Some of your campaign settings are incompatible with each other. The pharaohs of Egypt ceased to exist long before the Islamic caliphates and at one time, France was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Muslim faith is partly based upon the Jewish faith and partly based upon the Christian faith.
We weren't going for historical accuracy. It was about using everything we could and throwing it in a melting pot and seeing what we came up with.
Throwing a variety of historic periods into the same stew pot works only if it is impossible for people to travel from one area to another. In the case of the Holy Roman Empire and Renaissance France, the two campaign settings were separated by the Rhine River. While the current of the Rhine is swift and the water is cold, crossing it is not impossible. The pharaohs with their polytheism would have been very incompatible with the monotheism of Islam: just look at the history of the Crusades and the savage bloodshed resulting from one monotheistic faith(Christianity) bumping into another monotheistic faith(Islam). At least, Tolkien made it clear that during (and after) the Third Age of Middle Earth, that passage to the Undying Lands was a one-way voyage.
The first incarnation of "Battlestar Galactica" (the one with Lorne Greene), in its final season, had the fleeing human survivors finally finding the lost human colony on Earth (modern day Earth) with the Cylons hot on their trail, forcing the Colonial survivors to consider whether it was right to include the people of Earth in the ongoing war with the Cylons.
Thus, if you REALLY want your Spell jammer ship and crew to drop down into Earth's atmosphere, be prepared for a whole boatload of questions like how the various nations of Earth respond to such a visitation.
That depends on when in Earth's history it arrives.
Indeed, when does that Spell jamming ship arrive?
Does it swoop into the air space over London during the Battle of Britain in 1940? Does it swoop into the air space over Berlin during one of daytime bombing raids in 1944? Does it swoop over Roswell during the 1950's and be listed as a Very Unfriendly Flying Object? Does it swoop over ancient Baghdad of the year 200 A.D. and be hailed as an arrival of one of the gods of the Mideast? Does it swoop over Washington D.C. in the year 2040 A.D. and be blasted by a series of surface to air missiles?
August 17, 2025: Swooping into the skies above Berlin in 1944 will risk your spell jamming ship being targeted by a German 88 mm anti-aircraft cannon, which could bring your vessel down very quickly.
For my BECMI/1E/2E hybrid game Earth is both its own alternate Prime and its own Crystal Sphere (we went with each sphere is its own alternate, so adapting 5E philosgen/astral was rather easy we dint change a thing. )
now Earth is as follows
Holy Roman Empire / Arthurian England /Renaissance France / Norse Vikings / Egyptian Pharaohs / Islamic Caliphates / Zhou & Ming Dynasties
As you can see it can quite a mix, it’s very low magic world, and burning at the stake happens to pcs……… oops
Some of your campaign settings are incompatible with each other. The pharaohs of Egypt ceased to exist long before the Islamic caliphates and at one time, France was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Muslim faith is partly based upon the Jewish faith and partly based upon the Christian faith.
Actually I don’t see any real ncompatabilities. Yes in our world they were from different time periods and some of them overlapped but all could easily be placed in a mostly European setting: Holy Roman Empire -Germany-Austro-Hungary, the non Spanish Hapsburg empire Arthurian England - Romano-British - including Cornwall, Wales, Southern Scotland and possibly Normandy and Brittany Rennaisance France - roughly 1400s not 1600s, France and parts of Italy. City states and competing duchies with a mostly powerless central authority ( the king is in name only but is one of the duchies. Norse Vikings - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Vikings Rus. Egypt - Palestine, Egypt, Libya and northern Sudan. Instead of being conquered they returned to a Ptolemaic dynasty with the break up of the Roman Empire and defeated the Arab attempts at conquest. islamic Caliphates - 2 seperate Caliphates in competition with each other. First the Eurasian caliphate of Iraq, Iran and turkey. Second the Spanish Caliphate of Spain and western North Africa. Zhou and Ming Dynasties - basically a late warring states situation in the far east.
Well, about the first idea I had of the party crash landing on Earth with Mindflayers. You land on the outskirts of a small town in Appalachia and the adventure could revolve around trying to save the town from the Mindflayers and their minions. It could have vibes similar to those old 80s B-movies like Killer Klowns from Outer Space or the Masters of the Universe movie. Maybe an Intellect Devourer takes over the body of the Mayor in order to attempt to convince the citizens to submit to the Mindflayers will.
