Once more looking for beginner adventure ideas with little combat

[Braininthejar2]

Ok, so I have a new player, willing to give a try to fantasy. She'd like the games rp-heavy, rather than combat-heavy.

The general setting is asian style fantasy world (think Avatar the last airbender)

She wants to play a travelling priest/shaman - no explicit magic powers, but knowledge of medicine, and the ritual knowledge to communicate with and placate spirits, whether of nature, or ancestors.

More info:

The setting: A kingdom, largely covered by forests, which has recently broken off a large, but failing empire. The king is not expecting trouble from them right now, they have much bigger concerns elsewhere, but he has suddenly discovered that the imperials did more than just take his taxes, they brought stability just by being there - he now has a neighbour kingdom to the north, which had been friendly until recently, but right now is agressively proposing an "alliance for common benefits" that smells more and more unacceptable by the day. There might be a war soon.

There has already been a draft to the army, and recently another one, this time looking for any people skilled with the supernatural, in hope of getting the king's army any spirit help they can get. This is detrimental to people's well being, as the shortage of village priests causes various spirits to not be honored properly, turning them spiteful, and causing all sorts of problems (and gods forbid someone dies a violent death and doesn't get proper burial rites)

The kingdom also has some eastern "forest people" barbarian neighbours, but those might or might not cause any trouble.

The player character: A daughter of a local priestess, lost her parents two years ago to mysterious circumstances, which might be relevant later.

Right now she is wanted - she refused to be drafted (she is mildly patriotic, but hates unneccessery violence. Also the recruiter was a typical "first story arc antagonist" *******, and broke the rules drafting her, leaving her sister in law without enough help to run her farm. ) - She didn't want to make a scene at home, but deserted the unit soon after, and to add insult to injury, stole the recruiter's horse to do it.

She's now trying to make ends meet travelling from village to village - her skills are in high demand, enough for the people to not be hasty about reporting her - she also has some disguise skills to stay off the radar with.

Her sister in law, and her daughter, are her only family left at home, and she tries to help them financially whenever she can visit without being seen. The sister in law's family is a travelling theatre (currently away, as they are dodging draft themselves, but potential allies) and it's from them that the player learned her disguise skill, as well as some most basic alchemy (enough for stage tricks)

She has a twin brother, currently in the army. She doesn't know his precise location, but they have a supernatural bond, so one will feel if the other is in serious trouble, which is bound to become important later (possibly he will be a muscle NPC to her player brain)

She has a faithful dog that could conceivably fight someone, but right now the few combat skills she has are best used for running away.

So, what rp-oriented trouble could a young travelling shaman get into in such a setting?

[Braininthejar2]

Posted in the wrong subsection. :smallsigh: It's not D&D Could it be moved to the general RP section?

[bean illus]

Well it is DnD if he's playing SRD/etc. I'll give a dnd answer.

A low combat/low magic setting sounds like a skills game. Have her do a series of climbs that could hurt her. Perhaps an encounter with guards locking down a section of the city? so she has to escape> befriend> disguise> bluff> negotiate> etc.

Go through the/her skills list, and prepare many small scenarios where she has an 80% chance of success but a small chance of either sucks (bully, guard, lost, trapped,etc) and mire checks, or 1-3 damage.
A bully might do the trick.

[Palanan]

Bargaining with spirits, or attempting to placate them, could make for some great RP. Give the spirits a range of personalities, and make some of them genuinely trying to deal with.

Not sure what system you're using, but in an Asian setting, a kappa could also make for an interesting antagonist. Very thematic, with some odd folklore involving the bowl of water at the crown of its head, which renders the kappa whimpering and harmless if drained. It might be an interesting challenge for your player to trick the kappa into somehow draining its own head-bowl.

[BowStreetRunner]

The bit about the PC being wanted for dodging the draft reminds me of Howl's Moving Castle. And that story had multiple characters in it who were subject to various curses that needed to be broken. Frankly, I think that would be a fantastic sort of RP challenge to work with. There are so many ideas out there for cursed characters and the convoluted paths they need to follow to break their curses. Adding a spirit element to it just makes the PC a natural catalyst to helping them along the way.

