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I run a Delta Green game and the way I handled that was to start out the PCs as conventional FBI agents on an investigation which slowly revealed itself to have supernatural elements. At first it looked mundane, then hints started to appear that something strange was going on, trying to build mood while keep it low-key enough that Delta Green would plausibly not get involved, and then hit the PCs with something so obviously supernatural that the only solution for Delta Green to keep things quiet is to recruit the agents. It's not a particularly original idea, but it works, and it allows you to start things out without having to provide any background information on Delta Green. For me it was a body-jumping homicidal parasite, which they starting out thinking was a mundane serial killer, loosely based on one of the scenarios in the Delta Green book (spoiled because it relates to a prebuilt scenario).
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Oct 21, 2010 19:23
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I remember that one! I shamelessly ported it into nWoD for my group. loving amazing little game for mortals. I never liked the CoC system all that much, but the fluff is a loving treasure trove.
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Oct 21, 2010 19:42
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Yeah, I agree that the system isn't that great. I ported it to Wild Talents.
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Oct 21, 2010 22:07
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Amish Ninja posted:I'm running a Delta Green/CoC investigation game where the PCs will likely start out as FBI agents. I'm wondering what a cool way would be to introduce them to the Delta Green conspiracy. Since DG often likes to cover up run-ins with the supernatural, it seems like they would be more likely to interfere in such a way to keep FBI agents ignorant. But I guess that all depends really - as a keeper, I should be able to wrangle it. Have them investigate a cult in the region, prepare them for a large assault to save some kidnapped girl from being sacrificed/recover an ancient artifact/stereotypical evil cult activity. Have them achieve their goal en route to the site of an "event" but make it clear the cult leaders are waiting for the arrival of intercepted thing. When they show up, ready to go, have them run into people who look like FBI agents who try to tell them "there's nothing to see here, move along, it was only swamp gas" as the cult leaders body is being removed.
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Oct 21, 2010 23:14
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You could have your FBI guys on a 'normal' case and then when poo poo gets weird they get pulled off it and DG takes over. Have them catch a glimpse of whatever the horror is and then in their debriefing you can reveal that their interviewer is a DG agent and the FBI guys "know too much". Then you can either keep them on the case or run them through a training montage of a couple of months and then give them a new case of their own. Hounds of Tindalos are great for that. Have the players investigating a series of murders and then figure out the link between them; Maybe they are all the same family, from the same obscure old european town or members of the same college secret society. Then have the players track down the last person in the group and have them fortified in a room with no angles and some occult book about the Hounds. At this point have DG take over and cover it all up. This'll give your players an introduction to the CoC investigation type game (If they haven't already experienced it) along with the CoC mechanics and how to use their abilities as FBI agents. Then you can crank it up a notch and have them inducted into DG. Personally I wouldn't tell the group that it is a CoC game, tell them you want to run a <time period> murder mystery/investigation game with a twist. Keep a heap of sourcebooks around like Mage, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, etc to throw them off as well.
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Oct 22, 2010 03:21
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I run a 4e game. My 5 players are currently heading towards a dwarven city to stop one of the bad guys (a sorceress and her barbarian bodyguard) from stealing something from the dwarven royal vault, which hasn't been broken into in the history of the city. I have big plans for their stay in the dwarven city (including giving the idea that there is a traitor amongst their group...secret notes from players makes the game so much more fun). I would ideally like for a large part of this city to involve discovering how the theft is going to take place, and potentially thwarting it, but I'm not sure how to build such an idea. Here's what I've gotten so far: -I'm assuming the royal vault is heavily protected by dwarven spells, so the sorceress could go all out and try to penetrate it, but I like the idea of an elaborate Ocean's Eleven sort of break in, although I don't know how plausible it is. -The sorceress works for a larger evil group collecting these magic items, and there will be a group of dwarves who tend towards the greedy evil side and work for pay to carry out tasks, including trying to foil the PC's plans. This could go along with a larger dwarven cospiracy to get whatever else in the vault by other less fortunate dwarves. I'm also not set with just dwarves as enemies, in fact, I'd like other monsters to make it interesting. I'm just struggling for a neat way to carry this idea out. There will be several other PC quests running along at the same time, so I'd like to have an idea of what's happening in the background to carry this out for an awesome couple of sessions. Any thoughts?
