finding it rather difficult to answer your 1-5 point questions but here goes
1) Victorian 2) don't really see the need isn't combat with them supposed to be totally futile? 3) as much or as little as will make it fun 4) same as 2 really 5) think VRGtR survivor characters would be quite fitting and adequate
to my mind War of The Worlds is a survival horror story.... till the Martians catch a cold anything much else and your doing Marvel's The Avengers rather then War of The Worlds
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Dragons vs Martians sounds like a rollicking good time. Helplessly flailing at a superior enemy until it falls over dead from a deus ex machina sounds frustrating and railroady.
I honestly don't think that 5e is the best system for this (At least if you willing to recreate the look and feel of the piece), I would go with something more akin to Call of Cthulhu. But that's not your need, so...
With that, you can position the party lv on how possible you want them to be able to handle the threats (The colossus is CR 23 and the Utroloth is CR 13), but I would advise you to make it possible for them to at least fight the Ultroloth and survive the Colossus long enough that they could flee - Something like a party of 4-5 at lv 8~.
The colossus would still feel impossible to kill, but if they can get one alien out, they should be able to handle.
Sounds a great concept! I might steal elements for my current campaign.
1. Forgotten Realms with the Invasion coming from Eberron. This gives plenty of readily available material, but everything from the Invaders being very alien.
2. Eberron Titan.
3. I’d say you need a far better story line than HG Wells’ version. If you follow the book, then there’s just a series of episodes that have no influence on the outcome of the story. Probably fine for levels 1-5. In d&d you kind of what your characters to achieve stuff beyond just surviving until the Martians catch a cold.
4. Eberron aberrations.
5. Depends how far you want to go. Level 1-5 will be dealing with local problems from the invasion, with initial contact with Martian scouts (Titan), like the original story. Level 6 - 10 you start your fight back against the invaders
for the whole campaign, I would make it a race against time to find a way t odefeat them. Make the tripods the drivers of the story, not an enemy to be slain. Build a story they can work through, and have the tripods turning up at inopportune times. Emphasize the tripods powers by having them kill dragons and giants.
War of the Worlds wouldn't work in a game of "there's the aliens, go kill them with your powers!". They need to be the scary "oh gods we can't hurt them" enemies, driving the party to seek out a superweapon. Perhaps work it with the (IIRC) infernal machine module which may marry well to it, from what little I know of it.
I would definitely say do not attempt to be faithful to the book. It's a great source to pull ideas from, but ultimately there's not a lot that happens in the book that would translate well to 5e. I think it's a great source of inspiration, but if you ever get an idea that doesn't gel with the original story, just ignore the original story and do your own thing.
Yeah, in agreement with other folks. War of the Worlds doesn't have any "heroes" who win. It's strictly survival and a lot of meditations on not just the fragility of life but the fragility of civilization in crisis moments. D&D is just not really built around "run away run away!" Even when stand up fights are best avoided in D&D, the game's back up stance is more about problem solving, and the problem in War of the Worlds was solved by an accident of nature rather than any innovative thinking by any human hero.
So War of the Worlds and the two main cinematic adaptations I wouldn't recommend for direct port into a D&D styled game. I would rather point you to two other adaptations/followups instead, maybe three. (Heh, it's like I was once a noted scholar on War of the Worlds and apocalyptic narratives, ahem, I'm a bit rusty though).
First off, there's Scarlet Traces, a Dark Horse (I think comic) in the form of two mini series that World Builds off the failure of the first Martian invasion. How would late Victorian early Edwardian Britain leverage it's status as ground zero of the alien invasion (so the series posited) and thus de facto owner of all this alien tech in good working order after you hosed out the Martian snot? It's a sort of alternate history along a steampunk / xenopunk theme, London's cab system are based on the articulation of walker tech, the cities gaslights weren't electrified so much as replaced by a technology based on the death ray (there's a sort of "Black Ops" project involving the Red Weed I won't get into because spoilers and the set up for the sequel series). Tonally I could see something like Eberon on Ravinica, probably a low magic campaign with the exception of artificers whose magic are actually martian tech adaptaions.
There's also War of the Worlds: Goliath, which is a similar supposition (Earth exploits Martian tech) but done in a much more anime vein (picture Teddy Rooselveldt rocking some serious muscle while he tries to unload a belt fed machine gun into Martian Invasion Force Two's mothership). In this one, the Martians do try a round two invasion and have to contend with human defense forces who've extrapolated on Martian tech (besides Teddy Rooseveldt, you also have Baron Richthofen as a crack pilot on aerial technology based on Martian tech). They used Jeff Wayne's "Autumn Leaves" from his broadway musical adaptation of War of the Worlds in the credits, I thought it was a nice touch, and yes, that Jeff Wayne of ELO is mandatory for some of my games and should be for yours).
