Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DonThelonious 04-21-07, 08:28 AM	Was thinking about running a new campaign where the players open a new module for D&D and get sucked into a D&D world, a la D&D The Cartoon show. Except I was only going to let them start with what they had in their pockets or on their person when they thay sat down at the table. What do you all think of this idea?
Arturius1 04-21-07, 09:26 AM	Unless they each happen to carry armor/weapons on them at the gaming table, they're boned.
DonThelonious 04-21-07, 09:42 AM	Unless they each happen to carry armor/weapons on them at the gaming table, they're boned. Weapons...Youd be suprised. Each of my players carries at least one knife on thier person at all times. And I would at least give them a chance to find and use armor/better weapons. The hard part Im thinkin is going to be class levels.
Senevri 04-21-07, 10:07 AM	Commoner, Aristocrat, Expert, Warrior or Investigator.
Iry 04-21-07, 10:23 AM	Not even that far. Drop commoner, it's a tad too insulting no matter how true. Drop warrior, unless you've actually got someone trained to wear heavy armor. Experts, Aristocrats and Investigators. Maybe 1 level of Monk, if they did martial arts for 3+ years.
Crystal Monk 04-21-07, 11:17 AM	I think it sounds like a really interesting idea - if nothing else, it won't be quite like anything they've played before. just be prepared for lots of arguments about who's capable of what. you might want to talk to your players beforehand, tell them that you want to try this kind of game - suddenly springing it on them when you all gather 'round the table might not be the best idea. another thing you could do is rule that, by virtue of being dropped into a D&D module, they've gained the abilities of one class or another - which, if I remember right, is pretty much along the lines of the D&D cartoon. that would allow them to actually survive, as well as grant "them" the proficiencies and so forth they need. hope this turns out well.
Escef 04-21-07, 02:23 PM	I think most adults age 18-24 would be 2nd level Experts with a hoard of useless knowledge skills. Warrior is appropriate for people who have had military training.
Dragonteuthis 04-21-07, 02:38 PM	Actually, I've been through this before. My DM just wanted to try it. I was a bit leery at first, as it sounds horribly stereotypical (in a bad way) of the PnP genre as a whole, but it ended up being a great campaign. However, it had lasting repercussions. Since our characters were by definition, *us* we couldn't really "metagame" per se which led to some bad habits in later games. In our case, the DM ruled that the magic of the journey that sucked us in bolstered our bodies and granted us knowledge (i.e. gave us a class level). What we were wearing was also morphed into a period-appropriate attire (everyone agreed Wizard would match me best, so I got the bonus of a spellbook, yay!). This let us go out, kick some goblin behind, and have fun. An important, but easily overlooked tactic: Use point buy. I found the discussion of which attributes should be what was quite fun. If you do use NPC classes like commoner or expert (I think anyone with a modern education, even a poor one, qualifies as "Expert" at least. Commoners are more like serfs and indentured servants), I strongly suggest allowing the "retraining" rules from the PHB2 to later "upgrade" those class levels to something that doesn't gimp the character. Good luck! Edit: Addendum: In my case, the DM had us "land" in Faerun. One of my friends had his favorite sword (he owns a collection) come with him (and it became sharp and combat-worthy, too :P), and we were quickly befriended by a kindly wizard who had several jobs for us.
Zodiaq7 04-21-07, 03:01 PM	I actually stated myself out as a 3rd level Human Paragon from Unearthed Arcana. Worked out decent. The only thing I think I may have trouble getting by a DM would be one of those knietic flashlights that you shake to power an LED.
DarkRhystar 04-21-07, 03:31 PM	What do you all think of this idea? Considering the average person doesn't have stats higher than 11 or 12, they're all going to get owned by the first house cat they meet.
Ack 04-21-07, 04:10 PM	PC who has been transported from modern day earth is walking through the village. Nearby villager: "Watch out! It's a housecat! It nearly killed Mr Johnson yesterday!" PC bends over, grabs house cat by the scruff of the neck, punts it into the middle distance. PC: "I've always wanted to do that."
calronmoonflower 04-21-07, 04:17 PM	Savant from the Dragon Compendium could represent a player at level 1. Human Paragon as mentioned above could be a good selection.