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Oct 23, 2010 17:01
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When they get to the city the PCs learn, ideally as part of a number of local news items, that a fireworks show is going to be held in a few days, a demonstration by a local mage showing off his craftsmanship. At some point, the PCs catch sight of one of her bodyguards involved in a transaction with the mage, which, upon investigation, shows that the sorceress is supplying the mage with the materials for his show. Around this time it should be communicated that the show is going to be held in the same part of the city, as close as is practically possible, to the building where the royal vault is. If they investigate the fireworks, they discover that the materials are unusually potent, more potent than would be needed for just a fireworks show. If set off, the explosions would appear to be intensely magical to something like Detect Magic. The trick is that the sorceress is using the show as cover for the break-in. One of her associates, maybe one of those evil dwarves you mention, has gotten a job wherever the royal vault is: janitor, maintenance worker, something low-profile. His job is to, the night of the break-in, set up a teleportation circle for more of the sorceress's associates to teleport into an infrequently-used back room that shares a wall with the vault. There are magical wards to protect against this sort of thing, but they'll be overloaded by the energies of the fireworks show. By getting past the first layer of security, the thieves will have enough time alone to actually crack the vault itself. The PCs should track this down or tumble across it one way or another. It's most interesting, I think, if they find out about it while it's happening. Maybe they track down where the sorceress's team has been staying, see packaging for the vault-cracking tools (crates stuffed with straw with invoices inside, etc.), information about the person working near the vault, sheets of parchment with the magical specifications of the vault, and a teleportation circle. Any of these could lead to questions about where the specs come from, who the supplier of the equipment is, if you want plot hooks coming out of this sequence. They could also find evidence that the thieves are going to be teleporting out of the building to a third location, near some form of transportation they'll be using to leave the city. Based on how well the PCs have been doing, they might be able to get to the exit point before the thieves go there, and therefore have time to set up an ambush, or the PCs might get there as the thieves are preparing to leave, and therefore have to hurry to keep them from escaping. If they fight the thieves, you can justify interesting monster abilities through creative use of the magical vault-cracking tools, or by having interesting monsters be part of the team for their unusual abilities, both of which you could gives forewarning about when the PCs find the staging ground for the heist. The hard part is getting the PCs in the right places at the right times, which is a weakness of having the PCs discover complex plans. If they find out too early, they're often easy to unravel.
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Oct 23, 2010 18:31
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Yarrbossa posted:Here's what I've gotten so far: your players are going to come up with a much more elaborate, whacky, and awesome plan than you are. the best thing to do is to just let them do it and roll with whatever they come up with...but add (interesting) complications
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Oct 23, 2010 22:28
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I'm an idiot and forgot this thread existed.  My party have hit level 5 and the last few adventures have been dungeon-crawly as gently caress, so seeing as they've just hit a major city I figured I'd throw a bit of a mystery at them. One of the characters knows a guy who's experimenting with creating stable portals between any two points in the world and thinks he's cracked it (the campaign is fairly low magic). Some of the traders and merchants in this city are concerned with what his breakthrough means for their profits and he's received death threats etc. The party attend the big unveiling and see the "official" testing where a minor noble is portaled from one side of the lab to the other. However, the noble appears on the other side of the portal heavily wounded, then collapses and dies. The twist is that the noble's death was a setup designed to discredit our scientist and his work, but I'm toying with what the solution should be. Right now my favourite idea is that the noble is actually a changeling, who shifts his appearance just as he's teleported and feigns death. This could work well if the players try to examine the body later - they could find the changeling making its escape from the morgue and planting the real noble's body. Another idea is that some invisible creature attacks the noble as he arrives on the other side of the portal, but I don't like this one as much as it basically involves combat going on right under the party's nose. The solution would probably need to involve a magic item that allowed them to see invisible creatures (like the Van Gogh episode of Doctor Who I guess) and I don't know how overpowered that would be.
