As a longtime D&D player, I have been witness to several D&D adventures that involve space Ailens, or at least their machines.
Old timers may recall Temple of the Frog, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and I think All that Glitters...or maybe it was one of the X modules...It has been a while.
Back in the day I discovered that 1st Edition D&D and 1st edition Gamma World were easily transposable, and have since used GW1 Legion of Gold in a variety of campaigns including presenting the Sub-Aquatic Lab as an alternative means of leaving the island in A$ Dungeons of the Slave Lords.
I have always enjoyed offering an adventure or two where the party finds them selves figuring out the workings of futuristic equipment and weapons and doing battle with Robots/androids and perhapse picking up a mutation or two along the way.
These si-fi adventures have not been without their lessons learned.
1. All future weapons and equipment chould have charges and not be easily recharged less they leave the futuristic adventure and end up in your fantasy world. I currently have a character in my campaign in possession of two Mark V blasters. He is at -4 to use them until he takes an exotic weapon feat. Each gun can fire 5 shoots and the only place he can recharge them is at least two weeks travel away, and may not still be functioning. While the Blasters do around 3d6 damage (per the Omega World mini game back in a DUNGEON/ POLYHEDRON) they do allow me to send a few meaner creatures at the party of currently 4th and 5th level characters. And if Future weapons or devices are going to ruin a climatic encounter, they can always just not work. Maybe their warrenty just expited or something.
2. Players often die or blow themselves up in a fantasy turned future session. I've found this particularry true of the Sub-aquatic lab from GW1. A speargun with explosive speard (like 10d6 damage) have killed a number of PCs who are just testing one by fireing into a near by object. To remedy this, I have the androids the party is fighting in the lab take the dead PC and put them in vejuvination vats that bring the PCs back to life...sometimes with an artificial heart or limb. One player in a particulary self destructive party coined the phrase "Back to the vats" which has become the players' plea whenever faced by a TPK.
3. Don't over do Si-fi in D&D. It is D&D after all and if your players wanted to play Gamma World, ot Star Frontiers, then they would be rather than playing D&D.
I've noticed that 'The Reverse Dungeon" has a Barrier beak device in it, and I thought that was cool. Personally, I'd like to see the ocassional Si-fi interlude in a DUNGEON adventure. As apposed to a past Si-fi actor ;-) Since Greyhawk has an existing connection with star travlers, I don't think adding mini si-fi links is off key.
Anyone else interested in this?
Thoughts?
ASEO out
A sequel to Barrier Peaks at this point has a lot more appeal to me than, say, the recent sequels to Against the Giants. A whole lot more.
And as for technology unbalancing ones campaign, it only takes a moment of reflection on the arsenals of crazy magic items that PCs already haul around to realize that it's really just more of the same.
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Yeah, I've blended Star Frontiers and D&D back in the day.
Nothing beat the look on a party's faces when they thought the smoke they were following was a raided caravan out on the savanna and they see what they assume to be a few mutated thri-kreen. They get ready to smack some bug heads together, very cocky...and suddenly the bugs break out the tec weapons and go to town. TarkTarsus (okay, so I was young and heavily influenced by E.R. Burroughs)the Vrusk, and his clanmen clamed several trophies that day. It wasn't quite a TPK, but it was a total party pimpslap, which can be even more satisfying.
Honestly, I don't mind a little bit of hardcore sci-fi sneaking into the fantasy stuff, and sometimes it can be done very well, but I don't like it to be a huge influence. Expecially with some of the more advanced abberations, a sort of forgepunk or alchemypunk vibe can be struck up pretty nicely, but it tends to be overdone too quickly by many DMs I've seen try it (and I would include myself in that number)
Kobold Press
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I have some happy memories of "Barrier Peaks" and related material as well. But one of my favorite SF-meets-D&D moments was actually when I ran a few adventures using the Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne) setting for my regular group. The premise is that all super tech (the "Eyes" and so forth) are used as if they were magic items. Worked pretty well.
I'm happy to see that Guardians of Order have released a new edition of the setting.
I have some happy memories of "Barrier Peaks" and related material as well. But one of my favorite SF-meets-D&D moments was actually when I ran a few adventures using the Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne) setting for my regular group. The premise is that all super tech (the "Eyes" and so forth) are used as if they were magic items. Worked pretty well.
I'm happy to see that Guardians of Order have released a new edition of the setting.
Wowie. Are you THE Wolfgang Baur (dumb question, but I guess there COULD be more than one...)? I started into roleplaying in the early 90s when you were really leaving your mark on the TSR mags. I still have many of those issues today. Love your work.
You know. The City of the Gods in Blackmoor had a tie in to the Temple of the Frog, which I believe was related to the spaceship that crashed in the Barrier Peaks. Wolfgang took us into Blackmoor with Raiders of the Black Ice, Perhapse he can be persuaded to, in the Si-fi vein, write up a D&D meets Si-fi adventure revolving around an outpost, or maybe an excape pod from the City of the Gods.
ASEO out
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Kobold Press
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Wowie. Are you THE Wolfgang Baur (dumb question, but I guess there COULD be more than one...)?
Well, yes, I am. I've been putting a few things into the Paizo inboxes lately, so sometimes I get curious and dig around the boards to see what people are playing and talking about.
I'm glad you like the stuff from the 90s, but I haven't been idle since the d20 era started. The new stuff started showing up around Dragon 307 or Dungeon 115, and I wrote Frostburn, Secret College of Necromancy, some Diamond Throne fiction, and the upcoming Book of Roguish Luck.
If you can find a copy, the Sun & Scale adventure called "Gryphon's Legacy" is also pretty good.
If you get a chance to give any of those a read, I'd be interested to hear what you think.
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Kobold Press
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Wolfgang took us into Blackmoor with Raiders of the Black Ice, Perhapse he can be persuaded to, in the Si-fi vein, write up a D&D meets Si-fi adventure revolving around an outpost, or maybe an excape pod from the City of the Gods.
As one of the Elder Gods of Game Design is fond of saying, "You might think so. I could not possibly comment."
I'm glad you like the stuff from the 90s, but I haven't been idle since the d20 era started. The new stuff started showing up around Dragon 307 or Dungeon 115, and I wrote Frostburn, Secret College of Necromancy, some Diamond Throne fiction, and the upcoming Book of Roguish Luck.If you can find a copy, the Sun & Scale adventure called "Gryphon's Legacy" is also pretty good.
If you get a chance to give any of those a read, I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Wolfgang -
Thrilled to have you here posting with us! I haven't gotten a chance to look at all of the books you mentioned yet, but here are some brief comments from the ones I have:
Frostburn: I loved this book... I don't have time to do a full review right now, but my degree is in Russian and East European studies and I was thrilled to see some creatures from Russian folklore finally see print. I thought the new weapon selection was interesting, and the prestige classes made me think of villian possibilities, which is my primary criterion for a good prestige class. I'm hoping to get further into the book soon, and maybe even use some of the creatures from it in a Dungeon query.
Secret College of Necromancy (Green Ronin): My players are going to hate me when I begin using this book against them. Again, no time for a thorough review, but I will say that my favorite part is the familiars. They were just too cool for words.
- Ashavan