DarkRhystar 04-21-07, 04:25 PM	Nearby villager: "Watch out! It's a housecat! It nearly killed Mr Johnson yesterday!" http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s300/DarkRhystar/D3BiteAttackMotivational.png
Damior 04-21-07, 06:00 PM	Considering the average person doesn't have stats higher than 11 or 12, they're all going to get owned by the first house cat they meet. Not if your going by the druids grove ability score test, I suspect that its quite off, though for this kind of game you could use that, then fix the scores to comply with some set point buy value
Senevri 04-21-07, 07:22 PM	Considering the average person doesn't have stats higher than 11 or 12, they're all going to get owned by the first house cat they meet. Hmm. Surprisingly few people in "Real World" are actually first level. Simply getting the abilities of someone with a few hobbies converted into D&D means they'll need quite a few levels - if just for the wide skill point spread. I also believe people in RL go DOWN levels - yes, people don't actually have levels, let's ignore that for the sake of the argument - a lot more often than what happens in the game. Of course, just because most people aren't first level, doesn't mean they have a whole LOT of levels, but I think it's reasonable to assume that most people have at least 2-3 class levels, sometimes a lot more, up to 10 or so. Of course, it's not always as high as one might think. Let's say something like brain surgery: A 1st level Expert can have 4 ranks, 16 int, SF:Heal for +3, and in an actual operation, he benefits from aid another from, four people? He also has masterwork tools. That's 20 base. Even with just that, you can make something like DC 30 regularly. But, I digress. In any case, it's a nice idea. Investigators from D20 Cthulhu would be my first pick for this.
Toran_A_Sunder 04-21-07, 07:41 PM	My group and I have done this a few times. Heres what ya do: First and foremost, get everyone to sit down together and stat eachother out. Make sure its fair and no one hurts anyone's feelings. But be honest so no one feels shafted. Second, while sitting down, figure out what class would fit each person the best, and when they get sucked into this alternate dimension, they start at level 1. None of this commoner, expert, aristocrat crap. Obviously no one wants to play that. There is nothing wrong with saying "If I lived in faerun, I'd be a bard. If I lived on Krynn, I'd be a cleric." Or whatever. Obviously in real life we're not fighters or wizards or bards. But we all imagine we'd be something. I'd prolly be a multiclassed bard/cleric. One friend of mine would be a sorcerer because he's very charismatic and just has a certain je ne sais quois. Another friend would be an artificer cus he loves to tinker and build things. So let them use their imagination. Nothing wrong. Just make sure you give them the oppurtunity to make some gp so they can get equipment to start adveturing and find their way home. Happy gaming!
sabrewolf 04-21-07, 07:59 PM	Went though something like that twice. Once was just for silly fun, to fill up iddle time, and the game was we now and then adventuring in our 21th century world but with physics going wild in a near toonish way.. fun.. but hardly what you are planning. Another was a more serious game, in a world where an empire was dragging stuff from another dimension (an alternate material, i.e. our world) but things appeared in random locations. We didnt played as "us" but instead as what we wanted to be or felt was more accurate and/or fun. I for example was an occult believer and sudddenly found my incantations working all of a sudden (sorcerer 1). Another was turned fighter but due to extreme differences in weapon and armour all was deemed exotic for him (But since he was an "army lover" he got some gear and a nifty sniper rifle plus some ammon) It was a good game - although short, only a dozen sessions long - where some had the goal to return home while others wanted to stay (me included), but all wanted to underestand what was going on. You can go along these lines and the group would be all experts (or the generical class spetialist) with a level or two, then continue as desired in normal classes once they got training. Other initial classes would be exceptions, as said by others, by those with "unique training" in something like martial arts, army training and the like... Or they can go like my group in that game and get each a desired class based loosely on each player. Ability Scores are another choice, either one try to get accurate, and point buy is the best to ensure balance; or go loosely and roll and assign at best judgement - and blame discrepancies to the world´s magical influence. :P Remember, also, that being from 21th century, while metagame is not really an issue, they have knowledge from a higher teck world that can lead to.. many things really - specially if they can join magic and technology: Greek Fire, stronger acids and fuels, improoved smelting (leading to supperior steel), replication of weapons, vehiacle and tools from our world as a techno-magical gadget... it all might happen and you should have an idea on how such impacts may reflect uppon the fantasy world. Another thing - from my first fun-only game - what they carry in their pockets and bags may create new rules or be used to change rules: decks of magic and other card games may become focus for magic that really happen in the new world; spiritual tokens and amulets may gain their believed powers; game rule books may be used - or abused - for future planning of their own development as characters, to show superior knowledgement of the world, or to shift the laws of the world to their favour. All in all, along with the plot of how/why it all hapened, just consider how some things are to be done and some details about it, and it shall be a good game. Mrf! Good luck to thee.
calronmoonflower 04-22-07, 03:19 AM	Remember, also, that being from 21th century, while metagame is not really an issue, they have knowledge from a higher teck world that can lead to.. many things really - specially if they can join magic and technology: Greek Fire, stronger acids and fuels, improoved smelting (leading to supperior steel), replication of weapons, vehiacle and tools from our world as a techno-magical gadget... it all might happen and you should have an idea on how such impacts may reflect uppon the fantasy world. You mean like a gun that shoots spells instead of bullets. :D The ammo could be a special one use item that requires a special "gun" to fire. It would be like the caster from Outlaw Star.