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Oct 24, 2010 10:37
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Sir Kodiak posted:When they get to the city the PCs learn, ideally as part of a number of local news items, that a fireworks show is going to be held in a few days, a demonstration by a local mage showing off his craftsmanship. At some point, the PCs catch sight of one of her bodyguards involved in a transaction with the mage, which, upon investigation, shows that the sorceress is supplying the mage with the materials for his show. Around this time it should be communicated that the show is going to be held in the same part of the city, as close as is practically possible, to the building where the royal vault is. If they investigate the fireworks, they discover that the materials are unusually potent, more potent than would be needed for just a fireworks show. If set off, the explosions would appear to be intensely magical to something like Detect Magic. I like this idea a lot. It will be very easy to incorporate, and I think I can get them to want to find the sorceress and bodyguard (one party member is emotionally invested in getting revenge on this particular bodyguard) and thus discover all the equipment. I'll get creative, but this gives me a good idea how to handle it. Thanks! The hardest part about DM'ing I've found so far, is being able to stray from the books and make my own unique situations that aren't explicitly covered by the rules...which maybe sounds corny. I've been working on trying to get a handle on how to make my own homebrew stuff, or elements to handle certain parts of an idea I want. I suppose you get more comfortable with doing this in time? I suppose most people are comfortable doing this right off the bat, but for some reason I struggle with it.
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Oct 24, 2010 15:19
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Party Boat posted:The twist is that the noble's death was a setup designed to discredit our scientist and his work, but I'm toying with what the solution should be. Right now my favourite idea is that the noble is actually a changeling, who shifts his appearance just as he's teleported and feigns death. This could work well if the players try to examine the body later - they could find the changeling making its escape from the morgue and planting the real noble's body. You could also run Noble was dead and reanimated, then covered up by an illusion. Nature, Heal, Survival checks could all determine time of death as well before the event. I don't know how you handle necromancy and magic style technology in general, but they could also find a device that animates objects (as per the spell) but has a limited control range... so they can develop a suspect list (via social skills, intelligence checks to remember people/faces, checking alibi's and a list of people out to get the doctor) to try to figure it all out as well.
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Oct 24, 2010 17:09
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Yarrbossa posted:I like this idea a lot. It will be very easy to incorporate, and I think I can get them to want to find the sorceress and bodyguard (one party member is emotionally invested in getting revenge on this particular bodyguard) and thus discover all the equipment. I'll get creative, but this gives me a good idea how to handle it. Thanks! For your dwarven heist, perhaps part of the treasure they steal is the royal regalia, the artifacts used when they crown a new king. It could be part of a larger assassination plot where a rebel group is trying to seize the throne for the guy they consider the true king of the dwarves, descendant of a line that was usurped in the past. Definitely just sketch out the barest skeleton of the heist and let your players fill in the blanks. It's really satisfying when your hunches turn out (mostly) correct, you just need enough prepared so the plot can hold up on its own until they start putting their own ideas into it.
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Oct 25, 2010 15:59
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Here's a question along a similar vein, I've been recasting certain monsters to fit a monster I had in mind, but what is a good way to handle creating quick humanoid enemies? The "human" entry in the MM only has human enemies for a certain level and I'd like to create generic humans/dwarves/elves/other random NPC's who need battle stats on the fly. Is there a nice quick way to do this? I find myself occasionally needing to come up with battle stats for an NPC they've decided to face off against and spending too much time working one up. Suggestions?
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Oct 27, 2010 19:35
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Depending on the flexibility of your setting, you can pick a random monster and just declare it's a human, and reskin the abilities as spells or equipment.
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Oct 27, 2010 19:40
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Gomi posted:Depending on the flexibility of your setting, you can pick a random monster and just declare it's a human, and reskin the abilities as spells or equipment. Plus, if you have some ideas for what distinguishes your humanoid from others, it's pretty easy to tweak a power to have mechanics you like. e.g. turn grabbed into slowed and ongoing 5, or whatever.
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Oct 28, 2010 04:24
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I've never run a game of Paranoia in my life (though I have GM'd lots of other games) and I just agreed to run one for a bunch of strangers who have never played the game before. I'm planning on going with the mission in the back of the XP rulebook. What are some ways to make this game awesome? Cool ideas for props? Ways to get a group of people who don't know each other or Paranoia really into the game? Help me, tgd, you're my only hope!
