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Old 02-07-2013, 12:08 AM   #1
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

I have an idea for a campaign I'd like to run upon getting back to the States that will allow mixing Dungeon Fantasy, Monster Hunters, and Infinite Worlds all together. The basic idea is to start off in a standard Dungeon Fantasy campaign, probably running Mirror of the Fire Demon, but with due warning that there will be genre-busting and possibly one or two necessary instances of jerking the players around (for sake of said genre busting) ahead.

What the PCs won't know is that they are in a pocket multiverse in Quantum 3. A pocket multiverse that also includes a "Monster Hunters" world as the world most easily accessible to Infinity. Or from the PCs point of view, the "Monster Hunters" world will be their path to the rest of the multiverse. As for getting the PCs to the "Monster Hunters" world, I'm seriously considering that, after they've gotten some time for standard Dungeon Fantasy adventures, just declaring them to have been summoned there against their wills by a well-intentioned Witch. That would be one of those necessary-evils jerk-arounds mentioned above.

And I really want to work the Cabal into all of this somehow.

So... I'm open to any and all thoughts on this. One issue I don't know how to deal with is mixing standard GURPS magic with Ritual Path Magic, but I'm hoping PK's RPM book will come out soon enough to solve that problem for me. (I understand that question will be dealt with there.)

I'm particularly unsure of how to best incorporate the Cabal into the game. In the "Dungeon Fantasy" world, it may be as simple as having an enemy magic-user toss out some Cabalistic jargon that will go totally unexplained until later. I might be able to find some way to get the Cabal involved in the PC's first world-hop. And I'd really like to have them somehow involved in an "this could be the end of the world" plot in the "Monster Hunters" world. Thoughts on all of that?
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:25 AM   #2
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

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Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
So... I'm open to any and all thoughts on this. One issue I don't know how to deal with is mixing standard GURPS magic with Ritual Path Magic, but I'm hoping PK's RPM book will come out soon enough to solve that problem for me. (I understand that question will be dealt with there.)
I'd generally advise against trying to mix the standard magic system with anything else; it doesn't play well with others.

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Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
I'm particularly unsure of how to best incorporate the Cabal into the game. In the "Dungeon Fantasy" world, it may be as simple as having an enemy magic-user toss out some Cabalistic jargon that will go totally unexplained until later. I might be able to find some way to get the Cabal involved in the PC's first world-hop. And I'd really like to have them somehow involved in an "this could be the end of the world" plot in the "Monster Hunters" world. Thoughts on all of that?
Suggestion: How about if the Monster Hunters world is Cabalworld? Or an alt timeline of Cabalworld, anyway, in which fewer of the monsters are integrated into the Cabal and need to be cleaned up to preserve the secret, public safety, etc. They make first contact on Dungeonworld with a Cabalist agent who is posing as a local wizard in order to do XYZ, ingratiate themselves to her in some major way, and get a free ride off-world when she opens a portal to get them all out of [predicament]. She tries to play it cool and preserve the Secret by telling them that they've been teleported to another place on Dungeonworld, but [world-ending plot complication] quickly arises and they get sucked in somehow (eg: the world-ending Big Bad is an invasion from another Dungeonesque reality, and only trueborn Murderhobos understand its rules / genre assumptions well enough to help the Cabal's Monster Hunters fight it on its own terms...)
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:33 AM   #3
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

Standard magic is limited mostly by energy available. RPM is more about skill with a bunch of helper stuff.

Standard mages could toss spells a bit faster without warning unless a Witch uses their innate energy.

But major spells would be the province of the Witch.

I can see them working in the same world with enough care taken.

Cabal is great as their are more factions than inner circle members. Just as a big bad is about to off you like gnats, in comes a deus ex machina from another master that doesn't care about you, just irritating the big bad's boss.

Likely your the characters would be watched before given the hard sell of join or leave and keep a low profile.

The Cabal has fingers in every pie, but only so many fingers to go around. And the grunts are just as dumb as any others. Only the big bosses are truly superhuman in all meanings of the word.

