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I purchased distant worlds, and after reading through it all, I looked around to see if anyone was actually running a space based campaign, but found nothing on the subject.
Has anyone here actually run, or is running a campaign in space? How did you mesh in the material from distant worlds if it's used? Any good plot hooks (other than those in the book) that you've actually used?
Currently I'm running a Reign of Winter campaign but I'm interested in expanding my horizons to something beyond Golarion with something trans-worldly that doesn't involve plane hopping.
Spelljammer...spelljammer, go to dagobah and google spelljammer, all will be answered :)
easy enough to adapt to pathfinder.
I mean you could just tell players that someone has reactivated the elf gates and which lead to the elven homeland on Castrovel. If going to another planet doesn't spark their interest....I dunno.
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Personal dream DW system-wide AP:
Every planet is gettin' ready to align, even Apostae.
Start on Golarion at a population center that could reasonably have a wide range of potential Golarion characters
Vercite Aethership crash along with a forboding Dominion of the Black appearance, crash site is a known dangerous locale
PCs get there and rescue the injured Vercite captain and possibly some of her surviving crew (giving the players a larger number of regular NPCs to interact with) from both the local dangers of the site.
Aeathership captain reveals that they're on a mission of great importance and that there's some Macguffin further down in a previously-unknown-to-local-scholars portion of the site that they have to retrieve for the safety of the surrounding area, and that their crash was caused by a sort of defense system left behind by the Dominion. PCs save the day, Aethership captain offers them the adventure of a lifetime if they help her complete the mission she can't carry out alone, journeying to each world in the system and recovering/activating these artifacts to prevent some terrible disaster related to the Dominion.
Aethership is completely busted, leaving only a back-up vessel that's kind of crap, but it'll do.
As they go from planet to planet, more and more of the Dominion's corruptive influence shows itself almost in reaction to their collecting/activating of these MacGuffins which were actually left behind by the Osirion futurist Kahotep, Pharaoh of Tomorrow(from The Great Beyond, see the Nirvana entry) and his/her various incarnations allies across the worlds as a defense system against the Dominion. (one or more of the PCs will have the option of being a reincarnated aspect of that same Pharaoh).
They also potentially gain new crew members from some of the worlds they visit, building an ever more motley collection of people from all over the system.
They first travel to Akiton, get into all sorts of trouble, maybe some arena matchs, and have to secure a meeting with the Contemplatives of Ashok. Totally going to involve a "male Dejah Thoris" Akitonian prince for some players that might feel frequently shortchanged on love interests. Also, a recruitable Shobad-Hai.
Then the captain inexplicably changes direction and steers the ship to Castrovel, where they have to help the local Lashunta defend a city against a possessed, sentient jungle before they'll allow them near their artifact. The first contact with living minions of the Dominion will take place here.
Then onto Aballon, where they have to weave between battling robotic forces to reach their goal. Probably going to climax with the infiltration of an observation station built over a Kahotep vault and beating or talking down a controller AI that has gone mad from isolation.
Then after hesitating as long as the captain can, they head to Verces, where she and her crew are immediately arrested and the PCs are placed in confinement, until a Steward manages to get them released (with distant supervision). There they find out that the captain was herself a Steward that went off the radar and stole her ship and crew to take on her mission despite her government's forbiddance after she came across some archives on Darkside. While some in the government believe that the information she discovered bears investigating, they fear that her mission would instigate all out war between Verces and the undead planet Eox, where their mission would eventually take them. The PCs either manage to convince the government to allow them to carry on with their mission after some subterfuge adventures in the streets of Verces or they manage to break their captain and crew out. Either way, they gain access to a new and larger ship.
At this point the PCs likely take the lead over the captain as far as inspiring and driving the crew and mission on. She's still driving, but now she's depending almost entirely on them to save the system.
Then they cut through the Diaspora, not just hunting for the next artifact but also gaining help from the locals(especially the Sarcesians) and trying to find a way to safeguard their mission on Eox.
