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View Full Version : One and a half hours to cook up a campaign.



Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:14 PM
So i have about until the end of the movie The Boondock saints to set up a crazy level 3 campaign. We all just saw zombieland for the first time so undead are probably going to be the focus. The set up is the party is going to wander into a ghost town while low on supplies. Most of the town has been turned into zombies and a few other higher level undead by a local sorcerer gone bad. So who wants to help me throw this thing together.

Theres about an hour and a half of the movie left.

Zaq
2009-11-30, 11:15 PM
Mentioning what game you're playing would probably make the responses more helpful.

infinitypanda
2009-11-30, 11:17 PM
Here's the town. (http://paizo.com/image/content/RiseOfTheRunelords/Sandpoint.jpg)

The PCs need to reach the lighthouse by dawn and kill the sorcerer. Toss in a few random encounters with zombies, and you should be good.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:17 PM
O yea uhhh, D&D 3.5. We have just about all the books. Minus exalted deeds and the tome stuff.

Drenn
2009-11-30, 11:17 PM
If you're doing something with zombies, you could probably do some simple effects, like having low lighting, spooky music, or leaving the window open to make the room just a little bit chilly.

Drenn
2009-11-30, 11:19 PM
Also might be fun/funny if you threw in a reference to Zombieland somewhere.

Amador
2009-11-30, 11:20 PM
You're in a town full of zombies and higher undead, what more do you need?

Maybe throw in some survivors holed up in a building. Should keep your players occupied fortifying the **** out of that building while fending off small zombie raids. Then after you've allowed them to construct some make-shift defenses have the sorcerer and the higher undead come see what the hold-up is in turning the remaining humans. If you're still going, random encounters as they try to move the survivors and themselves to another town.

Possibly have a zombie apocalypse going on when they reach the next town.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:21 PM
Well our apartment has no heat so were chilly enough as is. And were using Christmas lights until we can get a new bulb so i would say atmosphere is taken care of. Im thinking of putting together a Tallahassee like fighter to be leading the towns people as a little joke.

nekomata2
2009-11-30, 11:24 PM
Is he going to send the PCs on a sidequest to find him a Twinky?

You could also do the Bill Murray, have them enter a seemingly abandonded building and there be a guy pretending to be a zombie...make him slightly mad for fun...or something like that.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:26 PM
Indeed, if this goes on past tonight i'll definitely have to have other towns be apocalypsed. And infinity panda thanks a lor for that town map o absolutely love it.

Drenn
2009-11-30, 11:29 PM
If you've got a fairly fun-loving group, you could throw in something randomly funny, like a zombie wearing an over-sized, purple, flowery hat, or something equally absurd. Don't feel like you have to ever explain it either. It's just something small to add flavor. Again though, it's dependent on how serious a game you want.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:32 PM
Not going to be the most serious of games, the party is putting together some cracked characters. Really im not even restricting races much beyond some really broken ones.

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-11-30, 11:32 PM
Twist idea: Big Bad isn't a Necromancer. He's some other class forcing a good-aligned Necromancer to do his dirty work. Heck, go all out and make it a "rescue the princess" scenario, and the princess is a Necromancer.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:36 PM
Oooooo i like that idea, but what would be a good class for the real big bad to be?

Drenn
2009-11-30, 11:37 PM
Twist idea: Big Bad isn't a Necromancer. He's some other class forcing a good-aligned Necromancer to do his dirty work. Heck, go all out and make it a "rescue the princess" scenario, and the princess is a Necromancer.

lol. I agree with mongoose's idea. A twist like that could lead to some really funny dialogue, especially if the "princess" is a super cheerful, sunshiny kind of a person....who happens to reanimate the dead.

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-11-30, 11:38 PM
I dunno. Maybe a local bandit leader (Fighter, maybe Ranger) wants to build a larger fighting force, so he's resorting to undead.


lol. I agree with mongoose's idea. A twist like that could lead to some really funny dialogue, especially if the "princess" is a super cheerful, sunshiny kind of a person....who happens to reanimate the dead.

Hah! Like Pushing Daisies? I like.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-30, 11:41 PM
Make the BBEG a Bard with the feat to allow songs to work on undead, and make the princess a dread necro. Thriller, but also a surprisingly difficult fight, though the girl should surrender as soon as the PCs look like they're winning.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:41 PM
Hmmm, i like the idea of doing a ranger as the bad guy. But why would an evil ranger want an undead army? It doesn't seem to fit a ranger of any alignment.\:

:EDIT: what feat is that allows songs on undead?

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-11-30, 11:44 PM
Hm... Maybe this Ranger has been forsaken by your campaign world's nature gods, and turns to the abomination that is undead for revenge. Basically, he's becoming Saruman, looking to make the natural world burn.

Edit: If/when the good guys kill him, he'd totally have to come back as a vampire or death knight or some such template.

Drenn
2009-11-30, 11:46 PM
Hmmm, i like the idea of doing a ranger as the bad guy. But why would an evil ranger want an undead army? It doesn't seem to fit a ranger of any alignment.\:

:EDIT: what feat is that allows songs on undead?

Well, maybe the Ranger, out of his love for nature, just wanted to recycle, by using already dead bodies, from a plague or battle or something, as a source for his fuel. It's like the OOTS T-shirt: recycle, reuse, reanimate. Zombies: 100% post-consumer human!

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-30, 11:47 PM
Hmmm, i like the idea of doing a ranger as the bad guy. But why would an evil ranger want an undead army? It doesn't seem to fit a ranger of any alignment.\:

:EDIT: what feat is that allows songs on undead?Requiem (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Requiem).

Bards are awesome.

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-11-30, 11:49 PM
I once had a campaign ready to go (never got off the ground) about a Lich who recruited a disgraced Paladin/Death Knight to join his undead Empire. Yes, it was the plot of Star Wars. What of it?

I had a Paladin in my party, even, and was all set for an "I am your father" reveal.

Anyway, feel free to use.

Dragonus45
2009-11-30, 11:51 PM
Well i know what im going to do, the Bard with requiem will start a zombie apocalypse with the help of a bubbly princess dread necromancer. Now what book is a dread Necro in, and could anyone help me with good builds for all these?

:EDIT: and im going to bump the campaign level to level 8 or so to make the villains a bit stronger.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-30, 11:53 PM
Dread Necro is in Heroes of Horror, it's basically a Beguiler but with Necromancy and corpsecrafting rather than illusion and sneaking.

Bard needs basically all the buffs to IC. There's a spell in SpC that adds 1, an item in MiC that adds one, and a couple similar boosts.

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-11-30, 11:59 PM
Alas, I have no rulebooks with me right now. Just riffing on concepts.

Though I still think that it's a better hook if they're trying to get the Princess out of there. More of an investment for the players if it's a rescue mission.

Then, if you continue the campaign you get:
1) Princess as an ally in Whatever-this-town's-called.
2) Villain with an agenda. (Find new Necro patsy.)

Heck, if it were my group, I'd pull one of the players aside, secretly convince him or her to play the Princess, have them roll a temporary character, then kill off said temp like a Red Shirt in the battle with the bard, then let them play the Princess full time after her rescue. (Just for the look on the others' faces when you off a PC, then hand over the Princess character sheet and continue like nothing is amiss.)

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 12:02 AM
Well all of these are great idea, im gonna head off to ebay to buy heroes of horror so i can download it guilt free and get to putting these guys together. Ill be back on after im done to post for review.

Drenn
2009-12-01, 12:03 AM
Well all of these are great idea, im gonna head off to ebay to buy heroes of horror so i can download it guilt free and get to putting these guys together. Ill be back on after im done to post for review.

Sounds good!

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-12-01, 12:15 AM
Have fun!

I'm kinda curious as to the bard's motivation for this. Part of me really wants it to be nothing more than, "No one likes my songs. I know! I'll make an army of people I can control like puppets and they'll have to applaud! Bwahaha!"

Drenn
2009-12-01, 12:16 AM
Have fun!

I'm kinda curious as to the bard's motivation for this. Part of me really wants it to be nothing more than, "No one likes my songs. I know! I'll make an army of people I can control like puppets and they'll have to applaud! Bwahaha!"

Hahaha! Talk about a "captive audience!"

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 12:37 AM
Well i decided that a thriller style bard fight alone wasnt nearly enough of a cracked out fight so i made him a vampiric dark elf. The motivation is he hates that his people have no love of music. And that the people on the surface hated him before he ever got to play for them. So now he'll make them mindless undead, he sees that as an artistic statement about them all being mindless sheeple. I very much feel him being a terrible emo poetry guy. Who likes to make witty comments about the state of the world.

Platinum_Mongoose
2009-12-01, 12:40 AM
Ssssooooo... his name is T'rent of the Drow house Rez'nor?

But seriously, that's a pretty great villain.

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 12:47 AM
Well the bard turned out ok, but im having trouble putting together a good dread necro.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-01, 12:50 AM
You can't make a bad Dread Necro. Put everything into Cha, secondary into Dex and Con, and whatever you require for skills into Int. Take Tomb Tainted soul(LM, but all it does is allow Neg energy to heal you instead of Pos, pos is now damaging), and whichever feats you think apply. I'd recommend Corpsecrafter and the remainder of it's line from LM as a safe bet.

Keep in mind that the DN should not be in melee, no matter what the class seems to imply. It's a back-line debuff caster who provides his own meatshields.

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 01:05 AM
Corpsecrafter feats work perfectly thanks a bunch.

Doc Roc
2009-12-01, 01:46 AM
Do you still need help?
You can catch me on one of your favorite messenger services or in the chat in my profile, if you do.

Drenn
2009-12-01, 01:55 PM
So, how did the adventure go?

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 02:04 PM
It went well for the most part, but they took forever to get characters together so for know its postponed till later tonight. I probably could have taken up less game time with the Resistance leaders side quest for a twinkie though.

Drenn
2009-12-01, 02:21 PM
It went well for the most part, but they took forever to get characters together so for know its postponed till later tonight. I probably could have taken up less game time with the Resistance leaders side quest for a twinkie though.

Good luck!

Zeta Kai
2009-12-01, 02:30 PM
It went well for the most part, but they took forever to get characters together so for know its postponed till later tonight. I probably could have taken up less game time with the Resistance leaders side quest for a twinkie though.

LOL, great last minute campaign brainstorming! This sounds like a game that I wanna play. Good luck, & don't try & copy the movies exactly. The idea of switch the Red Shirt for the princess is brilliant. Let us know how it goes.

Dragonus45
2009-12-01, 02:41 PM
Actually the princess is likely to be someone else who wasn't hanging out with us at last night, or this morning, or whatever. All the of the guys here hate playing women.