DonThelonious 04-23-07, 03:49 AM	You mean like a gun that shoots spells instead of bullets. :D The ammo could be a special one use item that requires a special "gun" to fire. It would be like the caster from Outlaw Star. Already had one game with guns and a tinker gnome wizards. Went like this: Gun+TGW+Caffiene= Clip of Holding, Silenced, acid/cold damage. They got an A for creativity:bow:
hiroshimahamster 04-23-07, 09:10 AM	Umm... If I were to do that, I'd get 2 monks and 3 bards, two specialising in singing and the other in lute... If I were to have a DMPC along the same lines that would make a 4th bard...WHAT?:angelhide Explanation: My brother is a black belt in Taekwon-Do, my sister is a red belt (just two belts behind), my boyfriend's brother plays the electric guitar and the rest of us are in the local church choir... I might have 2 or 3 levels in bard as opposed to the party's single level, but I have a GCSE and an A Level in Music and I have been Head Chorister for the past 3+ years... I've just realised how 'sad' my group is...
mcnoo 04-23-07, 09:54 AM	I've been larping for the past decade, I'm pretty sure I've picked up two or three levels of rogue at least by now.
batmanjr 04-23-07, 04:26 PM	I was in a campaign like this and it was awesome. Mainly it was nice because we already knew each other so party dynamics were easy. Like a previous poster the magic that sucked us there molded our bodies and minds to be the characters we created. We were asked to pick a class that we felt fit us. Our DM was also sucked in but had become an imprisoned deity(since really the DM IS the deity) and the overarching quest was to free him. When we landed, we had our starting gear and NOTHING from our world came through with us. Later a DM tried to do the same thing and told us what we brought with us would go through. It was a bit scary when a player showed up with a shotgun, 100+ rounds of ammo and a handgun with 500+ rounds. Including cleaning kits. Anyway, it worked well because we didn't stat ourselves out, that is just unrealistic for a campaign, and it really worked because we were all friends for a long time, so it made our character interactions very nice. To this day it was the most fun campaign I have ever played in.
Euclid 04-23-07, 09:27 PM	Maybe 1 level of Monk, if they did martial arts for 3+ years.Two caveats. First, don't disclude "western" martial arts like wrestling (real, olympic style wrestling, not the fake stuff). They're at least as effective as stuff like karate, tae kwon do, etc. Being a fairly experienced wrestler myself, I think I'd warant a couple levels of monk. Second, you might want to create a variant monk class that specializes in grappling, to more accurately represent the players if they do a martial art like judo or wrestling which do not involve hitting the opponent.
DonThelonious 04-24-07, 03:02 AM	When we landed, we had our starting gear and NOTHING from our world came through with us. Later a DM tried to do the same thing and told us what we brought with us would go through. It was a bit scary when a player showed up with a shotgun, 100+ rounds of ammo and a handgun with 500+ rounds. Including cleaning kits. When I suggested we try this one of my group left to get something he forgot and returned with a military duffel bag full of swords, knives, shurikans, 4 kamas, some flails, a couple axes, and 4 cartons of cigerrettes. On him was strapped a Frost katana, about a dozen throwing knives and like a dozen lighters. It was ridiculous(sp?) but it made for a very interesting session. BTW: My friend is a rabid (IE: Obsessive Compulsive) collector of anything sharp or pointy. He has been spending a small fortune over the last 8 or so years amassing a HUGE arsenal. He is also a stockpiling packrat, I guess I'm lucky he didn't bring ALL his weapons.:fight!:
Mock26 04-24-07, 04:12 AM	Start them off as level-0 commoners. You can have some serious fun role-playing their early days in a D&D world (such as how do they pay for food!). Then, you can have the players/characters express an interest in whatever class they want. Once they do so the magical force that transported them will bestow first level training on them. Or, just have the magical force do that anyway, depending on what each player wants. Either way, roleplay the early days just to see how they handle not having any money!
