How about some ideas to dispell some concepts of my PCs?

[Pinjata]

Hey guys,

Party I will DM for pretty soon is a group of noobs, who have played two short campaigns. In these, however, they have gained certain wievpoints upon the world, I'd like to break. Basically, they see things like this:
- village/town is always a safe place. No encounters here
- enemies are usually hairy, full of claws and/or are spitting fire

Its pretty MMPORG/CRPG wiev, I'd like to dispel. I'd like to make them a bit paranoid, but not go full "hurr durr every chamberpot is a mimic".

They will be level 6. For starters, I have planted a succubus in a village they will visit. Handsome maiden will atempt to seduce, strip, make love to a PC, then level-drain him into oblivion.

I'd appreciate any concepts. Actually - the simpler the better.

[weckar]

Grab the Ptolus handbook, scare the **** out of your players about towns and cities forever.

[Snowbluff]

Well, here are some ideas.

1) Make Snowbluff an NPC.

2) Make a bunch of enemies that are humanoid with player classes. Have them spent their free time in towns.

3) Rogue assassins in town.

4) Make the town leader a Blackguard.

[Kelb_Panthera]

My suggestion can be summed up in one word: politics.

[Ethelesin]

I second Snowbluffs Assassin idea, recalling a great trick that was taught to me once.
Mix Ranger and Scout using some of the Cityscape, ACFs, like Crowdwalker and the feat Swift Hunter. This guy walks through public venues, hits his target and continues on his way with no one the wiser. This would be accomplished via the Mosquito's Bite skill trick from Complete Scoundrel allowing him to hit a target and they don't feel the effect until the next round. So he walks up, deals skirmish damage (since he's moving) in conjunction with Mosquito's Bite and then when he's +30ft away, the character suddenly springs a leak. "Who hit me?"

[DrKerosene]

An NPC with the Charlatan PrC can intimidate a Lich, I think, and I'm sure you could mess with the party with a Changeling version.

How about a CG VoP Kender who steals from the party to help the most needy?

Huge or Gargantuan Animated Objects in place of "House Hunters" (huge Mimics) for that "this town is literally not what they expect" effect.

Maybe a "Merchant" Gnome with one of those Garl Glittergold sacks of endless money minor artifacts swindling the party out of their loot? (up to 5k gp produced in a go, but disappears after an hour)

[BWR]

My suggestion can be summed up in one word: politics.

QFT.
Politics and bureaucrasy can make your players swear off civilization for good.
Make sure the town has some strict rules about certain things that some players/PCs take for granted, like bearing arms. Slap them with some fines or even arrest them for being armed to the teeth and walking around in a civilized area. Make spellcasting illegal for those who aren't members of the local guild, and have this harshly enforced. Make the PCs spend an hour in useless paperwork detailling who they are, where they come from, where they are headed, how long they are staying in town and what they intend to do, etc. Pounce on every hesitation, every obvious evasion or lie and make life a bureaucratic hell for them.
Make religious observances mandatory with severe penalties for non-compliance. Maybe some local politician decides to score political points by making an example of the PCs, making a big stink about some minor thing the PCs did (or even didn't do - racism and nationalism are strong in many settings and some poor sod can be a target for bad stuff merely because of an accident of birth).

If you just want the town to be less harrowing than politics, just have normal scum and villainy around. Pickpockets, muggers and con-men. People who beg for help then lead the PCs into muggings, people who sell bad gear and shortchange the PCs, people fingering them as culprits for random crimes, Have some official-looking guy come up and demand they pay some fine or tax on something and wander off. Then have the real officials come along. Have local mob bosses see the PCs as useful idiots and hire them or otherwise encourage them to take of problems in town, like rival gangs or the authorities or just innocent people in the way of ruthless criminals. Unscrupulous officials might see obviously good PCs as free labor - hint that there is some wrongdoing that needs righting and let the idiots take care of it. Then get them for vigilanteism and Not Filling In The Proper Forms.

[Aergoth]

Depending on the size and economy of your town: Bandits.

When running the kingmaker AP in PF, the very first encounter the PCs stumble into is a group of local bandits extorting a merchant at the outpost they're going to be using as a home base for the first part of the game.
If you're in a rural area and your town is in the business of refining goods (be they metals or food) they have a valuable comodity. If it's not well defended there are all kinds of people and things that might want their stuff. After all, adventurers routinely break into the living quarters of various and sundry "monsters" because that's where they keep the good stuff!

[Vaz]

Politicians. Suddenly, the party are outlaws. The people that they just saved suddenly think that the party are here to eat their babies, or turn them into frogspawn or something, and try to kill them in their sleep. Poison in their food, CDG while asleep in bed, can't get resources to help them. If they attack the town, then messengers get back to the main kingdom, which brings the army and the queens elite guards to kill them.

