D&D 5E Using movie plots in campaigns

[Marandahir]

One of the most memorable home adventures I DM'd lifted from Pan's Labyrinth, where the players were granted a piece of magic chalk that led them to the Pale Man's realm.

There they resisted eating the food because someone realised the similarities, and they found a dagger that whispered for the blood of the innocent and almost died trying to stab the Pale Man with it.

Somehow they escaped, but they didn't realise they were supposed to run from the encounter until things got really bad. But hey, at least they didn't get eaten by that eldritch horror.

 

[werecorpse]

I ran a side trek based on The Hangover. The Party was spending a couple of days in a port city before the ship they were using was due to sail, they woke up after a night out with no memories, an important NPC was missing, they had a pile of gambling chips, their gear was mostly gone, one had his hand bandaged and they had a giant regenerating magical snake locked in one of their bedrooms.

during the game I knew some info (ie why the had was injured) but used skill rolls (ie highest persuasion roll etc) to work out who fell into which plot point (ie who had proposed to the exotic dancer, who had actually "married" her, who had challenged the snake cultist, who lifted the idol (& where they hid it) etc

they had fun working out what happened, disentangling & getting back on track.

 

[Fractal Rabbit]

I once used the plot from The Rock.

In my Homebrew world back then had the saurials race from FR. And they had a monastery on top of something like the Devil's Tower in the Real World (rather than Alcatraz). And it was infiltrated by Drow agents who were going to use its height and commanding view of three large cities (one mostly high elven) to attack and destroy the surface cities.

They had a mirror/magnifying glass type laser (like the apocryphal device of Archimedes) and the PCs had to stop them.

It it worked out pretty well and the players seemed to enjoy it.

 

[Sunseeker]

I have often stolen liberally from movies. There are many great tropes, especially in cult classic b-movies that are a lot of run to introduce into a game. Sure, I adjust them to make them more fitting to the game, but I've stolen from Jungle Book, Cube, The Green, Neverending Story (having players deal with The Nothing was quite fun).

 

[unnatural 20]

I wrote and ran a couple of James Bond-esque adventure for Eberron, starting with Gnomefinger, a scenario set in Trolanport. It included Auric Gnomefinger's bodyguard, an owlbear super-soldier in a tuxedo named Hootsworth, and Gnomefinger's treacherous lamia paramour Honey Rider. [MENTION=6701422]Plaguescarred[/MENTION] played in this one!

This adventure then led into another scenario called Goldenowl which involved exploring and ultimately shutting down Gnomefinger's hidden super-soldier and secret weapons lab before it provoked a war with Darguun, a nation of goblinoids.

I slated a third in the series called Olaruneraker which involved a trip to one of Eberron's moons, but never finished it as I got too busy with my main campaign.

This is why you are one of my favorite posters. I'm completely jealous of [MENTION=6701422]Plaguescarred[/MENTION].

 

[knasser]

I wrote and ran a couple of James Bond-esque adventure for Eberron, starting with Gnomefinger, a scenario set in Trolanport. It included Auric Gnomefinger's bodyguard, an owlbear super-soldier in a tuxedo named Hootsworth, and Gnomefinger's treacherous lamia paramour Honey Rider. @Plaguescarred played in this one!

This adventure then led into another scenario called Goldenowl which involved exploring and ultimately shutting down Gnomefinger's hidden super-soldier and secret weapons lab before it provoked a war with Darguun, a nation of goblinoids.

I slated a third in the series called Olaruneraker which involved a trip to one of Eberron's moons, but never finished it as I got too busy with my main campaign.

LOL @ "Hootsworth". It's amazing how the right name and a couple of words (tuxedo, owlbear) enable one to perfectly picture a character.

 

[iserith]

This is why you are one of my favorite posters. I'm completely jealous of @Plaguescarred.

Thanks for the kind words!

LOL @ "Hootsworth". It's amazing how the right name and a couple of words (tuxedo, owlbear) enable one to perfectly picture a character.

I love coming up with (often ridiculous) names for things. In my experience, it also helps players to remember NPC names whereas "typical" fantasy names are forgotten.

 

[Arryn]

I just finished up a story line based on "The Magnificent Seven" where the party had to protect a backwater town from an Evil rancher who wanted to tear down the town to give his herd easier access to the best fording spot in the river for 100 miles. The twist was the rancher was a high level Druid and the herd consisted of Dinosaurs. Having him ride into town on the back of a triceratops flanked by his men riding allosauruses was soo damn enjoyable.