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After a long slog through the wilderness, my players arrived in a new city. With a few prompts from a player whose character had been there before, they went to a themed local tavern. It was a little bit tiki-ish, surviving off of the local (wizard) student population. The bard bought a giant scorpion bowl for the halfling rogue, who, as the most reasonable group member, was going to politely call it quits at a sensible amount. Until the barkeep mentioned there was a novelty hat for any 'half-pint' that could finish it. Guys. I have never seen my players cooperate and roleplay so much as when this hat was on the line. Sure, they have decent combat tactics, yeah, they put some effort into their NPC interactions, but you could swear this hat would save the universe for the gravitas they treated it with. The cleric was there with guidance and lesser restoration, the bard was rousing up the mostly empty bar (it was about noon) and inspiring people, and the wizard was ready to foresee his success. The rogue, after making his way to the bottom of the bowl, gave the best little drunk speech I've ever heard, and the player went out of his way to design and doodle the hat into his notes. Apparently all I need to do is throw in tacky souvenirs and my players will be down for anything. They're mostly new to RPGs, and I'm mostly new to DMing, and this was just a delightful unplanned encounter.
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Feb 19, 2017 14:11
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| # ? May 21, 2024 12:48 |
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You MUST give this player a beneficial reaction from an NPC now; "Ah, I see by your hat that you have finished the dreaded Scorpion Bowl. Impressive. That's no small feat, my friend." OR maybe a bad reaction, like some NPC is totally a dick to them and they don't know why - come to find out he's tried many times to finish the Scorpion Bowl, never managed to do it, and is bitter against anyone who has. Or maybe both!
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Feb 19, 2017 15:58
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A small secret society whose members are ranked according to the tacky eating contest souvenirs they bear. Citizens in towns with eating contests look slightly askance at the halfling when the party enters, and whispered conversations include the phrase "just the one". If he shows interest in the local flavor, they get nervous. They remember the last time.
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Feb 19, 2017 16:43
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An actual scorpion cult. One that's just starting up. They can either think the hat is the greatest affront to their new god possible, or they can be infiltrated by the "members' garment emblem proposition".
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Feb 19, 2017 17:14
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A hot wing eating contest as the beginning of a vision quest. Magic spices, you know.
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Feb 19, 2017 17:40
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FrozenVent posted:A hot wing eating contest as the beginning of a vision quest.
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Feb 19, 2017 18:24
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It's like the Number Two headband from Afro Samurai. The Rogue can now challenge a True Drunken Master to a contest. If he can find and outdrink a Master give him a little bonus for the rest of the campaign. The rub is that now any drunk off the street can challenge him to a contest for his Scorpion Hat.
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Feb 19, 2017 18:38
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See, that just makes me think that the Scorpion Hat is just one piece of a legendary set of tourist swag that, when combined, is supposed to be of great value. The Scorpion-Eater's Hat, The Mechanical Centaur-Rider's Fingerless Gloves, The Fear Factor Winner's T-Shirt, The Ice-Sitting Championship Shorts, and the Pumpkin-Grower's Green Thumb Belt.
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Feb 19, 2017 19:48
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What bonus do you get for a full set?
