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Bit Fiend
2012-02-07, 07:33 PM
Hi there!

After reading quite a few threads containing occasional posts like this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12673186&postcount=8) I thought it would be interesting to see some more RPG-ideas built on puns (as horrible as you wish).

Quests built on puns.

Adventures built on puns.

Campaigns built on puns.

Even builds built on puns.

Actually used in a game or made up on the fly doesn't really matter.

One for the tax:
A spelljammer ship arrives on the PC's homeworld. The ship is just the first of a whole fleet, all loaded with zealous followers of St. Cuthbert. Will the heroes be able to stop them from putting the world into the iron grip of their deity's uncompromising law? Will the planet stay safe for chaotic characters? Fight or get bashed by the Mace Invaders!

DaMullet
2012-02-07, 07:38 PM
A man by the name of Hukdon discovers a ritual to summon and control a legendary fire spirit. Prepare yourself for the Hukdon Phoenix!

I did run that, though it was d20 modern so 'ritual' became 'computer program'. they didn't spot it until way after the campaign ended, but it was so worth it when they noticed.

Lifeson
2012-02-07, 07:46 PM
My girlfriend found a map of a town shaped to look like a bust of Shakespeare. The town that followed pretty much wrote itself.

Chaucer's Saucer is the inn, run by Sir John Milton, retired bard. The temple is run by Mother Wollstonecraft. The store is name "Cents and Sensibility" and run by Emily Bronte.

I could keep going all day. :smallamused:

Timberboar
2012-02-07, 07:47 PM
I'll play. Forgive me.

I once ran a d20 Modern detective game. A notorious jewel thief heisted the infamous pink Love Diamond, but set off some alarms on his way out. The PCs chased him to the Wong Toy Factory, where they apprehended him after he had stashed the gem somewhere along the assembly line.

The rest of the session was spent *ahem*...

Looking for Love in all the Wong Playsets.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-07, 08:08 PM
I'll play. Forgive me.

I once ran a d20 Modern detective game. A notorious jewel thief heisted the infamous pink Love Diamond, but set off some alarms on his way out. The PCs chased him to the Wong Toy Factory, where they apprehended him after he had stashed the gem somewhere along the assembly line.

The rest of the session was spent *ahem*...

Looking for Love in all the Wong Playsets.

Just out of curiosity: Was the acronym of "Wong Toy Factory" on purpose or pure coincidence? :smallamused:

Timberboar
2012-02-07, 08:49 PM
Just out of curiosity: Was the acronym of "Wong Toy Factory" on purpose or pure coincidence? :smallamused:

Pure coincidence, I'm afraid. Had I noticed at the time, I probably would have named the thief something along the lines of Oswald Michael Galloway.

navar100
2012-02-07, 09:29 PM
I'll play a paladin, immune to fear, with Skill Focus (Use Rope). I'm afraid not!

Coplantor
2012-02-07, 09:44 PM
Not sure if this counts as a pun, it's more of a word play, but I have a silly campaign setting in which the players can visit the Forest of the Psimians. Being it a silent P, people usually wont notice anything strange until the telekinetically thrown poo hits them in the face.

Dr. Yes
2012-02-07, 11:15 PM
In a campaign I'm planning, I'm going to have the party either escorting or questing on behalf of an NPC based on the first post of this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231692) thread. That character will be a well-respected mage with inborn arcane power, known to be particularly skilled with conjuration and crafting magic items. Curiously, he has rarely been seen for more than a few hours at a time, and has an intense aversion to being touched.

His appearance is a fraud, of course. He doesn't allow himself to be touched because it would endanger the delicate magic-enhanced disguises he constantly wears. The magic isn't UMD or anything, though; it's really his, and he's legitimately a pretty powerful sorcerer.

Or, more precisely, he's a pretty powerful horserer.

zorba1994
2012-02-07, 11:27 PM
Arguably, every campaign ever can be described as "Of Dice and Men"

Starscream
2012-02-07, 11:49 PM
I have featured giant zombie bees (Zom-Bees), invisible werewolves (Where-Wolves), a quest to retrieve a political treatise written by a famous hired killer (Assassin's Screed), and an Orc from the kingdom of Mork. Groan-worthy stuff.

Yeah, I used to read Piers Anthony books, why do you ask?

Bagelson
2012-02-08, 06:28 AM
Arguably, every campaign ever can be described as "Of Dice and Men"
Only if you use a dice mechanic.

The legitimacy of an entire religion hinges on a single precious artefact granted them by their gods; a small golden coin with all manner of miraculous powers.

When the religion finally collapses, the artefact vanishes. PCs find clues to where to find it and thus achieve the ultimate power in Heaven Cent.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-08, 07:18 AM
Being inspired by the early modern martial art of canne de combat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canne_de_combat) I decided to build a gentleman swashbuckler type of character around fighting with a walking cane. Seeing as magical canes are rarely to find in your standard weapon shop I guessed he had to bring his own magical cane to the table. The weapon in question was a sentient item containing the soul of a long forgotten Dread Pirate. It wouldn't talk much out of combat, as the pirate had grown tired of his existence as a walking stick, but in combat he would be reminded of his glorious days and make very pirate-y noises on each hit. Meet gentleman-swashbuckler Adrian Vast, master of the Arrrr Cane.

The Glyphstone
2012-02-08, 09:14 AM
I've never gotten it formally written down to paper, but my nebulous proto-campaign setting features a huge city built on both sides of a bay and river on the coast called Kym, which was divided during a civil war and is now effectively two independent cities adjacent to each other, Old Kym and New Kym, each ruled by a Duke who considers himself the ruler of the entire 'city' and his opposite number an usurper. The Old Duke is a political schemer and manipulator, the New Duke is a retired elite soldier who's addicted to a tobacco-like gum product made from the sap of a rubber-tree analogue in the distant tropical land of Bubali. The primary quest of the area would be stopping the nefarious Old Duke from cutting off his rival's supply of narcotic gum.

