101 Plothooks, Campaign Ideas, and DM coolness

[Demons_eye]

I was talking to a player the other day and wanted to make a list of things that would make a game unique and cool.


Ideas that I have herd/made

Were-Wars: Were bears are turning people LG when they dont want to, so the were wolfs do the same. In this world everyone is a were X and you better chose your allies carefully.

Elemental pet: Everyone is born with an elemental pet, this can be done two ways. One: Animal as ranger with half elemental template or two chose a Mephit as a cohort. Inspired by two books.

Body snatchers: Changlings and doppelgangers have formed a secret organization that plans to take over the world. The players are the kings/queens/rulers of different nations and have been kidnapped and thrown in jail as impostors. They know the truth and that their kingdoms are in the hands of evil masterminds, can they gain the power back and prove to the world they are who they say they are?

The Maze: Low-level characters are magically dumped into the lowest level of a maze complex. As they ascend towards the surface, the tricks, traps and encounters grow more difficult. In order to pass many of the hazards, the characters must work together. (Designed to promote teamwork.)

Amnesia: Low-level characters are actually long dead heroes brought back from beyond the grave to save a kingdom under siege. Can the characters recover their memories and abilities in time to save the kingdom? (Levelling provides more memories, and ability development.)

The Message: One of the characters recieves a cryptic message (or cryptic, prophetic dream). The characters must figure out what it all means, before it's too late. (Not actually time-sensitive, but it gives a sense of urgency.)

Items:

Spoiler

Show

Storm Umbrella- A normal looking umbrella that has a few uses:
At will it can turn a 5ft cubic area of water into ice/level
5/day you can shape ice as using shape stone
2/week call a Winter wolf to your aid for 2 hour/level
1/year call a Forst Worm to your aid for 1 hour/level
Has 3 charges a day
Spend one point to cast any spell of the 1st level with ice in the name CL=character level
Spend two point to cast any spell of the 3rd level with ice in the name CL=character level
Spend three point to cast any spell of the 5th level with ice in the name CL=character level

When opened it starts to lightly rain for 10 rounds in a 20ft area/level but is clear in the wielders threatened area. After 20 rounds the area is affect as if call lighting was cast by the wielder. After 30 rounds it upgrades to grater call lighting and after 40 whirlwind is activated. All only if the wielder is aware of the power and wills it so, can stop any time they wish.

As a DM I once had a series of animated gem/precious metal items that got inflicted on the party:

Quicksilver Monkey- Great at getting into places because it could turn into a pool of mercury and move as an ooze. Led the party rogue to progressively more valuable- and progressively more dangerous- treasures. Once it decided the rogue needed a treasure, it wouldn't take no for an answer and ways of "encouraging" her.

Obsidian Shrike- Its touch would give a premonition of the target's death (or at least a possible one- different every time). Game effect was save or be stunned. You couldn't turn it off though, so you had to be careful with it.

Ruby Scorpion- Could generate a scorching ray, but got red hot itself, so it posed a transportation problem.

The context for these was a relatively low magic world where magic in general, but magic items in particular, had a price to pay for use.

My favorite custom item that I actually received was a Barrel of Monkeys. It was similar to a Bag of Tricks in that multiple critters were inside, but these were all monkeys. The user would designate a target and say "Monkeys, attack!" and a monkey would pop out and attempt to grapple with the target. There was a 30% chance that any monkey had TNT strapped to him, and after successfully grappling would then push the big red button on his chest to detonate for 5d10 damage. :)

My favorite custom item that we never saw (and I was very glad we didn't) was an intelligent spear that was left behind by a race called the Dragonlords, so named because even the lowliest among their society routinely used adult dragons as mounts. They were able to do this not because they were especially friendly with dragons, but because they were just that badass that the dragons who said no got killed. Anywho, this spear had some insane ability scores and thus had a huge chance to dominate the user. It was something like +5 Returning Piercing Shocking Burst Spear, and would drain Con from the user every day until they were Undead. If it dominated, which like I said was almost sure to happen, it gave the user Special Purpose: Kill Living. :)

i give all spellcasters one custom magic item. its exactly like a spell component pouch, but you can put gold into it, and you get whatever material component you want. if a party member died, you stick in 5000 gold, and you get enough diamonds to cast raise dead. i think i took the idea from someone here.

