Riddle Adventure Trailers

[arxhon]

Furniture! LMAO! That's pure evil, man, pure e-v-i-l!

I love it.

[Judd]

Been thinking about how absolutely frightening dragons would be in the Riddle.

This was also posted on RPG.net:

Thieving Bastards

You are the leader of a group of heartless bastards. You're the head of your guild, chief of your ninja clan, captain of your pirate ship or just leader of the gang back in your home town.

But out here on the edge of a mountain range where the Gods were supposed to have been born, all that doesn't matter. What matters is that you have a piece of the map and the map leads to the Dragon's lair.

Entering a Dragon's lair can mean whatever you want it to. A dragon can be a dangerous god, a revered spirit or just a big monster sitting under a mountain on a hoard of gold.

There's a sit-down at the Dragon Pass Inn with all of the other bastards with the map and then you'll plan the biggest B & E job since Prometheus stole fire.

[Bankuei]

Hmm.  Dragons...

Scaled Vengeance

First its shadow passed over.  Then you heard a single gigantic flap of its wings.  Over the capital it screamed vengeance, upon humans, upon the land, but most importantly, upon you, by name.  Cities burn, human and livestock are burned alike, the charred scent fills the realm, blackens the sky.

And the only thing that keeps you going is that you know it was once human.  And that it was once a sorcerer.  Yes, the very folk you once hunted in the name of the church.  And your God hasn't answered your prayers.  And you killed its wife, a collaborator in the blasphemy.

You brought this upon yourself.  And your people.


Rule #1- No Sorcerers

Pick any religious country that doesn't like sorcerers that you'd like to obliterate over the course of the campaign.  Don't forget that the Dragon sorcerer is after one or all of the PCs and people will blame them personally...

And if the players fail, let their next characters be in the next country over.  And again, no sorcerers.  How much of Weyrth will fall before someone succeeds?  

Chris

[Judd]

Hmm.  Dragons...

Scaled Vengeance

How much of Weyrth will fall before someone succeeds?  

Chris

Cool.  I dig concepts where there is a plan for a total party kill.  Not that we are, as GM's, going for such a thing but it is a nice pint of fear when it is possible and the game, the story and the drama can continue.

[Bankuei]

I'm not really trying to go for a TPK, but I really dig desperate battles.  After all, taking on the classic "D&D" type dragon, intelligent, powerful, and magical, without magic and a safety blanket of 300 hitpoints is a pretty nasty thing to try to pull off.

If you dig the concept, do a search for "Draconic" in the Design Forum.

Chris

[Judd]

Not that you are going for the TPk but that the players know that it is a real possibility.  There is no, "But we're the heroes, someone has to survive," kind of safety net and yeah, like you said, that makes the struggle truly desperate.

Fun stuff.

The idea of nations falling before its might is really cool.

[Lance D. Allen]

I got a question about the "start the PCs as mooks, then slaughter them" approach...

Is it best to let them know the plan up front, or do you think it's acceptable to simply hand them mook characters without letting them know the grisly fate you've got planned?

I know this is probably a social contract issue, but I'm considering this for a possible upcoming game with a partially unknown quantity.

[Brian Leybourne]

I got a question about the "start the PCs as mooks, then slaughter them" approach...

Is it best to let them know the plan up front, or do you think it's acceptable to simply hand them mook characters without letting them know the grisly fate you've got planned?

I know this is probably a social contract issue, but I'm considering this for a possible upcoming game with a partially unknown quantity.

That has to depend on your group, really. Some people would resent the approach so much that you'll kill any possible interest in the system/game by doing this. Others will say "fuck, that was cool. Now do I get to roll up my dead character's brother so I can have revenge?"

At the start of a campaign I ran, I didn't tell them, and it worked beautifully. Your group, well, you'll have to decide that for yourself :-)

Not much help, I know.
Brian.

[Judd]

Angry Assassins


You've heard of parties gathering in taverns to go traverse some dungeon, all possessing noble reasons to go forth and save the world.

Nope, wrong group.

The only thing this group has in common is they want this one particular person dead.

The gamers gather at the table and create the NPC they all want dead and then come up with their individual reasons why they want him so. The reasons could be personal, economical, magical...doesn't matter, as long as you have a burning, cold or stark raving passion to put what's-his-name in a box.

[Morfedel]

I ran a campaign that lasted about, oh, 3 to 5 years, playing once a week for about, oh, 6 hours on average, but a great session would go a lot longer.

We concluded that campaign. It was Palladium Fantasy, all centered around this one all powerful ancient evil returning and trying to conquer the world in eternal darkness. It began with their local village - I made them all come from the same village, having known each other since childhood, and I disallowed certain character choices due to the history of the village - and they dealt with local issues (bandits threatening their village, that kind of thing).