Okizruin
2012-02-08, 09:37 AM
I've never gotten it formally written down to paper, but my nebulous proto-campaign setting features a huge city built on both sides of a bay and river on the coast called Kym, which was divided during a civil war and is now effectively two independent cities adjacent to each other, Old Kym and New Kym, each ruled by a Duke who considers himself the ruler of the entire 'city' and his opposite number an usurper. The Old Duke is a political schemer and manipulator, the New Duke is a retired elite soldier who's addicted to a tobacco-like gum product made from the sap of a rubber-tree analogue in the distant tropical land of Bubali. The primary quest of the area would be stopping the nefarious Old Duke from cutting off his rival's supply of narcotic gum.

“It’s time to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and I’m all out of gum.”

The Glyphstone
2012-02-08, 09:54 AM
Yup. An entire city, a mysterious foreign island, and a major historical event all created solely for the sake of the Duke of New Kym, who used to kick ass but now chews Bubali gum. And he's about to run out of gum.

ArcGygas
2012-02-08, 08:11 PM
Both of these puns got books thrown at me, so be forewarned.

Hidden deep in the mountains, guarded by dwarves and their grand vaults, is a library of great power...

Little do the adventurers know that the dwarf clan guarding it are master chefs, and hidden in the library are the cookbooks of legends; The Demonomnomnomicon, the Book of Exalted Dishes, and the Book of Vile Parsnips.

Of course, to get access to the vault, they'll have to deal with clan's greatest chef in a contest; The Mithril Chef Competition!

***

The local temple of Thor was recently caught putting together a small party, but when the rest of the village found out, they cancelled it. After all, it was supposed to be low key...

Mystify
2012-02-08, 08:19 PM
Its not really a pun, but:

Add "born of the three thunders" and "Fell frighten" to lightning bolt.

Its a thunder bolt of lightning; very very frightening.

hydraa
2012-02-09, 12:41 AM
I have started with my set of encounters, hosted by Mr. Poe E Tree and his raven companion Nevermore. He was reciting poems (the raven) when approached. Did I mention that he was a undead Treant.

He was a former druid that tried to escape from the red death and the exit tree for his tree stride died with him in it.

Killer Angel
2012-02-09, 03:07 AM
Even builds built on puns.


Does PunPun counts?

Bit Fiend
2012-02-09, 05:53 AM
Does PunPun counts?

Nope, but a character who could punish PunPun sure would... :smallamused:

Killer Angel
2012-02-09, 06:32 AM
Nope, but a character who could punish PunPun sure would... :smallamused:

punching him, you mean? :smallwink:

Bit Fiend
2012-02-09, 06:40 AM
To puncture him might also work...

navar100
2012-02-09, 01:16 PM
There could be punitive damages though.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-09, 01:58 PM
There could be punitive damages though.

but the damage would be puny...

Aotrs Commander
2012-02-09, 06:58 PM
I once ran a pirate adventure who's premise was based off a skit in the obscure BBC comedy Captain Butler, which was the highlight of the entire series...

The PCs solved the complex riddle on their treasure map, and with mad old Cap'n Beard1 and found the treasure, which consisted of:


A wooden spindle with a piece of twine wrapped round the centre, with a loop at the lose end, appearing to be some sort of child’s toy.
A long-handled gardening implement, like a pitchfork, but with a rectangular piece of metal across the end.
A bottle of some alcoholic beverage, unopened, perhaps grog or maybe rum.

Thus, the treasure they had sought consisted of

...a yo-yo, hoe and a bottle of rum.

I am a bad person.



1Who was something of a joke himself; he had a beard of quite unremarkable colour, and wore an eyepatch, which he tended to lift up to look at people, and change which eye it covered... He was, as my adventure text sufficently put it "a complete nutter"...

Actually, that whole quest was mostly a lot of comedy gags strung together... More Monkey Island than Pirates of the Carribean (not surprisingly, since the latter had not been released yet.)

EccentricCircle
2012-02-09, 07:25 PM
Where to begin.
I use a lot of Puny character names in my games the most recent of which were Reg and Lars, the most common patrons of the local tavern.

a recuring character in one of my games, an information broker was once asked what his name was and replied "my name has a price" he has been called Yasar Price ever since, even canonically.

at one point a character in one of my games was put on trial. the court was told to stand for the right honourable Judge Durian Xavier Zachusna.

then there was the master biologist of the wizard's guild who was rather fond of puns, and when asked to build a magically sealed riddle door to protect the school's treasure vaults chose to assemble a statue of a small orc made of iron, which could only be opened when the blood of an ox had been poured into the vial in its hand. He was famous for discovering how oxygen is carried by the blood, and its no suprise he chose to build an Oxyhaemogoblin.

I'm waiting for a party in a sci fi game to get into a situation they can't find a way out of so that they can be saved by a squad of marines lead by one Major D.S.X. McKenna.

I actually wasn't responsible for naming a Minor nobleman Lord Elpas. but I definitely approved.

and last but by no means least, doesn't anyone else think that Indices is a great name for an ancient greek Librarian?

EccentricCircle
2012-02-09, 07:27 PM
Where to begin...

I use a lot of Puny character names in my games the most recent of which were Reg and Lars, the most common patrons of the local tavern.

a recuring character in one of my games, an information broker was once asked what his name was and replied "my name has a price" he has been called Yasar Price ever since, even canonically.

at one point a character in one of my games was put on trial. the court was told to stand for the right honourable Judge Durian Xavier Zachusna.

then there was the master biologist of the wizard's guild who was rather fond of puns, and when asked to build a magically sealed riddle door to protect the school's treasure vaults chose to assemble a statue of a small orc made of iron, which could only be opened when the blood of an ox had been poured into the vial in its hand. He was famous for discovering how oxygen is carried by the blood, and its no suprise he chose to build an Oxyhaemogoblin.

