I'm running a tongue-in-cheek Ptolus game using the original DnD B3: Palace of the Silver Princess module. Here are the details...
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Ptolus.
The city by the spire. Ptolus, where the city guard is made almost entirely of ex-adventuring swordsmen. Ptolus, where the average pickpocket down on their luck has a higher dexterity than a professional acrobat. Ptolus, where a race of elves called the Harrow elves walk the streets cloaked and hunched over like Eddie Vedder on the bender. Ptolus, where a water genasi is in the same adventuring party as a half-red dragon minotaur. Ptolus, where angels patrol over streets and evil outsiders are allowed to reside since they haven’t broken any laws yet. Ptolus, where 5th-level characters are bullied in the
The Ghostly Minstrel tavern for their potion money by real heroes.
This is Ptolus.
I am running a tongue-in-cheek Ptolus game that is going to be a two part adventure. The game will use the DnD 3.5 system unless we get a flood of people who prefer another system.
This is a dungeon crawl, so I'm also going to use an old original DnD adventure module called B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, and modify it to fit my campaign. Characters will be fourth level. Any character class or race is acceptable. I will trust everyone to roll up their characters at home using a 4d6 method (dropping the lowest, reroll 1s). The only caveat is that one of your ability scores must be at least as low as an 8. Also, I’ll be picking characters from people who I trust didn’t cheat, so if a character is presented to me with all 17s and 18s and a dump attribute for the 8, I’ll raise an eyebrow and probably pass over the character.
The first part of adventure will be a standard dungeon crawl where the party will have to save the damsel in distress and her kingdom, find the McGuffin, and defeat the BBEG.
Now I'm going to explain how this adventure is going to stand out. Normally I prefer running a game off the core books, while allowing people to make special requests to me in regards to other classes, feats, weapons, etc. This allows me to tailor the culture of my campaign world without having a class or race (etc) that doesn't fit in my concept of my game world.
This time I'm more willing to allow most things from other books right off the bat since I'm very much encouraging people to build crazy characters and the 'cheese' factor because it fits the tone I want to set.
Another change is that I will declare "atmospheres" in the game, a concept I just came up with, but am unsure if people would be interested in trying out. For instance, during the dungeon crawl portion of the adventure the atmosphere will be "camp". Players that post actions that follow this atmosphere will gain a +1 to their spell DCs, attack and damage rolls, and saving throws for that round. Campy actions can include attempting to swing down from a chandalier to get into attack position, witty banter (the worse the pun the better), verbal boasts, and other types of showing off. The monsters will act in a similarly campy way (funny looking uniforms, slave girl captives, etc).
If later I declare a "film noire" atmosphere, the players would be encouraged to smoke, prefer a shot of whiskey at the tavern, and have to change from open dialogue to private, cynical thoughts ("The dame had nowhere else to go and needed our help, I could see. But I knew she would be trouble. Trouble always knew where to find dames with legs like hers...". In a "film noire" atmosphere characters might get a +1 to AC and a +2 to all skill checks when roleplaying in this way.
Of course, there would also be bonus XP for roleplaying. I'm planning on the adventure having two stages, and therefore two "atmospheres", though I might change my mind and increase this. A "campy" dungeon crawl would be the first part in any case.
Since this is just for kicks, don't get attached to any characters you draw up. I sometimes fudge the dice to encourage heroics, but in this case it is a one-shot adventure, not something where the characters are important to game events. If a character dies, it's time to roll up another and I'll find some way to insert him or her.
This module is part DnD and part save-the-princess fairy tale, so if you guys want to create over the top heroes that are more stereotypes than round characters, I say go for it. You might not play a paladin, but rather the chisel-faced poster boy for men in shining armor. The bard is either a minstrel who plays like the guitarist in Animal House or love-struck romantics that woo each woman they see. Every wizard thinks that he isn't just intelligent, but that his genius exceeds that of any other mortal ever born. And that girl in the chainmail bikini... not only does it provide the same AC bonus as a full suit, but she also stays warm in winter climes with a small cloak and sheer sauciness.
The adventure will start in the
Ghostly Minstrel tavern in Midtown of Ptolus, when the party is approached by a dwarf in need of heroes…
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And here is the link...
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=189033
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