[Braininthejar2]

Okay. So now I have some general idea.

- read up on the spirits / minor gods / dead ancestors and what they might want
- arrange minor obstacles so that the player's skills become relevant in ovrcoming them.
- watch Howl's moving castle.

Anything else?

[Efrate]

L5r has a bunch of fluff involving kami (spirits) and how to appease them. Most notably they are alien and they make odd demands. Its a very easy way to have skill checks that seem very irrelevant to matter.

A wood spirit might want you to make a basket and hang from a promonant location, which could be craft, stealth, and bluff or diplo, after a religion to figure it out.

Fire spirits are pretty violent and require burning of something, sometimes living, which can be a way to introduce combat, even if its for a specific enemy (something with regeneration stopped by fire).

[Braininthejar2]

L5R sounds like it could be a good source...

And the idea of strange demands sounds like "trying to appease a local spirit annoys a local human," which might be just what I'm looking for.

Any L5R books i should look for specifically?

[Eldan]

Okay. So now I have some general idea.

- read up on the spirits / minor gods / dead ancestors and what they might want
- arrange minor obstacles so that the player's skills become relevant in ovrcoming them.
- watch Howl's moving castle.

Anything else?

If you want ideas on people travelling around and solving problems with minor spirits, watch Mushishi. One of my favourite animes, really. Sort of vaguely defined old-timey Japan, where a travelling sage goes from village to village solving mysterious spirit problems. Mostly very relaxed in tone, with occasional horror elements.

Anyway. Apart from spirits, does she have any special knowledge? A herbalist might be needed to cure a rare disease, which can easily turn into a fetch quest of "find the moss at the bottom of the dark cave" or "climb the mountain for the rare flower".

Not every story has to be directly relevant to her skills, either. With the army drafted, and war looming, there could be:
-War profiteers (merchant buying up all the iron ore or food)
-Refugees
-Deserters turned bandits
-Opportunistic local nobles
-Spies

She's also an outsider to local communities, with at least theoretical social standing. This might also be relevant. She might be asked for her opinion on a legal dispute, maybe.

[Braininthejar2]

Thank you, Eldan. That was some seriously solid advice. You got the wheels inside my head turning.

EDIT: had a look at Mushishi. Too early to speak on the stury, but the music is divine.

[BowStreetRunner]

Anyway. Apart from spirits, does she have any special knowledge? A herbalist might be needed to cure a rare disease, which can easily turn into a fetch quest of "find the moss at the bottom of the dark cave" or "climb the mountain for the rare flower".
Even if she doesn't have any such knowledge herself, there is also this:

...the shortage of village priests causes various spirits to not be honored properly, turning them spiteful, and causing all sorts of problems (and gods forbid someone dies a violent death and doesn't get proper burial rites)...
So the herbalist may need to go on the fetch quest, but be prevented from doing so by unruly spirits. So the PC needs to help the herbalist on the quest.

This can apply to almost any sort of situation where someone needs to go on a quest. Either the PC can go on the quest if they have the relevant skills, or they can escort someone who does have the skills but needs assistance dealing with spirits along the way.

[Eldan]

Thank you, Eldan. That was some seriously solid advice. You got the wheels inside my head turning.

EDIT: had a look at Mushishi. Too early to speak on the stury, but the music is divine.

There is very little continuous story between episodes. They mostly work as shortstories with one shared character. The music is indeed excellent, though.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Eldan
She's also an outsider to local communities, with at least theoretical social standing. This might also be relevant. She might be asked for her opinion on a legal dispute, maybe.

As an outsider and a drifter, she might also be accused of being a spy herself, which could put her right in the middle of local court intrigue. Plenty of RP potential there.

Not to mention that an actual spy at a noble's court would see this as a perfect opportunity to frame her.