Seeking one-shot plot ideas

[KnowTheToe]

Depending on the level you could start the adventure right before their ritual for becoming an adult. There could be some cool RP opportunities and how well they do could determine their future roles within the tribe. During these rites of passage, they could learn of a group that is sabotaging something to kill the tribal leader and then throwing a revolt installing an even more evil tyrant.

This also might allow you to do a bunch of problem solving activities and maybe some modified stuff from the Tournements .pdf.

I like this idea, I may start working on it for the next Chicago Game Day.

 

[jasper]

school prom night on halloween. teen slasher flick.
All players play first level npc classes. Opponents are goblins, hobgoblins and trolls(jason)
each player has a mission to complete check out my halloween adventure in story hours.

 

[Gothmog]

How about this:

The PCs are goblins/orcs/bugbears/ogres/etc that are outcasts from their tribe(s) for various reasons. One of the PCs is a shaman who recieves a vision of how they can redeem themselves in the eyes of goblinkind by undertaking a quest. Perhaps something like reclaim a goblinoid artifact held by elves, or taking a dwarven outpost, etc.

Here is the fun part- since the PCs are outcasts, they might have VERY atypical occupations for their races. Imagine an ogre rogue who isn't all that stealthy, or a kobold berserker who thinks he is invincible. Maybe goblin druid who has tons of animal pets, or a bugbear monk who tears opponents apart limb from limb. Perhaps a gnoll bard who "barks at the moon" (sorry, that was bad ). The idea is, give the players something REALLY different to try.

The quest can be as easy or hard as you deem it needs to be, but the fun part will be seeing how PCs with different types of goblinoid outcasts can co-exist long enough to make themselves heroes to their peoples, and reclaim their lost status.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Humous Orc games I have run -

Saturday Night Bath, orcs work for the big mean nasty and IT demands that all take a bath at least once a week and guess what night it is! The problem, who goes first!

Take the temple - there it sits on a hill ripe for the taking, as ripe as the grapes on the vines around it. Blood will flow like the red wine that is produced there.

Other ideas -
Kid falls in to a well
Repair or build a bridge
Bar Fight - a classic
Kidnap

 

[Murrdox]

Have the PCs be orcs/goblins/bugbears/ogres, etc... that are suddenly facing a menace of their own kind.

Recently, the PCs have had to be on the move more and more because of armies of adventurers hunting their villiage. It turns out that the tribe of the PCs is being blamed for countless invasions of small towns across the area.

These invasions are actually being done by another tribe of orcs that have become "Fiendish" (apply the Fiendish template to the orcs/bugbears/whatever of the local tribe) due to horrid experiments by the shaman leaders of their group. This tribe of Fiendish creatures is now on an uncontrolled blood frenzy across the countryside.

The players might have to:

A) Discover the Fiendish rivals (perhaps the fiendish creatures finally break through the human villiages and come across the orcs)

B) Convince local garrisons that their tribe is NOT responsible for the razings of these towns

C) Have a non-lethal "Arena" battle with fellow tribesman... who will win the honor of hunting down this foul mutation and stopping it? Have them battle with a "rival" party from their own tribe.

D) Hunt down the Shaman who is transforming his people, and perhaps reverse the spell or magic item to return the people to normal.

 

[Sejs]

A self-righteous human knight has broken into one of Clan Groshnar's settlements in the Iron Hills while the males were away on a long hunting/raiding/trading run through their territory. Any of the women, elderly, or goblin nursemaids that fought the knight were killed, and worse yet, the knight has kidnapped all the children! One of the elders who can speak common says he overheard the knight saying that he was going to raise the cubs "right, in the manner of the church." You know what that means..


Brainwashing.


The PCs must assault the fortified Bastion of Heironeous, rescue the young'uns, defeat the knight, and hey... long as you're there, no reason to let all that perfectly good plunder go to waste......

 

[mearls]

Two ideas:

The PC orcs and ogres are actually polymorphed adventurers who have to sneak into a temple of a LG, fanatical sect in order to use an artifact it controls to change themselves back. The characters can't simply kill the defenders, since they are paladins, good clerics, and the like.

The characters are members of a small tribe of humanoids. All of the area tribes and clans have gathered under the banner of a single, mighty warlord to invade a nearby realm. Currently, the horde has set up camp in preparation for the attack. The characters know that their tiny tribe is set to lead a suicidal charge, an arragement made by an old tribal enemy who is eager for revenge. The PCs have to kill their enemy, discredit his tribe, and arrange for a member of their tribe to win a place of honor and command in order to keep the tribe safe.

At least, that's what you tell them. In truth, all the PCs want this position for themselves and they're willing to off each other to get it. While they have to work together against many of their foes, in the end only one of them can claim command. Of course, the new commander has to silence his old buddies to prevent blackmail or a future conspiracy against his rule.

Another idea: the characters have to sneak into a human city and kill a captured orc chieftain before he can spill the beans about the tribe's coming attack. The characters have to slip past guards, avoid sounding the general alarm, and find the jail where their target is being kept.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Here is a simple one I read somewhere. The Pcs walk into a room, and inside there is a rival orc, the orc is holding a pie.....

 

[Marius Delphus]

Borrow from the animated "El Dorado" flick:

Something momentous has happened, and the tribe's high shaman and chieftain each interpret the event a different way. Perhaps those pesky elves have disappeared from a forest town they have long held. Perhaps an orcish hero (one of the PCs, who isn't as buff as everyone thought?) has reappeared after being thought dead.

The high shaman thinks this is an omen and entreats the PCs to do something (dangerous) to take advantage of the opportunity presented. The chieftain wants everyone to stay home because he fears the tricksie elves are preparing to wipe out the tribe, or something else that basically puts him in direct conflict with the shaman.

Whom do the PCs believe? How can they prove who's right? Is there a middle road, whereby the shaman and chieftain both save face, or will the PCs make an enemy by going one way and not the other?

 

[caudor]

Ah, they are from a village of half-orcs Nah, how about a little plot called "Orcs in Paradise".

It might be fun to have them involved in a ship wreck. They end up in a tropical paradise, along with head hunters, a volcano about to blow, and some orc-chomping dinosaurs. Gilligan's Island with Orcs?

Whatever you choose, I hope you have a great time.