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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Adventures I'd Like to Have

Work is tough, here is me daydreaming to stay sane:

Adventures I'd like to have as a player, places I'd like to explore:

  • A library heist, where the books are the loot.  Also an alchemical laboratory.  The packaging and movement of these is a logistical challenge.  Be even better if the goal was to get them tinto my own wizard tower.
  • Visit a Yellowstone analogue with hot springs and geysers and magical springs.
  • Landing on a continent undiscovered by my character's known cultures-- exploring, mapping.
  • Visit a city on a great moving beast or within one
  • Found a guild/university, get it going, and try to ensure that it's self-sustaining
  • Lead a revolution against a tyrannical regime
  • Visit a 3d city in the elemental plane of water, I imagine it called the Verdigris City
  • Zoological expedition to collect and bring back rare beasts and monsters
  • Build my own lavish tomb complex
  • Explore a living cave system that feels like real caves and not just abstract 20'x20' spaces in my mind.

10 comments:

  1. Daydreaming keeps me sane at work too!

    When I was younger I always wanted to build a life-size dungeon of Quasquenton to explore (for some reason up in Wisconsin).

    Still would.

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  2. # Build my own lavish tomb complex
    This one's under-explored, even though mages have been liching themselves for ages and there's inter-planar travel to hell and the happy hunting grounds and suchlike. There was even a perfect game for it - Nephilim.

    So we get the "end game" with castles, sure, but who explores the reasons for constructing a Tomb of Horrors?

    1. fulfilling entry requirements for the Gods Club: the standard pharaonic reason - yu simply must have a pyramid to be taken seriously.
    2. you expect to come back and need a safe place to store your stuff. Essential for all once-and-future kings
    3. succession test. You have awesome stuff that the next great hero of the realm could use and you don't want it being auctioned on ebay. Because then the dillweed king next door will snap it all up and your next set of PCs won't get a look in, that's why.
    4. contractual obligation. The gods of chaos helped you out when you were alive and now you have to spend a few centuries in the lich seat.
    5. prankster, possibly not even dead. You set up a museum of all the worst traps that you yourself had to deal with and then spread rumours down the tavern that there was Mighty Cheese hidden behind them. Of course, there isn't. But if you're not actually dead when you put this together, you could try to use it as a method for recruiting new party members, and then you might get dead when they discover there's no gold for them.

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  3. I have actually done the second item on your list as the core of two (linked) campaigns; on the off chance that you're interested in reading about it, start here.

    The 3d city in the elemental plane of Water and the living cave system are the only ones I'd be hesitant to include in a campaign. The former because actually capitalizing on the 3d nature of the setting would be a serious challenge that I'd need to work out in advance, and the latter because I'm not remotely well enough educated on caves to make that work.

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  4. I love these ideas. I'm already going to steal the library theft and use it in my game.

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  5. I like to use books and other things for loot. Here is a scenario for Old School Hack where a loot item is books...

    http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/osh-the-tireless-archer.pdf

    Thanks for sharing the big dreams. It's fun to expand expectations for what would be cool to run/play.

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  6. I like your list. What, no sci-fi setting suggestions? ;)

    We have a bit of an ongoing zoological expedition in the Dordogne campaign. More like the harvesting of free range monster meat though.

    re: City on a Beast - you might have already seen http://valleyofbluesnails.blogspot.com/2009/02/sky-shells.html - It inspired a critter write up in Fight On! #8.

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  7. Caverns. Yeah. I hear you there.

    I'd love to find good advice on making caves seem like real caves. Most "caverns" are mysteriously flat-floored and suspiciously level. All that makes them a "cavern" is a few cave morays, piercers, and squiggly maps on the wall. How do I make for real caves? That I wonder.

    Because real caves scare the hell out of me . . . and I'd like to pass that on to my players.

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  8. Is there a published adventure somewhere talking about something as iconic as the City of Brass but for the other elements? I'd be interested.

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  9. That's a great list.

    Regarding real caves; I recently watched this TED talk by Bill Stone. Anyone writing a cave or underdark adventure should watch it. I had no idea stuff like this existed here on Earth: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bill_stone_explores_the_earth_and_space.html

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  10. Thank you all.
    @bliss_infinite: when you've got the treasure stocked, let me know I'll form a "visitation" expedition :)

    @richard: cool stuff. I love the idea of tombs and cults that are the remnant of players past. Most gamers seem to want to hop from campaign to campaign, I don't think I have that urge.

    @shieldhaven: Thanks for sharing that. My second ever post was an attempt at a more realistic cave. I think I'd also want pics to show players of rock formations and such.

    @Matt: great, glad to offer the spark.

    @fictivefantasies: Thank you for sharing the adventure.

    @ZB: My mental images of sci fi have been twisted by Alien, Outland, and such into corporate dystopias. I guess exploring weird alien species could be fun. There was a series written by an actual biologist a while back that had more realistic species. I used to daydream in bio class about starfish like aliens (those things are weird).

    I keep forgetting about your monster chef, are those commissions, or do they just sell whatever they manage to kill?

    @Peter: yeah they need belly-crawling through muck, and water spots deep enough to wade through etc.

    @Alex: Not that I know of. A coral reef city in the plane of water would be cool too, Like a natural Chinese puzzle ball. Earth could be magical or terrifying depending on the way you lean: a shimmering, mineral beauty like the Emerald city. or a pitch black warren of tunnels and dead lava tubes where light is punishable by death.

    @Dan: thanks for that link. The thought of being 2 days! from the cave entrance is mind-blowing.

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