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Campaign Setting: Final Incursion


Doctor Agenda

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Next Saturday I expect to be starting my Final Incursion Champions setting. The premise is that there are a short series of profoundly reality-altering Events (capitalization required) that culminate in an event that gives a lot of people super powers (ala M&M's Paragons game). Before the First Incursion, the setting is our mundane world, possibly even more ordinary than the real one. The Incursions (also to be capitalized) introduce previously fictional elements into the world.

 

With the First Incursion (aka, the Shadow, as all the lights dim for a moment or two; including the stars); the setting gets 'pulpified'. With no other fanfare than the dimming effect; a vast cavern suitable for lost civilizations and dinosaurs comes into being below Texas and Mexico (may not be the only such place), the Mars rover Opportunity detects what may be the remains of an incredibly ancient canal, a certain percentage of Egyptians turn from protesting to plotting the resurrection of an ancient pharoah or high priest, parting clouds reveal a previously-unrecorded mysterious island to satellites, and so on. Besides the pulp feel, these things have in common that they take place away from major population centers. The Egyptians are a borderline case, but the ones who are affected go out-of-town for their plotting.

 

The Final Incursion (aka, the Shimmer, as everything seems to get wavery like in a heat mirage, cameras later reveal the Shimmer only affected people, everything looked shimmery because they were inside the effect); many people get super powers. All special effects are possible, and physics is as rubbery as it needs to be for the powers to work as envisioned. This isn't the only possible origin for supers, a person could have gotten them from a previous Incursion, or even have appeared in a previous Incursion.

 

Here's what I'm hoping for advice on: I like the name Final Incursion, but it doesn't really fit for just two Incursions. I need at least one Incursion between them, and I would like suggestions. Some possibilities I've pondered include Space Opera; with maybe a warlike race and a logical race, not so far away as the hypership flies, that just haven't detected us yet. Another is Conspiracy, with Grey and Reptoid UFOnauts, Illuminati, ESPionage, sorcerous cabals, and cryptids lurking in the shadows. I've even imagined a hodgepodge of small, localized Incursions.

 

Some considerations are that I don't want society as a whole to implode because of these changes, or the average citizen in a developed nation to have a reasonable fear of something weird doing something horrible to him or her on a yearly (or higher) basis. There will be some horrible consequences to the incursions, but they should be uncommon and outweighed by the good.

 

The origin of all this is mysterious (well it's the kind of setting I want, but you know what I mean). It may help if you imagine the Squire of Gothos or Q getting ahold of some old novels and comic books and messing with our universe for a couple weeks before getting distracted by something else or deciding to sit back and just watch the ensuing hilarity.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments, I've gotten a lot of help for my games from you folks, so I'm confident you'll supply some stuff I can use.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Re: Campaign Setting: Final Incursion

 

I had a little more time to work on this than I anticipated, thanks to a cancellation, so the series is actually starting day after tomorrow. I've changed the First Incursion giant cavern to subterranean portals to a hollow planet so I can have whatever I want there and players won't necessarily know at first that they've left Earth. I'm using small, localized Incursions to cover anything I want to introduce, but also a big Incursion of Space Opera/Planetary Romance in case I decide to take the game into space.

 

The interstellar Space Opera won't be immediately apparent and in fact may never come up. However, for planetary romance purposes this Incursion includes a counterpart to Earth in Earth's L-3 point (not a true counter-Earth in our exact same orbit but opposite the Sun). I know the L-3 point is sometimes visible but have no idea of the schedule. Anyone know when a mysterious new planet should show up on our telescopes?

 

I'm also interested in suggestion for this planet: name, feel, civilization(s), inhabitants, creatures. Would it be too much to also make it the hollow planet that can be reached through the subterranean portals?

 

Saturday will be largely character creation (125+125). I am anticipating a soldier with chi powers, a student with sonic powers, and a duplicator; a couple of players don't know what they want yet. I'll have a GMPC for a mouthpiece (100+100). This is going to be largely player-driven, what kind of characters they make and what they want to do will determine what kind of series it is.

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Re: Campaign Setting: Final Incursion

 

I'm also interested in suggestion for this planet: name' date=' feel, civilization(s), inhabitants, creatures. Would it be too much to also make it the hollow planet that can be reached through the subterranean portals?[/quote']

 

Here are some good suggestions:

Name: Cre (Irish for Earth)

Civilizations: Strong influence from 1500's Native Americans. They do not control the world but they were able to defend themselves when the Europeans appeared and now there is a standing truce among the American Tribes and the rest of the world. This is in addition to anything else that you would like to put on Cre.

Discovery: Since the rules of physics are wonkers at this time, do not make a defined schedule. Instead make it so that Cre is discovered only when an explorer from Cre gets lost and does not recognize where he/she is and wants the embassy from some society that does not exist on Earth.

Other Notes: Do not make it to be an exact replica of Earth. Play around with landmasses, oceans (and other waters), races, and any other thing that you would like to do. Suggestion: Flip the planet upside down (from our perspective).

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Re: Campaign Setting: Final Incursion

 

Those ARE good! I would probably never have thought of flipping it over (continent at the North Pole, polar icecap at the South). I will definitely use a native American analogue, the planet should be mostly low-tech for that 'Sword and Planet' feel, although I'll probably have some brooding high tech intelligences lurking somewhere. Thanks for the detailed suggestions!

 

If I make it hollow, maybe I'll have transplanted (or time-napped or conjured up) Native Americans be one of the dominant cultures on the inside. Maybe some Etruscans, Kushites, and Mongols too, with plenty of space between them. And Neanderthals. And dinosaurs. And a saurian race. Then it can be more alien on the outside; so if you come from underground it's a classic lost world but if you come from space it's an alien planet.

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Re: Campaign Setting: Final Incursion

 

You could go with a Horror Incursion of some sort (the Shudder?)... The temperature throughout the world dips momentarily, and suddenly the remaining wilderness areas of the world start playing host to werewolves and abominable snowmen and cryptofauna, and old ruins are inhabited by vampires and mummies and ghosts.

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Re: Campaign Setting: Final Incursion

 

Like the name and effect! I'll make that part of the series of small, localized incursions so there will be plenty of horror to be found without the game necessarily becoming a monster hunter campaign...but it can if that's what the players want!

 

I'm going to have 'the Twilight or Darkening' for the Space Opera incursion...it happens 'offscreen' but it's really the biggest incursion, so unlike the other effects, which are momentary, this one will last for 11 minutes. I've decided against Cre being hollow, but the vast caverns will be there instead of Earth and I'm sticking with the subterranean portals and other features.

 

Thanks for the ideas, folks! I feel ready for tomorrow's game. Since this game will be following the players I don't know yet where it will focus, so I may bump this thread up again for more questions. In the meantime, any other ideas you want to share are more than welcome.

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