Uniting Doppelgangers - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Uniting Doppelgangers

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
naturax
Nov 17, 2010 21:51:18 Let's say you have a bunch of doppelgangers, all siblings who have been orphaned, who have been leading their own lives for the last 80 years. Let's further suppose they are all PCs. What kinds of plots would bring them all together and keep them all together? I'm basically hoping to brainstorm with anyone that has any ideas for how to run a game in Eberron (preferably starting in Sharn) for a bunch of doppelganger PCs.

Thanks!
#2
Madfox11
Nov 18, 2010 6:51:12 Wouldn't they be at a vulenrable age, a bit too old for adventuring at age 80? Or am I misremembering the fact that changelings get about as old as humans?

Regardless, there is a changeling organization in Sharn (the Tyrans? Don't have my books at hand). The group sells their service in setting up fake identities, including elaborate new backgrounds and helping people flee Sharn. The organization would be a good method to recruit the PCs for a specific mission, maybe something that has to do finding out what happened with the parents.

You know, running a game with just changelings sounds like a real cool concept. Usually infiltration and espionage plots are very difficult to run since only one or two PCs are able to give a sizable contribution, but if everybody can do so...
#3
naturax
Nov 18, 2010 9:01:08 Sorry, I wasn't thinking about the changes in 4e, so when I say doppelganger I mean an actual doppelganger, not a changeling. I'm even going to be using the content from Hellcow's Complete Guide to Doppelgangers, but suffice it to say that at 80-100 years old, the PCs are still at their prime.

The PCs could very well be the Tyrants at this point in the story, which I guess I could impose on them at the start of the campaign. That doesn't leave room for PCs who have gone to ground or are doing their own thing and get roped back into the plot.

I guess what I'm going for is the trope in which you have a Band of Brothers who all go their own separate ways for many years after the prelude and then, at the start of the actual story, they are all united once again for a common cause. I'm just having a hard time figuring out what the cause could be in this case.

Some ideas I've been tossing around but have never sat quite right with me:
- a rogue doppelganger has gone paladin of the Silver Flame and is trying to start an inquisition to expose and hunt down all doppelgangers
- a bunch of doppelgangers were corrupted by the Mourning and are hunting down and replacing all the other "inferior" doppelgangers across Khorvaire
- House Medani has clued into the true reach of the Tyrants and is pulling out all the stops to shut them down
- an agent of The Chamber is hunting down all the doppelgangers in Sharn "in accordance with prophecy"

You can see that the theme here is some common threat that forces normally solitary creatures to work together, but that might also feel contrived/railroad-y. I'm looking for other angles, if you would please.
#4
Juums
Nov 18, 2010 9:38:14 The last idea you cited is always a classic: Nothing rallies the PCs quite like a dragon being on a crusade to kill them because the setting's incarnation of Rule Zero demands it. It's probably the least railroad-y, if you can think on your feet, because pretty much whatever the PCs do can be used as justification for why The Chamber wants them dead.

A fun thing to do might be to use table-chatter as a justification. A PC might fulminate that he should've stabbed a merchant the merchant in the face when he had the chance to avoid being shaken down while buying supplies, which is perfect grist for the Prophecy saying a doppelganger would kill dragonkind's great hope or some such. (Obviously, the only course of action is to kill all doppelgangers. Just to be thorough. Because if there's one thing Dragons of Eberron taught me, it's that dragons don't do things halfway.)
#5
naturax
Nov 18, 2010 10:00:23 I might as well spill all of my beans in order to get the most out of this excercise.

EDIT: I'm unspilling them because I might run this online in the near future.
#6
Juums
Nov 18, 2010 10:32:45 Well, if the goal is PCs-as-doppelgangers doing doppelganger things, then perhaps it would be best to install the silver dragon into a position of power to be intrigued against. (As I think the core objective of the game, from a narrative standpoint, is going to be to kill the dragon who was responsible for the death of the party's hive-mind-parent-thing.) Dragons, after all, are exceptionally long-lived and love to play their own games of intrigue. From a high-ranking perch in the Citadel or Dark Lanterns, won through decades of service in the Last War, the dragon could well still be pursuing this piece of the Prophecy, or any number of other machinations. Or perhaps he's infiltrated one of the Sixty Families and adopted the persona of one of its scions, because they're filthy stinking rich and all dragons like shinies. Or...the sky's really the limit, given the number of powerful factions in Sharn that offer things that a dragon might find useful.