I'm waiting for a party in a sci fi game to get into a situation they can't find a way out of so that they can be saved by a squad of marines lead by one Major D.S.X. McKenna.

I actually wasn't responsible for naming a Minor nobleman Lord Elpas. but I definitely approved.

and last but by no means least, doesn't anyone else think that Indices is a great name for an ancient greek Librarian?

Axinian
2012-02-09, 07:52 PM
All these puns are unBEARable!!!

What? Bearington Bearman the Bearbarian is relevant to the topic...

Bit Fiend
2012-02-09, 08:24 PM
One of my favorite traps is locking the characters in a room with a machine that produces severe cold in said room. The machine is nigh immune to physical damage but vulnerable to elemental damage. So in order to survive the PCs have to nuke the fridge.

kieza
2012-02-09, 08:36 PM
A kobold mage with an english accent who midnights in a comedy club hires the group to slay the legendary Yeti and bring back the body. He proceeds to rummage through its innards and extract a small organ, which he then uses to lock a city in a state of perpetual winter.

Yes, the party just went on a quest for lizard wizard Eddie Izzard's blizzard gizzard.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-09, 09:05 PM
A kobold mage with an english accent who midnights in a comedy club hires the group to slay the legendary Yeti and bring back the body. He proceeds to rummage through its innards and extract a small organ, which he then uses to lock a city in a state of perpetual winter.

Yes, the party just went on a quest for lizard wizard Eddie Izzard's blizzard gizzard.

Could also make it the interiors of a prepared-casting white dragon... essentially a blizzard lizzard wizard gizzard. :smallwink:

Items I enjoy giving out:
A longbow which enables the weilder to cast Control Weather once a day, but only to produce liquid precipitation, making it a rain bow.
A medieval giutar-like instrument producing sounds depending on die rolls, the Random Lute.
And a pair of interconnected spheres of hardened iron, which make the owner immune to fear... I'll let you figure this last one out yourselves...

The Glyphstone
2012-02-09, 09:48 PM
And a pair of interconnected spheres of hardened iron, which make the owner immune to fear... I'll let you figure this last one out yourselves...

They must have stolen said spheres from my New Duke mentioned above.

Ason
2012-02-10, 01:35 AM
I hate to quote myself, but I find this old post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12093631&postcount=137) pretty relevant. For those too lazy to click the link:


"At work today, a certain phrase was stuck in my head that spawned an idea for a little item that will now definitely appear in one of my future campaigns:

While looting a villain's lair, the party will discover an ornate treasure chest containing only a wig that detects as magical. Whoever puts it on will find that it bonds to their scalp and lets them style their hair however they like at-will, whether that is a rainbow mohawk, red tonsure, blond dreadlocks or teal crew cut. However, the wig can only be taken off via a Remove Curse of a high caster level (definitely higher than what the party can easily access). Further, it forcibly turns the wearer's alignment towards Lawful Evil over several days (with effects similar to a Helm of Opposite Alignment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#helmofOppositeAlignment)). If the person wearing the wig is ever reduced to 25% of his maximum hit points, the wig summons 2d3 imps who immediately defend the person from both the party's enemies and anyone who is not Lawful Evil (i.e. imps will often attack party members unprovoked).

The phrase that inspired me is the same as the cursed item's name- hell to pay. Say it out loud, if you have trouble getting the joke."

joe
2012-02-10, 07:50 AM
If you can find the 1st Edition Module "Castle Greyhawk" it is loaded with nothing but awful puns. I would recommend this adventure to no one, but if that's what you're looking for, than it would be worth taking a gander.

I wouldn't pay any more than a few dollars for it though... at most. If you're not looking for horrific puns, the module is garbage.

Note: This is probably the only time in my life I will have ever recommended this module to anyone for any reason.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-10, 08:23 AM
If you can find the 1st Edition Module "Castle Greyhawk" it is loaded with nothing but awful puns. I would recommend this adventure to no one, but if that's what you're looking for, than it would be worth taking a gander.

I wouldn't pay any more than a few dollars for it though... at most. If you're not looking for horrific puns, the module is garbage.

Note: This is probably the only time in my life I will have ever recommended this module to anyone for any reason.

Thanks, will definitely take a look, especially since I now way too little about 1st Ed.

You see, horrible puns can be quite fun if English is not your native language. Ever since I've become familiar enough with English I'm regularly reverse-translating the text in dubbed movies and translated games in my head to find all the puns and plays on words that got lost in translation. So puns which would only be noticed in English add an element of stealth to them when used e.g. in German - and stealth is one of the few things, that can make an otherwise awful pun fun... :smallwink:

Captain Six
2012-02-10, 04:09 PM
It was Christmas and I was feeling nice so I let the party find a +2 Frostburst Longsword. The blade looked as though it were carved from a candy-cane with a twisted wreath that served as a hilt and handle. Its name was "Slay-Ride". No one wanted to use it. Not even the ones who didn't have magic weapons yet.

Xiander
2012-02-10, 04:24 PM
One of my friends had a thing for teasing his players by handing out "lightsabres". A longsword with permacied light cast on it, is abtly described as a lightsabre...

Jallorn
2012-02-10, 05:00 PM
One of my friends had a thing for teasing his players by handing out "lightsabres". A longsword with permacied light cast on it, is abtly described as a lightsabre...

Needs to be made out of Mithral as well. Also, a rapier would fit the sabre pun better.

hydraa
2012-02-10, 11:51 PM
Needs to be made out of Mithral as well. Also, a rapier would fit the sabre pun better.

Actually Saber is specifically mentioned in SaF and AaE as a scimitar equivalent. It is also mentioned in FRCS.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-11, 05:52 AM
It was Christmas and I was feeling nice so I let find a +2 Frostburst Longsword. The blade looked as though it were carved from a candy-cane with a twisted wreath that served as a hilt and handle. Its name was "Slay-Ride". No one wanted to use it. Not even the ones who didn't have magic weapons yet.

