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Azathoth
Apr 3, 2001

DrSunshine posted:

I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and we're six adventures into it - mostly premade modules with a couple of homebrewed scenarios. This deep into the campaign, the overall complexity and danger level has increased. However, my players have gotten used to just going to a location, usually the 'spookiest' one and investigating and looking for clues right off the bat. But I want to encourage them to do more research and investigation before jumping right in. How do I do that without just explicitly saying "Are you sure you want to go in without doing some research first?"

When they go to open a door or pick up a book, just ask the simple phrase "do you touch that with your bare hand?". You'll get a pause from the entire group as they all try to figure out what is going to happen, then when they inevitably say "Yes", roll a die in secret and then proceed as if nothing happened. Do that in a couple scenarios and they'll get the feeling of dodged danger and start getting a little more careful.

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ninjoatse.cx
Apr 9, 2005

Fun Shoe
In their investigation, then feel a sharp sting on their hand, and then some of their fingers are missing. There's no pain, but three of their fingers are now cauterized lumps.

Sometime later in their investigation they feel oily fur being sifted through their missing fingers... and then moist hot breath.

DrSunshine
Mar 23, 2009

Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Azathoth posted:

When they go to open a door or pick up a book, just ask the simple phrase "do you touch that with your bare hand?". You'll get a pause from the entire group as they all try to figure out what is going to happen, then when they inevitably say "Yes", roll a die in secret and then proceed as if nothing happened. Do that in a couple scenarios and they'll get the feeling of dodged danger and start getting a little more careful.

Ok, getting CoC Keepering tips from the daemon sultan himself, I'm gonna note this down for sure!!

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









DrSunshine posted:

Ok, getting CoC Keepering tips from the daemon sultan himself, I'm gonna note this down for sure!!

there's a perfectly red, ripe apple somewhere incongruous. Make sure you be very specific about how round, red and ripe it is.

Azathoth
Apr 3, 2001

DrSunshine posted:

Ok, getting CoC Keepering tips from the daemon sultan himself, I'm gonna note this down for sure!!

lmao

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015

DrSunshine posted:

I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and we're six adventures into it - mostly premade modules with a couple of homebrewed scenarios. This deep into the campaign, the overall complexity and danger level has increased. However, my players have gotten used to just going to a location, usually the 'spookiest' one and investigating and looking for clues right off the bat. But I want to encourage them to do more research and investigation before jumping right in. How do I do that without just explicitly saying "Are you sure you want to go in without doing some research first?"

Do they have somebody they report to or that they are getting briefings from? Have that person ask them what they know about vampires and how to kill them. Then have that person say oops, I meant to ask about Hounds of Tindalos or whatever sort of freaky monster your players have heard of but not fought. This should get them thinking about how handy it would be to actually know how to kill something before they start exchanging blows with it.

Or you could have somebody who refuses to let them in unless they have some proof of relevance. This could mean digging up a cold case linked to the property. Just knowing where to get their hands on a blueprint of the sewer system and some overalls might work too.

Shanty
Nov 7, 2005

I Love Dogs
Have Deputy Dingby show up to a bunch of the cases they're on and A) mention the importance of doing research, but B) being really inept at it.

"They got them new micker fishes down at town hall, but Sheriff says I can't use them no more on account of my hair tonic reactin'."

"Yep I must have read today's newspaper five times before coming here, and not just the funny pages!"

"I always ask around for rumours before investingating a crime scene. You'd be amazed the sort of stuff the soda jerk down at Two Pips knows. I'm in there hours sometimes, getting rumours. "

Pickled Tink
Apr 28, 2012

Have you heard about First Dog? It's a very good comic I just love.

Also, wear your bike helmets kids. I copped several blows to the head but my helmet left me totally unscathed.



Finally you should check out First Dog as it's a good comic I like it very much.
Fun Shoe

DrSunshine posted:

I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and we're six adventures into it - mostly premade modules with a couple of homebrewed scenarios. This deep into the campaign, the overall complexity and danger level has increased. However, my players have gotten used to just going to a location, usually the 'spookiest' one and investigating and looking for clues right off the bat. But I want to encourage them to do more research and investigation before jumping right in. How do I do that without just explicitly saying "Are you sure you want to go in without doing some research first?"
For this situation, please look at the thread title.

