This plot describes how I started characters in a new campaign. I had begun to envisage my new band of heroes as a weird mixture of technology and fantasy from three basic 'periods', viz: the 'normal' fantasy time frame, a modern (1995) period, and a futuristic, post-apocalypse period (very Terminator 2 in feel). The characters that could fit into this strange crossover seemed to step right out of my mind; they could include a knight on a Harley, wielding a magic bastard sword and an ion cannon, or an elf with cyber-enhancements, armed with longbow and Uzi machine-guns, or a robotic warrior armed with a staff of fireballs and a copy of the Necronomicon.
I realised that what I was trying to do was to combine all of my inspirations, from Lovecraft to Scwarzenegger, Tolkien to 2000AD - I'm sure you get the picture...
Right, the next phase was to design the fantasy world that would be the starting point for the campaign. I had had the name OverEarth rolling around in my mind for quite a while, which inspired a setting that was basically an alternative Earth with the normal fantasy/historical time frame, magic systems, etc. The starting point would be the island kingdom of Beorsca, off the west coast of Uropha, and basically an alternative England...
Next I developed my arch-enemy for Beorsca, the usual vicious mage and power-hungry tyrant, but added the twist that he was the father of one of the PCs...
Now came the real challenge - how to start the actual campaign, how to develop the characters, and how to provide the rationale for the 'jumps' to our own present-day Earth and its post-apocalypse future
My solution to the dilemma was based upon two beliefs that I had formulated over the years...
Firstly, that role-playing a character in a fully developed fantasy world is almost impossible, because of the lack of frames of reference. What I mean by this is that if I tell you to role -play someone from Paris, your mind automatically throws out images of the Eiffel Tower, street cafes, etc, but if I say role-play an elf from Elshaven, you have no mental images on which to base your character.
Secondly, I had found that role-playing groups often squabble and argue at every turn, even when playing fully in character. This arguing always seemed to spoil the impression that the group was a cohesive whole, and it seemed ludicrous that they remained together at all...
The solution to the first problem is simple to run, and turns out to be the 'engine' that drives the PCs towards their goal. In brief, I decided that the characters had actually battled their arch-enemy across Beorsca 900 years ago, and then followed him through a gate to present (1995) Earth and eventually to the post-apocalypse future Earth. However, when they finally faced him (by then armed with weaponry from all three settings), he once again stepped through a gate, trying to return to OVEREARTH. The characters followed, and the trap was sprung. The arch-enemy sealed access out of the gates, and the characters were trapped in an inter-dimensional limbo...
Time passes, and our PC benefactors (which could either be your campaigns gods, or some ultra-powerful NPC) stumble/s upon the characters locked in limbo, strips them of their techno-items, and sends them back to their home world (in this case OVEREARTH). However, it is now 900 years later, and the arch-enemy has just about destroyed the PC's realm, which is now a dead island dominated by his (expectably) demonic forces. To make matters worse, and to really spice things up, the characters don't have a clue who they are, where they come from, etc. Even better, their 900 year experience in limbo has caused their skills to atrophy, so that although they were, let's say 15th level, they're now 5th level, or 1st level if you're particularly cruel...Thus the players don't have to try to role-play in what in terms of geography or history is a totally foreign world, because it is also foreign to the CHARACTERS!
And the final twist, which accounts for the usual inter-character bickering, is that the party's original leader, a warrior of great skill and huge personal charisma * is not with them when they return*. They are aware of his (or her) absence, and cannot function as a unit without him/her.
And so the scene is set for the poor players, aware only of their names and their rudimentary skills, to...