I had PCs find 4 cursed rings fairly early on (lvl 3). There were warning signs and everything but when one PC put one on, they all did... it was pretty priceless.

The Skeleton Ring, granted DR 5/- for an amount equal to the max Hp of the creature that put it on. After that the finger it was worn on shrivels to bone and falls off. Was worn by the Warlock, bumping his DR from 1 to 5.

The Harvest Ring, 3/day would heal 1d8+1 Hp or a full nights rest worth to a target, whichever was higher, but would age the wearer of the ring. Was worn by the venerable Gnome Wizard...

The Heart Pin, possibly the most useful, made weapon attacks to overcome any type of DR but inflicted the damage overcome to the user as well. 12 damage to something with DR 10/- would deal 12 to the target, and 10 to the ring bearer. Was worn by the Rogue, was very nervous about the unknown effects as the fluff of the ring made his heart race.

The Dark Pearl, possibly the worst curse, granted visions that were almost always false, bringing -4 initiative and a DC 15 + char lvl Will save or Dazed for 1 round when confronted with a stressful situation (the first round of combat, Ride or Balance checks to avoid falling, etc.). The Paladin got this one and he thought his was the most beneficial.

The players all loved it. The campaign didn't run long enough for them to come up very much, but they all still laugh about the curses, and the Rp that came from them.

One (sadly never-completed) adventure I set up had a set of three custom-made Artifacts. The idea was for the players to eventually take on Asmodeus (as statted in BoVD) as the BBEG. The group had to find these MacGuffins in order to do it, but they were pretty powerful in and of themselves.

The Bell
Dealt a nasty sonic attack several times per day. Lots of damage, deafening, and so on. Also allowed Freedom of Movement several times per day.

The Book
Intelligent Blessed Book (enhanced). Had access to every nonepic spell ever written, as per a scroll. Player can't scribe new spells into it, so use it once and it's gone. Also granted a +20 on each type knowledge check once per day.

The Candle
Emits light as an Everburning Torch. Functions as a Candle of Invocation 1/day and a Candle of Truth at will. Becomes a Vorpal Brilliant Energy Holy Avenger in the hands of a Paladin.

Use all three of them at once, and it creates resonance that will eternally banish any devil or demon within a five mile radius; but doing so destroys the items. Plot item: Asmo found a way to get around it. He wants the party to show up and banish his competition, Lucifer, so he could truly be the undisputed top devil for all time. He didn't realize that the three artifacts will retain their power for just enough time to defeat him, before fading away into nothingness.

Anyone got some to add?

[dsmiles]

The Maze: Low-level characters are magically dumped into the lowest level of a maze complex. As they ascend towards the surface, the tricks, traps and encounters grow more difficult. In order to pass many of the hazards, the characters must work together. (Designed to promote teamwork.)

Amnesia: Low-level characters are actually long dead heroes brought back from beyond the grave to save a kingdom under siege. Can the characters recover their memories and abilities in time to save the kingdom? (Levelling provides more memories, and ability development.)

The Message: One of the characters recieves a cryptic message (or cryptic, prophetic dream). The characters must figure out what it all means, before it's too late. (Not actually time-sensitive, but it gives a sense of urgency.)

[Temotei]

Haha...pothooks...

[Mikeavelli]

The Light of Dawn: A magnificent golden ring that Banishes creatures from the outer planes as per a Dismissal spell by a 20th level caster. Came up in a Planescape campaign where all the characters in question were technically “creatures from another Plane.”

Quicksilver Monkey- Great at getting into places because it could turn into a pool of mercury and move as an ooze. Led the party rogue to progressively more valuable- and progressively more dangerous- treasures. Once it decided the rogue needed a treasure, it wouldn't take no for an answer and ways of "encouraging" her.

I'm stealing this one for my current campaign.

[Demons_eye]

The Maze:
Amnesia:
The Message:

Added

Haha...pothooks...

Yes I noticed after I got to work but was unable to change it,

Adding a few more to the list soon.

[The_JJ]

Edit the first post, go to the title.

[Demons_eye]

Edit the first post, go to the title.

Do you mean to change the title? I did that all ready.

[shadow_archmagi]

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/411...mencounter.png