(Long, a do-it-yourself scenario that needs stats etc. Not about collecting, sorry. Reposted here from Facebook, since I know a lot of you don't use that platform. Delete if too
O/T.)
Epic Fantasy DIY for your role games at home (long)I’ve run this event a few times at conventions, but it’s not publishable, as you will quickly see (I steal freely from films and more). Thus, here are some notes for your homework. It won’t be easy, but the whole scenario can easily generate more than 40 hours of play, some of it deadly serious combat, and some in a silly funhouse style.
Overview: This is a group of 40 independent ‘pocket planes’ connected by magical corridors. GM, just insert a Gateway somewhere in your usual campaign world. It should be appealing to encourage them to ‘take the leap’. (Maybe a little guy carrying bags of money?) Do NOT use a big green face for the portal. ;>
The pocket planes correspond to the
40 spaces on a Monopoly board (original American version). Each contains an encounter relevant to the name of the space. Each contains a hidden doorway as well. In my version, each exit portal leads to a 60’ long tunnel, 10x10’, with another door on the far end. That door will only open if the entry door is closed, thereby activating the connection. Some areas are outdoor, and lack opportunities for doors, so in that case I just add a free-standing door (ala one scene in the
Beetlejuice film). Such a tunnel is the safest place to rest & recover (even for hours), but local denizens may wander in, and some of them have guns. (If the party is in rough shape, be merciful and let them rest a night in peace.)
>> Before play begins, you need to
decide on an Objective; once achieved, a final exit appears, an obvious swirling portal back to your ‘normal’ campaign world. My version of this epic includes a red dragon that shows up in odd places, flying over (well out of range) and checking out the party, so this becomes a regular hint/pointer to give you that goal (find the dragon and defeat it). Your goals and objectives can be whatever you like, of course.
Movement between planes is by tunnel as noted, but where does it go? I use the standard 2d6 of the game itself. This skips many spaces, and may leave some entirely unvisited when the adventure concludes. Tweak as you wish, to force more or fewer combats, ‘fun’ spaces, etc.
>> Mechanisms are needed to resolve ‘Chance’ and ‘Community Chest’ spaces. I treat the former as a swirling chaos, and generated a simple 1d12 table to replicate some of the Chance cards, adding some twists as well. A Chest means loot, and the cards are again often easy to translate. In both cases some cards are irrelevant to this scenario (pay someone or receive money), so replace them.
I also include various uses for the famed game tokens. All are full-sized when seen, but shrink to small size when acquired. This is another possible solution to escape the pocket planes, using the tokens in a sacrificial ritual. (Some tokens listed are no longer used in modern editions.) Tokens and their locations:
Top Hat, Scottie Dog, Boot, Purse (Go/Start)
Chariot (car), Cat (The Glory of Rome)
Money Sack (Community Chest)
Steam Engine (any RR space)
Man on horseback (Sheriff's Office)
Cannon (Bayou Blues cemetery)
Lantern (Settlement Survival)
Warship (WarFleets)
Iron, Thimble (random)
* * *
>> The
Go/Start space is crucial for a general orientation. This is where the party arrives, and should contain clues to get them moving. In mine, it’s a park in the middle of a city circa 1936 (the year the game appeared), very alien to the medieval characters. People therein include the entire cast of the film “Annie” (doing the musical numbers continuously), including FDR. Others are Lizzie Phillips and Charles Darrow (inventors of The Landlords Game and its derivative/ripoff Monopoly respectively), and as a related tribute, Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) having an argument with E. Gary Gygax (about Gary’s odd combat-oriented use of his Alice in Wonderland in modules).
Other persons in the Start space (the park) include this motley assemblage from many of the pocket planes as noted. It can take quite a while for players to explore and role-play throughout this area. The first exit portal (to another game space) can be anywhere, but I use the entrance to a vacant storefront.
2 Roman Legionnaires acting like policemen (Mediterranean)
2 irritable Varangian Vikings (Baltic)
1 Asian chef selling fried rice (Su Wing from Oriental)
1 ice cream salesman (Ben N. Gerrie from Vermont) (note: PCs have probably never heard of ice cream…)
1 Insurance Salesman (Connecticut) (remember ‘Groundhog Day’?)
2 Earp brothers (Jail)
4 American Colonists c.1610 (Virginia)
2 Age-of-Sail Wargamers (St. James)
2 Moonshiners (Tennessee)
2 Orangutans in suits (New York)
1 Colonel (Sanders of Kentucky)
2 Klingons (humans in outfits, from Indiana)
2 Blues Brothers (Illinois) singing with Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, and Cab Calloway
2 Matrix Agents (Go to Jail)
3 Hula Dancers + 1 ukulele player (Pacific)
2 Pirates (North Carolina)
2 Amish (a couple from Pennsylvania)
2 Navajos (Park Place)
* * *
Here are my general notes on the contents of the pocket planes. Remember, this is only my version; please change things, add your own creativity. All of them need to be detailed with stats for your game system of choice.
