about alignment to the introduction.
Lobsopdoy 10-16-07, 02:09 PM	Are only humans and Elves and such against the Abberations? Or can any race be used as a PC? (Within reason, of course)
Sigfried 10-16-07, 02:18 PM	Are only humans and Elves and such against the Abberations? Or can any race be used as a PC? (Within reason, of course) Pretty much only the core races. I would be open to adding any race that fit the campaign's flavor. For example, I don't think Tieflings work, but Warforged might (constructed by the Ethergaunts, perhaps).