I once created a low-ish level Cabal member: Gang banger wendigo cannibal. Not nice, but not overly ambitious or smart... he usually only eats rival gang members.
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:35 AM   #4
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

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Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc View Post
...
Suggestion: How about if the Monster Hunters world is Cabalworld? Or an alt timeline of Cabalworld, anyway, in which fewer of the monsters are integrated into the Cabal and need to be cleaned up to preserve the secret, public safety, etc. They make first contact on Dungeonworld with a Cabalist agent who is posing as a local wizard in order to do XYZ, ingratiate themselves to her in some major way, and get a free ride off-world when she opens a portal to get them all out of [predicament]. She tries to play it cool and preserve the Secret by telling them that they've been teleported to another place on Dungeonworld, but [world-ending plot complication] quickly arises and they get sucked in somehow (eg: the world-ending Big Bad is an invasion from another Dungeonesque reality, and only trueborn Murderhobos understand its rules / genre assumptions well enough to help the Cabal's Monster Hunters fight it on its own terms...)
The Monster Hunter group could be the one human led faction in the Cabal world. They think they are the only thing that "bumps back". But if it weren't for the Cabal keeping house, they would have been overrun long ago.
Nice shock for everyone to face each other.
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:37 AM   #5
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

Ive had no issues whatsoever with mixing RPM and Magic Magic
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:21 AM   #6
johndallman
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

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Cabal is great as their are more factions than inner circle members. ... The Cabal has fingers in every pie, but only so many fingers to go around.
It does help a lot to figure out what the Cabal factions in play actually want, apart from doing each other down. Individual Cabalists generally have comprehensible motives and local factions not much less so. It's when you look on the larger scale that the mass of contradictory ideas becomes chaos.
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:33 AM   #7
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

It's worth noting that Infinite Worlds p. 22 has a reference to worlds with non-standard magic systems apparently not affected by mana. I'm told this is supposed to refer to Path/Book magic. And notably, the Cabal is supposed to be confused by these. I'm assuming the Monster Hunters world would be such a world, lacking "native" users of spell-based magic.

That creates trouble for it being the sole Cabal homeworld, but could work as having a parallel Cabal that doesn't get along well with other branches of the Cabal. Hmmm...

Also, I kinda want an end-of-the-world plot involving an angel, for three reasons: (1) angels are the most powerful thing among Monster Hunters enemies (2) canonically archangels are an important part of Cabal cosmology (3) I just plain like the idea of a fanatical angel who thinks bringing about the end of the world is God's will.

On the other hand, I also kinda want to run the end-of-the-world plot as a Buffy pastiche, with the Big Bad being obviously based off of Angel, but reconceived in accordance with Monster Hunters' less morally ambiguous take on what vampires are like. Again, hmmm...
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:36 AM   #8
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

I like the idea of the Monster Hunters fighting against the Cabal, not because the Cabal is inherently evil, but rather because individual members (vampires, for instance) are, and the Cabal usually closes ranks to make sure that they can prey upon people as long as they're subtle. Vigilantes in the night would be desperate for any straw they can grasp, and so getting monster hunters from a monster world would be a good first step.
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Old 02-07-2013, 07:56 AM   #9
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

As something that gives the Cabal more teeth, maybe they're World-Jumpers also, due to tapping into the 'true' magic behind creation. (All the Infinite Worlds are just manifestations of Assiah, after all.) In that case, it's a game of cat and mouse and clandestine war between Infinity and the Cabal, and either Infinity has recruited the DF characters to add some magical expertise and teeth to their operations (in which case the DF characters will be operating at a disadvantage, naturally, since their brand of magic is just a reflection of the true magic that comes from understanding the Sephirot).

Alternatively, the Cabal is responsible for yanking out the DF characters (the Witch of course being a member, and that explains why she's easily powerful enough in this world to pull such a stunt) for whatever purpose. Maybe it's nefarious, and they want to make the DF characters tools in the covert war. Maybe they're 'the good guys' trying to cover their ass from damage ISWAT is doing to this corner of the Continuum, either purposefully or through miscomprehension.

There are a lot of different mixtures you could use.
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:09 AM   #10
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: Creating a massive Dungeon Fantasy/Monster Hunters/Infinite Worlds/Cabal mashup

One thing I should mention is that I don't want a simple situation where for some contrived reason, the PCs are the only ones who can solve a problem. I want a bit of a "fish out of water" situation, where at first the PCs are struggling just to survive in this strange world of guns and computers, but eventually "level up" a lot, which would very likely include buying things off the templates in Champions. (I'm not sure how I'd justify that in every case; I'd worry about specific examples only after finding out what my players want.)
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