Tag Archives: creativity

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 16

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Reminding myself that I’m working on these on my terms, which is good but also bad because now I’ve got four to work on today. I’m under no obligation to make sure I do four so as to catch up, but with the way my brain works I am in fact obligated to do exactly that.

Anyway – back to it!

They Lived in the Sky

You and your now-adventuring party remember it like yesterday – the day the sky became a mirror to the world below. It had been raining for days with no break in the clouds—not even a hint of sunlight managed to break through.

One conundrum quickly gave way to another as a mirrored version of the world hanged suspended in the sky. The most senior mages, scholars, and historians are baffled by this unusual, unprecedented situation, and none of the major forces of darkness have claimed to be behind it. Based on intercepted communications, they all seem just as confused and concerned as the world leaders.

What awaited the adventuring party in the world above? What caused this? And what happened when the adventuring party started to search for solutions to this curious, potentially precarious situation?

GM Tools and Tips:

The world in the sky is an exact mirroring of the world the players have become familiar with, so let them enjoy time leading up to their journeying to this strange mirrored world in the sky. Let them establish their characters in the world and what brings them together once this event occurs.

The main conflict can be whatever you’d like, but this is a great opportunity to have the players face down their own party (in some form or another).

Good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 15

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Another ink-specific plot hook? Don’t mind if I do. This one takes some liberties with the established rules/lore, so enjoy this with a grain or two of salt.

Another Day Serving Elixirs Until…

Life—or rather, afterlife—as a Boorista has been pleasant enough, if not predictably routine. You provide a critical service for the other Spirits navigating The Ink by refining its poisonous waters into palatable brews, and you’re damn good at what you do.

But there’s always a little bit of an itch in the back of your mind that you’ve got something more you should be doing. That perhaps your time expired has…well, expired, and it’s time to seek passage to the Beyond.

It turns out you’re not the only Boorista feeling this way, and so you join up with the other Booristas who are ready to move along in their afterlives and set out in search of a Passage Beacon.

However, there are some Spirits and Shadows who are opposed to the idea of your lot moving on. Where, then, would they get their Elixirs if so many of their favorite Booristas made their way to the Afterlife?

GM Tips and Tools

This approach to ink involves some solo RP and more gradual build-up to the Journey through the Ink to find a way to the Afterlife, and will depend heavily on the players being able to take turns until the group joins up. It allows for a lot of early character growth and development prior to the combat and adventure that make ink Journeys so absolutely gripping. It’s a slower approach to a Journey with, I suspect, a lot of payoff by the time the party groups up and the real Journey begins.

Where that leads and what the Spirits and their Shadows who are trying to prevent your party’s passage entails is entirely up to you (and the table)! Above all else: stay spooky, stay caffeinated, and have fun; good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 13

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Happy Monday, fellow adventurers and GMs! I’ve been looking forward to sharing this one, but held off for the 13th…which, in hindsight, doesn’t make as much sense as using this on the 5th or saving it for the 20th. That’ll make sense in a couple of sentences, I promise.

This is another one that you can run in just about any system you’d like with some tinkering and retooling, but it was originally used for one of my favorite, most chaotic 5E one-shots and then for an incredible mini-campaign of Scum and Villainy that’s still waiting to see completion in a third session (complete with a beach episode that absolutely was not a beach episode – surprise!). And so without further delay: I present Charles Edward Cheddar’s Fright Nights (version 1; yeah, there’ll be a second post of this and I’m very not sorry)! (Why yes, this is absolutely a WishDotCom level knock-off of a wildly popular video game series turned major motion picture turned endless line of Funko Pop figurines.)

Charles Edward Cheddar’s Fright Nights

Congratulations on your adventuring party’s new and deeply enriching career path as the night time security guards at a long shut-down but never forgotten tavern and child-friendly gambling facility, Charles Edward Cheddar’s! It’s not enriching in the sense that it will pay well, and the hours aren’t terrific, but it’s a chance to help preserve those fond childhood memories of fun times!

Upon arriving, your party is greeted by the daytime guard, who seemed more than eager to head home—increasingly so as the sun moved closer to the horizon. He explained that things are pretty self-explanatory: keep trespassers out, tidy up any odd messes, don’t disturb Charles Edward Cheddar and his Fun Time Pizza Pals because the animatronics tended to get a little squirrels after what used to be normal business hours. Sure, the owner could have decommissioned them when the place closed down but they chose to keep them around for sentimental reasons.

