Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[scriver]

44 = "Hey you, you're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right?" a man asks you, as you are sitting in a cart riding to a destination unknown.

Damn it, now I got the urge to go Skyrim.

"Wake up, we're here. Why are you shaking? Are you ok? Wake up. Stand up... there you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?"

YES! EXACTLY! Thats still what I hear when people quote the beginning of Skyrim.

You don't have to fight me over it; though. There are a few ways we could do this and the choice is yours.

[delphonso]

Ahhh yes. We've been expecting you.

[Loud Whispers]

Ahhh yes. We've been expecting you.

Shame on you sweet nerevar - teleportation or plane shifting of any kind no longer works in a 60ft radius. No recall or intervention can work in this place, there is no escape!

sounds hot

what happens in Orcbants stays in Orcbants. So if you leave Orcbants, it is tattooed in infamy forever

Although 12 orcs sin't much of a horde

More of a mob

or a poetry slam

Poetry slam is a great name for an attack. Also I don't think low level players can handle a true horde of orcs, so a flash mob of orcs will do.

Granted, now I have the perfect idea for introducing the combat. The players enter a marketplace full of orcs. Once they start perusing the goods, one Orc begins dancing, then another, then another, until the whole flash mob is dancing in unison. Roll for initiative.

If you didn't already have so many (excellent) Shakespear puns I would insist on making the Quivering Spear the deity of theatre/poetry/banter

I think there's room to replace some attacks with play puns -

The Tempest (area of effect swirling attack)
The Restraining of the Shrew
Midsummer Fight's Dream
Measure for Measure (reaction damage return)

Now is the Winter of your Discontent [cone of cold]
To see, or not to see [makes a perception check]
All the World's a play, and all the men and women are merely players [the DM attacks the players]
The Lady doth protest too much [cast silence]
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war! [next attack is a crit]
All that glistens is not gold [the next loot you get is fake, the real treasure was the friends you made along the way]
Once more unto the breach [makes a charge attack]
My Kingdom for a horse [summons a bunch of horses]
We are such stuff as dreams are made of [cast misty step]
What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine [exchange the items you are holding with an enemy's items]

Absolutely amazing list. Beyond quality. Full marks to you for such a creative set of drunken hijinks outcomes.

Much thanks, when I've got more time I'm gonna turn it into a more graphically pleasing chart

[scriver]

Granted, now I have the perfect idea for introducing the combat. The players enter a marketplace full of orcs. Once they start perusing the goods, one Orc begins dancing, then another, then another, until the whole flash mob is dancing in unison. Roll for initiative.

That's it, I'm moving to London

[scriver]

Also this isn't quite DnD but I saw this and needed to share it and I don't know where else to put it: Dinosaurs of the Wild West

[Jimmy]

Also in regards to the drunken morning after, there's a Reddit thread about 100 carousing results that might be just what your players need.

[Loud Whispers]

That's it, I'm moving to London

Not before nandos and spoons are open, otherwise it's not werf it

Oh yeah and it'll cost you two deals with the devil to afford the ridiculously overpriced cost of existing

Also in regards to the drunken morning after, there's a Reddit thread about 100 carousing results that might be just what your players need.

I nabbed a few of those for my d50 one (like the devil sandwich, I just reversed who was giving the sandwich as I don't like players being forced to make offscreen devil pacts), but on second look there are a few good ones I could probably nab still. Number 94 is a really good one. I like the idea of players receiving a note from a long lost family member or friend detailing how well they are keeping up the legacy (or not), especially since one of my players is doing a wholesome character who was inspired to follow in the footsteps of her mediocre wizard grandpa.
Number 27 is banter, changing your name to the same as a party member's name.
Number 33 actually happened to us when we created the legend of El Bandito to try and escape responsibility for blowing up a man's shop.
Number 42 drunk shopping is hilarious.
Number 47 rat cult is pretty intriguing.
Number 83 is Kazuscum. 95 is very worthy of bants, as are magical mixups like 98. I think you could come up with good random magic item fuckups. Like you're attuned to a cursed item, you reprogrammed a cleric's crystal ball to only scry on you, or you have a lvl20 wizard's spellbook

Also this isn't quite DnD but I saw this and needed to share it and I don't know where else to put it: Dinosaurs of the Wild West

Fat allosaurus mayor was my favourite

[Loud Whispers]

Anyone have any cool ideas for enemies which encourage out of the box thinking? I'm currently working on statting all the various guards and soldiers who I can reskin as enemies whenever needs be. So far I've got a couple of fun and nightmarish enemies, like the Orc Flash Mob.

I like the variety I've got for my humanoid soldier stat blocks. Lots of cheap conscripts with low morale, low health but great damage output if they have numbers on their side.

Then I've got lots of units with very exploitable strengths and weaknesses. Heavy Crossbowmen with tower shields and armour which become almost impossible to dislodge at range and must be engaged up close. Light archers who shoot, hide, retreat and shoot. Musketeers who let out devastating volleys but must choose between reloading or fixing bayonets (which disables shooting). Charioteers who provide fire support and can transport two enemies around the battlefield. Heavy cavalry riding flying siege beetles and light cavalry riding urban geckos or long-jumping jackalopes. Elite riflemen who have access to the sniper feat, allowing them to make players afraid of open spaces for all eternity.