Mediterranean “The Glory of Rome”: You’re suddenly participating in a Roman chariot race in a colosseum, two PCs per chariot. (Some players will get excited and try to win the race, but someone may remember the objective.) Exit door in the stables (connected).
Community Chest “Loot”: See notes above; freestanding door to exit.
Baltic “Varangian Marauders”: You arrive on a Rus ship (q.v., Scandinavian traders c. 800 AD) under attack in the eastern Baltic Sea. Help them repel the attackers. The door to the Captain’s cabin is your exit.
Income Tax “Church Bells”: Solitary rural church; when entering, 10% of all carried cash vanishes (including gems). Nobody home. Exit via any inside door.
Reading RR “Kick Ass”: A steampunk iron donkey can be dangerous, but a map in its saddlebag shows the exit portal in a cave nearby. An animate steam engine (a token!) can’t do much, as it’s confined to its tracks…unless you add a “Back to the Future” bit so it can fly.
Oriental “Su-Wing’s”: A tribute to the restaurant in downtown Lake Geneva WI, which dates back to TSR in the late 1970s. Gary and Lewis Carroll are having lunch (as are a dozen others) when you wander in. Anything goes, and kitchen tools can be nasty in combat. Exit: Ladies’ rest room door.
Chance “Chaos”: See notes above; a crayon lies discarded nearby. Use that to draw an exit on the rocky ground (it works).
Vermont “Ice Cream Parlor”: Benjamin Nicholas Gerye, Proprietor. Invent a new flavor and they’ll show you the mystery exit.
Connecticut “Mystic Pizza”: Survive/placate the boring insurance salesman in the pizza joint (Hartford is the nation’s insurance capital), whose droning may Sleep you. The back door is your exit portal.
Jail “Sheriff’s Office”: Classic wild-west scene, including 4 Earps. If you get jailed, the cell door is the exit – but only from within the locked cell. If you’re ‘just visiting’, you’ll have to irritate them enough to arrest you. The cells are not large, so your party may be divided, and only one group will have easy access to the exit… Bend Bars during the guards’ siesta, perhaps?
St. Charles “Bayou Blues”: Deal with swamp monsters in the Baie des Deux Chenes of St. Charles Parish (west of New Orleans); find the exit in an adjacent graveyard (a crypt with antique cannon /token).
Electric Company “Stormclouds Gather”: A lightning storm on a mountain top, very dangerous. You spot a busted kite laying nearby, with a key on a string (but that’s a shocking trap with no benefit). Two drunks in the bushes (both named Ben, q.v.) have a large unused square kite; stand it up to create a magic exit…
States “Cocktail Party”: 37 governors in a fictional meeting with Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in the White House, January 1861 (just prior to the start of the Civil War). You help unite them – against YOU, the weird invaders! Run for it… but your exit is the Lincoln Bedroom upstairs. As they are politicians, few of them can fight effectively, but Honest Abe does wield a wicked axe.
Virginia “Settlement Survival”: Jamestown colony 1610; help the Paspahegh tribe resist the Euro-invaders. Succeed and they’ll search for (and find) the exit portal somewhere in the colonial structures.
Pennsylvania RR “Stables”: Dirty stables are infested, so clean out the critters (giant bugs in the hay). Help the horses and one smart stallion will lead you to the exit portal somewhere within.
St. James “WarFleets”: Help the Dutch vs England (1666) but on a larger scale than the Baltic skirmish (for age-of-sail naval wargamers, hat tip to Dave Arneson). (If your group can handle it, take a break and play this as a wargame, using rules from “Don’t Give Up the Ship”.) Exit on the Dutch flagship.
Community Chest: See notes above
Tennessee “Bar Fight”: In the tasting saloon at the Jack Daniels distillery, your arrival causes a melee to break out. The air is heavy with alcohol; beware fire & explosions. Exit portal in the snack kitchen. (I’ve had two groups blow up the place through incautious use of fire; many casualties among the drunks, but the party members are tougher.)
New York “Planet of the…”: Gorillas on horseback (with nets) chasing Charleton Heston and his lady on the shore, but you’re not spotted (yet). Help either side, your call. Exit door in the base of the big tilted statue.
Free Parking “Infinite Concrete”: Featureless wasteland with a jillion abandoned cars. Bonnie & Clyde and the Dillinger gang are nearby, trying to restart their engines. They think you’re the Laws, and open fire. A trunk of one car is the exit.