The Eox mission should be tense affair, not just because they're trying to pull off a lightning raid or a stealth mission without igniting a war or because they're on the most hostile planet they've been to yet, but because they may find the biggest presence of the Dominion's footprint on the system yet, and it becomes clear that the Dominion is aware of their efforts. It could even drive home that (some of) the bone sages of Eox are worried about the Dominion.
Then on to Triaxus, where a bit of high fantasy dragonrider action can be engaged before setting off back into the wild and crazy. Probably a bit of a "breather episode" chapter.
Bretheda takes them to a floating metroplis and/or ruin, where the local Brethedans need their help against a Dominion-corrupted legion of their own kind.
Apostae has them having to teleport blind into Apostae from its surface, and from there they have to manage to weave through or negotiate peace with warring and disparate bands of Ilee, not only to reach their artifact, but to gain a wildly and insanely genetically varied army to fight the Dominion(as the Dominion's tactics and corruptive influence seems to tend to depend on regular patterns of genetics, behavior, and culture. That could be a thing with the Dominion, they read and manipulate patterns, guiding life itself to fit their purpose. This could make the Ilee a wild card.)
Then Aucturn, Dominion-influence Central. Where Eox as tense and full of dread, Aucturn might be a place of absolute horror. The cost this place takes from the heroes should probably be terrible, but it should also make clear the depth of what's at stake for the PCs and every world in the system.
(maybe a quick stop by Numeria for some recovered equipment from the Silver Mount, which turns out to be a ship from another system that the Dominion has already dominated, could be good, pulling in some help from those who have fallen already to the Dominion)
Once every artifact is gathered or activated, the PCs, their crew, and any other allies they've managed to gather have one last place to go: The Sun. There, as the planets align, in an ancient city of crystal hanging within the burning fires of their home sun, they'll find the ancient remnants and/or remains of the beings born from the Sun and system before the coming of the Dominion. And the Dominion arrives as well.
All out war between the PCs, their allies, and the vanguard of the Dominion(along with their corrupted creations and the spawn of Aucturn) breaks out within the city, all the while with the PCs running towards the final artifact, one that can be used to either attack the heart of the Dominion and drive them out of the system, even if only for a time, or used by the Dominion itself to darken the very sun, and immediately remake the system in its own horrible image.
Probably with the ME influence toned down. The "allies across worlds" angle would remain a driving focus though.
Also, the Dominion would be presented through more of an H.R. Giger lens than what's currently in canon, utilizing a lot of imagery and details from this thread.
I have played 2nd ed in space with Spelljammer but not PF.
Dot.
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Dot dot dot. Distant Worlds needs more love. Better yet, it needs a full-length hardback sourcebook.
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** spoiler omitted **...OMFG..
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Happy to help! :)
Vercite Survivors in the Tomb/First Contact - X-Com Enemy Unknown Soundtrack - Combat Music 6
Vercite Aethership Captain's Plea: The M Machine - Shadow In The Rose Garden/Promise Me A Rose Garden
Aethership: Hybrid - Dogstar(instrumental)
Akiton Conyon Pursuit: Blue Stahli - Chaser
Akiton Arena: Celldweller - Battlecry
Lashunta Temple Infiltration: Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack - Thane
Lashunta Knights: - Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack - Samara
Aballon City: zircon - Severe Reaction
Aballon Factory Chase: Portal 2 Soundtrack - The Part Where He Kills You
Aballon Factory Supervisor: M Machine - A King Alone
Aballonian Celebration: Portal 2 Soundtrack - Robots FTW
Aballonian Allies: Heatbeat - Game Over
Verces Anthem Ambience: BT - Laptop Symphony Pt. 1 (selected portions)
Lost in the Big City: Nero - Departure
Vercite Prototype Land Vehicle: Celldweller - Shapeshifter (selected remixes inc. Transistor)
Digital Fey Familiar: Danger - 11h30
Life-saving Augmentation: Two Steps From Hell - Am I Not Human? (partial)
Augmented Angels of Zaern-Ra: Voicians - The Temple
Nightmare Vision: Nero - Etude
Converts on Verces: Nero - Fugue State
Springing the Captain: Hybrid - If I Survive(VIP Remix)
High Tech Munitions Battle: Juno Reactor - Guillotine
Self-Destruct Sequence: Nero - Angst
Kahotep's Memory Storage: zircon - Neurobazaar
Faulty Kahotep Security: Infected Mushroom - Nerds on Mushrooms
Kahotep's Defense Array: Gabriel & Dresden - Dangerous Power(Kuffdam and Plant remix)
Kahotep's Ship: Aly & Fila & Bjorn Akesson - Sand Theme
Dominion of the Black presence leitmotif: Damage Vault - Damaged (various remixes)
Dominion Ambience: Audiomachine - Judge and Jury
Dominion Dragon Attack: M Machine - Black
Drifting Dominion-touched Aethership: Blue Stahli - Transmission From Hell
Dominion Drawing Near: Blue Stahli - Reverse Tension
Dominion-Infested Tomb: Danger - 3h16
Battle on the Sun(beginning): Nero - Doomsday
Battle on the Sun(climax outro): Portal 2 Soundtrack - Your Precious Moon
Dot dot dot. Distant Worlds needs more love. Better yet, it needs a full-length hardback sourcebook.
YES
Honestly, you could get a full hardback out of each planet. Some more than one.
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I actually have my own setting along this premise, that expands the idea of distant worlds out even further and takes place in the -future- of the current PF campaign setting. Much farther in the future, to the point that other planes such as the hells etc.. as well as the currently created planets are joined with many new ones in a high-tech, high-magic setting that is largely controlled by a conglomerate of many different megacorps under the control of a draconic psudo-deity. It's my most involved setting, but sadly one that involves a lot of crunch that I am not sure how to fully create. If any of you happen to be good at making crunch, I'd love to take on a partner for this project. As it stands I am largely drawing most of the "tech" side of things from D20 Modern since I don't know where else to start...
As for games with space involved, if you need help feel free to PM me with specific questions...I am lazy right now so I don't want to post everything here..XD
I'm doing a mini aucturn enigma campaign using both entombed with the pharoahs and the pact stone pyramid to start. Then I've got some of my own stuff and I'm going to use the Havero temple from CotCT. Eventually the PCs will go mythic and get transported to Aucturn to fight the dominion before the countdown clock reaches 0 and it's too late.
Spelljammer! Yep, I use the spelljammer series in my Kalan'Drean campaign. Right now I've got a couple of new playing groups since I just moved but I'm looking forward to using spelljammer again. I know that pathfinder has their different world hardcover book out but since I've never even seen a copy (yet!), I'm not sure about their take on this issue. Spelljammer rules really aren't too tough to alter and change to pathfinder for any experienced DM (I'm old school so DM it is!). I always look at my games like a movie producer and try and put the PCs in as the stars. Just think of what it would actually be like to travel off-world in a spelljammer ship? Of course, you're probably going to want to change the 'helms' at least, the magic-using ones that are the default system that is used to something a little more workable, perhaps make them as magic items of great value. Personally, I also use a couple of books put out by perpetrated press known respectively as Arsenal & Factory. If you can get a copy of them, by all means so do! They're out of print and have been for going on over 10+years with no way of getting in touch with the original writers/creators. Here's a couple of links for you though. Arsenal: https://www.amazon.com/Arsenal-System-Weapons-Guide-Sourcebook/dp/097213580 4 Factory: https://www.amazon.com/Factory-Compendium-Computers-Dweoware-Roleplaying/dp /0972135812/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0972135812&pd_rd _r=SA94YH6JXZEKPH990B42&pd_rd_w=IWkQN&pd_rd_wg=7HWX6&psc=1& refRID=SA94YH6JXZEKPH990B42
