A Most Unusual Adventure

STARP_Social_Officer · Feb 10, 2007

My question to the teeming thousands is this: what is the most unusual adventure you have ever run or played in? By 'unusual' I mean both 'against your normal style' and 'against what most players would consider a 'typical' adventure. You all know what I mean.

My most unusual adventure would be the one where I borrowed the concept (but not the plot, exactly) from the Buffy episode 'Hush'. I had a bard who made a pact with a demon to have the best voice in the kingdom (an island), but the demon, in typical Mephistophelesian manner, created a 'catch' by stealing everybody else on the island's voices as compensation. Since this included the crew of the PCs' ship, they had to go through the adventure without speaking any in-game dialogue. I added an extra incentive: you were allowed to speak if you were telling me your actions, but if you managed to get your point across without speaking, I'd give extra XP. My players found it all very disorienting and a bit creepy, especially when I started describing NPCs using mime, but all in all I think it was a great adventure.

I've always wanted to take the nicking-stories-from-Buffy concept a bit further and do a 'musical' adventure, but I think that'd be beyond the level of gameplay my players are capable of giving.

DragonLancer · Feb 10, 2007

In an old Planescape campaign I borrowed the Holodeck idea from Star Trek TNG for a night's session.

I made up fresh 1st level characters and took a basic 1st level scenario from Dungeon and gave them the new characters when they arrived for the game, telling them only that the session was connected to the regular campaign.
I ran the scenario in an archetypal D&D style, very different from how I usually DM. In the end they solved the scenario, dispatched the villains and...

"Bang! The book slams shut. You are all sitting at a table in the corner of the Fat Candle tavern, seated across from the barkeep. Before you are notes and dice."

"Well, what do you think of my new game?" asks the barkeep. "I'm thinking of calling it Dungeons & Dragons!"

It got both groans and applause, but it made a rather memorable night's gaming.

XO · Feb 10, 2007

Any Chaos On-The-Spot Improv Strangeness

My players (who have been with my sick, twisted, distorted mind for over 30 years) agree that I am at my best when I take out all the stops and just let it go...

Some of my dungeons make Cthulhu seem lawful, sane and peaceful

SpiderMonkey · Feb 10, 2007

When my little brother, who was around 10 or 11 at the time, wanted to DM. We followed rumors of diminutive figures attacking and stealing from villagers at night. We tracked them into the woods, expecting goblins until we arrived at the lair...in a tree. We were then attacked by Disney's Gummi Bears...bouncing here and there and everywhere. Turns out Zummi was an evil wizard, the Great Book of the Gummis was a spellbook, and that Gummi Berri Juice could be turned into potions of Strength.

That boy just ain't right.

Raloc · Feb 10, 2007

SpiderMonkey said:
When my little brother, who was around 10 or 11 at the time, wanted to DM. We followed rumors of diminutive figures attacking and stealing from villagers at night. We tracked them into the woods, expecting goblins until we arrived at the lair...in a tree. We were then attacked by Disney's Gummi Bears...bouncing here and there and everywhere. Turns out Zummi was an evil wizard, the Great Book of the Gummis was a spellbook, and that Gummi Berri Juice could be turned into potions of Strength.

That boy just ain't right.

This reminds me of something my younger sister tried to pull off as a DM (and rather failed at it since she was so young). She wanted to run a scenario in which the PCs (which at the time was just me, coaching her on how to DM) were trapped inside a sort of demi-plane inside a crystal scrying ball. Her idea was that they'd have to adventure to escape and eventually kill the wizard responsible for trapping them. Had she not been 11 or such at the time, it might have made a decent adventure.

That was in 2e also, so I imagine her grasp of the rules was pretty poor as well. I think she knew how to play alright though.

Sejs · Feb 10, 2007

Sahudese Firedrill.

And good GOD was it fun.

Aramax · Feb 10, 2007

Ok lets see if I can tell this adventure w/o any R rated words.

A female space whale crashed on my game world,she was in heat causing earthquakes.
The PCs found her mate from whom they needed to harvest....seed.They had to fight though her magic defences and crabs to um....fertalize her .keep in mind she was miles across.
This traumatized two guys who were brand new to my game .they never came again,but I would see them from time to time and they would relive the adventure in horror

(Dear Mods-dont ban me!)

KrazyHades · Feb 10, 2007

The oddest adventure (actually, a mini-arc, because we didn't have time) I ever DMed was when the characters were ALL transported to the ethereal plane without the magic to return, and had to somehow get their way back. There were some, very few, people who could see them and communicate with them, but they were all mad (as in, totally insane) seers, some of whom had magic to compel spirits to do their bidding. The PCs had to somehow reason and communicate with people I played as ENTIRELY on the far side of madness. Somehow they had to convince one of them to help re-materialize the party. It was eerie, creepy, and perfect!

Aeric · Feb 10, 2007

I've always wanted to run a game where the PCs are all familiars or animal companions whose masters are either killed or incapacitated, leaving the "pets" on their own.

I'm currently planning to run a game using Star Wars races and Force powers instead of magic, but D&D classes (modified, of course) and equipment/technology. The idea is that a ship crashed on this remote planet millennia ago, and the survivors descended into barbarism. The planet itself may or may not be surrounded by an energy field making space travel to or from it impossible (which would explain why the ship crashed in the first place, and why no one has bothered them since). Standing in for gods on this world is a race of super-powerful beings who shed their physical forms long ago and became one with the Force, similar to the First Ones from Babylon 5 or the Annunaki from Fading Suns. This race has two factions, one favoring the Light side of the Force and one favoring the Dark side.

I also had an idea of running a Ravenoft game in which the ruler of a domain is a Dark Lord of the Sith, but that will probably never come to fruition.

Savage Wombat · Feb 10, 2007

I don't know if it's the weirdest thing I've done, but I've dropped my PCs into other bodies for an adventure twice.

The first time was basically "you wake up in a different body. Here's your new sheet" and watching, for example, the former 7' half-troll adjusting to being a small purple lizardman-thing.

The second time was "you open the door to the dungeon, which causes the evil spirit to escape, time travel, and alter history. Here's your new background" and enjoying the PCs suicide themselves to restore history, knowing they'd be alive again when time returned to normal.