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Oct 29, 2010 11:05
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:I've never run a game of Paranoia in my life (though I have GM'd lots of other games) and I just agreed to run one for a bunch of strangers who have never played the game before. Figure out friend computers personality first. I know the "be happy, citizen" garbage is the standard, but there are many ways you can play with it. Think of friend computer as a mix of Orwellian Big Brother and every stereotype ever. Sometimes friend computer is a cowboy, sometimes he's a high strung CEO, sometimes he really is big brother. Usually his rules aren't real (if you aren't playing a Zap! style game, multiple identities for friend computer helps, especially if you can establish sections of alpha complex where each one lives.) two: in zap!, people go through a 6 pack of clones like they go through a six pack of beer at a party. Don't be a afraid of death, don't be afraid to ignore the rules. in a more serious games, death should come slowly. They should have time to linger, to try to find a medic who (might be able to help them). Death should rarely be immediate, and almost never be funny. Three: You're probably going to run Zap! because that's what most people think of when they play paranoia, and you're doing it with people you don't know. Zap is, in all honesty, more improv acting than role playing. Situations should be absurd, equipment should be absurd (use general and vague descriptions to make mundane objects seem interesting or extraordinary - like a fire extinguisher renamed as a cold-thrower, a cyclinder full of some kind of super-cooled liquid with a host attached, or a guitar as an axe-shaped object with a series of levers, knobs, buttons and strings. Four - every plan SHOULD work, but usually it shouldn't work as intended. Once again, three and four are just for Zap! style games.
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Oct 29, 2010 15:49
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I'm not sure if this should go in this thread or the 4e thread but since I am asking for help it's just going to go here. A bit of back story: I've been dm'ing a campaign for two of my friends for the last few years. We didn't have anyone else to play with us so each of them played two characters each. In the last few months we've gotten a few more people interested in d&d so we have more people playing now. I'm going to be adding 3 people to my campaign to make for 5 total. My strengths as a DM lend to a very "video gamey" feel to my campaign and my players have always liked it. Since I am sort of starting a whole new leg of the campaign I'm trying to work on a lot of my bad habits and weaknesses as a GM. This is where my problem lies. All the characters are going to be starting at level 11 for this "paragon" leg of the campaign. I have no idea how to DM for something of this level. When we've played before our campaigns always died out before the players got to this level. So now I have no experience with dungeon building and encounter building of this level. I used to just have loose ideas of how I wanted a session to go and just make up everything as I went along including story. I felt as though I owed it to my players to actually start putting in prep-work for the campaign. I drew up about 50-75% of the first dungeon. I like the way its turned out and the players should have fun but after looking at it the dungeon looks like its something designed for heroic tier characters. The question I have is what should paragon level dungeons, traps and encounters feel like to the players?
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Nov 2, 2010 08:17
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I'm 99% certain that the DMG2 has some good advice for Paragon-tier stuff, especially as to how it's different from heroic-tier stuff. I haven't actually run or played in a Paragon-tier game myself so I'll leave the rest of it to people who know what it's like, but that seems like it should be a good place to start at least.
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Nov 2, 2010 08:20
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First post evah! So anyway, I'm looking for some ideas of directions to go in my 4E D&D campaign. In my last session, the players (a Dwarven Shaman, Half-Elf Druid, and Half-Orc Cleric) sailed out from a port town to confront a ghost ship that was haunting the area and preventing trade (everyone was too afraid to sail out or bring goods into port). As they approached the ship, it sent out rowboats of skeletons and zombies to board and halt the character's ship. A series of bad tactical decisions and rolls later, and I have a TPK on my hands. My solution at this point is to have the characters "awaken" as undead on the main ghost ship, having been turned into crew members by the ship's captain. Something didn't "take," though, and the characters still have some consciousness and self-awareness, and can thus plan to escape or mutiny, something like that. Regardless, once the whole episode is over, they'll still be undead, which is something that will cause problems in the campaign. So, I'd like to make it interesting for them to be undead for a little while, for variety, but introduce some complicating factors so that it becomes burdensome and undesirable to remain so. Becoming "un-undead" also seems like a good adventure hook, too. So my questions are: a) what can I do to have the undeath be both fun but also undesirable in the long run? I've thought about granting a new, temporary power, but also making it so that they cannot regain their healing surges, or steadily lose attribute points, or something like that. b) What might be a good way of getting rid of the undeath? Visiting a legendary necromancer? Investigating the long lost city of the dead? I'd like it to be something more than, "kill your way to the magic potion." Thanks!
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Nov 3, 2010 18:33
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Firstly, make sure your players are okay with this turn of events, although I'd think it's definitely a better solution than "welp these guys sure are dead make new characters."PostwarMutant posted:a) what can I do to have the undeath be both fun but also undesirable in the long run? I've thought about granting a new, temporary power, but also making it so that they cannot regain their healing surges, or steadily lose attribute points, or something like that. quote:b) What might be a good way of getting rid of the undeath? Visiting a legendary necromancer? Investigating the long lost city of the dead? I'd like it to be something more than, "kill your way to the magic potion."
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Nov 3, 2010 18:51
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PostwarMutant posted:So my questions are: Either way, it's a good hook. They're caught between the land of the living and the dead, being semi-undead or whatver. Their powers have allowed them to evade some effects of the curse, but they must end it and free themselves or they will lose their powers and link to the spirit world/gods. think about your players, and what kind undead they wanna be- they might not like the idea of being all zombielike, so give them creative input into it. maybe they're more ghostly, or something. Ask them how their undead form looks! Then, figure out a side effect for their powers to have. Their powers are divine or primal, but since they're tainted with undeath, they have other effects too! Just a simple table would do- a power might randomly do necrotic damage, or somebody they kill with their powers could rise as a zombie under their control- or hostile to them! They might be vulnerable to radiant damage, also. As for the curse and cure, I figure ending it is the way to go. Where did this ship come from? why was it undead? Even if they trash it, they might have to trace the curse to an ancient temple on a lost island, or the remains of a ruined harbor town which the chip once sacked, or berthed at. create a story for why the curse exists, and then get them to solve it. One example for this: A coastal town flourished for years because the captains who sailed from there secretly took slaves from nearby islands. The captain's dark deeds were discovered when people from the islands came to town with proof and testimony about the dark deeds. But rather than seek justice, the people of the town turned on the messengers, in support of the captains. They slew the messengers, and hide all evidence- this town could even be the town that the pcs were fighting to protect. A dark secret like this would make for a cool plot point. The captains dissapeared that night, fifty years ago, but the ship that returned was one of theirs. The PCs, since they were defending the town, fell under the curse- that says that anyone of the town or defending it, who is slain by the ghost pirates, will rise and join their torment. Fortunatly, since the pcs are rather magical, and had good intentions, they retain their free will! After they trash the ship or escape or whatever, they will eventually learn a few things: *In town they can learn the dark past from old records and people and such. This includes the location of the island people's homes- although none have heard from them in 50 years. *Going to the isle, they find it the site of an old massacre, some 50 years ago. The wreck of one of the old captain's ships is in the bay, and they might fight him and his men. Turns out one of the captains went to the island, to kill all the people, and erase all evidence of their crimes. They died in the attempt, possibly the otehr ghost ship sailed from here as well. *Heading deeping into the island (maybe after fighting a dinosaur or something in this tropical realm!) the pcs find the old temple that was the core of the island's beliefs. This divine and primal place might test the pcs in various ways, before the spirit of the old high priest appears, and explains how the curse canbe lifted. *What's needed are the heads of the remaining captains, who each went their seperate ways, after doing the dark deeds of slavery. *One is now a wealthy merchant in a city north long the coast. He is a keystone of the comunity, gives to charities, has shitloads of friends and bodyguards, ect, ect. *Another is a pious penitent knight in a frontier fort, the leader of a group who are needed to defend a village from the wastelend creatures who would slay them. If the pcs slay him without ending tht monsterous threat, the village is doomed. If they save it, he will give his head willingly, having long been tormented by guilt. *The last of the (five?) captains is secretly living in the town their adventure began in, where he poses as somebody helpful like a barkeeper or mayor, and serves as the secret leader of the town and it's benefactor. The pcs probably won't have the infor to realise this until it's time for the finale! happyelf fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Nov 4, 2010 |
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Nov 4, 2010 08:29
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The curse will end once they return every coin of the stolen Maztican treasure to its rightful resting place, and seal it with a drop of the original captain's bloodline!
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Nov 4, 2010 10:07
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Android Blues posted:The curse will end once they return every coin of the stolen Maztican treasure to its rightful resting place, and seal it with a drop of the original captain's bloodline! See quote, but unironically. 