I'd definitely have used it... though I'd have to find a +2 red hide armor first...

navar100
2012-02-11, 01:56 PM
I'd definitely have used it... though I'd have to find a +2 red hide armor first...

I'd be playing a druid with an Animal Companion. Too bad there's no Animal Friendship spell in 3E for seven more, but I'll manage. Summon Nature's Ally, perhaps. I have Leadership feat. My cohort is an elf as are the followers. I'll also have a bag of holding.

ZeroGear
2012-02-11, 08:51 PM
More of a rip-off of names, but one could consider them puns:

An elven bard with ranks in Perform (sing), Perform (string instruments), and Perform (dance) with a guitar. He wears a fully white suit, blue shoes, and sunglasses, and has a duckbill haircut. His name is E. V. S. Presley.

Also, a Druid named Tedd. D. Bear.

navar100
2012-02-11, 11:01 PM
Can I play a Knight named Tan Lee?

TuggyNE
2012-02-12, 02:18 AM
More of a rip-off of names, but one could consider them puns:

An elven bard with ranks in Perform (sing), Perform (string instruments), and Perform (dance) with a guitar. He wears a fully white suit, blue shoes, and sunglasses, and has a duckbill haircut. His name is E. V. S. Presley.

Actually, he should be a changeling pretending to be an elf; that is, an elvish impersonator.


Can I play a Knight named Tan Lee?

But of course! I see what you did there....

Bit Fiend
2012-02-12, 06:54 AM
It's less a pun and more a case of "I've always wanted to say this", but I once set up an adventure similar to the first Trademeet-quest from Baldur's Gate 2. Druids were attacking a small town but upon confronting the local druid circle it would become clear that it's not them but a foreign sect that tries to frame that tries to frame the local druids for the attacks. Everything just to set up a cowled figure (the local druid leader) to deliver the line: "These aren't the druids you're looking for."

Wiwaxia
2012-02-12, 05:19 PM
Not quite a pun, but a Bard/Warlock. With a guitar.

navar100
2012-02-12, 06:16 PM
Maybe I'll play a monk named Chip.

Bit Fiend
2012-02-12, 06:19 PM
I once read about an abeil called Jessic on this forum...

suhkkaet
2012-02-13, 10:02 AM
Not much of a pun, but just yesterday I had my players run around in a dungeon looking for some stuff.
They opened a room, and in it was a troll.
A troll in the dungeon.

QuidEst
2012-02-13, 10:29 AM
Saw this on the boards.

Fighter: You have my sword.
Ranger: And my bow.
Bard: And my acts!

Personally, I'd like to have a Bard who, when she's in trouble, makes a spot check to see how many walls there are. As soon as there are three or less, she starts talking to me directly and gets advice. It'd only work once, but it'd be worth it, and the DM would have to go along with it. After all, he was the one that told me there was no fourth wall.

navar100
2012-02-13, 01:15 PM
The reference is well known but probably can only really work if you play in England, Nottinghamshire to be more precise, or are from there.

The party needs to see a wizard. They need to find the door to his hidden castle by a wood lined stream in a valley.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumble

EccentricCircle
2012-02-14, 01:21 PM
my players once encountered a group of druids who were repeatedly chanting "Left left left." they eventually realised that it was some sort of rite.

druids are wyrd.

mcv
2012-02-14, 03:40 PM
Hogshead games once published a WFRP adventure titled "Fear the worst". The "worst" in this case was a Dutch word, which means "sausage". The plot revolved around discovering there was something wrong with the sausage.

Swooper
2012-02-14, 06:52 PM
Spoilered because I haven't done this yet, but I intend to use this in my next game. Ernir, Ormur, Doktor_Per and the rest of you, stay out!
The party will be sent, along with their guide Morgan (a former slave they will free in a previous quest), on an adventure to defeat the evil yuan-ti. This will escalate into them invading the demi-plane of the yuan-ti's serpent god, hoping to defeat it.

I'm unsure whether I will award extra XP for making Snakes on a Plane jokes, or for not making them... :smallamused:

Science Officer
2012-02-14, 10:51 PM
I had a DM do this to my party. (unfortunately, or, perhaps, fortunately I missed about half of the (very short) campaign, including the conclusion)

so we were pirate-hunters. we had originally wanted to be pirates, but it was decided that was over-done. so we set out to hunt some pirates instead.
we became very, very lost, mostly because we let the insane barbarian do the navigating (I mean, who's going to argue with him?).

In the end, the party boarded the ship with the pirates. On the deck were three rodents. Well, three rodents and a bit of blood, bones and fur. So three and a bit more.

Yes, we had been hunting for pi rats.

Lagren
2012-02-14, 10:57 PM
I once built an entire campaign upon having to track down and rescue a white Great Wyrm that had been forcibly imprisoned by a powerful Seelie Lady, in order to use in a ritual to bring about eternal winter.

In short, they had to rescue the innocent dragon from the terrible princess.

Swooper
2012-02-15, 05:26 AM
The pirate story reminded me of something that happened in a short campaign I played in. Not sure if it qualifies as a pun, but still rather funny...

The party was on a ship, and we were attacked by elven pirates that happened to also be ninjas. While that's groan-worthy enough on its own, the ninjas actually got stronger each time we killed one of them. The encounter was a very literal application of a well known trope (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu). :smallsigh:

Doorhandle
2012-02-15, 06:24 AM
I had a DM do this to my party. (unfortunately, or, perhaps, fortunately I missed about half of the (very short) campaign, including the conclusion)

so we were pirate-hunters. we had originally wanted to be pirates, but it was decided that was over-done. so we set out to hunt some pirates instead.
we became very, very lost, mostly because we let the insane barbarian do the navigating (I mean, who's going to argue with him?).

In the end, the party boarded the ship with the pirates. On the deck were three rodents. Well, three rodents and a bit of blood, bones and fur. So three and a bit more.

Yes, we had been hunting for pi rats.

Were they at least very strong rats?

navar100
2012-02-15, 02:14 PM
Were they at least very strong rats?

Did the rats have feline butts mounted on a wall? It could have been a real catastrophe.

Laserlight
2013-01-13, 02:30 PM
We were looking for a tavern or inn. The terrain was fairly flat and the vegetation was scrub brush, so I was hoping to find a heath bar.

Roland St. Jude
2013-01-13, 05:25 PM
I once had a king of a human kingdom, known only as The King, who turned out to be an Elvish impersonator.

One game of mine had a metro system run by gnomes. Obviously, it had a reputation for running on time, the metro gnomes made sure of that.

Endarire
2013-01-13, 11:20 PM
Djinn and Tonic.

Elemental Plane of Snakes.

Bit Fiend
2013-01-14, 04:39 AM
Wait a minute... thread's almost gone for a year, back from the dead, Roland's been here and it's not locked for necromancy? Is this an official resurrection or something? :smallamused:

TuggyNE
2013-01-14, 04:41 AM
Wait a minute... thread's almost gone for a year, back from the dead, Roland's been here and it's not locked for necromancy? Is this an official resurrection or something? :smallamused:

Hypothesis: Roland rolled a 1 on his Spot check. :smallwink:

DigoDragon
2013-01-14, 07:43 AM
If you can find the 1st Edition Module "Castle Greyhawk" it is loaded with nothing but awful puns. I would recommend this adventure to no one, but if that's what you're looking for, than it would be worth taking a gander.

I have that module!
Never ran it, but it makes for a good threat if my players get out of line. :smallbiggrin:


Some of the game hooks over at SJgames.com can be downright pun-tastic and I've adapted a few. One adventure I put together that didn't quite see execution before the campaign took a hiatus had the premise where the players had to track down a giant bird that carried off a nobleman to the hills within a desert.

So the PCs had to travel to The Big Roc's Sandy Mountain.

Socratov
2013-01-14, 08:10 AM
We were looking for a tavern or inn. The terrain was fairly flat and the vegetation was scrub brush, so I was hoping to find a heath bar.

I had a similar situation: my party and I were lookign for a tavern of sorts, and found the Experience Bar where you rest in between level-ups

randomhero00
2013-01-14, 12:35 PM
A rakish bard hired a few gnolls to cook and make mints for him. When the party asked why would he would ask gnolls such a crazy odd thing he replied, "In case I need a divorce, I can get a-gnoll-mint!

EccentricCircle
2013-01-14, 01:25 PM
In a recent D&D next playtest game I had the party investigating the murder of a wizard. It turned out that he was part of an order of wizards entrusted with the books in which the nature of reality itself was written. Every so often they had to rewrite reality so as to maintain the balance of nature. Unfortunately the wizard had been murdered by his former aprentice who wanted to remake the world in his own image. It wasn't until they'd learnt all this and went back to the wizards tower that they realised why it was on the coast. they then had to go through a four pocket universe dungeon filled with iconic scenes from different D&D editions, including a war being fought between the people of the 3rd and 4th floors (well the 3rd floor was deserted with everyone living on a mezzanine...)

Thajocoth
2013-01-14, 08:24 PM
My first character ever was a floating eyeball with mind control & sight powers. He wore a fedora. Before the experiment that turned him & his brother Larry into floating eyeballs, he was a private investigator named Steven Eightman. His superhero name is "The Mind's Eye" and his brother is his nemesis, "The Evil Eye".

So, how many puns did you count there?

The opposition wasn't without puns either... The mind-based villain was named fivehead and had a really big forehead, for example. It was full of loads of puns.

We also got a to-hit bonus if we gave a one-liner before our attacks, which were usually puns.

Dimers
2013-01-14, 09:01 PM
The mind-based villain was named fivehead and had a really big forehead, for example. It was full of loads of puns.

Friend of mine made a superhero character with the ability to reshape his body to look exactly like any person. His other powers were mostly resistances based on not having a physiology anymore -- stuff like not needing to breathe or sleep, immunity to poison, that sort of thing, all fluffed as a state of undeath. The Dead Ringer.

I've worked hard to keep puns out of my gameworld, and the few that remain are presented as "alternative etymology" rather than humor. One prime example is found in Everwatch, a city constantly threatened by both flooding and massive armed attack, as it's located on a major river near two hostile nations. The barracks commander is a paunchy but tough woman. She’s heavy in a stable way -- she can take any hit, physical or emotional, without a flinch. Though uninventive, she’s plenty canny; her troops would trust her to hold back a river. In the local language, that’s what her nickname ‘Dra Scrid’ means: River-Holder. Her military successes and famed toughness have served to highlight unusual aspects of her personal life such as her insistence on romance only with women. Translations of the nickname have worked their way into other languages nearby as a brief word for a tough homosexual woman. Beyond the nation's borders, the term is rarely used with the respect given by Everwatchers; it’s simply applied to anyone who fits that description.

Magnema
2013-01-14, 09:26 PM
One time, two of my players couldn't make it to the first two sessions of a game. The first session, we made characters; the second session, we started the game. Since those two players couldn't make it, I had the other four players' first mission be to eliminate the satyrs who charmed the absent players' characters. They asked what the names of the people whom they were rescuing were, but the I didn't have names for the other two characters.

I only really liked one of the two names i gave them which was pronounced Toby DEHT-er-MIND, but spelled "Toby Determined." The player in question kept that as his name. (The other name was "Unona Soviet" = "Unknown as of yet").

artofregicide
2013-01-14, 09:50 PM
In the very first session of D&D I ever DMed (poorly, at that), the party were all prisoners and were attacked by a prison gang.

