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Have you run one or been in one? If so, how did it go?
*Was it just 1 alternate reality (eg. mirror universe) or many (eg. Sliders)?
*Any pitfalls to the campaign? Besides the extra work involved the most obvious pitfall I can think of is players realizing that there won't be as many repercussions to their actions if they know they can leave the reality. Anything else?
*How did the players react to running into their alternate selves?
*If you didn't tell them the campaign would involve alternate realities ahead of time how did the players react to finding out?
*How did the plot work?
I'm particularly interested in the many realities case, but welcome any advice and experience on these types of campaigns.
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No responses so far, so I can only assume this is a rare campaign type to run. While waiting for anyone who has experience in this type of game I figure I'd throw out some ideas I had and see if there's problems with them.
The idea is that the players are based around some town, preferably one well outlined and not too big. Maybe Falcon's Hollow, Sandpoint, or Belhaim? They go on some mission and in the course of that mission find an item. They accidentally trigger that item (not quite sure how yet) and head back to town. There they find things changed in subtle ways and eventually realize that they're not in their home reality anymore. Trouble ensues. They can use the item again to try to return home, but find themselves in yet another reality.
This way I can keep using the same NPCs and locations/maps, making changes to them for each reality. I'm not sure if that would get boring after a while, especially if the players are seeing each reality as a sort of one shot session. I have ideas for a meta-plot connecting many realities, but want some realities to just be one shots so that it feels more realistic. Thoughts?
With regards to reality hopping I was thinking the item would be something like the Slider's timer, but be a little more open in terms of when it's used. [For those not familiar with Sliders, the timer was basically "here's a random time when you have your one chance to leave. Miss it and you're stuck here another 29.7 years."] The item has a cooldown so that you have to stay in that reality a minimum amount of time. On the other hand, there's a sickness you succumb to if you stay in any given reality too long. [I have ideas on how to incorporate the sickness into the meta-plot so it doesn't feel too forced.] So basically there's a window of time to get out instead of just a single moment. I'm torn on how easy it'll be to trigger the device. Standard action and poof everyone 'attuned' to it is in another reality? Full round and you gotta jump through a portal? I wanna make it fun to use to escape periodic unwinnable fights, but not so easy that it can be abused.
I loved Sliders.
Every parallel could have a separate complication.
1: The entire party is wanted because of what their doppelgangers did.
2: Instead of the disease that simulates zombies, most of the world is taken over by ghouls.
3: It looks like the modern world, but there is a popular RPG where characters invade the enemy's home world.
4: There was a great episode where they got trapped in a pyramid on a world where the Egyptians conquered all. Stat the big monster because some parties will kill it.
5: They arrive at a dig with one of the characters doppelgangers is the million year old corpse.(Actually did this in the show.)
If you could work 'modern' iterations of folks into what you're working on from 'Mundane Common Modern Reality', that could be a thing, too?
I am using a couple of variations that I wanted to show my players. They are starting in Xcrawl http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html and will be transferring into DragonStar https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/dragonstar/ when their planet is invaded about halfway through the campaign with the intention of having them focus more on the Charisma skills so that in the DragonStar world they can help run the PR side of the resistance as well as mix it up in a couple of skirmishes. With that being said there are so many offshoot tongue in cheek rpg's take one and use the fluff then make the story yours. Watch StarGate SG1 and Sliders and you will have a huge amount of ideas to play with.