New Campaign Idea - Brainstorming - Celtic Mythology System Lords

[JarnabyBones]

Hey everyone! Really excited to run my first game. I had some ideas and would love to hear some thoughts!

We don't deal much with Celtic system lords in the series. Camulus shows up, and from wiki searching supposedly Nuada and Cernunnos were two of the system lords from that mythology. But I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential here!

Celtic mythology would breed a culture of humans who were used to seeing unearthly things and knowing ways not to cross them. Faerie Circles that "take you to other worlds" correlate to ring transporters pretty well. Tales of fae taking first born (selecting for hosts), or men being transported to the realm of the fae and being returned (Goa'uld experimentation on humans). 

I'd be leaning heavily on the Tuatha De Danann as the system lords. The players would probably be branded "Fomor" by the system lords, the traditional enemies of the Tuatha who come from under the sea (Stargates being portals of water). 

The main idea of the campaign is that Phoenix Site finds a clue about gaining entrance to Hy-Brasil (in the lore an island that appears every several years and then disappears). The gate address the find is one that Stargate Command had orignally designated as a dead address that couldn't be dialed. The clues reveal that the gate can only be dialed on a specific schedule, other attempts to dial in will fail. With this knowledge contact can be made and a team sent to explore. 

Borrowing and idea from Baal I want a network of worlds/gates that can be accessed from Hy-Brasil on a discrete gate network. Hy-Brasil is the only (known) gate in the network that can get in. I haven't decided yet if they will be able to dial back out immediately upon getting there. There may be a seperate timing to being able to leave, or there may be only a limited number of gates able to exit the network. 

The goa'uld here enjoy the culture they've developed with the people. A belief that most of the "Fair Folk" will never tell a direct lie, and that you should be cautious about deals and gifts from them. There is a wide culture of experimentation on their humans among the Goa'uld. They also enjoy walking among the people occasionally in "glamour" and selecting fine craftsmen and artists to take back to their palaces for their amusement. When people are taken it is known and accepted they are in Tir na Nog with the gods.  There is also lots of competition and back stabbing among the gods, so the party will not be facing a coordinated assault from all sides, there will be in fighting and different motivations to exploit.

Not entirely sure of where to take it from there. Do they get stuck here and have to survive until they figure out how to gate home? Can they get out easily as long as they leave within the window and have to plan longer expeditions if they want to explore? Discovering the gate addresses to the other worlds in the limited network could be part of the season exploration. I'm also toying around with the idea of a Dyson Sphere that the Goa'uld discovered and are using to maintain their isolation and serves as their home base/land of the gods. 

Thoughts?

[JarnabyBones]

Twist to this idea - The system lords in this private gate network ARE the Fomorians, who were the enemies of the more traditional and known Celt system lords. They either fled, or were exiled, to this private network.

[trigger2391]

I like the dyson sphere idea, could mebbe be Underhill? Maybe the "Fomorians" are really Tok'ra or another similar group but with a celtic twist from a different Go'auld queen perhaps?

[GrendelPrime]

Really love this idea a lot!

[stm077]

I had similar thoughts to Jarnaby. Goa'uld as Fomorians. Thinking of the invasions of Ireland they talk of the Fomorians being displaced/defeated by the Tuatha. I had the idea that the Danaan are humans with a genetic anomaly that causes the Goa'uld inside them to be rendered dormant. This would be a huge threat to the Goa'uld as the Danaans would gain Goa'uld knowledge and access to Goa'uld technology. They drive the Goa'uld from Ireland and follow to wage war against the System Lords. The book of invasions has the Milesians displacing the Tuatha, humans arriving in Ireland just as the Tuatha are leaving, hence the folklore.

Cut to now, the Tuatha are fighting a war against the Goa'uld on the fringes of the System Lords' territory. The Goa'uld refer to them as the "nothing." Finding mention of the Tuatha and them making contact becomes the PC's mission.

[Grokken]

I've been tinkering with a similar idea, but I was thinking that the Tuatha and the Fir Bolg were once an allied group under Ra but had a falling out when Ra suffered the loss of the gate.  They were among the lesser lords that visited earth to pick up new slaves for a time until the dark ages when the chief of the Fir Bolg Balor and the chief of the Tuatha Dagda began to war against each other.  The Tuatha had started to view the system lords as the Tokra do now, while the Fir Bolg became more obsessed with becoming system lords.  I see the Tuatha as being almost helpful to the Tauri while the Fir Bolg are wanting them as slaves again.  This would set the players with a "the enemy of my enemy is useful but not really my friend" scenario where the players are the last piece that could tip the scales in a very old war.  

There are a LOT of weird items in Celtic lore that could make some very interesting mystery tech.  Lugh's Spear, Dagda's Cauldron, the Speaking Stone et al.

The absolute wealth of material is a little exciting.

[stm077]

Love it.

[ElfQueen]

This a good idea, i do know that to my knowledge they did bring in some basic Norse mythology with Thor but the Adguard are it's own thing to talk about later 

[Riptide]

This is cool, and I especially like the 'closed gate network' idea. Perhaps these were Goauld who did not see themselves ever gaining enough prominence to stand as System Lords so they found a way to start their own 'Empire' beyond the reach of the others.
I would think that it would be more fun for your players to be stuck here for a little while, with the big end game of the 'season' be finding a way home. It really is your chance to shine as you have an entire 'mini-galaxy' to create without being hindered by what has come before in the shows. You can develop your own lore while keeping true to the original.

[Irdaland]

I have been reading through the season one modules.  While they have a good Stargate feel to them I also felt my group of players are being relegated to sidekicks to SG1.  

I would have preferred if they chose some other pantheon that didn't get much attention in the show to be another group of system lords that my players could defeat.  I had been thinking Inca/Aztec but hadn't really developed anything more