Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-should I bringing reality to fantasy ?

Mon May 31, 2010 4:39 pm should I bringing reality to fantasy ?

This week my good campaign will be heading to a elven village just for some info. With the BP oil spill in the gulf i had a idea. Should i have a man made disaster from a human pitch company?
My thought was having the pitch explode when the players are a day away from the elf village. When the players arrive, black toxic smoke is filling the village. The swamp where the pitch company is located is on fire and workers are in need of being rescued.
Now one thing i dont normaly do is bring reality to my campaign's. Should I or should I not?

One extra thing, if you think that it might be a good idea, suggestions will be welcome Happy

Mon May 31, 2010 5:58 pm

You should watch Fern Gully and steal as much as you can.

Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:56 am

If you can make an exciting adventure out of it, I say go for it.

Tue Jun 01, 2010 6:10 am

You have to know your players and your own storytelling ability well to know if this will work. I know as a player I don’t generally enjoy story lines and plot twists if I can obviously tell they were ripped from another story or real headlines.

Of course if you can hide the source of your inspiration, then it doesn’t matter, as they’ll never know.
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:27 am

Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:32 pm

They say that patience is a virtue . . . and it's true. Wink

You don't want your story line to be too closely tied to real world events, even if they are inspired by such. Cool

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Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:36 pm

On the other hand, if you give it a good enough twist it just might work. Let the players think they know what's going on, then toss in the monkey wrench. Could work, anyway, maybe. I suspect it depends on your group more than anything else.

Wed Jun 02, 2010 2:16 pm

Perhaps modifying it further from reality but keeping the same basic themes would make for a more congruous adventure?
Perhaps an alchemist is attempting to modify Alchemists fire and the byproduct is poisoning local wildlife, possibly producing bizarre flora and fauna? Perhaps the adventurers are attacked by some strange creature or plant whilst travelling to a nearby village, the villagers confirm seeing strange phenomena and so the adventurers collect some specimens for investigation, these investigations lead back to the alchemist.
The alchemist himself could be unaware of the harm he is doing, if you want to avoid a typical evil villain, and could work together with the adventurers to develop a solution to the problem. Throw in an angry local druid or ranger and it could be a fun eco-themed adventure.

Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:40 pm

"Ripped from Today's Headlines" was always how they introduce the Law and Order episode du jour. Seriously though, real world events can work well when translated into fantasy, but not if it is done in a heavy-handed manner with medieval/fantasy replacements fro technology and events. I think Kingheff had a good idea about taking the germ of the idea, but not following it too closely.

For an environmental kind of theme, I would not try to make it a black and white issue. An environmental theme that plays well in this context to me would be "the Tragedy of the Commons". An example would be a forest on a disputed or unclear border.

Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:11 pm

Was thinking of your post today at work and I remember something in an old dragon on druids who work at removeing mankind from the wilderness.

Your idea on the pitch company is a good one and you can add something like its built on an old sacred site to obad-hai and a venegful druid is the culprit for the fire.