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Feb 19, 2017 20:00
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goatface posted:What bonus do you get for a full set? Your wife and kids pretend to respect you.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:13
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Much in demand from the upper classes then.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:17
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I dunno if any of the rest of you read that Girl Genius webcomic, but, there's this artificial warrior race called Jaegers, and they put a lot of importance in ones headgear. Like, the bigger and fancier/gaudier the hat, the more impressive the person must be to have such a hat. My own story: - I started in with a new vampire larp a couple months back. Sadly, between me being new to the group and my work schedule, I've only gotten to go to two games so far, so I'm not involved in any interesting plots quite yet. Mostly just lurking around and being a smartass. Last night, we had a "cultural" event. Basically, these creepy twins called The Max's (because they are both named Max) brought movies that they had been involved in the production of, so all during the night, they were sitting there eating popcorn and offering behind the scenes commentary on a Salvador Dali film, Blood Sport, The Raid, Scott Pilgrim, etc etc. Meanwhile, the Brujah had organized their own cultural exchange. The exchange was with fists. They basically hosted a Fight Club, except with betting. Nothing fancy - 3 rounds of combat, physical disciplines only, no agg damage. Obviously skewed in favor of the Brujah, or anyone else who had access to Potence/Celerity. The more notable fights involved 2 Malkavian siblings - Jack and Jill. Their fight ended with them making out. Yeah, I know that sounds creepy, but, it really wasn't. It was more hilarious than anything, but, that's context for you. Then we had an Assamite who had serious beef with the Brujah who had been taking the bets. I don't know why, since that's plotty stuff I'm not privy to in or out of character, but, she wanted a piece of him badly, and mopped the floor with him because he straightout lost drat near all of his chops. I threw myself in for a random fight and ended up fighting the acting Gangrel "Primogen" (Gangrel lost pillar clan status, so we don't actually have a Primogen, but, she's still our representative of sorts as we try to regain status). I had more Fortitude than she did, so, she couldn't hurt me and I won that one. I also went in against one of the Brujah organizers, barely managed to beat her after we took it to overtime. She had enough Potence to swing for 3 damage when she'd connect, minus the 1 from my Fortitude. But, she lost enough chops that she only ever got to hit me the one time. In Scion Fate We have myself as Stig, the demigod Scion of Odin Constantine - The demigod Scion of Samuel de Lalune, an Exalt who had died in a previous iteration of reality but was able to be reborn as a normal God in the new universe. Constantine is a sociopath with delusions of grandeur who wholeheartedly believes he is a good and noble hero. He has also demonstrated Exalt level powers, though not frequently or with any degree of control. Vex - The demigod Scion of Neil Gaiman's Death. She is flat out chaotic evil, and delights in chaos. Her listed Trouble aspect is "Chaos Junkie." She's functionally a Yellow Lantern, since she specializes in Inciting Fear at range for Mental stress, as well as creating creatures out of ectoplasm to protect her. Phil - Demigod Scion of Hermes. He mostly hangs back and watches the rest of us gently caress around like idiots. Dalton - Demigod of Nerull. Just joined our group the other night, so I don't know much other than he serves as a warden for the Ravenloft plane, making sure people who aren't supposed to leave can't leave. Since they're opposing Death Scions, he and Vex have/will have beef with each other at some point. Hot Dog Guy - An NPC we rescued from a Silent Hill hell dimension back when I first joined. Stig's business partner, he operates a food truck out of the back of my mithril battle van. At some point, a rogue Exalt swapped places with him and has been keeping up the illusion. Nobody knows that this has happened, we all still operate on the assumption that he's a normal russian guy who is ridiculously good with a shotgun. Phil is the only one who possibly suspects anything is even remotely up with him, as he has noticed HDG keep up with him while he's using his Mythic Speed, but, he has chosen not to say anything to us about it. Frank - I don't know his character's name, but, he's our resident catpiss guy. He plays the demigod half-vampire son of Strahd and Hecate. He's one of those people who doesn't so much care about playing the game as he does just having a stronger character than everyone else, and is contstantly slipping the DM notes in order to sabotage us behind our backs or set himself up to benefit from things we've been doing. Plus, he told Vex's player after a game that seeing her revel in the carnage she had been causing had made his character rock hard. So yeah, catpiss guy. We've been trapped in Ravenloft for a long time. It was revealed to us that, in this game setting at least, the Ravenloft plane existed as a form of purgatory, but also as a prison for Vecna. If we wanted to escape the plane, we had to do one of two things; Either everybody in the group had to experience a moment of true Goodness and atone for evil in their past, or, we had to kill Vecna - The ancient lich god. Obviously, given our group, killing Vecna was the only realistic option. While in Ravenloft, I encountered and befriended a lich based off of Emperor Zombie from The Amazing Screw-On Head. He explained that his Unlife's work was constructing a bong capable of smoking Vecna in order to attain his powers. While we were out elsewhere, he was defeated in combat by Mordenkainen and his phylactery was destroyed (Mordenkainen was subsequently attacked and drained of all blood by Frank, who had been following while stealthed for precisely that moment). But, he had left contingency spells in place that revealed to me the location of the schematics and necessary rituals to build and utilize the Deus ex Bongina. While gathering the necessary components, we accidentally'd the spiritual tethers that bound each of the Dark Lords of Ravenloft to their particular realm (Strahd was stuck in Barovia, for example), which also awakened Vecna from his imprisonment. We still can't leave, but, Ravenloft has pretty much become Arkham Asylum. Vecna arrives to taunt us a bit/thank us for waking them up, congratulating us on all our myriad fuckups leading up to this point Me: "Huh, so I suppose this would be the sound of one hand clapping?" Vecna then threw a fireball at us. Since I'm the only true wizard in the group (Frank is limited to Necromancy, and also only worried about himself), I counterspell it. Which was difficult as hell, but, it did let me narrate this bit: As the ball of fire nears us, it shrinks in size, resting in my palm - the runes up and down my arm flaring brightly as with one last bit of power, I blow out the flame. "Hey Vecna. I made a wish, but it's a secret."
