The Forbidden Stairs 2024-01-22

[Fenris-77]

Fenris-77 submitted a new resource:

The Forbidden Stairs - YZE Mashup Mayhem

This is the mechanics section from the Cannibal Halfling article on mashing up Twilight 2000 and Forbidden Lands. I added it mostly to save people the trouble of having to find the article multiple times if they are working on a conversion project.

Read more about this resource...

 

[lategamer]

So, I think this would work really well if the PCs were limited to WW2 weapons:

 

[Stumpydave]

Set it during WW2.

In their obsessive search for occult resources, the Ahnenherbe open a gateway somewhere bad. The ripples of their obscene ritual shuddered throughout the Earth and now openings to this mysterious labyrinth and its treasures, traps and trogoldytes are a new front in the war to end all wars.

 

[lategamer]

I kinda started out with the basis of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The children discover the Wardrobe and then write to Daddy who brings in the newly minted Ministry of Special Circumstances, who send in a plucky sergeant, a motley crew of squaddies and a green Lieutenant to investigate.

 

[Stumpydave]

Field report 1st Company Extra-Territorial Army.
2/8/40

"On traversing the Pevensie portal, we found ourselves in a environment not unlike that of Scandinavia. We were approached by a local on a horse drawn carriage who spoke to Private Spoon, addressing him as 'Son of Adam'. Given her odd accent and believing this to be a password for a spy, Private Spoon opened fire as did the rest of the section.

The local was slain and we are heading deeper inland."

Lt.Greene.

 

[lategamer]

Just started watching Stargate (1994).

8000BC. I think this section is probably unnecessary. Or could be delayed to later in the movie.
Giza, 1928 - one for you pulp types. I tend to make a direct link between this and the early scene in The Fifth Element.

 

[lategamer]

Would this work better if it was...

1. Opening to a standard D&D type world with Orcs and Elves and Dwarves
2. Opening to a different but recognisable world (for example, Narnia)
3. Opening to a novel world

 

[Fenris-77]

I think that depends on your design goals. The level of player familiarity with setting elements will change how the interact with it and what kinds of game will likely result from that. If you want exploration I think you want to add at least some level of novelty as players aren't maybe going to be as inspired to explore something they think they already know. On the other hand you probably do want some familiar elements so that you don't need a massive info dump just so the players know what's going on. Those are the two dials you can spin depending on what you want the game to look like. Well, there's also the subvert expectations button you can push as well, that can be fun too.

 

[Stumpydave]

I was a big fan of the original premise that the Long Stair entered a psychoreactive plane. So maps became inaccurate as the dungeon 'shifted'.
I also liked that the dungeon was pretty much designed to kill the unwary, either with monsters or traps.
Elements like explainable ecosystems, thriving economies and underground societies left me cold.

My head-canoned 'Long Stair' was an inscrutable meatgrinder, but the potential rewards to the Brass outweighed the danger to the enlisted.

 

[Fenris-77]

Heart might be worth looking at as the whole premise there is of a massive psychoreactive dungeon space.

 

[lategamer]

I was a big fan of the original premise that the Long Stair entered a psychoreactive plane. So maps became inaccurate as the dungeon 'shifted'.

I think I like the idea of a whole new world....and the idea of it opening in the depths of a standard dungeon.
A psychoreactive plane of shifting walls is a little too trippy for me.

I also liked that the dungeon was pretty much designed to kill the unwary, either with monsters or traps.
Elements like explainable ecosystems, thriving economies and underground societies left me cold.
My head-canoned 'Long Stair' was an inscrutable meatgrinder, but the potential rewards to the Brass outweighed the danger to the enlisted.

I think my players would revolt.

 

[lategamer]

I think that depends on your design goals. The level of player familiarity with setting elements will change how the interact with it and what kinds of game will likely result from that. If you want exploration I think you want to add at least some level of novelty as players aren't maybe going to be as inspired to explore something they think they already know. On the other hand you probably do want some familiar elements so that you don't need a massive info dump just so the players know what's going on. Those are the two dials you can spin depending on what you want the game to look like. Well, there's also the subvert expectations button you can push as well, that can be fun too.

Well, looking at the Dungeon
They make their way through the dungeon, fighting skeletons, wandering orcs and a troll. Eventually they emerge into the light into a thinly disguised...er....Unremembered Kingdoms...with everyone then looking at the PC who swapped out their gear for pockets filled with gold.

Or looking at the New Realm
We could have them opening into a forest scene and they have to discover the races and cultures beyond. All with no idea if they can get back.

 

[lategamer]

What D&D Modules would work well....in reverse.

You start out at the bottom and have to fight your way to fresh air.

Confession: I don't play D&D.

 

[lategamer]

Got my artist to commission a little piece to help spark the imagination.

 

[Stumpydave]

What if the 'dungeons' were a weapon? Being wielded against us by a malignant intelligence in an effort to 'terraform' the realm from underneath us?

Enslavers/Beyonders/something inhuman using the trifling knick-knacks and treasure as a lure and the various traps and monsters as a means of assessing our capabilities before they launch their full invasion.

Most sessions would be 'Deathtrap Dungeon' with guns with an underlying arc of slowly discovering the truth.

 

[lategamer]

The Stair aspect is meant to protect us from that...yes, but I kinda like the idea that these dungeons arise in places and beckon people to explore (ending messily).

I'll maybe be running this idea next weekend where the players are military types who get sent on a mission but the process leaves them slightly anmesiac about how they got there.

Game start in media res: Clouds of stinging vapour clear from your eyes. The cave is dark, lit only by candles. You're standing in the middle of a circle carved into the rock, inlaid with gold. Splashes of red blood are at the intersections of the circle and another shape, a star. Half of the candles have blown out recently. A bearded man in a ridiculous hat and an ornate monks habit points a crooked finge and commands "Kneel!"

The PCs are at the deepest level of the dungeon, with the big bad, who's just summoned them accidentally to his sanctum. to get out they will have to fight and negotiate their way through a hundred possible targets, none of them human.

 

[Stumpydave]

Nice.

I do hope the initial response of the PC's is akin to that scene in Predator where they just fire all the bullets..