Good d20M one-shots

C. Baize said:
Hmm.. good question. I'm pretty sure it has 2 or 3 without 'monsters' per se (bad humans, as the antagonists, I think)... but it's been some time since I edited it....

This is a problem. Not one of the free adventures from WotC is non-FX (Wait, there is Adelie 14, but thats a bit of an odd man out).

You can get all the encounters sans-monsters you want, if your PCs are criminals or SWAT guys, but it's kinda hard (for me at least) to come up with non-FX encounters that make sense. And if I wanted the misadventures of criminals and LEOs, I could watch the Sopranos or CSI (respectively), or the Shield, for both in the same characters.

FX encounters are easy (Thank you Weekly World News!).

I prefer an "X-files" level setting, where there is a little magic, psionics, etc. but not very many people know about them.
 

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actually, there are a couple of the wizards free adventures that are sans fx. The previously mentioned adelie 14, a funny thing, and the peterson counterstrike (although if you continue into the heartless series they become fantastical but at least a couple of them can be redone without fx). if you will allow a little jurassic park style science fiction, the team bravo first assignment works.

just my thoughts.

zen
 

I'm fine with adventures having FX. I'm just curious about ones that maybe are a bit more than "kill <creature>".
 

Both the free ones listed from Wizards site are more than just shoot'm ups.

I just played through the Peterson Counterstrik over the weekend and it was good.

Adeila 14 is much more of a shoot'em up but it depends on how the players approach it.
 

You can easily remove FX from some of the adventures. For instance, just take a look at Resident Evil ... they came up with a scientific explanation for zombies. Now mix liberally with an idea or two from X-Files ... instead of magic, the infected creatures have been possessed by a strange (alien?) virus or strange worms that change their behavior.

You could just use the zombie stats (your players will never know the difference - say something like their organs moved around and their "worm mass brain" is in the thing's stomach to explain the crit immunity) or you could stat them up a bit different.

There's a template from "A Problem at Formid" an ALTERNITY adventure that I like to use instead of zombies. This is converted from ALTERNITY so, of course, feel free to modify for your campaign.

This one works best with a virus, which explains all the massive changes. For worms, take the maniac template :)

Tainted Virus Template
Str +10 Dex +2 Con +10 Int +6* Wis +0 Cha -2 (you can change the Int depending on how long-term the viral threat will be; higher Int for a longer-term threat). These bonuses are pretty high - you might want to lower them if your PCs are low-level.
Natural Armor +7
Improved Grapple as a bonus feat
Breath Weapon (Ex): Once per day the tainted creature can attack with a breath weapon as a standard action. It does 2d8 points of acid damage and has a Reflex save of DC 10 + 1/2 Con + 1/2 HD. The save DC increases by 5 if the opponent has been grappled (and the opponent can't use Evasion to avoid damage).

Defiling worms would have quite different stats
Wis -2, Cha -2
Rage (Ex): Used once per hour as a free action. The usual (+4 Str, +4 Con) for 1d6 rounds with no ill effects afterwards.
+5 bonus to saving throws to resist massive damage

The demonic ichor in D20 Menace Manual is very close to the black oil from X-Files. Just remove the extraneous special attack and replace it with a radiation attack.
 

buzz said:
I'm kind of trying to avoid zombies. :) I just don't want it to be too much like "modern D&D". I mean, we're battlig the hrodes of Orcus in our D&D campaign....

Actualy, Weekend Warrior is a lot more like Night/Dawn/Day of the deadseries of movies than a "D&D" type setting.

Zombies shuffling around mumbling "Brains" and stuff. Players that can be converted into zombies & then help the GM kill the rest of the group.
That kind of thing!!

It's scary yet funny at the same time (ala Dawn & Day of the dead).
 

How about Zombies ala "28 Days Later". Again, there is a virus that triggers absolute rage in a person. Give them the all the adjustments of a berzerker from D&D only it's always active. Now you have very fast, very agressive "zombies" that can be killed like any other living being, because they are not undead. Things like nerve gas and poisons would kill them.

Weekend Warrior is pretty heavy in the FX department, but you could modify it to some degree to minimize that factor...
 

JDragon said:
Adeila 14 is much more of a shoot'em up but it depends on how the players approach it.

I found when I ran it, that the best solution was to avoid any fighting whatsoever. My players, of course, managed to figure out a way to turn it into the bloodiest, torture-est, mindless brawl of all time, including killing innocent bystanders and the removal of body parts.

Yippee!

zen
 

buzz said:
I'm kind of trying to avoid zombies. :) I just don't want it to be too much like "modern D&D".

Ask my players from the first NC Gameday how much fun Zombies in Apartment Complexes were... :)
 

Wow! The author of Quick Shots went ahead and sent me a complimentary copy so I could see for myself. That's some serious customer service.

I love ENWorld. :)
 

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