4e D&D + Paranoia

[jdh417]

After reading the Epic levels synopsis on the D&D website, the ability for characters to resurrect themselves jumped out at me. What would be the best use for this ability?

Player fratricide.

Okay one possible scenario, the characters have joined the cult of Tharizdun. Neutral, evil, and dedicated to destruction. However, the characters have all founded different factions within the cult with their own agendas. Each faction is trying to one-up the other to get the mad god's favor.

So here you go. The voice from beyond calls forth with a mission. An insane mission. The players take on the mission in their own unique ways, while simultaneously trying to sabotage the others from completing it first.

DM's, think of the amount of time you'll save on the preparation of monsters and foes. Players, imagine all the XP you'll get killing immortals over and over again.

Somebody please try something like this and post a play report.

[Krauser_Levyl]

I think players will become bored on fighting the same 4 opponents over and over. Heh.

[Krauser_Levyl]

A think that a PC vs. PC battle would be nice as the final, climatic battle of the entire campaign. The PCs had perhaps different affiliations, but they were forced to say together to defeat a common enemy.

An excellent hook for this is the Gods vs. Primordials conflict. As mentioned by Worlds & Monsters, Gods have different philosophies and alignments, but they are capable of allying themselves if the Primordials are freed from the Elemental Chaos and threaten to take over the Creation again.

So, in this scenario, it would be possible to see heroes of Bahamut, Moradin, Bane, and Vecna all in the same adventuring party. After the Primordial threat is properly dealt, these heroes are now destined to fight between themselves to determine what God will rule the Creation - despite the bounds of friendship that developed into them during the many years of adventure.

Very dramatic, huh?

[Tharen the Damned]

jdh417 wrote:

So here you go. The voice from beyond calls forth with a mission. An insane mission. The players take on the mission in their own unique ways, while simultaneously trying to sabotage the others from completing it first.

Well, If you want to go the whole Paranoia way you have to add:

- The players only have a vague notion what they have to do, but know that, if they do not exactly do what they should, they certainly will be killed.
- The players have no chance of ever getting any substancial knowledge or clues about their mission.
- The players get a lot of newly created magic items or ancient artifact they can use. But again, the players have no knowledge of how to use these items and no chance of uncovering the knowledge. They have to lern by trial and error.

[jdh417]

Krauser_Levyl wrote:

I think players will become bored on fighting the same 4 opponents over and over. Heh.

Perhaps you have never played the classic RPG, Paranoia, mentioned in the thread title. Properly motivated, players will have gleeful of fun killing each other.

I wouldn't recommend this kind of play for anything other than self-resurrecting characters. Otherwise, characters killing each other will lead to hard feelings at the table. It worked in Paranoia, because each character had six clones.

I know this style of play is antithetical to normal D&D play. Just threw this out to generate some weird ideas and nostalgia.

[The Eldritch Mr. Shiny]

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

[Trey]

psst "be only one"