As I recall, Character Death is an expected probable outcome in Call of Cthulhu games, and their behavior suggests that you have shied away from pulling the trigger previously, since the stuff they are engaging in is the kind of stuff that can and should have gotten one or more of them killed already. If they don't experience consequences from gung-ho behavior around eldritch abominations and evil cults then they are going to be jaded as to the threat.

If, for some reason, you decide that killing someone for being an idiot is not what you want to do, maim them instead.

A person grabs something they shouldn't and is clearly evil? Have the flesh on his hand rot off, and slowly start progressing up his arm as the exposed bones become hostile and tries to kill him (So initially just the hand itself, but once it reaches the elbow joint it gets a lot more freedom to gently caress them up).

A person opens a dark tome of eldritch lore without checking it to see if the cultists have boobytrapped it? Have it brand the poor idiots eyes with runes of eldritch truth that force them to see dark powers when their eyes are open, and inflict progressive SAN loss until removed.

Throw open the door to the spooky barn without taking care to investigate first? Well, guess where the Cult leader keeps his Shoggoth and who just broke the wards making sure it stayed there.

Or, more amusing and less eldritch, have the building they break into be a safehouse (Or locally known office) for the FBI or something and have them arrested.

Remember: If stupid behavior doesn't have consequences that ramp up the threat, then there will continue to be stupid behavior, and it will get progressively dumber. Consequences doesn't necessarily mean permanent fuckery, but in Call of Cthulhu you should *definitely* lean that way, especially when the stakes have been raised to this extent.

Bread Dragon
Apr 7, 2012

Paolomania posted:

Anyone have experience running Savage Worlds? Skimming the rules it seems very GM-needs-system-mastery what with all the situational rules, wound mechanics with different cases based on shaken status, not to mention fiddly edges and powers. Is a deep reading vital to run it in practice or can you run it with just a close reading of the core mechanic and a few cheat sheets?

Honestly the mechanics are pretty intuitive once you get going. The target number is almost always 4, so just have a printout of modifiers and a printout of combat flow. When in doubt a low level mook's skill is d6. Make some colored index cards or poker chips that have the shaken modifiers written on them so people can just set that on their character sheet if they're shaken. No one tracks shaken well at first. Unless you're VTT in which case it should be automatic.

Have a leisurely introduction session with a diplomatic/roleplaying encounter, an environmental challenge encounter, and a combat encounter. Classic dive bar/tavern leads to breaking onto the warehouse/the bandit's keep leads to a modest combat encounter. Everyone will go into the second session strong.

The hardest part for a GM imo is getting a hang for combat challenge level and what kind of mob to throw at your party. Start with a skillful enemy and 2-3 mooks and just have another half dozen guys run in from the other room swinging chains if your PCs bounce all the mooks in a single turn. It's a great system for a more improvisational GM but still offers players some crunch -- a good midway between D20 and the really loose systems.

Kumo
Jul 31, 2004

DrSunshine posted:

I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and we're six adventures into it - mostly premade modules with a couple of homebrewed scenarios. This deep into the campaign, the overall complexity and danger level has increased. However, my players have gotten used to just going to a location, usually the 'spookiest' one and investigating and looking for clues right off the bat. But I want to encourage them to do more research and investigation before jumping right in. How do I do that without just explicitly saying "Are you sure you want to go in without doing some research first?"

Withhold details from them, like the exact spooky location. Make them research old records at the courthouse or the library first, and turn up additional clues. Maybe a survivor of some hushed & horrific incident still lives in a farmhouse, or nearby city. Maybe they get there & that person died a few months ago and their personal effects are in storage. You can draw them out one or two steps more.

If I may, I would appreciate some ideas for a non-combat encounter/challenge in the sewer. I offhandedly volunteered to DM for some acquaintances online who were starved for elf games and now I have 7 people in a D&D 5e session. The first went better than I expected and I’m trying to keep that going by preparing, anticipating & offering differing challenges for all the members of the group. I have combat encounters in the sewer, and some locked doors & stealth for the roguelikes, but I wanted a good puzzle or arcane encounter.

So far gas and a locked room filling with water has been suggested. Mending & Mage Hand are cantrips they have that I would like to incorporate.

