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View Full Version : So you're a level 1 commoner...



MavAntagonist
2012-04-14, 02:18 PM
Last night we played a one shot the basic premise of which is this:

You live in a small town of about 200 people everyone knows each other and is a pleasant little mining village. Nothing interesting happens here, ever. And as such everyone there is a level one commoner, including you. Until one day zombies raise in the graveyard and it's up to a group of daring adventurers to save the day. Only there are no adventures and no one is saving the day. You're only goal is to survive. What do you do?

Miraculously everyone did survive the session more or less intact, and in doing so everyone had a great time. So we decided to continue playing our group of commoners with a rotating DM so everyone can get in on the fun.

After the zombies we are kinda short on ideas for sessions that a group of level 1 NPCs could survive(or die hilariously) through. Then we thought it would be good to hear what other people thought would make for a fun task for a group of untrained and unskilled NPC classes.

So any ideas?

TeChameleon
2012-04-14, 02:25 PM
A goblin invasion or kobold attack might work.

... or a swarm of housecats >.>

Mastikator
2012-04-14, 02:26 PM
Raiders, they come, take a few as slaves and kill some others. It's your job to save those who've been taken.
And so their adventuring campaign began...

Also, kudos on making an excellent campaign idea with the commoner levels and zombie survival.

Kolonel
2012-04-14, 03:13 PM
Reverse the usual roles!

A party of 4-6th level adventurers come to the town, and start behaving... well, as irresponsible adventurers behave.
They start a barfight and injure quite a lot of villagers; the spellcaster botches a magical experiment which sets a large portion of the cornfield on fire; the bard charms one of the PC-s wives or sisters; the angry fighter kills the village elder, because "he had an ugly face and I hated his voice! Whatccha gonna do about it? Huh? You wanna fight?"

They may initially look like good fortune to the village: they spend a lot of gold, they have interesting stories.
But after a day or two they will start to become a catastrophe (have the villager NPCs' mood slowly shift from awe to hate), and the PC-s will have to figure something out to get rid of them (the adventurers say, they'll be going soon, but they don't feel like leaving), and they have to get creative, because fighting them head on won't work.

Accordion Twome
2012-04-14, 04:00 PM
A ooze has been awakened by some miners and is eating anyone who comes close, but they also found gold in that mine so they are offering a reward to who ever can take care of this slime.

I shadowy half-orc comes in to town and is now selling (Insert Item here) at a insanely low price, Can he be trusted?

That's just a few ideas.
Hope you have fun :-)

Jay R
2012-04-14, 04:36 PM
The town has nothing to do on the weekends. The PCs have to discover a way to make dice, miniatures, characters sheets, and rulebooks.

Hand_of_Vecna
2012-04-14, 06:16 PM
A group of commoners can generally take on <1 CR monsters fairly reliably. If they play smart they can probably handle most adventures designed for level one characters though they may have to think their way through a few encounters, but that's for the best. Most (not all) 1st level adventures are designed with kid gloves on and should serve as a decent kid gloves off adventure for commoners.

Janx's Jynx was an old 2nd ed dungeon magazine adventure that would work well sans heroes. Mysteries can work well without class levels and can actually be scary.

Pokonic
2012-04-14, 08:59 PM
A powerful creature with a weakness to a common substance (lets say a Troll) wanders into town and rampages every few days. Problem is, your widdle PC's could not tell the difference between a Hag, a Witch, or a Dryad, and so will have to take time experimenting with ways to kill it before it kills everyone.

Rorrik
2012-04-14, 09:00 PM
Haha, I thought this was about ideas of how to be a successful level 1 commoner. You'd have to be clever, build traps and make stairs collapse and set snares and all of that jazz. I'd be excited to try a game like this and have to make really careful tactical decisions.

Kudos!

Hyudra
2012-04-14, 09:40 PM
A horse rides into town, a bloodied soldier barely conscious atop it. "A small army of goblins. Day's ride away, coming straight down this road."

Cue preparations, crude defenses, organization of the townspeople into a makeshift militia. Add arguments over how things should be done - how many people do you devote to setting up a trench with spikes? Do you send your fastest horse rider to the nearest city in hopes of reinforcements - they'd arrive four to six hours after the goblins do, at the very least - or do you use him as a scout so you can make last minute changes to the defensive organization? Thad wants to burn his neighbor's crops, so the goblins won't have nearly as much food to use to sustain their number. His neighbor, naturally, resists.

Cirrylius
2012-04-14, 11:52 PM
A plague of rats. When a piper comes to town, offering to get rid of the rats for a hefty fee, the council turns him down in favor of letting your local boys handle it. For a tax deduction, maybe. Piper leaves in a huff. Rats get more inventive, devious, and aggressive over time, culminating in a mass-swarm attack led by the piper and his educated rodents.

Pokonic
2012-04-15, 12:24 AM
A plague of rats. When a piper comes to town, offering to get rid of the rats for a hefty fee, the council turns him down in favor of letting your local boys handle it. For a tax deduction, maybe. Piper leaves in a huff. Rats get more inventive, devious, and aggressive over time, culminating in a mass-swarm attack led by the piper and his educated rodents.

One Commoner must secretly be a wererat, and must be sought out by the party in hope that he could somehow turn back the vermin swarms.

Jay R
2012-04-15, 08:15 AM
The fairest girl in town has run away into the forest. Her tracks indicate that she may have gone to the dwarf mine deep in the woods. The PCs have to rescue her from the seven dwarfs who live there.

