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Scalenex
2007-02-06, 07:32 PM
A lot of entries in the Monsters Manual talk about prices for the eggs and young of powerful monsters and the price for training said creatures. It made me think, "Who does the training and the buying and the selling."

There generally isn't a giant market for that sort of thing, a D&D world may only be able to support one entrepeneur group like that, so I fleshed one out. Some semi-retired adventurers and their entourages buy monsters, train them, and resell them. There is not a lot of cash outflow if you don't get your profit from reselling them until you trained the creatures for at least a year. One time when they were desperate for money they went to a town and showed off their animals for some silver and copper. It was a hit and the news of their simple show spread far and wide. A local lord wanted to celebrate his son's wedding but it was pretty unpopular because his son plucked the most popular and attractive commoner woman to be his bride and they resented him for doing so. So he offered the caravan a fair amount of gold to showcase his animals to the peasants during the wedding celebration. Resentment towards the lord dissolved because he generously let them see lots of scary monsters in a safe environment. From here on out it grew as nobles hired the circus to entertain their subjects (and themselves). It never paid for their operation entirely but it did make the costs of their animal exchange go way down. The circus picked up some bards making their show more entertaining (and legitimate to the upper classes) increasing their demand. Now the circus has traveled about the whole world and has outlived most of the adventurers who founded it. A lot of rangers, bards and NPC class experts staff as well as a smattering of other classes. The circus is also a safe haven for the few oddball monstrous humanoids who don't fit in with their own people (Good aligned orcs, kobolds, and goblins for instance). These make the show somewhat like Buffalo Bill's Wild West show showing "tame" Indians. Poltical Correctness requires me to say that Native Americans were not savages but the Buffalo Bill's show protrayed them as exotic savages to people who have never seen them. Now imagine how people would react to tame orcs, hundreds of miles away from their traditional roaming grounds. All they heard were horror stories about how dangerous they are and now here's one juggling torches and harmlessly showboating. Neat huh? So gradually it evolved from showcasing exotic animals and monsters to a full organized show.

Okay that's the backstory. How do I tell a story or two around the circus that a typical group of PCs can get involved with?

Maxymiuk
2007-02-06, 07:39 PM
First of all, I really like the whole idea. Heck, I think I might yoink it to use it in my game. :smallwink:

As for story ideas...

How about a wizard who wants to buy one or more creatures to "harvest" them for spell components and the like, while the entrepeneurs refuse to sell the charges they may have come to care about for what amounts to slaughter?

Or one of the more dangerous animals breaks out, injuring or killing a bystander, then flees somewhere until cornered by the local guard. The guardsmen want to hire the PC's to kill it, while the troupe offer them gold (albeit less) to retrieve it alive and in one piece.

Rama_Lei
2007-02-06, 07:44 PM
There's always the angry mob "something bad happened, it's the new guys!" mentality, so work with that. Include angry old men with pitchforks as you see fit,

Stormcrow
2007-02-06, 08:08 PM
I think theres alot of room to move inside your "safe haven for outcasts" sect. What if one of the "non-evil orcs" is infact a very evil orc who is murdering people and using the circus as a cover. Maybe a beast handler who feeds his victims to a large carnivore to hide the bodies?

dorshe1
2007-02-06, 08:14 PM
1. Low level adventures: Standard 'guard that caravan' scenarios. While someone is unlikely to attack the circus itself, something that large would require quite a large supply line.

2. Mid-level adventure: Someone stole the lockbox/exotic animal/owner's daughter etc....

I can't think of any really good high level adventures.

Mewtarthio
2007-02-06, 08:15 PM
They hire the PCs to defeat the Tarrasque and knock some sense into it so they can tame it for their circus.

A Dread Necromancer, inspired by the circus's success, attempts to duplicate the circus by controlling undead creatures.

The PCs attend the circus themselves, but suddenly all the animals go insane and break loose. Put some sort of dungeon or BBEG in the vicinity.

Rama_Lei
2007-02-06, 08:32 PM
Very angry druids. Lots of 'em.

walkerhound
2007-02-06, 10:26 PM
A Dread Necromancer, inspired by the circus's success, attempts to duplicate the circus by controlling undead creatures.



ya know that's acutely perfectly do able idea! Just play up the jaded decadent noble angle.

