saucerhead
2021-02-16, 01:25 PM
The game I play in was on hiatus for a month around Christmas and New Years so I got the idea of running a one shot game as the DM. I have happily played the computer game Darkest Dungeons for quite a while and decided its setting would be perfect for a drop in game. The players arrive by stage coach at a dingy, run down hamlet to start a life of adventure in the ruins of a once glorious estate. I asked the group if they would be willing and they agreed. From there I made a list of most of the character classes from the game and found what I thought were their equivalent in 5th edition and asked the players to choose one. I soon had a party consisting of a Grave Robber, a Plague Doctor, a Hellion, and a Crusader. So I wrote the players a short description of what those were like as zero level characters.
The Grave Robber: You are good with light/finesse weapons, including thrown darts, and also have a variety of skills. You are good at sneaking quietly, disarming traps, noticing things others don’t and digging six foot holes. You like using poison on your throwing darts, but regularly keep a little anti-toxin handy in case of accidents. You obviously know how to search a body and aren’t squeamish about corpses, leading you to have a gallows humor and slight addiction to snuff powder. (It helps deal with the stench.) In those rare circumstances when your skills and darts don’t seem to do the trick, you either run like hell or pull out your pick to crack those hard cases open. You possess: Shabby clothes, hat and boots, a leather vest, a two handed digging pick, a short shovel, a short sword, and three darts. You are out of snuff and poison, but have a little anti-toxin. ST12, DX13, CN13, IN10, WS10, CH10, with 6HP.
The Plague Doctor: You are obviously skilled with a knife, or the occasional bone saw, but those don't heal as effectively as they butcher. You generally don't resort to pulling out your cutlery unless your subject is already at death's door. Leeches and drugs, however, are good for what ails you. Standing back and blinding or poisoning your opponents works almost as well as buffing and curing your friends. Your herbalism and alchemy skills are your bread and butter, and if the peasantry think science is magical, who cares. Your book is full of first hand knowledge and test notes from past and ongoing field research. You are confident in your concoctions and use them on yourself, resulting in a mild addiction to opium and an oddly happy disposition. You possess: Shabby clothes, gloves and boots, a plague mask and goggles, a leather apron, two daggers, a medicine bag including a jar of leeches and injection needles, and a journal with ink and quill. You are out of most herbs and opium, but have three poison grenades. ST10, DX12, CN10, IN13, WS13, CH10, with 6HP.
The Hellion: You are good with a two handed glaive, or other polearms if need be, but it is your brash confidence and strength that makes you popular in most taverns. You are obviously gifted in athletics and intimidation, but can also be persuasive and stealthy when it suits you. In combat, your rage pushes your body beyond the damage most men can take and also grants the potential to stun your opponents briefly with a ferocious roar. In town, your drunken revelry has given you a mild addiction to alcohol, a rejection of any so called "gods", and the opinion that sorcery is nothing but a con game. You possess: shabby clothes and boots, a leather kilt, a two-handed glaive, a hand axe, a back pack, and a whet stone. You are out of wine, but do have some face paint for when it's time to get serious and kick ass. ST13, DX10, CN13, IN10, WS10, CH12, with 6HP.
The Crusader: You are good with a great sword and use it to smite the wicked. Your purity and strength keep you standing against corruption and your absolute faith can inspire confidence in your allies or denounce your enemies. You have the insight to see potential in those around you and the charm to bring out their best, even in those less devout. You can also potentially stun individual opponents, buying your allies a brief reprieve from further attacks, but it reduces your damage. While you do not know any medicinal skills, but can heal yourself or your friends when things are dire. Religion is your balm. You possess: shabby clothes, boots and gloves, leather armor, a great sword, a dagger, and a holy symbol. ST13, DX10, CN12, IN10, WS10, CH13, with 6HP.
There was some slight modifying to the abilities of each class, but of the four classes being played the Plague Doctor was the big challenge. I don’t particularly like the artificer class, probably due to a lack of familiarity, and decided to use the knowledge cleric as the platform for the plague doctor. The problem was I did not want him to pray and cast spells. Instead I wanted him to use drugs, herbs and alchemy to achieve the same ends. While this could be considered fluff for the delivery system of such magical effects it brought up an issue of concentration. If the character made a concoction and got the party to inhale the fumes it would be “Emboldening Vapours” which is essentially a Bless spell, but how long would it last? I decided that each character would need to roll a d4 to see how much they inhaled to decide how long it would last individually. The next issue being can the character use another alchemical effect that would normally have concentration while the first one is ongoing? This didn’t come up during the session, but still needs an answer which I haven’t decided on, but I am leaning towards allowing it.
