Reverse one-shot campaign

[Umael]

This is a request for brainstorming.

I have an idea for a one-shot campaign where I take the normal tropes, stereotypes, and cliches, and reverse them.

Base:

The party meets in a bar.
A creepy man in a cloak offers them a quest.
They trudge for miles through wilderness to the dungeon.
Monsters fight them, treasure rewards them, and many traps take their toll.
The end battle takes place in the BBEG's lair, a dragon, and after defeating the dragon, they rescue the princess.

So... reverse it:

The party meets in the dragon's lair, where the dragon offers them the quest.
They make their way out of the dungeon, where the monsters and the traps are the prize and the treasure takes its deadly toll on them.
On emerging from the dungeon, they go through miles of civilization, encountering wandering monsters in the city itself.
The end battle takes place in a bar, where they have to defeat a creepy man in a cloak before the party splits up and goes its separate ways.

Thoughts?

[squishycube]

- Party saved by princess.
- Completing the quest costs all the money party found during the quest
- Monsters come to party, while party stays in the same place

[valadil]

Sorry for bringing up an old and tired meme, but I think you'd have to call this the Mother Russia campaign. As in "in mother russia, princess saves you!"

[WarKitty]

Marry the dragon? The princess is the evil mastermind?

[herrhauptmann]

Sorry for bringing up an old and tired meme, but I think you'd have to call this the Mother Russia campaign. As in "in mother russia, princess saves you!"

Thought it was "In soviet russia, noun verb pronoun"

http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/cute-puppy-pictures-pulls-hair-braid.jpg

[Bharg]

Or play as monsters?

[valadil]

Thought it was "In soviet russia, noun verb pronoun"


My mistake, soviet it is. I'm actually glad to have misremembered it given how many times I heard that phrase overused. Gives me hope that some day I'll forget "that's what she said" too.

[Lapak]

Sorry for bringing up an old and tired meme, but I think you'd have to call this the Mother Russia campaign. As in "in mother russia, princess saves you!"Hrm. This and squishycube's comment make me want to suggest making this a 'there-and-back-again' two-shot rather than a one-shot.

Round 1 goes pretty much as the cliche describes. At the end of Round 1, the players find themselves disastrously outclassed by the dragon, but as things start to look hopeless the princess steps in on their behalf. "Wait! They don't know what's really going on!"

At which point the princess explains that she's here voluntarily, and that the dragon is protecting her from GuyInACloak, a suitor she rejected who has pursued her relentlessly and is now hiring bands of mercenaries to slay her guardian. And he's rich and influential enough that the city guards are in his pocket. And also, to guard against betrayal by the adventurers, he slanders each group as villains and princess-kidnappers as soon as they head out on his mission. So if the PCs want to get at him, they'll have to hire, bully or persuade what's left of the monsters they passed through on their way to the dragon so they have someone to run interference against the guards. Then escort those monsters across the open terrain between cave and town against overeager caravan guards, wandering knights-errant, and similar threats. Then penetrate the town, and the tavern, and do battle with the wicked GuyInACloak.

[NeutralAwesome]

I would play the heck out of that.

[PersonMan]

Hrm. This and squishycube's comment make me want to suggest making this a 'there-and-back-again' two-shot rather than a one-shot.

Round 1 goes pretty much as the cliche describes. At the end of Round 1, the players find themselves disastrously outclassed by the dragon, but as things start to look hopeless the princess steps in on their behalf. "Wait! They don't know what's really going on!"

At which point the princess explains that she's here voluntarily, and that the dragon is protecting her from GuyInACloak, a suitor she rejected who has pursued her relentlessly and is now hiring bands of mercenaries to slay her guardian. And he's rich and influential enough that the city guards are in his pocket. And also, to guard against betrayal by the adventurers, he slanders each group as villains and princess-kidnappers as soon as they head out on his mission. So if the PCs want to get at him, they'll have to hire, bully or persuade what's left of the monsters they passed through on their way to the dragon so they have someone to run interference against the guards. Then escort those monsters across the open terrain between cave and town against overeager caravan guards, wandering knights-errant, and similar threats. Then penetrate the town, and the tavern, and do battle with the wicked GuyInACloak.

YES. I want to do that. So much.

[WarKitty]

Ever read the "Talking to Dragons" series? I've used it as serious D&D inspiration. It's about a princess who runs away to the dragons to escape from her arranged marriage.

[Umael]

Any suggestions on implementation?

For example, the "play as monsters" idea, I would want to be kinda subtle. It is easy enough to do "You are all playing monsters. Now, the Chief Dragon wants you to go raid a human city...", but I want people to NOT realize that the campaign is reverse until after it has started (and hopefully, not for some time).

So if everyone was a monster, it loses some of that sense. It's just monsters-vs-humans (& allies) again. But if they were monsters who were trying to live as Good Guys, on the edge of human civilization, they could be picked b the Chief Dragon because they can infiltrate them.

(Mind you, this is just for me.)

So what monster or near-monster races would work well?

[Umael]

*snip the awesomeness*

While not what I was thinking, I think this would be a very good campaign. Kudos on the suggestion - I might use this some day!

[Mongoose87]

My mistake, soviet it is. I'm actually glad to have misremembered it given how many times I heard that phrase overused. Gives me hope that some day I'll forget "that's what she said" too.

Actually the proper form of Yakov Smirnoff's famous "Russian Reversal" follows the form "In America, you can X Y. In Soviet Russia, Y Xes you."

[Beelzebub1111]

Hrm. This and squishycube's comment make me want to suggest making this a 'there-and-back-again' two-shot rather than a one-shot.

Round 1 goes pretty much as the cliche describes. At the end of Round 1, the players find themselves disastrously outclassed by the dragon, but as things start to look hopeless the princess steps in on their behalf. "Wait! They don't know what's really going on!"

At which point the princess explains that she's here voluntarily, and that the dragon is protecting her from GuyInACloak, a suitor she rejected who has pursued her relentlessly and is now hiring bands of mercenaries to slay her guardian. And he's rich and influential enough that the city guards are in his pocket. And also, to guard against betrayal by the adventurers, he slanders each group as villains and princess-kidnappers as soon as they head out on his mission. So if the PCs want to get at him, they'll have to hire, bully or persuade what's left of the monsters they passed through on their way to the dragon so they have someone to run interference against the guards. Then escort those monsters across the open terrain between cave and town against overeager caravan guards, wandering knights-errant, and similar threats. Then penetrate the town, and the tavern, and do battle with the wicked GuyInACloak.

I'll have to use that...one day.

[Jastermereel]

Perhaps the Dragon-to-Tavern motivation is the party going on a beer-run for the dragon. Also, in addition to reversing the order (and motivation) of the tropes, perhaps also the scale and complexity of the encounters?

The first encounter has to be the most elaborate, perhaps finding a way past the hundreds of irate creatures of the forest near the lair. They'll want to stop the party as, if the dragon goes on a bender, they'll likely be toast. The forest could be littered with traps of all kinds, and who is to say a squirrel can't be a high level wizard.

Perhaps along the way, the party can find a way to repopulate various guard-towers, rather than killing everyone inside.

At the end, you can use the iconic simplest campaign, with some minor modifications. The tavern storeroom is 10'x10'. There is a bartender. The bartender has a keg. You should know the rest (http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_orcandpie).


Another idea: Do the players start out by buying equipment from the various kobolds guarding the dragon, keeping the standard treasure rate acquisition, or do you have them start out with all of their magic items and lose them throughout the game through sunder-happy foes, ethereal filtchers and DM dirty tricks? Heck, perhaps it needs to be returned to it's original resting place, at the end of a long dungeon (also run in reverse).

Heck, do they start at a high level and just get hit by gradual level drain throughout the campaign?

