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Nephzinho posted:Who else knows they have it? tanglewood1420 posted:Maybe some big important NPC is a secret addict and when the new supply gets dumped on the market and crashes the price he gets giddy buying it up and ODs on it. This causes the authorities to take notice (because they only care about drugs when rich nobles are involved) , they crackdown on the Boromar Clan who subsequently cough up to the authorities that the PCs sold it to them. Now the Eberron equivalent of the DEA are on the trail of the players. habituallyred posted:Probably too late, but I do have something to add to the advice about making it a national level event. Narrow down the scope of what happens to a single big event. I don't know if this means drugging a barbarian ambassador for a less subtle Manchurian candidate or Sharn-11. But make the players a big part of the post event investigation.
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Oct 25, 2019 00:32
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Yeah I would basically set it up as they are sitting on top of something everyone wants - every unsavory character in the world either wants their stash or wants to kill the competition before it starts to get near their turf. Limitless avenues for them to follow while keeping it as a side quest.
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Oct 25, 2019 00:42
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Yeah, the big issue with getting that started is that they did this in the almost literal center of secluded nowhere, so no one who wasn't eaten by a hydragoose knows they have it. Suppose I can always throw an NPC in who has a vision of the PCs or some poo poo.
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Oct 25, 2019 03:39
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Yawgmoth posted:Yeah, the big issue with getting that started is that they did this in the almost literal center of secluded nowhere, so no one who wasn't eaten by a hydragoose knows they have it. Suppose I can always throw an NPC in who has a vision of the PCs or some poo poo. A local wizard's familiar is an Imp who happens to be addicted to the stuff and will sense its arrival on this plane via magic and promptly start telling his wizard about the Ominous Prophecies that the PCs just happen to fit in the hopes that the wizard will arrange for mighty heroes to go slay the PCs and then the imp can raid their stash while the fighting is happening.
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Oct 25, 2019 04:06
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So I've decided that I want to pit players against Xenomorphs and Predators at some point because it will be instantly recognizable to the players but out of loving nowhere but it's my universe and why wouldn't it be aliens? So I went googling because obviously I'm not the first to think of this and found some stat blocks but I'm not super experienced with running dnd 5e and I'm not sure where to place these on the Challenge Rating Scale: The stats make some sense to me, although I kind of think the predator and Xenomorph might not be hitting very hard for what they are too. The ablities and stuff check out though. Here's a thing I found where there are xenos and predators in dnd form https://www.pirategonzalezgames.com/piratesblog/2019/2/20/alien-vs-predator Here's a facehugger: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Xenomorph,_Facehugger_(5e_Creature) Would any one of these be too much for three lvl 5 or 6 characters? Obviously I can change stats or postpone the whole thing until the players are more dangerous. My best idea so far on how to get this to happen is it being an order from a Marid ruling a nation the party is travelling through to check out an old temple in which it has sensed activity recently (as the predator has gone there and planted some aliens to hunt) and people have gone missing. This whole thing is just a concept I want to do so far so any suggestions on what could happen would be appreciated. I'm gonna rewatch AvP to get some inspiration for this whole thing. RE: The whole drug thing you could make it so that if they try to sell the drugs to one gang lots of other gangs will find out and they're stuck between a bunch of bad assholes. Just watch Breaking Bad and there'll be loads of inspiration on what having a bunch of expensive drugs could cause trouble Man with Hat fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Oct 25, 2019 |
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Oct 25, 2019 15:48
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So far as the drugs go, if you want a more "slow burn" consequence to them selling off these absurd quantities of super-narcotics, perhaps they keep occasionally running into criminals who are obviously hopped up on Luhix, or coming across the aftermath of a Luhix-fuelled rampage. Hell, even just have NPCs with criminal connections mention an uptick in Luhix supply for flavour. I assume you want to avoid this becoming oppressive, so obviously you should do it sparingly. But at the same time these can also be combined with some of the other complications mentioned above. With respect to the devil's coins, perhaps one of the ways to break the curse is to do good with them or something like that. So don't spend it on fancy clothes and fine food, but rather use it to fund that puppy orphanage or kitten refuge. Albeit that by itself is unlikely to be exciting, so you should probably include some sort of complication. Silly idea: if they do take the coins, the devil can communicate with the party through them.
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Oct 25, 2019 22:44
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If you take the devil's coins, he's bought you. What, you didn't know that's how Hell Law works? How unfortunate. Take solace in the fact that unless you took all of them, he probably doesn't have your soul. Just some other intangible essential part of you. ... you had a bag of holding, you say? Oh. Oh dear.
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Oct 25, 2019 22:58
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Has anyone ever tried making/is there a spell that would let you intercept or at least listen in to magical communication? My current DM is running an intrigue campaign in 5e, and that seems like something that would be very useful.
