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View Full Version : Aunty Paladin's Charity Marathon: Adventure Design Contest!



Rutskarn
2013-12-06, 10:05 PM
https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1461800_431916116909549_1297726108_n.png (http://forthechildrenandstuff.tumblr.com/)

If there's one thing I remember the GitP forums being good at, it's organizing tearful reunions between time-traveling death androids and their remorseful human creators--demonstrating not only the timeless rapport between man and manlike machine, but the fact that absolutely anything seems sentimental if you put it on YouTube and score it to "Lady in Red".

I guess also we're pretty good at adventure design.

On December 16th, at 8:15 AM PST, I'm going to be rolling with a group of hardcore Cali nerds in a (hopefully) weeklong Livestreamed charity marathon called Aunty Paladin (http://forthechildrenandstuff.tumblr.com/). This is our third year as a crew, and so far, we're in for almost $13,000 between the two pledge drives. We use the Desert Bus model--but instead of playing one deliberately dull videogame on-camera and coming up with creative ways to pass the time, we're starting with the "creative ways to pass the time" thing. Read: as many tabletop systems, sane or otherwise, as we can get our hands on. For a week. With the same core skeleton crew. Nonstop.

You should all watch in general, because not only is it a blast to play and participate in (the stream's chat is up on our television, so the chat often pops in to give suggestions and steer the adventure), but because it's frequently a masterclass on DMing and adventure design. Particularly the kind of design you pull off when it's 4AM, you haven't slept in a full day, you're hopped up on caffeine, and you've just been handed a system you've never even seen before.

But! Here's where you get to pitch in more directly. We're holding an adventure design contest, and all of you can participate in this very thread. Here's what you do:


INSTRUCTIONS/TOKEN RULES:


1.) Think of a scenario. Be as vague or specific, comedic or serious, as you'd like--just don't specify a system. At best, strongly imply one.
2.) Write it up in 300 words or fewer.
3.) Post it below in spoiler tags.
4.) Wait for results!

Oh--obviously, don't break any board rules with your suggestion. For most of the marathon we'll be operating under the same content guidelines this site uses. Plus, and I hope I don't have to stress this particularly, but you're posting it on this board.

One winner will get [his/her/unaffiliated] entry run on-camera at a set day and time*. Probably by me, assuming I'm not sleep-deprived and hallucinating that I'm a coaster by that point.

Any questions? Comments? Winning submissions? Losing submissions? Post 'em below!

*It'll be earlier in the week, but still, disclaimer: we'll actually need to raise enough for charity to reach that date and time. Don't worry, we've managed it in the past--and if for some reason we don't, we'll make it up to you.

stupiddDice
2013-12-08, 06:59 PM
Well, I guess I'll start.


The party hears that several towns have been attacked by monsters. The monster are described as demons made of shadow, but when they arrive at one of the towns they discover that eyewitnesses to the first attacks had wildly different descriptions of the first monster. But as more attacks happened the eyewitness accounts became more consistent, eventually settling on one appearance for the beasts.

After learning the attacks have been growing in ferocity, and that the beasts are not only growing stronger, but a wider variety of them have been appearing as well, the party hears about a town that was located in the epicenter of the attacks and no one has been able to reach it since the attacks began. They also hear that this town was once home to a powerful and evil wizard who was vanquished centuries ago.

The party arrive there to find the place completely fine, with no one even knowing of the attacks. That night a monster attacks the town. The village elder then tells the PC's that this must be the work of the wizard, back from the dead, and they must stop him.

What is really going on is that the town was the ancient resting place of a race of beings made of psychic energy that feed off fear and pain. The wizard's magics inadvertently revived them, and they destroyed the town, leaving only one survivor.

The creatures used this survivor's denial to create a false world where they could exist and attack surrounding towns. The wizard, who realized the error of his ways after his death and now a ghost, and protected by a barrier, seeks to wake the survivor before the creatures gain a foothold in reality. The party must find out who the survivor is and wake him/her.


I hope you guys like it.

