American McGee's Alice
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Drinnik Shoehorn
- Evil Genius
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- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:28 pm
- Location: Tiptree, Home of Jam
It's different to my take on Wonderland, anyway.
I'm currently sketching up some ideas for the demi-planes of Gothic Earth, Wonderland being one of them. My idea has Wonderland pulling in normal humans now and again (Alice is but one person who has visited), but the place is so topsy-turvey that it fractures the mind.
The Red Death has slowly been giving power to The Queen of Hearts, causing the Cheshire Cat to try and help Wonderland residents escape. It's sort of like what would happen if Gwydion escaped the Obsidian Gate and Mauve tried to help the Arak flee the Rift, but more insane.
I'm currently sketching up some ideas for the demi-planes of Gothic Earth, Wonderland being one of them. My idea has Wonderland pulling in normal humans now and again (Alice is but one person who has visited), but the place is so topsy-turvey that it fractures the mind.
The Red Death has slowly been giving power to The Queen of Hearts, causing the Cheshire Cat to try and help Wonderland residents escape. It's sort of like what would happen if Gwydion escaped the Obsidian Gate and Mauve tried to help the Arak flee the Rift, but more insane.
"Blood once flowed, a choice was made
Travel by night the smallest one bade" The Ballad of the Taverners.
The Galen Saga: 2000-2005
Travel by night the smallest one bade" The Ballad of the Taverners.
The Galen Saga: 2000-2005
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Reginald de Curry
- Evil Genius
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- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 1:12 pm
- Location: The Ruins of Cahokia, USA
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The Nightmare Man
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 8:42 am
- Location: The Grieving Cathedral
What type of ability scores are you thinking will represent this creature type?Hell_Born wrote:Playing Card (Monstrous Humanoid)
Lawful Evil
A strange figure, like a giant tarroka card with hand, feet and a human head, runs towards you.
Combat:
Playing Cards wield polearms that inflict 1D10+2 slashing damage in the melee. Diamond, Club and Heart Cards can fire projectiles from their weapons. The damage inflicted for these is 2D6 for the Diamond, 3D4+2 for the Club and 2D10+4 for the Heart.
"When she embraces
Your heart turns to stone
She comes at night when you are all alone
And when she whispers
Your blood shall run cold
You better hide before she finds you"
-- [i]Ice Queen[/i], Within Temptation
Your heart turns to stone
She comes at night when you are all alone
And when she whispers
Your blood shall run cold
You better hide before she finds you"
-- [i]Ice Queen[/i], Within Temptation
I have no idea, that's why I made the topic. I'm thinking low Int, Wis and Cha, but high Str, Dex and Con. As the Guard's 'rank' increases, their threat goes up, so the scores will be different for each of the four types. Spades are the weakest, Diamonds are the first above them, Clubs are the second strongest and Hearts are the ultimate, being the Queen's personal guards. I just made up the damage for their weapons out of my head, change them if they don't fit.
"Is there any word more meaningless than 'hope'? Besides 'blarfurgsnarg,' of course."
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"
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The Nightmare Man
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 8:42 am
- Location: The Grieving Cathedral
I don't think they'd have a high CON. They are "cards" afterall, so their stamina and ability to survive damage could be comprised by the fact that they are nearly paper thin.
Would the Aces be above the Queens and Kings? They're probably almost a 'wild' card... hard to define, borrowing the premise for the Ace card in the game of Poker.
Would the Aces be above the Queens and Kings? They're probably almost a 'wild' card... hard to define, borrowing the premise for the Ace card in the game of Poker.
"When she embraces
Your heart turns to stone
She comes at night when you are all alone
And when she whispers
Your blood shall run cold
You better hide before she finds you"
-- [i]Ice Queen[/i], Within Temptation
Your heart turns to stone
She comes at night when you are all alone
And when she whispers
Your blood shall run cold
You better hide before she finds you"
-- [i]Ice Queen[/i], Within Temptation
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Bloody Morgan
- Arch-villain
- Posts: 185
- Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:36 am
- Location: The Sea of Sorrows
One thing strikes on me with all this. Do you intend to have this Domain existing for a one-off scenario, or do you intend it to serve as a stage that people can keep coming back to and running different games in? It would make a big difference to the way to portray the inhabitants.
If it's a one-off, chaotic place that has one purpose, then you can go nuts with the creatures. Huge, animate cards that shoot diamonds. Giant chess pieces that glide along the ground. Like I said earlier, tie it to the Nightmare Lands and the players can "wake up" at the end wondering if it was real, and Alice really was suffering, or if it was just some cruel trick played on them.
