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The primate exhibit is called Monkey Island, where they get lost and then must escape with the help of plucky the NPC curator, Pirate Guybrush Threepwood.
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Sep 5, 2021 20:54
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The local magistrate has been working an under-the-table deal with the zookeeper to supply the zoo with a steady stream of petting zoo animals those petting zoo animals are actually common criminals sentenced to 'community service' who have been polymorphed into animal forms and are regularly fed potions to render them docile the moment a stray dispel magic is let loose in the petting zoo poo poo's gonna go bananas as a bunch of cute fluffy sheep and llamas suddenly turn into random vagrants, at least one of whom is a friendly NPC the PCs met during a previous adventure
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Sep 5, 2021 22:04
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these are all great ideas. another option is to just straight up steal the plot, and every single one of the characters, of Jurassic Park. also, be mindful of the SYSTEM PURGE button in Cabin in the Woods, a large red button with a protective plastic cover over it that opens every single one of the cages at the same time.
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Sep 5, 2021 22:16
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But also there are a bunch of them who just want to go back to a life where their food and shelter are provided for free, they can get clean of their Skooma habit, Jimmy the Bastard won't try to track them down for their gambling debts, plus they get to make families happy and give something back to the community.
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Sep 5, 2021 22:19
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:those petting zoo animals are actually common criminals sentenced to 'community service' who have been polymorphed into animal forms and are regularly fed potions to render them docile The real reward for completing this adventure is an introduction to a wizard who will cast polymorph no questions asked at bargain basement prices.
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Sep 5, 2021 22:56
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lightrook posted:The dragon exhibit is actually staffed by a crew of very young and very bored silver dragons who take turns as both zookeeper and exhibit. The running contest is to see who can come up with the most outrageous "natural" behavior and the most ridiculous naturalists' explanation. This is extremely cute and I love it.
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Sep 6, 2021 00:44
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Xanasar posted:The real reward for completing this adventure is an introduction to a wizard who will cast polymorph no questions asked at bargain basement prices. He is a down-on-his-luck Transmuter named Alyosius, and he cast spells for the magistrate so the magistrate would look the other way when he imported alchemical ingredients but he has all the ingredients he needs now, and will cheerfully expose the magistrate's "it's like sending kids to private prisons only fantasy" scheme if the PCs ask him to
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Sep 6, 2021 04:24
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Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. Thanks everyone. Now to turn one session into at least three with all these ideas…
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Sep 8, 2021 21:57
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players are dragging a chest full of medicine to a town where one of the players knows the town leader. kinda at a loss for what to do when they get there. this is in FATE high-fantasy (players are a mad monk, merfolk, goblin and a lord-knight) leaning towards wise medicine woman leader saying "thank you sweetie, but this just treats the pox. we need a cure, found only in the (something) of a deadly (something) in (place)" is this too "fetch me 6 wolf pelts" obnoxious? how do I solve for X on this to make it fun? Shrecknet fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Sep 9, 2021 |
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Sep 9, 2021 00:08
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Would what they are going after be valuable enough that another group is already after it, and they'll either have to deal with them/or convince them to work together to find it?
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Sep 9, 2021 00:17
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I like to have multiple people who want the loot. The medicine woman wants to use it to treat the pox victims, but the local noble wants it for his wounded soldiers. Then you can tease out a conflict and the players get to express something about their characters.
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Sep 9, 2021 00:18
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Plus a crime guy who wants to sell it on the black market for $$$
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Sep 9, 2021 00:26
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these are great. what should the cure be? thinking it should be bile from a purple wurm's gut so they can have fun figuring that out. also ok with owlbear pellets or possibly something weirder like vampire's shadows (how do you even collect that?)
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Sep 9, 2021 00:35
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Add in a bunch of pox victims refusing the cure because they believe it is tainted by the Alchemist Cabal and wanting the players to go harvest deadly giant venomous spiders nearby since they heard at the tavern that the venom was a proper cure when mixed with oats.
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Sep 9, 2021 00:37
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Are hags a thing in your game? Maybe they need some toenail clippings, and the kindly old lady would be glad to part with them for a price.
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Sep 9, 2021 00:43
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sebmojo posted:Plus a crime guy who wants to sell it on the black market for $$$ yeah exactly. $$$ is the most liquid motivation you can have right?