Well, about the first idea I had of the party crash landing on Earth with Mindflayers. You land on the outskirts of a small town in Appalachia and the adventure could revolve around trying to save the town from the Mindflayers and their minions. It could have vibes similar to those old 80s B-movies like Killer Klowns from Outer Space or the Masters of the Universe movie. Maybe an Intellect Devourer takes over the body of the Mayor in order to attempt to convince the citizens to submit to the Mindflayers will.
Mind flayers on Earth and in the backwoods of, say, eastern Tennessee or western North Carolina!?
Well, if you want an adventure with Bug Eyed Monsters, that would be one way to do it.
Should it be somewhere in Knox County or Hancock County? I was thinking that the Mindflayers minions besides stuff like Intellect Devourers and Cranium Rats they could be Goblins, Bugbears, Drow, Quaggoths and Kuo-toa.
Should it be somewhere in Knox County or Hancock County? I was thinking that the Mindflayers minions besides stuff like Intellect Devourers and Cranium Rats they could be Goblins, Bugbears, Drow, Quaggoths and Kuo-toa.
Which year, though!?
Preferably, it ought to be before 1900. After 1945, the area around Oak Ridge, Tennessee will be a rather "hot" area (military security due to the nuclear research facility and the various radioactive waste hot spots in the woods surrounding the facility). Of course, you could use the erroneous view during the 1950's concerning radioactive mutations to explain how various monsters "suddenly" appear in the Oak Ridge area.
Should it be somewhere in Knox County or Hancock County? I was thinking that the Mindflayers minions besides stuff like Intellect Devourers and Cranium Rats they could be Goblins, Bugbears, Drow, Quaggoths and Kuo-toa.
Which year, though!?
Preferably, it ought to be before 1900. After 1945, the area around Oak Ridge, Tennessee will be a rather "hot" area (military security due to the nuclear research facility and the various radioactive waste hot spots in the woods surrounding the facility). Of course, you could use the erroneous view during the 1950's concerning radioactive mutations to explain how various monsters "suddenly" appear in the Oak Ridge area.
In the 50s, you could also add Cold War paranoia about communist agents as an extra complication for the player characters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I was thinking maybe the 80s, the 90s or the 2000s.
The 2000's around Oak Ridge, TN? Well, you still have those woods contaminated with radioactive byproducts and while there is much less paranoia about radioactive items "walking" away from the labs, you still have the security perimeter.
Slightly off-topic:: Back during the 1940's, the employees at Oak Ridge used fluorine and gas diffusion to separate the Uranium 235 from the Uranium 238. Fluorine is a very corrosive element and the gas diffusion facility sprung a thousand leaks each day, which permitted radioactive gas to escape into the forest around Oak Ridge. Even today, the deer and other critters in those woods carry radioactive poisons in their bones and muscles. The gas leaks came to an end after Du Pont lined the pipes with a substance that did not react with anything, something called Teflon. These days, the USA uses plutonium in its nuclear weapons; plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear fission fueled electrical power generation. Plutonium is also poisonous: both as a source of radioactivity and as a poisonous very heavy metal. Just some more dreary facts that I know.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Throwing a variety of historic periods into the same stew pot works only if it is impossible for people to travel from one area to another. In the case of the Holy Roman Empire and Renaissance France, the two campaign settings were separated by the Rhine River. While the current of the Rhine is swift and the water is cold, crossing it is not impossible. The pharaohs with their polytheism would have been very incompatible with the monotheism of Islam: just look at the history of the Crusades and the savage bloodshed resulting from one monotheistic faith(Christianity) bumping into another monotheistic faith(Islam). At least, Tolkien made it clear that during (and after) the Third Age of Middle Earth, that passage to the Undying Lands was a one-way voyage.
The first incarnation of "Battlestar Galactica" (the one with Lorne Greene), in its final season, had the fleeing human survivors finally finding the lost human colony on Earth (modern day Earth) with the Cylons hot on their trail, forcing the Colonial survivors to consider whether it was right to include the people of Earth in the ongoing war with the Cylons.
Thus, if you REALLY want your Spell jammer ship and crew to drop down into Earth's atmosphere, be prepared for a whole boatload of questions like how the various nations of Earth respond to such a visitation.
