Calling all GM's
- Thread starter mps42
- Start date
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Rel said:
Okay, wise guy. Let's work with this. First, we have to make it not silly. We'll do that by taking our orc and making the magical oven mitt into something else fireproof. The demonic skin of a glabrezu, grafted onto his arm by "helpful" outsiders? Sure, that would work. Let it be fireproof and have a few magical powers, and it would look pretty cool, so we'll go with that.
Okay, now the pie. Why a pie? Clearly, it isn't the pie but what's inside it that's important. Since I just mentioned cannibalism in another thread, I'm thinking orc pie. But now we have to explain why this guy is next to lava. . .
Hrakool was an one-eyed orcish shaman, feared and respected in his tribe. He strayed from the worship of Gruumsh to the adoration of black things from beyond comprehension. He would take orcish babies and sacrifice them to these demons in the deep of the night, eating the baby's hearts himself. In return the demons gifted him with a demonic skin that coats his right arm and turns it into a hideous weapon. It is slowly creeping over his body, and in time may subsume him entirely.
This obviously couldn't be hidden forever. Challenged by faithful Gruumsh worshippers and with orcish flesh still digesting in his belly, Hrakool was driven from the caves by a howling mob. He headed for the deeps of the world, staying on the outskirts of orcish settlements and picking off their inattentive citizens. His curse causes him to only be able to eat orcish or half-orcish flesh in order to live. He sometimes tries to pretend that he's eating something else, but there's no escaping his sin. His arm gives him magical powers - summoning forth small pools of bubbling lava, fire resistance, short-duration disguise capability, a few other special effects - but it giggles evil suggestions to him in the still of the underdark. Hrakool is now entirely insane, and extraordinarily crafty.
Finally driven upwards towards the sewers of a human city, Hrakool surfaced and smelled half-orcs above him. Now he stalks the city's half-orc population (and the orcish peace delegation currently visiting the city in order to discuss peace on a heavily raided caravan route) in a hunt for victims. He has intimidated a cowardly and venal baker into working with him, letting the debased human lure half-orcs to his pastry shop with "special orcish treats." Once a victim is selected, Hrakool lets the baker prepare the meat before devouring it. He has made himself a burrow beneath the baker's root cellar, and is trying to decide what to do when the city's supply of prey is gone.
The PCs are drawn into this when they hear of some sort of vigilante killing half-orcs. They may at first expect a fanatical ranger, but tracking down the last movements of two of the half-orcs leads them to the baker's shop. Meanwhile, Hrakool is out stalking the important orcish diplomats, and after beating the story out of the dispicable baker the PCs have to get to the local keep and stop Hrakool before he kills the ambassador -- and in doing so starts a war.
How's that for a five minute adventure?
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Rel
Liquid Awesome
Piratecat said:
Have I told you lately that I love you?
Seriously though, it is your ability to quickly spin something like this into a plausible adventure hook that keeps everyone here in awe. Nicely done.
I'll just go off and feel inadequate for a while now.
Unless of course you were impressed by my "Loss of Paladinhood" idea that I posted about in the NC Game Day thread.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
mps42 said:
Where do I go and how do I start? I start with a group of players and find out what they want to do. Get back in touch with your players and find out what they want to do for a new campaign. Maybe one of them will want to run something and you can get your creative energy back.
Henry
Autoexreginated
All right, another direction: The PC's have been resurrected five years after the event; The priest has animated their corpses as part of an animate dead. However, their gods have required a boon of them, because they did not earn their right to eternal peace, by not finishing what they started: As a result, they return, as Undead. As Skeletons or Zombies they were expected to return, but instead return with a fraction of their skills they once had, due to the fact that unlike traditional mindless undead, their SOULS have returned to these lifeless shells.
They have only half of their normal level and hit dice (+1 or 2 Hit Dice as a Zombie or Skeleton); just take a regular Medium Skel or Zombie and add to it half of their class levels. (Add as much as you think they need for your story.)