A little detail omitted from the job listing: your party is locked in until your shift has ended in the morning.

There are odds and ends to be tidied up, a convenient security room from which the whole facility can be monitored…or so it seems, anyway…and a well-stocked snack bar.

However, even as the night is young things started getting interesting. Charles Edward Cheddar and friends seem to have noticed they aren’t alone, and there’s no party scheduled. Can your party survive the night? Or will they find themselves having been made into backup members of Charles Edward Cheddar’s band?

GM Tools and Tips

Charles Edward Cheddar’s Fright Nights is absolutely meant to be the cheesiest, campiest, goofiest TTRPG tribute to Five Nights at Freddy’s (sans the lore depth) possible. It’s terrific fun to run, even if players go into it expecting the FNAF experience, and lends to a lot of fun, silly moments but also to some solid tension building (and, if you play your cards right, the closest you’ll get to a jumpscare in a TTRPG—remember, Session 0 and safety tools are key as always).

This works well in Forged in the Dark games as having clocks for the animatronics antics (their hostility ramping up, their approach to hunting the party, etc. ) as well as how much time is left in the overnight shift, but this plays out just as nicely as a more exploration and RP-heavy 5E game.

Some animatronic suggestions:

Charles Edward Cheddar – the headliner, and definitely in no way a direct rip-off of a real world analogue of near-identical name, Charles is the star of the show. He runs the tavern and is always aware of what’s going on, but does not immediately intervene. He lets his friends investigate first, and then as nights go on he becomes more active (and dangerous).

Pizza Paulette/Pizzapotamus – Pizza Paulette is more of an analogue to Chica from the FNAF games, while Pizzapotamus is…well, a hippopotamus version of such an animatronic. Either approach: this character sure loves all things pizza. Not just the taste and smell of it, but sharing facts about how it’s made, why it’s so darn good, and how well your adventuring party might taste as toppings if you aren’t careful. One of the first animatronics to seek out the adventuring party, often the least subtle, and definitely quick to cause a fright. In my 5E one-shot, Pizza Paulette made it into the security office only to have their face melted off by magic before getting absolutely wrecked.

Carl E Calzone – The surlier cousin of Pizza Paulette/Pizzapotamus and chef of ill-repute, Carl Calzone often keeps to the kitchen and tavern dining areas to watch out for any who might be there to steal his revolutionary recipes. He’s the only one of the animatronics who can be bargained with as, despite what all materials surrounding the dilapidated establishment indicate, he’s “cool with taking bribes”.

The Breadstick Bunch – Once a collection of delightful, sentient foodstuffs, The Breadstick Bunch has gone stale and stabby. They travel in a pack, assessing where the party is and who can be tricked into going off on their own before splitting up to corner and make quick work of them. They are cautious around standing water, not only for their circuitry but because the majority of their bodies are made up of actual breadsticks. Please note that per company policy any penicillin acquired from The Breadstick Bunch is considered an additional dipping sauce, the cost of which will be deducted from your wages.

Shroomy Sal – The bassist of the band and most likely to start a tavern brawl at children’s birthday parties, Sal was often conveniently switched off during Charles Edward Cheddar’s prime. Now online all the time, they are ready to make some noise and break some bones. Sal will often notice the players before they notice Sal and will work to quickly close the gap before dealing as serious damage as possible.

Bits ‘n Bolts – Not an official animatronic, this amalgamation of decommissioned band mates from eras long past has awakened and is out for revenge on a world that took its home—Charles Edward Cheddar’s—from it. Bits prefers stealth and subterfuge, hiding just out of sight in the shadows before luring players into potentially dangerous situations, and often creeps through the ventilation system. Fun fact: this was the one I managed the closest thing to a real jumpscare with in 5E, a personal victory I will celebrate whenever possible.

The above are absolutely loose guidelines and I encourage you to come up with your own pals for Charles Edward Cheddar. Be cheesy, turn up the creepy factor, and ham it up (with or without pineapple). As always; take care; good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 12

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What Slumbers Deep Beneath the Ice

Warmth and life has gradually begun to return to the realm after an especially bitter, cold, dark winter, and with the warmth your adventuring party too finds themselves returning to some of their familiar haunts that were less hospitable in the frigid days.

