Land of Fiction Adventures

[Deleted]

Having been planning a massive Land of Fiction adventure for many sometime now, I just wondering if anyone else had any stories to share about any of their own campaigns/adventures involving the Land of Fiction. What the story about? How did the characters get there? And I suppose the most important and arguably most fun part what fictional characters/villains/monsters did your group encounter?

[Null and Void]

Jan 6, 2018 14:50:35 GMT @toymaker66 said:

Having been planning a massive Land of Fiction adventure for many sometime now, I just wondering if anyone else had any stories to share about any of their own campaigns/adventures involving the Land of Fiction. What the story about? How did the characters get there? And I suppose the most important and arguably most fun part what fictional characters/villains/monsters did your group encounter?

I've been intrigued by the Land of Fiction but must confess I've never really found a good way to integrate it. I did have my last DWAITAS group set up to go there, but the game ended before they traveled there.

But I always wanted to have the Land of Fiction start to impose itself on the real world, converting real people into the fictional versions of themselves, and slowly overwriting reality. (Somewhat inspired by the wonderful story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges).

One such starting place would have be Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan, whose real life exploits were fictionalized over and over again, most famously in the works of Alexander Dumas. Another good one would be Cyrano de Bergerac... a real person whose fictional persona is far more famous. Or, for something more modern, many of the figures of the Old West would work as well, particularly ones such as "Wild Bill" Hickok or "Calamity Jane" Canary...

[Deleted]

Nice idea!, you could even have a whole campaign focused around repairing the rift between the Land of Fiction and the rest of reality. And hell, if your characters are well known for their exploits across the galaxy maybe they start to be affected by the Land of Fiction's power, I mean I'm sure the inhabitants of various planets the Doctor has saved has made various legends/stories about them. What sort of being would the Doctor turn into, if the legends of him being known as 'The Oncoming Storm' came true? And I agree, its a truly fascinating place with plenty of material for adventures. One aspect of my adventure I have planned is that at some point they will encounter a League of Holmes. A gathering of various interpretations/reimagining of various versions of Sherlock Holmes across the whole of Fiction (think Rathbone, Downey Jr, Cumberbatch, Cushing, etc) . Due to the perceptiveness of the character, he is one of the rare inhabitants who knows that he is indeed fictional.

[Null and Void]

Jan 6, 2018 16:31:06 GMT @toymaker66 said:

One aspect of my adventure I have planned is that at some point they will encounter a League of Holmes. A gathering of various interpretations/reimagining of various versions of Sherlock Holmes across the whole of Fiction (think Rathbone, Downey Jr, Cumberbatch, Cushing, etc) . Due to the perceptiveness of the character, he is one of the rare inhabitants who knows that he is indeed fictional.

You may have noticed I'm a big fan of Faction Paradox.... the idea of a "League of Holmes" was played with in the novel Of the City of the Saved and the anthology Tales of the Great Detectives.

The basic idea is that in the City of the Saved, every human, part-human or semi-human that ever lived is resurrected. Among those resurrected are the so-called "remakes" which are artificially grown humans that were made in the image or with the personality and character of fictional characters.... consequently, there is an entire SLEW of Sherlock Holmes remakes, and many of them have banded together to form their own detective agency. Its much like the League you describe.

In one of the other City of the Saved anthologies, they had a remake of Richard III, now working as a detective in the city, and trying to get past the reputation that Shakespeare had saddled him with.

[Deleted]

Right. Oh dear... I didn't mean to copy that at all. Might have to rework that then. I'm sure there is another group of self-aware characters I can use to act as more of a helping hand to my group. Blimey, I must admit (to my embarrassment) I am not as aware of Faction Paradox as I should be. I'm just brushing up on my Iris Wildthyme as we speak. I bow to you in terms of expanded universe lore.

[Deleted]

Thanks for telling me though, would be most embarrassing if anyone thought I was directly ripping the idea off.

[Null and Void]

Jan 6, 2018 16:59:49 GMT @toymaker66 said:

Right. Oh dear... I didn't mean to copy that at all. Might have to rework that then. I'm sure there is another group of self-aware characters I can use to act as more of a helping hand to my group. Blimey, I must admit (to my embarrassment) I am not as aware of Faction Paradox as I should be. I'm just brushing up on my Iris Wildthyme as we speak. I bow to you in terms of expanded universe lore.

I didn't mean to spoil your idea! Far from it, I think it has a lot of possibilities.... But if you want to rework it, why not make it an organization consisting not just of versions of Holmes, but of other highly intelligent fictional characters and detectives... Holmes, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Nick Carter, C. Auguste Dupin, Hercule Poirot, Philip Marlowe... all of whom have been played by multiple actors over time. I can imagine someone like Wolfe knowing he's fictional... and simply not caring, because he's still got his beer and his orchids, and with his love of books, he might even consider it a bit intriguing. He could send Archie out to bring say... Jane Austen's characters back to dine with him... but you could have versions of Sydney Greenstreet, Maury Chaykin, and William Conrad of him, just to start...

