Eberron and X-COM [Archive] - Wizards Community

Eberron and X-COM [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
MarkB
12-17-04, 10:58 AM In the spirit of ThanisKartaleon's Eberron videogames threads, I had a crazy idea this afternoon - create an Eberron campaign using the structure of X-COM: UFO Defense (known as UFO: Enemy Unknown here in England), and perhaps its sequels.

You are a member of the eXtranational Khorvairan Oversight Militia (X-KOM for short), a super-secret organisation created clandestinely during the Thronehold treaty negotiations, sponsored and funded by the remaining Galifaran nations, Zilargo and the Dragonmarked Houses. X-KOM's job is to investigate and counter extraordinary occurances that threaten Khorvaire as a whole. Recently, there have been sightings of strange, saucer-like airships in the skies over Khorvaire, and a large number of citizens from across the continent have been going missing. Those very few eyewitnesses who have seen a saucer on the ground and remained at large have reported seeing strange, aberrant creatures killing or disabling people and taking them aboard their vessels. From your secret underground base, you and your fellow squadmates, riding a combat-modified Lyrandar airship, must track down these mysterious airships, stop their attacks and bring back their occupants alive for interrogation.

The enemy in this case are Khyber-spawned aberrations. A daelkyr somewhere in Khyber has found a way to briefly disable old Gatekeeper seals, sending through small groups of minions into several underground complexes around Khorvaire, from which they conduct their surface operations. Armed with the knowledge to create a variant of elemental-bound airships, these minions are conducting raids across the land to bring back experimental subjects so that they can learn more about the continent's current occupants - they've been out of touch a long time - and also starting to infiltrate national governments, attempting to suborn them.

The campaign would follow a similar structure to the computer game, starting with several straightforward missions against small enemy saucers, before graduating to more interesting missions such as bug-hunts in civilian-occupied towns and villages, counter-intrigue missions to prevent the aberrations from gainig influence, a few attacks on underground complexes and motherships, and at least one base-defense mission.

Missions place a high emphasis on tactical combat. Players have a wide variety of (initially non-magical) equipment to choose from, and each PC will control at least one NPC 'grunt' cohort. Missions will take place over a variety of established terrains, with the opposing force using tactics and co-operation to their advantage, requiring the players to do likewise. PCs' lives won't be considered quite as cheap as they can be in the computer game, but NPC soldiers who survive a mission will advance along with the PCs, and will make good first-choice replacement characters in the case of a PC death.

Between these missions, the players will be able to sell off the magical items captured from their foes in order to finance purchase of new items, replacement personnel, new additions to their base, or keep those items for themselves to use on missions. Magical items recovered from the enemy must be identified by the base research Wizards before they can be used effectively, and these same Wizards will research new applications of the aberrations' peculiar forms of magic for the base Artificers to produce, providing new weapons, airship upgrades and special equipment.

Each mission provides some new small clue as to the invaders' identity and purpose, and eventually, once they're high enough level, the PCs will have access to the same technique used by the Daelkyr to breach the seals, and must lead an expedition deep into Khyber to eliminate him and all trace of that knowledge.

It still needs a lot of detailing to provide an Eberronian feel - for one thing, there's much more potential for intrigue-based stories of infiltration and counter-espionage than the original game could offer - but I think that, as a basic structure, it could make for a fun, if rather combat-intensive, campaign which could take a group of characters from first level right up to the borders of Epic levels.

I'd envision keeping several of the original games' basic concepts - for instance, the physical structure of the bases and saucers uses standard D&D-style combat map design, and would translate as great tactical maps with very little change; and the game's concept of different racial 'factions' of aliens works well, so one underground complex might be governed mainly by Mind Flayers, whilst another would be under the control of Beholders. Whilst a more pre-planned campaign structure might help stave off boredom by ensuring things never got too samey, it would potentially be possible to replicate the game's use of random choices of terrain, ship type and alien to provide unexpected challenges.
Kid SixXx
12-17-04, 11:16 AM Oddly enough, when my players were high enough lvl, I was considering an X-Com style intro as a seagueway to bringing the Githyanki invasion to Eberron.

Thanks for brainstorming the details, Mark!
fizzbang
12-17-04, 11:25 AM As a big fan of X-Com (and, of course, Eberron), I have to say I loved this idea. I'm not a huge fan of "X done in Y setting", but this is plenty amusing.