Woot Spitum
2007-02-06, 10:32 PM
One of the circus' creatures begins to manifest strange and deadly powers. What no one realizes is that it is actually an immature version of an extremely powerful creature that is just beginning to gain its true powers...

daggaz
2007-02-07, 02:54 AM
One of the creatures is a monstrous dire rat, captured on a savage island full of cannibals. During one of the shows, the rat bites a local woman, who slowly begins to manifest a strange disease... Weeks later, long after the departure of the circus, the entire town is swept up in rampant plague of ZOMBIE-ISM! Only one man can save them now... Duh duh duh!!!

The_Snark
2007-02-07, 02:57 AM
The large supply of animals catches the eye of a mad fleshwarper working nearby, who kidnaps several of them to use as either raw materials or experiment subjects. Basically a mad scientist adventure.

Mewtarthio
2007-02-07, 11:38 AM
The circus locates an unbelievably intelligent wolf that can do virtually any trick with very little training necessary. It's so smart that some people even accuse the circus of hiring a druid to Awaken the wolf (or at least an archivist or somebody with Use Magic Device--I doubt druids are too keen on this circus). Little does anyone realize that the wolf's human-like intelligence actually is human: This creature is, in fact, a werewolf rogue who slips out every night to commit random murders.

Woot Spitum
2007-02-07, 11:44 AM
A once cursed graveyard near where the circus camped is no longer haunted. Oddly enough, that very night, several clowns offered to join the circus. Strange things have been happening ever since...

Gamebird
2007-02-07, 12:05 PM
Heh. My old DM had something like this in his game. The circus was owned and run by a metallic dragon who would transform, breathe and fly around as one of the acts.

One of my characters later had some similar things. She was a wizard and at the market faires or tournaments she'd set up a tent and placcard and polymorph into rideable creatures and give kiddie rides. This was back when Polymorph lasted an hour/level and could contain multiple changes. She'd do pegasus, griffon, dragon, etc. Fly around a bit with a low level wizard sidekick on the ground, with Feather Fall memorized in all his slots in case the rider fell off. Later we borrowed the fighter's ring of Feather Fall and had each rider wear it.

Another thing the wizard did was run wizardly pit-fights, where two wizards would use Summon Monster (or Shadow Conjuration) to call up fearsome beasts, which would then be set to killing one another. The wizard whose creature lasted the longest, whether by duration or surviving, was the winner. People could watch and place bets. It gave the wizards something to do during tournaments.

This latter option would allow the PCs to gamble a bit, based partly on their metagame knowledge of the monster's stats. The circus you posit might incorporate something like that, allowing them to show a "real" combat without hurting any of their precious animals.

Gamebird
2007-02-07, 12:15 PM
As for adventure opportunities though...

1. A wealthy noble's child has run away to join the circus. The PCs are tasked with finding and returning the child, who not only doesn't want to go, but has convinced the circus members that his/her parents are cruel and evil. It's up to the PCs to decide what's right.

2. One of the circus animals doesn't want to be there and while the PCs are viewing the menagerie, the creature confides in the PC and begs to be released to go free. The creature is intelligent, but possibly dangerous and very valuable. The circus doesn't want to lose one of their attractions and they already have a contract to give the creature to someone who wants it as a mount after they finish training it. The creature is nearly broken by the "training" and feels hopeless and defeated. The PCs are its only hope. (this should also make the PCs think twice about imprisoning and slaving/training intelligent creatures as mounts)

3. The circus has heard of an exotic creature they don't yet have, residing in a remote place. They post placcards asking for brave adventurers to capture the young of such a beast, slay it's vengeful parents, and bring the orphaned young back to them so they can raise it for sale. (again, this is one that should lead the PCs to consider the morality of such an occupation)

4. One of the circus members had a falling out with the others and took one of the beasts and ran off. The rest of the circus feels he/she has stolen the beast and it must be returned. The member who left feels that he/she raised and trained the beast from an infant and so it belongs to him/her. The PCs are hired to track down the wayward member, capture their powerful mount/beast companion and return it.

Tough_Tonka
2007-02-07, 08:57 PM
Here's some decent high level scenarios...

Somehow one of the most popular and exotic creatures in the circus, this could have been the circuses original main attraction, has disappeared and sales are plummiting. THe PCs need to go to a far off continent or perhaps another plane of existance to aquire another creature.