If you want it to serve as a stage, you'll have to tone down the weirdness levels, or you leave behind the veneer of realism that makes Ravenloft scary. If the players deal with said animate cards on a daily basis, why is anything odd or scary when the return to a more "normal" Domain? If they didn't go mad there, how can anything else possibly unhinge them more? In this case, the Card Guards would be normal humans, with each taroka suit being a different rank, displayed in the decoration on their armour. The inhabitants of the Pale and Red Realms would again be humans (the knights with horse-head helmets*) who work to a colour scheme. The Insane Children are wild, feral things who escape from the Hatter's mansion and roam the wild places - most die before they can grow up too much. The lizards (like Bill) would be lizard men, albeit quiet, small ones. While you loose some of the impact of the game, you would end up with a land that's still insane, with an obsession for impractical, game related rules of social conduct, but not entirely off the wall. Creatures like the Cheshire Cat and the Jabberwock would be the unique, largely hidden monstrous inhabitants, and the Red Queen would never be seen as blatantly as she is in the game, though her tubers would still turn up everywhere.
My 2c anyway
On creatures...
The ants could be based around formians.
Boojums and Phantasmagoria should be forms of spirits - possibly undead, I'm not sure. Phantasmagoria have a paralyse attack and negative energy attack (?) and possibly a temporary wisdom drain (to simulate the drain of willpower in the game). Boojums are just slightly re-written Banshees, without the damage reduction.
The Roses are liftable straight from the plants section of Denizens of Dread. Mushrooms are similar. Both are only threats if one is shrunk, obviously.
The clockwork ladybirds are constructs, but they need a creator. The Hatter? Give him a few levels of Artificer from Eberron and he could do most of the terrible things he does in the game.
Out of time writing this, will post more later.
Blood Morgan
* There was a recent Dragon which has a Prestige Class for the Red Knight based on the chess piece which could be nicely adaptable.
If it's a one-off, chaotic place that has one purpose, then you can go nuts with the creatures. Huge, animate cards that shoot diamonds. Giant chess pieces that glide along the ground. Like I said earlier, tie it to the Nightmare Lands and the players can "wake up" at the end wondering if it was real, and Alice really was suffering, or if it was just some cruel trick played on them.
If you want it to serve as a stage, you'll have to tone down the weirdness levels, or you leave behind the veneer of realism that makes Ravenloft scary. If the players deal with said animate cards on a daily basis, why is anything odd or scary when the return to a more "normal" Domain? If they didn't go mad there, how can anything else possibly unhinge them more? In this case, the Card Guards would be normal humans, with each taroka suit being a different rank, displayed in the decoration on their armour. The inhabitants of the Pale and Red Realms would again be humans (the knights with horse-head helmets*) who work to a colour scheme. The Insane Children are wild, feral things who escape from the Hatter's mansion and roam the wild places - most die before they can grow up too much. The lizards (like Bill) would be lizard men, albeit quiet, small ones. While you loose some of the impact of the game, you would end up with a land that's still insane, with an obsession for impractical, game related rules of social conduct, but not entirely off the wall. Creatures like the Cheshire Cat and the Jabberwock would be the unique, largely hidden monstrous inhabitants, and the Red Queen would never be seen as blatantly as she is in the game, though her tubers would still turn up everywhere.
My 2c anyway
On creatures...
The ants could be based around formians.
Boojums and Phantasmagoria should be forms of spirits - possibly undead, I'm not sure. Phantasmagoria have a paralyse attack and negative energy attack (?) and possibly a temporary wisdom drain (to simulate the drain of willpower in the game). Boojums are just slightly re-written Banshees, without the damage reduction.
The Roses are liftable straight from the plants section of Denizens of Dread. Mushrooms are similar. Both are only threats if one is shrunk, obviously.
The clockwork ladybirds are constructs, but they need a creator. The Hatter? Give him a few levels of Artificer from Eberron and he could do most of the terrible things he does in the game.
Out of time writing this, will post more later.
Blood Morgan
* There was a recent Dragon which has a Prestige Class for the Red Knight based on the chess piece which could be nicely adaptable.
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Gonzoron of the FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 7694
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: New Jersey
- Contact:
I haven't played the game, but it seems like you could go both ways, with respect to Bloody Morgan's post. The "real" domain can be off in the mist somewhere, while the exagerrated, dreamlike domain is in the Nightmare Lands. Whether you need two darklords this way, or can use the real and dream selves of the regular darklord is up to you.
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
Actually, I recently read a gothic sci-fi that provided me a way to have my cake and eat it too- it is possible to have both the oneshot version of Dark Wonderland and the campaign version of Dark Wonderland. The story revolved around a world that divided itself into two cycles; "Day Cycle", where everything was peaceful and beautiful. and "Night Cycle", where everything became dark, foul and hideous, though actually day and night occurred regardless of each Cycle. In a similar manner, Wonderland goes through a similar process. During their "Sanity" Cycle, the domain is in it's "Stage" format as Bloody Morgan suggested. However, it eventually switches into its "Madness" Cycle, where it enters the "Oneshot" format; everything and everyone native to the domain twist and transform into new, bizarre versions of themselves- the Card Guards are simply human soldiers with each taroka suit being a different rank, displayed in the decoration on their armour, during the Sanity cycle but became the animated Tarokka cards during the Madness cycle.
