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Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[Rolan7]

I think there was a Voyager episode like that, where the local people "just" really wanted the interesting visitors to stay.

[Harry Baldman]

Consider: all of that, but there's no sacrifice or anything. The villagers just have way too much stuff and incredible generosity.

Or maybe instead of hoping adventurers turn up when they're in dire need they can just keep some around and get a piece of the amazing feats of economics adventurers can achieve. Not to mention the superb protection.

You could even form a world like this. Kind of like how the people of a land answer to a knight, except all the knights in the land are knights-errant. Except the ones you manage to appease and compel to stay, of course.

[scriver]

Alternatively, a village that only tries to be nice with over-bearing hospitality could be interesting. Shower the party with gifts in a bid to never let them leave. Roll out the red carpet. Praise them for heroic deeds they never did. Offer them wives and fine feasting, fattening them for the great Sun Ceremony where they shall ascend like Gods into the sky upon chariots of fire!

And then after the players has killed all of the villagers they find actual chariots that they were supposed to be given, made out of pure gold, and able to fly (with a cool comet flame effect while they're in the air)?

[highmax28]

EDIT:

Became proficient in "Motherfucker" as I ripped a lady made of porcelin's arms off and threw her at her sister. I also then proceeded to fight this dwarven king who I decimated with my axe while I'm roided out with a fire giant potion and enlarge person (think werewolf hulk with an axe) and dealt 100+ damage in the first attack on him. He then changed and became more threatening as his flesh just melts away as he turns into an avatar of lightning (or Zeus, one of the two) and I proceed to kick his ass and throw him hard enough into a pillar that he was stuck there for a bit until the etirety of his flesh was gone and was pure energy. I then proceeded to wreck him before the DM got to use his ultimate attack (chain storm. He does chain lightning but every hit is thunderbolt's damage) and I made the DM sad. He gave me proficency in "Motherfucker", got a chest of gold and a bunch of treasures, including a berserker axe that is the same as my current weapon except it gives bonus HP. So, I just used that. We also got some RP stuff done where we heal and fix the porcelin ladies who swear allegiance to the new king (who was our ally) and they round up their former allies, the order of leon, in order to have them executed.

We're also getting a reward from these druids we won this entire war for. I kid you not, they suffered so many casualities and we had one injury, which was our NPC bard got knocked unconcious with poison and was out of commission. And it wasn't even from an enemy soldier, it was from the mother of our party rogue who's a faction leader (who I used to beat up said faction leader's husband).

Overall, this campaign has pretty much shown me that our group is a much worse version of the inglorious basterds...

[NullForceOmega]

Wrong thread?

[Rolan7]

I think maybe wrong thread.

Also, I guess I haven't posted updates for a couple sessions.  Vampire game is still happening, it's just other stuff is happening too.
Highlights, I guess:

My character admitted to the Prince about breaking under torture.  Got a strike (2 strikes you're dead) and a mission.
We need to kill the werewolf we set free while escaping from the hunter base.
If we don't, my character explodes, but he "forgot" to mention that to the party.

Of course before that could happen, we had to go full idiot.
Our ventrue ordered delivery to our apartment *again*.  My Mekhet spoke my OOC words IC because that's his one derangement (6 humanity), which spooked the delivery guy.  Our Gangrel immediately tried to ride the wave to catch him (nooo, why).  Failed.  It's only 4d6, it's pretty much a coin flip every time she does this X_X

What this means is that she's now in an anger frenzy for the entire "scene", so indefinitely, murdering anything in her path.  Slight prioritization to the original instigator.

So she killed the delivery man as my character and his ghoul tried to apprehend him, then turned on us.  We basically have to end her frenzies with fire when this happens, hopefully provoking a fear frenzy (and end of scene as she flees into the suburbs and sleeps underground.  Protean is weird).

No play-by-play here, it just went south.  My Mekhet jumped out the window.  So did my ghoul.  Falling 6 stories is apparently pretty much nothing in WoD (vampires don't actually get much benefit compared to mortals).  Problem was, I was hoping she'd go after our Ventrue again, who helped cause the situation.  She didn't, she leapt after us (which makes perfect sense in retrospect, beast focuses on the present).

My Mekhet burned all his vitae resolving the situation.  Survived with one health, gangrel fleed, dead cop, hunger frenzy made him nearly drank his ghoul's last point of blood but rolled really well.  Somewhat disappointed, it would have been a textbook hunger frenzy followed by horror.

Plus I kinda wanted to make her a full vampire, but probably best I didn't.  It's hugely illegal, and my character is already in big trouble.

Technically she scared away our gangrel btw, by lighting her "medical" alcohol on fire.  After having her arm torn off.  (her rolls for consciousness were incredible).

[highmax28]

Wrong thread?

Very wrong thread. Whoops

[Dorsidwarf]

Rolan, that campaign is like a train wreck of infinitely long trains and every train is loaded with a mix of horror, badassery and idiocy and the lady from futurama is reporting live and cackling unendingly.

[Jimmy]

I've decided to throw a wand of Resist Energy into the loot earlier in the dungeon to increase the survivability of the group when facing the boss. With -10 damage per hit, they should take an average of 12.5 damage once per round, which should be enough to be tense but not critically dangerous. That's if they're smart enough to identify it and use it before the fight, so the ball's in their court over whether they play smart or dumb.

One other thing I do for my players is give them a bonus optional area after the main quest chain is complete in a dungeon. This time, the group is going to have powered through a mine full of kobolds who have rallied around a fire kineticist that convinced them she was turning into a red dragon. Part of the backstory I have planned is that she convinced her minions to fight to the death for her because she claims to have captured a red dragon and is siphoning its power into herself. Given the nature of kineticist powers (shooting fire from their hands, loud visual displays of elemental might, overflowing with power and bleeding pure fire) I'd say she's pretty convincing for her minions. How this comes back to the bonus area is the backstory of the dragon. In actual fact, she's shown the dragon to each of her minions and they believe her without question. The truth is actually something far different.

I've taken a crysmal, then added the Creature Swarm and Apocalypse Swarm templates to it. The resulting Apocalypse Crysmal Swarm creature has Silent Image and Ghost Sound, which it uses to scare away creatures entering its lair by creating an image of a red dragon, the sound of its roar, and using its fear aura ability to frighten away any intelligent creatures. I expect to catch my players with the same trick too, and I'll bet they'll gear up for a fight with a red dragon only to discover that they're fighting an elemental swarm instead. The good news is that it's a fairly low risk creature, since fleeing is a completely valid option as it won't pursue them outside its lair. The bad news is I sincerely doubt they will be able to kill it given their level and the creature's numerous immunities. About all that could kill it is a decent will save-or-die effect or a massive amount of AoE acid damage.

[Rolan7]

Tried to climb down a rope in the sewers.  Too busy griping IC about all the sewage to consider how stupid this was.
See, the drop is 50ft.  And Jake is noodle-weak, has no athletics skill, and is currently missing an arm and all but one of his health blocks are full of incredibly painful aggravated damage.

The roll was like -8 lol.  But anything 0 or less is the same, a chance roll (1 in 10 basically).  6.
Burned a vitae on the way down to dextrously assume a diving stance.  Wrenched his legs a bit, but only took one point of bashing damage.
If he'd taken 2, he have fallen into torpor and needed another vitae donation.

Probably from Kayla...  Our hair-trigger gangrel...  Which would mean a stage 2 vinculum.  Which she already has over our Ventrue.  Because Kayla keeps not dying and having to save us, and her blood is incredibly potent from all the diablerie.

3 damage and he would have crumpled into dust, and the local Nosferatu would have laughed for hours.

Rolan, that campaign is like a train wreck of infinitely long trains and every train is loaded with a mix of horror, badassery and idiocy and the lady from futurama is reporting live and cackling unendingly.

yes

[Neonivek]

Apparently just wanting to run a bunch of shadow runs without any real overarching story isn't good enough.

But it might be just my ignorance but I honestly don't think Shadowrun needs an overarching plot and while you can... usually it is detrimental to the game.

It is a sort of "character based" game in my mind. It is about the Shadowrunners and how they change and change things themselves through shadowrunning. Whether dying or climbing up the ladder of shadowrunning.

So my imagination is weak. Since really what could be the overarching threat in shadowrun? What is Apple coming out with the iPhone 2075 causing mass panic in the street?

Some imaginary city that has a monopoly control everything?

[BlackFlyme]

Have you tried any of the Shadowrun Video Games? Could get some inspiration from there.

Lots of nastiness out in the world. Corporations own almost everything, and some aren't held back by pesky things such as morals. Then there's Organized Crime syndicates, which sometimes dabble in alliances with corporations, or what few crumbling governments are left. This is all before getting into all the magic. Lots of Things-that-should-not-be that threaten the world. Dragons carve up chunks of land for themselves. Racism divides Metahumanity, and Cybernetics and divide it further.

[NullForceOmega]

Doesn't have to be some massive threat, just a linking narrative, everything could be self contained as long as there is continuity.

[Tawa]

Perhaps make the plot character-based too. What I can think of off the top of my head: create rival shadowrunners who, either through chance or deliberately, get in the players' way, wreck their runs, that sort of thing. Maybe make the rivals "evil counterparts" of the players.

[SOLDIER First]

If one of the players is Badguy McCannibal the Orcish Antipaladin, make Goodguy McHatesCannibals the Orcish Paladin.
No I don't know anything about Shadowrun, why do you ask?