Probably my favourite are just the Secret Police Officers and the Internal Security Bureau Officers, who specialize in investigation / tracking / community outreach and a nonstop barrage of grapples, restraints, shoves and paralyzing attacks. I had a DM once tell me he thought beartraps, chains, nets and manacles were OP, but honestly I believe any time you can see players use lateral thinking and forward planning you should be on that shit like flies to shit. Honestly if a player uses a mechanism to accomplish what could be done with a spell, that's not OP, that's getting shit done.

I haven't even started creating the stats for all the spellcasters who can cause havoc for the party. Off the top of my head I want a good number of elemental monks who can shape earth/air/fire/water, alongside a bunch of construction workers and construction wizards. I'm looking for the kinds of enemies who make my players think "huh, why don't we try make new doors from walls with sledgehammers."

To do list:
-Annoying light infantry who hide in swamps and blow poison darts at you before swimming away
-The Groose Boar (giant slippery boar)
-Mindflayer eunuchs who levitate into the sky any time they see the PCs coming
-Anguished ghosts who try to possess a player. If successful, they are just described as having disappeared, whilst I hand notes to the player explaining how they must pretend to be a ghost pretending to be them.
-monk who teleports through shadows and tries to back slash you with a katana
-fatberg, an ooze that has HP per square. Killing the square only reduces the ooze spread that round, and it will keep filling up a dungeon until the players escape / find the heart of the fatberg.
-literally just a wild magic warlock & sorcerer duo. Fucking love wild magic
-necrodancer. A lich whose phylactery is on a comet in the sky which periodically returns close enough for the lich to descend every 29 years. Summons undead to utterly destroy the living with their sick dance skills
-clouds of skyjellies. So far all I know is they'll be clouds of sky jellyfish. No idea on the stats yet, but they will all be wildmagic spellcasters for sure.
-seditious rainwater elemental. I'm thinking of giving it a load of ranged and melee attacks that cause charm & misty step to get close to players. In combat it tries to get school children to bunk school, workers to stay at home with their kids, and urges players to follow their hearts instead of completing quests. Players have to stop the water elemental before it convinces the entire city to stop following the man, man.
-black swan, poltergoose and ducklich. Unholy trinity of dangerous birds. Black swan will be an arm-breaking evil undead paladin swan, poltergoose will be an ethereal goose who steals items and throws chairs at players, and ducklich will raise hordes of the unbread - literally just bread golems.
-the sleepcaster. A spellcaster with infinite spell slots because they are sleepwalking
-swarm of wasps (just a swarm of normal wasps)

[delphonso]

With less puns, but a few things I've done to make combat interesting:

-Crippled husband leads the party to help rescue his wife - is basically suicidal in combat and keeping him out of the fight becomes a goal.

-Dust mephits above a 2ft deep pool of water. Send people to sleep, send them to drown.

-Yakfolk cowards who use their Magic Jar ability to threaten killing a PC if the party doesn't load their true body onto one of the horses. Summons dao to be a real dick.

-Ghosts in a house full of locked doors. Phase through wall, take a swing, phase back.

- the polymorph spell. Just use it a lot.

Not sure if those will help with outside the box thinking, but led to some extremely fun encounters for my players.

[NJW2000]

Tavern Mimic: largely immobile, astronomical hit points and defences, entices and digests players, capable of blocking entire streets. Easily defeated via contacting your local planning authority.

Mimic buildings are nothing new, but I think they'd fit in quite well with this setting.

[Loud Whispers]

Tavern Mimic: largely immobile, astronomical hit points and defences, entices and digests players, capable of blocking entire streets. Easily defeated via contacting your local planning authority.

Mimic buildings are nothing new, but I think they'd fit in quite well with this setting.

I'm thinking of also adding the mimicnomicron or just a shit ton of neat environmental hazards to also change things that way. I like the idea that the players start reading the mimicnomicron and it promises to tell them where the nearest mimic is. They flip to the next page and it just reads "HOUSE"

Also I simply must have a scene where they all shrink to a tiny size on a beach or desert oasis and have to help a sand kingdom defeat a normal sized enemy crab in order to return to normal

Also I'm thinking the only thing worse than ghosts in a house full of locked doors, is a house full of unlocked doors that the ghosts then all lock once the players are in

[Mephisto]

If anyone else bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, you've got to check this out.

Just in case you wanted to reenact Legend of the River King while keeping your options open for Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden-esque cyberpunk or wandering-martial-arts-em-up Fist of the North Star.

[Kagus]

Also I simply must have a scene where they all shrink to a tiny size on a beach or desert oasis and have to help a sand kingdom defeat a normal sized enemy crab in order to return to normal

"It's a normal-sized enemy crab!"

"Attack its weak spot for moderate damage!"

[Devastator]

Some random person in a massive city is planning on destroying it.

Go find that guy.

[Loud Whispers]

Some random person in a massive city is planning on destroying it.

Go find that guy.

Before long, the players uncover a plot that they are being used by domestic security services to justify inordinate spending on a domestic war on terrorists who don't pose a threat to the city