Someone bought a dragon egg to show at the circus and its mother isn't very happy about it.

cferejohn
2007-02-07, 09:04 PM
I would play up the "freak-show" aspect. Seems like a great opportunity to make up some "half-XXX" templates. "See the amazing half-man, half owl-bear!" etc...

clarkvalentine
2007-02-07, 09:17 PM
The stern elven trick-shot archer and happy-go-lucky halfling acrobat finally get sick of how the animal trainer mistreats the circus's unicorn. The archer slays him in a fit of rage while the halfling frees the unicorn; they run off, now marked for death by the circus's owners and the criminal enterprises they associate with. They join a rival troupe of performers who treat their animals a lot better, but they're always looking over their shoulders...

This was actually the basis for a pair of PCs my wife and I played in a Ravenloft game.

Gamebird
2007-02-08, 10:09 AM
Heh, I had an NPC in my game shilling for coin, selling views of the naked "half-dwarf, half-orc" woman. It was actually the woman's idea and she split 50/50 with her barker. Most of the PCs assumed she was horribly taken advantage of, even though I made it clear she had a normal day-job working with the siege engineering crew as a rock-carrier (she was actually 1/2 dwarf, 1/4 ogre and 1/4 human, but she didn't know her own ancestry other than her dwarven prostitute mother).

ShneekeyTheLost
2007-02-08, 07:29 PM
Here's a cute plotline for a more goody type party:

The party is attack by a (insert nasty critter here), who defend themselves and kill it. While exploring the cave, they find several young. It was merely a mother trying to protect it's children. Awwww...

So, what now? Do you walk off and leave them to starve? How about slaughtering them for component parts? Oh wait... you've got that LG paladin breathing down your neck already feeling guilty about this whole situation. Well... I hear tell of a carnival started by a bunch of rangers who pay good price for infants like these to raise, train, and resell to responsible owners. The young get taken care of and find good homes, we profit... win/win, right?

Complications:

1) These are wild animals, and likely carnivores. YOU try keeping them from eating or spooking the pack mule, other party members, or anything made of leather. Also try keeping ANY infant of ANY race quiet while you try to ambush something.

2) Predators love to eat infants. They're easy prey. So a predator hears an infant cry, they're gonna come check it out. Triple or even quadruple the number of random encounters in the wild until you offload the things.

3) Try tracking down the carnival. They're generally always wandering around and have a long-standing tradition of dodging authority and not telling anyone where they're going next.

4) You killed mom... did you kill dad? Pappa is likely to be rather upset with you for killing his mate and kidnapping his children. Depending on the species, you could have serious issues. If it's sentient, it may well wait and ambush you when you least expect it. Otherwise it'll likely track you down and attack when it catches up. It won't want the kids, it can't feed them and will likely kill them after it gets done with the party. It just wants to kill the party.

Scalenex
2007-02-08, 07:51 PM
Here's a cute plotline for a more goody type party:

The party is attack by a (insert nasty critter here), who defend themselves and kill it. While exploring the cave, they find several young. It was merely a mother trying to protect it's children. Awwww...



They already got some Displacer Beast kittens. The party ranger is maxing out Handle Animal at each level. "While the wizard is researching spells and magical items, I'll be working on this." So far one of the kittens if pretty well trained to behave, the other one only behaves around the ranger.

The biggest complication here is their future plan to raise Blink Dogs. This could lead to a Fox and the Hound story.

Norsesmithy
2007-02-09, 12:46 AM
Heh, I had an NPC in my game shilling for coin, selling views of the naked "half-dwarf, half-orc" woman. It was actually the woman's idea and she split 50/50 with her barker. Most of the PCs assumed she was horribly taken advantage of, even though I made it clear she had a normal day-job working with the siege engineering crew as a rock-carrier (she was actually 1/2 dwarf, 1/4 ogre and 1/4 human, but she didn't know her own ancestry other than her dwarven prostitute mother).
Actually, most sideshow freaks are so well paid that they really don't need dayjobs. When "advocates" of people with disabilities tried to shut down the dime museums, their most vocal opponents were the freaks themselves. Most were in the top 10% earnings bracket for the entire nation.

Freaks are seldom exploited in sideshows and dime museums.

Gamebird
2007-02-09, 11:49 AM
Actually, most sideshow freaks are so well paid that they really don't need dayjobs. When "advocates" of people with disabilities tried to shut down the dime museums, their most vocal opponents were the freaks themselves. Most were in the top 10% earnings bracket for the entire nation.