In the ensuing fight, one of the members of the Party (who would later gain fame as a High level Pun-crafter) wielded a shiv quite heroically against his opponents.

Obviously, I awarded him bonus XP for shivalry.

Bit Fiend
2013-01-15, 04:15 AM
Hypothesis: Roland rolled a 1 on his Spot check. :smallwink:

So you could say he did Rol-and missed it. :smallamused:

Wookieetank
2013-01-15, 09:26 AM
So in a Planescape Campaign I ran several years back had an artifact as a pun. One character's family had this whip which had been passed down in the famly for years, and not much was know about it other than it was magical and was "cool" to the touch. As the character learned about the whip, he learned command words and was able to agment the awesomeness of this whip, making it not just a cool whip (temperature), but a Cool whip :smallwink:

I may be a terrible person, but at least I enjoy myself :D

Dr Bwaa
2013-01-15, 01:52 PM
Oh my god I love this thread. Bookmarked.

Also, #SnakesOnAPlane in a friend's campaign, the penultimate encounter included battling the BBEG Lesser Demon Lord's material avatar, which was a Huge serpent of some kind. I believe the DM granted the party cleric a +2 on his Banishment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/banishment.htm) for yelling "I've had it with this muthableepin' snake on this muthableepin' plane!"

Morph Bark
2013-01-15, 03:11 PM
Being inspired by the early modern martial art of canne de combat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canne_de_combat) I decided to build a gentleman swashbuckler type of character around fighting with a walking cane. Seeing as magical canes are rarely to find in your standard weapon shop I guessed he had to bring his own magical cane to the table. The weapon in question was a sentient item containing the soul of a long forgotten Dread Pirate. It wouldn't talk much out of combat, as the pirate had grown tired of his existence as a walking stick, but in combat he would be reminded of his glorious days and make very pirate-y noises on each hit. Meet gentleman-swashbuckler Adrian Vast, master of the Arrrr Cane.

I've never gotten it formally written down to paper, but my nebulous proto-campaign setting features a huge city built on both sides of a bay and river on the coast called Kym, which was divided during a civil war and is now effectively two independent cities adjacent to each other, Old Kym and New Kym, each ruled by a Duke who considers himself the ruler of the entire 'city' and his opposite number an usurper. The Old Duke is a political schemer and manipulator, the New Duke is a retired elite soldier who's addicted to a tobacco-like gum product made from the sap of a rubber-tree analogue in the distant tropical land of Bubali. The primary quest of the area would be stopping the nefarious Old Duke from cutting off his rival's supply of narcotic gum.

Oh god, these are great. The first had me in stitches, the second was great to find out what it was all about. I'd love to utilize these ideas myself for my campaign, maybe the setting, if I may?


In one of my longest-lived campaigns, there was a catfolk shop owner part-time blacksmith named Lays Smith. His children were named after chips flavours, like Onion, Cheese and Burger.

The Glyphstone
2013-01-15, 06:00 PM
Oh god, these are great. The first had me in stitches, the second was great to find out what it was all about. I'd love to utilize these ideas myself for my campaign, maybe the setting, if I may?


In one of my longest-lived campaigns, there was a catfolk shop owner part-time blacksmith named Lays Smith. His children were named after chips flavours, like Onion, Cheese and Burger.

Please do. I doubt my setting will ever see the light of day, so at least my pun will live on.

Dr.Epic
2013-01-15, 08:22 PM
I thought it would be interesting to see some more RPG-ideas built on puns (as horrible as you wish).

Dude, there's an entire RPG system built on puns with several expansions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_card_game)

Bit Fiend
2013-01-16, 06:43 AM
Dude, there's an entire RPG system built on puns with several expansions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_card_game)

Yes, I know... and i have all of it. :smallamused:

EDIT: OK, just read how many expansions there actually are... I guess it's not exactly all i have, but most of it anyway...

Slavaa
2013-01-17, 11:31 AM
In my campaign I'm planning on implementing a series of magic items/minor artifacts, using idioms that have "last" in them, but with "Blast" instead.

I'm still working out the numbers--including the recharge times--the idea for the second one is that the results are unpredictable for how effective it will be, and the cost of using it increases (so that they can't just channel healing into the user forever).

"Blast Hurrah"
A ring. Whenever the wearer is knocked unconscious, a ring of fire expands outward, dealing 4d6 fire damage to everyone, friend or foe, within a 20 foot circular radius. Reflex DC 16 for half damage. and allows the wearer a full turn on their next round even if their health is reduced below -10. The wearer may use this round to heal themself or be healed by others, and not die if they have more than -10 hit points when the person with the lowest initiative finishes their turn, following the wearer's extra turn. Requires two weeks to recharge.

"Blast Resort"
Twin ring to "Blast Hurrah". When activated, shoots a stream of fire energy at a target within 60 feet, dealing 2d20 damage to the target and that same amount to the user. The user can sustain the energy attack, but on the second turn, it deals 1-and-a-half times the damage to the user, twice as much on the third turn, etc, increasing by 0.5 times every turn. If the user's health falls below -10 through use of this ring while wearing Blast Hurrah, Blast Hurrah activates even if it has not recharged, and Blast Resort. Requires one month to recharge after use.

Other items I have planned include


Blast word
Blast straw
Blast laugh
Blast-minute
Blast call
Blast wish
Blast-ditch effort
Blast will (and testament)
Blast in, first out
Blast but not least


And maybe a "Decanter of Everblasting water."

Dr Bwaa
2013-01-17, 12:27 PM
In my campaign I'm planning on implementing a series of magic items/minor artifacts, using idioms that have "last" in them, but with "Blast" instead.

Heh, these are funny. Everblasting rations :smalleek:

Wookieetank
2013-01-17, 12:30 PM
Heh, these are funny. Everblasting rations :smalleek:

I wonder if those taste anything like pop rocks.