The natives don't actually notice the difference between the two cycles- much like how Darkon eventually alters memories, prolonged exposure to Wonderland causes the Shifting to become mundane. This makes for a good "Wake UP!" style adventure, because the PCs can get all freaked out stumbling through the Madness cycle then, just when they're on the verge of losing it, Wonderland reenters its Sanity cycle and the bizarreness all disappears, leaving your PCs going, basically, What The?
From this idea sprung the idea of there being two Darklords, one for each phase. Alice is Darklord during the Madness Cycle and the Queen of Hearts rules during the Sanity Cycle. Both Darklords are insane in their own ways, but Alice is Chaotic and the Queen is Lawful, so the whole shifting between the two serves as a simultaneous curse (plus it could indicate that the Dark Powers are still unsure which to make the 'True' Darklord of the Domain). During the Madness Cycle, Alice (who remains eternally young) finally gets some control, as she's treated like any little kid during Sanity, when she becomes Darklord her supernatural abilities finally come forth (basically, each Darklord has access to class-related abilities and Darklord Powers only during their period of dominance). I'm thinkiing give her powers as either a Psion or a Sorcerer. The Queen is a tyrant who wants to control everything, but during Sanity her subjects mostly humour her then go on with their own anarchic business. Then she loses any semblance of control during Madness. Alice prefers Madness because then she can lose herself in the chaos and attempt to drown out her painful memories, which come back with full force during Sanity.
Maybe a giant clocktower could exist somewhere in the center of Wonderland, PCs who look at will think it's broken, but that's because it measures the time until the Shifting occurs?
The natives don't actually notice the difference between the two cycles- much like how Darkon eventually alters memories, prolonged exposure to Wonderland causes the Shifting to become mundane. This makes for a good "Wake UP!" style adventure, because the PCs can get all freaked out stumbling through the Madness cycle then, just when they're on the verge of losing it, Wonderland reenters its Sanity cycle and the bizarreness all disappears, leaving your PCs going, basically, What The?
From this idea sprung the idea of there being two Darklords, one for each phase. Alice is Darklord during the Madness Cycle and the Queen of Hearts rules during the Sanity Cycle. Both Darklords are insane in their own ways, but Alice is Chaotic and the Queen is Lawful, so the whole shifting between the two serves as a simultaneous curse (plus it could indicate that the Dark Powers are still unsure which to make the 'True' Darklord of the Domain). During the Madness Cycle, Alice (who remains eternally young) finally gets some control, as she's treated like any little kid during Sanity, when she becomes Darklord her supernatural abilities finally come forth (basically, each Darklord has access to class-related abilities and Darklord Powers only during their period of dominance). I'm thinkiing give her powers as either a Psion or a Sorcerer. The Queen is a tyrant who wants to control everything, but during Sanity her subjects mostly humour her then go on with their own anarchic business. Then she loses any semblance of control during Madness. Alice prefers Madness because then she can lose herself in the chaos and attempt to drown out her painful memories, which come back with full force during Sanity.
Maybe a giant clocktower could exist somewhere in the center of Wonderland, PCs who look at will think it's broken, but that's because it measures the time until the Shifting occurs?
"Is there any word more meaningless than 'hope'? Besides 'blarfurgsnarg,' of course."
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"
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DeepShadow of FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 2923
- Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 1:43 pm
- Location: Heinfroth's Asylum
Why would it be consigned to the scrap heap? This would be the point where you can take the advice and run with it, write it up in an article for some netbook.
Unless of course there's still some vital clue you're missing? Let us know, we're all glad to help!
Unless of course there's still some vital clue you're missing? Let us know, we're all glad to help!
The Avariel has borrowed wings,
The Puppeteer must cut the strings
The Orphan Queen must take the throne
The Queen of Orphans calls them home
The Puppeteer must cut the strings
The Orphan Queen must take the throne
The Queen of Orphans calls them home
I thought I mentioned before that my main problem with these things is that I have no idea how to proceed or indeed any talent whatsoever? My role in this sort of thing is essentially to toss out the idea and make comments and suggestions, but as for doing it myself... But if you think I've got the bare essentials of the domain itself, any suggestion for the following subjects?
History/Darklord of the Domain
Notable NPCs/Locations/Artefacts
Encounters
Population
Native PC Classes and Races
History/Darklord of the Domain
Notable NPCs/Locations/Artefacts
Encounters
Population
Native PC Classes and Races
"Is there any word more meaningless than 'hope'? Besides 'blarfurgsnarg,' of course."
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"
"Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!"