Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sooperspook 10-27-05, 10:51 AM	A friend and I were talking today and came up with and interesting , at least we think so, idea for a game. Eberron does not exist(!) , except in the minds of all the people as a kind of mental construct. This construct was put in place and is maintained by Mindflayers! They use peoples minds as a power source for their 'psi-tech', and as a convinient source of food. All the adventuring, intrigue , wheeling and dealing are all distractions to keep peoples minds busy so they don't break out of the illusion. Their bodies are actually walking around on virtual 'auto pilot' as servants/mobile food to the mindflayers. The Dreaming Dark are actually the mindflayers method of maintaining control of the construct. The Quori are simply mental creations designed to moniter and maintain the system. The Kalashtar Quori are creations who gainned self awareness and tried to flee the mindflayers control. The Lords of Dust, Outsiders, Dragons etc... are all just creations to give the peoples minds something to do and stimulate those delicious neurons. Players will play as though its a normal eberron game. Eventually things will get ..odd. Have them discover anomalies. Hopefully at first they'll simply think its magic/psionic wierdness. Have strange 'agents' come after them. Have them try figure out why everything doesn't seem to 'add up'. Eventually have 'freedom fighters' contact them and teach them the truth. Imagine the players faces when they find out that their X-lvl mage can't actually cast spells! They only think they can. I suggest giving them 2 charcter sheets. 1 for in the system, one for outside. have everyone be a 1 hd commoner outside the system. although knowledge skills might be retained, not sure bout that. Then have them learn to..well, 'alter the Matrix'! Gonna need a free flowing system for this though. basically they can now do all kinds of funky things IF they make the rolls. Yes we were talkin bout the matrix a bit too often. :P
Phanuel 10-27-05, 01:04 PM	Sounds interesting. Some things to consider... Where is the real world. Is it an already established campaign setting or is it a homebrew thing? Another thing to consider is there going to be another skill or atttribute that they would have to roll to perform all these phenominal feats that they can do in The Matrix? That's all I can think of for now.
DoveArrow 10-27-05, 05:44 PM	I think you have an excellent idea going. However, I think it smells too strong of the Matrix, and you may want to consider trying to find a way to make it less obvious where you're getting your ideas from. Something to consider: The PCs are called in to investigate a mysterious epidemic in Sharn. Apparently, several people have fallen into a magical sleep from which they are unable to wake up. The PCs begin investigating the situation and at some point fall victim to the magical sleep themselves. The important thing is that the PCs never realize what has happened. One day, they're investigating the people who are magically asleep and then the next day, they wake up and everything seems to be back to normal. At least until the PCs begin encountering anomalies in this dream version of Eberron. For example, other dreamscapes might cross into this one occasionally, thus causing strange creatures or landscapes to suddenly appear in the middle of the city. Another anomaly might be that the PCs accidentally cross over into another dreamscape that is wholly unlike anything in Khorvaire. Finally, the PCs might discover that the world actually ends several miles off the coast. In any case, they soon realize that they're not in Eberron anymore and that they need to find a way back. In the meantime, they discover that the dreamscape is patrolled by quori agents that are trying to maintain the world in order to harness the dream energy of the people trapped there for some nefarious purpose or another. The PCs discover their efforts, are able to stop them somehow, and return to the Material Plane. Then it's cheap beer and girls in chainmail bikinis for everyone! Wait, I think maybe that's a dream too. :P
Digital Demon 10-27-05, 06:06 PM	I love the idea but it sounds like it would fit better in the D20 modern campain setting as a Matrix mod, with skill points might try normal totals that stick but every lvl you gain a point total that can be temp shifted or temp split on skills that you don't have yet or to temp max or boost skills you have ( thinking round a lvl with a max of 4 at 1st lvl 5 at 2nd and so on )
sooperspook 10-27-05, 07:51 PM	Some great ideas here. thanks guys! Phanuel: Not sure whether to go with an established world or a homebrew. Homebrew gives me the advantage of being able to put whatever i like there and suprise the players, established world menas i don't have to do so much work. as for how to do all the matrix-y things, well i'm not sure about that either. I was thinking of going with a Lucid Dreaming skill roll and assigning DCs to various spells/powers that duplicate what the character is trying to do. Maybe based off Wisdom? or maybe Charisma might be better? failure would mean a higher DC if you try the same thing. dovearrow: Some good ideas there. I really like the 'dreamscape crossover' bit. hmmm.... those 'anomalies' i spoke of maybe? Oh i'm not too worried about it having a strong Matrix feel. In fact it was kind of what i was going for. most of my group are huge matrix fans so it wouldn't be a problem. Digital Demon: Not sure what you're getting at there. Could you expand on that thanks? thanks again guys(and girls if there are any here). :)
DoveArrow 10-27-05, 08:36 PM	dovearrow: Some good ideas there. I really like the 'dreamscape crossover' bit. hmmm.... those 'anomalies' i spoke of maybe? Yup. That was exactly why I threw it in there.
maollelujah 10-28-05, 02:03 AM	Something to consider: The PCs are called in to investigate a mysterious epidemic in Sharn. Apparently, several people have fallen into a magical sleep from which they are unable to wake up. The PCs begin investigating the situation and at some point fall victim to the magical sleep themselves. If you changed it to this: The PCs are called in to investigate a mysterious epidemic in Sharn. Apparently, several people have fallen into magical sleep from which they are unable to wake up from. The PCs start their investigation, but are stumped when all the facts lead to themselves as the ones that started it all. Now that would be fun. Along the way have them met people who know them by different names, but the characters have no recollection of meeting before. Have those people tell them different stories about their upbringing that clash with the PCs own background. Like, he has a brother from Wroat, when his background story says he doesn't. If he goes to Wroat, he will run into his brother... I think that would be a wicked campaign, but would take a lot of planning to pull off...
sooperspook 10-28-05, 02:16 AM	Yeah, much much planning. it feels like it should be worth the effort tho! :D