I would appreciate any thoughts from the homebrewers on this site. This was a one shot and the party and I had fun with it, but there is always a slim chance of a follow up if our regular DM is unavailable. Thanks.
For those of you curious, I had the party interact with some of the locals at the adventurer’s guild house, which was a group of old and mostly lame veterans from decades gone by. The party was flat broke, but were extended credit for rations, torches, bandages, digging tools and a basic map of the area at an exorbitant price of 100gp. They agreed to terms, packed up and walked through the town until they met guards at the gate and went out onto the bridge headed to the hills where they would find the ruins. I used the bridge to set the tone of the adventure, as they found a slain party that hadn’t made it back to the gate as well as the remains of an unnatural looking dog that was also dead on the bridge. They proceeded to the ruins, encountered a small pack of rats, and found an elevated camp site in the rain for the night. In the morning they all woke to be 1st level, rolled hit dice, and I had each choose once from Physique(ST+1 & CN+1) Cunning(DX+1 & IN+1) and Spirit(WS+1 & CH+1). Afterwards, they found a stone door way and went underground.
The party managed to open the stone door and entered the well sealed room which was empty except for a couple crates. One held an foot and a half tall statue of stone carved and polished to look like a man was wrapped in a tentacle it was fighting. It wasn’t well defined or detailed, but there was no doubt of the subject matter. The second held a rolled up canvas and a small, ornate box containing four gems of lower quality. The group took the loot and broke down the crates for firewood and tinder, lit one of their torches and went down the staircase in the back of the room.
The group crushed all the opposition they found below. They took a small amount of damage from the giant maggots they encountered first, but the hellion and the crusader alone smashed a pair of skeletons before even getting attacked for the next three encounters. The plague doctor, who was at the back, remained very skeptical the skeletons were even animated as there were only smashed bones by the time he entered the rooms. He played it that they were letting their fears and stress get the better of them.
There was some genuine caution shown when they found a creepy statue though. It was a five foot wide basin of red stone with a two and a half foot high lip, and from the middle of the basin was a stone tentacle that was as thick as a man’s waist that tapered to a point in the shape of a question mark. Eventually, after several minutes of investigating and questions I hinted that it was so well carved that the tentacle looked almost wet. The crusader poured holy water on it shortly after that, but he was the only one that didn’t have an affliction, so nothing happened at that point. The other three members of the group each had minor addictions that would have been cured, but oh well.
They had one last fight later on against a pair of cultists and a skeleton, but again took minimal damage. The entire group witnessed the skeleton attack and saw one cultist cast something. (It was a Bane spell that also caused the crusader some stress.) They found some hidden loot and on the way back to town I informed them they had reached second level. So they again got to pick from Physique, Cunning and Spirit and we ended the session there.
The Grave Robber: You are good with light/finesse weapons, including thrown darts, and also have a variety of skills. You are good at sneaking quietly, disarming traps, noticing things others don’t and digging six foot holes. You like using poison on your throwing darts, but regularly keep a little anti-toxin handy in case of accidents. You obviously know how to search a body and aren’t squeamish about corpses, leading you to have a gallows humor and slight addiction to snuff powder. (It helps deal with the stench.) In those rare circumstances when your skills and darts don’t seem to do the trick, you either run like hell or pull out your pick to crack those hard cases open. You possess: Shabby clothes, hat and boots, a leather vest, a two handed digging pick, a short shovel, a short sword, and three darts. You are out of snuff and poison, but have a little anti-toxin. ST12, DX13, CN13, IN10, WS10, CH10, with 6HP.
The Plague Doctor: You are obviously skilled with a knife, or the occasional bone saw, but those don't heal as effectively as they butcher. You generally don't resort to pulling out your cutlery unless your subject is already at death's door. Leeches and drugs, however, are good for what ails you. Standing back and blinding or poisoning your opponents works almost as well as buffing and curing your friends. Your herbalism and alchemy skills are your bread and butter, and if the peasantry think science is magical, who cares. Your book is full of first hand knowledge and test notes from past and ongoing field research. You are confident in your concoctions and use them on yourself, resulting in a mild addiction to opium and an oddly happy disposition. You possess: Shabby clothes, gloves and boots, a plague mask and goggles, a leather apron, two daggers, a medicine bag including a jar of leeches and injection needles, and a journal with ink and quill. You are out of most herbs and opium, but have three poison grenades. ST10, DX12, CN10, IN13, WS13, CH10, with 6HP.