At any rate, once a faction to be intrigued against has been setup, then it's really up to the PCs to be doppelganger-like.
#7
naturax
Nov 18, 2010 12:11:30 That's an elegant way to go about it, Juums.

The lingering question for me is, "why now?". What event actually kicks off the story? I want my campaign to be as engaging as a novel or TV show, and I don't like the idea of saying, "ok, so that's the situation. Figure something out, and try to metagame getting each other involved".

The puppet master can start messing with each of them individually, to be sure and might even try something obvious like assassinating each of them, but that could backfire and get them to unite against you. What would be more interesting, now that I think about it, would be for the dragon to try to manipulate the PCs into fighting with each other, hopefully dangling enough clues that the PCs will eventually figure out what's going on and look for the root cause.

That'll be hard to plan, though, since it'll depend entirely on what the PCs are up to. But I'm thinking that's the way to go.
#8
Hellcow
Nov 19, 2010 17:00:46
I'm even going to be using the content from Hellcow's Complete Guide to Doppelgangers, but suffice it to say that at 80-100 years old, the PCs are still at their prime.

Yay! Sadly, I don't have time to review in detail and come up with suggestions right now, but I'm glad to see someone enjoying the CGtD.
#9
AvonRekaes
Nov 19, 2010 18:50:03 How bout there was originally another doppleganger that was part of the pc's "brotherhood", and after 80 years he/she/hit has evolved into the dopplestadt? And then suddenly went missing, requiring them to get the team back together to find him/her/it?
#10
naturax
Nov 19, 2010 22:36:49 I had the good fortune of being able to talk it all out with a friend of mine and I've got a decent solution. I'm going to try running this online in the near future, and once that's done I hope I remember to post the module here for others to use.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 naturax Nov 17, 2010 21:51:18	Let's say you have a bunch of doppelgangers, all siblings who have been orphaned, who have been leading their own lives for the last 80 years. Let's further suppose they are all PCs. What kinds of plots would bring them all together and keep them all together? I'm basically hoping to brainstorm with anyone that has any ideas for how to run a game in Eberron (preferably starting in Sharn) for a bunch of doppelganger PCs. Thanks!
#2 Madfox11 Nov 18, 2010 6:51:12	Wouldn't they be at a vulenrable age, a bit too old for adventuring at age 80? Or am I misremembering the fact that changelings get about as old as humans? Regardless, there is a changeling organization in Sharn (the Tyrans? Don't have my books at hand). The group sells their service in setting up fake identities, including elaborate new backgrounds and helping people flee Sharn. The organization would be a good method to recruit the PCs for a specific mission, maybe something that has to do finding out what happened with the parents. You know, running a game with just changelings sounds like a real cool concept. Usually infiltration and espionage plots are very difficult to run since only one or two PCs are able to give a sizable contribution, but if everybody can do so...
#3 naturax Nov 18, 2010 9:01:08	Sorry, I wasn't thinking about the changes in 4e, so when I say doppelganger I mean an actual doppelganger, not a changeling. I'm even going to be using the content from Hellcow's Complete Guide to Doppelgangers, but suffice it to say that at 80-100 years old, the PCs are still at their prime. The PCs could very well be the Tyrants at this point in the story, which I guess I could impose on them at the start of the campaign. That doesn't leave room for PCs who have gone to ground or are doing their own thing and get roped back into the plot. I guess what I'm going for is the trope in which you have a Band of Brothers who all go their own separate ways for many years after the prelude and then, at the start of the actual story, they are all united once again for a common cause. I'm just having a hard time figuring out what the cause could be in this case. Some ideas I've been tossing around but have never sat quite right with me: - a rogue doppelganger has gone paladin of the Silver Flame and is trying to start an inquisition to expose and hunt down all doppelgangers - a bunch of doppelgangers were corrupted by the Mourning and are hunting down and replacing all the other "inferior" doppelgangers across Khorvaire - House Medani has clued into the true reach of the Tyrants and is pulling out all the stops to shut them down - an agent of The Chamber is hunting down all the doppelgangers in Sharn "in accordance with prophecy" You can see that the theme here is some common threat that forces normally solitary creatures to work together, but that might also feel contrived/railroad-y. I'm looking for other angles, if you would please.