ComatosePhoenix
2013-12-08, 07:02 PM
hmm, never tried anything like this before so what the heck,

Super generic fantasy setting, The adventurerers are each given a unique quest at the start of the game preferably before we get set up so that they can be informed that you may not want to share the details of their mission with anyone else. The exact details of the quest is largely irrelevant, you could even have two that oppose each other if you enjoy a little tension. But the purpose is to actually get all of the party members together heading towards the same town. They will form a small caravan either intentionally or just by running into each other where they will set off on to their shared destination. While on the road they will run into a exotic sight, a pack of goblins attacking gnoll slavers. Here is where the real quest begins you see, the gnolls don’t actually have slaves, instead they are carrying constructs, which they received as payment from a wizard. Now this naturally interests the party because personal construct slaves is both appealing and worrying depending on your alignment. If the party has someone who can communicate with the gnolls they kind find the general location of the wizard then, otherwise when they reach their original destination they find it overrun with constructs. From here I think you can figure out what direction the Story goes. Go to find secret wizard fortress, find that it is actually pretty secret and have to trail a broken construct back to its master, face the wizards minions and traps, not all of which are constructs.


Let me know if this is way too generic/not what you meant by Scenario.

Raine_Sage
2013-12-08, 07:11 PM
Oh sounds like fun. I'll try.

The party is a group of adventuring archeologists of sorts. Fantasy indiana jones. One day they're hired by the Duke of a nearby city who has heard rumor that some ancient manuscripts have been unearthed in a ruined temple and wants the party to see if these claims hold any water.

When the party arrives however they find a monk has already found the texts they are looking for. And the monk warns them that they're being set up. That the manuscripts reveal damning evidence that the chief Deity in the pantheon has been pulling shady things. Said evidence refers specifically to an incident where another member of the pantheon was outcast and imprisoned underground. The official story is that this deity was plotting to betray said god and was cast out after trying to kill him. The actual story reveals they were cast out for much more selfish and personal reasons, and that their exile will lead to the slow crumble and ruin of civilization as they know it as their power slowly fades from the world.

The duke was planning to kill the party and burn the "heretical" texts once they returned. Now they must go on an adventure to bring the truth to light and free the wrongly imprisoned god while dodging agents sent after them by the Chief God who is too vain and proud to admit he made a mistake.

Xefas
2013-12-08, 09:56 PM
Something a little more modern.


Liberty Island, host to the Statue of Liberty, has been accorded neutral ground in the supernatural community since as long as anyone can remember. The statue's height and shape, along with its copper coating, serves to draw in and ground magical energy, where the small size of the island easily leads it to be dispersed by the surrounding waters, and the whole thing is capped off by an ideological shield forged of the island's perceived symbolism of offering safety and peace. On Liberty Island, Wizards can't muster enough juice to warm a mug of cocoa, let alone throw a fireball, Vampires come off just as unattractive and socially awkward as the rest of us, and assorted Lycanthropes can't even get their rage past the "mild tantrum" stage.

But, a Warlock has found the exact place in the Nevernever that corresponds to Liberty Island and, this Halloween, when the barrier between worlds thins, he's going to push through from the other side, and use those same grounding and magically containing properties to create an invincible binding circle for... something. An Old God? A Demon Prince? An Arch Angel? Tough to guess.

It'll be bad, though. So hurry! Call in favors. Get the band back together. Rough up some informants. Pull out all the stops. It's October 30th, and if you don't find and stop this wackjob by midnight, we might just be looking at Hell on Earth.

Kaveman26
2013-12-09, 09:10 AM
Reginald Barchester Winthrop,Covington the third was a wealthy and successful wizard. He was also a psychotic lunatic at sporadic times. The victim of a curse that caused him to fly into fits of uncontrollable blood lust was certainly a downside. But luckily there was a troll Druid near his tower that could relieve the bouts. Little did Reggie know that the Druid was the source of his curse and the cures were simply a means to extort money.

So when the party arrives at Reggie tower and is discover that not only is it bigger on the inside it also the home to several creatures even more eccentric than Reggie. His butler is a stone giant, his gardeners are gargoyles and he himself admits that some of the deeper parts of his tower house wilder still.

His hospitality is gracious and his remorse genuine when the troll Druid and his entire tribe lay siege to the tower, ready to butcher their sheep no longer content to simply sheer it. To delve deep into the unknown or confront the barbaric horde outside? Such is the plight for those who choose adventure.

Rutskarn
2013-12-09, 02:31 PM
Everything so far is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Keep it up!

stupiddDice
2013-12-09, 09:23 PM
Okay, here is another one:

An alien life form is unknowingly brought on board a space station in the as-near-as-possible future. The alien slowly and secretly begins to corrupt the station, multiplying, infecting and controlling crew members, and taking over critical systems and networks. A man finds out about this and is murdered, and the PC's take it upon themselves to investigate.

Rutskarn
2013-12-12, 01:40 PM
Contest is over! Winners (there's a couple) will be announced pretty soon after all the judges have weighed in.