When they learned this old hermit in their village was actually the previous Archmage (guy who led the entire Council of Wizardy for the entire kingdom), and that he had been researching SOMETHING in great secret, and was assassinated by horrid and unnatural beasts, that set it all off, having them discovering the awful truth, and running form one side of the continent to the other trying to beat The Shadow Lord to a number of key artifacts that would spell final victory or defeat....

I had to rush the ending, as I was suddenly moving to Seattle... but in the end, the Shadow Lord was beaten (albeit in an unexpected way), one character became King, at the cost of his heart (his one true love was murdered, along with their child), a second expelled from his own kingdom or his life be forfeit, a third was the said murdered one with child of the other PC, the paladin became the old village's sherrif, and the last had sired 2 daughtered unwillingly, who are destined to one day tear apart the kingdoms in a war against each other.

Grand old time. I just moved back, and we seriously discussed taking up the same campaign world, 20 years later (and maybe using The Riddle of Steel), but since the other Game master (me and another guy alternated) is running D&D, they want us to play a superhero game for mine (most likely Godlike / Wild Talents).

That *is* dang cool. My experience went pretty well, too, but we never finished the campaign. That ever happen to you guys?

Jake

One of my groups is pretty good about always finishing campaigns, and the other one is "famous" for campaigns dying when the players find a new system they want to try out :-)

There's nothing cooler than a really long term campaign. One current game I am running has been going for 40-odd sessions now, but those are 10 hour sessions, so it's more like 80-90 in most peoples games (about 4 hours apparently being the average for most groups). The characters have really amazing histories and backgrounds now, and when they meet up again with old NPC's from 20 or 30 sessions ago, it really is like meeting up with old friends. Damn fucking cool.

Brian.

[Morfedel]

You know, there was a module for D&D that did something very similar - the killing of a first party thing. It was called Vecna Lives and was about, oh, you know, Vecna returning from the dead, and becomming a God.

Anyway... the players play the CIRCLE OF EIGHT in the first scene, and meet what appears to be Vecna, and gets utterly exterminated.

And the PCs are far weaker than the Circle of Eight. It was intended to strike fear into what they were opposing... and to learn that what the Circle of Eight fought wasn't even Vecna, but someone who had the Hand and Eye and THOUGHT he was Vecna, while the real vecna waited in the wings, put an even greater fear in them.

It was very fun! :)

[Kaare_Berg]

the players play the CIRCLE OF EIGHT in the first scene, and meet what appears to be Vecna, and gets utterly exterminated.

Another twist to this is if you at first let the characters understand their powerlevel by kicking som mundane buttock, and then you hit them with the killer.

This gives them a sense of superiority before stripping them of this very feeling. Thus when they begin as mundane buttock-to-be-kicked they already know they are in trouble.

This confidence crash need not be performed by a godling, but say the characters were the elite royal guard and at first butchered some untrained, rebellious peasants. Then they are killed by the battle hardened mercenaries in employ of the evil usurper, just to be reborn as freemen with a love of the true king and country.

It could work

[Jasper the Mimbo]

Knights of a Shattered Circle

The Table has broken, as has the land.
The Dark Son has slain his brother, the father-king.
The Sword has returned to water, the Grail to stone.
Sunk is the Gold Isle, and the Sage with it, and in the north the sleeper is stiring, a storm is rising and darkness falls.

It has been ten years since the death of Arthur. Camelot  is gone, but the dream remains and Brittain is about to really need heroes.

[Judd]

Knights of a Shattered Circle

It has been ten years since the death of Arthur. Camelot  is gone, but the dream remains and Brittain is about to really need heroes.

Cool.  Can I run the son of the King who hunted the Questing Beast?  

Father has been in a coma ever since the final Battle of the Round Table, a battlehammer beat into his helm.

Some say his sister is pregnant with the Beast's child.

[Jasper the Mimbo]

Cool.  Can I run the son of the King who hunted the Questing Beast?  

Father has been in a coma ever since the final Battle of the Round Table, a battlehammer beat into his helm.

Pelinore (the king in question) is actually one of my major NPC's, (him and Mordred being the most prominant.) In my storyline, Pelinore found the Questing Beast during the last days of Camelot. Now he's trying to find his kingdom, but he can't remember where it is. Pelinore has a memory disorder that's like a cross between the guy from the movie Momento and Dorie from Finding Nemo. He only remembers events if they are linked to people who are important to him and only if he is around the the people linked to the event.

One of the major story arcs is going to be the PC's discovering Pelinore's kingdom and restoring him to the throne. (here's the spoiler: Pelinore is actually Oberon.)

Having someone play his son would be amazingly cool.