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Oct 27, 2019 16:56
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sleepy.eyes posted:Has anyone ever tried making/is there a spell that would let you intercept or at least listen in to magical communication? My current DM is running an intrigue campaign in 5e, and that seems like something that would be very useful. I think the closest would be Arcade Eye, Clairvoyance, and Scrying, as well as shenanigans with a familiar.
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Oct 27, 2019 17:35
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My game's next chapter: the party needs to go to the underworld and get their wizard back from the land of the dead. It's Eyes of the Stone Thief so the journey is obvious, they'll just have to go through the dungeon. Once they're actually there, though, I want at least three mini arcs to come to a head. They'll have to: - wrest/bargain/con/sneak the wizard's soul from who-/whatever's keeping watch over dead souls - encounter their rival party, who's down there to revive their own companions slain by the party - deal with the druid's long dead old master, who's been talking to her for a while and now wants to hijack the wizard's revival ticket And I don't want to spend too long on it, either. I haven't yet had the idea that ties them all together, and neither have I decided on a cool "watcher of souls" type of force they'd have to deal with. Hades as in Orpheus and Eurydice obviously comes to mind immediately but I'm not sure it's got the right theme. e: although now that I write it all down I'm thinking it could be less of an actual soul repository in the underworld and more just the power to restore someone, and everyone can compete for that. Hmm. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Oct 28, 2019 |
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Oct 28, 2019 07:31
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My Lovely Horse posted:My game's next chapter: the party needs to go to the underworld and get their wizard back from the land of the dead. Flesh Tailor has it, or maybe he can direct them to either the Hag, or the Witch of Marblehall.
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Oct 28, 2019 07:38
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I was gonna keep the dungeon and the revival place separate for now and do a thing where they have to drive back the Flesh Tailor and free the Ossuary's custodian so he can open a path, and later emerge from the underworld in a dark forest psych you're in the Grove, but you are of course entirely right in that if they approach the Flesh Tailor diplomatically or encounter either of the others first, they might be able to offer a resurrection for a price. Noted!
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Oct 28, 2019 08:02
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Do they know about the thief yet? You could have a rumour of a holy site that got eaten if they do, or if not they could go to where it was and get there just after it gobbles it up, then rescue it from the gizzard
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Oct 28, 2019 08:31
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Do they ever. They've even got an eye already (which I'm sure won't bite them in the rear end going in). I was thinking the chapel in the Ossuary, and yeah that makes a good rumour info dump. "There used to be a chapel with restorative waters, they say it links up to the underworld's fabled River of Life, but oh no it DISAPPEARED IN AN EARTHQUAKE HINT HINT". And it turns out the thief's eaten it, it still links up because magic, the Custodian (or the Tailor) have to open the path.
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Oct 28, 2019 10:26
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My Lovely Horse posted:Do they ever. They've even got an eye already (which I'm sure won't bite them in the rear end going in). I was thinking the chapel in the Ossuary, and yeah that makes a good rumour info dump. "There used to be a chapel with restorative waters, they say it links up to the underworld's fabled River of Life, but oh no it DISAPPEARED IN AN EARTHQUAKE HINT HINT". And it turns out the thief's eaten it, it still links up because magic, the Custodian (or the Tailor) have to open the path. how about they can get in super easily, but it's getting out that will be hard? is the wizard a PC?
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Oct 28, 2019 10:44
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Dead PC they want to revive, with that player playing a replacement wizard for the time being, yes. We're currently working out if she wants to play the replacement for the way down and the original PC for the way back, or if it's the replacement all the way and the original PC only gets revived once they're home safe and sound. And this is all going on on Level 5. It's their second visit and going down will definitely be quicker than the first time around. For getting out I was planning on the Grove switcheroo and at least another level between that and an exit. But I'm listening.  e: also the River of Life is literally the one from MGS3, I didn't note down every single creature the party ever killed but I can make an educated guess My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 11:27 on Oct 28, 2019 |
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Oct 28, 2019 11:06
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My Lovely Horse posted:Dead PC they want to revive, with that player playing a replacement wizard for the time being Have one of the possibilities of the revivification ritual be the dead dude possessing the replacement jobber 
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Oct 28, 2019 11:29
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You mean the dead dude they want to revive, or the long dead druid? Cause holy poo poo that's a brilliant way to deal with him. Two birds with one stone too, cause we do need to figure out a way to write out the replacement.
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Oct 28, 2019 12:34
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My Lovely Horse posted:You mean the dead dude they want to revive, or the long dead druid? Cause holy poo poo that's a brilliant way to deal with him. Two birds with one stone too, cause we do need to figure out a way to write out the replacement. Yes.
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Oct 28, 2019 16:34
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My players had their encounter with a somewhat over-his-head dealer last night. He got caught by the Karrnathi DEA, who then traded him off to a Karrnathi SpecOps guy who wanted access to the PCs and their luhix. They made an arrangement to help create a new superdrug with the luhix for the army, one that would provide some interface with their SOP of turning infantry that dies in combat into an alchemically enhanced zombie. I had the alchemist PC roll his alchemy for R&D, and with maxed ranks, a decent int, a bard singing inspiring music, and the two others assisting, they got a total of a 50. So obviously they've created something amazing; the question now is "what have they made?" A drug that turns you undead when you die under its effects is a given. Bigger stats and lesser/no addiction is another easy thing to strap on to it. I like the idea of adding one or more effects that have a definite pro and con, something like barbarian rage, but saying "rage like a barbarian except +huge to all stats" seems like kind of underwhelming for something like this, especially since they rolled so well. I want it to feel rewarding, you know? Anyone have any ideas for interesting drug powers?
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Oct 28, 2019 18:08
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How will these undead be controlled? I feel like you will have a lot of room for play in there.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:18
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You can't die while you're on it -- your soul just doesn't leave your body and it keeps on reforming, even if your body is in like five different pieces. The longer you've been taking it, the more your body is using the drug's power (rather than its own biology) to keep going -- to the point where long-term addicts are walking skeletons, as intelligent and potent as they were while alive, held together by the power of  .
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Oct 28, 2019 18:24
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^^^ Oh, I like that. A kind of necromantic T-1000 type thing? That is not something I considered and really should have! Karrnathi zombies/skeletons have an Int of 11 as a base, so being animated by the drug would leave them as uncontrolled intelligent undead. Maybe I can toss a template like Evolved Undead on them, and make them crit immune while under the drug's effects. I want to really play up the "you're one foot in the grave while on this but if you die you've already got a foot out of the grave" idea.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:25
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Maybe the drug has side effects that aren't harmful, it gives you the effects of detect evil and good, but only to identify undead? Riffing off the you can't die idea, maybe when you're on it you feel cold and clammy, your heart rate decreases... sleepy.eyes fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 28, 2019 |
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Oct 28, 2019 18:26
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Yawgmoth posted:^^^ Oh, I like that. A kind of necromantic T-1000 type thing? I was thinking more that it's basically a shortcut to lichdom, except you don't need to be a wizard, you just need to keep taking drugs, and the only thing that can permanently kill you is sobering up.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:35
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Is it a drug that they are just on generally, or is it something that they have in a false tooth or some poo poo to take only when they are near death and need it? Is it something they're dosed with once as a super serum and then are just jacked up on?
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Oct 28, 2019 19:15
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Cool side effects would be damage reduction, regeneration of damage, dark vision etc. Maybe it makes them a bull magic field that absorbs magic and enhances them with the spells they absorb. Also you roll on a table and it gives you some random psychic/super powers. Maybe they fade, maybe they don't. One of the crit fail side effect/power rolls is it makes you criminally insane so you can now have an AWOL spec ops soldier hopped up on the perfect drug for an arch nemesis. What is going to stop your players from all mainlining this stuff and turning into Coke snorting super soldier adventurers?
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Oct 28, 2019 21:32
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Take a look at Krokodil. One of its side effects (mostly because of how it's administered, I think?) is skeletonization/muscle atrophy. Definitely one of the descriptions you should give any player dumb enough to try the stuff is "you hear your heartbeat pounding in your ears, louder and louder, but after a few moments it slows... and stops."
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Oct 28, 2019 21:35
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Ceros_X posted:Cool side effects would be damage reduction, regeneration of damage, dark vision etc. Maybe it makes them a bull magic field that absorbs magic and enhances them with the spells they absorb. If it is being taken by a bunch of NPCs you probably want a pretty standard repeatable effect, only worrying about tables and whatnot if your PCs or major NPCs start upping it. Generic super soldier with an undead twist could be as simple as "unarmed attacks deal necrotic damage" and "after each turn, regenerate 1d6 HP" and flavor it as bone replacing skin, slowly turning the effected soldiers into walking exoskeletons the longer they're on it with flesh showing the places they've managed not to get wounded. Throw in a 1/day legendary resistance and maybe 2 actions/round depending on if this is something they're actually going to have to fight against.
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Oct 28, 2019 21:48
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Maybe the longer you've been 'dead' the more you forget what it was like to be alive and slowly lose empathy for living people and creatures. After a week or so you'd still be pretty much you, but after say a year you become much less human (for want of a better word) and if you kept it up somehow for a decade you'd be a full on uncaring sociopath. The longer you survive the more focused you become on keeping the supply of the drug coming to extend your consciousness and gently caress anything else that gets in the way of that.
