How Can I Make This Work?

[Souju]

This is more me asking for suggestions than anything else...
I'm working on a module for Pathfinder, based very loosely on the anime/manga Attack on Titan (at least, the early parts. The idea of a city being threatened by oversized enemies.) and a humorous hypothetical scenario brought upon by my regular group.
Here's how it works:
First off, the old stereotype of Murder Hobos is actually ENFORCED in this module. To use TVtropes, the party is the Godzilla Threshold: They're called in when the situation cannot be made any worse by them intervening. The entire party minus one member (the Minder, whose job it is to keep the plot moving by actually talking to people.) is required to be non-lawful.
What they've been called in for at the beginning of the adventure is an invasion into the city by gigantic kobolds and rats (and i mean that literally. The boss kobold and rats are all Large sized. In fact, every major enemy is one to two size categories larger than they would normally be, culminating in Colossal sized creatures outside the walls of the city. Which, yes, is the part i cribbed off AoT.) that eventually leads into learning why the oversized creatures exist and blah blah blah not quite done writing that part...
Anyone have any suggestions on how i can make it as fun as possible

[Madfellow]

My advice would be to remove the non-lawful restriction and just let the party run wild. People come to D&D to have fun, and as long as you supply them with adventure and let them do what they want within it, they'll usually have it. I've only seen the first 2 episodes of AoT (and I didn't really like it, but whatever), but the idea of a city being attacked by giant kobolds and rats is fun all by itself. Kobolds break through the wall and start wrecking the place like Godzilla? Fun. Giant rats burrow into the city and now the party wants to construct a giant rat trap? Fun. 3-dimensional mobility gear? LOADS of fun! What system does your group play? D&D 3x5, I'm guessing? You might want to point them in the direction of the Tome of Battle (aka the book of Weeaboo Fightin' Magic) for some over-the-top anime hijinks.

Honestly, I think you've got nothing to worry about here. The premise you've got is almost enough all on its own. As long as you approach this with fun in mind, it's bound to happen, especially if you give the party free range. Just supply the adventure and they'll probably do the rest for you.

Edit: Ooh, something I forgot. In one of the splatbooks (Heroes of Battle or Complete Martial or something like that. I can't remember specifically which one) there's a feat called Monkey Grip (it might be epic level). Basically it lets you wield weapons that are built for large creatures (or bigger than that, I think). You might consider removing the epic level requirement and the accuracy penalty involved and just giving it to the whole party as a bonus feat, so they can wield giant anime weapons of awesome. Just a thought.

[Souju]

unfortunately i don't want to abandon the alignment requirement...mostly because, well, to be quite frank, only one of the regular players (two if you include me...see below) ever really play Lawful unless they're playing monks. Making it a requirement is superficial, but makes the NPC reactions more plausible. The players aren't treated as the traditional heroes. There are dozens if not hundreds of modules for that. They're also not outright villains. There are also a lot of modules for THAT too.
Instead, the players are more like the heroes from Dirty Pair or Slayers: They absolutely get the job done, but the collateral damage they cause makes employing them except under the most dire of circumstances foolhardy. By allowing the party (minus their Minder) to be lawful, it requires a lot of deviation from the module as currently written to make it work.
In other words, the intention of this module is to make the "standard crazy PC behavior" CANON.
Also, it's a Pathfinder module, and it's intended to work with all the material designed for that system. There's no monkey grip feat there, though.

[DMMike]

The only thing better than fighting a giant kobold...

is RIDING a giant kobold.

Kobold mounts! They're smart enough to understand simple commands. And why not...give them different fur (scale?) colors and breath weapons too.

Make sure to explain to your players what "non-lawful" means. Because as the alignments are described in the books - non-lawful could mean just about anything.

[SethoMarkus]

Make sure to explain to your players what "non-lawful" means. Because as the alignments are described in the books - non-lawful could mean just about anything.

^^^I second this.^^^

As far as my understanding of the alignments, I don't see how a Lawful Good character and a Chaotic Good character differ in collateral damage. LG would try to avoid it whenever possible, but if it is the result of protecting the citizens, so be it. CG wouldn't really try to avoid it, but wouldn't intentionally destroy anything either. Their attitude may change, but the actual damage would be the same. The only time I can see it being an issue is if there is an apathy towards injuring innocents in the city as well, but then that isn't so much Lawful and Chaotic as it is Good and Evil.

Now, if you told me going into this game that Lawful was seen as protecting the status quo, and Chaos was wild and free-spirited, then I could see how Lawful would get in the way of the idea of "risky but effective" mercenaries.

[Souju]

Hm, yes I could see that...the expectation is that a non-lawful character would be more concerned with self preservation (TN, CN, NE, CE) or preservation of the people (NG, CG) than preservation of property.
Another idea is that the players are effectively required to ignore orders on a regular basis. While Lawful characters COULD be a part of it, and there is ONE lawful character, it's not something someone habitually lawful would do. There's some finagling that could work but it's difficult to pull off effectively, and if you WERE lawful in some way you wouldn't be assigned to this group!

[malmblad]

^^^I second this.^^^

As far as my understanding of the alignments, I don't see how a Lawful Good character and a Chaotic Good character differ in collateral damage. LG would try to avoid it whenever possible, but if it is the result of protecting the citizens, so be it. CG wouldn't really try to avoid it, but wouldn't intentionally destroy anything either.

Here's how I see the difference:

Chaotic Good character: "oh that's my friends store, let's lead the giant monsters away so it doesn't get squished" Monster tramples over other buildings instead.

Lawful Good character: "we make our stand here to save the city" Succeed or fail, Lawful Good characters won't be responsible for collateral damage. The means does not justify the ends.

[Flickerdart]

Edit: Ooh, something I forgot. In one of the splatbooks (Heroes of Battle or Complete Martial or something like that. I can't remember specifically which one) there's a feat called Monkey Grip (it might be epic level). Basically it lets you wield weapons that are built for large creatures (or bigger than that, I think). You might consider removing the epic level requirement and the accuracy penalty involved and just giving it to the whole party as a bonus feat, so they can wield giant anime weapons of awesome. Just a thought.

Complete Warrior. It's not a very good feat, and an item (Strongarm Bracers, MIC) does a better job of letting you wield large weapons, for cheaper.

[Souju]

it's also not in the pathfinder core rules...i'm all for fun n stuff, but I'd leave it up to a DM that decides to use this module whether they want to allow that. For my group, opening the doors to third party materials is a surefire way to get the mixmaxers to come up with a convoluted way of touching himself for more power.
That's not an exaggeration either.

[Flickerdart]

it's also not in the pathfinder core rules...i'm all for fun n stuff, but I'd leave it up to a DM that decides to use this module whether they want to allow that. For my group, opening the doors to third party materials is a surefire way to get the mixmaxers to come up with a convoluted way of touching himself for more power.
That's not an exaggeration either.

You'll want the Book of Erotic Fantasy for that.

[Souju]

You'll want the Book of Erotic Fantasy for that.

Strangely enough, "Lust" is probably the only sin my group doesn't engage in.
I spend so much on chips...

[mcbobbo]

It's just a seed, but I am picturing a scenario where causing maximum destruction is the best course of action. Maybe a large force is holed up in the mayor's estate and you need to collapse it on them ASAP. Preferably with it on fire.

[Souju]

It's just a seed, but I am picturing a scenario where causing maximum destruction is the best course of action. Maybe a large force is holed up in the mayor's estate and you need to collapse it on them ASAP. Preferably with it on fire.

Just remember that "Large force" in this campaign should be taken literally...
Hmmm, I already established the kobold tunnels...collapsing a city block to repel an invasion seems...fun :3