Doorhandle
2013-01-17, 05:48 PM
In my campaign I'm planning on implementing a series of magic items/minor artifacts, using idioms that have "last" in them, but with "Blast" instead.

I'm still working out the numbers--including the recharge times--the idea for the second one is that the results are unpredictable for how effective it will be, and the cost of using it increases (so that they can't just channel healing into the user forever).

"Blast Hurrah"
A ring. Whenever the wearer is knocked unconscious, a ring of fire expands outward, dealing 4d6 fire damage to everyone, friend or foe, within a 20 foot circular radius. Reflex DC 16 for half damage. and allows the wearer a full turn on their next round even if their health is reduced below -10. The wearer may use this round to heal themself or be healed by others, and not die if they have more than -10 hit points when the person with the lowest initiative finishes their turn, following the wearer's extra turn. Requires two weeks to recharge.

"Blast Resort"
Twin ring to "Blast Hurrah". When activated, shoots a stream of fire energy at a target within 60 feet, dealing 2d20 damage to the target and that same amount to the user. The user can sustain the energy attack, but on the second turn, it deals 1-and-a-half times the damage to the user, twice as much on the third turn, etc, increasing by 0.5 times every turn. If the user's health falls below -10 through use of this ring while wearing Blast Hurrah, Blast Hurrah activates even if it has not recharged, and Blast Resort. Requires one month to recharge after use.

Other items I have planned include


Blast word
Blast straw
Blast laugh
Blast-minute
Blast call
Blast wish
Blast-ditch effort
Blast will (and testament)
Blast in, first out
Blast but not least


And maybe a "Decanter of Everblasting water."

THE PUNISHMENT HERE IS INCREIBLE.

Well done. :smallcool:

Jacob.Tyr
2013-01-17, 06:27 PM
I'm horribly uncreative, and name all the characters in my settings using word play.
Fuhr and Reese run the stables.
Zell and Ouss are church representatives.
Pross is the mad'am of a brothel, with Toot being her #1 girl.
And so on.

My players burned the stables down during the first session...

SowZ
2013-01-17, 08:15 PM
There was this hyper deadly moor that was the quickest route between the town the party was at and the one they needed to get to. The main road was a two day detour. So they hired a halfling guide. He got to the front edge and there was a sort of canyon with a natural arch connecting the two cliff faces. The halfling guide said it was called 'the door' and asked if they were all sure they didn't want to go around since the canyon is cursed. They started to walk into the canyon. "WAIT!" Says the guide. "One does not simply walk through the moor's door!"

Cue my players all giving me a cold glare with varying levels of hatred.

EccentricCircle
2013-01-26, 05:23 AM
I've not actually run this one yet but its planned:

When the Shogun is murdered by his new wife, his daughter must flee into the wilderness and recruit a band of exiled ronin to help restore her family to power.

Snow White and the Seven Samurai.

Dimers
2013-01-27, 02:21 AM
As one Family Circus comic pointed out, if a small stabby eating device with four tines is called a "fork", one that has three tines should be a "threek". I made up a trident for a D&D game that was mildly magical as a weapon but had a special ability to improve animal-summoning spells. If the wielder cast summon nature's ally to get an animal, it would have an extra fully-functional head, basically adding one attack per combat round. This trident was appropriately called ...

the Threek of Nature. :smallcool:

Sith_Happens
2013-01-27, 02:35 AM
I've not actually run this one yet but its planned:

When the Shogun is murdered by his new wife, his daughter must flee into the wilderness and recruit a band of exiled ronin to help restore her family to power.

Snow White and the Seven Samurai.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand EccentricCircle wins the thread.

ZeroGear
2013-01-27, 03:03 AM
In my oriental campaign, which to my regret I allowed the group access to the BOEF, the bear totem barbarian decided to use a war-fork...because he wanted to "fork his enemies to death".

Sith_Happens
2013-01-27, 03:13 AM
In my oriental campaign, which to my regret I allowed the group access to the BOEF, the bear totem barbarian decided to use a war-fork...because he wanted to "fork his enemies to death".

If that's the worst pun your players broke out in a BoEF campaign, you should count yourself lucky.:smalltongue:

EccentricCircle
2013-01-27, 05:01 AM
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand EccentricCircle wins the thread.

Excellent!

Swaoeaeieu
2013-01-27, 05:56 AM
My party was asking for the best smithy in town to get some weapons and armor. We got directed to a certain mister Schmidt.

moral of the story: our DM does not improvise very well :P

ZeroGear
2013-01-27, 09:49 AM
If that's the worst pun your players broke out in a BoEF campaign, you should count yourself lucky.:smalltongue:

It's not, but I can't post the other ones.

Reltzik
2013-01-27, 10:46 AM
I once ran a completely tongue-and-cheek PBP adventure that dissolved halfway through because the players got sick of all the puns and silliness.

The PCs were part of the Ad-Venturers Guild, a group of armed traveling salespeople whose job was to venture out, advertise, and sell product to monsters before the unaffiliated Adventurer's Guild killed them. (Sequels would have featured their recurring rivals, the missionary Advent-urers guild.)

Recently, a monastery on an island in a placid mountain loch had been overrun by orcs. (If I'd known more about balancing 1st level stuff, I'd have made it kobolds or goblins, but whatever.) Guild diviners had determined that this had created a market at the monastery for Ye Olde Carpette Cleaninge Solutione, which had never moved due to the stupendous warning/disclaimer label (a long list of side-effects ending in "cancer, death, and mild halitosis"). The guildmaster reasoned that the orcs must have been murder on the monastery's carpets, after all. So he sent his best team of most expendable Ad-venturers. The adventure opened with the Ad-venturers arriving at the valley and viewing the devastation -- the defaced murals of the monastery, the pikes with monks' heads on them, the soot and ash pouring out of chimneys as the orcs burnt furniture for their improvised forges, the ruined fields of carefully tended flowers, and the singing fish of the loch singing laments for their now-soot-covered scales.

