So what happens if you play a game where this is the main theme of the game? Do you end up playing in the Matrix? And would that works or how would it work in Dungeons and Dragons?

I think that there are two different things that you could look at. The first being an almost T.I.M.E. Stories or Assassin’s Creed situation where you are from a future time and are being sent back in time to this world, or across dimensions. The other being a more magic way, and for Dungeons and Dragons, I would prefer to run it in the second way, though the first would be fun as well.

In the game that I’d be running, and starting with the BBEG, it would be a Wizard of some sort, because an evil Wizard would clearly be creating pocket/illusionary dimensions where the rules for the world aren’t the same. But, that would be the thing, everyone would assume that my wizard is evil, but really, it was just a magical experiment that went horribly wrong that is trapping people into these pocket dimensions or worlds of illusion really.

I would have some fun with that, for the players, probably start them in a world of illusion that seems very different than the setting that I’ve been saying that I was going to set them in. It would probably be something much more modern, there was a D&D podcast that I was listening to where they were talking about an old game (not Total Party Thrill, I forgot the name of this one), where they went to modern times and killed Santa Clause at a mall because the characters didn’t understand what was going on. I’d probably do something less than that and I would make it fairly easy to get out of.

Now, if all the players are doing is getting out of these illusion worlds, that would get old pretty fast, and it also has a problem, if everything is an illusion can it really hurt them. So I’m going to address that first and then suggest some other things that you can do in the game besides put them in an illusion world.

The big question is, since this is a world of illusion, can the players die in this world? I would say that no they can’t. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t get close or that there aren’t consequences. I’m not sure what I’d do, but I’d have them track hit points like normal, but when they die, or get knocked out, they can always come back, but there is going to be some sort of consequence. I’m not sure what I would do, maybe create a separate track where the mental anguish of going down so many times can drive them insane or eventually kill them? And I’d probably put the track at 10 spots, so it would be hard for them to die that way, but it would be possible. And I’d probably give them a way to heal it somehow, maybe every time that they level up they can remove one.

But also in these illusion worlds, they wouldn’t be the only ones who are in there. Some bad people could be trying to manipulate them to cover a crime or something like that. So, while the players can’t die in the illusion world, neither can the bad guys, so if they are able to stop an illusion world so that they can escape from it, they might also then have a real threat in the real world. And how safe are their bodies really in the real world while the players are in the illusion world? You can use things like that to push the players forward. Probably no one slitting their throats in the real world while their minds are in the illusion world, but they might come back to find that some stuff is gone.

You don’t only want to create these mini dungeons for the players of the illusion worlds. If that’s all the players are doing, it’s eventually going to get boring. So you need to mix it up, and you need to get them eventually to the wizard who screwed everything up.

I would make it so that where the illusion worlds are is “visible”. With a good perception check or some sort of description/tip off for it, so at some times you’d probably have the players running from it, and if they can do well on a skill challenge that would work as another type of encounter with this.

Another challenge I’d give them is basically figuring out and locating where these illusion worlds are coming from. Is it the epicenter of them all or is somewhere else. Getting to the origination point should be a dungeon in itself. You can pull from Dragon Age Origins here where when the Mage Circle has issues you are fighting your way through their tower, but you also have to fight your way through the fade at one point. You can create traps, tricks, and more there. I’d probably also put the wizard who created t his as trapped in something that isn’t able to allow him to stop it, like maybe an illusion became real and is holding him hostage or maybe they are trapped in illusion world and are trying to escape, but their solution is to become a Lich, so can the players get them out of that illusion world before the Wizard turns themselves into a Lich?

Finally, I’d put in some challenges in the world of the game. Obviously, there are going to be people who use these illusion worlds to do bad things in them or to loot the bodies of the people who are stuck in them. So the players will probably have to track down a few important things have been stolen and probably some things that have been stolen from them. You can even set up some sort of McGuffin, like there are glasses or some sort that allows them to more easily say the illusion worlds, or that someone has invented a form of magic that allows them to hop in and out of the illusion worlds, which the players would obviously want.

I think that I’d want to run this game and play in this game. The concept is something that will have some of your standard fantasy tropes, but also does some things that would feel completely different. And with the illusion worlds, you’d be able to do a ton of different things. Maybe it’s modern Earth, or maybe it’s just like the fantasy world, but it’s been overrun with demons, you can make up an illusion world each time. I’d be tempted to create a number of them, and then just pull from a hat so that it’s a surprise and the players can’t plan. It would be something interesting to do, and you could even, in session 0, have the players help brainstorm all of these things and are basically creating settings for their characters to be trapped in, which they might not know.

What do you think of this idea? Is this a game that you’d want to play in?

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This is definitely going to be grim fantasy setting where you are dealing with some fairly heavy issues. Much like the show The Walking Dead and game Dead of Winter deal with humans who are causing problems to the other humans.

So, we have a small group of survivors who are our players. They are going to have to look for a safe haven. Whether they all know each other before the apocalypse is up to the players, but it’s possible that some of them could be an outsider to the group. I think that would be a way to cause tension in the game quickly by planting seeds of doubt, whether the person can be trusted fully or not.

You can also set this up by having an DM PC, something that I would say never do, in the party where you have a character, but really they are a reoccuring NPC who is going to screw over the party some night. They are using the party for their own good, but then they decide that the party isn’t useful for them, so they are going to take what they want and then leave. I’d make this a lower level bad guy for them to deal with, while still having to fight zombies often or try and sneak around zombies. You could even, if they don’t track down the NPC and kill them, have that character build up into a larger bad guy.

If they do kill the NPC, then create a new one who has a rival gang fighting for resources and doing a scorched earth policy to keep other people from following behind them and getting the zombies to follow those people and getting to them. However, this would obviously have a very negative effect on other survivors beyond the more resourceful PC’s.

Eventually, I think the big bad of the campaign, besides the zombies, should be a wizard or lich who has a controlling rod that they build after the apocalypse has started. This rod is what they are using now, to control zombies and take over territories and subjugate people. Taking out the lich/wizard won’t solve the problem of the zombies, but will at least give people a fair chance.

I’d make it so that the BBEG is either the only who who can control the zombies, or that the rod is something like a crystal ball so that the players won’t likely get the magical item that allows them to send zombies away or keep them away from an area. Or at least cause that as a threat for the players and the players can either decide that destroying the control rod, which would then cause the zombies to attack the BBEG as well as the players might be an object, or try and figure out how and use the control rod.

Maybe give it to the players, now that I’m thinking about it, or give them a chance to get it, because then you could narrate a cool ending where the players could use the control rod to create a little oasis of safety for people to live.

With all these kind of major points, I’d also have the players dealing with survivors, dealing with injured people, dealing with bitten people who haven’t turned yet, and things like that. I would nerf a few healing options, basically only wish should be able to stop the zombie virus as it takes over the body where it could be argued that Greater Restoration or even Lesser Restoration might be able to normally.

Now, would I want to run this game? I think it could be interesting to run. I think the big focus of this game is going to be putting the players into situations where there isn’t a good outcome. This is supposed to be a dark fantasy scenario, and you don’t want them to be too heroic. I’d throw them up against situations where it’s about surviving. With that, though, I’d also give them a saving throw against turning into a zombie, but I would expect some PC’s to die along the way.

Would you want to play in a dark fantasy game?

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