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Nov 4, 2010 20:55
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My Lovely Horse posted:Why don't you have them change their race to Revenant? Revenants count as undead (but also as living creatures - maybe say the process takes a while to fully complete), they can pick a race to fulfill feat prerequisites, so no one has to re-build their character entirely, and of course this means they'll have to exchange their racial powers, ability score bonuses and whatnot to the Revenant's, which almost certainly makes at least one of them perform worse than before, so there's an incentive to find a way to reverse the process right there. This seems like a lot of bookkeeping for something I only want to last a couple sessions. I'll keep it in mind if, for some reason, they want to stay undead though. Quick question - what book is the Revenant material in? Also, thanks to happyelf for the input - I will probably steal a couple of those ideas. The characters have already discovered, before they went to the ship, that the ship returned to the harbor because the local merchant's guild hired mercenaries to kill them off a century ago. Maybe the merchants did so to not only protect their goods, but to prevent the pirate from revealing other, unsavory activities that the guild used him for in the past? In other words, maybe the guild used the pirates to enslave the island people (as you suggested) and when the captain threatened to make it known, the guild betrayed him and had the crew killed. I like that actually. thanks!
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Nov 4, 2010 21:47
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The revenant is in Dragon #376.
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Nov 4, 2010 21:54
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PostwarMutant posted:This seems like a lot of bookkeeping for something I only want to last a couple sessions. I'll keep it in mind if, for some reason, they want to stay undead though. Quick question - what book is the Revenant material in?
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Nov 4, 2010 22:26
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Android Blues posted:The curse will end once they return every coin of the stolen Maztican treasure to its rightful resting place, and seal it with a drop of the original captain's bloodline! a curse is a good way to extend the undeath into a plot, while also letting the players opt in to undeath in a more limited way, which might suit them. it's also a bit less overpowered than 'get undeadified and raised from the dead' and obv since curses are arbitary, you can set whatever goals you want for ending them
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Nov 4, 2010 23:05
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PostwarMutant posted:This seems like a lot of bookkeeping for something I only want to last a couple sessions. I'll keep it in mind if, for some reason, they want to stay undead though. Quick question - what book is the Revenant material in? To reduce bookkeeping you could just give them the Revenant racial power and make their current racial an either / or kind of thing, not unlike channel divinity.
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Nov 9, 2010 15:43
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Anyone have good tips on running episodic games, both in general and with alternating DMs? (i.e. most adventures are relatively self-contained across 1-2 sessions, with occasional reoccurring characters, themes, two-part episodes) This is for a mid-heroic tier 4e game set in Sharn of Eberron, if that helps.
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Nov 10, 2010 00:08
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I'm gonna be running a 3.5e eberron game for a couple friends, and they have decided that they are going to be an assassin and a fighter/warrior of darkness. I want to put in an NPC to help them out, but not be overtly useful since I plan on running it CoC style and they've already told me they want the game to be on nightmare difficulty. Both of them are pretty interested in poisons, so I am trying to think of something useful along those lines. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking pseudodragon with some kind of alternate poison because giving them sleep poison would trivialize any encounter that isn't poison immune.
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Nov 10, 2010 07:42
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whydirt posted:Anyone have good tips on running episodic games, both in general and with alternating DMs? (i.e. most adventures are relatively self-contained across 1-2 sessions, with occasional reoccurring characters, themes, two-part episodes) Anyway here's an idea. I'm assuming you want to be able to form a storyline between the different episodes and GMs. A good way to do this is a clean up scenario, where each adventure is linked to a common phenomenon. Consider this: In the initial scenario, the pcs discover a plot to turn dragonshards into some kind of insanty causing supershards. These supershards grant cool powers, but at the cost of Consistant But Varied Side Effect X. So for instance, maybe each shard amplifies one of the user's emotions to insane heights, or causes them to betray that wich they were once loyal to. The pcs can then have varied and cool adventures, each one centered around locating recovering one of these shards. And you can use this kind of thingy in lots of different ways. Maybe the initial scenario has a sleeper cell of wyrish assasins being awakened, and then other adventures feature the assasins (as yet unidentified) returning to their normal lives and wreaking havok. The PCs, being caught up in events, run around and try and identify them and stop them, while also gathering clues in each mission about this and other sleeper agents that might be out there.