What followed was a slapstick series of encounters of puns, absurdity, and obtuse reasoning. We had the choice of three paths leading to the monastery (beware of dog, beware of log, and beware of grog, with the last path turning out to be an orc trader purchasing supplies for the tribe, and the only thing the really needed was wares of grog), a couple of orc guards at the front door who were oddly verbose, contrary, and dressed as Yeoman Warders, and an arguing philosopher and physicist (Aristorcle and Orchimedes) trying to figure out whether or not boats made of iron would float (the philosopher reasoned yes, the physicist no). Had they continued, they might have encountered the skeletons of a famous trio of disciplinarian nuns (hence the old disjunction to disobedient girls, get thee to a nun o' three).

The barbarian boss would have been an able combatant and willing to listen to the pitch. Though initially uninterested in buying, an attack by the Adventurers guild would have had him offering to buy the entire supply if the Ad-venturers would fend off the good guys for him.

Turns out that the orcs weren't the potential buyers (identified by guild diviners) for Ye Olde Carpette Cleaninge Solutione. It was the singing fish with sooty scales, fresh back from their tour and loaded down with the proceeds thereof. Perhaps you've heard of them? The Carpettes?

Deathkeeper
2013-01-27, 02:13 PM
I had a habit of doing this to our GM and other players, often steering entire RP sessions so that I might get a pun out of it. Notables are
1) After reaching level 7 and getting my new Pseudodragon familiar, managing to get someone to do something impressive so he could say, "You guys have been at this for a while haven't you? I guess in joining I've been dragon my feet."
2) Pointing out that the dwarf hadn't bought alcohol for the trip, forcing him to make a Profession(Brewer) check with fermenting berries in his pack that I knew the GM would handwave, specifically to say "I'd certainly call it a fruitful endeavor."
3) After our Cleric receiving an Icy Burst longsword based off of Elder Scrolls' Chillrend, I once positioned my character and the cleric walked over to a demon during an easy encounter and attacked it to be 100% sure it wouldn't go for me (this wasn't intentional; I didn't have much choice)
"And of course his sword will pierce the demon's DR"
"Why? It's not holy."
"No, but it is COLD iron!"
Books were thrown.

Guizonde
2013-01-27, 08:36 PM
while dm'ing the return of darkness in riddleport, i will make sure my players get to a bank to find mister carcharias. carcharodon carcharias. yup, he's a loan-shark.
there's also the dealer at the golden goblin, a certain Galeocerdo cuvier. yup, he's a card-shark. *hides*

a lot of thieves create running jokes, like everyone saying 2 things (take that, npc dialogue! even pen and paper can have canned phrases!)

-"times are hard 'round these here parts". first five times my players heard this, they were thinking that i had no imagination. i knew it became a gag when they smirked, i won when they said it irl with no relation to anything rp-related (smiles were had). heck, now it's part of our "dialect".

-"even evil has standards", usually refers to playing celine dion albums, but can be applied to a crook talking about a lawyer. :smallbiggrin:

my dwarf's name is a pun. girderson. he went adventuring because he couldn't cut it as a carpenter. however, being a cleric of pelor, he's beaming at the possibility of adventuring.:smallbiggrin:

in french, it's poutre, and as jargon counts as getting beaned by said girder. heavy-handed attacks, violence, essentially meant to bring the house down! i can pun it up in two languages with a basic translation, so yeah, this running gag/avalanche of puns won't run dry anytime soon. (that, and it's a fun word to say)

Green Leviathan
2013-01-28, 02:32 PM
i once asked an NPC if he would take me to the port athority. he took me to an inn named "Port Athority". *groan*

Chilingsworth
2013-01-29, 04:13 PM
I've not actually run this one yet but its planned:

When the Shogun is murdered by his new wife, his daughter must flee into the wilderness and recruit a band of exiled ronin to help restore her family to power.

Snow White and the Seven Samurai.

That sounds awesome! Could you post a campaign journal of that once you start it, please?

nedz
2013-01-29, 05:55 PM
Snow White and the Seven Samurai.

This reminds me of the (very) old Snow Dwarf and the Seven Wights encounter.

ZeroGear
2013-01-29, 11:43 PM
After fighting a yeti, my character went out on a limb and asked if he could keep the cut off arms because he thought they would be "handy" as a set of long gloves while the group was traveling the snowy mountain.
Turned out they were really handy as prof that we had killed the "snow monster" after "disarming" it.

Guizonde
2013-01-30, 03:26 PM
After fighting a yeti, my character went out on a limb and asked if he could keep the cut off arms because he thought they would be "handy" as a set of long gloves while the group was traveling the snowy mountain.
Turned out they were really handy as prof that we had killed the "snow monster" after "disarming" it.

that... is beautiful!

unfortunately, our dm's banned trophy taking... something about beheading a now headless horseman i think... not my fault, i swear. i was caught in a fishing net, so i was tied up at that moment...

i just thought of the puns now, since they don't work in french, but it did happen (whfrp, bounty hunter with net crit fails, and the diestro got lucky with his rapier on a mounted highwayman) so, i'm not sure it counts as a pun...

still, regarding that campaign, i do run away with my tail between my legs on more than one occasion, being a skink. and please, never ignore the accidental innuendo when you have a prehensile tail, and that you use it to hold on to walls, beams, rafters, etc... :smallredface: yeah, i'm surrounded by giggling schoolboys...

ZeroGear
2013-02-11, 04:51 PM
Just to add a build...

I am justice,
I am truth,
I am the rules,
I am the sword of order
I am the Law Incarnate!!!
(See Magic of Incarnum to understand that one)

EccentricCircle
2013-02-13, 11:40 AM
That sounds awesome! Could you post a campaign journal of that once you start it, please?

Can do. It probably won't be for a while though as theres so many other games to do between now and then...