2D8HP
2017-09-18, 03:34 PM
Recently at the "Campaign ideas" thread, I posted:
.....My campaign ideas are rather more prosaic and unoriginal, basically.....
Viking kids vs Morlocks ...
The PC's are adolescents and very young adults in an isolated village where two summers ago all the fighting age men, and many of the women left on a "trading" mission, and have not returned, so the elders of the village at a moot in the godshall have some of the youth accompany "old Ragnar", a one armed former Viking (who will die of natural causes soon after they set sail) as their guide.
What they find is that nearby they are de-populated and sometimes burned towns with no bodies and little evidence of what happened.
Upon returning home (assuming they do), they find their village simillarly emptied, with cooking fires still smoldering, and in the distance a low thumping sound, like a muffled hammering.
If they seek out the source of the sounds, they find what look to be new wells outside the village, but they see no water at the bottom, and ha hand and foot holds along the sides, and descending and exploring leads them to discover albino "Goblins" leading the enchanted people of their village deeper into the earth, and then....
....well basically the Goblins are the Morlocks in the 1895 Time Machine novella, and the 1960 film, led by albino Drow/Elves not unlike the character played by Jeremy Irons in the 2002 film.
Further exploration by the PC's leads them to find tunnels made by digging machines (like in At The Earth's Core), and locales like in Journey to the Center of the Earth (ruins and dinosaurs!), and a civilization a bit like the Selenites in First Men in the Moon.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/cd/be/becdbe61eaa6aecd066a697cbef57715.jpg
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2x/z2tm2qgh2h31.jpg
https://ingeld.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/stave-church11.jpg?w=218&h=300
https://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9wv1dc6LR1r9gwhe.bmp
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1U7VldXczM/VtcnnDjKVdI/AAAAAAAALGk/dVZdltN5_vM/s280/Eoli%2Bunderground.jpg
https://68.media.tumblr.com/0e9aca8fe922c2ef369ba370d70a66be/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo7_500.png
https://68.media.tumblr.com/e247703f22fbaa609cf56741365b1706/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo1_500.png
https://pre00.deviantart.net/6570/th/pre/i/2004/09/e/b/morlock_emerging_from_a_hole_.jpg
https://pre00.deviantart.net/0caf/th/pre/i/2012/057/2/2/here_be_morlocks_by_mattpocalypse-d4r2eg6.jpg
https://68.media.tumblr.com/2022bb37f8ba55fe62daadcbc61a1df2/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo4_500.png
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8l-yu7AZLM/SVppXmlmMYI/AAAAAAAAFdM/_uaE0SOEVds/s280/tm13.jpg
http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/sci_fi_projects_fall_2015/Project_1/Charalab_Constantine/Updated_Project_HU338/Morlocks.jpg
https://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-x8dfmo/products/11724/images/34773/Jeremy-Irons-in-The-Time-Machine-2002-Premium-Photograph-and-Poster-1023101__47680.1432433158.386.513.jpg?c=2
http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/011.jpg
http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/FIRST-MEN-IN-THE-MOON-Bedford-and-MoonCalf-300x147.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5ipt5ZoqI/AAAAAAAAAjY/GCUVQIL_CO0/s280/Mushroom+forest.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5iQWoLrxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/mXGlR6nEiyU/s280/cave+5+-+Alantis.jpg
http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/515889167041822721/640/10/scaletowidth
http://www.pellucidar.org/moleh3.jpg
.
And outlining the scenario has me noticing problems.
It's been decades since I successfully GM'd and obviously I should practice more with pre-gen adventures to get my feet wet, but that's boring!
So... some advice please.
I'm doubtful that I may still be able to improvise like I once could, so it's time for some hypocrisy: Quantum Ogres and hidden (hopefully) tracks railroading!
Here's the dilemmas I perceive in herding the players characters to stick to what I've prepared:
1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?
2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?
3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?
The game rules I'm most familiar with are:
TSR Dungeons & Dragons,
Chaosium BRP (Call of Cthullu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, etc). and
WotC 5e D&D
So I'll probably use one of those (perhaps simplified) rulesets to run it.
What do you suggest?
.....My campaign ideas are rather more prosaic and unoriginal, basically.....
Viking kids vs Morlocks ...
The PC's are adolescents and very young adults in an isolated village where two summers ago all the fighting age men, and many of the women left on a "trading" mission, and have not returned, so the elders of the village at a moot in the godshall have some of the youth accompany "old Ragnar", a one armed former Viking (who will die of natural causes soon after they set sail) as their guide.
What they find is that nearby they are de-populated and sometimes burned towns with no bodies and little evidence of what happened.
Upon returning home (assuming they do), they find their village simillarly emptied, with cooking fires still smoldering, and in the distance a low thumping sound, like a muffled hammering.
If they seek out the source of the sounds, they find what look to be new wells outside the village, but they see no water at the bottom, and ha hand and foot holds along the sides, and descending and exploring leads them to discover albino "Goblins" leading the enchanted people of their village deeper into the earth, and then....
....well basically the Goblins are the Morlocks in the 1895 Time Machine novella, and the 1960 film, led by albino Drow/Elves not unlike the character played by Jeremy Irons in the 2002 film.
Further exploration by the PC's leads them to find tunnels made by digging machines (like in At The Earth's Core), and locales like in Journey to the Center of the Earth (ruins and dinosaurs!), and a civilization a bit like the Selenites in First Men in the Moon.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/cd/be/becdbe61eaa6aecd066a697cbef57715.jpg
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2x/z2tm2qgh2h31.jpg
https://ingeld.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/stave-church11.jpg?w=218&h=300
https://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9wv1dc6LR1r9gwhe.bmp
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1U7VldXczM/VtcnnDjKVdI/AAAAAAAALGk/dVZdltN5_vM/s280/Eoli%2Bunderground.jpg
https://68.media.tumblr.com/0e9aca8fe922c2ef369ba370d70a66be/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo7_500.png
https://68.media.tumblr.com/e247703f22fbaa609cf56741365b1706/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo1_500.png
https://pre00.deviantart.net/6570/th/pre/i/2004/09/e/b/morlock_emerging_from_a_hole_.jpg
https://pre00.deviantart.net/0caf/th/pre/i/2012/057/2/2/here_be_morlocks_by_mattpocalypse-d4r2eg6.jpg
https://68.media.tumblr.com/2022bb37f8ba55fe62daadcbc61a1df2/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo4_500.png
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8l-yu7AZLM/SVppXmlmMYI/AAAAAAAAFdM/_uaE0SOEVds/s280/tm13.jpg
http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/sci_fi_projects_fall_2015/Project_1/Charalab_Constantine/Updated_Project_HU338/Morlocks.jpg
https://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-x8dfmo/products/11724/images/34773/Jeremy-Irons-in-The-Time-Machine-2002-Premium-Photograph-and-Poster-1023101__47680.1432433158.386.513.jpg?c=2
http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/011.jpg
http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/FIRST-MEN-IN-THE-MOON-Bedford-and-MoonCalf-300x147.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5ipt5ZoqI/AAAAAAAAAjY/GCUVQIL_CO0/s280/Mushroom+forest.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5iQWoLrxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/mXGlR6nEiyU/s280/cave+5+-+Alantis.jpg
http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/515889167041822721/640/10/scaletowidth
http://www.pellucidar.org/moleh3.jpg
.
And outlining the scenario has me noticing problems.
It's been decades since I successfully GM'd and obviously I should practice more with pre-gen adventures to get my feet wet, but that's boring!
So... some advice please.
I'm doubtful that I may still be able to improvise like I once could, so it's time for some hypocrisy: Quantum Ogres and hidden (hopefully) tracks railroading!
Here's the dilemmas I perceive in herding the players characters to stick to what I've prepared:
1) After seeing the de-populated towns, what would get them to go back home instead of exploring further?
2) After they find and rescue the villagers, what is keeping them from just sealing off the "wells", and leaving?
3) How are the PC's not subject to the enchantment/hypnosis that's made their neighbors docile?
The game rules I'm most familiar with are:
TSR Dungeons & Dragons,
Chaosium BRP (Call of Cthullu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, etc). and
WotC 5e D&D
So I'll probably use one of those (perhaps simplified) rulesets to run it.
What do you suggest?