The scenic village of Umbraport is one of the party’s first stops. Known for its bustling marketplace, love of adventurers, and frequent feasts, your adventuring party finds themselves greeted by a very different tone than they are used to here. Shops closed early or indefinitely, and wary glances from between shutters are the closest the party receives to a greeting until finally a friendly merchant spots them and ushers them into his home.

Umbradeep Lake, he informs them, has been frozen for much of recorded history. It’s a lake so steeped in legend, largely due to its unfathomable depth. No two sources seem to agree on the specifics, but it’s commonly accepted that Umbradeep Lake’s depths are greater than the height of the highest mountains in the realm.

Other legends tell of a horrific creature from ages past that was sealed away beneath the lakes depths by the never-melting ice Umbradeep was famous for having year-round.

The ice, the merchant notes, had begun to thaw, and as it did the villagers noticed strange and worrying happenings. The dark of night seems to arrive before the sun has fully set. Odd shadows and strange sounds prowl the alleys at night, often leaving deep claw marks in walls and cobblestones.

Far beneath the melting ice, or so villagers say, something seems to have begun to awaken.

The ice is still quick dense, but your party feels a sense of incredible unease upon visiting. Will they find a way to stop the ice from melting? Are they ready to confront whatever ancient darkness lurks beneath its surface? Can Umbraport be saved, or is it doomed to be lost to shadow?

GM Tools and Tips

Ease into the adventure with emphasis on everything having warmed and woken from the especially bitter cold that has finally left the world. Give the players a trail of breadcrumbs leading them to Umbraport but allow it to happen organically. If you’re running this in a system that utilizes clocks, now’s a great time to start counting down a few regarding the lake thawing, the strange happenings in town, and so on.

While this is absolutely a more horror flavored bit of fantasy adventuring, please also remember to keep it within the parameters of what’s safe set forth during Session 0 (and this is a great time to remind myself I’ve been meaning to do a post about Session 0 at some point so maybe I’ll sprinkle that in as a bonus post one of these days).

Save the day, stop the thaw, or face the darkness in the depths of Umbradeep. Whatever happens? Good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 11

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Lucky 11/11, or 11/11 if you type the date that way. Hope you remembered to make a wish! You’ll need it if you happen upon the item in today’s NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist. This works best with games that incorporate tarot decks in them, but can be modified for just about any TTRPG. Any tarot works, but if you’re so inclined I would suggest breaking out your favorite tarot deck from a small business or indie artist (or picking up a new one for such an occasion).

Ominous Arcana

Your adventuring party is winding down from their most recent, most perilous adventure yet, when a stranger appears, bestows a gift upon them, and flees quickly. They don’t merely leave – they flee. The gift has been set down quickly and as if it could bite or claw or harm in some way.

Upon investigation, the party discovers an ornate box within layers of cloth. Within that box is a tarot deck. The backs of the card are an elaborate series of geometric shapes intersecting in curious ways, some of which accentuated with foil inlays.

It becomes apparent quickly the tarot deck cannot be explored except on its own terms. The deck, when shuffled, only showcases the back of the cards no matter how it is oriented. Until one day, surprising the party, a card can be drawn. It features one of the major arcana, but it’s numbered incorrectly. Should the party try to shuffle this back into the deck and draw another they find themselves having pulled the same card (again and again).

The next day the party awakes to discover the next card in sequence—the number of the major arcana mismatched with the card itself—drawn. It quickly apparent that the deck is counting down to something, but to what is a mystery. Can your party learn the meaning of the arcana as they present so as to learn the path this mysterious deck has set them on before it’s too late? And what awaits the party as the final card?

GM Tips and Tools

Again: this is a great chance to break out a tarot deck you love (especially if you’re playing an in-person game)!

There’s loads of room for what order you’d like to have the major arcana in. A few examples: you could lead to The Tower to signify a major catastrophe resulting in serious upheaval of the current state of things. Death could signify a major change—in the party, in the world, etc. Or you could go with off-the-beaten-path interpretations of the major arcana. The limits are your imagination (and the rigidity or flexibility of the table with regards to tarot, obviously).

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a countdown to a bad thing—it can just as easily be a shift towards good or simply just the cards counting down to change.

See what fate the cards have in store for your players, take care, and as always good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 10

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Couldn’t quite manage to write last night, so here we are with two days worth of NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist. Coincidentally, this ended up with more American Gods flavor than I originally intended, but I’m not mad about that.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway? Onwards!