MavAntagonist
2012-04-15, 01:06 PM
A party of 4-6th level adventurers come to the town, and start behaving... well, as irresponsible adventurers behave.
They start a barfight and injure quite a lot of villagers; the spellcaster botches a magical experiment which sets a large portion of the cornfield on fire; the bard charms one of the PC-s wives or sisters; the angry fighter kills the village elder, because "he had an ugly face and I hated his voice! Whatccha gonna do about it? Huh? You wanna fight?"


I am absolutely in love with this plan, our group has pretty much always done things like that when they arrive in someplace new. I think I might actually make the group of adventurers their old characters from previous games, and recreate some of the horrible things they've done.

Cieyrin
2012-04-16, 03:10 PM
A horse rides into town, a bloodied soldier barely conscious atop it. "A small army of goblins. Day's ride away, coming straight down this road."

Cue preparations, crude defenses, organization of the townspeople into a makeshift militia. Add arguments over how things should be done - how many people do you devote to setting up a trench with spikes? Do you send your fastest horse rider to the nearest city in hopes of reinforcements - they'd arrive four to six hours after the goblins do, at the very least - or do you use him as a scout so you can make last minute changes to the defensive organization? Thad wants to burn his neighbor's crops, so the goblins won't have nearly as much food to use to sustain their number. His neighbor, naturally, resists.

Ah yes, the plot of the Magnificent Seven, sans the seven Samurai to save the villagers. An old story played again but with a new spin to it. I likes it.

As for the OP, that's something I've been meaning to do for a long time but haven't figured out the logistics of to make it interesting as a one shot and incorporate some empowering mechanics, like going for the weapon the barkeep keeps behind the bar that his grandfather used in searching for his fortune or seeking out help from the monastery in the mountains that no one has heard from in years but rumored to still house an order of monks trained in the extermination of the unliving from plaguing those who still breathe. But then again, I tend to get buried in details when I attempt to design games, which making stuff drag out. So kudos on making it run and run well.

Arranis Thelmos
2012-04-16, 08:11 PM
Watch out for housecats ;). But on a more serious note, it would be interesting to see how they'd react to a group of snobbish adventurers. If you make it past first level, what did you plan on taking as a second level?

QuidEst
2012-04-19, 07:37 AM
Heh… in the housecat vein, have a crazy old cat lady live in the village. She ends up being a valuable asset in combat against the goblins. "Get 'em, Mister Mittens! Rip the little devil's throat out! That'll teach him to step on my gardenias!"

Pokonic
2012-04-19, 04:31 PM
Heh… in the housecat vein, have a crazy old cat lady live in the village. She ends up being a valuable asset in combat against the goblins. "Get 'em, Mister Mittens! Rip the little devil's throat out! That'll teach him to step on my gardenias!"

" Okay, sir, we have thirty-five able bodied men, twenty iron spears, a old flaming sword that needs to be returned to the Flaming Sword inn, and the Cat Lady."

"The Cat Lady? Who is she, a Druid?"

"No sir, she is a foul witch."

" Wait, we are using Pathfinder? When did this happen?"

"No, sir, she has a affinty for cats."

"Ah, a werecat. Wonderful, any chance she can bite any of you?"


This was a actual conversation in a large-scale group I was in. I would think it's somewhat fitting for this thread.

QuidEst
2012-04-19, 08:27 PM
-snip-

Excellent. The Pathfinder comment made me laugh. :smallbiggrin: Reminds me a little of Abbot and Costello…

Anyways, the crazy cat lady would make an awesome DMPC.

Hopeless
2012-04-23, 06:08 AM
The really scary part is that when the goblins arrive they barely wander to the village limits when they notice all of the village cats watching them from atop of the houses and thats before they notice the dogs also watching them...

An entire village of commoners not a problem... an entire village of pet dogs, cats and god knows what else all of whom have their own plans for said village... now you're scared!:smalleek:

Now how would your players react if they had to run the villagers' pets and they're the ones determined to protect their home?

Suddo
2012-04-23, 06:57 PM
pleasant little mining village. Nothing interesting happens here, ever.

All I can think about is FLCL.
Also did everyone in the town level? You're now second level commoners.

Pokonic
2012-04-23, 08:13 PM
All I can think about is FLCL.
Also did everyone in the town level? You're now second level commoners.

Oh god, make a child secretly a level 20 sorcerer that was created in a horrible Planescape accident. Have said child suddenly summon a Kajiu-like creature and have the PC's attempt to survive the carnage.

Endarire
2012-04-23, 08:23 PM
Why was no one else laughing at the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves reference?

Also, with access to Craft rules, encourage 'em to go Minecraft on their (bandit) foes! You do have access to a mine, lots of spare time, and a penchant for treasure, right?

Ravens_cry
2012-04-24, 01:49 AM
The town has nothing to do on the weekends. The PCs have to discover a way to make dice, miniatures, characters sheets, and rulebooks.
Hey, no recursing! (http://xkcd.com/244/)

Jay R
2012-04-25, 02:14 PM
Hey, no recursing! (http://xkcd.com/244/)

Darn!

Darn again!

(oops.)

Ravens_cry
2012-04-25, 02:28 PM
Darn!

Darn again!

(oops.)
What does a method for patching holes in articles of clothing, most notably socks, have to do with anything?:smalltongue:

Riverdance
2012-04-25, 03:44 PM
That is a fantastic way to start a campaign! Ok ideas: a townsperson goes nuts and holds the mayor hostage, they have to talk him down.

or

Kobold highwaymen.

Kolonel
2012-04-29, 03:34 PM
I am absolutely in love with this plan, our group has pretty much always done things like that when they arrive in someplace new. I think I might actually make the group of adventurers their old characters from previous games, and recreate some of the horrible things they've done.

Glad to help! :)

I'd like to hear how it turned out.