D&D Campaign Concept: From Beyond the Stars

I had an idea I shared on Twitter the other day, and it got my creative juices flowing. Imagine a D&D world where the “gods” are the names of rival terraforming corporations and merchant guilds when the world was settled.

Glittergold Mining and Moradin Operations were two rival mining guilds, one bringing gnomes to the planet, the other bringing dwarves. Gruumsh Securities brought orcs as security forces. Pelor Inc. served as the hospital corps upon settlement, as did St. Cuthbert’s Hospital. Ehlonna Development was in charge of terraforming the forests to create oxygen on the world. Chaun Tea was a tea-trading company.

After some sort of terrible disaster or war, technology was lost, and the corporations faded into myth, and their knowledge turned to worship. Buried in the mountains or in the deserts are massive colony ships, lost to time, some emerging to the surface. Perhaps this world’s mithril is instead the hulls of ships, far stronger than steel or iron, and so shaped into powerful weapons. Some cities could even be built from the ruins of these ships.

Cleric’s divine focus are some sort of technological devices which grant the appearance of magic, but are just technology. Perhaps the corporations continue to monitor the planet, sending “divine intervention” to help the clerics and paladins. Wizard staffs or orbs have trinkets of technology that grant magical powers. Some people are genetically modified, with special abilities encoded in their DNA, which gives Sorcerers their powers.

The terrible and wierd monsters believed to have been created by evil wizards long ago, were actually genetic experiments. The corporations haven’t intervened in the world, because the way the inhabitants have managed to harness the power, they’re able to tap into the planes, or alternate dimensions, in a way that this galactic society hasn’t been able to, and they want to use the planet to sort of explore and experiment on the planes before they attempt to do so in relative safety.

This setting has a lot of opportunities to unravel the secrets of the world. By not telling the players the concept from the beginning, you can slowly leak out details. A wizard here has some notes about the gods descending from the stars. Perhaps they find a dungeon below the earth that has images on the walls that tell the story as best they understand it. You could incorporate in the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks to create the big reveal. The campaign could even end with the “gods” returning in massive ships to claim the world for the galactic empire they serve. You can also introduce futuristic sci-fi weapons like those shown in the DMG as divine weapons that only the king’s guard carry, and are incredibly rare. Maybe you find someone who knows the full truth, but he’s a believed to be a mad-man who no one believes.

This setting has a lot of potential. Definitely something for me to look into for a future campaign.

Do you have any other ideas for what this setting could entail? Let me know in the comments below.