I grabbed this some months back and am using it to build my sewer map: https://2minutetabletop.com/product/sewer-map-assets/

Squidster
Oct 7, 2008

✋😢Life's just better with Ominous Gloves🤗🧤
Unleash the Fatberg. These massive urban relatives of the gelatinous cube are harmless pests that plague city sewers. They slowly pursue garbage, shy from fire and soap, and sing whalesong to the moon glimpsed through manhole covers.

There's rumors of a particularly dire one, bleached white from a mage towers runoff, that is being hunted by the insane sewer captain Isash Mael...

It might also have a cool gem or two trapped inside.

Dameius
Apr 3, 2006
Some thieves had a plan of a high stakes high value job that involved dumping the goods into the sewer and circling back to transport. After the drop but before they could circle back they got got. Too long in the sewer has wrecked the item, which was actually a pretty rare focal point for the Fey (or whatever you want here) to latch onto when they wanted to travel to this realm.

Obviously magic in nature/origin, in this broken state its inert. A bit of mending here and a bit of shine there plus a few good arcana rolls over a day or so and they just might reawaken the magic within.

But will they wish they hadn't...?

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
I find puzzle encounters work better as part of combat, not as a thing on their own where the brakes slam on and the players who like riddles sit down to do a riddle while everyone else watches.

Like, if I was thinking about adding a puzzle to a sewer level, and I wanted it to require the use of Mage Hand, I'd have the players fight that Fatberg in an arena where there's a gentle trickle of water from a bunch of mostly closed pipes high above, and where the Fatberg has regeneration because the bits you hack off of it rejoin, but if you turn the water on it'll wash it away before it can do that and cancel its regeneration, but the valves to open each pipe are too high to reach without climbing (or mage hand)

Or maybe you have to turn valves to route the flow of water so it lands on the Fatberg, like a game of Pipemania?

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









I'd say have blobs of fat that act as minions and either attack or heal fatberg, and you have to turn off pipes to stop them coming

Never not have minion generators

Okua
Oct 30, 2016

What could be a good way to handle the players escaping from an evil science facility about to blow up? They would be starting in the basement where the villain has a self-destruct switch. I was thinking about playing it straight with alarms blaring, flashing lights, and a voice counting down from 10 while the players have to find a way out, but I'm not sure how it's best done mechanically. Should there be a series of smaller challengers for individual parts of the facility they pass through, should I involve Blades in the Dark style clocks or something entirely different? The system is Lancer and the players are out of their mechs at this point, so the game is in narrative/theater of the mind mode. Has someone here done something similar?

Kenning
Jan 11, 2009

I really want to post goatse. Instead I only have these🍄.



I've never played Lancer, but a scene like this is perfect for something like a Fate Fractal. Treat the escape like a combat encounter against the lab. Give the lab a certain amount of HP/stress track/whatever, and give it skills or abilities like "Emergency Destruction Subroutines" and "Security Measures" and "Experiments Gone Awry". Have the players roll their skills as attacks against the lab, so if there's a character with a hacking/computers type skill they could hop on a terminal and try to delay the self-destruct. Another player could use a combat skill to smash a bunch of lasers/cameras/horrible chimeric genetic monsters. At the lab's initiative order it can roll "Security measures" and deploy a decontamination shower to burn the players' eyes or it can roll "Experiments Gone Awry" and the genetic monsters can try to grab onto the players' legs. Notch player successes against the lab's HP, which represents them moving through the lab or dismantling barriers or whatever.

I once had a Fate game where a player was lost in a wilderness area and trying to trek out. The wilderness area had points in Difficult Terrain, Dangerous Animals, and Hostile Weather. The player was rolling mostly Survival, but also sometimes skills like Athletics or Perception or whatnot to try and pathfind and trek out. I would throw tigers or intense heat or boggy terrain at them, rolling the relevant skills. It was a great scene, and seems like something you could do similarly for your escape scene.

Pickled Tink
Apr 28, 2012

Have you heard about First Dog? It's a very good comic I just love.

Also, wear your bike helmets kids. I copped several blows to the head but my helmet left me totally unscathed.