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Oct 28, 2019 21:55
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Nephzinho posted:If it is being taken by a bunch of NPCs you probably want a pretty standard repeatable effect, only worrying about tables and whatnot if your PCs or major NPCs start upping it. Generic super soldier with an undead twist could be as simple as "unarmed attacks deal necrotic damage" and "after each turn, regenerate 1d6 HP" and flavor it as bone replacing skin, slowly turning the effected soldiers into walking exoskeletons the longer they're on it with flesh showing the places they've managed not to get wounded. Throw in a 1/day legendary resistance and maybe 2 actions/round depending on if this is something they're actually going to have to fight against. If the bone is preferable to skin then you just got some hosed up cult initiation routine where they dose up and then get set on fire.
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Oct 28, 2019 22:05
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Dareon posted:Take a look at Krokodil. But not literally, for the same reason you would never want to google "flesh eating bacteria" or "chainsaw accident HD"
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Oct 28, 2019 22:45
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My Lovely Horse posted:You mean the dead dude they want to revive, or the long dead druid? Cause holy poo poo that's a brilliant way to deal with him. Two birds with one stone too, cause we do need to figure out a way to write out the replacement. Have the dead wizard overwrite the chump stand-in wizard, but the chump stand-in wizard's soul gets spliced onto the long-dead druid and now the long-dead druid hates them.
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Oct 28, 2019 23:19
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It might be extreme but my first thought was some jrpg or resident evil style mutations caused by the inevitable uncontrolled dosing. An arm turns into a giant, surprisingly fast, spiked, poisonous tentacle when they finally go boss form.
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Oct 29, 2019 00:31
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Glory to Italia!
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Scribbles furiously taking notes for the effects of the colour out of space mutated plants for his own campaign....
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Oct 29, 2019 09:31
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Yawgmoth posted:Yeah, the big issue with getting that started is that they did this in the almost literal center of secluded nowhere, so no one who wasn't eaten by a hydragoose knows they have it. Suppose I can always throw an NPC in who has a vision of the PCs or some poo poo. Right but whoever it used to belong to presumably knows (eventually) that *someone* has it, and that's enough money to not let it slide, even if it wasn't also a matter of principle (which it almost certainly is). So they will start investigating. You can send the Eberron equivalent of Anton Chigurh after them.
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Oct 29, 2019 14:44
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evenworse username posted:Right but whoever it used to belong to presumably knows (eventually) that *someone* has it, and that's enough money to not let it slide, even if it wasn't also a matter of principle (which it almost certainly is). So they will start investigating. Ceros_X posted:Cool side effects would be damage reduction, regeneration of damage, dark vision etc. Maybe it makes them a bull magic field that absorbs magic and enhances them with the spells they absorb. What's stopping the PCs is that they know how brutal luhix is and do not want to end up addicted to it or anything derived from it; especially since they clear-cut all the plants. The 85 doses they have are all they have unless they start going plane-hopping or get ridiculously lucky with the Rod again. Nephzinho posted:Is it a drug that they are just on generally, or is it something that they have in a false tooth or some poo poo to take only when they are near death and need it? Is it something they're dosed with once as a super serum and then are just jacked up on? We've basically sorted it out over skype: It's gonna give +huge to all stats, crit/pain immunity, and last for a day, but if you let it wear off (or you die while affected) it kills you and instantly reanimates you as an evolved karrnathi zombie with the buffed stats. You do not immediately realize that you are undead, but eventually it's gonna dawn on anyone that hey maybe you didn't actually survive that battle because you haven't slept or eaten in 4 days but MAN I could go for some murder right about now! The military might get a little salty when they find out the key ingredient lives on another plane though.
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Oct 29, 2019 18:10
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Yawgmoth posted:Nobody used to have it, grew out of the mansion's half-rotted floorboards. Ah, my misunderstanding. In that case I guess it depends on how much your players/PCs want to be drug dealers, and how whoever the established drug dealers feel about intrusions on their turf.
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Oct 29, 2019 20:58
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evenworse username posted:Ah, my misunderstanding.
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Oct 29, 2019 22:31
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Picked up Basic Essentials with the intention of running a hexcrawl because I've always wanted to give the OSR stuff a shot. Gonna run some one shots here and there to familiarize myself with the game while I put a sandbox together. How large do you guys generally make yours? I feel like I should prioritize making a local map and stuffing it with a bunch of stuff to explore over a huuuuge map. This is what I was gonna start with, each hex is 5 miles. I was picturing an area that transitions from mountainous jungles to grasslands and wetlands, with a river that will take players further inland or towards the coast. Right now I'm just messing with the biomes and moving locations around, the red line is an underground cave network. I'm mostly satisfied with it and want to start fleshing out these locations and putting my encounter tables together. Does it seem okay so far?
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Oct 30, 2019 04:41
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