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Feb 19, 2017 20:47
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I've been running a game just for parents. Basically half of our friends are pretty certain they'll never have kids and the other half either already have them, are pregnant, or are actively trying. Ever since my wife hit her second trimester last year, gaming dropped right off our radar and now that our kid is six months old, I realized even the invitations have dropped off. Checked with our friends who have kids, and they say it's the same for them too. So about once a month we've gotten together at someone's house for D&D and kid-wrangling. There's food, there are soft drinks (a shocking amount of coffee), the occasional tantrum or dirty diaper (sometimes from the kids!), and we slowly make our way through a campaign. I figure it's a good excuse to get together with adults who at least understand the whole "kids take priority but I still want to have fun" thing. Any other parents do this or are we weird for it?
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Feb 21, 2017 16:38
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Not a parent but nothing is weird about that, imo. The adults are doing social things again, which is good for well-being. And the kids get to develop their own social skills in a safe and controlled environment.
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Feb 21, 2017 16:42
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It's an impressive piece of scheduling, is what it is. Congratulations. 
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Feb 21, 2017 16:53
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ItalicSquirrels posted:I've been running a game just for parents. Basically half of our friends are pretty certain they'll never have kids and the other half either already have them, are pregnant, or are actively trying. Ever since my wife hit her second trimester last year, gaming dropped right off our radar and now that our kid is six months old, I realized even the invitations have dropped off. Checked with our friends who have kids, and they say it's the same for them too. So about once a month we've gotten together at someone's house for D&D and kid-wrangling. There's food, there are soft drinks (a shocking amount of coffee), the occasional tantrum or dirty diaper (sometimes from the kids!), and we slowly make our way through a campaign. I figure it's a good excuse to get together with adults who at least understand the whole "kids take priority but I still want to have fun" thing. That's some smart scheduling, as Bieeardo said. You still play, but on a modest time budget!
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Feb 21, 2017 18:57
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When last we left Tanicus, the party had just left/fled/gotten the hell away from the Feywild that had spread into Tanicus via a Teleportation Circle scroll that brought the party to the summoning circle in Abeforth’s Apothecary. Which was meant for one person. Which meant it was in a closet. Did I mention it was after-hours and the security spells were on? Cue the party falling out of the closet like the ending to the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera just before a spell we like to call Abeforth’s Luftballoon caused a magical red balloon to expand from the center of the shop, curving around the shelves and magical items to pin nearly the entire party against the walls. Abeforth himself came down from upstairs, Wand of Magic Missiles in hand, when he realized it was just us. Annoyed, he deflated the balloon and told us to come back in the morning once he was open, because Varis, Skeever, and Cullus owed him an accounting of their exploits, since Varis was a walking advertisement for Abeforth’s… Here’s the problem however. There isn’t a single room to be had in all of the city of Highspire because it’s the festival of Springtide. As opposed to the somber festival of Wintermist, Springtide is Tanicus’ version of Mardi Gras – any town that can afford to have one has a huge carnival with games, activities, food and drink, the whole nine yards. Since it’s the first day of Springtide tomorrow, every room is booked and every inn is full. Our party has no choice but to use our magical staff in the stables of a local inn to have a place to stay for the festival. We figure after our trip through the desolate land surrounding Ancellyon, we deserve a bit of a vacation before continuing on our quest. Activities include… A large “Jenga” type tower with a knight standing at the top. Festival goers can buy a bucket full of bags of rice for five coppers and throw the bags at the tower OR at the knight. Whoever throws the bag that knocks the knight off the tower or knocks the tower over wins a prize. But if the knight hits them with a bag of rice from his perch, the festival goer is out and must pay five copper for another bucket. Which made it great was the knight on top of the tower was a knight from Tanicus legend…and a former PC of one of the current players, who spent 30 copper to knock him off “solely out of pure principle.” A tree with five levels of branches. Hanging from the branches were acorns filled with certificates/coins and the like that you could win if you shot the acorn with a crossbow. Our Eldritch Knight won a certificate that