From: hack@stsci.edu (Warren Hack,317,4943,ADD.10-01-91)
Subject: Re: Funny/Strange Campaign Settings
Summary: vacationland for deities
Keywords: world, settings, funny
Reply-To: hack@stsci.edu
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 22:12:15 GMT



Quite a while back, I relieved our DM for a while and gave our players a little
lighter campaign to limber the old emotions.  The characters had been contracted
to escort some priestly dignitaries to a holy site for a special service, and 
they took a break in a town along the way.  That is when some messengers from 
my world came to collect the characters for a different sort of adventure.  
The messengers came in pairs: a efreet and a gold dragon came for one, a 
nightmare and a (good) giant, and so forth (my memory has faded a bit since then :-) ).  At any rate, when a pair made of two nearly oppositely aligned intelligent creatures comes and fetches 4-6 level characters, not many questions are asked.  Invisible stalkers were left to protect the priests.  You should
have seen the looks on their faces at that point, especially if they were asked
if they wanted to come of their own accord.  :-) :-)

They were all transported to a fairly normal looking town set at the head of 
a valley by a river.  About 50 miles west of town, a temple was being built
by kobold and goblin slaves (about 1 million of each).  The temple has roughly
the same square mileage as Rhode Island and is dedicated to the Great White God
Ralph (as is what happened to my lunch :-) )... 

They are met by the Sultan of Multan, a very high (20th) level thief with a
personality of a jester, and treated to a feast by the town.  Then they are told
that some magical creatures have been loosed on the world and threaten to 
destroy their livelihood:  vacationland for the deities.  At this point, they
are met by the high-priest of Ralph, Dave, who silently approaches them with a
paper bag over his head.  He greets them and removes the bag to fully reveal his
deity-granted 86 charisma (mostly looks). They all fall into a stupor until Dave
replaces his bag.  Dave tells them that this world,BSLUD, acts as a haven and resting place for deities.  All deities except RALPH lose their awe powers on
BSLUD, thus they are able to walk among people as fairly normal people without 
the distractions of answering prayers which are handled on their behalf while 
they are on BSLUD.  

At any rate, there are also a wide range of non-standard monsters and 
non-standard magic items which are found in BSLUD.  A majority of them border 
on the silly or funny, like the SISSY DRAGON and tickling powder or the 
bull from Bugs Bunny.  This world has an entire history which explains the 
affects on other deities and how things became a little cock-eyed. 

TIME FOR THE SOAPBOX:
The main philosophy behind BSLUD is that deities and players alike need a break
from the seriousness of 'regular' play and a little silliness can be just the 
thing sometimes.  Just like life, AD&D should not be simply political
power-plays, slashing monsters, and learning new spells.  It also should have
some light-hearted moments as well.  When we take a vacation, we go somewhere 
unusual or different or entertaining, so should characters and BSLUD can be just
the place.  
THIS IS ALL MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION AS AN AD&D PLAYER AND DM WHO HAS PLAYED
OFF-AND-ON FOR THE LAST 12 YEARS.

If anyone is interested in learning more about BSLUD or its inhabitants, 
I would be willing to share more tidbits.  However, I have not yet transferred
my notes to electronic form, so responses will be slow.  If anyone has any 
ideas which would be suitable for this world or just has some comments, I
would be keenly interested in hearing them. I am planning on taking another 
party on a 'vacation' to BSLUD sometime soon.

Warren Hack
hack@stsci.edu
"He don't know me very well, do he??" -- Bugs Bunny???


Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA