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Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:20 pm S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks with a Twist

I never liked the crossover of genre in games, for me fantasy was fantasy and should remain so.

S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks has always has been that module that I wanted to play but couldn't because of the fantasy/Scifi crossover. Then came along Spelljammer and it kind of blended the two with more of a fantasy feel.

So my question is this:

What would your input be if all the spaceship, technology, rayguns etc. were replaced with Selljammer tech, automations/constructs and black powder guns. (black powder only working "on" the ship (in its bubble) or when the ship leaves oerth's atmosphere. Shocked

(or has this been done before)

Now I know everyone doesn't like Spelljammer, but in my case I find it the best solution for dislike of fantasy meets Star Wars. Where I feel the two should be kept separate.

Spelljammer doesnt have that "scifi" feel its feels more as a natural extension of the campaign.

I would really be interested on everyones thoughts on this.

Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:39 pm

Welcome DarkHerald!

Great topic. While I have never ran Barrier Peaks nor Spelljammer before, I have a healthy respect for both. Your solution is actually a good compromise in order to get the most out of both. Greyhawk is littered with cross-genre stuff (Murlynd is the biggest one) and spelljammer (with planescape included) to me has always seemed like the perfect middle ground to mash them up.

Now for some on-topic humor...

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/wogcomic/title/wogstrip157a.htm

Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:53 pm

I would even suggest having a strong tie with Cthulhu in the adventure and if the correct Spelljammer vessel is picked then you could have an "Event Horizon" feel to the adventure (The movie with Sam Neil).

Cthulhu works so well with the older written modules, especially the ones written by Gary.

Sun Feb 20, 2011 2:51 am

Cthulu is an intriguing idea in GH. My only thoughts would be, as with all these cross polination ideas, can I achieve the same kind of effect using what is already in GH? Which gives the whole thing more credibility and legs. A friend of mind once insisted on dropping Ravenloft into an unrelated campaign whenever he wanted some horror satisfaction and in the end even the slightest amount of mist in a description resulted in players rolling eyes and switching off; there was more than enough potential horror in the campaign anyway. Humanity; it doesn't get much more horrible than that. Especially with their blind faith in, and expected appeasement of, evil gods. Heck, they don't even need to be evil gods.

I do love Cthulu, though. Wink

Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:22 am

The idea is more of the mood that I would suggest creating for the adventure than an idea of it. Perhaps it does have a connection to the realm of chaos, maybe not. You need to keep the players guessing.

Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:37 am

Cthulu is certainly a feeling more than a physical thing. When you play CoC that is in place as soon as you start to play. That's harder to capture in later fantasy games because IMO there are too many variations on the Evil god, demon lord etc. Tharizdun should conjure up the same kind of feeling as Cthulu but it's just become, in commercial material anyway, just another bad guy.

Let us all know how working Cthulu into GH goes Dark Herald because it's an interesting idea.

Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:59 am

I certainly will keep you posted. I am keen to see how the introduction of a cthulu mood with the replacement of the alien tech with spelljammer tech pans out.

You need to create that sense of dread, the there is something bigger out there, that goes bump in the night. The lights that come on when you leave the area, the daje vu when you enter a room, the unease of the area you in, the nausea, fear of the unknown or how could something like so innocent but be so evil.

To me Cthulu is all about things on the borders of our dreams, nightmares, thoughts picking away at our sanity. Pushing us beyond what we believe and then coming to grips with it and trying to survive the experience while keeping your sanity.

What more could you ask for to help create this, a crashed "space" ship, a dark dungeon, the unknown, some nightmarish creatures .... Shocked

Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:04 am

Sun Feb 20, 2011 7:45 am

Well, there are two published examples of Greyhawk adventures in which the PCs explore crashed spelljamming vessels. One is a card in the From the Ashes boxed set involving a ruined nautiloid (an illithid ship). The other is an adventure in Treasures of Greyhawk involving a crashed neogi spidership. So it has occurred to others to "update" Expedition to the Barrier Peaks with the Spelljammer rules, substituting magical vessels for science fictional elements.

I haven't seen Expedition to the Barrier Peaks itself completely revised to have all of its elements replaced with magical ones, though a decade-old article by me tried to partially combine Barrier Peaks with Spelljammer ideas, without having ever read the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks module at the time.

If you do want to introduce Lovecraftian ideas, using an illithid ship might be a good idea.

Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:24 am

I was thinking along those lines. I am aware of the two adventures that you indicated.

I thought of using an Illithid ship or maybe a beholder or a combination of the two. I would want the Illithid not to be the main antagonist behind everything, something more sinister.

Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:19 pm

If you're interested in the early cross-genre history of SF and Fantasy in D&D, Areneson's Blackmoor adventure "City of the Gods" featured a lot of SF elements, as did the Machine Level from Castle Greyhawk.

Replacing the more overt SF elements in those or S3 with fantasy-based elements from Spelljammer sounds like fun. I'll have to do some comparisons between S3 and the original tourney version from Origins to see if the original differs from the module version, in its SF elements: I can imagine the module playing up the differences more than the original tourney did, for example.

There's a long tradition of Cthulhu in D&D, and if you search CF! for articles with the keyword "CthulhuHawk" you'll find several fan-based creations. Several of RJK's adventures in GH were also strongly-themed around Cthulhu (see his Bibliography for details).
_________________
Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/

Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:36 pm My two bits

Hi all,

>I thought of using an Illithid ship or maybe a beholder or a combination of the two. I would want the Illithid not to be the main antagonist behind everything, something more sinister.<

You can get more sinister than mind flayers? Although no one encountered it the two times I've run S3, I think the mind flayer already in S3 is one of the better-placed D&D monsters and it would make sense to have more of them, or have them be the original pilots of the ship itself.

I'll also add that the spaceship in S3 is huge, bigger than all but the legendary Spelljammer (Legend of the Spelljammer boxed set) and the Hive (from module SJA1).

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Unless you're talkin' about making it a Yak-Man ship, in which case I'm good with that...

Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:26 pm Re: My two bits

Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:02 am Hmm...

Hi all,

>LOL! I haven't seen a good Yak-men line in quite some time. Yaks....in....SPACE!<

That just screams out for some W.O.G. goodness...

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Because there should have been a Yak character on the Muppet Show...

Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:44 am

As long as you are mixing genres, you might wish to reference some Eberron materials if you have them available. Not saying you should abandon your mood and scene of Lovcraftian horror, but a living spell might fit in, as well as warforged NPC's. You could also utilize a different form of villain like the Daelkyr in place of mind flayers to throw the party for a bit of a loop.

Just some suggestions.

Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:55 am

I don't have the book to hand but there's a creature in the Pathfinder Bestiary that was quite Lovecraftian in feel-lots of references to dark empires and masters from the great beyond. I believe it was called the Neothelid, was quite powerful but had intelligence which could make for a long term foe that's a change from other dark creatures like Aboleth and Illithids.

A bit random but it just came to me; amazing what you think of while making a coffee.

Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:05 am

@A-Baneful-Backfire - I am not a Eberron fan, but thanks for the input.
It just never grabbed me, but maybe I should take a second look.

@Ragr - I will take a look at the Neothelid as I am running my Greyhawk campaign using the Pathfinde Rules.

Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:41 pm

The neothelid appeared originally in The Ilithiad for 2nd edition and was reprinted in the Expanded Psionics Handbook for 3e. Because all the creatures in that book ended up in the SRD, Paizo was able to use it.

Basically it's an illithid tadpole that was never implanted in a humanoid body, so it grew into a horrific dragon-sized tentacled worm. They only appear in illithid communities that have been entirely wiped out (except for the tadpoles).

Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:15 am

Tadpoles and Yaks ....

Where is this thread going too .... Shocked

Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:29 pm

Well my take is I love old modules the way they are, and would have no interest in altering Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. It's freakish and it's welcome, not to mention refreshing to a fantasy campaign. As far as I am concerned Spelljammer has no reality in my Greyhawk. Second edition fine, but not for my 1st edition campaign where the thought of Spelljamming and the phlogiston weren't realities. One that loosely follows S4 is WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. This is supposed to be another early Cthulhu inspired module written by Gary. Just my thoughts. Simply my attitude you either have Real space or Phlogiston. If you are using Pathfinder materials for an OGL experience, I would recommend Bestiary 2. There is allot of strange alien monsters in there.

Jim

Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:39 am

The adventure "Incursion: A World Under Siege" that is been discussed int he thread http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4421 is perfect fit for my Spelljammer Cthulhu styled them. This was a great piece of info Thanks Icarus.