Recent discussion got me thinking some about Eberron. I have the 5E adaptation of it, but actually the only game I played in Eberron were some diceless games at AmberCon NorthWest run by the setting designer, Keith Baker.

A big theme of Eberron is the devastation caused by the Last War, especially the Mourning that destroyed the entire nation of Cyre, but also other dangerous magics and technologies that came from it. At the ACNW games, I played a psychologically scarred veteran who came face-to-face with the Mourning, and became a warlock to the power behind it.

I think it would be interesting to have a game where the PCs are all maimed veterans from the war, who were cursed by powerful magics such that they couldn't be healed. Incorporating disadvantages into D&D seems like a stretch to me, and I've been on a Savage Worlds kick and reading some about Savage Pathfinder, so I was thinking of Savage Worlds as the rules to use. Some might have PTSD or other mental harm, but others would have different sorts of physical damage.

The game would probably be about some horror leftover from the war that is stalking these veterans, who band together to fight it.

It'll probably be a while before I have writeups for anything, but I'd be curious if posters had any thoughts on the concept or system.

Agrivar from the D&D FR comics was cursed with withering both his arms so he could not wield a sword. Eventually he was given some gauntlets of ogre power and was able to start recovery as he had sunk into alcoholism and depression which would haunt the character through the comics run.

Interesting idea.  Would think that you'd have to perhaps come up with some "generalized," triggering (poor choice of word here) kind of things that could lend a regional-conflict-specific flavor to some traumas/flashbacks/etc.  This way, vets of a fight in a particular area may have shared experiences that vets who fought in a completely different area have no experience with which could lend itself to character back-story(s) and so on.

For example, I did time in the sandbox in the 00s, so to me the "moon-dust," flies, grit/grime and pounding dry heat is something I can gripe with/bond with others who were there too.  I have zero experiences with anything like Vietnam where it was hot and humid, had a tremendous amount of vegetation and so on.  We all were deployed for war, but how that war developed and the characteristics it took on became unique in their own ways for those involved.

Not certain if I'm making sense here as I ramble horribly but I think I get the point across clumsily enough.

Now as an aside, peep the 80s "Twilight Zone," episode called "Nightcrawlers," for a scenario that lends itself to fantasy well enough via a magic cursed soldier from the Last War.

Quote from: Omega on April 04, 2024, 10:50:21 PM
Agrivar from the D&D FR comics was cursed with withering both his arms so he could not wield a sword. Eventually he was given some gauntlets of ogre power and was able to start recovery as he had sunk into alcoholism and depression which would haunt the character through the comics run.

Cool. My Eberron warlock character was also a moderate alcoholic and a total bastard, and he was a ton of fun to play. Alcoholism is a pretty nasty disadvantage in itself. In an old China-based martial arts campaign, I had a character who was a master of Drunken Boxing - but also a severe alcoholic. He was very much a liability to the rest of the party who had to constantly keep an eye on him, but like a prize fighting bull, when he was let loose to fight he was a demon in combat.

I've never gotten into D&D fiction, but I'm sure there is a lot of material there. The closest I came was I started an Eberron novel by Baker ("The Queen of Stone"). I've seen enough of Eberron material to see the repercussions of the war are all through it.

An aside - I'm going to be away for about two weeks since I'm getting married the day after tomorrow, so I'll have to pick up on the idea after that.

You probably know that Eberron for Savage Worlds already exists: 
https://immaterialplane.com/products/eberron-for-savage-worlds/

Quote from: jhkim on April 05, 2024, 02:48:56 AM
An aside - I'm going to be away for about two weeks since I'm getting married the day after tomorrow, so I'll have to pick up on the idea after that.

Congratulations! 

Quote from: Rhymer88 on April 05, 2024, 04:24:46 AMYou probably know that Eberron for Savage Worlds already exists: 
https://immaterialplane.com/products/eberron-for-savage-worlds/

Thanks. Now that I'm back, I'm trying to compare this with Savage Pathfinder to see significant differences. Have you looked over both? I'd be inclined to go with the Eberron-specific book offhand, but it depends on how well done each is.

Would you be incorporating the combat wheelchairTM?   