let her drink for free anywhere in town, to which she said “I just let the Queen of Air and Darkness into Tanicus. I’m going to put my 20 Constitution score to good use” and went to the nearest high end tavern to get hammered. The “Dragon’s Horde” game, where a pile of boxes, chests, and bags were gathered in a huge pile surrounded by city guards. The goal was to break through the line, grab one item from the horde, and break back out. With my strength of 10, Varis acted more as a springboard for Cullus to leap over the guards and get the loot. The Greased Pig. Yep, there was a contest to catch a greased pig. We joked that Ksena, as a monk, would have a really easy time catching the big, to which she responded “you just want to see me all slippery and muddy.” “No,” Varis said, “I really want to see if you can catch that pig.” “Why don’t YOU try to catch that pig? You’re a farm boy, you shouldn’t have any problems doing it.” “He’ll do it!” “Cullus!” “…ok, WE’LL do it! *whispers* I’ll help you out, I owe you one.” At this point our hyperactive Greensidhe healer Aiena screams “OH MY GOSH A PIG!” And now she’s in. The GM actually draws out a 15 x 15 mud pit and puts the three PC’s, five NPC’s, and one pig in the middle. It takes half-an-hour of grapple checks against the pig and Dexterity checks against the minor Earth Elementals grabbing at us from the mud for Aiena to finally be the one to catch the pig. Luckily, we managed to convince her to take the coin purse instead of the pig as her prize. ** Varis heads back to the Cranky Owlbear under the guise of “if not being able to get a room, at least a hot bath” after a few rounds of Prestidigitation failed to get him completely clean. Once he’s freshened up, he sits down to have a drink or two and unwind a little bit. Which is, of course, when two people come up, sit down at the table, and ask the question that is rapidly being asked in nearly every drat session we’ve having as of late - ”Are you Varis Stormglass?” The two individuals, a Sidheborn and a gnome, turn out to be very powerful Sorcerers who have an offer for Varis. A little history – on Tanicus, there is no such thing as “Wild Magic” because centuries ago the wizards of the world got together and wiped out any trace of it – spots of wild magic, beings of wild magic, even anyone with a bloodline that would allow them to cast Wild Magic. The only spots of Wild Magic left are in the Wilderlands, which is an area claimed by no country and safely tucked away behind a magical wall. The wizards would go on to form the Cabal, a trade union/guild that controls most of the magic on Tanicus including magical enchantments, magical goods, and magical services. They despise Wild Magic and only tolerate Sorcery because (at the moment) all Sorcery on Tanicus is Dragon-Blooded and not even the Cabal is going to mess with anything that might piss off the draconic gods. So the two Sorcerers explain to Varis that they represent the Council of Seven, a clandestine group of Sorcerers dedicated to bringing the Sorcerers of Tanicus together to eventually balance out the Cabal. While there are more than seven members in the group, the leadership is comprised of seven Sorcerers…now six, because one of the Sorcerers strived for lichdom only for Soul Jar to botch and become Soul Quisinart. There’s an opening on the Council and they want Varis to fill the slot because he’s one of the most powerful Sorcerers on Tanicus, not just in terms of spellpower but in terms of knowledge and influence. So after some discussion (they don’t know about the quest against Az and Kaos, just that Varis can blow up a lot of stuff with lightning), Varis accepts their terms. ”Good. Now, if you’ll excuse us, that woman over in the corner has been trying to get your attention for the past few minutes. I believe she wants to sleep with you.” Indeed, as soon as they leave a lovely woman comes over, sit down, and goes “Your friend Cullus hired me to sleep with you. He’s determined that you see a naked woman before you die.” The table laughs, I roll my eyes, and I say “OK, you know what? If she can beat my Persuasion roll, I’ll go through with this. Fair enough?” The GM and Cullus’ player agree, and I roll. 19, +9 Persuasion, = 28. She gets a Natural 20. The table keeps laughing as I put my head in my hands. The GM is trying not to break down as the prostitute says ”I can be anything you want me to be. Human, Sidheborne…I even have costumes. Have you ever wanted to sleep with a Priestess of Arwin?” Pause. I look up. “Can you dress up like a Priestess of Annwn?” The table goes quiet. Annwn is the Dark Lady, the Goddess of the Dead, who tried to recruit Varis to her side when he died and spent three days being led around her realm at her side. The GM blinks, but Cullus shelled out GOLD for this prostitute, so she smiles and says “I even know Chill Touch.” Pause. “Fine,” Varis says. “Let’s go.” The table is in an uproar, a mix of laughing and shock. “OK, one,” I say, “the GM described Annwn as Christina Ricci grown up to be Morticia Adams. Two, Varis has major mommy issues. Three, his mom is a ghost and this is the Goddess who handles those who die. Four, Varis spent three days in the presence of a goddess. It all adds up!” The GM shrugs. “I’ll allow it.” And that’s the story of how my Sorcerer lost his virginity to a prostitute dressed as a Priestess of the Goddess of the Dead.