On the other hand, I think it could be a great general seed idea for a campaign, if the structure wasn't so obviously done as to follow the formulaic nature of a video game. Have a base of operations and invading aberrations, yes, but don't make it "go out, drop a ship, do the fight, take it back and upgrade your research tree and equipment". Of course, keeping things from being too formulaic is just good advice for any campaign.

A few other ideas to toss on the side for keeping it in the feel of Eberron, as well. Don't have the organization be full of PC classes. Make most of the NPCs have NPC classes (warriors for the soldiers, magewrights and experts in the base, etc), and have the PCs be the main leads of the teams, with maybe a few other PC class characters assisting in the non-starring roles (one lead researcher, a pilot, etc). Have them lead a batch of NPC classes into a combat, and you should be able to keep them as surviving main characters even in the fight, and keep the Eberron feel of the PCs as major heroes.

And I don't think you'll be lacking for intrigue, either. Much like X-Com 3 (which was my favorite), you've got lots of competing organizations (and nations!) that'll all be clamoring for your protection, but immediately critical of you if you get in their way. Add in a bit of infiltration from the "invaders" and greedy people looking to make a deal with the Daelkyr, and the PCs shouldn't ever be entirely sure who's actually on their side.

The only problem I can really see with it would be that a Ranger who specializes in Aberrations would be amazingly powerful...
MarkB
12-17-04, 11:46 AM Thanks, fizzbang - I think all those ideas would greatly enhance the campaign. I agree that an Aberration-focused Ranger would be powerful, but one detail I hadn't mentioned is that the enemy forces wouldn't necessarily consist entirely of aberrations - they'll have captured and enslaved quite a few underground-dwellers to serve their needs.

One idea I had along those lines, partly to provide initial opposition that wouldn't be too tough for the players, was that the Mind Flayer faction, taking advantage of a recent Daanvi coterminous phase, have captured a small hive of Formians and put them to work in their base, breeding up their numbers and controlling them by dominating the Queen (yes, that would probably require Mind Flayers with psionic class levels). It's the formians who are mass-producing the aberrations' saucers, and initial encounters against scout saucers will see them crewed mainly by formian wokers, with a single Dolgrim or Dolgaunt overseer. Later on, more advanced Formians will be commonly seen as crew and soldiers.

I think Formians would fit the tone of the campaign nicely, and give the underground bases a nice hivelike feel, plus there's the possibility of fomenting revolt by freeing the queen, although leaving behind an established Formian colony could have its own fallout later on.
fizzbang
12-17-04, 12:13 PM I think Formians would fit the tone of the campaign nicely, and give the underground bases a nice hivelike feel, plus there's the possibility of fomenting revolt by freeing the queen, although leaving behind an established Formian colony could have its own fallout later on.

Very nice! It'd make for a good intro, while keeping the enemy noticably different from most of the people in Eberron (thus, "alien"!). A good intro, while setting up for a larger-scale operation that'll become useful in overcoming the major obstacle. Good pacing, that.

Using the occasional mind-controlled people will make for some interesting moral dilemmas for the players: kill the innocents before they kill others, or risk your own loss by trying to save them?
MarkB
12-20-04, 03:37 PM Using the occasional mind-controlled people will make for some interesting moral dilemmas for the players: kill the innocents before they kill others, or risk your own loss by trying to save them?
There's another idea I had which would give this an extra twist. I figured that the aberrations learned elemental-binding techniques from one or more captured Drow, who ventured too deeply into Khyber. But because the Drow know more advanced binding techniques, and the aberrations have easy access to Khyber shards, they use binding for everything - practically any magic item in the hands of an aberration makes use of Khyber shards, giving them lots of unusual properties compared to normal items.

But they don't just stick to elementals - they bind Fey, Outsiders, Animals, Magical Beasts, and - more often, as the players advance and the enemy's power level goes up - the souls of sentient beings. This presents the players with a dilemma - firstly, how can they extract these souls, so that they can move on to Dolurrh, and then their final rest? Would shattering the shard be sufficient, or will that tear the soul to shreds with the crystal? And even if they can do it, these are extremely powerful, potentially useful weapons. Is it really so bad to hold onto them for just a little longer, to counter so terrible a threat?