Quote from: jhkim on April 05, 2024, 02:48:56 AMAn aside - I'm going to be away for about two weeks since I'm getting married the day after tomorrow, so I'll have to pick up on the idea after that.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on the marriage, jhkim! May both of your years ahead be filled with lasting joy.

Quote from: jhkim on April 05, 2024, 02:48:56 AMAn aside - I'm going to be away for about two weeks since I'm getting married the day after tomorrow, so I'll have to pick up on the idea after that.

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage!

S'mon, Aglondir, KindaMeh, HappyDaze - thank you very much. I'm a happy man. (And it feels weird that the site was down exactly over my honeymoon. I swear that was just a coincidence. :-)

Quote from: RNGm on April 18, 2024, 10:26:51 PMWould you be incorporating the combat wheelchairTM?   

Heh. I wouldn't be using Thompson's "Combat Wheelchair" homebrew for 5E. However, given the inspiration, I'm definitely including a veteran with no legs in the pregen characters. I'm not sure how they'll move around.

My general concept is that all the PCs would be powerful in-world (the equivalent of mid-level) and would be of reknown in the Last War. However, they were magically disabled, with no cure possible, and they have largely been put out to pasture in the equivalent of a veteran's shelter with only minimal rehab and compensatory effort. So no super magitech cyberlimbs or personal Warforged to help them, only stuff closer to peg-legs or hook-hands.

I want to read more on animated objects in Eberron for what would be possible but still cheap. So, for example, the legless vet might have a magically-animated crawling chair but if that's too expensive, they might have something simpler.

This sounds like a terrible premise to me especially with a game system like D&D.  It can work with SW and if you are going for horror (meaning we expect some party members to die and be outmatched for most of the adventure) I can think of a few movies to inspire the effort.  Bubba-hotep and Late Phases are two movies where they have crippled and outmatched protagonists deal with a horrific threat that I would use for inspiration for such a thing. Given the nature of where they are at Bubba-Hotep and Late Phases seems right up the alley of where you are looking. 

  I think their prosthetics are less important than the tone, the idea being they will all have to be very clever and all or most of them will die trying to solve the issue. For the legless vet a small wagon/cart pulled by a loyal and strong war dog would be my approach. 

Quote from: oggsmash on April 19, 2024, 08:49:28 AMThis sounds like a terrible premise to me especially with a game system like D&D.  It can work with SW and if you are going for horror (meaning we expect some party members to die and be outmatched for most of the adventure) I can think of a few movies to inspire the effort.  Bubba-hotep and Late Phases are two movies where they have crippled and outmatched protagonists deal with a horrific threat that I would use for inspiration for such a thing.

I haven't seen Late Phases, and it's been a while since I've seen Bubba-hotep. I don't want this to be parody or a pity-party for the PCs. It should be a rousing, action-packed adventure of fighting with horrors. PCs may well die, but they're not helpless victims being picked off.

I'm thinking the PCs would be the equivalent of 7th to 9th level in the war, and still in the prime of their lives, since the Last War ended just four years ago. So they are afflicted with these disabilities from the war, but even so they could easily mop the floor with a party of 1st level PCs.

I don't have a close model, but the theme I am thinking of is misfits who are nonetheless powerful heroes, abandoned by the system. They have to take on this horror themselves, and save others targeted by the horror. Two inspirations that come to mind are the short-lived TV series "Alphas" along with "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors". Those both have an ensemble cast of misfits who have powers (of a sort) but also disabilities.

Also, it's not a close fit, but I've recently been re-reading the Miles Vorkosigan sci-fi books, which I love. Vorkosigan was disabled from birth with a fragile and weakly-growing skeleton, so he has dwarfism, uneven leg length, and easily-broken bones.

Quote from: oggsmash on April 19, 2024, 08:49:28 AMI think their prosthetics are less important than the tone, the idea being they will all have to be very clever and all or most of them will die trying to solve the issue. For the legless vet a small wagon/cart pulled by a loyal and strong war dog would be my approach. 

Yeah. It should be a tough and potentially lethal adventure, and they should need to cooperate well to get through it all alive.

However, a pulled cart feels medieval to me in tone, which would fit for a more medieval setting, but Eberron has a 19th century feel with trains and wandslingers and war engines and so forth.