Freaks are seldom exploited in sideshows and dime museums.

Hah. Yeah, that was essentially it. Only one PC ever sprang to go "see" and he was told about the no-touching rule. There also was no stripper-dance. It wasn't quite what he expected, though he left a good-sized tip.

Sam K
2007-02-09, 12:14 PM
I think this would be the perfect chance to allow players to cut lose and play all those freaky things they normally cant.

Want to have a thri-keen (or whatever, big bug things in expanded psionics) knife thrower, a yuan-ti bard, a drow martial artist, a weretiger druid and a ogre mage? Now they can play those things, AND you have a perfect way to get them to meet eachother, and keep them cooperating even if they dont disagree. After all, without the circus to justify their existance, they would likely be killed by random adventurers before they had a chance to explain they're not evil. Adventures could include aquiring new acts (either by stealing away young creatures, or help a good aligned creature of an evil race to escape, or just persuade some random exotic thing to join up), defending themselves from people who do not approve of the circus, saving the show when something goes wrong (the vegetarian griffon goes on a rampage when it figures out horse tastes better than cabbages) as well as all the normal dangers of cross country travel.

Alternatively, the players could be hired by or be part of a group that does not approve of the circus. Druids or elves could dislike the idea of beasts kept in captivity, religious groups could frown on the fact that races they deem evil are allowed to travel freely, or the good clean people may not like the fact that them freaky critters come 'ere taking our jobs (what, you dont think there's racism in D&D?).

brian c
2007-02-28, 12:20 AM
I know this thread was dying, but it reminded me of the recent character creation for my last campaign, and wondering why so many classes have perform as a class skill (particularly monk and sorceror). I figured Perform (circus) could be taken in conjunction with:
-monks or rogues with tumble, jump, balance as acrobats/tightrope walkers
-barbarians (or whoever) as strongmen
-bards as ringmasters (and maybe clowns?)
-rangers with handle animal

The_Snark
2007-02-28, 12:34 AM
As I have noticed before, it's surprising how many adventuring parties could make a really good troupe of travelling performers. The stereotypical adventuring party consists of a tank (strong man), rogue/stealth/skill person (acrobat or ringmaster), an arcane caster (illusions work well here, but any flashy spell can put on a show), and a divine caster (tell fortunes or some such). Whoever is most charismatic gets to run the show, and the unlucky person who can't think of anything else sells tickets at the entrance.

Ryacko
2007-02-28, 01:01 AM
http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=2&id=1
Reminds me more of the seventh panel of this comic.

Wippit Guud
2007-02-28, 01:02 AM
Another thing the wizard did was run wizardly pit-fights, where two wizards would use Summon Monster (or Shadow Conjuration) to call up fearsome beasts, which would then be set to killing one another. The wizard whose creature lasted the longest, whether by duration or surviving, was the winner. People could watch and place bets. It gave the wizards something to do during tournaments.


Wait! That's Monster Mash!

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Foxer
2007-02-28, 11:18 AM
I like the circus idea, but I'd use the exotic beasts and "noble savage" acrobats as a blind. When the circus comes to town, what's everybody looking at? The performing owlbear, right?

I'd give the circus a secret function, one unrelated to the exotica on display, but connected to the fact that circuses travel around. It could be an "underground railroad" for escaping half-orc slaves, or a smuggling operation for senior wizards. Sure they say they're buying a few cast-off griffin feathers, but what's being passed along under the counter? Can the circus cross borders freely - and would the customs officials really want to search the wyvern's cage for contraband? Or correspondence between two spies?

Jorkens
2007-02-28, 11:31 AM
I like the circus idea, but I'd use the exotic beasts and "noble savage" acrobats as a blind. When the circus comes to town, what's everybody looking at? The performing owlbear, right?

I'd give the circus a secret function, one unrelated to the exotica on display, but connected to the fact that circuses travel around. It could be an "underground railroad" for escaping half-orc slaves, or a smuggling operation for senior wizards. Sure they say they're buying a few cast-off griffin feathers, but what's being passed along under the counter? Can the circus cross borders freely - and would the customs officials really want to search the wyvern's cage for contraband? Or correspondence between two spies?
See also Phillip K ****'s A Game of Unchance for carnivals with ulterior motives...