As undead, they enjoy certain immunities, but they are also vulnerable to certain problems. The cleric cannot turn undead properly, because he could zap himself; They do not heal naturally, and must have inflict wounds spells cast on them instead. Bring up references to picking bugs and parasites out of their bodies, allusions to problems with their corpse-state, etc. - play it up! In the end, they have two goals - find a way to complete the mission and clear their divine karmas, and either go back to rest in peace at the end) which would be a good finish to a mini-series or one-shot), or see if they can find a good priest who might even be willing to help restore them to life!
They have only half of their normal level and hit dice (+1 or 2 Hit Dice as a Zombie or Skeleton); just take a regular Medium Skel or Zombie and add to it half of their class levels. (Add as much as you think they need for your story.)
As undead, they enjoy certain immunities, but they are also vulnerable to certain problems. The cleric cannot turn undead properly, because he could zap himself; They do not heal naturally, and must have inflict wounds spells cast on them instead. Bring up references to picking bugs and parasites out of their bodies, allusions to problems with their corpse-state, etc. - play it up! In the end, they have two goals - find a way to complete the mission and clear their divine karmas, and either go back to rest in peace at the end) which would be a good finish to a mini-series or one-shot), or see if they can find a good priest who might even be willing to help restore them to life!
mps42
First Post
Piratecat said:
Hmmm... okay. Fatigue NotFun (tm) eh? Well then, what about a higher critical failure range for the lower qualities? I really would like some sort of mechanic or something for this idea but, If I can't make it work, oh well.
I looked through the Feng Shui thread briefly and didn't see anything about plot points or similar. Did I miss it?
You suck. I hate when people do stuff like that. If I'd even bothered to think about Rels' post AT ALL, it would've taken me hours+ to come up with something 1/4 as cool as that. Showoff.Piratecat said:
I thought about something similar to this and am trying to build on it in my "downtime" but, for now, I'm planning on running an existing adventure here (I try to keep backup adventures and one-shots for just such times. Who knows, I might even decide to do a online Death-Before-Dinner!). All I need to do it flesh out the setting a bit, work on a couple of the mechanics and then put together in a form that would coherent to other people.Henry said:
BTW, I REALLY appreciate all the support and ideas that have home out of this thread. It's helped immensely. Thanks.
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When I get stuck, here's what I do.
Pick an environment, generally whatever town the PCs are in. Think about this town, who is there? Any temples? Powerful nobles? A keep/army? Guilds? Merchant groups? Any wierd locales or places of interest?
After you have a list of interested parties, think about what each of these might want. You don't have to make it all part of a whole, but do try to give some of them opposing goals. Resist the urge to cleanly split them into 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. So now you've got these different groups with different goals.
Let's call our town Farpoint - its on the end of a long pennensula at the frontier of the kingdom. There are several groups here.
- The Temple of Auros is powerful and respected. They have had troubles recently however, as the graveyards seem to constantly be filling with undead, and the people are questioning the Sun God's ability to protect them.
- The wizard's guild is seeking people to make...extractions from the graveyards. They need the bodies for research, the headmaster is preparing a treatise on human anatomy. The temple blames them for the recent uprisings of undead, but the wizards are certain that this is unrelated.
- The owner of the Merchant's League is trying to squeeze his way into the nobility. There have been attempts on his life, but he isn't sure who is behind them.
- The thieves Guild needs help as well. The Merchant Owner thinks they are responsible for the attacks, since he is a big advocate on cracking down on crime. They claim innocence, and want someone to find out who is behind the attacks and putting a stop to it.
- The Lord is looking for worthy heroes as well. There's a band of goblins outside the town that have been raiding a lot. If someone were to do away with them he'd not only offer a healthy reward but take them into his confidence. He needs advice about whether to let the merchant into the noble class. There are nobles for and against this that will try to curry the PC's favor.
Then you set the PCs loose in this environment, dropping these different hooks and seeing what they bite on. They can fight undead, sneak bodies out for the wizards, go and kill goblins, hire on with the thieves guild, or get involved with politics. You'll have to think on your feet for this style, because the PCs faced with this freedom may decide to assassinate the Lord and promote a puppet to the throne to basically take ove the town or something. My group has a running joke about never being able to return to a town they've vistited before...
After you find out what they're interested in, then work on an overall plotline. Even work a couple of the old hooks back in so that it looks like what they decided is what you had planned all along. Another great part of this style is after you get all the players and motives set up the game pretty well runs itself.
Pick an environment, generally whatever town the PCs are in. Think about this town, who is there? Any temples? Powerful nobles? A keep/army? Guilds? Merchant groups? Any wierd locales or places of interest?
After you have a list of interested parties, think about what each of these might want. You don't have to make it all part of a whole, but do try to give some of them opposing goals. Resist the urge to cleanly split them into 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. So now you've got these different groups with different goals.
Let's call our town Farpoint - its on the end of a long pennensula at the frontier of the kingdom. There are several groups here.
- The Temple of Auros is powerful and respected. They have had troubles recently however, as the graveyards seem to constantly be filling with undead, and the people are questioning the Sun God's ability to protect them.
- The wizard's guild is seeking people to make...extractions from the graveyards. They need the bodies for research, the headmaster is preparing a treatise on human anatomy. The temple blames them for the recent uprisings of undead, but the wizards are certain that this is unrelated.
- The owner of the Merchant's League is trying to squeeze his way into the nobility. There have been attempts on his life, but he isn't sure who is behind them.
- The thieves Guild needs help as well. The Merchant Owner thinks they are responsible for the attacks, since he is a big advocate on cracking down on crime. They claim innocence, and want someone to find out who is behind the attacks and putting a stop to it.
- The Lord is looking for worthy heroes as well. There's a band of goblins outside the town that have been raiding a lot. If someone were to do away with them he'd not only offer a healthy reward but take them into his confidence. He needs advice about whether to let the merchant into the noble class. There are nobles for and against this that will try to curry the PC's favor.
Then you set the PCs loose in this environment, dropping these different hooks and seeing what they bite on. They can fight undead, sneak bodies out for the wizards, go and kill goblins, hire on with the thieves guild, or get involved with politics. You'll have to think on your feet for this style, because the PCs faced with this freedom may decide to assassinate the Lord and promote a puppet to the throne to basically take ove the town or something. My group has a running joke about never being able to return to a town they've vistited before...
After you find out what they're interested in, then work on an overall plotline. Even work a couple of the old hooks back in so that it looks like what they decided is what you had planned all along. Another great part of this style is after you get all the players and motives set up the game pretty well runs itself.
Lord Pendragon
First Post
Usually when I'm stuck--especially if I'm between campaigns--I find that trying something completely different really helps me have fun. Find the assumptions underlying your usual game, and break them.
For instance, do you usually play in a campaign world that is round, and covered with mostly water? Perhaps you might consider a world made up entirely of small, floating islands. Such a world would emphasize flight and aerial combat (which can be really cool).
Do you usually play in a campaign that takes place over a single, unbroken span of time? Perhaps you might try a game that skips forward five years every four games. Or perhaps the campaign is timeless.
Do you usually play with mostly human or humanoid PCs? Perhaps it'd be interesting to use unconventional races as the "standard" races? The Lawful-Good nation of the Trolls aligned with the Goblins and the Lizardfolk against the Empire of the Golden Dragon God?
Basically, allow yourself to explore new options in every area of DMing, from the campaign's combat emphasis (city-based? mounted-combat-emphasis? oceanic pirate/swashbuckling?) to the very laws of nature itself (perhaps the world really is flat...)
For instance, do you usually play in a campaign world that is round, and covered with mostly water? Perhaps you might consider a world made up entirely of small, floating islands. Such a world would emphasize flight and aerial combat (which can be really cool).
Do you usually play in a campaign that takes place over a single, unbroken span of time? Perhaps you might try a game that skips forward five years every four games. Or perhaps the campaign is timeless.
Do you usually play with mostly human or humanoid PCs? Perhaps it'd be interesting to use unconventional races as the "standard" races? The Lawful-Good nation of the Trolls aligned with the Goblins and the Lizardfolk against the Empire of the Golden Dragon God?
Basically, allow yourself to explore new options in every area of DMing, from the campaign's combat emphasis (city-based? mounted-combat-emphasis? oceanic pirate/swashbuckling?) to the very laws of nature itself (perhaps the world really is flat...)
