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Mikeavelli
2007-10-29, 05:05 AM
Hello!

I'm planning out a one-shot adventure whose entire description that will be handed out to the players is:

"The King has been kidnapped by Ninjas, are you a bad enough dude to save the King?"

Looking to craft a campaign that will end up with the players, a clan of Ninjas, and a boatfull of Pirates duking it out in an epic finale. To that end, I'm brainstorming ideas to make this:

A. Cool as Hell.

B. Campy.

Planning for a party of 8th level characters, my initial ideas include something along the lines of starting the players off in the Throne room (unexplained) immediately after the kidnapping, with Ninjas still in the city, last seen racing towards the docks, get the action started immediately. allow the characters to reach the docks just as the boat is sailing away, leave some defeated Ninja behind to either interrogate, or Speak with dead.

Sources point to a Ninja base with two possible points of ingress, an isolated cove filled with reefs, suicide to pilot a ship into - and a series of mountainous trails they'd need a guide to get through reliably. Design the camp as a dungeon and run through it.

Reach the Ninja master, defeat him and he reveals they don't have the King, he was kidnapped by the kidnappers by the Dread Pirate Clarisse (Male, but incredibly effiminate, voiced with a gay lisp). They somehow beat the suspected location of the king and Clarisse out of the Ninja clan leader, an island pirate town similar to Tortuga from Pirates of the Carribbean - and quickly give chase.

They get to Tortuga, encounter the dread pirate Clarisse, who offers to ransom the king to the players. In the middle of discussions, Clarisse's ship explodes, prompting a fight (which the Dread Pirate preferably escapes from, but no bones) - a Black Ninja ship sails away in the Night towards Stark Raving Island (named so for the Stark Raving mad castaway found by the first men to chart the island), which was their original goal.

With the PC's hot in pursuit, they arrive on Stark Raving Island, a volcanic Island with improbably high cliffs jutting straight up and a system of caves that serve as the final dungeon. Finale occurs at the edges of the still-active caldera, with the titular king on a cage above the Lava, the Ninjas waiting in Ambush, and the Dread Pirate Clarisse and his crew showing up a few rounds after combat begins.

The Stark Raving Mad castaway might make an appearance as well, probably a druid who wildcards the finale.

(Alternatively, a Mexican standoff would work, I'm debating the idea)


-------------------

What do I want?

Ideas; monsters, encounters of camp that could be thrown in here, things that you would do as a player to throw this off-kilter so I can factor in how to react to unexpected things because no planned campaign is going to survive encounter with the players for long.

And of course, sound like a fun time?

The Neoclassic
2007-10-29, 06:39 AM
Fun time for kick-in-the-door. I must say, I fail to see any logic behind the whole thing besides it providing action. How and why did the ninjas kidnap the king? Why did the PCs just happen to appear in the throne room at the right moment? Why do the ninjas even want the king anyway?

If I was a PC, I would try and find out the answers to the above questions, being the roleplayer that I am. So, I can give you more kick-in-the-door help if you want, but if your PCs have some interest in setting exploration or role-playing, they aren't going to get that out of this adventure from the looks of it right now.

Mr.Moron
2007-10-29, 06:51 AM
Fun time for kick-in-the-door. I must say, I fail to see any logic behind the whole thing besides it providing action. How and why did the ninjas kidnap the king? Why did the PCs just happen to appear in the throne room at the right moment? Why do the ninjas even want the king anyway?


The answers to most of it lie in the fact that it's obviously a tribute to Bad Dudes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Dudes).The entire premise of which was that after being kidnapped by ninjas (because ninjas do that) and only duo of street thugs can save him. Afterwards, the president buys them burgers.

I suspect after being rescued the president will reward the players with some whatever the D&D equivalent to burgers is.

Mikeavelli
2007-10-29, 07:29 AM
We've had an overabundance of dreadfully serious, hardcore roleplaying games recently, and it's about time for a change of pace. I could think of nothing better than Bad Dudes, along with the Pirates vs. Ninjas theme.

The kidnapping is nothing more sinister than a ransom scheme, the tone is very Beer & Pretzels, and what I'm mainly looking for is even more oppourtunities for nerd pop culture infusion.

Kurald Galain
2007-10-29, 07:51 AM
I suspect after being rescued the president will reward the players with some whatever the D&D equivalent to burgers is.

Hydra heads, obviously.

Mr.Moron
2007-10-29, 08:28 AM
Anyway, on the subject of encounters.



B. Campy.


One Idea:

Find way to fit in an (Adam West)batman-like sub villain, who can only be harmed when an attack or spell directed at him is accompanied by a horrible cheesy attempt at onomatopoeia, in comic book style. This could be explained away as a poorly thought-out magical defense, that for some reason can't be defeated/removed by normal means. Obviously he'd have stupid little pointless magical items, in place of stupid pointless gadgets but the concept is generally the same.

He could somehow reveal it to the players as cheesy bag guys often do with their weaknesses, or it could be something they have to go out of their way to find out.

I don't think it's possible to come up with a more campy (or cruel) idea than this.

Citizen Joe
2007-10-29, 08:38 AM
You might want to make it a princess or the queen or something. The King is the one that pays ransoms. Capture the king and there's nobody to pay the ransom, some heir will simply step up and take over.

Telonius
2007-10-29, 10:57 AM
Camp value, you say?

The ninjas should be Awakened Turtles, with a Were-Rat as their leader.

Azerian Kelimon
2007-10-29, 10:59 AM
Add a human possesed warforged to the mix, and an intellect devourer inside another warforged, and you'd be set. Guess who's who.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-29, 11:53 AM
You might want to make it a princess or the queen or something. The King is the one that pays ransoms. Capture the king and there's nobody to pay the ransom, some heir will simply step up and take over.
But then he's not the President. And only the President can buy you burgers apparently.

elliott20
2007-10-29, 12:14 PM
OOOOHHH!! You should make a trap maker villain who specializes in snares and such. He will then call himself the Baiter as his calling card. Which, the local law enforcement will announce very seriously, "this is the work of the baiter! He is a master at baiting!" The last part will be repeated by the villain himself.

Telonius
2007-10-29, 12:15 PM
But then he's not the President. And only the President can buy you burgers apparently.

But a king can buy you Burghers, which is almost as good.

elliott20
2007-10-29, 12:18 PM
that's only contingent on the PCs being BAD ENOUGH TO SAVE THE KING though.

Runolfr
2007-10-29, 01:48 PM
Well, you need a sea monster to attack their ship at some point. Dragon turtles and Kraken happen to fall in roughly the right CR range, I think.

Useful for keeping the party from overtaking the pirates or ninjas at sea.

Runolfr
2007-10-29, 01:52 PM
The party are almost certain to try to use divination magic to locate the king, and the ninjas are likely to know that such efforts will be made, so you should implement some counter-measures against scrying and other efforts to shortcut the adventure magically.

They may also try to teleport away with him as soon as they see him, so a dimensional anchor on the king might be useful; the ninjas would apply it as soon as they realized there were intruders in their complex.

Runolfr
2007-10-29, 01:54 PM
You could have a puzzle which requires the party to distinguish the king from magical doubles before they can escape with him.

Tamburlaine
2007-10-29, 02:24 PM
Regardless of what actually happens, you should definitely try Risus for this

Idiotbox90
2007-10-29, 07:56 PM
Give characters circumstance bonuses for describing their actions vividly and creatively. Call it a Bad Dude bonus.

sefiru
2007-10-29, 10:13 PM
One word: Godzilla.

Oh, and give them some Holy Hand Grenades, too. :smallcool: