"Groundhog day"-like adventure?

[Breakstone]

A quick post about cliches:

Look at nearly every single campaign ever played in D&D. What is the plot?

Fight the bad guys, save the world.

Now if that isn't cliche, I don't know what is. But why do DM's (and directors, and authors, and game-makers) always use this cliche?

Because it's fun and popular, and always satisfactory.

I borrow cliches all the time to use in adventures. However, I only use them once. Cliches allow the player to realize the feel of the adventure and work with it. When used correctly, cliches are great.


Now, back to the post:

To pull off a Groundhog Day adventure, you'd need careful preparation. Personally, I'd write down a number of locations and times and record what each NPC, monster, or random occurance is doing at that time and in that place. Then, during the session, I'd make plenty of notes.

But, when pulled off, I think it would make one heck of a memorable adventure.

 

[Rybaer]

I love this idea! (and the movie...)

I agree that keeping a specific list of characters, places, events, and times is essential. Setting it up in a small village, large estate, or similar confined area will also help keep a sane limit on who the pc's can interact with and where they can wander off to. Using Groundhog Day as an example, there were perhaps 15 characters in town that we saw almost every day and got to know and perhaps half a dozen sites where noteworthy events would always happen.

I think it'd work well as either a murder/crime investigation or as more of a puff-piece like Groundhog Day where it's quirky and fun, but not really dangerous.

Good luck running it. I might give it a try sometime too.

-Rybaer

 

[Agamon]

Maybe I shouldn't have used the word cliche. All I know is, my players, who all are very familiar with this type of plot (those episodes were are all very memorable), would all roll their eyes and wonder why I couldn't come up with something original. YMMV, though, I suppose.

 

[KingThorvar]

I like the idea.. just know your players..

Some of my players will "ooh" and "ahh" at anything I can come up with.. others may yawn at this particular idea..

Just because 50 other people have done it, doesn't mean your players will not like it (they may never have seen it done).

 

[Heretic Apostate]

As someone mentioned, there was an X-Files episode where a woman has been reliving the same awful day, over and over again.

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In the episode, the woman and her boyfriend are dirt-poor or something. Anyway, the boyfriend thinks the only way out of the situation is to rob a bank. Every time, however, something goes wrong, and the boyfriend ends up blowing up the bank, as well as everyone in it. Including Fox Mulder.

Again and again and again, no matter what the woman does, the scene repeats itself. There are little differences, but the result is always the same. She sabotages the car, she calls the police, she tries everything. However, little by little, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully start to catch on to the deja vu feeling.

Very cool episode.

 

[Privateer]

Good idea, but it'd be hard to pull off. Like an earlier poster said, you'd have to get a map of where everyone was at all times. It would be a worthy project... if you could find someone to publish it, I'm sure it would be a hit, provided all goes well.

 

[Darkness]

This is a plot, I think...

 

[333 Dave]

Ouch, Darkness, did you have to kill it like that? I liked that thread.... and we all know being moved to Plots kills a perfectly good thread....

 

[Psion]

This came up on the old boards, and therein I (we?) came up with an idea for an adventure that I have slated to run someday.

The basic premise is that the players get trapped in a dimension that is a time-loop trap for some manner of beast that cannot otherwise be dealt with for whatever reason (it's immortal/unkillable, whatever)

Here's they trick to the story. The players retain all knowledge of their previous "day" unless they get killed during the day. If they get killed, they loose all knowledge of what happens that day.

As a result, the PCs can die and return the next day, no problem. So long as one PC lives to tell the tale, they can adjust their action for the next go.

But if the entire party dies, they reset to the beginning of the day, and are doomed to repeat the same day forever.

The party should quickly trip upon this fact. They will have to gather clues (of course, in a dangerous situation) and try to navigate through it without all getting killed.

 

[Darkness]

Ouch, Darkness, did you have to kill it like that?

That's part of my job: Unless Morrus or Piratecat tells me otherwise, I'll move every thread to its appropriate forum...

... we all know being moved to Plots kills a perfectly good thread....

We do?
BTW, Morrus is currently considering combining Plots with other "DM Stuff" boards - which will bring it more traffic.