Excuse me, but what if a massive conflict (a direct adaption/rip-off of the LotR) were to occur in the planar universe, in the form of shared fanfiction between the community? Discuss your thoughts on the idea.
Planar Lord of the Rings
Sat, 2006-07-29 14:19
#1
Planar Lord of the Rings
Sat, 2006-07-29 18:47
#3
Planar Lord of the Rings
I am looking for a PlaneScape version of the Lord of the Rings. It takes places in the PlaneScape Multiverse instead of Middle-Earth, Sauron is a fallen celestial/deity (not Lich) who commands the participants of the Blood War against the planes of good, the heroes try to destroy Sauron's powercenter (the One Ring) by casting it into Mount Doom in Gehenna, and whatever else is shared between PS and LotR.
Sat, 2006-07-29 19:57
#4
Planar Lord of the Rings
Being a long-time fan of Tolkien, I can respect what you are trying to do, but I would suggest twisting it a bit, especially since any gamers who haven't read the books (for shame!) have seen the movies (bravo!).
So here's my take on the twist:
A young (dwarf? gnome? wood elf?) and his esquire are traveling because the ( object ) they carry is attracting the attention of shadowy figures, half-orcs, etc. To save their homeland, they are carrying it to a lerned sage, a half-elf living in the gate-town of Extacy. They acquire guardians (the PCs) when their inn is attacked by Shadows. The half-elvin sage reveals that the object is the powerbase of ( antagonist ) imprisoned but awakened within the lowest layer of Gehenna, the dead furnaces. The realm of the orcish power of darkness and thievery also lies there, hence the shadowy orcs and half orcs, some of whom are lead by a powerful prime-plane half-orc priest known as "Sharky" whose true motives are unknown. The only way to destroy the item (the best idea, seeing as how it slowly turns the bearer into a shadow-fiend under the control of (protagonist) ) is to bring it to the Forge of Fire, the only hot furnace left on the dark mount.
Traveling back across the outlands towards Torch and the gate to Gehenna, the party stops at an underground berg near the Dwarven Mountain only to find themselves trapped in a portion of Baphomet's infinite maze in the Abyss. A Balor proxy of Baphomet seeks the item and sends its troll minons against the heroes. The party manages to find a portal to the layer of Adrolynne (if you have Hordes of the Abyss) and from there to Arborea.
The elves, though briefly temped to sieze the item themselves, aid the party and re-outfits them. They are then given magical boats which allow them to travel the oceanus back to the outlands. Once back in the outlands near the great swamp (and from there on to Torch), they are ambushed by orcs and half-orcs and split up.
The PCs only lead is to follow the orcs' trail back to a portal to the prime world where Sharky's forces are getting ready to assault the (human/dwarven/elvin) kingdoms. The PCs must convince the treants and dryads of the forests to help defeat Sharky, and/or they must inspire the ( Human? Dwarven? Elvin?) defenders to hold out against the epic assault.
The Party,( reunited/rescued/raised/victorious/fleeing for their lives ), must finally travel to Gehenna (through Sharky's gate?), facing more resistance, terrible monsters, and a trecherous shadow fiend guide (a former slave to the item). The party must finally sneek their way into the Forge of Fire, where the item can be ultimately destroyed (which, incidently, briefly re-awakens the sleeping mount in a narrowly-escapable cataclysm).
Feel free to use any part, all, none, tell me to pike it, whatever. Tolkien's Middle-earth has a treasure trove of gaming ideas. *Read The Silmarillian*
Sun, 2006-07-30 10:49
#5
Planar Lord of the Rings
[critic]
Sauron is a fallen celestial/deity (not Lich) who commands the participants of the Blood War against the planes of good
A) there is no such thing as a fallen diety. It would simply be an evil one.
B) I can see no reason why either a Celestial (fallen or otherwise) or a diety would fuse their lifeforce with an artifact. Even if it made them very powerful (the diety is already a god. What more do they want?), they would surely hide it away under heavy guard in a demiplane which doesnt even exist if you don't know its name.
C) Liches already have the 'life tied to an item' thing going on. And it easily explains why he came back to life. Why not use such creature when its exactly what you want? If it makes you feel better, it can be a celestial that fell and became a lich (why an already immortal being would do such a thing is beyond me, though)
D) No diety, fallen celestial, or even a lich could 'command the participants of the Blood War against the planes of good'. First off, the participants would be far more likly to attack each other then the celestials. And the 'Loths already into controll of the Blood War, and making a tidy profit off it too. Why would they allow anyone, even the Oinoloth, to stop it? if it could benifit them they could have done it a long time ago.