There's the War of the Worlds TV series where you had a band of heroes in season one trying to put a stop to a Martian sleeper agent campaign to take over the world, and Season Two where the Martians sort of won and the heroes are not trying to fight a borderline futile guerilla war
Still D&D straight is too invested in magical heroism for any of those fights. I mean, you could explore what sort of work folks have done with 5e to adapt d20 modern to 5e standards. I couldn't see 5e really working mechanically otherwise without some radical homebrewing and rewriting.
So in the end basically seconding folks recommending something like Call of Cthulhu, maybe Alien The Role Playing Game, I haven't read it all the way through yet but I'm liking it and especially how the Colonial Marines book gives you all the cool material gear from the sequel and then some, but in a way that makes all that junk sorta moot. I could definitely see the Tripods and Red Weed working like some of the mega weaponized black goos Free League introduces and stats in their game. But it's a very different game from D&D (stress dice for instance, and not so much alignments but "agendas" as character drivers to the point where trust no one can happen).
On an inspirational level, I think the Red Weed and overall Martian strategy could be analogous to how demonic incursions are described as happening in MToF.
First off: I love this idea for a TTRPG game... Though some thoughts do spring to mind:
- If you're wanting to recreate the desperation and atmosphere of the book faithfully; then to echo some others; D&D might not be the best system to use; this would certianly be more of a Call of Cthulhu sort of a game I'd imagine. IE; where characters individually aren't that powerful and injury is costly.
- If you're going more for an "All quiet on the Martian fornt" angle, IE: where fighting these things is actually practical if very difficult: then D&D away, and yeah: coming up with a properly meaty stat block and challenge will be the main thing to worry about.
- I'd also say don't hesitate to borrow from other versions of the War of teh worlds; it's an old book that's been adapted into a lot of different forms (multiple sequels, multiple films and even TV hows), so there's lots of potential inspiration to choose from. Still more if you include things like teh Worlds war series and tangentially related things like the aforementioned tabletop war game and films like Goliath.
Im thinking of adapting the hg wells classic for 5e but there are a few questions i want to ask you all
1. What setting fits this adaption the most?
2. What should i do for the tripods' stat block
3. How faithful should i be to H.G. Wells' novel?
4. Should i use the statblocks for the martians?
And 5. What level range should i make the adventure?
made me think of the Genres of Horror in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft particularly the discussion of Disaster Horror and the use of survivor characters
finding it rather difficult to answer your 1-5 point questions but here goes
1) Victorian
2) don't really see the need isn't combat with them supposed to be totally futile?
3) as much or as little as will make it fun
4) same as 2 really
5) think VRGtR survivor characters would be quite fitting and adequate
to my mind War of The Worlds is a survival horror story.... till the Martians catch a cold
anything much else and your doing Marvel's The Avengers rather then War of The Worlds
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Dragons vs Martians sounds like a rollicking good time. Helplessly flailing at a superior enemy until it falls over dead from a deus ex machina sounds frustrating and railroady.
I honestly don't think that 5e is the best system for this (At least if you willing to recreate the look and feel of the piece), I would go with something more akin to Call of Cthulhu. But that's not your need, so...
You're gonna have to depart from the whole "Aliens are impossible to destroy" to make it a bit more interesting for the average D&D player. If you are willing to do it, the tripods could use the Warforged Colossus statblock from Eberron (https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/warforged-colossus) and the martians could be Ultroloths (https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/ultroloth).
With that, you can position the party lv on how possible you want them to be able to handle the threats (The colossus is CR 23 and the Utroloth is CR 13), but I would advise you to make it possible for them to at least fight the Ultroloth and survive the Colossus long enough that they could flee - Something like a party of 4-5 at lv 8~.
The colossus would still feel impossible to kill, but if they can get one alien out, they should be able to handle.
Hope it helps, good luck!
Sounds a great concept! I might steal elements for my current campaign.
1. Forgotten Realms with the Invasion coming from Eberron. This gives plenty of readily available material, but everything from the Invaders being very alien.
2. Eberron Titan.
3. I’d say you need a far better story line than HG Wells’ version. If you follow the book, then there’s just a series of episodes that have no influence on the outcome of the story. Probably fine for levels 1-5. In d&d you kind of what your characters to achieve stuff beyond just surviving until the Martians catch a cold.
4. Eberron aberrations.
5. Depends how far you want to go. Level 1-5 will be dealing with local problems from the invasion, with initial contact with Martian scouts (Titan), like the original story. Level 6 - 10 you start your fight back against the invaders
for the whole campaign, I would make it a race against time to find a way t odefeat them. Make the tripods the drivers of the story, not an enemy to be slain. Build a story they can work through, and have the tripods turning up at inopportune times. Emphasize the tripods powers by having them kill dragons and giants.