Old Gods and New Truths

Your adventuring party is approached by a cloaked figure at a crossroads late one night while traveling between towns. The party does not know them, but they know the party quite well. And they plead a very compelling case to take this meeting somewhere a little less out in the open. They state they have a request most dire, and they can’t request prying eyes and ears being present.

Should the party agree, the cloaked figure will reveal themself to be an Old God—one from before the light of the earliest stars—and they are desperate to set the record straight.

The Old Gods, or at least the bulk of them, have gotten some truly bad PR over the years. The narrative had been shaped and shifted by New Gods—Gods that crept into existence by way of the hubris of mortals who knew not what they had done at the time.

Does your party accept this perilous quest to face down the New Gods and present the truth to the world? And will they find that there’s more to the truth than what was presented to them by the Old Gods?

GM Tips and Tools

At the risk of sounding repetitive, this is another plot hook that works best with a solid Session 0 foundation. This will rely on having multiple unreliable narrators/NPCs and leaves plenty of room to have fun with what the truth—subjective as it is—turns out to be.

Keep in mind that you’re putting your players up against Gods—Old Gods and New Gods—and that this needs to be conveyed in both subtle undertones showcasing the Gods’ capacity for displays of power as well as overtones (overt threats, moments of their more pleasant facades breaking, etc).

Have fun—build worlds, forge heroes, play god, and of course good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 9

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Preventing Tragedy at the Theater

Hard to believe it’s the 9th day of NaNoWriMo (partially because it feels like this has been going on for ages and yet it also feels like it just started; or maybe I’m just super rusty when it comes to writing regularly). This is a plot hook I used for a Scum and Villainy one-shot…that turned into a multi-session mini-campaign that’s still in need of resolution. So if you’re playing in that, perhaps skip the GM Tips and Tools section of this post. Or don’t. I’m not the boss of you.

Your Crew is called upon by higher-ups in the Resistance for an especially delicate rescue mission. The show that has taken the galaxy by storm, Space Opera: The Musical The Series – A Space Opera is preparing for its final night with the original cast, and a real who’s who of the Hegemony will be there. Among them is a well-known politician and merchant known for sympathizing with the outer worlds of the Empire, an act which draws the ire of his contemporaries.

Rumor is someone within the Hegemony has hired an assassin to make history repeat itself with regards to politicians and misfortune at the opera.

Your Crew is promised transportation to the asteroid on which the theater resides, but finding your way in—coming up with cover stories, determining the means by which the hit is going to be carried out, and how your Crew will prevent this tragedy—is all up to you.

Can your Crew save the sympathetic figure in the Hegemony from those he has made the mistake of trusting, or will a subpar performance not be the only tragedy to unfold?

GM Tips and Tools

This doesn’t lend itself well to a one-shot due to the kind of prep that goes into it, though if you manage to run it as such I tip my hat to you. My best estimate is this works best as a two to three session mini-campaign.

Clocks are your friend. Count down critical details such as arrival time for the various Hegemony goons, the hired hitmen, and the various actions of the actors. The closer it gets to showtime, the greater security will be which in turn will limit the players in how they can enter the venue, blend in without drawing suspicion, and prevent the assassination attempt.

I played this with more absurd tones, as evidenced by the example name given for the show above (I used something similar after a player—one of my GMs—put me on the spot by asking for the name of the show). It can work well with a more serious tone, but as is the case with any game it’s important to establish what kind of tone is expected by the table.

Partial successes lead to some really fun narrative opportunities here, like the Crew getting caught by miscellaneous actors or waitstaff and then having to sort that out (or, if you’re one of my players, addressing it by scaring the hell out of an NPC).

Regardless of the approach, be sure to have fun along the way with your players. Scum and Villainy lends itself well to GM fun due to no rolls being needed on the GM’s part – play into the players antics (or lack there of) narratively. Have fun, enjoy your space crimes, and—as always—good luck and godspeed.

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 7

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You Meet at a Tavern…

Your adventuring party meets at a tavern. It’s not the first time they’ve been there. The barkeeper swiftly greets them with your typical orders and the party settles in at a table you’ve sat at a dozen or so times before. Tales of adventure are shared before raucous laughter gives way to heart-warming drinking songs. Other patrons offer up quests for reasonable rewards to the party, and thus begins the next round of adventures.

Your adventuring party meets at a tavern. It’s your usual haunt, but something seems off. The other patrons seem apprehensive of the party if not outright hostile. The barkeeper accepts orders with more than a hint of suspicion and after giving no small amount of side-eye. Your party continues about the evening in relative silence before turning in for the night. Halfway through the night your party awakens to the sound of footsteps in the hallway, heavy and menacing. After some time, whoever was paused outside of your party’s room walks away.