That depends on when in Earth's history it arrives.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Indeed, when does that Spell jamming ship arrive?
Does it swoop into the air space over London during the Battle of Britain in 1940? Does it swoop into the air space over Berlin during one of daytime bombing raids in 1944? Does it swoop over Roswell during the 1950's and be listed as a Very Unfriendly Flying Object? Does it swoop over ancient Baghdad of the year 200 A.D. and be hailed as an arrival of one of the gods of the Mideast? Does it swoop over Washington D.C. in the year 2040 A.D. and be blasted by a series of surface to air missiles?
August 17, 2025: Swooping into the skies above Berlin in 1944 will risk your spell jamming ship being targeted by a German 88 mm anti-aircraft cannon, which could bring your vessel down very quickly.
Actually I don’t see any real ncompatabilities. Yes in our world they were from different time periods and some of them overlapped but all could easily be placed in a mostly European setting:
Holy Roman Empire -Germany-Austro-Hungary, the non Spanish Hapsburg empire
Arthurian England - Romano-British - including Cornwall, Wales, Southern Scotland and possibly Normandy and Brittany
Rennaisance France - roughly 1400s not 1600s, France and parts of Italy. City states and competing duchies with a mostly powerless central authority ( the king is in name only but is one of the duchies.
Norse Vikings - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Vikings Rus.
Egypt - Palestine, Egypt, Libya and northern Sudan. Instead of being conquered they returned to a Ptolemaic dynasty with the break up of the Roman Empire and defeated the Arab attempts at conquest.
islamic Caliphates - 2 seperate Caliphates in competition with each other. First the Eurasian caliphate of Iraq, Iran and turkey. Second the Spanish Caliphate of Spain and western North Africa.
Zhou and Ming Dynasties - basically a late warring states situation in the far east.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well, about the first idea I had of the party crash landing on Earth with Mindflayers. You land on the outskirts of a small town in Appalachia and the adventure could revolve around trying to save the town from the Mindflayers and their minions. It could have vibes similar to those old 80s B-movies like Killer Klowns from Outer Space or the Masters of the Universe movie. Maybe an Intellect Devourer takes over the body of the Mayor in order to attempt to convince the citizens to submit to the Mindflayers will.
Mind flayers on Earth and in the backwoods of, say, eastern Tennessee or western North Carolina!?
Well, if you want an adventure with Bug Eyed Monsters, that would be one way to do it.
Should it be somewhere in Knox County or Hancock County? I was thinking that the Mindflayers minions besides stuff like Intellect Devourers and Cranium Rats they could be Goblins, Bugbears, Drow, Quaggoths and Kuo-toa.
Which year, though!?
Preferably, it ought to be before 1900. After 1945, the area around Oak Ridge, Tennessee will be a rather "hot" area (military security due to the nuclear research facility and the various radioactive waste hot spots in the woods surrounding the facility). Of course, you could use the erroneous view during the 1950's concerning radioactive mutations to explain how various monsters "suddenly" appear in the Oak Ridge area.
Why can't it be in the present or close to the present? You could modify the guard stat block and give them a gun to make police officers.
In the 50s, you could also add Cold War paranoia about communist agents as an extra complication for the player characters.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I was thinking maybe the 80s, the 90s or the 2000s.
The 2000's around Oak Ridge, TN? Well, you still have those woods contaminated with radioactive byproducts and while there is much less paranoia about radioactive items "walking" away from the labs, you still have the security perimeter.
Slightly off-topic:: Back during the 1940's, the employees at Oak Ridge used fluorine and gas diffusion to separate the Uranium 235 from the Uranium 238. Fluorine is a very corrosive element and the gas diffusion facility sprung a thousand leaks each day, which permitted radioactive gas to escape into the forest around Oak Ridge. Even today, the deer and other critters in those woods carry radioactive poisons in their bones and muscles. The gas leaks came to an end after Du Pont lined the pipes with a substance that did not react with anything, something called Teflon. These days, the USA uses plutonium in its nuclear weapons; plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear fission fueled electrical power generation. Plutonium is also poisonous: both as a source of radioactivity and as a poisonous very heavy metal. Just some more dreary facts that I know.