The Hellion: You are good with a two handed glaive, or other polearms if need be, but it is your brash confidence and strength that makes you popular in most taverns. You are obviously gifted in athletics and intimidation, but can also be persuasive and stealthy when it suits you. In combat, your rage pushes your body beyond the damage most men can take and also grants the potential to stun your opponents briefly with a ferocious roar. In town, your drunken revelry has given you a mild addiction to alcohol, a rejection of any so called "gods", and the opinion that sorcery is nothing but a con game. You possess: shabby clothes and boots, a leather kilt, a two-handed glaive, a hand axe, a back pack, and a whet stone. You are out of wine, but do have some face paint for when it's time to get serious and kick ass. ST13, DX10, CN13, IN10, WS10, CH12, with 6HP.
The Crusader: You are good with a great sword and use it to smite the wicked. Your purity and strength keep you standing against corruption and your absolute faith can inspire confidence in your allies or denounce your enemies. You have the insight to see potential in those around you and the charm to bring out their best, even in those less devout. You can also potentially stun individual opponents, buying your allies a brief reprieve from further attacks, but it reduces your damage. While you do not know any medicinal skills, but can heal yourself or your friends when things are dire. Religion is your balm. You possess: shabby clothes, boots and gloves, leather armor, a great sword, a dagger, and a holy symbol. ST13, DX10, CN12, IN10, WS10, CH13, with 6HP.
There was some slight modifying to the abilities of each class, but of the four classes being played the Plague Doctor was the big challenge. I don’t particularly like the artificer class, probably due to a lack of familiarity, and decided to use the knowledge cleric as the platform for the plague doctor. The problem was I did not want him to pray and cast spells. Instead I wanted him to use drugs, herbs and alchemy to achieve the same ends. While this could be considered fluff for the delivery system of such magical effects it brought up an issue of concentration. If the character made a concoction and got the party to inhale the fumes it would be “Emboldening Vapours” which is essentially a Bless spell, but how long would it last? I decided that each character would need to roll a d4 to see how much they inhaled to decide how long it would last individually. The next issue being can the character use another alchemical effect that would normally have concentration while the first one is ongoing? This didn’t come up during the session, but still needs an answer which I haven’t decided on, but I am leaning towards allowing it.
I would appreciate any thoughts from the homebrewers on this site. This was a one shot and the party and I had fun with it, but there is always a slim chance of a follow up if our regular DM is unavailable. Thanks.
For those of you curious, I had the party interact with some of the locals at the adventurer’s guild house, which was a group of old and mostly lame veterans from decades gone by. The party was flat broke, but were extended credit for rations, torches, bandages, digging tools and a basic map of the area at an exorbitant price of 100gp. They agreed to terms, packed up and walked through the town until they met guards at the gate and went out onto the bridge headed to the hills where they would find the ruins. I used the bridge to set the tone of the adventure, as they found a slain party that hadn’t made it back to the gate as well as the remains of an unnatural looking dog that was also dead on the bridge. They proceeded to the ruins, encountered a small pack of rats, and found an elevated camp site in the rain for the night. In the morning they all woke to be 1st level, rolled hit dice, and I had each choose once from Physique(ST+1 & CN+1) Cunning(DX+1 & IN+1) and Spirit(WS+1 & CH+1). Afterwards, they found a stone door way and went underground.
The party managed to open the stone door and entered the well sealed room which was empty except for a couple crates. One held an foot and a half tall statue of stone carved and polished to look like a man was wrapped in a tentacle it was fighting. It wasn’t well defined or detailed, but there was no doubt of the subject matter. The second held a rolled up canvas and a small, ornate box containing four gems of lower quality. The group took the loot and broke down the crates for firewood and tinder, lit one of their torches and went down the staircase in the back of the room.
The group crushed all the opposition they found below. They took a small amount of damage from the giant maggots they encountered first, but the hellion and the crusader alone smashed a pair of skeletons before even getting attacked for the next three encounters. The plague doctor, who was at the back, remained very skeptical the skeletons were even animated as there were only smashed bones by the time he entered the rooms. He played it that they were letting their fears and stress get the better of them.
There was some genuine caution shown when they found a creepy statue though. It was a five foot wide basin of red stone with a two and a half foot high lip, and from the middle of the basin was a stone tentacle that was as thick as a man’s waist that tapered to a point in the shape of a question mark. Eventually, after several minutes of investigating and questions I hinted that it was so well carved that the tentacle looked almost wet. The crusader poured holy water on it shortly after that, but he was the only one that didn’t have an affliction, so nothing happened at that point. The other three members of the group each had minor addictions that would have been cured, but oh well.
They had one last fight later on against a pair of cultists and a skeleton, but again took minimal damage. The entire group witnessed the skeleton attack and saw one cultist cast something. (It was a Bane spell that also caused the crusader some stress.) They found some hidden loot and on the way back to town I informed them they had reached second level. So they again got to pick from Physique, Cunning and Spirit and we ended the session there.