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Yakk
2009-06-09, 03:04 PM
This is something I want to try out, but I want to test it with a bunch of internet people first.

One Roll Adventure

You have a party of size 4 or 5. From each Player, you ask for two themes, challenges, or background elements from the character.

You then add 2 yourself.

If you only have 2 players, each contributes 4, and you contribute 4. If there are 3 players, everyone contributes 3.

Call each of these a 'hook'. You should have between 8 and 12 hooks.

At this point, if your party is size 2 through 5, there is a die of size equal to the number of hooks.

Assign each hook a number -- be lazy, do it in order. Write them down in a short table with some space to the right.

Have a column called "early" and a column called "late".

Pick up 6 dice of that size. Roll them once for "early", and once for "late".

Count the number of dice that land on a given hook.

1 die on a hook: a red herring or random event.
2 or more dice on a hook: something important to the plot.

The number of dice on a given hook is the number of encounters that orbit around that hook.

Early vs Late indicates when the encounter is.

Large numbers of encounters around a given hook means that this is probably relatively central to the plot. Things that show up later, but not earlier, may indicate something that was revealed along the way.

As a possible additional tweak, roll red and black dice (4 of each). Red and Black events are 'tied' to each other somehow.
Can some people go and put forward a short character description (and I mean short -- like <3 sentences), and 2 hooks for that character? I want to see if this works well.

(Mechanics shamelessly stolen from Greg Stolze's one-roll character generator)

Vadin
2009-06-09, 04:19 PM
An elven wizard who focuses on hitting large amounts of enemies at once. He's got a wand he made as a child that he uses, and his magic tends to manifest as dark and twisted versions of childhood pastimes and things (like marbles shooting at people for Magic Missle, his summons being animated dolls, and his fireballs being fireworks).

1) Misaligned dragons (like good chromatics or evil metallics)
2) Aberrations filling the sewers

Magicus
2009-06-09, 04:28 PM
Sounds interesting... I'll give it a whirl.

Gadfly is a Gnomish Cleric fond of fine wines, food, and clothes. He focuses primarily on healing and protection magics.

1. A war for turf between two Thieves' Guilds spills out into the rest of the community.
2. Gadfly's past catches up for him in the form of an angry husband - who just so happens to be one of the land's mightiest warriors.

Rustscale
2009-06-09, 04:34 PM
Jekshar Khan is a Dragonborn warlord who either stands back, throwing javelins here and there and beefing up the party members, or charges in with sword and shield. As the second leader of the party, he usually leaves the beefing up to the cleric and adopts the "get-stuck-in" approach.

5)An undead is found to be impersonating of local noble (baron, lord, etc), controlled by vampires
6)A river dries up, causing the lake it feeds to dry up as well, exposing an ancient ruin

Yakk
2009-06-10, 11:22 AM
Anyone else want to step up and post two hooks? Then I can give this a try. :)

Gourtox
2009-06-10, 11:36 AM
Grush is a Half-orc Barabarian. He loves his Orcish culture, especially the parts about fighting. He loves to run in into combat and just start hacking away at enemies with his Greataxe.

7. Draconic creatures are gathering close to an improtant town.
8. A mysterious Half-dragon oracle says a great evil is coming and a cult has formed around him.(This could wither way. The oracle could be evil or there could be an evil)

sigurd
2009-06-10, 12:52 PM
David is a human Fighter. His father was a captain in the kings guard and his family idolizes the empire and service to it. It barely seemed to matter to them that his father died when he was placed in a prestigious mausoleum upon his death.

David was contracted into the army as a child. He spent his first level in service where he was heart broken that he only performed well.

Family connections got him onto a distant mission that was almost wiped out. To his horror the regiment members weren't recommissioned. His company was quietly dissolved and he was listed among the slain.


Hook1 - David is far far away from the army he is loyal to. He is young and stupid enough to say the wrong thing in the wrong place. He feels betrayed and confused. He must get back to his country fast or start a new life.

Hook2 - The company supplies still exist somewhere. Few people know where but they would all like to take them - there are no known further monies coming from the empire.

Yakk
2009-06-10, 04:49 PM
Here is the list, with two appended onto the end:

1) Misaligned dragons (like good chromatics or evil metallics)
2) Aberrations filling the sewers
3. A war for turf between two Thieves' Guilds spills out into the rest of the community.
4. Gadfly's past catches up for him in the form of an angry husband - who just so happens to be one of the land's mightiest warriors.
5)An undead is found to be impersonating of local noble (baron, lord, etc), controlled by vampires
6)A river dries up, causing the lake it feeds to dry up as well, exposing an ancient ruin
7. Draconic creatures are gathering close to an important town.
8. A mysterious Half-dragon oracle says a great evil is coming and a cult has formed around him.(This could wither way. The oracle could be evil or there could be an evil)
9 - David is far far away from the army he is loyal to. He is young and stupid enough to say the wrong thing in the wrong place. He feels betrayed and confused. He must get back to his country fast or start a new life.
10 - The company supplies still exist somewhere. Few people know where but they would all like to take them - there are no known further monies coming from the empire.
11 - Orcus is trying to kill the Raven Queen.
12 - A sorcerer is gathering relics to increase his power.

Die rolls (red, black) x (early, late)
11,4,9,8
2,6,1,7
7,4,6,12
2,10,4,4



| Early | Late |
| R B | R B |
---+--------------+----------------+
1 | 1 | |
2 | 1 | 1 |
3 | | |
4 | 1 | 1 2 |
5 | | |
6 | 1 | 1 |
7 | 1 | 1 |
8 | 1 | |
9 | 1 | |
10 | | 1 |
11 | 1 | |
12 | | 1 |


1 Early Dragons Misaligned (_B__)
2 Early->Late Sewer Aberrations (_B_B)
4 Early->Late Gadfly's past catches up with him (2/2) (R_RB)
2 Early->Late A river dries up (_BR_)
2 Early->Late Dragonic creatures gathering (_BR_)
1 Early Half-dragon oracle cult -- great evil coming (R___)
1 Early David is far away and young and stupid (R___)
1 Late Company Supplies (___R)
1 Early Orcus vs Raven Queen (R___)
1 Late Sorcerer gathering relics (__R_)

Maybe I'm rolling too many dice -- few plot lines aren't used. :)

Gadfly's past is clearly the core of the story. It spans the early to the end.

The initial hook of his past ends up being mostly a red herring:
Gadfly's past + David is an idiot + Half-dragon oracle cult + Orcus vs Raven queen tie together.

Then there is the sewer problem. A river dries up revealing a ruin, connected to aberrations in the sewers, a misaligned dragon, and Draconic creatures gathering near a city. All of this comes back, except for the misaligned dragon (maybe is killed?) in the later part of the adventure.

Gadfly's past continues to weave things together in the later part. A sorcerer, looking for power in the ruins revealed by the river, also shows up to complicate things. The ruins and the draconic creatures play a part in this plot (maybe the draconic creatures hatched out of the ruins?).

The other plot thread involves Gadfly's past, the aberrations in the sewers, and David's company supplies. Possibly the company supplies are hidden in the sewers.

...

This builds two short intro adventures.

I'd start with Gadfly and David, and the Half-dragon making a prophesy about Doom trying to kill Death. As the Half-Dragon doesn't show up again, I'll make her evil. The players manage to foil this mini-adventure. As they destroy some random unholy artifact, the river ... stops flowing.

This dries out the sewers. Out of it comes strange monsters. The players defend the townfolk.

The players are drafted to solve the problem of the river, before the city dies. North they travel, along the river. As they approach the lake, they seen the ruin. A dragon takes off from the ruin, and buzzes the force heading north. Much save vs fear is failed, and the city guards (mostly) scatter.

This becomes a skill challenge. It turns out that the half-dragon the players killed was the last free descendent of this red dragon. Not that the dragon minds -- that broke the spell he was under. Who apologises for the drobt, and gives the party a MacGuffin to restart the river flowing, but no, he is not interested in going back into the city that trapped him, thank you very much. He flies off, looking for a cow to much on.

Of course, that requires heading into the ruins. What is left of the guard detachment, and the PCs, head on in. Fight happens.

In the ruins, Gadfly's past catches up with him _again_ (maybe Gadfly's 'rival' is a big-wig?). They adventure through the ruins. They come across a sorcerer who is here (having come from another direction), who is looking for artifacts. And the player's MacGuffin will do nicely -- he steals it. In the ensuing battle, it is destroyed.

The thing required to fix it .. turns out to be among the company supplies of David's army. Which was hidden in the sewers. Which are now dry. So back they go!

Hmm. Gadfly's rival ... is the ruler of a rival principality. The events involving that are attacks or complications caused by that rival principality stretching into this territory, with all of the chaos going on here. So in the sewers, they end up engaged in a fight and chase with the members of the rival principality who are also trying to get David's treasure.

For more of a twist, the Sorcerer was both looking for artifacts of power, and an agent of Gadfly's rival. Gadfly's rival is trying to take out this city. Which links it back to the Half-Dragon prophet -- another agent of Gadfly's rival.

So the adventure is an attempt by a rival principality to take out this city, by hook or by crook. The leader of that principality happens to be someone that Gadfly once embarrassed.

...

How is that for a first draft?

Vadin
2009-06-10, 05:20 PM
A bit complex, but not a bad start at all!

Rustscale
2009-06-10, 05:50 PM
An excellent adventure, I'd have to say. That would at least take all the players up to 10th level, maybe more. And, of course, if it ends too early, you can do another roll, and simply tie it all back. I have to say, I quite like this idea.

Stormthorn
2009-06-11, 12:13 AM
Damn. Too late to ad my idea: A local wizard has heard of the PCs and invited them to a big masquarade at his mansion behind the graveyard. Too bad he didnt tell them he's a Worm That Walks necromancer.

See, the idea is the PCs can freak out and try to fight their way out of the party once the masks start coming off or that can work really hard at not getting eater via their social graces, since its a social event, not a battle, after all.

sigurd
2009-06-11, 01:36 AM
I like it but I think you can name the dice.

Rather than Red and Black how about 'Chaos','Law','Gods','Men'

The names aren't cast in stone but they might jog some inspiration.

Early Rolls

Chaos - 10,4,6,11
Law - 8,8,8,1
Gods - 9,8,12,8
Men - 1,11,4,2

Late Roles

Chaos - 10,11,4,9
Law - 1,6,8,4
Gods - 10,10,6,3
Men - 3,11,8,8

http://wm58.inbox.com/thumbs/7e_9fa48_15f23d27_oJ.jpg.thumb


In this trial the story is overwhelmingly about 8) A mysterious Half-dragon oracle says a great evil is coming and a cult has formed around him.

The powers of Law and Gods are very much involved with this story line.

This will be explained or furthered by 1,4,11

Misaligned dragons
Gadfly's past catches up for him in the form of an angry husband - who just so happens to be one of the land's mightiest warriors.
Orcus is trying to kill the Raven Queen.

The End story will be about the Half Dragon Oracle and the company supplies. Deities will have an interest in what the company supplies hold. Gods & Men will be interested in this thieves guild - perhaps the Guild turf war arises over keeping the supplies?

Gadfly's mighty warrior is a long term character.


Sigurd


Can everyone see the pic?