Finally you should check out First Dog as it's a good comic I like it very much.
Fun Shoe

Okua posted:

What could be a good way to handle the players escaping from an evil science facility about to blow up? They would be starting in the basement where the villain has a self-destruct switch. I was thinking about playing it straight with alarms blaring, flashing lights, and a voice counting down from 10 while the players have to find a way out, but I'm not sure how it's best done mechanically. Should there be a series of smaller challengers for individual parts of the facility they pass through, should I involve Blades in the Dark style clocks or something entirely different? The system is Lancer and the players are out of their mechs at this point, so the game is in narrative/theater of the mind mode. Has someone here done something similar?
Depending on the stage and threat level of the campaign you are working on, I would veer away from letting them know exactly how long they have.

I would only do an explicit countdown if it was a late stage of the campaign where the threat level has ramped up and I was fully willing to follow through with absolutely murdering the players if they hosed up. By that stage they would be settled in their characters and be much more competent and prepared, and able to meet the serious challenge that a time limit poses.

If it is early game, or the games threat and seriousness hasn't ramped up, don't give them a fixed time limit. Instead build the tension by having progressively more serious effects from the self destruct mechanism reveal themselves, while allowing them and yourself time to do what is needed. Have Labs explode, pipes rupture, ceilings collapse, a mook run by on fire, hazardous chemicals escape from vats and spill, and have the automated announcement system declare sections destroyed while encouraging people to evacuate and have a nice day. All things that emphasize danger without locking you into a TPK if they gently caress up.

midwifecrisis
Jul 5, 2005

oh, have I got some GREAT news for you!

Use clocks for sure. What about the option for cloning characters?

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









An insanely chipper ai voice reading out facts of the day

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

sebmojo posted:

An insanely chipper ai voice reading out facts of the day

Nothing but Paranoia quotes

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost

Okua posted:

What could be a good way to handle the players escaping from an evil science facility about to blow up? They would be starting in the basement where the villain has a self-destruct switch. I was thinking about playing it straight with alarms blaring, flashing lights, and a voice counting down from 10 while the players have to find a way out, but I'm not sure how it's best done mechanically. Should there be a series of smaller challengers for individual parts of the facility they pass through, should I involve Blades in the Dark style clocks or something entirely different? The system is Lancer and the players are out of their mechs at this point, so the game is in narrative/theater of the mind mode. Has someone here done something similar?

I'd say the most important thing to do as prep in a situation like that is to figure out for yourself: if the facility collapses with the players still inside, who comes to dig them out of the rubble, and why will that make them wish they'd been crushed to death?

If the gun you're holding to the players' heads is labelled "everybody dies and the campaign ends", everybody at the table knows you're not going to pull the trigger, so there's no tension. If it's labelled "some day that rear end in a top hat Heinrich is going to come collect on his favour", that's a whole different story, and you can play as hardball with the players as you like when they're rolling dice to see whether they're fast enough to get out.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Whybird posted:

I'd say the most important thing to do as prep in a situation like that is to figure out for yourself: if the facility collapses with the players still inside, who comes to dig them out of the rubble, and why will that make them wish they'd been crushed to death?

If the gun you're holding to the players' heads is labelled "everybody dies and the campaign ends", everybody at the table knows you're not going to pull the trigger, so there's no tension. If it's labelled "some day that rear end in a top hat Heinrich is going to come collect on his favour", that's a whole different story, and you can play as hardball with the players as you like when they're rolling dice to see whether they're fast enough to get out.

also give them the option of looting the place on the way out, so if they do well there's some benefit

Okua
Oct 30, 2016

Bunch of good points here. I guess the consequences for failure are difficult for me because it's the last session, so owing favours or losing resources aren't a big problem, but the tone is not dark enough that death is on the table except for when players choose it explicitly. I think I might let the players be dug out of the rubble if they don't make it out, bit their seeming failure will have damaged morale and made the wider assault that they were part of turn out worse that otherwise, leading to a different final fate for the colony/planet they are trying to liberate...?

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Kenning posted:

I've never played Lancer, but a scene like this is perfect for something like a Fate Fractal. Treat the escape like a combat encounter against the lab. Give the lab a certain amount of HP/stress track/whatever, and give it skills or abilities like "Emergency Destruction Subroutines" and "Security Measures" and "Experiments Gone Awry". Have the players roll their skills as attacks against the lab, so if there's a character with a hacking/computers type skill they could hop on a terminal and try to delay the self-destruct. Another player could use a combat skill to smash a bunch of lasers/cameras/horrible chimeric genetic monsters. At the lab's initiative order it can roll "Security measures" and deploy a decontamination shower to burn the players' eyes or it can roll "Experiments Gone Awry" and the genetic monsters can try to grab onto the players' legs. Notch player successes against the lab's HP, which represents them moving through the lab or dismantling barriers or whatever.

I once had a Fate game where a player was lost in a wilderness area and trying to trek out. The wilderness area had points in Difficult Terrain, Dangerous Animals, and Hostile Weather. The player was rolling mostly Survival, but also sometimes skills like Athletics or Perception or whatnot to try and pathfind and trek out. I would throw tigers or intense heat or boggy terrain at them, rolling the relevant skills. It was a great scene, and seems like something you could do similarly for your escape scene.

Man other people have such cool Fate games, mine are always so dull by comparison

Captain Walker
Apr 7, 2009

Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there
The game: Fantasy mid-apocalypse. The end is nigh, and most people are just kind of resigned to it, trying to find what joy they can in a dying world. The PCs, for various reasons, want to keep the world from ending.
The system: D&D.
The problem: D&D. We have the most fun when I set up a situation and the PCs attempt to solve it in a way I wasn't expecting. As a result, play is heavily improvised; any time the player asks "can I try wild bullshit X" and the books say "ask your DM", I reply "yes, and roll a d20 to see how it goes". Unfortunately D&D combat barely works when the encounters are well designed, and making one up on the fly is just impossible.
The request: I want to change systems, and I need some options. We're all familiar with PBTA stuff, and FITD isn't too hard to pick up. Apocalypse World proper would almost work with playbooks that didn't involve guns, but I'm looking for a selection of several systems that the players can choose from. The single biggest thing I want as GM is a system that doesn't give combat so much mechanical weight and prominence that it's a required pain in the rear end.

Suggestions? Help? Please??

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









13th age.

Shanty
Nov 7, 2005

I Love Dogs

Captain Walker posted:

The game: Fantasy mid-apocalypse. The end is nigh, and most people are just kind of resigned to it, trying to find what joy they can in a dying world. The PCs, for various reasons, want to keep the world from ending.
The system: D&D.
The problem: D&D. We have the most fun when I set up a situation and the PCs attempt to solve it in a way I wasn't expecting. As a result, play is heavily improvised; any time the player asks "can I try wild bullshit X" and the books say "ask your DM", I reply "yes, and roll a d20 to see how it goes". Unfortunately D&D combat barely works when the encounters are well designed, and making one up on the fly is just impossible.
The request: I want to change systems, and I need some options. We're all familiar with PBTA stuff, and FITD isn't too hard to pick up. Apocalypse World proper would almost work with playbooks that didn't involve guns, but I'm looking for a selection of several systems that the players can choose from. The single biggest thing I want as GM is a system that doesn't give combat so much mechanical weight and prominence that it's a required pain in the rear end.

Suggestions? Help? Please??

I mean this could word for word be ad copy for Mörk Borg. I can't really see anyone converting an existing game to MB and YMMV on whether you find it intolerably up its own artpunk, but... you are literally describing Mörk Borg here. Midapocalyptic OSR. "Rulings not rules" and so on. Even lighter than most OSR, even: players make all rolls.

It's gone from over-hyped to oversaturated in the span of a year or so, and, as I say, has an extremely style. Give it a look. At the very least it's so style first that you can't really misread it even at a glance.

Captain Walker
Apr 7, 2009

Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there

sebmojo posted:

13th age

That's just D&D 4.125e

Shanty posted:

Mörk Borg

Whereas this looks rad as hell, but I also get the sense that nothing can really be converted to or from the system. Definitely not my game

Shanty
Nov 7, 2005

I Love Dogs

Captain Walker posted:

Whereas this looks rad as hell, but I also get the sense that nothing can really be converted to or from the system. Definitely not my game

No, probably not. It's sort of its own setting.

If you do happen to kill the whole party off while you think about it, you could run Graves Left Wanting as an intro/conversion scenario. The party wakes up in a graveyard and wouldn't you know it the world has gotten even worse while they were deadgone.

