Superhumans in Dungeons & Dragons


I have always liked stories that blur the lines between fictional genres.  Weird West, Sci-Fantasy, Scooby-Doo meets Cthulhu, you name it and I have probably enjoyed it or at least the concept of it.  Comic books and television are rife with examples of this sort of thing.  Batman travels back in time to the Wild West and meets Jonah Hex, Wolverine battles Conan the Barbarian, Dean Winchester goes back to World War II and boards a submarine to recover a mystic artifact before the sub is sunk by a German destroyer.  A crashed spaceship releases robots to wreak havoc in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

High-Level Characters are already nigh-superhuman with Fighters able to defeat scores of warriors in a single battle, Wizards calling fire and lightning down from the sky or Clerics calling upon their gods to create miracles that alter the very fabric of reality.  But what if we took that one-step further?

A deceptively simple adventure could revolve around a meteorite that crashes down in the wilderness (or Arizona in the 1880's).  That meteorite is discovered by a tribe of goblins (or gang of bandits) who then haul it back to their caves.  Energy from the space rock mutates the goblins, giving them a host of “more-than-human” abilities like enhanced strength, flight, laser eye beams, or whatever else fits the Dungeon Master’s story.

The goblins, now possessed of fantastic abilities, soon come to dominate the other tribes living in the area and march on the lands of man, sacking villages, burning crops, and leaving devastation in their wake.  A local lord sends out a call for help and adventurers respond.  They fight the goblins and eventually steal the source of their powers which gradually fade without continuous exposure.

Other nobles learn of the meteorite and want it for themselves.  War ensues with the adventurers caught in the middle.  Who will they aid?  Will they take the meteor and keep it for themselves?  What if a dragon acquires the meteor?  A creative Dungeon Master could spin years’ worth of adventures from this concept.

What would you do if you a player in a campaign like this?  What if you were writing these adventures for your players?

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