A tiny plot pointer!

[nopantsyet]

I really like to use non-lethal encounters in cities. It's just so much more believable. A fantasy society is going to have the resources and sophistication to deal with violent crime. They may not do a good job of it, but the resources are going to be there. Granted, it might be the adventurers, but does it have to be every single time?

Of course not. Make the perform a daring rescue, find a missing person, fix some old lady's leaky roof. Okay, maybe not the roof. But think about it. A city is so rich. Take the newspaper of any city--even small ones--and just look at what's going on.

And Stone Angel is spot on. Serve up a good dish of moral amiguity. My players just raided a legitimate charity that was on some level affiliated with an evil cult. They didn't think twice about it. They were tailed and attacked, and left six dead bodies on the doorstep and made off with the towels to clean themselves up.

What do you think is going to happen next?

EXTRA: Charity looted, staff murdered! Fugitives at large!

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I couldn't agree more, healthy doses of moral ambiguity are something I really like IMC. I think they can be more fun than a straightforward fight and it's certainly different!

The cult + charity connection is a great one. My players would throw things at me if I used it again: If you're familiar with Shadowrun I ran a campaign fighting against a wholesome group called The Universal Brotherhood - a fine charitable organisation with a slight evil bug spirit problem. The real kicker with it was that they'd strike a blow against this group, then get labelled as psyco criminals in the news. Great stuff.

 

[Chain Lightning]

It was mentioned earlier that doing a monster cleaning type adventure within a city was kinda unrealistic. I agree for the most part. But, I think there are ways to make it happen.

If you still want to run a straight forward 'clean out the monsters' type scenario, but are find the idea too unrealistic, how about this:

A wizard (from the nearest Wizard Guild or whatever) has some rather distasteful experiments that he wants hidden from the rest of his peers. The other wizards would be MOST displeased if they found out that he's into monster making, cross-breeding, and other things that mutate, create, or bring about new monster hybrids or abominations.

This experimenting Wizard has been conducting his experiments in the mansion (inn or whatever). There are several rooms filled with pens, cages, and what not holding failed experiments. These 'failed experiments', while a failure, are still dangerous enough to give 1st level characters a fun fight. Think ....kind of like a D&D version of "Resident Evil". Creepy operating tables, tanks filled with dark liquids that hold odd swimming monsters in them, bars that cut off a room....darkness beyond....weird noises coming from the end. This place could've existed in a questionable side of the city where no one took interest in the building. It was just left alone. City guard were paid off to not bother with it. But , if the PCs hunt for rumors......some locals report hearing 'odd' noises from the building from time to time.

Here's the thing though. If the Wizard is powerful enough to use magic to fuse and create new monsters.....he or she is too powerful for 1st level characters. No problem. The actual Wizard that did all this work is now dead. The other Wizard council disposed of him. Thing is, they never knew the location of his secret lab. The only people maintaining it are psycho inbred lackey types that still don't know their master has died. They just guard the place, feed the monsters, and await the return of the Wizard. The PCs clean it out, find journals that point out that the creator owner of the lab used to belong to that one Wizard Council, they go there and tell them what they found, the council is grateful, now they have a connection to the council too. Perhaps a place to buy discount scrolls, do library research for the PC Group's spellcaster...whatever.

Or leave the Wizard alive, and just say he or she is off doing some campaign/searching on some other part of the world. When the wizard comes back a year later and finds the hide out gone, the PCs have a new enemy. Maybe by then they're strong enough to take on the wizard?

Anyways, you can have fun coming up with creepy level one failed monster experiments for PCs to fight. Large 4' wide two headed toads with 6' long spiked covered tongues......skinless dogs that run on walls.......cats with gnome faces on them......whatever you can think of .

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Anyway, I've just finished the session. It went well!

The children are indeed part of a mini crime ring, led by Simon - a charismatic child spellcaster. Simon and a small girl - peggy (who owned some pipes of sounding) used to create a ghost to scare of trespassers. They'd been discovered and were being extorted and bullied by a racketeer called Mr Fanes - a washed up prize fighter.

The players clocked the fake ghost before it was even sprung and managed to catch one of the kids. They decided to find out who Fanes was, and did a fair bit of info gathering... Decided they really disliked him, after finding out a few choice details about him. They decided to 'do him in' after finding out he was only loosly associated with his local guild and pretty unpopular.

They ambushed him and his men on their rounds, knocked them unconcious and decided to turn them over to the watch for the bounty. They returned some of his protection money to their new neighbours in an effort to make friends. They've decided to help the kids, getting them started towards more honest lives!

There is an entrance, into some old ruins, hidden in the cellar, but they have not found that yet... or heard about the treasures rumoured to be down there...

In the procees they've met a whole bunch of people, had some fun and made me lots of plot hooks. They were playing really 'smart' and were interacting heavily with the setting.

Next week they find out the other children are jealous of the ones they're 'saving' and that their patron is officially dead!

I really enjoyed running it.

Thanks for the help!



Chain Lightning - that's awfully close to the BBEG of this campaign arc. Havn't been reading my mind (or plot notes), have you?

The first session started in one of his old laboratories - a giant pyramid. Recently unfrozen from a time stasis by some overly curious Kobolds. They were busy being hunted by his creations. What you get when you fuse commoners and wild beasts - 'Joinings' as I stole from the author David Gemmel.

The old lady they met (Gretta) was in there with a few others. Abducted for a koboldish dinner...

 

[Chain Lightning]

Chain Lightning - that's awfully close to the BBEG of this campaign arc. Havn't been reading my mind (or plot notes), have you?

QUOTE]

Ha ha ha really? That's so weird. I guess great minds think alike eh? Well, I'm glad the session went well.

By the way, what does BBEG stand for?

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

By the way, what does BBEG stand for?

BBEG - Big Bad Evil Guy... In this case 1 of a few...