Friday, October 29, 2010

Steal this idea!

Hey there, I'm back with a little something to help you out, in case you are having trouble coming up with ideas for your game. Think about an awesome movie/tv show, video game, anything and if there is a cool plot device or story point that you love or maybe you have an old module from AD&D 1st edition or something. Is there a way to fit it into your campaign?

The basis for my campaign I am running is the idea presented in Return to Northmoor (http://northmoor.spookyouthouse.com/). It was a good launching point and it did some of the work for me while I found my stride. As I moved through the Northmoor stuff I began looking through my RPG collection for things I could adapt, and justify why I still have books for games I don't play, hehe.

Which leads me to "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh"(U1) a great 1st edition AD&D module from Great Britain. My group accepted a job from the local fort to investigate a haunted house at the edge of the swamp. I turned searching the first and second floors into one long skill challenge, without telling them. Basically they would search a room, if there was something to find and they were made it, I marked it as a success. I removed a lot of combat, trying to keep key moments and give the PC's the feeling that anything could happen. They were checking for traps for most of the search, watching for weak spots in the floor, and looking through books laying around. I'll come visit this game another time, it was a blast!

I play some video games, and have been playing a certain MMO which has a number of amazing and adaptable quests in it. One such quest involves a little ghost girl who asks your character to find the various pieces of her dolly and put it back together. It is really creepy and kicks off a string of quests where you're working towards redeeming an NPC in the game. I needed a little diversion for the next small town the group was coming to and this would do nicely.

The PC's come across some kids who had been checking out a burned out house and thought they'd seen a ghost. Of course the group has to check it out, and a little girl appears, asking if they can find her dolly. A little searching gets them the body of the doll but the head is missing. More detective work reveals that seventeen years ago, a cult of demon worshipers attacked the town, and one of the guards had allowed them to slip past unnoticed. When the villagers defeated these cultists they lynched the guard, who was the little ghost girls father. People remembered he had something in his hand that he dropped when he died. This had occurred in the town's square and when they investigate they are attacked by demons and undead. After the battle they search and find the doll's head. Heading back to the ghost, they present the newly repaired dolly, and she thanks them, then asks them to help her papa. all from some quests from a video game.

So look around, see what you can steal, or draw inspiration from, there's a ton of stuff out there and who knows what kind of awesome you can show your players! :) Take care guys.

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