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Post by joatmoniac on Jul 6, 2015 21:06:03 GMT
Ep. 39: Creation & Inspiration IV- Part 02; Mimic in a Bottle & Top 10s. Couldn't get the whole thing in the subject, haha. All I can think right now is this:
I really enjoyed the Top 10s, but was terrified by them and of course listened to them right before bed, haha. Nightmare fuel for players for sure. If your players ever tell you that you are being mean just keep this episode in mind to prove them VERY wrong!
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jul 6, 2015 21:23:18 GMT
Just finished the episode and it was a great episode, but what's with all the British comedies?
- The Human Wall reminds me a lot of the Demon Wall from Final Fantasy (which is creepy).
- There is certainly a Raptor in that prison.
- Now the Evil Cat Lady has a Husband?
A great inspiration for Rorrim, the Mirror World, would be Moonside from Nintendos Earthbound. These are really freaky (but those who play Earthbound, know it is a disturbing video game) planes of existence where all the people are inversed colors of themselves. These negative people all live together, but are always in despair or depressed. If you talk to one of these people they will say something completely random (and disturbing) such as "I'll send you both... no, I'll send you both to the hospital!" Weird, creepy, but that is what I thought of. Nintendo was, apparently trying to evoke the feeling of 'sheer madness'.
Great Work guys!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 2:22:25 GMT
Morgan's #10 (undead tilling the fields) reminded me a lot of the antagonists in my homebrew world during my 4e campaign.
They were an enclave of wizards who specialized in necromancy, and ruled a small island empire. Whenever a citizen of this nation died, instead of being buried or cremated, his body was handed over to the local mageocrat to be raised as a soldier or laborer. The undead did all the menial work, freeing the living citizens to pursue more recreational activities. The people loved their leaders, and enjoyed a very high quality of life. Animating the dead was not seen as a profane act, but an integral part of everyday life. The so-called good empires used propaganda to convince their own citizens that the folks on the undead islands were slaves or otherwise oppressed, when nothing could be further from the truth.
What made the mageocrats antagonists was their ultimate goal. They believed magic would one day be used to destroy the world (not just life, but completely obliterating the planet). They felt this fate was inevitable, if magic were allowed to go unchecked. Thus, unknown to their citizens, the undead army existed to scour sapient life from the surface of the planet. It's a very "ends justify the means" philosophy, with the end goal of themselves remaining as caretakers of the world while nature reasserted dominion over the planet. However, they were narrowly defeated by the forces of good. This event marked the transition between my 4e and 5e campaigns.
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Post by joatmoniac on Jul 7, 2015 18:27:51 GMT
I really enjoy thinking about the struggle the players have to tackle when good people believe in an ultimately bad thing. The players could do the "right" thing and get no respect or reward. Then again that might just make the players really mad, haha. A cool concept though. Also, I can't decide which idea I liked the best!
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Post by DMC on Jul 7, 2015 23:05:38 GMT
Mitch, have you seen the Michael Bay movie "The Island"? It stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. The plot synopsis is basically there is a whole society of grown genetic clones whose only purpose is to eventually be harvested for organs, body tissue, surgery replacement parts, etc. if the actual person in the world is ever injured.
Your idea about the Gateway to the Beyond sounds very much like that. Really cool stuff!!
I am envisioning a campaign where something similar is happened and the PCs are actually grown Similacrum, Where they really believe they are just alive like anybody else. But they come to find out they have been grown and harvested just to die basically.
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Samuel Wise
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jul 8, 2015 0:54:38 GMT
Mimic in a Bottle & Top 10s. Couldn't get the whole thing in the subject, haha. All I can think right now is this. The entire episode I was actually thinking of Genie in a Bottle...  |
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Post by kjmagle on Jul 8, 2015 1:55:35 GMT
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Post by friartook on Jul 14, 2015 19:50:27 GMT
Just finished this episode.
Dollmaker=awesome! I've had this idea about putting a "Dr. Frankenstein" type NPC in a campaign; great tie-in to the PCs!
Anyone else ever read The Azure Bonds? The first Forgotten Realms book I ever read; relevant to this idea.