[Null and Void]

Jan 6, 2018 17:08:52 GMT @toymaker66 said:

Thanks for telling me though, would be most embarrassing if anyone thought I was directly ripping the idea off.

Wasn't tell you off, just letting you know a place to mine for ideas.

Also, Gamemasters don't "rip off" ideas... they do "homages"

[Deleted]

I like it!! I think I might use that if you don't mind. Will make a nice change for them after encountering The Gruffalo, The Wombles, The Scarecrow and several of Wonderlands inhabitants. Amongst several others encounters I have planned as well... Not to worry though, I will make sure the players know when the adventure is over that you heavily assisted me with the reworking of the League of Holmes. Credit where credit is due after all. And yes, I will definitely check out Faction Paradox, who knows maybe I'll play a Faction Paradox PC in the future. I like your attitude sir, homages indeed!

[Deleted]

Hell maybe, Holmes doesn't have to appear at all. Poirot or someone could rework that, that lot are off somewhere dealing with another crime. Could even come back to that later as a fun little one-shot where the Players each play one of the various reimaginings of Holmes dealing with a perplexing crime somewhere else in the Land of Fiction.

[CountClockwise]

The adventure I had in my last campaign was: "Iris in Wonderland". After Iris Wildthyme had abducted the Doctor's companions for another girls day out, they eventually found themselves trapped in the land of fiction. For a time their experience was more or less Alice in Wonderland writ large but they deviated from that by exploring the Wizard of Oz and Little Red Riding Hood. Once they had rescued Iris' companions our 3 companions headed off to the source of the problem and after defeating the Master twice (both personified as the Wicked Witch of the West and the Queen of Hearts), being stabbed a bunch by cockney Alice and playing a game of crocket with some eternals fro their lives, the day was saved.

Seeing the two human companions going with the flow while our Silurian character was flustered about what the hell was going on was truly a sight to behold. The other interesting image was seeing our doctor (played by David Warner but not the same doctor) as the King of Hearts, especially carrying scorecards in a bikini.

The Land of Fiction is weird :/

[Deleted]

Nice, very imaginative and sounds like a lot of fun. Its also always nice to see Iris Wildthyme be used in an adventure. Nothing wrong with the Land of Fiction being weird, it just gives us lot an excuse of 'Well, why not?' when the players begin to question why Winnie the Pooh is being chased by the Hound of the Baskervilles.

[bilbo]

There are also a few Big Finish audios that feature the Land of Fiction. If I remember correctly, the 4th Dr adventure The Crooked Man was a story about some being from TLoF breaking into our world. I always thought that was an interesting idea....

[Deleted]

That's the one! I also believe that there was a Sixth Doctor trilogy that Big Finish did that explored the Land of Fiction. As welll as a few Seventh Doctor novels. Truly it is an interesting idea and the massive adventure I am planning does explore that very concept on a more destructive scale. With the titular Crooked Man even making an appearance as someone who will be hunting the PCs throughout as they encounter other heroes/villains/beings from throughout the whole of Fiction.

[moondragon007]

Jan 6, 2018 18:02:35 GMT CountClockwise said:

The adventure I had in my last campaign was: "Iris in Wonderland". After Iris Wildthyme had abducted the Doctor's companions for another girls day out, they eventually found themselves trapped in the land of fiction. For a time their experience was more or less Alice in Wonderland writ large but they deviated from that by exploring the Wizard of Oz and Little Red Riding Hood. Once they had rescued Iris' companions our 3 companions headed off to the source of the problem and after defeating the Master twice (both personified as the Wicked Witch of the West and the Queen of Hearts), being stabbed a bunch by cockney Alice and playing a game of crocket with some eternals fro their lives, the day was saved.

Seeing the two human companions going with the flow while our Silurian character was flustered about what the hell was going on was truly a sight to behold. The other interesting image was seeing our doctor (played by David Warner but not the same doctor) as the King of Hearts, especially carrying scorecards in a bikini.

The Land of Fiction is weird :/

Hehe, good times!

You forgot to mention how I defeated the werewolf by conjuring up a shotgun loaded with silver buckshot.

[bilbo]

That's right, I forgot about the 6th Dr one, I think he was teamed up with Jamie & Zoe in that story. I remember one was called Wreck of the Titan. I can't remember the other ones...

[Deleted]

I believe if I am remembering correctly, the others were called 'City of Spires' and 'Legend of the Cybermen' Might not have got that right though.

[misterharry]

Jan 7, 2018 12:57:45 GMT @toymaker66 said:

I believe if I am remembering correctly, the others were called 'City of Spires' and 'Legend of the Cybermen' Might not have got that right though.

No, you're correct.

There's also a 6th Doctor audio The Doomwood Curse which, although unconnected to the Land of Fiction, features Dick Turpin transforming from the petty criminal of historical record to the dashing highwayman of legend. Other characters, including Charley Pollard, are similarly transformed into larger-than-life versions of themselves by the Grel's Factualiser machine. It provides an example of how the Land of Fiction creeping into the real world might be depicted.

[Deleted]

Thank you much obliged, always good to have some clarification when it comes to these sort of things. Must give that one a listen then, might help me when it comes to planning my adventure.