[/critic]
Sun, 2006-07-30 13:22
#6
Planar Lord of the Rings
The Yugoloths are using the Blood War as an experiment into the nature of evil, and gain profit solely as a beneficial byproduct. When they deem it necessary: they will end the war, unite the fiendish races, then turn their attention to the planes of good, and ultimately the entire multiverse itself. The one thing that stands in the way of this is Sigil and the Lady of Pain (who does her best to prevent both good and evil from gaining a clear advantage, which is usually Sigil itself, since both forces are equally needed to maintain the multiverse's sanctity, overseen by the four Pains she commands).
Sun, 2006-07-30 14:39
#7
Planar Lord of the Rings
A direct adaptation of Lord of the Rings would not, IMHO, work with Planescape. The key elements of LotR are as follows:
- There's only one real force for evil (Sauron) who has been greatly weakened in the past, enough that he has had to use guile rather than outright force at times, and is weak enough now to be opposed by mortals. Putting such a being at play in Planescape incredibly ganks the Lower Planes.
- The forces of good opposing the Dark Lord are equally limited and constrained, either due to being mere mortals (Elrond, Elendil and similar) or else having strict blocks put on their power to insure mortal free will (Gandalf and the other Maiar). Again, this sort of thing really doesn't fit Planescape.
- The climax of the conflict between the forces of good and the Dark Lord is universally recognized as a cusp of history, one way or another. If good wins, supernatural evil is basically crushed forever, with a new golden age awaiting; if evil triumphs, it becomes unstoppable and conquers everything. The infinite Planes are just too darn big for this kind of epic scope, and if you take away the 'Final Confrontation' bit you no longer have LotR.
- The most important protagonists, when all is said and done, aren't angelic wizards or ancient elf-lords or hero-kings, but a couple of ordinary hobbits who've come from the most ordinary, prosaic, forgotten corner of the world, and after the adventure is over just want to go home, toughened but essentially unchanged by events. It might be possible to pull this element off in a high-magic, high-weirdness setting like Planescape - but it'd take an incredibly deft touch to avoid straining disbelief, from both DM and players alike.
It's absolutely still possible to have a Planescape campaign in which a group of heroic adventurers engage in a daring excursion to eviscerate the power source of a Dark Lord. But it's not going to be a triumph over All That Is Evil, and it's not going to be the humble victory of the gutsy, unremarkable Everyman. Which means that you've kept Tolkien's plotline, but lost the story at the heart of the whole business.
Sun, 2006-07-30 14:43
#8
Planar Lord of the Rings
The Yugoloths are using the Blood War as an experiment into the nature of evil, and gain profit solely as a beneficial byproduct. When they deem it necessary: they will end the war, unite the fiendish races, then turn their attention to the planes of good, and ultimately the entire multiverse itself. The one thing that stands in the way of this is Sigil and the Lady of Pain (who does her best to prevent both good and evil from gaining a clear advantage, which is usually Sigil itself, since both forces are equally needed to maintain the multiverse's sanctity, overseen by the four Pains she commands).
What are you basing your information on? I havent heard any of this. ( Although we all know theres the Yugoloth conspericy, I dont think the yugoloths are quite that powerful. Baernaloths maybe) .especially the part about the lady giving a hoot about anything outside of Sigil. Balance in Sigil? Yeah, sure. She's all for it. But the only time I know of that the Lady cared about anything outside of Sigil was when she killed Aosakr and his followers, and that was because he pissed her off on a personal level.
But, assuming everything you said is correct, you just said that the Yugoloths have the power to end the blood war. Which is probably true in one way or another. But even the Yugoloths can't simply flip a switch and make both sides forget that they hate each other with the burning passion of a thousand suns. The only was i can see, even if the loths are in contro of it, is having one side win. This would re-align the entire lower planes, as the concept of evil has now changed. This event alone could be a major threat to the multiverse, as the entire great wheel has to shift, depending on how the Lower Planes are re-organized.
But I digress. assuming everything you said is correct, with the Blood War in the stalemate it is, it doesn't look like 'Loths experiment is going to provide anything fruitful for a long time.
But, yet agin, I digress. Assuming you are correct, you still have no way for a celestial/diety/lich to take control of the blood war. unless they can 'take it' from the Loths. As if you can 'steal' thousands of years worth of subtle manipulation of two infinatly large fiendish armies.
Well, that all depends on what you want to do. Are you talking about a story where a group of adventurers set out to a destroy the artifact-like phylactery of a lich bent on world domination? Because you can have endless variations of that and still have it be somewhat new.
However, if your talking about taking the actually characters from LOTR 'changeing' their names so that they are spelled differantly and yet sound the same, and having them fight orcs as they try to sneak a magic ring into a volcano to destroy it, (but its 'planar' because one of the party members is a tiefling and the volcano is in Gehenna) then thats going to get old pretty fast. Unless its a spoof and actually funny.
It all depends on how much you want to steal from LOTR. LOTR was a great trilogy, and was made into some damn good movies. But you have to keep in mind that, becuase it was so successful, we have already seen it.