If I wanted to run the classic 'group gets isekai'd' campaign, what setting should I use? Like, the obvious option is 5E, but it doesn't seem to capture the sense of incremental progress as much (i.e. the characters are leveling up and getting slightly better constantly, and are strong from the start.)
You control the rate of advancement.
>>9805839>settingSigil>gameWhatever feels appropriate to you.
>>98058395I'd say 5e isn't a setting itself but a system, you can make whatever setting you like (isekai kingdom of Generica, town of Blandenburg, exploring the Wearisome Woods and the Humdrum Dungeon). I would say that if you already lean toward 5e, grab the Compendium of Forgotten Secrets and run a gestalt campaign where everyone has a Warlock of the Eternal Citadel on one side. Maybe let them change the casting stat to Int or Wis if you feel generous. The Eternal Citadel is aware and powerful enough to steal people from across the multiverse, hold them prisoner until they agree to spread civilization and wipe out savagery/nature, then deposit them on some world it wants brought to heel. The party aren't summoned by desperate natives or sent by truck, but made into pawns of a vast war between incomprehensible beings and their role now is to crush any resistance they find to paving the world over and erecting an infinite city.
>>980583955e unironically can work for this if it is a generic fantasy setting.I want to right a light hearted isekai campaign with buddies in on the joke.So far the best I have is that instead of hot elf ladies it is big gachimuchi fantasy race men.I need more anime isekai cliches to poke fun of.
>>98058395You should use D&D. Not 5E, not 3.5, not 2nd Edition, just pure undiluted D&D. Orcs, spaceships, valleys of mystery, improvisation, dragons, Mr. Miyagi with a moustache made of clock hands, the volcano explodes and floods the caves so the dungeon map changes completely while the party is inside.
>>98058395What kind of tone are you looking for? 5e is heroic fantasy so players are going to be heroic right from the start.>what setting should I use?Make it up. Don't use a pregen setting because most of them will be more interesting/fleshed out than your typical isekai fantasy europe. Just drop your players in a circular walled city and you're golden. Make sure you got a river running through that bitch.>Like, the obvious option is 5E, but it doesn't seem to capture the sense of incremental progress as much (i.e. the characters are leveling up and getting slightly better constantly, and are strong from the start.)Characters only progress as much as you let them. They are also only as strong as you let them be. If you have them go against standard 5e enemies then yeah, they'll be strong but the math for 5e is wrong and I don't know how well 5.5e fixed it. If you're the GM then you can make the monsters as tough or as dangerous as you need to by messing with the stats.
Isn't the appeal of (modern(slop)) isekai the settings being generic and running RPG mechanics so the protag/reader can go "OMG IT'S JUST LIKE MY FAVORITE GAME"? D&D is perfect for that because D&D is where the basic mechanics and fantasy elements for that come from.Or do you want a more survival focused portal fantasy story? Where the main characters could get their shit kicked in regularly and the setting doesn't like them? No XP or classes? I guess BRP would work?
>>98060647I did not know there was a random ww2 guy in the show
>>98061816I should know but I forgot until I found that pic.I was looking for images of the episode where they help a wookie and his alien friends get a spaceship to travel. Then I found that one and "heh, will get my point across".Undiluted D&D. You improvise with whatever miniatures are on the table.
>>98058395Last Arc: Tactics Analogue if you want primarily combat
>>98058395>the obvious option is 5EAside from someone pointing out that 5E is a system not a setting, what makes 5E "the" obvious choice? How is it obvious at all?
>>98058395>Like, the obvious option is 5EIt's not. Use Fabula Ultima instead.
>time travel is canon to the D&D Multiverse (albeit obviously very rare, risky, unpredictable and prone to interference from higher powers -specially in case of abuse)>in spite of a portion of players ignoring it, Earth (of a few decades ago) is canonically (at least for the Forgotten Realms, but if we're considering Planescape and/or Spelljammer, the FR are part of it all) part of the Material Plane and, however complicated the path may be, can be accessed by D&D charactersFor your isekai situation, the party could presumably get accidentally transported both to the D&D Multiverse (possibly via some ultra rare portal or via Spelljamming) and also in time so as to be at the 'current' datetime of the Multiverse (in whatever calendar the locals are using).