War of the Worlds wouldn't work in a game of "there's the aliens, go kill them with your powers!". They need to be the scary "oh gods we can't hurt them" enemies, driving the party to seek out a superweapon. Perhaps work it with the (IIRC) infernal machine module which may marry well to it, from what little I know of it.
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I would definitely say do not attempt to be faithful to the book. It's a great source to pull ideas from, but ultimately there's not a lot that happens in the book that would translate well to 5e. I think it's a great source of inspiration, but if you ever get an idea that doesn't gel with the original story, just ignore the original story and do your own thing.
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Yeah, in agreement with other folks. War of the Worlds doesn't have any "heroes" who win. It's strictly survival and a lot of meditations on not just the fragility of life but the fragility of civilization in crisis moments. D&D is just not really built around "run away run away!" Even when stand up fights are best avoided in D&D, the game's back up stance is more about problem solving, and the problem in War of the Worlds was solved by an accident of nature rather than any innovative thinking by any human hero.
So War of the Worlds and the two main cinematic adaptations I wouldn't recommend for direct port into a D&D styled game. I would rather point you to two other adaptations/followups instead, maybe three. (Heh, it's like I was once a noted scholar on War of the Worlds and apocalyptic narratives, ahem, I'm a bit rusty though).
First off, there's Scarlet Traces, a Dark Horse (I think comic) in the form of two mini series that World Builds off the failure of the first Martian invasion. How would late Victorian early Edwardian Britain leverage it's status as ground zero of the alien invasion (so the series posited) and thus de facto owner of all this alien tech in good working order after you hosed out the Martian snot? It's a sort of alternate history along a steampunk / xenopunk theme, London's cab system are based on the articulation of walker tech, the cities gaslights weren't electrified so much as replaced by a technology based on the death ray (there's a sort of "Black Ops" project involving the Red Weed I won't get into because spoilers and the set up for the sequel series). Tonally I could see something like Eberon on Ravinica, probably a low magic campaign with the exception of artificers whose magic are actually martian tech adaptaions.
There's also War of the Worlds: Goliath, which is a similar supposition (Earth exploits Martian tech) but done in a much more anime vein (picture Teddy Rooselveldt rocking some serious muscle while he tries to unload a belt fed machine gun into Martian Invasion Force Two's mothership). In this one, the Martians do try a round two invasion and have to contend with human defense forces who've extrapolated on Martian tech (besides Teddy Rooseveldt, you also have Baron Richthofen as a crack pilot on aerial technology based on Martian tech). They used Jeff Wayne's "Autumn Leaves" from his broadway musical adaptation of War of the Worlds in the credits, I thought it was a nice touch, and yes, that Jeff Wayne of ELO is mandatory for some of my games and should be for yours).
There's the War of the Worlds TV series where you had a band of heroes in season one trying to put a stop to a Martian sleeper agent campaign to take over the world, and Season Two where the Martians sort of won and the heroes are not trying to fight a borderline futile guerilla war
Still D&D straight is too invested in magical heroism for any of those fights. I mean, you could explore what sort of work folks have done with 5e to adapt d20 modern to 5e standards. I couldn't see 5e really working mechanically otherwise without some radical homebrewing and rewriting.
So in the end basically seconding folks recommending something like Call of Cthulhu, maybe Alien The Role Playing Game, I haven't read it all the way through yet but I'm liking it and especially how the Colonial Marines book gives you all the cool material gear from the sequel and then some, but in a way that makes all that junk sorta moot. I could definitely see the Tripods and Red Weed working like some of the mega weaponized black goos Free League introduces and stats in their game. But it's a very different game from D&D (stress dice for instance, and not so much alignments but "agendas" as character drivers to the point where trust no one can happen).
On an inspirational level, I think the Red Weed and overall Martian strategy could be analogous to how demonic incursions are described as happening in MToF.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
First off: I love this idea for a TTRPG game... Though some thoughts do spring to mind:
- If you're wanting to recreate the desperation and atmosphere of the book faithfully; then to echo some others; D&D might not be the best system to use; this would certianly be more of a Call of Cthulhu sort of a game I'd imagine. IE; where characters individually aren't that powerful and injury is costly.
- If you're going more for an "All quiet on the Martian fornt" angle, IE: where fighting these things is actually practical if very difficult: then D&D away, and yeah: coming up with a properly meaty stat block and challenge will be the main thing to worry about.
- I'd also say don't hesitate to borrow from other versions of the War of teh worlds; it's an old book that's been adapted into a lot of different forms (multiple sequels, multiple films and even TV hows), so there's lots of potential inspiration to choose from. Still more if you include things like teh Worlds war series and tangentially related things like the aforementioned tabletop war game and films like Goliath.
As a suggestion, if you want tripods, take a look at John Christophers series The Tripods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
It seems like it could be a good fir for a D&D game (it has hopelessly outmatched protagonists working to overthrow their tripod overlords).