#4 Juums Nov 18, 2010 9:38:14	The last idea you cited is always a classic: Nothing rallies the PCs quite like a dragon being on a crusade to kill them because the setting's incarnation of Rule Zero demands it. It's probably the least railroad-y, if you can think on your feet, because pretty much whatever the PCs do can be used as justification for why The Chamber wants them dead. A fun thing to do might be to use table-chatter as a justification. A PC might fulminate that he should've stabbed a merchant the merchant in the face when he had the chance to avoid being shaken down while buying supplies, which is perfect grist for the Prophecy saying a doppelganger would kill dragonkind's great hope or some such. (Obviously, the only course of action is to kill all doppelgangers. Just to be thorough. Because if there's one thing Dragons of Eberron taught me, it's that dragons don't do things halfway.)
#5 naturax Nov 18, 2010 10:00:23	I might as well spill all of my beans in order to get the most out of this excercise. EDIT: I'm unspilling them because I might run this online in the near future.
#6 Juums Nov 18, 2010 10:32:45	Well, if the goal is PCs-as-doppelgangers doing doppelganger things, then perhaps it would be best to install the silver dragon into a position of power to be intrigued against. (As I think the core objective of the game, from a narrative standpoint, is going to be to kill the dragon who was responsible for the death of the party's hive-mind-parent-thing.) Dragons, after all, are exceptionally long-lived and love to play their own games of intrigue. From a high-ranking perch in the Citadel or Dark Lanterns, won through decades of service in the Last War, the dragon could well still be pursuing this piece of the Prophecy, or any number of other machinations. Or perhaps he's infiltrated one of the Sixty Families and adopted the persona of one of its scions, because they're filthy stinking rich and all dragons like shinies. Or...the sky's really the limit, given the number of powerful factions in Sharn that offer things that a dragon might find useful. At any rate, once a faction to be intrigued against has been setup, then it's really up to the PCs to be doppelganger-like.
#7 naturax Nov 18, 2010 12:11:30	That's an elegant way to go about it, Juums. The lingering question for me is, "why now?". What event actually kicks off the story? I want my campaign to be as engaging as a novel or TV show, and I don't like the idea of saying, "ok, so that's the situation. Figure something out, and try to metagame getting each other involved". The puppet master can start messing with each of them individually, to be sure and might even try something obvious like assassinating each of them, but that could backfire and get them to unite against you. What would be more interesting, now that I think about it, would be for the dragon to try to manipulate the PCs into fighting with each other, hopefully dangling enough clues that the PCs will eventually figure out what's going on and look for the root cause. That'll be hard to plan, though, since it'll depend entirely on what the PCs are up to. But I'm thinking that's the way to go.
#8 Hellcow Nov 19, 2010 17:00:46	I'm even going to be using the content from Hellcow's Complete Guide to Doppelgangers, but suffice it to say that at 80-100 years old, the PCs are still at their prime. Yay! Sadly, I don't have time to review in detail and come up with suggestions right now, but I'm glad to see someone enjoying the CGtD.
#9 AvonRekaes Nov 19, 2010 18:50:03	How bout there was originally another doppleganger that was part of the pc's "brotherhood", and after 80 years he/she/hit has evolved into the dopplestadt? And then suddenly went missing, requiring them to get the team back together to find him/her/it?
#10 naturax Nov 19, 2010 22:36:49	I had the good fortune of being able to talk it all out with a friend of mine and I've got a decent solution. I'm going to try running this online in the near future, and once that's done I hope I remember to post the module here for others to use.