Dimensional Exiles

[Alverant]

I was wondering if anyone ran a cross-world/dimensional-exiles Hero Fantasy game. Where the PCs are ordinary earth people drawn into the fantasy world. It's been done in some fantasy novels and is lightly touched on in the Fantasy Hero book, but I've seen little of it here.

 

In any campaings you are a part of, do the characters get back, gain special powers, have any special difficulities, etc? I'm curious about your experiences.

 

Thanks

Moquif

[OddHat]

Re: Dimensional Exiles

 

I did a dark comedy one-shot like this. The characters were 25 point normals, no disads, and were told to prepare characters with a college game in mind. We had a football jock, a pre-med life guard, and a computer geek. I dropped them into a Grimm's fairy-tale style game world filled with touchy witches, dim peasants, and half crazed knights. It was great fun.

[waiwode]

Re: Dimensional Exiles

 

Years ago I ran something x-dimensional, with old Fantasy Hero.

 

However, instead of modern, the characters were peaceful political disidents in an authoritarian futuristic world. (And were 50 + 25 disad characters).

 

After a session or two of this they were captured and framed by digital evidence for a kangaroo court. They were marched to the "Disintegration Chamber."

 

Disintegration, which for decades had been used by The State to dispose of criminals (psychotic or otherwise), political disidents, and any other embarrassments, turned out to actually be a one-way Dimensional Transfer to an already off-kilter fantasy land...

 

...meaning there were hundreds of violent criminals wandering around (and hundreds of other "radical" politicos).

 

Dwarves with Labour Unions.

 

Peasants who seek to control the means of production.

 

Elves trapped by a madman's delusions.

 

It was strange but fun.

 

Doug.

[Alverant]

Re: Dimensional Exiles

 

It sounds like some fun campaigns. I wonder why they're not more popular. Do they blur the line between fantasy and reality too much for some players? It damages the suspision of disbelief by having real people in a fantasy world? The Fantasy Hero book talks about some of the problems with modern knowledge (gun powder and scientific knowledge for example). But are they really problems? The same thing that makes magic possible can make gun powder impossible.

 

In the Galactic Champions book they do talk about the hero out of time. There's really no difference between that and this. Someone from another world/time adapting to the culture difference. Most people in today's world will adapt just as well (or poorly) if they were sent to Fantasy world as a thousand years in the future.

[OddHat]

Re: Dimensional Exiles

 

In the Galactic Champions book they do talk about the hero out of time. There's really no difference between that and this. Someone from another world/time adapting to the culture difference. Most people in today's world will adapt just as well (or poorly) if they were sent to Fantasy world as a thousand years in the future.

 

It can be great fun to have the modern characters be completely worthless in his new environment, at least as first. Start giving them magical power boosts as it becomes less funny.

[Alverant]

Re: Dimensional Exiles

 

Yep, powers is usually the easiest way to help them survive. If they get rescued then it's not as much fun. In the Viper book there is a campain idea where a whole nest gets transfered so you do have your guns until you run out of ammo. So maybe a military group is brought over with all their weapons. They get their magic boosts as the guns run dry.

 

Stargate SG-1 is kind of like that. Ordinary people against aliens with superior firepower, but they are able to win through stradgy and courage. To quote O'Neil, "You have weapons designed to scare the enemy. We have weapons designed to KILL the enemy."