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Nov 10, 2010 15:07
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Got myself into a bit of a complex situation again. The PCs are possessed by an evil spirit and presumably at some point they'll want to get rid of him. This will be done through an introspective mushroom trip (or similar convenient measure) during which they'll have to traverse their own minds, Psychonauts style, to find and destroy him. I was thinking of giving each PC their own personal ordeal, and each passed ordeal is going to make the fight with the spirit easier. Problem is I can only really think of two. - they'll believe to encounter the group of enemy NPCs they're currently pursuing. This will be the warlock's ordeal since he's been making a name for himself as Official Chief Torturer to the Party, which is totally fine behavior as far as the spirit is concerned, so he's actually going to have to hold back on that to pass. - they'll encounter a big nasty brute as the fighter's ordeal. To pass he's going to have to hold it off long enough for the others to down it, or until he goes down himself, all while the spirit is tempting him to leave them behind. - the bard's a bit tricky but I was thinking of having her have to get some NPCs on her side with diplomacy and magic far enough for them to help her, but not far enough for them to be put into danger. Kinda tricky to convey that in game, I think. Either way, the spirit would definitely want her to charm as many people as possible as ruthlessly as possible to gain followers. - I'm drawing a total blank on the wizard, not least because the player tends to play her characters as just bland enough to make things like personal ordeals really hard to design. I remember it was exactly the same in a different campaign. I guess I could go the old "the spirit promises vast arcane power" route but that's kinda played out. The warlock is her brother, though, and she's had to deal with his antics for a long time. He actually got them both kicked out of Magic Academy - maybe I could do something like, the spirit tempts her to finally leave that useless freeloader behind, she has to stand by him to pass, blah blah. Not entirely sure about the specifics though. Any ideas for the bard and wizard, or improvements on the other two?
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Nov 10, 2010 20:02
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Hey TGD, I could use some tips. I recently got the nod in my regular group's rotation (we each GM a 6 month span so everybody gets the chance to play and we keep the game ideas fresh), and I've decided to run a street level supers game. After discussing it, I want to stage it in our hometown - in essence, give the city the Gotham treatment and make the tweaks to turn it into a comic book city. The problem I've got is that it sounds simple on the surface but the actual doing is being a pain. I'm having trouble at finding the right spots to tweak and how much to change things, and striking the balance between 'no real changes' and 'completely unrecognizable'. Are there any tips on doing this/guides/articles out there?
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Nov 10, 2010 20:29
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If you're shooting for Gotham specifically, mix 1920's aesthetics of fur coats and white wall tires with current technology. Mostly rely on your NPCs to create the mood. Hard boiled cop in a corrupt department, gangsters, mayor with an iron fist on the city's industry. Set scenes in train yards, speakeasies, grubby meat packing plants, theatres. Comedy answer: set everything at night. Make it rain a bunch.
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Nov 10, 2010 20:48
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My Lovely Horse posted:Any ideas for the bard and wizard, or improvements on the other two? The theme for the scenarios seems to be "have the PCs do something against their nature," which makes sense if a malignant spirit is trying to weaken them before a confrontation. If so, I'd have the fighter do something against his nature, rather than "be a defender." Maybe he has to flee a town so that he can call an army to defeat the evil plaguing it, but dooming its citizens to die a horrible death. If he stays, he will eventually be defeated (and the citizens are too stupid/brave to flee, or something). Have the other players participate, and tell them they cannot flee, but their fighter friend has must do it to succeed. If he looks like he's going to stay to help his friends, they should all urge him to warn the army so they have a chance... they will stay behind to give him a head start. If he takes off right away, they should roleplay their agonizing deaths. For the bard, maybe using actual powers on them gives the villagers a glassy-eyed look, but diplomacy rolls are very difficult. They capitulate immediately and do what he wants, but it's because he's dominated their wills. The spirit rewards him handsomely each time, but it's sinister and creepy and he should get the feeling that it's wrong. The other players can participate by complaining if he doesn't use his powers and encouraging him when he does, maybe with phrases like, "It's a lot easier now they don't have free will to complicate things." For the wizard, talk to the warlock ahead of time and tell him to unleash a super-evil version of his character and reenact their expulsion from the academy. The wizard should choose between abandoning his brother to evil to gain immense power and sacrificing his studies for a thankless watch over a (perhaps) incorrigible jerk. I'm not sure how to include the other players. I'm actually having the hardest time with the warlock. He's playing as a torturer, but I'm not sure how I'd clue him in that he was being lulled in by the spirit. The best I can say is to have him go last. When he sees the other players have to fight, and things go super easy for him, he'll hopefully be suspicious. HUGE CAVEAT: Be very very careful playing a scenario where you make the normal strategy become a liability. Nobody picks a wizard so that they can suck it up when magic doesn't work, and playing a defender that can't defend sucks just as much. If they do things wrong it should just make the last fight harder, and they should get plenty of hints that this dream operates by rules different from the normal world. Definitely include each of the PCs in each segment somehow, and I think having roles to play on top of their typical role could be fun. Keep in mind that this is something I think my players would like, so you may have to adjust for your group's playstyle. Please be advised that I'm a relatively novice GM too, so I'd appreciate criticism as well.