Dragonspirit 04-24-07, 04:28 AM	Heh... what do you do if one of the characters dies? Then who do they play as their backup character? :)
DonThelonious 04-24-07, 04:53 AM	Heh... what do you do if one of the characters dies? Then who do they play as their backup character? :) I think in a group relationship where the PCs are the characters there will be a much stronger inclination to make sure your good friend and gaming buddy from RL gets resurrected. Though I can see how PK would create a problem in RL. DM- You fail the save and die PC- What!?! Is that what you would do to me, I'm your friend dude. your really want to see your friend dead? DM- Sometimes... This could be a problem.
Khoran 04-24-07, 06:42 AM	I think the idea would be interesting, but make sure you bring up the idea with your players first and make sure they'd be comfortable with the idea of that, obviously (Though I wouldn't recomend telling them the "What's in your pocket" rule yet and just tell them to not worry about equiptment yet.) A few suggestions I would suggest, if you don't mind me throwing it out there. 1) Have the players use point buy and possibly encourage the rest of the group to give feedback to make it seem more like the player. 2) The Class selection could be messy, that's to be sure, since I'm fairly sure that none of your friends are actually Druids or Wizards and the like. One way would be to have everyone enter the world with a level in Human Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#humanParagon), which could possibly be enchanged for an actual class level later in the campaign. One draw back to this is your spellcasters might be upset by this since they will always be a level behind as spellcasters and won't even enter the world as spell casters. 2b) If you don't want your spellcasters to become upset by this, then make it so that instead of second level (Should they take another level of it) of Human Paragon does not give a level of spellcasting, but level one does. 3(2c-ish))If someone has traits resembling a character class or something that you think would make them click into a class, perhaps you could have it become either exagerated or gain some sort of magic in the transfer. If someone is heavy into matrial arts, perhaps opening Monk. Someones a musician, they are eligible for bard. Though you may not want to do this by yourself, and instead have the other players in the group talk semi-secretly (meaning out of earshot) about the player in question and try to decide what class(es) would be best for them. Then write them down and hand them to the player and say those are the ones you all decided on. However, I could see this causing a little bit of a mess, so it would be best used with causion. Again, these are just suggestion, and probobly not very good ones.
NordicBirch 04-25-07, 01:28 AM	Sounds like Joel Rosenbergs Guardians of the Flame http://www.wwco.com/~dda/guardians1.php Rosenberg goes with giving the people new bodies with classes and morphing their stuff accordingly (a bread knife becomes the fighters sword etc.). The series also has a lot of stuff about using modern technical knowledge (engineering student among the group) in a fantasy setting. Several books but might be something to look into for ideas.
Critalondel 04-25-07, 02:36 AM	Good luck. Most of the time I've seen this tried, it's ended with completely ridiculous, ego-stroking, "character sheets." People that saing in a choir back in High School insist they're mid level Bards (Despite not being inspiring in any way, not being able to competently play any instrument, or know anything, etc). People that got in a fight once call dibs on Fighter levels (Nevermind they got their butt kicked, nevermind they barely know how to hold a knife, nevermind they've never gotten close to a suit of armor, nevermind they're terrified of firearms and other real weapons in real life, nevermind they're certainly not in the military or law enforcement). Any one of a handful of socially maladjusted people with anger management issues due to their stifling parents think they get Barbarian abilities ("No one understands me and that makes me mad!" does not translate to inhuman strength and stamina bonuses, because everyone in real life gets adrenaline surges, sorry kid). Every teenager who's ever tip-toed past their dozing parents to sneak into the house thinks they're a Rogue (Can they pick a lock? Do they know how to get a knife into someone's kidney? When was the last time they tried to climb something?). The computer geek insists his understanding of logic and 'arcane code' means he would make for a natural Wizard (because it's more fun to think of yourself as someone who can bend the laws of physics with a gesture than, uhh, just as another computer geek). And let's not even get into what your average D&D player thinks his Intelligence score is (much less Charisma). It just gets silly. The only times I've ever seen this sort of thing be fun was for a one-shot game, where we just agreed we'd be writing up what we wish we'd be in a D&D game, not what we think we'd be. If your group goes into it acknowledging ahead of time they'd be statting up idealized, fantastic, versions of themselves, great. Have a good time. There are gaming groups out there composed of people that are fairly impressive, in real life. I've gamed with Army Rangers before, an archer who narrowly missed qualifying for the US Olympic team, local SWAT guys, serious martial arts instructors (not "black belts" from a two-bit local dojo that you get just for showing up, but guys that've gone to Japan and learned the old-school swordfighting stuff from the stereotypical crazy little old men for years at a time)... But, realistically, even most of those guys would just stat up as low-to-mid level guys with, for adventurers, pretty average statistics, and admit as much. Not every two-bit wiccan with a stack full of books they picked up from Barnes and Noble's self help/new age shelf is a D&D Druid, is what I'm getting at.