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Post by rorrik on Jul 15, 2015 18:07:11 GMT
The town of Rorrim made me think of this Red Dwarf episode where the whole world has backwards time and the forward time visitors are an impressive comedy act, able to eat eggs instead of regurgitating them and so on and so forth. Even in the episodes there are discrepancies, so this kind of crazy backwards time stuff would be really hard to run. I really liked the idea of the prison that tunnels down. Mostly the prospect of putting the players on a time deadline, albeit a soft one where they can find another way out, is something I really like. I work hard to keep pressure on my players so they have to economize their spell usage. I also really liked the power stealing guy idea. We run mostly a homebrew system at my table and one of our charisma abilities is called "Emulate" which as you improve it and your charisma allows you to imitate other peoples' abilities when they use them. When we were testing it, one of my players hired a bunch of hirelings with abilities he wanted and would emulate them to become a powerful warrior a couple rounds into the fight. |
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Samuel Wise
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Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jul 15, 2015 21:15:35 GMT
The town of Rorrim made me think of this Red Dwarf episode I also really liked the power stealing guy idea. We run mostly a homebrew system at my table and one of our charisma abilities is called "Emulate" 1. And yet another British comedy! 2. Shouldn't there be a skill for imitating people? It seems like there should be a mechanic out there (I have no idea). Could they emulate wizarding spells? The guy who steals powers reminded me of the Super Skrull from the old (or new) Fantastic Four comics. |
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Post by rorrik on Jul 15, 2015 21:34:00 GMT
Could they emulate wizarding spells? Yes, to an extent. In D&D, it would probably be just casting the spell he saw cast (which might be a bit much), but in our system they could learn the components the wizard had used in the spell during his observation period, which might only be 1 or 2 components and not enough to cast a decent spell. To replicate a wizards spell he would have to observe for the length of the spell, doing nothing else during those turns, just as the wizard had done, then he would have to take the time to cast the spell. It wasn't very effective for imitating magic. When it was really useful was accompanying the rogue on scouting missions, emulating his stealth, climb, and tumble to stick together. |
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Post by blakeryan on Mar 14, 2016 1:51:15 GMT
Re Top 10s - Loved the Dollmaker and Forbidden Valley ideas from Morgan, have since downloaded the Going in Blind podcast so I can checkout more of his work.
You can link in Giant frog riders, Sunken marsh town, and Hydra island into the region. Maybe one of the players is from Sunken marsh town but left 10 years ago, and he can talk about how it used to be higher above the water line etc. Another pc’s uncle is the creator of Hydra Island.
Re the Curse of Nightmares-Rings that slowly make dreams reality. The key thing with Dream adventures is to NOT describe the start as a dream, don't introduce it with going to bed or everything going misty. If you do that they will know its a dream and not put any effort in or not play their alignment because they think there are no repercussions. Just start it like a regular encounter, doing every day things, then as time goes on there are chances to realise that not all is right.
Re-Mimicing Enemy-I kinda thought of a bad guy boss, with construct or doppelganger minions. But each time he meets the pcs he copies all their powers (still only one action per round but has a huge range of abilities to choose from), so he gets more powerful as they do. If a PC is invisible then he can not use their powers, line of sight is key to him using his powers. Of course he doesn’t fight long, he’s got things to do-achieve godhood so he can use his powers on the gods.
Re Afraid of the Dark – PC’s could have younger siblings or younger cousins in the town to help tie the players into it. For a twist perhaps only a certain type of adults see the Shades, such as nature people –druids and gardeners, or performers-bards and artists. Like a left brain or right brain kinda thing.
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Post by blakeryan on Apr 18, 2016 10:42:20 GMT
Episode 39-Top Tens-Forbidden Valley (Giant Mimic) So last night I used the 'Forbidden Valley' idea (Giant Mimic) in my campaign. To set the scene abit, the 12th level party and 30+ commonfolk were sucked through a magical vortex. They couldn't teleport back because they didn't know where they were (think of a jet with fuel but no compass or map). They figured out they were in the Shadowfell (or a version of it) but needed to explore more to get their bearings. So they left the commoners in a safe place and started trecking 'north'... - Overcast day, during the afternoon they head into this quiet valley. They were 50ft into the valley before they noticed it was too quiet as night rolled in. (as they were walking in the Mimic oozed over the ground behind them to prevent their escape) Then as they noticed their feet got stuck, the Mimic psuedopods stretched out from the ground and attacked them. The party thought it was a pack of Oozes, and started blasting them with Sunbeam. First two rounds they all failed wisdom/perception rolls to figure out what is going on and were debating if it was a pack of oozes/plants or undead since 'this is the shadowfell!' Each round the mimic had 5 psuedopods a round vs each pcs. It had 500 hit points, +8 AB (15 attacks), 2D8+2 Damage and reach 50ft. The Warlock was flying above the Mimic and using eldritch blast. after being grappled repeatedly the druid was at -50 hit points and making death saving throws, the Necromancer (not evil) was grappeled and wounded. They managed to kill it and stablise the Druid - who had already failed 2 death saves. The used their entire supply of healing potions getting the Druid back on her feet. The encounter was thoroughly enjoyed in a 'phew that was a close one' kinda way  |
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