Kentucky “Fried Chicken”: As you arrive you see a pack of wolves interrupting the Colonel’s monthly outdoor picnic at the poultry farm. A nearby privy will let you continue onward.
Chance: See notes
Indiana “Game Convention”: Within the convention center, and with GenCon going full blast (Saturday), the party is mistaken for cosplayers, but their very real weapons get them in trouble with Security… evade and run. A fire exit (do not open! it says) is your portal.
Illinois “Black & White”: The Blues Brothers are having a great time with a bunch of black musicians. First you have to defeat the (inept) Illinois Nazis, but must then sing the blues (ala “Adventures in Babysitting”) to get to the exit hatch next to the drummer.
B&O RR “Stagecoach”: You’re on horseback, heading for a coach somewhere in the wild west. Fight it out with the James Gang, because they’re closer to the coach than you are. One large piece of luggage can be opened to reveal the portal exit. (Insert Joe Walsh music jokes at will.)
Atlantic “Jax Beach”: Modern gamers are enacting a microarmor battle on the ‘world’s largest sand table’ (Jacksonville Beach Florida, site of several GenCon South conventions). Deal with them peacefully to get information about a buoy ½ mile offshore (the exit portal). (Try a WWII miniatures game for a break?)
Ventnor “St. Boniface Down”: This steep hill (q.v.) isolates the shore town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. So of course there’s a wrong way and a wight way to handle this… yes, the entire town is a haven for undead, and they all hate you (the living). City Hall contains your exit.
Water Works “Niagara”: A tactical challenge. One rock juts out from the middle of the horseshoe falls, and the waters are infested; the critters bite as they pass, and may grab you and take you down with them. The exit appears when you reach the rock, of course.
Marvin Gardens “Garden of Death”: Poor depressed robot Marvin (Hitchhikers Guide) spouts negativity that can cost you levels (!) as he tends his massive greenhouse of deadly plants. Exit is one of the 20 doors…
Insert some famous Marvin quotes, all in range saving throw vs depression (level loss) every time:
It gives me a headache just trying to think down to your level.
I'd make a suggestion, but you wouldn't listen, no one ever does.
I've calculated your chance of survival, but I don't think you'll like it.
This will all end in tears.
I have a million ideas but they all point to certain death.
(et al.) Be kind; all level losses are restored upon departure.
Go to Jail “Teleporter”: Agents from the Matrix (films) attack, and a single touch will send you to meet the Earps. No exit portal, because (duh) you’re going to Jail.
Pacific “Luau”: This charming Hawaiian party is interrupted by a sea monster (Gojira?). Discretion vs valor… Magical portal in a huge palm tree.
North Carolina “Okracoke”: After Blackbeard is slain in November 1718, the party has been captured and locked up with (mistaken for) Teach’s crew, and all your equipment is missing. A classic ‘escape’ scenario (ala module A4), and the exit is in the ‘Ranger’ (Lt. Maynard’s ship at the dock). Better get your stuff before you leave, though.
Community Chest: See notes
Pennsylvania “Lapp Dogs”: The (peaceful) Amish Lapp family are working their farm when bad cops from Philly arrive (“Witness” film). Save the Amish with Harrison Ford, who knows where the exit is (grain silo door).
Short Line RR: A short rail line for mining, leading to a huge cave filled with evil short folk. Exit is a boarded-up unused tunnel. (In my version, this is instead the lair of a Red Dragon who arrived by accident, infecting this entire planar group with a Fantasy element. Adventure finale and return portal to Home.)
Chance: See notes
Park Place “Ancient Ruin”: At Mesa Verde (a ‘national park’ place), old native ghosts guard the ghostly portal exit. Treat all with respect and they’ll respond in kind; otherwise you have a nasty fight. But only they can cause the exit to materialize, becoming other than ghostly…
Luxury Tax “Toll Gate”: Lose 1 magic item per PC (evaporates). No saving throw, this is Old School. ;>
Boardwalk “Carnival by the Sea”: In Atlantic City NJ, play assorted games of chance, but if you win the casino owners (mobsters) arrive to ‘discourage’ you. Your exit is under the boardwalk (cue 1964 Drifters music)…
Game options: Ball and Bucket Toss, Balloon And Dagger, Basketball, Bingo, Birthday, Bulldozer, Craps Wheel, Crossbow Target Shoot, Duck Pond Fishing, High striker (Ring the Bell), Kissing booth, Ladder Climb (rope), Milk Bottle ball-throw, Plate Break ball-throw, Ring Toss, Shooting Gallery (arrows), Skeeball
My friends Dave & Gary made a quantum leap in entertainment. Remember them.