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Sep 9, 2021 00:45
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Village throws a big ol party to celebrate, everyone has a good time until people start hallucinating. Someone spiked the wine! ( Make sure to sneak some arc-plot prophecy or traumatic backstory into the players separate visions! ) When people come to, the chest of medicine is missing! Suspicion falls on a strange family of Tiefling outcasts who live in the foothills. There's monsters and weird demon guard dogs out there. The twist; they totes did steal the medicine, but only because they knew the village would never give them any. They're willing to sell it back, but violence or good arguments work too. You can throw in a Romeo Juliet subplot in there if your players like that sort of thing.
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Sep 9, 2021 00:47
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Shrecknet posted:these are great. what should the cure be? thinking it should be bile from a purple wurm's gut so they can have fun figuring that out. also ok with owlbear pellets or possibly something weirder like vampire's shadows (how do you even collect that?) They need to hire a master level thief who has moved on from stealing mere material possessions and specializes in the abstract. For their last client, they stole inspiration from a muse. In a revenge job, they stole the sensation of pleasure of reading from a wizard.
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Sep 9, 2021 00:55
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Stole the rhymes right out of a poem, stole the colour from a ruby, stole that one perfect night right out of your life
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Sep 9, 2021 01:20
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Dameius posted:They need to hire a master level thief who has moved on from stealing mere material possessions and specializes in the abstract. For their last client, they stole inspiration from a muse. In a revenge job, they stole the sensation of pleasure of reading from a wizard. The master thief dresses only in red, and before you can hire her, you'll need to find her... somewhere in the world. I hope you know your geography!
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Sep 9, 2021 01:48
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So, I’m running Keep at the Borderlands, and my party found their way to the Cathedral of Evil before I expected they would. They ended last night’s session by opening up the cell that contains a Medusa. 5e Medusa is CR 6, and my party is 4 pcs and 1 npc, all Level 3s. According to the encounter builder, and in reviewing Medusa’s abilities and HP, it looks like they are about to get in way over their heads. Should I let them have at it, as is? The party hasn’t had amy real losses or super close calls yet. I am not opposed to killing a PC or NPC, and I want to avoid railroading or solving this with a deus ex machina if I can. Or would it be a good idea to do something like have Medusa petrify a few party members, then ransom their health/freedom if the remaining party members go do a quest for her elsewhere in the caves?
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Sep 9, 2021 15:53
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Quarterroys posted:So, I’m running Keep at the Borderlands, and my party found their way to the Cathedral of Evil before I expected they would. They ended last night’s session by opening up the cell that contains a Medusa. Action economy usually trumps CR and if they know/figure out not to look at it, the encounter can be pretty trivial. I'd run it as-is but figure out an escape plan if they really screw things up
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Sep 9, 2021 15:56
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sebmojo posted:Stole the rhymes right out of a poem, stole the colour from a ruby, stole that one perfect night right out of your life There's a Beastie Boys joke to build into the campaign from there. TooMuchAbstraction posted:The master thief dresses only in red, and before you can hire her, you'll need to find her... somewhere in the world. I hope you know your geography! 
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Sep 9, 2021 17:38
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Quarterroys posted:So, I’m running Keep at the Borderlands, and my party found their way to the Cathedral of Evil before I expected they would. They ended last night’s session by opening up the cell that contains a Medusa. Another option would be to have them get stoned then wake up in a rich nobles garden with a kid holding a crumbling scroll and a surprised look on their face, the implication being that she petrified them then sold them as ornaments and a few years have passed. The players could then hunt her down and find out she used the money she made from selling them to start a bakery or something.
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Sep 9, 2021 20:36
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Pickled Tink posted:...get stoned then wake up in a rich nobles garden... we've all been there
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Sep 9, 2021 20:51
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Hey thread, looking for some advice on my Curse of Strahd game. Things have spiraled a bit and I feel a little in over my head. Some background: I threw the Feast of St. Andral at my party after they went to Wizard of Wines and Van Richten's tower. It got a little hairy, and because they are players they did something I never expected - they convinced Ireena to confront Strahd to try to talk him down. She offered herself to him in exchange for ceasing the attack, an offer he happily accepted. I had no idea how to handle this - I know that Strahd's whole thing is that he can never really be with Tatyana. I kicked the can down the road a bit by deciding he wouldn't fully turn her until they were married, and set a wedding date of a bit more than a week from when he took her. He twisted the knife a bit by delivering them an invitation to the rehearsal dinner, 1 week from when they received it. They decided that they needed to find the rest of the artifacts from Madame Eva's reading (the holy symbol and the sunsword) to be strong enough to get Ireena back. They futzed around at (and getting to) Argynvostholt for a long time (took them about 3 days) before discovering the holy symbol in Vladimir's possession, and then decided to take it from him by force. With the clock ticking on the rehearsal dinner, the paladin had a crisis of conscience. Before they left Barovia, Ireena had begged him to kill her rather than let Strahd take her - and he's the one who convinced Ireena to go try to negotiate with him. So he convinces the party that they need to go to Ravenloft and rescue Ireena. My DM style is, uh, very wing it. I didn't really have a plan for this, hadn't really figured out where Ireena would be or anything, but figured it was only fair to give them the opportunity to try to rescue her. I adapted Strahd's dinner invitation to this, figured I'd let them talk to him for a bit and then they could explore Ravenloft and I'd kind of throw Ireena in where it made sense. But, and this may shock you, the players did something I wasn't expecting - they picked a fight with Strahd and his 3 vampire spawn brides at the dinner table. And the paladin pulled out the holy symbol of ravenkind and used it. They're level 5, fighting in Strahd's lair, and it... was not even close. Our last session ended when they all were downed. They'll be waking up in the dungeons in our next session, sans gear, and wearing manacles that disable their magic. I was going to let them spend some time trying to figure out how to break free, and if they were stuck introduce Ezmerelda to rescue them. Here's where I need help: 1) What the heck do I do about Ireena? The module doesn't really provide a lot of guidance on what happens if Strahd acquires her. They are low on resources and don't really have a way to get a secure long rest in Ravenloft, so I don't see them continuing to pursue the rescue attempt. I could have Ireena be the one to rescue them from the dungeons if it comes down to it, but this feels extremely unearned and very deus ex machina to me. I very much feel the sun has set on Ireena being rescued. 2) I told the paladin to take the holy symbol out of his inventory. Am I being too harsh? He used the thing against Strahd, I just couldn't justify to myself that Strahd would leave it with the rest of their gear in [whatever place I allow them to easily reclaim their stuff]. I figured I'd give it to Rahadin and have them run into him at the Amber Temple, giving them a chance to get it back. Should I just let them have it back? 3) Does it feel too railroady to have them run into Ezmerelda and steer them to the teleportation room to get them to the Amber Temple (where the sunsword is)? This would, of course, require them to trust a person they've never met who they encounter in Castle Ravenloft, divulge to this person where they are trying to go, and then either have them figure out the riddle of the teleportation flame or have Ezmerelda suggest to them which stone to use. I truly feel like I've been doing a pretty good job about just letting them go where they want, but there have been a few comments about railroading so I'm trying extra hard to avoid that perception.
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Sep 9, 2021 22:33
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Consequences for actions would probably be best here. I am not more than vaguely familiar with the setting and characters, so this is just a swing in the dark characterwise, but since I am a very dickish person I would have their gear confiscated entirely except for any holdout item they would reasonably have been willing and able to conceal in advance of their capture. I would then have then brought to Strahd, where he thanks them for their assistance in granting him his new bride (Who is now also a vampire) but also chastise them for abusing his hospitality with a speech somewhat along the lines of: "Ordinarily I would have killed you, however the scales stand in balance, and so you will be given a chance to earn your lives. I have sent your belongings down the road to <roadside inn>. You will be released outside the gates of the castle an hour before sundown. Once the sun sets, the hunt begins. Reach the inn and the hunt will end, your lives spared." I would then have the players hunted until they reach that specific Inn. If there are other closer inns and homes, have the occupants all killed and raised as zombies that do the whole pod person point and shriek thing at them. Give each bride a small retinue of hunting monsters and set them out hunting while having Strahd appear in the distance grinning and overseeing the hunt, ready to intervene if a fight with one of his brides looks to be going badly for them.
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Sep 9, 2021 23:13
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Reveilled posted:I think the important thing to emphasise is that "talk to your player" doesn't necessarily mean doing an intervention, or having a sit down, we need to talk moment. That's only needed if someone is so disruptive that you're on the verge of booting them from the group. It literally just means talk to them, about the thing you're both obviously very passionate about : the game you're both playing. You can ask questions like "What's your thoughts on how the campaign's going?" and "what made you choose a character who's focused on fighting? That seems quite unusual for you" during a completely normal casual conversation about your mutual hobby. Those sorts of questions will give you an understanding of the player's perspective, and you only need to move onto the serious "we need to recalibrate expectations" conversation if the player's perspective cannot be reconciled with the game you're running. But "understand the player's perspective" is the first goal, and that's a very easy conversation because in general players love talking about their characters. Yes! Exactly, an extremely casual "what's this guy's other button? Normally I pick up on your characters' central dichotomy right away, but I can't think of a thing to get him to do stuff that isn't stabbing cos I thought you didn't like characters that are like that" and then he might say "nah, he's just a stab guy, I wanna give that a shot" and you can say "ok cool, what sort of stuff do you want to have happen" and boom, its all good again.
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Sep 9, 2021 23:41
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Russad posted:Hey thread, looking for some advice on my Curse of Strahd game. Things have spiraled a bit and I feel a little in over my head. I agree with Pickled Tink's suggestion that you show them that their actions has actual consequences. Ireena is now a vampire bride and is lost (unless there's some way to reverse vampirism in this campaign). In the same vein having the holy symbol be temporarily lost seems like a natural result. Maybe it's hidden somewhere in Ravenloft, maybe they get it later with whoever makes sense, but they showed it to the villain and he overpowered them, they need to put in some kind of work to get it back. For the railroading issue with the sun-sword, I would say: give them the info but let them do what they want with it. I think finding out where a mcguffin is is the least interesting part of it, the fun is in figuring out how to get there and get it. I don't know much about the module so I don't know how the teleportation room works but it sounds like something that would feel very on-rails if you just shove them in there. If they learn about it and have the option to puzzle out how to use it effectively, great! that's an earned reward. If they run in and just push a random button then it's only fair for them to end up somewhere random.
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Sep 10, 2021 04:02
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Russad posted:Hey thread, looking for some advice on my Curse of Strahd game. Things have spiraled a bit and I feel a little in over my head. The Curse of Strahd takes place in a weird pocket dimension designed to torment Strahd and anybody foolish enough to come into town, right? Instead of having everybody wake up in a cell, have them wake up in town. As villagers. The pocket dimension has reset, and they are at least theoretically cursed to be random villagers. Strahd actually appreciated getting to win for once, and really does love Ireena. So he cheated a bit and the players retain their memories and levels. I can think of two options for how they get their gear back, minus plot critical stuff like the holy symbol. In the either case they wake up to an adventuring party being introduced to the town. One method has the adventures fully equipped with their old stuff, and probably complaining that they can't even use half this stuff. The players can perpetuate the cycle of horror and get all their stuff back by leading the party into traps that they learned about in their past life. Or they can settle for the stuff that the adventurers are willing to part with. The other method has the old gear held in trust for rewarding adventurers that solve quests. So the party has to race the newly arrived party if they want all their stuff back. The newly arrived party is a fully equipped first level party, but the party remember a lot of quest solutions. Penalty wise Strahd has a new Chief Wife, probably madame Eva. They don't need the reading again, right? (wrong) Strahd still loves Ireena, but has to be careful of his jealous wife. She is a lot less passive and courteous about hunting down threats to Strahd. And obviously prevents any attempts to parley with Ireena.
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Sep 10, 2021 04:25
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Does anyone have any tips for trying to get a player to focus less on utility in their character creation? I have a player who has been taking weeks drumming up a character mostly because they want to make sure they have something that allows full balance in the party, while also overthinking the minutiae like crazy. For example, nobody listed cooking supplies in their equipment list, so this player made sure to mention that they carry frying pans, spatulas, etc. They’ve also geared the player more towards being a survivalist to ensure that they provide value to the party that no one else has thought of yet. On the other side of the coin, this player also has equipment for every conceivable situation: a non-lethal weapon, a kill weapon, a utilitarian multi-purpose knife… it’s somehow hard-specialized away from combat, while somehow still being prepared for every combat possibility. At the end of the day I am okay with whatever the player goes with and I can adjust, but I am afraid (and have already cautioned them of this) that if they are playing this tropey character just to fill a niche the party doesn’t have, it will probably be less enjoyable for them. I am just afraid that playing “what we need” vs “what they want” is a recipe for losing interest pretty quickly, but they’ve also assured me that “what they want” is to be someone “useful,” so it’s a bit of a weird situation.
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Sep 11, 2021 20:27
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This seems like a problem that will solve itself. Once you get into play they'll figure out the things they like to do and will settle down. If the issue is they're holding up play while minmaxing, why don't you give them a sort of utility pack that has a certain number of charges, that they can use to pull out a tool appropriate to the situation. Once they use up the charges it's a normal backpack that contains whatever they packed initially, plus whatever they pulled out with the charges. Get rid of some of that analysis paralysis.
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Sep 11, 2021 20:37
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Kenning posted:This seems like a problem that will solve itself. Once you get into play they'll figure out the things they like to do and will settle down. If the issue is they're holding up play while minmaxing, why don't you give them a sort of utility pack that has a certain number of charges, that they can use to pull out a tool appropriate to the situation. Once they use up the charges it's a normal backpack that contains whatever they packed initially, plus whatever they pulled out with the charges. Get rid of some of that analysis paralysis. I’d say that the bigger issue is they’re too busy trying to min/max their stats/traits to even get a character bio down, so we can’t even get off the ground yet. Bio keeps changing to meet the latest batch of stats. This is actually in an RP/character heavy game that doesn’t really utilize much dice too, so min/maxing is kind of pointless to begin with. Like I said, if they want to play the utilititarian character, that is fine with me… but the true issue lies in just a classic case of constant overthinking and second guessing.
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Sep 11, 2021 20:54
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Gin_Rummy posted:Does anyone have any tips for trying to get a player to focus less on utility in their character creation? I have a player who has been taking weeks drumming up a character mostly because they want to make sure they have something that allows full balance in the party, while also overthinking the minutiae like crazy. This advice might be too late if you've already settled on a game system, but try to pick one that decouples gameplay utility from narrative utility as much as possible so that they're not forced to choose between "cool / thematically appropriate" and "effective" in the first place. This sort of thing isn't usually a player failing imo, it's more something designers gently caress up by making those two values interchangeable in the first place, and then perceptive players will pick up on it. e: Sometimes people who've spent a lot of time playing bad games start to expect it and look for it where it doesn't actually exist, but that's just a misunderstanding and not, like, a personality flaw -- just sit down and explain it to them, if that's the case. If you're playing a game where the characters are expected to generally be cool and competent and prepared then whatever they pick is usually going to be relevant by fiat (or in one where they're underequipped and just scraping by, optimizing won't get around it) -- either way, it's governed by tone, not by system mastery. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Sep 11, 2021 |
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Sep 11, 2021 21:13
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If a system doesnt already include a mechanic to do so, i usually let my players retroactively bring equipment. if it's unlikely their characters would have brought something I will force a roll. I've seen too many sessions bogged down by extraneous preparation.
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Sep 11, 2021 22:00
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Yeah just use a Trophy Gold/Dark style inventory system.
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Sep 12, 2021 04:37
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Gin_Rummy posted:Does anyone have any tips for trying to get a player to focus less on utility in their character creation? I have a player who has been taking weeks drumming up a character mostly because they want to make sure they have something that allows full balance in the party, while also overthinking the minutiae like crazy. What system/setting is this? Being a worry wort over preparer is fine until people get sick of having to carry all of that crap around. It can even be a part of character growth. If nothing else, they can be the guy who remembers to buy a vehicle/donkey/horse, which usually makes them one of the more party members to start off with.
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Sep 12, 2021 05:50
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One time when I was a new player the DM gave me a list with my starting equipment that was a solid page full of items like "10 ft. hemp rope, 10 ft. silk rope, climbing hook, 35 marbles, corkscrew" and I just looked at him in deep confusion, which hasn't really lifted since then.
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Sep 12, 2021 09:20
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My Lovely Horse posted:One time when I was a new player the DM gave me a list with my starting equipment that was a solid page full of items like "10 ft. hemp rope, 10 ft. silk rope, climbing hook, 35 marbles, corkscrew" and I just looked at him in deep confusion, which hasn't really lifted since then. Look at this guy. He doesn't know how to use the 35 marbles.
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Sep 12, 2021 12:57
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No 11' pole? 
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Sep 12, 2021 13:32
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