D&D General Death House - A Scooby Doo Adventure

[Digital M@]

I am planning on running Death House lvl 1 adventure at a family gathering with a group of people who don't Role-Play. They play lots of other games. I know the game will get goofy no matter what I try as DM so I thought I would start it on the light side and embrace it. I thought lighthearted horror would be a good direction. Let me know if you think that is a terrible idea

So I went with Scooby-Doo and the gang and am looking for help with Ideas for Daphne and what to make her character.
I created:

Freddy the Fearless - Gold Dragonborn Paladin Lvl-1 with the weakenss that he can't help himself and must come to the aid of those in need. Greater their need, the greater the pull to help them.

Shaggy Rogers - Half Elf Bard - with a focus in disguise and acting. Gave him Healing for first level spell

Scooby - A Polymorphed human gone wrong victim and finds himself mostly dog, but has hand like paws, can speak and walk on two legs for 1 minute at a time (10 rounds of combat then needs to go on all fours for at least one round (May not bother tracking it and just use it as flavor). He is a rogue.

Velma - Gnome wizard who is book smart and loves to solve mysteries and puzzles of any kind.

Daphne - it a bit clumsy (or pretends to be), low wisdom character who doesn't think before acting. "Look at that lever, I will pull on it to see what happens" vs "I wonder what that lever does, lets investigate before pulling it".

Any ideas on class for Daphne? I would also welcome any input on the idea of the adventure with a game full of newbies

 

[TarionzCousin]

Daphne - it a bit clumsy (or pretends to be), low wisdom character who doesn't think before acting. "Look at that lever, I will pull on it to see what happens" vs "I wonder what that lever does, lets investigate before pulling it".

Any ideas on class for Daphne?

This sounds like a rogue to me.

 

[R_J_K75]

Shaggy Rogers - Half Elf Bard - with a focus in disguise and acting. Gave him Healing for first level spell

Zoinks!! Should give him a cooking skill and the create food and water and expeditious retreat spells.

Make Thelma blind too, always lost her glasses.

 

[Galendril]

Does it have to be so literal? Just make the Scooby character a cowardly gnoll or kobold who can be bribed into doing things for snacks.

 

[Leatherhead]

Wow, I just realized Scooby Doo is over 50 years old now.

As such, your characterizations are a bit anachronistic if you are playing with people younger than 30.

Nowadays:
Fred is a trapsmith and a sleuth: he should be an Inquisitive Rogue or possibly an Artificer (you could even make Scrappy Doo his Homunculus ~)
Daphne is a Martial Artist who has horrible Luck. So basically a Monk, but with a "Disaster Prone" flaw.
Shaggy is the Cowardly Live Bait, with a hypnotically implanted kick-ass mode: He should be a barbarian with the "Cowardly" trait.
Velma could still totally be a wizard.
As for Scooby, you are going to have to make custom rules for him no matter what. I would probably start with a Wildhunt Shifter, that can walk around on all fours. Possible classes include Ranger or Fighter. Heck, maybe even the Warrior Sidekick NPC statblock from the Essentials kit.

Additionally, for Scooby and Shaggy, I would give them both the Jack of All Trades ability and the "Glutton" trait.

Bonus Character:
Flim-Flam. A halfing Celestial Warlock with the Patron of Vincent Van Ghoul.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes it's important to remember that Scooby Doo has been around for a long time, and gender rolls have changed. If you want a more retro-Daphne, then her role is generally that of "party face" talking to the NPCs, and "removing fear" from certain party members. Ergo I would make her a bard.

Shaggy and Scooby could be beastmaster ranger and animal companion.

 

[Shiroiken]

There are two methods of doing this, literal and interpretive. If literal, your races are set (dog* and 4 humans), but you get a lot more freedom with an interpretive setup. I'd suggest the following (based on the classic series):

Scooby-Doo: reskinned Tabaxi Fighter; change cat's claw to bite attack; Cowardly Flaw, Quadriped Personality Trait

Norville "Shaggy" Rogers: Wood Elf Druid, because he likes to eat and has a fondness for... herbs; use Goodberry as Scooby-Snacks; Cowardly Flaw

Fred Jones: Half-Elf Paladin (any race really works), as he's the party's face and tends to bully Scooby and Shaggy

Daphne Blake: Halfling Rogue (any race), but with low Wis and decent Cha; Impulsive Flaw

Velma Dinkely: Drow Wizard (or any race with sunlight sensitivity to represent her eyesight problems)

Obviously these are not optimal characters at all, but that would actually be counter productive to the goal of the Scooby-Doo adventure

 

[aco175]

It is great that you are using characters that the players can get into and should have some experience seeing. You can make them whatever you want, but you do need to give them swords and spells and such so they are not exactly like in the show, but the villains can now actually be a swamp creature or ghost.

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah, no dude in a mask who would have succeeded if not for those meddlin' kids! OR as a twist, the baddie is a dude in a mask, then immediately taken out by a real ghost/wraith/shadow.

 

[Unwise]

Have you seen the Scooby Doo RPG by College Humour?
If you are not married to D&D as the system, then this could be a good introduction to RP in general.