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Feb 21, 2017 18:58
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CobiWann posted:And that’s the story of how my Sorcerer lost his virginity to a prostitute dressed as a Priestess of the Goddess of the Dead. 
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Feb 21, 2017 19:28
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goatface posted:What bonus do you get for a full set? A map the location of the mythical World's Largest Ball of Twine.
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Feb 24, 2017 14:09
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Writer Cath posted:A map the location of the mythical World's Largest Ball of Twine.
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Feb 24, 2017 14:43
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Splicer posted:It's actually a portal to the Plane of Twine, causing everyone to immediately lose interest because "now it's just more wizard bullshit". Don't discount the potential advantages of an unlimited supply of twine.
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Feb 25, 2017 05:07
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If you give a PC infinite twine, they'll tie everything to everything, forever, and learn to make snares. This is good.
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Feb 25, 2017 06:06
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for the love of God don't give PCs a way to get infinite amounts of anything they will abuse the hell out of it.
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Feb 25, 2017 06:09
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:for the love of God don't give PCs a way to get infinite amounts of anything they will abuse the hell out of it. No, please do. And tell us how they abused it.
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Feb 25, 2017 07:01
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I've always wanted to run the campaign where the players encounter a cave where a magical anomaly is just spitting out an endless river of copper coins, and then make them figure out how to possibly spend the cash without alerting the world to its existence.
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Feb 25, 2017 13:23
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An endless supply of copper coins is just an endless supply of copper. Smelter on the inside, some artistically arranged carts on the outside, ghost sound some dwarf noises and bam, instant copper mine.
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Feb 25, 2017 13:27
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It's illegal to destroy or deface currency!
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Feb 25, 2017 13:32
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Like laws have ever stopped murderhobos before
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Feb 25, 2017 13:42
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ArkInBlack posted:Like laws have ever stopped murderhobos before The only thing that will stop a murderhobo is a good murderhobo.
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Feb 25, 2017 14:14
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FrozenVent posted:The only thing that will stop a murderhobo is a good murderhobo. Or an accidentally overleveled encounter.
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Feb 25, 2017 18:44
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Or an insufficiently lawyered Wish spell
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Feb 25, 2017 19:36
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Any murderhobo infestation can be cleared by the proper application of falling rocks
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Feb 25, 2017 19:45
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Razorwired posted:Any murderhobo infestation can be cleared by the proper application of falling rocks And for those of you who don't know, here's the origin of the phrase: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml
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Feb 25, 2017 20:26
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Please, I was killing parties with falling rocks over two decades ago.
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Feb 25, 2017 20:32
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ItalicSquirrels posted:And for those of you who don't know, here's the origin of the phrase: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml
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Feb 25, 2017 20:37
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Kwyndig posted:Please, I was killing parties with falling rocks over two decades ago. Rocks didn't even exist 20 years ago grandpa, you're getting confused again.
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Feb 25, 2017 20:42
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ItalicSquirrels posted:And for those of you who don't know, here's the origin of the phrase: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml Oh you sweet summer child.
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Feb 25, 2017 20:57
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Hey, I never heard that phrase for *years* after that comic came out. Then some number of years ago (five? I was drinking a lot back then) I started hearing it. Made a QED to me at least.
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Feb 26, 2017 00:44
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If a party gets too murderhobo-y, and it actively detracts from the campaign, I introduce a minor enchantment from a villain that will pass from person to person only from the death of the person who had it to the person who struck the killing blow.
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Feb 26, 2017 01:22
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Senerio posted:If a party gets too murderhobo-y, and it actively detracts from the campaign, I introduce a minor enchantment from a villain that will pass from person to person only from the death of the person who had it to the person who struck the killing blow. Is it his theme music?
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Feb 26, 2017 01:50
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