If they get put in the shed, or an inn, the inn is burned down around them, and then they are shot with arrows as they leave.

Alternatively - the town gets attacked by rival warbands. Bringing in siege tactics.

[paperarmor]

Also trying to remove the videogame logic asspect would be good have a group of orcs camped out in the dungeon with vital info if they kill the orcs they can't fulfill the mission. A Bring 'em back alive mission can also help. Or hell make a town of settled orcs/goblinoids/insert "evil" race here to really put the PCs on their toes.

[atemu1234]

Are, better yet, have the villagers be dominated by vampires, or by a succubus, or have them be just plain old crazy and cannibalistic. Countrycide, anybody?

[Troacctid]

Rumor has it that patients have been disappearing from the town's asylum. When players investigate, they find that the founder is actually an evil warlock who has been sacrificing them to gain dark eldritch power.

[atemu1234]

Rumor has it that patients have been disappearing from the town's asylum. When players investigate, they find that the founder is actually an evil warlock who has been sacrificing them to gain dark eldritch power.

Or a cultist to a Great Old One!

[Blackhawk748]

Rumor has it that patients have been disappearing from the town's asylum. When players investigate, they find that the founder is actually an evil warlock who has been sacrificing them to gain dark eldritch power.

These kind of quests are good, also it keeps them from going super paranoid which can bite you in the rear end later.

Also i am all for the ever classic bandit raid, have a mix of humanoid races, a few elves, a couple of dwarves, a bunch of humans, a smattering of orcs. Then hype up their leader, have him being the scariest sounding dude they've ever heard off. Half way through the raid the party runs into him. Hes a Halfling Outrider (get him into that however your want) when they're done laughing have him beat the crap out of them by fighting intelligently and using his mounts greater speed. Make them scared of halflings.

[razorback]

Rumor has it that patients have been disappearing from the town's asylum. When players investigate, they find that the founder is actually an evil warlock who has been sacrificing them to gain dark eldritch power.


Are, better yet, have the villagers be dominated by vampires, or by a succubus, or have them be just plain old crazy and cannibalistic. Countrycide, anybody?

There was a free adventure from WOTC where the whole town had turned into a cult of Dagon. I'll have to find it once I'm home (travelling for the holiday ATM). You could take the above and modify the adventure around it so your party are the outsiders trying to resolve some problem.

[Blackhawk748]

There was a free adventure from WOTC where the whole town had turned into a cult of Dagon. I'll have to find it once I'm home (travelling for the holiday ATM). You could take the above and modify the adventure around it so your party are the outsiders trying to resolve some problem.

Its Ashenport and its 4e, doesnt mean you cant mess around with it but there it is. In a similar vein is Bad Moon Waning, its 3.5 but its meant for a 10th level party, so youd have to tone it down.

[razorback]

Its Ashenport and its 4e, doesnt mean you cant mess around with it but there it is. In a similar vein is Bad Moon Waning, its 3.5 but its meant for a 10th level party, so youd have to tone it down.

That's it but it was originally a 3.5 adventure around 5th level or so.

[Blackhawk748]

That's it but it was originally a 3.5 adventure around 5th level or so.

Really, i need to find that......

[Petrocorus]

Well, here are some ideas.

1) Make Snowbluff an NPC.

Interesting. What would be the build?



2) Make a bunch of enemies that are humanoid with player classes. Have them spent their free time in towns.


The town has a mafia thieves' guild which the PC will have problems with.

There is an ogre-mage in town, disguise as someone important in the town, who is just there for acquiring money and power and don't mind using the worst way. He is a very manipulative bastard.

Put them in a situation in which they have to chose between two bad solutions.

[Bad Wolf]

Doppelgangers. Doppelgangers everywhere. Make the cutest kid a half-fiend, who's been sacrificing other kids for her own amusement.

[atemu1234]

Doppelgangers. Doppelgangers everywhere. Make the cutest kid a half-fiend, who's been sacrificing other kids for her own amusement.

Or better, an unholy scion.

[Blackhawk748]

Or better, an unholy scion.

Those things are freakin scary, great stat increases, DR, a couple of nice abilities.

[atemu1234]

Those things are freakin scary, great stat increases, DR, a couple of nice abilities.

Play it well, and your PCs too will be peeing their pants! Just three easy payments of 19 gp, 99 cp!

[Petrocorus]

A con man full of Bard levels. Who just want to con the PC out of their money.
Or to lure them to a bigger bad for a reward.

[Azoth]

Have a quasilycanthrope human barbarian start a bar brawl in the tavern they are in. That is enough to scare low levels away easy.

When you stab a normal looking dude with your longsword and don't even cut him, you rethink things.

[Bad Wolf]

Or better, an unholy scion.

Or a Half-Fiend Unholy Scion?

[Red Fel]

The "attack on the inn while you're sleeping" scenario is a classic. You only have to do it once, but it teaches a valuable lesson. Most importantly, it fits their existing framework. Anyone who has played a classic-style JPRG (or their myriad successors) can recall a scene in which the party arrives at the inn, goes to bed down, the screen fades to black like it always does... And then lights up again, leading into a cinematic where enemy soldiers attack the inn.

It's not something you have to use often, or ever again. Because it's happening in town, you kind of have to use normal-looking enemies. Because it's happening at night, with the party (probably) disarmed and asleep, you can make it a low-threat/low-lethality encounter (a small band relying on stealth instead of power), making it dangerous but not unreasonably so. It teaches the lesson without risking a TPK, and an attack like that is a great way to motivate the plot. It hits all the right buttons and sends the right messages: You are not safe while asleep. You are not safe in town. Not all monsters have fangs.
Problem solved.

Disclaimer: This happened to me once. DM didn't like me. I was playing a PsyWar lycanthrope, and a lycanthrope hunter (a person who hunts lycanthropes, not a lycanthrope who is also a hunter) broke into my room at the inn. I tore his face off and then politely delivered what remained of his corpse to his local church the next day. And then the jerks stopped sending their jerks after me. After that, we learned to be just a little less trusting of the locals. Point is, it's something you only need to use once.

[Pinjata]

Jeez Louise! This really snowballed. Nice.

[Adverb]

Hey guys,

Party I will DM for pretty soon is a group of noobs, who have played two short campaigns. In these, however, they have gained certain wievpoints upon the world, I'd like to break. Basically, they see things like this:
- village/town is always a safe place. No encounters here
- enemies are usually hairy, full of claws and/or are spitting fire

Its pretty MMPORG/CRPG wiev, I'd like to dispel. I'd like to make them a bit paranoid, but not go full "hurr durr every chamberpot is a mimic".

They will be level 6. For starters, I have planted a succubus in a village they will visit. Handsome maiden will atempt to seduce, strip, make love to a PC, then level-drain him into oblivion.

I'd appreciate any concepts. Actually - the simpler the better.

My kneejerk reaction to this is that, while I respect the lessons you're trying to teach your players, there are probably ways to do this without invoking ye olde "sex is evil and women who want to have it with you are evil" trope.

[Blackhawk748]

My kneejerk reaction to this is that, while I respect the lessons you're trying to teach your players, there are probably ways to do this without invoking ye olde "sex is evil and women who want to have it with you are evil" trope.

True as that may be, its still funny. :smallbiggrin:

If the OP really wanted to mess with them, do the succubus thing and after they deal with that give one of the party members groupies (probably the fighter). Now there are dozens of women wanting to sleep with them, and he is having none of it.

[Anxe]

I did this pretty well with the PCs aiding the sheriff in town. There were several gangs that had power similar to the police, so the police couldn't remove them without help. The PCs came in and upset that power balance.

They also helped track down some thieves who hit a local magic shop and protected a noble from a public assassination attempt.

I've done sewer adventures, which while somewhat removed from town are still technically in it. Funniest part was when they crossed over into an alchemist's basement and got in a fight with his alchemy golem.

Maybe there's a wizard who's breaking the in town demon summoning laws, but the police are too scared to go in without a cleric trained to figut undead and demons?

There's tons of urban adventures!

[Prime32]

"attack on the inn while you're sleeping"For bonus points the target of the attack is a good-aligned monster disguised as a human, who gets wounded, begs the party to save the world, then reverts to his true form when he dies.

[Milodiah]

Put them in the City Watch at 1st-3rd level. They'll see everything they need to dispel this concept.

It's what I did, after all.

[Tvtyrant]

One word: Werehouse (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?291304-The-Werehouse).

[torrasque666]

One word: Werehouse (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?291304-The-Werehouse).

Better. Gazebo Jones. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9823824&postcount=132)

[Auron3991]

Fire trap a toilet or two. Have an unscrupulous merchant give them an IOU with an explosive rune on it. Use an illusionist or transmuter thief to steal from them.

These are rarely deadly on their own and, if kept at the right amount, should have them on lookout without having them turn paranoid.

[aleucard]

I want you to read this fanfic (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6694302/1/Naruto-Myoushuu-no-Fuuin) and pay special attention to the parts depicting what it calls the Akasen (on top of just reading it, it's pretty good). Translated, that means Red Light District. Send your party to something of that nature, with this in mind. If their faith in the sanctuary of being in town is not completely obliterated by then, have them be in a town that just got put under seige by a conquering army or something and see what they do. Size of the town doesn't really matter, as long as it's under attack and the army's at least partially inside when the party wakes up. Should definitely teach the martials at least the value of items like the Ring of Arming and everyone else the value of extradimensional storage.