#ttrpg scenario

[adelaide-lanshasaa]

Scenario 1 : Arachnids

Quick note : you will notice a mistake, as the Schaffenfest takes place outside of Bögenhafen. I did not know that when the characters played the scenario, thus, I apologize. This scenario takes place after the adventures of Chef, but the reading order does not matter much so far. Both are included in the first scenario as an introduction to the players. Some might recognise two scenario hooks from the 4e bood "Adventures afoot the Reikland".

Maria and Selgrim are walking in the Reikwald toward the wood exploitation of Willibert Klemm. Giant spiders made their nest in the trees, and the merchant has been loosing profit since, but decided to make money out of the situation, and asked for someone to get him some of the creature's silk for him to sell.

The young woman and the dwarf met on this occasion. They quikly found out that they both wished to travel to Übersreik, and that they needed a guide and some money. Maria traveled from her village in Tabalecland in hopes of becoming a knight for the Empire's army, and believes that the now politically unstable city will offer her opportunities to get noticed as a hero. As for Selgrim, he grew up in Bögenhafen until now, and wishes to travel as well, hopeful to find something interesting in Übersreik.

As they make their way on the path, voices catch their attention.

"Are you sure that's a good collet ?"

"I don't know, I'm a blacksmith, not a hunter !"

As they come closer to the voices, they discover a ginger haired dwarf and a young man trying to prepare a hunting trap, before noticing the two curious person.

After a short conversation, it turned out that this duo, Günther and Ökri, met today as they accepted a job offer for Doctor Malthusius. The man runs the Malthusius Zoopopée but his creatures have fought and killed each other, and other problems caused him worry for his business. With the Schaffenfest starting in a few days, he needs new creatures to present the public, and thus, Günther and Ökri are now trying to hunt for monsters.

"Well, we are going to collect silk from giant spiders for a merchant. If you joign us, we can help you capture one of them, and you can help us gather the silk, perhaps we'll make more profit this way."

Everyone agrees on collaborating, and soon, they arrive in the wood explotation. The trees are covered in silver threads, and the group starts gathering the silk, trying not to break the delicate strings. Unfortunately, spiders soon begin to carwl their way.

"Giant spiders ? These are merely larger then big rats !" complains one of the dwarfs. But soon, their number is overwhelming, and the fight becomes a real struggle until Maria kills many of them in a precise blow. Suddenly, they notice a man eating Drakwald in the tree crown above them, much bigger then the small critters that they struggled with a moment ago. Very much larger.

"We have to catch that one..." mutters Günther.

They begin to plan a way to trap it, using a rope and one of them as a bait, but when they finally look back up, the monster is gone.

The drakwald spider jumps on one of them, who barely rolls away from it, before running to his newly found comrades that hurried to settle the trap.

The quartet returns to Bögenhafen, victorious. Their hunt was fruitful, and the Drakwald they captured should satisfy Dr. Malthusius. As for the silk, the quantity is consequent. However, as they arrive by the city's entrace, another problem arises : guards are there, and walking in a city with a giant man-eating insect is not acceptable. Günther walks ahead, ensuring his companion that he can distract them. The uninterrupted flow of his words as he speaks to the two men drowns them into incomprehension. Meanwhile, Maria and the two dwarfs walk behind the two men, with their illegal catch.

However, as they make their way toward Mathusius' caravan, a guard notices them. A fight in town would draw too much unwanted attention on them, but a few Silver Shilings often makes a man willing to remain silent. With their purses a bit lighter, the four adventurers arrive at the caravan, and receive their pay. They also find Herr Klemm to trade the silk for silver shilings, and all return to a tavern, planning their leave for Übersreik.

All they need is a guide, but the next day, the bad news arrive : Selgrim, who lives in Bögenhafen, has to remain for a few more days, as he has been called to joign the jury for a lawsuit.

Scenario 2 : Death to the witches !

[belabras]

Starfinder - Showcase Slaughterfest

Looking for a quick scenario to slip into your Starfinder game? Try Showcase Slaughterfest! Map to the furniture showcase maze provided.

[kimabutch]

GMs! Anyone who’s ever been a game master! Say something nice about your own GMing!

Ideas:

Specific aspects of GMing that you’re really good at (ex. worldbuilding, RPing, puzzles, plot hooks, running combat, developing NPCs)

Something that went down in a game that you’re proud of (ex. pulling off a big reveal, an NPC character interaction that was fun)

Something that you think your players appreciate about playing with you (ex. you find cool ways to weave in their PCs’ backstories, you’re funny and always have people laughing in stressful moments)

[paladinbaby]

So the bad news is the apocalypse is here, or something like it at least. And thankfully for you it’s been here for a little bit, long enough to adjust anyway. The good news is life finds a way. Even as the world is ending it carries on. So maybe ending isn’t the most accurate. The world is changing and you find yourself sticking around for the ride. Even better you’ve found yourself someone to ride out the apocalypse with, if you can just find your way back to them….

Dear God is a letter writing game played with two players, using a tarot deck to generate prompts as you cross a the world to reunite. It was made for the 2k23 Record Collection Jam based on the album Doomsday Diaries: A Love Song for Any Apocalyptic Scenario by Emily Axford.

available on itch.io or ko-fi

[pigeon-princess]

I think it was really funny of us that when we made characters for our ASOIAF/Game of Thrones ttrpg (a system predominantly played for its combat) we gave them both absolutely no combat experience or abilities. Absolutely peak humour. We made two silver haired Gucci models who can barely hold a sword. We're going to die out there and the only thing standing between us being beheaded is one sad DILF with a Valyrian steel sword.

[ewingstan]

Among the most fantastical of the worldbuilding details Ward posits is a universe where board games characters are equally likely to be marketed as video game characters. Oh brave new world that has such tabletop IP in't.

[glitter-stained]

Tell me WHY, upon introducing a monster that melts in shadows, my players' immediate reaction was to leave the empty sunlit garden they were in to go inside, while splitting up? And why one of them had the idea to teleport right into the old, empty library with stained glass windows? I didn't mean to make that encounter scary, it was a single monster in the garden while they were together. Choices were made... Which altered the situation. I found it very funny though.

[field-cryptobotanist]

All the people that decided to ascend Astarion would really love vampire the masquerade if they gave it a chance!

Thin blood that is no longer blood bonded to their extremely toreador sire diablerizing them and losing a lot of their humanity in the process feels very familiar.

It has a lot more horror than dnd but I swear it's very fun.

[thevioletscout]

Call of Cthulhu is really fun because sometimes you're a dancer who's never fought a day in your life, clutching a ritualistic dagger, sitting in the passenger seat of your friend's milk van while he readies brass knuckles. Oh and also there's a Deep One hybrid that's actually your cousin sitting in the back with the milk carrying a revolver. You're all about to go fight a gang.

[thecindercrow]

Pretending to be People is a mystery/horror/comedy actual play podcast using the roleplaying systems of Delta Green and Pulp Cthulhu. Created by a group of best friends with prior experience roleplaying together in this system, it's able to dive right into the action and take off running. And boy howdy, everything sure does happen so much.

Features homebrew stories written by the GM and an original soundtrack created by one of the cast. With a completed season 1, an ongoing season 2, (both of which are separate campaigns) and several 3-4 episode mini-campaigns, there are a lot of options for choosing a spot to stick your feet into the water, so go check it out on their website or wherever you listen to podcasts!

[adelaide-lanshasaa]

Scenario 1 : Chef

Part of this scenario is from "Adventures afoot the Reikland".

Part 1 : Adélaïde

Part 2 : Is the water really the problem ?

The Halfeling light-heartedly followed the philosopher and his friend Bambi. Waliyya el-Shah, a Faylasuf, was delighted to meet them, relieved that a Wizard was willing to help her. Indeed, she has been investigating the Bögen river for years, and recently noticed that the water became warmer after a narrowing in the Vobergland. She needed an escort to protect her as she investigates the fog surrounding the place.

As they arrive, they all notice that the mist seems to appear following an invisible limit.

"I have been to afraid to go further alone. Now, we shall take more measures of the water temperature to locate the exact point of shift."

As they approach the river, Chef notices that the shape of a face briefly appears in the fog, but Adélaïde seems calm, so he proceeds to take the odd apparel that Waliyya hands over to him, asking him to submerge it in the water in specific spots.

But as his hand touches the water, the screaming spectre of a man appears and attacks him. Semi-transparent, he is in his thirties, with short blond and curly hair, a pale face and his eyes a pale blue with impressive dark circles. His face is thin, his cheeks sunken, and he wears a white shirt with puffy sleeves underneath a finely woven doublet.

Terrifyed, Chef runs away, and finds a bush in which he can hide. It takes him a moment to calm down, but the thought of his friend gives him courage. He start looking for her, and is relieved to find her unharmed.

"Chef, you must found Waliyya, I think that she has been injured."

Indeed she is, but nothing concerning. However, she is shocked, and it takes Chef a moment to calm her down. The specter vanished, and Chef takes measures with the woman, as Adélaïde prepares her spells. Soon enought, the ghost returns, but Bambi distracts him, while the Halfeling and the Faylasuf takes the measures. Finally, the data are sufficient. All run off, escaping the mist, and discover that the ghost cannot follow them. But Adélaïde is greatly injured, and they take a moment of rest while Waliyya explains her thoughts.

"See, the water warms up suddenly, at a precise point of the narrowing. I think we must investigate the bottom of the water."

In brief sentences, Adélaïde claims that the spirit has been cursed, and that his body might still be there.

After discussing for a moment, they finally decide of a strategy. Chef will be tied to a rope, and search underwater for anything interesting, eventually a corpse, as Waliyya remains by the riverbank, ready to pull the light-weighted man back. The wizard, still injured, will step in the mist, where she can easily back off and be out of reach of the spirit, and will attack him with her spells to defend the group.

It takes Chef a long while to finally find something. He was forced to swim back up a few times for air, but finally, at the narrowing, he sees a corpse stuck against rocks. He struggles to free it but can finally swim back up with it, only to discover the spirit harrassing Waliyya. The Halfeling quickly pulls the body out and was about to run help the faylasuf when the ghost abruptly stopped his attacks, turning toward the body as laments echoed in the mist.

Chef takes adventage of it's distraction to check on Waliyya. She is injured, but alive, and both carry the body toward the wizard, followed by the moaning soul.

Adélaïde is unconscious, badly injured. Chef and Waliyya mend her wounds, and quickly tell her what happened while she was out. Finally, the little man takes a moment to examine the body. Only bones remain, attached by some ligaments, but the fabric of is clothes is similar to the one of the ghost. He searches his pockets, hoping to find anything that could let them identify him, but in vain. Yet, Chef notices a golden ring on one og the bones of the hand, and quickly grabs it. The signet ring is marked by a finely carved letter, an "F" according to his companions. He quickly slides it in his pocket, and proceeds to dig a hole, to at least give some sort of decent burial to the unknown man.

Finally, as the body is beneath them, the spirit dissapears, and the mists dissipates. Waliyya returns to measure the water's temperature, but the change is gone as well.

"But what happened ?"

"It's Dhar." mutters Adélaïde, before giving further explanations as she sees the confused gaze of the two others.

"Dark magic. There were traces on the body, it was cursed. It probably caused that temperature shift in the water, where to bay was."

All three return to the city, and Waliyya rewards them before going back to her guild. Adélaïde is hurt, and she rests for a week at the tavern. Chef is left on his own, and spends his days trying to tame the stray dog he found. Nine days later, it's a success and Japchae is a joyful little comapnion. Even better, Adélaïde is finally healed.

But on their 10th day in Bögenhafen, a lean man with black hair and a large hat walks in the tavern of the three barrels, followed by three guards.

"Adélaïde Lanshasaä ?"

The wizard looks at them, emotionless.

"You're under arrest."

Scenario 2 : Death to the Witches!

[notafraidofloss]

"Castle Crashing"

"You're all listening to the officiate speak, hanging onto their every word, until they reach the fabled question..."

Officiate: Are there any objections? Speak now, or fore—

"They don't even get to finish their sentence as their words are cut off by a bellow from amongst the crowd, a roar of protest chalked with malice and disdain. The guests make way as a furious looking man walks the parted channel they've created for him."

"Do we know anything about him?"

"Not currently. Do you want to roll an insight check for me?"

"Sure. ... 13."

"Perfect! You eye the man down, squinting to try to get a better look at him. Nothing stands out too much to you at first, until your eyes land upon his face, and you realize... You've seen that face before. Maybe not on his body, but...you've seen it. That's when you make the connection: it's almost a spitting image of the bride! Alarm bells ring in your mind as you all jump up, seemingly having reached the same conclusion at the same time. Roll initiative!"

[shiftycryptid]

Concept: dungeon meshi ttrpg campaign that is basically just dnd (or _insert fantasy ttrpg system_) but after encounters the party earns 'ingredients' based on whatever they just fought. Then the party goes grocery shopping irl, getting the real-world equivalents of the ingredients and has to make a meal. They can pick up other ingredients too but they have to be justified in-universe. After every meal, the party members have to come to a consensus about how much exp they get based on how good the meal turned out. I'm thinking that the players get to take turns being the DM and making up encounters.

[r-rook-studio]

Return to the Bracknell Horror

Crossposted from R-Rook.studio.

I like to think of myself as someone who loves and writes scenarios that are inherently sandboxy. My ideal horror investigation scenarios—Goblin Archive's The Mall and Zzarchov Kowalski's Price of Evil—have a few hooks, a usefully detailed map, a well-thought-out escalation clock, and interesting, tersely described NPCs... but not much else. In adventure design, those are my ideals. Sometimes, at a one-shot are con, you need to make your frames slightly harder, but often when doing that, the goal is to preserve as much player agency and GM creativity as possible, especially when the scenario isn't only for demo or public play.

Over the past weekend, I had a writing breakthrough with "The Bracknell Horror," an adventure for the next Roseville Beach Book. This post isn't grand RPG theory; it's just a quick note that my two favorite parts of scenario design (setting and escalation clock) were ultimately what fixed the problem. It's odd that I've run this little adventure many times since I started working on Roseville Beach in 2019—it's fun and gives me room to bring in a lot of the PC's connections—but it was only last weekend that I was really happy with it how it all came together.

"The Bracknell Horror" has been my go-to con game or demo for Moonlight on Roseville Beach. Inspired by both a messy blend of the Migo and the Dreamlands with the actual Belvedere Guest House on Fire Island, I've been running it since 2019. Roseville Beach's Bracknell Lodge is a good place for a kidnapping mystery: the guest house is too expensive and exclusive for our PC sleuths to have been in before, even though it's local to the town where they do their monster-hunting. It also gives them the potential to deal with wealthy, WASPy, and mostly unsympathetic queer characters who are still being harmed by cishet magician Simon Mather and his cronies who've decided Roseville Beach is the perfect place to find some warm bodies for some nightmarish Dreamlands entities to possess.

Ultimately, I didn't put it into either the quickstart or the main book because we were out of space and because while it was always a sandbox when I got to the Bracknell, I was always too intimidated to create an escalating clock and always needed a scene structure and over-the-top clues to get them there.

In my original version, the PCs wake up Saturday morning to discover that during the night, people have gone missing. In some cases, they had missed connections with those folks and may have been looking for them before. I'd always excused that issue, rationalizing that missing a meet-up with friends in an era before cell phones often meant not reconnecting until everyone got back home the next day. But Roseville Beach isn't just a small town, it's a fairly tiny one, and the locals know each other well, so I was never happy with actively preventing the PCs from getting involved until the clock was farther advanced, but my brain was hyper-focused on that structure until I started preparing to run it for A Weekend with Good Friends hosted on Discord by The Good Friends of Jackson Elias. Finally, it occurred to me that the adventure really needed to begin the night the disappearances start instead of just including a few flashbacks the PCs remember the next day. In doing that, I had a chance to target not just the PC's connections and allies but also the PCs themselves, giving them a chance to interfere with Mather's plans as they were getting started or follow Macgregor and his cronies as they moved through the town finding people to target rather than waking up the next morning and converging on the Bracknell.

I'd been afraid that getting the PCs involved too soon might mean it moved from creepy horror scenario to a big fight in the middle of town, but it took PCs time to confirm what was happening and that the people who were running late or took longer than usual to use the bathroom, find a pay phone, or cash a check at the grocery were actually, really missing that the kidnappers always had a head start (a crow shifter spotted one of Mather's henchlings walking toward the Bracknell with one of the victims, but couldn't do much to interfere until he rendezvoused with everyone else). Once that happened, a PC who'd been invited back to the Bracknell by a stranger she was dancing with had a new motivation to accept the invitation. We still had a chance to explore all the less-known ways to get into the lodge—the gardener's entrance, sneaking in via the unused boathouse, climbing over the front gate (this time with the cover of night)—so I got to reference Dai's incredible map (that will also appear in the full version of Dim All the Lights).

This time, I'd also simplified Mather's plans so that they were way easier to plot out on a clock, and PCs interfering with them weren't filling pages of notes when they learned about them. Moving everything to the nighttime also meant that PCs' plans to get into the Lodge by subterfuge, stealth, and seduction felt more logical and logically likely to succeed.

[jkcorellia]

I've never understood people who look at game mechanics and say something like "this game doesn't care about narrative because a large percent of the rules are about combat and there aren't many storytelling rules" cause frankly I care a great deal about storytelling and as a direct result of that I will immediately close a book if it tries to gameify storytelling. Swinging an axe needs rules. Deciding whether to betray the king does not, and neither does deciding how the king reacts to the betrayal.

[moonlightrpg]

magic

i would like to have a bigger theme around it, like Rick Riordan's mist, but i need a auxiliar magic system so players around too tied on plot to have magic, so i am just throwing the idea of nobles do magic with movements and stuff by writing on the air, kinda like Dragon Prince but with material components.

to cast a spell, you need freedom of movement, speak and any materials the spell ask, but instead of needing a specific item like bat shit, you need something like a descriptor, so a cloud of daggers would be a cloud of edges, and anything that is sharp could be used to make the spell work. a item can have multiple descriptors, like a tiger claw would be "sharp", and "bestial", all to the discretion of the table and the master, any item used to cast a spell is consumed, and when you gather or buy an item you roll a rarity die and this becomes the modifier of the item, you roll once for a bunch of the same item, i am not entirely sold on this system, it would be cool, but i can't play test it.

familiars can be used as material components, so if something needs a "flammable" component you could use your familiar that spits fire and cast the spell with no item bonus. it should make sense with your familiar, so not every familiar can be used as every component. familiars should be useful in combat more as pokemons and not as spell bot, so they have this nice benefit for mages without being any less useful for everyone else.

because you need to take a action from your 4 to get an item to your hand or to change items of your hand, you can cast most fast spells with one action instead of two or three. it should also cost a resource but i am not sure what, maybe a resource that gets better as the battle goes on to create tension, leave your ideas.

you can cast spells outside of combat for free if you take a lot more time to do it, like rituals in ded, any material cost would still apply.

if you see another spell cast casting a spell, you can spell duel them, you cast another spell and roll opposing checks and who wins decides the result and if you two roll the same, wild magic happens. this is blatantly stealing from DC20 spell duel, but its a cool mechanic, again, the table and the master decide if it makes sense on the narrative.

i don't have any idea on how to theme this around but i decided on some schools of magic, these could be

soul, life, death and healing

time, gravity and entropy

prophecies and divination

enchantment and illusion

transport, transformation, manipulation and creation

this is all very generic and depending on themeing it could be bundled differently, but i don't know themes for generic arcane magic, i wanted some philosophy to support it like i have for the solarpunk druids, but i cant think of anything.

i think that's all i have around generic arcane magic that i need to make magic accessible to this fantasy setting, maybe i could make it more steam age and in a setting where people are already slaves of capitalism instead of in the process of capitalism world domination. so the magic would be more to be fantastic steam technology, i don't like that.

thank you for reading :3