Some Funny Adventurer Shenanigans Please

[blackjack50]

So we began my Guard/Police campaign with my friends. It went quite well. There MAY have been some excessive force on a drunken sailor, and that is going to come back and bite one of them on the butt for when I have them do an “off duty” session. But for my second game I’m going to have them run in to a group of adventurers (insert obligatory arrow to the knee joke), per a suggestion from you fine folks.

I’m looking to see if anyone has any funny shenanigans they have seen adventurers get in to that involve guards. I’ve got a couple of ideas that involve some beast shape stupidity. This “call up” is just going to be something stupid to go in between some of the longer objectives. So it isn’t something I want to have be long and drawn out. More for the sake of levity and breaking up the combat encounters.

If your wondering, my players don’t have the best charisma, but are pretty perceptive. The barbarian is a total hardass (and talks very similar to Drax the destroyer), the monk is flavored out of some Bollywood super cop that is very melodramatic (and it is hilarious), and then a straight arrow cleric that is basically Murtaugh from lethal weapon.

[Man_Over_Game]

A classic is to have the players take the form of a guard and then BS their way through the fort. Now just do this with the entire party of NPC Adventurers. The party is using Disguise Self, Alter Self, Actor, Performance, you name it, to infiltrate the fort like nothing weird is going on. Of course, the guards who have worked with one another for years would recognize an imposter, but maybe the players (guards) decide to screw with the imposters for a while. It could be fun.

[blackjack50]

A classic is to have the players take the form of a guard and then BS their way through the fort. Now just do this with the entire party of NPC Adventurers. The party is using Disguise Self, Alter Self, Actor, Performance, you name it, to infiltrate the fort like nothing weird is going on. Of course, the guards who have worked with one another for years would recognize an imposter, but maybe the players (guards) decide to screw with the imposters for a while. It could be fun.

Lol. I like it. Have them have to deal with that would be very amusing. Like have the uniforms start off as not right.

[Vogie]

I like the idea of having to clean up after adventurers' various shenanigans.

Showing up in the midst of a tavern brawl to break things up
Securing an ex-adventurer witness and keeping them alive until they can testify tomorrow against their old party
The Guards being alerted that an adventuring party is casing a mansion, and the guards react to stop an attempted assassination (even though they were going after a McGuffin)
Stopping an adventurer-led prison break
Having to clean up after an adventurering party's fight, then the troll limbs/skeletons/flaming skulls start reforming around them

[Grog Logs]

A classic is to have the players take the form of a guard and then BS their way through the fort. Now just do this with the entire party of NPC Adventurers. The party is using Disguise Self, Alter Self, Actor, Performance, you name it, to infiltrate the fort like nothing weird is going on. Of course, the guards who have worked with one another for years would recognize an imposter, but maybe the players (guards) decide to screw with the imposters for a while. It could be fun.

Brilliant!


I like the idea of having to clean up after adventurers' various shenanigans.

Showing up in the midst of a tavern brawl to break things up
Securing an ex-adventurer witness and keeping them alive until they can testify tomorrow against their old party
The Guards being alerted that an adventuring party is casing a mansion, and the guards react to stop an attempted assassination (even though they were going after a McGuffin)
Stopping an adventurer-led prison break
Having to clean up after an adventurering party's fight, then the troll limbs/skeletons/flaming skulls start reforming around them


Great!

In addition to the above, don't forget to have the NPC Adventurers to always be talking about the greater good (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u8vd_YNbTw), being the chosen ones (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChosenOne), and the Fate of the World being at stake!

Also, make sure that the citizen NPCs treat the NPC Adventurers like heroes towards the end of the your campaign. Maybe the city/town throws the NPC Adventurers a parade for saving the nation/world and the Players (the guards) have to be performing general police duty. Everyone admires the NPC Adventurers and are upset when the Player Guards have to man the barricades to prevent the citizens from getting too close and blocking traffic.

I'm pretty sure that Kurt Busiek's Astro City has some inspiration, but I cannot pinpoint it.

[Sparky McDibben]

If you want it to be kind of absurd, maybe the NPC party is coming back with something crazy like a manticore head. The town has protocols about what you can bring into town and the PCs get into a conflict when they have to confiscate the item. You could play the NPCs like every jerk who feels entitled to cut in line at the DMV. "Hey, we did something amazing and your rules don't mean jack, Underpaid Civil Servant!"

Or, you can go a little bit dickish, and play up the NPC party as a bunch of nutcase murder-hobos who like to start **** with guards. That might be a chance to hold up a mirror to that kind of behavior if your party has ever (or ever might) engage in it.

Finally, draw some inspiration from the Monster Manual, p 317. One of the NPC party got killed out there, and one of the NPCs raised them as a zombie (maybe using a scroll if they're not that powerful yet) just because they didn't want to say goodbye to their friend yet. But in the middle of the night, the caster loses control over the zombie NPC, and the zombie goes on a rampage. You could run this like an episode of Law and Order: "Well look, Chad, we've got you on Reckless Endangerment, Negligent Necromantic Spellcasting, and now Resisting Arrest. So you want to be smart about this, Chad. Real, real smart."

Just some options. But I love the guard infiltration thing, too. :)

[ImproperJustice]

The “Heroes” have just defeated a mega powered foe and brought him to town to face justice for his crimes.

They are busy doing other things so it’s the PCs job to figure out how to actually contain him....

Or alternatively, the mega foe isn’t who they thought he was and was just some middle management evil desk jockey who was trying to take his one shot at the big time of evil.
See, his wife is pregnant with their third kid, and their oldest is trying to make it into a prestigious (Good aligned) magic/ religious academy and the only thing he knows is evil, so what is he gonna do now?
He’s not such a bad guy, and the jerk heroes just parked a wagon of treasure outside a nearby dungeon. Maybe they could help with just one small heist to help another working stiff out.
They just gotta figure out how to get past those pesky torchbearers, familiars, and maybe one Paladin steed...

[pragma]

For a simpler take, you could just have them return immediately after an adventure -- i.e.: coated in blood, torn clothes, armed to the teeth -- and deal with the public disturbance this causes. Perhaps they've been denied service at an inn/tavern, or merely caused someone prim and proper to clutch their pearls.

For a more complex take, catch them in the middle of grave robbing: they swear up and down that a necromancer is in the middle of raising some skeletons and they need to stop him, but to all appearances they're in a graveyard with a shovel, a pile of bones and some stolen treasure.

I like portraying them as dangerous, dirty, rather crazy and incompatible with a well-run city. I also like the takes above that suggest making them preening, arrogant and ultimately celebrated. Either way, it will be fun to have them come in from the wings in a future adventure.

[manyslayer]

In addition to the above, don't forget to have the NPC Adventurers to always be talking about the greater good (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u8vd_YNbTw), being the chosen ones (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChosenOne), and the Fate of the World being at stake!

I just picture drunk, wannabe adventurers talking about being the chosen one (played by Patton Oswald) being arrested for public drunkenness.



Other ideas

Parking enforcement, especially trying to ticket the anti-paladin's nightmare
Drunken nobles (bachelor party?) - how to get them off the street but not publicly embarrass them
Keeping screaming fans of a famous bard band in line during their concert
Hazing pranks at the wizard's academy get out of hand