Bread Dragon
Apr 7, 2012

Savage Pathfinder? Vanilla SWADE with fantasy trappings would work fine imo but the recent-ish official port of Pathfinder could bridge people over from D&D a little better for an extra couple bucks.

Captain Walker
Apr 7, 2009

Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there

Captain Walker posted:

my players want to play D&D but not D&D

I talked to my players to get more specifics and....they do want to play D&D. Some of them even want more combat. It's literally just me.

Time to binge every half-decent YT channel on how to dungeon master, I guess.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Captain Walker posted:

I talked to my players to get more specifics and....they do want to play D&D. Some of them even want more combat. It's literally just me.

Time to binge every half-decent YT channel on how to dungeon master, I guess.

If you're on 5e and don't already use it, this can help with combat encounters

https://koboldplus.club/#/encounter-builder

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Captain Walker posted:

That's just D&D 4.125e
It does what you want while being close enough to D&D to fool most anyone (you should not actually fool players into playing a system under false pretenses), and if indeed it is a D&D it's more like 3.875.

More to the point, you don't need to switch wholesale to 13th Age if you don't want to, but it's got some good ideas on action resolution that seem right your alley and that should slot right into most regular D&D games or other similar games as house rules.

Heliotrope
Aug 17, 2007

You're fucking subhuman

Captain Walker posted:

The request: I want to change systems, and I need some options. We're all familiar with PBTA stuff, and FITD isn't too hard to pick up. Apocalypse World proper would almost work with playbooks that didn't involve guns, but I'm looking for a selection of several systems that the players can choose from.

You can still use Apocalypse World - just have the guns be something else. An assault rifle could be a repeating crossbow or a grenade launcher could be a magical weapon that shoots out special crystals infused with destructive magics. Or maybe they're just real early guns that are a bit better because this is a fantasy setting. The only reason I'd advise using another system is if you're going to have a game where everyone works together. AW doesn't do that great if the players aren't at least a little on separate sides and can't just immediately rely on each other as allies.

Captain Walker posted:

I talked to my players to get more specifics and....they do want to play D&D. Some of them even want more combat. It's literally just me.

Time to binge every half-decent YT channel on how to dungeon master, I guess.

Honestly, part of running the game is that you should have fun. It's not going to be a good game if you hate the system the entire time. I'd talk to them about it and see if they're willing to at least try something else.

Harold Fjord
Jan 3, 2004
PF2e has the best combat and it's easy to build encounters but the system is a bit crunchier.

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin
I could use more cult bullshit.

I recently got several wild hairs up my rear end about making a new campaign setting, and one of the thoughts was that there's just cults and secret societies loving everywhere. Not everyone is a member of one, of course, but if you looked really hard, you could find at least one cultist in any given village. Not quite to the level of Paranoia, but you can see it from here.

And they're all working at mostly cross purposes, and many of them have very similar names. Like the King of Worms (Yes, I know that's from the Elder Scrolls) is a necromancer focused on overwhelming a given kingdom in a tide of bone and rot. But the King of Wyrms is a dragon shaman who wants to raise dragons to their natural place of rulership atop all the kingdoms, King of Worms' target included.

Or the Deathbringers, the Doombringers, the Darkbringers, and the Western Doombringers, who insist they have the valid claim to the unadorned name and the other ones should be called the Northern Doombringers because they're not actually the Eastern ones, who are an entirely different set.

So I could use some more pairings or sets like that.

Harold Fjord
Jan 3, 2004
Maybe a cult of dragons who just want to be left alone and aren't interested in ruling anything.

Maybe a gardening club called the Queen of Worms or even the Kings of Worms that are constantly spatting with the cult. More non-cult social groups getting mixed up with the cults could be funny.

Pickled Tink
Apr 28, 2012

Have you heard about First Dog? It's a very good comic I just love.

Also, wear your bike helmets kids. I copped several blows to the head but my helmet left me totally unscathed.



Finally you should check out First Dog as it's a good comic I like it very much.
Fun Shoe
Have many of the nobles and rulers of several kingdoms involved in a book cult, where they share reading materials like a modern book club and do it up with sinister imagery to be cool and edgy and feel alive.

Reveilled
Apr 19, 2007

Take up your rifles
Funnily enough I actually have three Sun cults I came up with while kicking around some ideas for a Sun-worshipping cult, so maybe you can use these.

Flare of Helios
The Flare of Helios is, officially, a mere branch of the Church of the Sun, the temple that worships the great Lifegiver, god of fertility, bringer of crops. And in its capacity as a militant order, their purpose may seem benign, even righteous, seeking out and destroying undead, purging croplands of insect plagues, ensuring the protection of all who dwell under the Sun's light. Indeed, many such orders to the Church of the Sun exist, but the Flare of Helios stokes a more radical flame in secret. Those of the Flare believe that in truth, the Sun is the only god, and all others are false. The clerics of other religions, pawns of darker powers, seeking to ensorcel the pliant minds of the masses away from the One True God. When the local priest of another faith goes missing, many assume monsters, but often, it is the Flare's work. When a library burns, and centuries of knowledge of both faith and magic are irrevocably lost, an accident gets the blame where the hand of Helios lit the match. And some have even turned darker, within the cult's deepest sanctums meet the Dark Flame, priests who have mastered the art of necromancy and disease, ostensibly to "understand our enemy" or to "guide others to the truth", but often such guidance involves the very pestilences and undead risings that the Flare will be called in to prevent.
Themes: Fire! Under their clothes, worshipers have horrific burns all over their bodies, though only the most deeply devout and fanatical burn their faces or hands.
[Partial inspiration from the fanatical and corrupt Church of Palador from the Aerois campaign on High Rollers]

The Light Behind the Sun
The followers of the Light Behind the Sun know the real truth of the Sun. It is no mere ball of gas, nor a portal to the elemental fire, nor even a mere god. No, the Sun is a lens, and it focuses and shines upon this world with the radiance that comes from the Light-Behind-the-Sun, that eldritch power of immense, even infinite knowledge of all things that exists in the far reaches of our multiverse. Its light touches everything, even those places shrouded in darkness. It sees all. It knows all. It never dies. And if we serve it well enough, neither will we. We must seek out hidden knowledge, be ruthless in our task, cut down any who stand in our way. The Light Behind the Sun will reward us.
Themes: Very eldritchy but with a lighty focus. Temples are "dark" places like dungeons and catacombs, but are blindingly brightly lit to the point where it has the same mechanical effect as magical darkness.
[Basically the cult that ended up being in my Cultist Simulator LP]

The Dreamseekers
Each night, the whole world lays down to sleep, and in their dreams, they have the most incredible experiences. Each dream a person has, has meaning. It reveals some hidden truth, some deeper revelation. It may be a premonition, or some insight into the nature of the world. The faces that you see look so familiar, but you forget them all when you see the sun. For what purpose does the Sun steal our dreams? Is it to protect some higher mystery? Is it doing us a favour, or cursing us to ignorance? The Dreamseekers seek to tease apart that hidden secret through their worship of the Sun. To do so, they offer sacrifice, via rituals which fill their sleeping minds with their own memories, or the memories of others, purging those memories as dreams die in the morning light. Through these sacrifices, they hope their own dreams will be left to them to treasure and decipher.
Themes: Sleep focused, they can attack PCs in dreams, conjuring up creatures from memory to fight. They often operate out of Inns, rousing people to walk in their sleep with various sleeping rituals. Their practices give them sometimes uncanny knowledge of the future, or clairvoyance, allowing them to remain one step ahead of their enemies.
[Inspired by a Regina Spektor song]

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Everything Counts
Oct 10, 2012

Don't "shhh!" me, you rich bastard!

Dareon posted:

And they're all working at mostly cross purposes, and many of them have very similar names. Like the King of Worms (Yes, I know that's from the Elder Scrolls) is a necromancer focused on overwhelming a given kingdom in a tide of bone and rot. But the King of Wyrms is a dragon shaman who wants to raise dragons to their natural place of rulership atop all the kingdoms, King of Worms' target included.

Not to be confused with the Worm of Kings, a regicidal cult looking to depose the monarchy. Or the Wyrm of Kings, a dragon who wishes to share the wisdom of her long-lived people with the rulers of those lands she happens to call home, but must do it secretly to avoid getting in trouble with her more selfish kin.

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