Your adventuring party meets at a tavern. The tension is so thick you could cut it with a dagger. Humanoid patrons barely disguised with armor and magic sneer and scowl at your adventuring party. The barkeeper refuses your party service, but not before eyeing them suspiciously. Before your party can leave, however, your all notice Wanted posters with caricatures of each party member’s likeness.

Can your party uncover what is gradually warping this familiar, warm, welcoming place into something monstrous before it’s too late?

GM Tips and Tools

First and foremost, it’s imperative to make it clear in Session 0 there will be some fuckery afoot in terms of characters, location, and familiarity there. Leave enough up to the play through so as to not give all of the details away while making sure players are comfortable with being made to doubt their perception of the situation.

In actuality, the tavern and inn were always a clever product of the barkeeper/BBEG’s manipulations, having observed the party and prepared for this moment for some time. The patrons are all amalgamations of friends of the party at first, then amalgamations of those the party had slighted or wronged in some way, before finally becoming amalgamations of the foes the party had slain in the past.

Only once they manage to unveil the truth about the barkeeper does the real battle begin.

Sit back, enjoy a drink, and don’t end up on a Wanted poster. As always: take care; good luck and godspeed!

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 4

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A Time Without Heroes

The adventurers find themselves facing down their arch-nemesis after a seemingly endless journey riddled with perilous pitfalls and fearsome foes. They square up, ready to fight, as their arch-nemesis gives the fully-anticipated monologue. Time seems to stand still.

That’s when the adventurers suddenly, inexplicably, fall into a trance-like state. Everything goes black. What feels like an instant later, the adventurers blink away their confusion and find themselves surrounded by their arch-nemesis’s minions. One calls out to alert their boss your party has awoken, and they rush over with a curious expression on their face—not one of unexpected victory or devious plotting, but one of concern.

A new monologue begins, far less villainous in nature. All around the world, other villainous sorts shared stories of the adventurers who were about to thwart their plots—the true end goal of most sinister sorts—suddenly falling out of time. Nothing could explain it and nothing could fix it. It was simply a time without adventurers—without heroes. And in that time greater evils than ever imaginable were able to rise up, and all the monsters, fiends, and villains of the world could do was tend to their heroes and hope the cosmic balance would once again right itself.

Your adventurers find themselves in a weakened state, as though they were fresh to journeying forth to best evil, but this is a world in which evil has been redefined. How do they proceed? Do they have what it takes to save the day and restore the natural order of things?

GM Tools and Tips

Taking this approach will absolutely require table buy-in, but approach it vaguely enough to allow for a surprise. Make sure you talk through starting with high level characters that are going to revert back to lower levels. Then build to that point, allowing players to experience being a fully-powered adventurer.

Play the villainous NPCs as ones that aren’t necessarily easy to trust—think like an unreliable narrator when stepping into their shoes. Everything is seen through the lens of what these villainous sorts do being the right thing, for the greater good, etc. They view themselves as the heroes of their own stories, and therefore are trying to proceed as such. But they are also eager to do what they can to help restore the adventurers so things can get back to the standard good versus evil normal they had come to know and love.

This can easily be used as a mini-campaign or a full-lengthy campaign.

Above all else: have fun! Take care and as always: good luck and Godspeed!

Chipping away at the wall

Posted on by under Misadventures in Fiction

I wanted to start this with some clever parallel between the storm raging outside and my want to really dive into a new project, but nope. Not happening.

I’ve officially, with a necessary nudge from my wife’s wisdom, put Joshua Harkin’s Return to Nightmares on the backburner. I’m at this point where the lack of progress has become an overall headache with regards to getting *any* writing done at all. Not helpful.

So I thought it would be neat to maybe revisit a project from before, starting it fresh. I dug up the file, transferred from a previous laptop, only to discover two curious things.

Curious thing one – the last time I had worked on it was exactly two years ago to the day. Curious thing two – I actually really like how the draft started off, so I can’t bring myself to just scrap it and start fresh. However! I now feel less interested in working on it because there is so much groundwork in place.

Damn.

That all constitutes more progress than I’ve made in the past three months combined (because I’m still getting the hang of being a father to two wee beasties).

I’ll chalk that up as an overall win and try to use it to propel me forward.