[Lapak]

Actually the proper form of Yakov Smirnoff's famous "Russian Reversal" follows the form "In America, you can X Y. In Soviet Russia, Y Xes you."And it works best when switching the words X and Y changes the meaning of at least one AND the intent of the verb, so it's not just 'Man bites dog.'

As in the classic example "In America, you go out on Friday night looking for party. In Soviet Russia, the Party goes out looking for you!"

EDIT: Not really sure why I felt the need to comment on that. Anyway, thanks for the positive comments on my suggestion! :smallredface:

[herrhauptmann]

Scrubbed for awesomeness
-HH

I'm sorry Lapak, we need to get Roland to edit your comment and delete everything said. Being 1 of 30 people stealing this idea is bad enough, one of 3000 however...
For some reason, it also reminded me of the most recent Legend of Bill plotline

[Zovc]

The party meets in the dragon's lair, where the dragon offers them the quest.


- Party saved by princess.

The party finds themselves in the dragon's lair, where it confounds in them its plans (aka, where they get the quest) before it eats them.) Then the princess springs into action, and the players (and the princess, of course) need to promptly go on the quest.

[Skorj]

..... dragging this back on-topic. [EDIT: ninja'd with the dragging and the topic and the GLAVEN]

How about rescuing the guy in the cloak from the princess? I've seen rescuing the dragon from the princess, enough that it's a bit trite, but never another variation. Squishycube's "rescued by the princess" is great too, but would take a bit of railroading.

Fighting the treasure along the way ishould be do-able, simply though humorous cursed items. One I've done before: the traps are the treasure. Having traps prtecting something, where the magical traps use components that are more valuable than what's protected works well. Even better if the traps protect monsters. (in some location and set-up where treasure would be expected).

[Jair Barik]

Theres plenty of ways to do the treasure tries to kill the party. Cursed items, exploding gems, horde scarabs..... lots of funny things you can do with that concept.

[Umael]

I considered trapped treasure (i.e., cursed swords, spellbooks with a chain-explosive runes written in it, etc.), but the treasured trap is... almost posh.

"I say, do be careful with going over that pit. Those spikes are silver, you know. Oh, yes, cost an absolute fortune, but, well, werewolves, you know... oh that? It's just a mirror, only shows a reflection of a medusa, dahrling. Simple, really. But look at the frame! High-quality rubies, I assure you!"

[Hallavast]

The part that intruiges me the most is the "meeting in the dungeon" part. How would you go about constructing a group template for that?

The stereotypical bar meet-up assumes that the characters are strangers meeting for the first time. But meeting strangers in the wilderness (or a dungeon) usually raises the chances of inter-party violence by at least 30%. How do you plan to get around that without contrived hand-waving?

One solution would be to say the PCs already know each other and have all come to the same spot by chance (what a coincidence). If not by chance then by design. Which forces you to concoct a designer (and a motive).

So how do you make all that fit?

[Set]

There's also the mission to rescue the beautiful dragon from the evil princess, who wants to bind it to her service to use against the neighboring kingdom or something...

[Fortuna]

The part that intruiges me the most is the "meeting in the dungeon" part. How would you go about constructing a group template for that?

The stereotypical bar meet-up assumes that the characters are strangers meeting for the first time. But meeting strangers in the wilderness (or a dungeon) usually raises the chances of inter-party violence by at least 30%. How do you plan to get around that without contrived hand-waving?

One solution would be to say the PCs already know each other and have all come to the same spot by chance (what a coincidence). If not by chance then by design. Which forces you to concoct a designer (and a motive).

So how do you make all that fit?

Obviously, they all know one another, and at the end of the campaign the innkeeper wipes their memories of each other with his dying breath.

[Defiant]

The part that intruiges me the most is the "meeting in the dungeon" part. How would you go about constructing a group template for that?

OK, no backstories everyone please.

*create characters*

OK, so you can hear the mighty dragon's breath. It seems to be just around the corner.

Wizard-guy, you have spellcraft, yes? Well you just succeeded your spellcraft check.

You can't help but say to the party "Well crap, we just passed through a memory charm."

None of you can remember anything.

[Flickerdart]

You are a party of intelligent items when you are seized by a bunch of idiots who are ransacking your home dungeon on their way to fight some dragon or another.

[Tyndmyr]

Do people still do the reverse dungeon crawl?

Players receive warning of an incoming batch of baddies that they can't handle themselves, but they have time to hide the mcguffin at the bottom of a dungeon, and set up some traps and defenses. Players run all the monsters they put in there, roll for traps, etc, while the DM runs the attacking party.

For more drama, I reccomend attaching a few squishy henchmen to the attackers. Deaths are always popular.

[Hallavast]

OK, no backstories everyone please.

*create characters*

OK, so you can hear the mighty dragon's breath. It seems to be just around the corner.

Wizard-guy, you have spellcraft, yes? Well you just succeeded your spellcraft check.

You can't help but say to the party "Well crap, we just passed through a memory charm."

None of you can remember anything.

...

"My character gets out of there as fast as he can and avoids everyone and everything else there."

-Logical player roleplaying any sane person.

[Defiant]

...

"My character gets out of there as fast as he can and avoids everyone and everything else there."

-Logical player roleplaying any sane person.

Except my group will almost invariably think "Dragon?? Treasure! XP! Attack!".

Who roleplays sane persons anyways :smallwink:

[Hallavast]

Except my group will almost invariably think "Dragon?? Treasure! XP! Attack!".

Who roleplays sane persons anyways :smallwink:

Too true. I wonder what it would be like...

*eyes glaze over*

[herrhauptmann]

Too true. I wonder what it would be like...

*eyes glaze over*

Well for starters, your characters tend to live longer. :) And being the sane one, "Heck no! I ain't going after no dragon that's hundreds of years old!" can be interesting. A bit more so than "Hey that sounds like a bad monster, lets kill it!" (which is when I usually play the sane guy)

I also usually find one very good piece of metagame knowledge for my lower level characters, and put that into my backstory. Like trolls only getting killed by fire (and acid, but pretty much knew the party caster wouldn't have acid damage spells). Now if I have a reasonable DM, he'll allow me to keep that bit of knowledge, even if I don't remember the difference between ice/sea/war/regular trolls.

[Morph Bark]

- Party saved by princess.

Alternatively: the party has to save a dragon from a princess.

[HunterOfJello]

I'm going to be running a short adventure based on the one submitted in the original post and the comments presented here. (I'd like to do the forwards then backwards idea, but just having a backwards adventure will fit better with the current campaign.)

I've set up several (normally) good-aligned creatures and linear guild parties to oppose them. These will include a party based on a previous group that the players had made, werekittens who attack in packs while the adventurers are sleeping, unicorns who want to do naughty things to the non-virgins in the party and probably some constructs who all serve the evil Creepy Stranger/Princess out of their own free will.


I'm also setting up a very deadly line-up of powerful, yet flawed allies for the party in the form of an underground town that helps populate the dungeon and protect their beloved Pink (light Red) Dragon. These include a Dwarf Lich who spends most of his time drunk, a Mind-Flayer Crusader, a Vampire obsessed with chocolate milk, Zombies who crave for candy all the time, mimics who generously save up money to buy and give away treasures, a Sucubus Paladin who tries to recruit the party into her abstinence crusade, and a whole support system of Kobolds who are hard workers and (mostly) respectable citezins of the underground town (since there's always the random oddball kobold who goes against the norm).

The party will awake in the dragon's chamber and then be offered some short quests of information and equipment gathering in the underground town, then set off to find a Medusa who lives in a forest. She would live underground with the other good-aligned monsters, but she has a bad habit of turning whatever she looks at from Stone to Flesh, which caused some bad and bloody cave-ins (thankfully no one was hurt).

~

I'm sure I'll better develop my ideas before my starting time and I'll try to post some information about everything in detail, along with how the players reacted to everything later on.