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Nov 10, 2010 21:05
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DarkHorse posted:HUGE CAVEAT: Be very very careful playing a scenario where you make the normal strategy become a liability. Nobody picks a wizard so that they can suck it up when magic doesn't work, and playing a defender that can't defend sucks just as much. If they do things wrong it should just make the last fight harder, and they should get plenty of hints that this dream operates by rules different from the normal world. Definitely include each of the PCs in each segment somehow, and I think having roles to play on top of their typical role could be fun. Keep in mind that this is something I think my players would like, so you may have to adjust for your group's playstyle. Another caveat: The players might not get hints. You might have to have one of their gods (I'd say either a god of dreams or the most goody-two-shoes of the gods) break in and be all "I don't have much time before I'm discovered, but this stuff isn't real. Any of it. What you do has an effect on what will happen, but don't count on anything here working the same way. Oh crap, I think it's noticed something. I gotta boogie before everything gets messed up. Later!"
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Nov 10, 2010 21:29
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DarkHorse posted:The other players can participate by complaining if he doesn't use his powers and encouraging him when he does, maybe with phrases like, "It's a lot easier now they don't have free will to complicate things." quote:For the wizard, talk to the warlock ahead of time and tell him to unleash a super-evil version of his character and reenact their expulsion from the academy. The wizard should choose between abandoning his brother to evil to gain immense power and sacrificing his studies for a thankless watch over a (perhaps) incorrigible jerk. It's generally less of a "go against your instincts" deal than it is "go against what the spirit would want you to do", it's just that in the Warlock's case those happen to be broadly the same. quote:Another caveat: The players might not get hints. The way I want to set up the fight, by the way, is that each passed ordeal gives the party one torch that they can use to light fires in the spirit's arena, and each lit fire reveals a zone based on their mindscapes that gives a mechanical bonus. A small stage for the bard, an arcane diagram for the wizard etc. That way even if some of them don't pass the worst thing that will happen is they'll have a harder time in the fight.
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Nov 10, 2010 21:52
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I would strongly encourage you to have the other players be involved in each individual PC's dream quest, or else do it individually, outside of gametime. It's pretty boring to watch other people play, even if the story itself is interesting. If you don't want the actual PCs interacting in a particular dream, have them play something else so they can help/sabotage it. I would also explicitly state, either through an NPC shaman or out of context, some basics of the dream world and whose dream the players are experiencing. Perhaps make it a shared dream experience, and one PC at a time "directs" it, with the shaman intervening occasionally? That said, it sounded like you wanted these things to be very personal interactions and strong role-playing opportunities for the PCs, and part of my inspiration was from Dragonlance: The Majere brothers, detestable wizard Raistlin and likable fighter Caramon, share a dream in which Raistlin discovers Caramon's not only stronger and more loved, he's a better mage. Raistlin utterly destroys his brother in a fit of rage and jealousy. Caramon had been his brother's staunchest supporter and protector until he experienced that, and Raistlin learned he was capable of murdering his own brother in order to be the best and most powerful wizard. It seriously altered the relationship between the two. ...the point being each of the PCs can learn a little about the others, what they think of each other, and how they'd deal with a particular situation, which can be a source of in-context group bonding, without the risk of PCs actually dying or even acting like they would in "reality." As long as everyone knows what's going on it should be fine. The way I'm imagining it, you'd have each scenario sketched out and pass out groups of notes to each of the players, telling them they can act out of character and what they (as agents of the malignant spirit or as spiritual helpers) want to accomplish. Player A would get notes for B, C, and D's interactions; B would get A, C, and D's; and so on. You could even color code them and associate it with a change in the dream scenery if you wanted. I think I might steal this idea from you, actually 
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Nov 10, 2010 22:24
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Feel free! I think it's one of my better ones. And yeah, forgot to mention it, but the entire party will be present and together at all times, and they can help (or hinder) as they wish. I considered making it a series of individual scenes but like you say, it's boring to just watch. Plus the fighter's scene, for one, wouldn't work at all if it was only him.
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Nov 10, 2010 22:32
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