One solution may be to use Speak With Dead to try and talk to the bound souls and 'recruit' them into the fight.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MarkB 12-17-04, 10:58 AM	In the spirit of ThanisKartaleon's Eberron videogames threads, I had a crazy idea this afternoon - create an Eberron campaign using the structure of X-COM: UFO Defense (known as UFO: Enemy Unknown here in England), and perhaps its sequels. You are a member of the eXtranational Khorvairan Oversight Militia (X-KOM for short), a super-secret organisation created clandestinely during the Thronehold treaty negotiations, sponsored and funded by the remaining Galifaran nations, Zilargo and the Dragonmarked Houses. X-KOM's job is to investigate and counter extraordinary occurances that threaten Khorvaire as a whole. Recently, there have been sightings of strange, saucer-like airships in the skies over Khorvaire, and a large number of citizens from across the continent have been going missing. Those very few eyewitnesses who have seen a saucer on the ground and remained at large have reported seeing strange, aberrant creatures killing or disabling people and taking them aboard their vessels. From your secret underground base, you and your fellow squadmates, riding a combat-modified Lyrandar airship, must track down these mysterious airships, stop their attacks and bring back their occupants alive for interrogation. The enemy in this case are Khyber-spawned aberrations. A daelkyr somewhere in Khyber has found a way to briefly disable old Gatekeeper seals, sending through small groups of minions into several underground complexes around Khorvaire, from which they conduct their surface operations. Armed with the knowledge to create a variant of elemental-bound airships, these minions are conducting raids across the land to bring back experimental subjects so that they can learn more about the continent's current occupants - they've been out of touch a long time - and also starting to infiltrate national governments, attempting to suborn them. The campaign would follow a similar structure to the computer game, starting with several straightforward missions against small enemy saucers, before graduating to more interesting missions such as bug-hunts in civilian-occupied towns and villages, counter-intrigue missions to prevent the aberrations from gainig influence, a few attacks on underground complexes and motherships, and at least one base-defense mission. Missions place a high emphasis on tactical combat. Players have a wide variety of (initially non-magical) equipment to choose from, and each PC will control at least one NPC 'grunt' cohort. Missions will take place over a variety of established terrains, with the opposing force using tactics and co-operation to their advantage, requiring the players to do likewise. PCs' lives won't be considered quite as cheap as they can be in the computer game, but NPC soldiers who survive a mission will advance along with the PCs, and will make good first-choice replacement characters in the case of a PC death. Between these missions, the players will be able to sell off the magical items captured from their foes in order to finance purchase of new items, replacement personnel, new additions to their base, or keep those items for themselves to use on missions. Magical items recovered from the enemy must be identified by the base research Wizards before they can be used effectively, and these same Wizards will research new applications of the aberrations' peculiar forms of magic for the base Artificers to produce, providing new weapons, airship upgrades and special equipment. Each mission provides some new small clue as to the invaders' identity and purpose, and eventually, once they're high enough level, the PCs will have access to the same technique used by the Daelkyr to breach the seals, and must lead an expedition deep into Khyber to eliminate him and all trace of that knowledge. It still needs a lot of detailing to provide an Eberronian feel - for one thing, there's much more potential for intrigue-based stories of infiltration and counter-espionage than the original game could offer - but I think that, as a basic structure, it could make for a fun, if rather combat-intensive, campaign which could take a group of characters from first level right up to the borders of Epic levels. I'd envision keeping several of the original games' basic concepts - for instance, the physical structure of the bases and saucers uses standard D&D-style combat map design, and would translate as great tactical maps with very little change; and the game's concept of different racial 'factions' of aliens works well, so one underground complex might be governed mainly by Mind Flayers, whilst another would be under the control of Beholders. Whilst a more pre-planned campaign structure might help stave off boredom by ensuring things never got too samey, it would potentially be possible to replicate the game's use of random choices of terrain, ship type and alien to provide unexpected challenges.
Kid SixXx 12-17-04, 11:16 AM	Oddly enough, when my players were high enough lvl, I was considering an X-Com style intro as a seagueway to bringing the Githyanki invasion to Eberron. Thanks for brainstorming the details, Mark!
