Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Leliel 04-05-08, 04:50 PM	Well, since my "Alien Invasion in Eberron" thread was a relative sucess (and an eye-opener: I had underestimated their knowlege of quantum physics, apperently), I decided to take versions of the thread around the boards and get their input as well. So without further ado... Is this a good idea? How would the how would the inhabitants of the campagin react when they realize that the Nic'en (the primary race of alien invaders), and their allies are not a race of outsiders or aberrations native to their cosmology or itself, but from different Prime worlds, both in this dimension and not? How should I illustrate the inside of Nic'en ships, so as to illustrate their millions of years of advancement in both science and magic? Few notes about them: 1) For those of you who are wondering, the Nic'en are a race of warm-blooded avians, with an evolutionary path that has rendered them very similar to humanoids, albeit ones that look more like birdmen with wings more than humans. They are extremely intelligent, and have a great appreciation for all forms of art, especially poetry and literature. They're too big too fly, but they can use their wings to both run very fast and glide for long distances. They, like their archenemies the Iul, are extradimensional, using a type of "Skimmer Drive" to travel at FLT speeds and cross the borders between universes. They are also masters of AI, using a "hive structure" to coordinate the self-aware computers of their ships using a "mother brain", a semi-organic supercomputer with the ability to think outside it's directives and learn on it's own. In fact, this is the main weakness of the Nic'en: destroying the mother brain will cause the communication between the invading fleet to shut down entirely in some places, and confusing the AIs in others. Although this is only temporary in the long term (mother brains are replaceable), and not a viable option in many cases (The Nic'en have temporary backup computers just in case this happens, in which case they will also have to be destroyed in order cause the breakdown described above), but it will allow the opposing force enough time to launch a devastating attack against the Nic'en, or at least, build up defenses. 2) The Nic'en culture is similar in structure to feudal Japan, with the warriors expected to be poets and thinkers as well as conquerers and rulers. They are nomadic, divided across an unknown number of tribes. There is only one attacking Eberron, but their relatively low numbers are more then made up for by the fact that they have a tendency to assimilate cultures they come across, peacefully or not, into the individual tribe's fleet. The entirety of Nic'en society is dedicated to defeating and/or avoiding the Iul, a similar warrior race whose contact with forced the Nic'en to abandon their formerly peaceful ways. The countless eons that this war between the two races has more then whittled away at the Nic'en's collective sanity, and as a result, they have become dogmatic and fanatical in their search for a home safe from Iul attack. Ironically, if the Nic'en were able to forgive their enemies, they could probably live in peace with the Iul, who have grown equally tired of the constant war; If it weren't for Nic'en fanatics constantly arousing that race's instinctual paranoia via attacks against them, and their leaders not condemning them, or even supporting them, the Iul would happily form a truce that their honor would not allow them to break. 3) No, I do not plan on featuring the Iul in the first campaign I go about featuring the Nic'en. The next campaign, however... 4) The primary reason for invasion is that the Nic'en wish to use the campagin world as a base in their war against the Iul. I await your input.
Leliel 04-05-08, 08:43 PM	Surely somone is intrested?
X0_Lt_0X 04-05-08, 09:03 PM	Its a cool Idea, but I don't how this will play out without said campaign world being conquered
Edymnion 04-05-08, 09:29 PM	Well, since my "Alien Invasion in Eberron" thread was a relative sucess (and an eye-opener: I had underestimated their knowlege of quantum physics, apperently)No, you just failed to grasp the idea that magic is magic, regardless of how you cut it. You're using the magic of science to make space ships and laser blasters. The setting is using the magic of artifice to answer with airships and wands of scorching ray. The actual idea of alien space ships in D&D is quite old as well. What was it, Keep on the Boarderlands or White Plume Mountain that featured the crashed alien ship?
Max Octavious Xavier 04-05-08, 10:20 PM	I would be wary of your pc's getting access to advanced tech and then adapting it with magic in ways you never imagined. There was an funny plot line in KODT that had that theme (a crossing of scifi and fantasy). I know I have 1 player who is very clever (much quicker than me) and I would be worried about him getting his characters "hands" on not only advanced stuff but also advanced scientific ideas.
CaptainPicard 04-05-08, 10:35 PM	I don't think it is realistic in a standard D&D setting that aliens would not have had contact with the other standard races in your D&D setting earlier, unless they live in a very special Plane or your cosmology is markedly different. If the Nic'en live on another planet within the Prime, then presumably when the Nic'en cast any spells or use any device that allows planar travel, they'll wind up on the same Astral Plane or Outer Planes as any other race would. If there are Planar Metropolises, like Sigil, this becomes even more of a problem, since either the Nic'en have never discovered Sigil (unlikely, if their race is as magically advanced as you say), or they would have had contact with the races from the campaign world. Furthermore, when it comes to the Outer Planes, powerful Outsiders like Graz'zt or Asmodeus would certainly be aware of the Nic'en, as the souls of Chaotic or Lawful Evil Nic'en respectively would often wind up in their domains. And they'd be perfectly willing to use whatever the Nic'en have to offer in order to further their own agendas, so in order to have a technologically and magically advanced alien race, all powerful Outsiders need to have access to the same technology and magic. Finally, the need to create faster than light ships is moot, since you can enter the Prime at any point you choose with a Gate or Plane Shift spell, and Greater Teleport could be used by a Nic'en or standard race spellcaster who knows the location of both worlds to instantly transfer from one to the other. Of course, a lot of this is rendered moot if the Nic'en somehow exist in their own multiverse or your cosmology doesn't allow for the things I listed to occur, in which case I wouldn't see much of a problem with it at all.
Leliel 04-06-08, 10:00 PM	I would be wary of your pc's getting access to advanced tech and then adapting it with magic in ways you never imagined. There was an funny plot line in KODT that had that theme (a crossing of scifi and fantasy). I know I have 1 player who is very clever (much quicker than me) and I would be worried about him getting his characters "hands" on not only advanced stuff but also advanced scientific ideas. Actually, that's the idea; Using the Nic'en's own knowlege against them. if the PCs figure out how to do it faster then the rest of the campagin world, well, good for them. Unfortunately, the Nic'en catch on really fast. And yes, CaptainPicard, the Nic'en are completely foreign to the Great Wheel. It's just random chance that their biologies are compatable.
Etarnon 04-07-08, 07:48 PM	I say run whatever you want. But after they have alien tech the pcs will only find a challenge off planet. Similar to modern day earth.
Man in the Funny Hat 04-08-08, 01:16 AM	The actual idea of alien space ships in D&D is quite old as well. What was it, Keep on the Boarderlands or White Plume Mountain that featured the crashed alien ship?Well there were two: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and City of the Gods. But for SF elements in D&D the first official mention would be Temple of the Frog, c.1975. While it didn't have a SPACESHIP, it had an opponent who was from "another world/dimension". Later materials including the full module where Arneson expanded on what he'd originally written pretty firmly fix the inclusion of SF elements in D&D.
Shadowshimmer 04-08-08, 07:17 AM	I believe that Temple of the Frog did mention a Spaceship. You can download the 3.5 follow-up version of the original module somewhere off of Wizards and they mention history of the original module and it speaks of spaceships.
Edymnion 04-08-08, 08:36 AM	Expedition to the Barrier PeaksBarrier Peaks, thats the one I'm thinking about! Been so long I couldn't remember.
Belkar 04-08-08, 09:54 AM	Barrier Peaks, thats the one I'm thinking about! Been so long I couldn't remember. Man... after I saw the "Return to Barrier Peaks" article on the website a while back (where they updated the old module for 3.5), I was inspired for my (then) current Eberron campaign. I remember... I had the party (they were mid-teens in level) trek to Xen'Drik to search out an ancient Giant Temple built (they would soon find out) on top of a spaceship that crash-landed thousands of years ago. The managed to get inside, but it took them 10 minutes to "figure it out" - as I described things as someone from their time would see them: "the walls are sheer metal, clearly the work of powerful metallurgists, and at regular intervals along the wall, protruding sconces of the same metal glow with some type of arcane light you've never witnessed..."; stuff like that. When nothing detected as magical, there was a meta-game "Oooooooooooh!" from the group. They managed to eventually leave the ship with some rather cool weaponry (pilfered from the updated module, and ported over from d20 Future ;) ), that - honestly - wasn't any more powerful that the magical gear they had... it just wasn't "magical". It also had powerpacks and ammo that could "run out". Once they figured that out - they kept a few as souveniers and gave the rest of the trove to The Twelve. They were handsomely rewarded. The best part, though - and I love my group for continually surprising me in such ways - is what they did with the "dead body" (10 thousand year old dessicated corpse in a pilot's suit, dead in the ship's cockpit) they found. They took it with them, and once out of the ship, and then sacrificed a very powerful magical item they'd just acquired. (Basically, a one-shot schema of ressurection with no time limit on the age of the remains; it was a set-piece to allow them to ressurect a 10,000 year old paladin to get help completing a quest against the Lords of Dust, but they managed it without ressurecting him... so they still had it. I was so pleased with their performance, I figured it'd be nice to let them keep it for "emergencies".) So they use it on this body... and the soul is very much willing to return. They now have a 10,000 year old alien who looks very human, and is freaking out. They take him with them, and when the party wizard levels, he takes leadership - and this guy becomes his cohort...lol... In the ensuing months where he learns their language, and discovers that he's been "dead" for 10,000 years... he resolves that his home is practically dead now. He will never return. Anyone he knew would be long since dead... and he's vastly intruiged by this "new world" and by "magic". He stuck with them until the end of the campaign. God, I love my players. :D