fizzbang 12-17-04, 11:25 AM	As a big fan of X-Com (and, of course, Eberron), I have to say I loved this idea. I'm not a huge fan of "X done in Y setting", but this is plenty amusing. On the other hand, I think it could be a great general seed idea for a campaign, if the structure wasn't so obviously done as to follow the formulaic nature of a video game. Have a base of operations and invading aberrations, yes, but don't make it "go out, drop a ship, do the fight, take it back and upgrade your research tree and equipment". Of course, keeping things from being too formulaic is just good advice for any campaign. A few other ideas to toss on the side for keeping it in the feel of Eberron, as well. Don't have the organization be full of PC classes. Make most of the NPCs have NPC classes (warriors for the soldiers, magewrights and experts in the base, etc), and have the PCs be the main leads of the teams, with maybe a few other PC class characters assisting in the non-starring roles (one lead researcher, a pilot, etc). Have them lead a batch of NPC classes into a combat, and you should be able to keep them as surviving main characters even in the fight, and keep the Eberron feel of the PCs as major heroes. And I don't think you'll be lacking for intrigue, either. Much like X-Com 3 (which was my favorite), you've got lots of competing organizations (and nations!) that'll all be clamoring for your protection, but immediately critical of you if you get in their way. Add in a bit of infiltration from the "invaders" and greedy people looking to make a deal with the Daelkyr, and the PCs shouldn't ever be entirely sure who's actually on their side. The only problem I can really see with it would be that a Ranger who specializes in Aberrations would be amazingly powerful...
MarkB 12-17-04, 11:46 AM	Thanks, fizzbang - I think all those ideas would greatly enhance the campaign. I agree that an Aberration-focused Ranger would be powerful, but one detail I hadn't mentioned is that the enemy forces wouldn't necessarily consist entirely of aberrations - they'll have captured and enslaved quite a few underground-dwellers to serve their needs. One idea I had along those lines, partly to provide initial opposition that wouldn't be too tough for the players, was that the Mind Flayer faction, taking advantage of a recent Daanvi coterminous phase, have captured a small hive of Formians and put them to work in their base, breeding up their numbers and controlling them by dominating the Queen (yes, that would probably require Mind Flayers with psionic class levels). It's the formians who are mass-producing the aberrations' saucers, and initial encounters against scout saucers will see them crewed mainly by formian wokers, with a single Dolgrim or Dolgaunt overseer. Later on, more advanced Formians will be commonly seen as crew and soldiers. I think Formians would fit the tone of the campaign nicely, and give the underground bases a nice hivelike feel, plus there's the possibility of fomenting revolt by freeing the queen, although leaving behind an established Formian colony could have its own fallout later on.
fizzbang 12-17-04, 12:13 PM	I think Formians would fit the tone of the campaign nicely, and give the underground bases a nice hivelike feel, plus there's the possibility of fomenting revolt by freeing the queen, although leaving behind an established Formian colony could have its own fallout later on. Very nice! It'd make for a good intro, while keeping the enemy noticably different from most of the people in Eberron (thus, "alien"!). A good intro, while setting up for a larger-scale operation that'll become useful in overcoming the major obstacle. Good pacing, that. Using the occasional mind-controlled people will make for some interesting moral dilemmas for the players: kill the innocents before they kill others, or risk your own loss by trying to save them?
MarkB 12-20-04, 03:37 PM	Using the occasional mind-controlled people will make for some interesting moral dilemmas for the players: kill the innocents before they kill others, or risk your own loss by trying to save them? There's another idea I had which would give this an extra twist. I figured that the aberrations learned elemental-binding techniques from one or more captured Drow, who ventured too deeply into Khyber. But because the Drow know more advanced binding techniques, and the aberrations have easy access to Khyber shards, they use binding for everything - practically any magic item in the hands of an aberration makes use of Khyber shards, giving them lots of unusual properties compared to normal items. But they don't just stick to elementals - they bind Fey, Outsiders, Animals, Magical Beasts, and - more often, as the players advance and the enemy's power level goes up - the souls of sentient beings. This presents the players with a dilemma - firstly, how can they extract these souls, so that they can move on to Dolurrh, and then their final rest? Would shattering the shard be sufficient, or will that tear the soul to shreds with the crystal? And even if they can do it, these are extremely powerful, potentially useful weapons. Is it really so bad to hold onto them for just a little longer, to counter so terrible a threat? One solution may be to use Speak With Dead to try and talk to the bound souls and 'recruit' them into the fight.