Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 17

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This is terrifically delayed, and a departure from plot hooks because I’m in need of a palate cleanser. I’m also not as present in the TTRPG spaces as I have been previously and so I’m playing a little catch up on some of the discourse (which should shock no one).

Let’s all keep in mind these are my views and opinions on the topic(s) that follow and that they are by no means the be-all, end-all. At all.

That said?

Let’s talk about the value of Modules, especially for new DMs, DMs who haven’t run 5E as often, or DMs who have been away from running 5E.

Dungeons and Dragons 5E has no shortage of modules and multi-adventure books that can be used as a starting point for longer, larger adventuring campaigns. From as far back as Hoard of the Dragon Queen all the way through recent installments such as Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen or the updated Phandelver adventures, modules have generally acted as a solid foundation upon which DMs could build a campaign for their table.

I could go on about how I feel modules are only as restrictive as you let them be or how they are valuable tools, but instead I’m going to switch to my own perspective and lived experience getting into DMing 5E.

My journey into DMing D&D 5E began with the whimsical, wonderful Wild Beyond the Witchlight, an adventure that takes players through the curious and captivating Witchlight Carnival and into the Feywild where they discover the land of Prismeer has been fragmented by the three witches of the Hourglass Coven into separate domains – Hither, Thither, and Yon. There are clever hooks with which to draw players into making their way to the Feywild and get them on a path to saving Prismeer, as well as different routes to getting the players to the Witchlight Carnival in the first place.

There is also plenty of room to find ways to introduce players into the world at large.

I originally had planned on running the module as-is, prepping meticulously ahead of Session 0 for how I would introduce my players to the Witchlight Carnival and its awe-inspiring inhabitants.

The day of Session 0, much of that was scrapped and gave way to Thistlewood—a little village with its own curious cast of characters, some drawn from previous games I had played in—as a starting zone of sorts. It allowed me as the DM to give breadcrumbs to the players and guide them to the carnival and the circumstances that could lead them to the Feywild. Much of the initial sessions were homebrewed details – including a security system that manifests an illusion of Tiamat, for instance.

Now please note that this is not the way to go for everyone, but if there’s anything you can take from this as a new DM or someone who is less comfortable DMing a module I would like it to be this: allow for plenty of breathing room. D&D 5E, similar to its peers, is still a game of collaborative storytelling and there is a lot of fun to be had with building upon modules with whatever the players come up with along the way.

My Witchlight game is far from over—hell, the players only just arrived in the Feywild and it’s been on-and-off for over a year (life, as it turns out, continues to happen without regard for games and other such things). Though the pacing isn’t quite where I’d want it, I wouldn’t change the experience my table has helped create for anything in the world because it is unlike any other game of Witchlight that’s been played (much like many other such games that take place in this setting have been—their own twist on the module’s material).

Have fun, stay curious, be whimsical, and of course: good luck and godspeed!

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 14

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Manifesting Dreams

Your adventuring party, tired from an especially challenging dungeon crawl, happens upon an idyllic inn and tavern in a scenic village. They paid for their rooms, enjoyed a meal, and turned in for an early night.

The adventure that followed seemed so real—at least the parts your party could remember of it did, at any rate. The enchanted forest. The spectral dragon who only spoke in riddles. The distant tower, just out of reach thanks to a shattered bridge.

At breakfast the next morning, over light conversation, your party realized they shared the same dream. More peculiar, however, was the arrival of two stone workers who were looking for your party about a bridge that needed mending. With a little collective recollection, the party located the forest…and suddenly found themselves living out the adventure they just had in their dreams. Details, however, weren’t exactly the same. The bridge was more damaged, the tower beyond more ominous, and a dark oppressive presence filled the air like a challenge.

GM Tips and Tools

The goal here is to establish your adventuring party’s collective dream and how it is bleeding into the real world. Showcase this as they rest while trying to make their way to the tower, adding in more details with subsequent dreams.

Additionally, they find that 1) their dream is not the only thing bleeding into reality and 2) nightmares are dreams, too, and one such nightmare has taken up residence in the tower the adventuring party is journeying towards.

Have fun, dream big, and 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 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 8

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Coins for the Ferryman…and More, with Some Luck

This plot hook is specifically for the ink RPG. It can be used for any game, but will likely work best for ink. Let’s get spooky!

You awaken to a dull pain, surrounded by relative strangers, on a glittering black sand beach just beyond the reach of ominous obsidian waves. As you blink the world around you into greater clarity, you catch a glimpse of a translucent figure hovering just above one of the others, shaking its head. It notices you and greets you warmly, if not perhaps a little over-enthusiastically.

“Woah there, pal, take it easy,” they say. “I mean, it’s not easy being recently deceased but take it as easy as you can. You’ve surely got loads of questions, yeah?”

The realization that you’ve died washes over you as the others wake up and are given similar greetings. It’s then you notice, then hastily look away from their shadows.

“Name’s Five,” Five the Spirit says. “I’m what you’d call a Psychopomp. There’s a handful of us down here, all blessed with the task of helping those of you who have freshly shuffled off the mortal coil to find your way to the Beyond.”

After some conversation, bright lights in the distance catch your eye.

“Hoo boy, you’ll want to steer clear of that,” Five explains.

A grand island—or Key as they’re called around these parts—made up entirely of the most bombastic, engaging, and inescapable casinos in all of creation, with one of the few tickets out of the Ink somewhere hidden among its barrage of light and sound. Do you brave the Ink in an effort to resist the casino and pass on? Or will its temptation prove too much?

GM Tips and Tools

This is intended to play out as a Journey of a medium or longer length, but can be shortened depending on all of the usual factors (player availability, frequency of combat/TPKs, etc).

The central themes here are overcoming greed, pride, and envy, culminating in a Greater Fiend battle across a roulette wheel stylized casino Key against the formidable Roulette Spider, a monstrous patchwork of slot machines, craps tables, and more adorned with a colossal roulette wheel on its back.

Introduce elements relevant to the players with each additional Key that play into the overall themes of greed, pride, and envy such as Chill (the feeling of being stuck or frozen by the desire to keep playing), Terror (the crippling fear of insurmountable debt), and Poison (the toxicity in the atmosphere from revelry such as smoking, drinking, and other indulgences).

Battles should incorporate elements of the Roulette Spider into them such as mini-games of chance.

But that’s for another post (when I’ve had a chance to assemble some stat blocks).

Until then, take your chances, beat the odds; 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 6

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Adventure Deja Vu

You meet in a tavern. Your party feels like they’ve been here before, and of course they have. The barkeep is friendly, and clearly knows your party well. The regulars regard you with warm smiles and inside jokes that for some reason don’t fully feel familiar. All is largely well in the Kingdom, even if you can’t shake the feeling you’re being watched.

And all is as it should be.

At least that seems to be the case until your party gradually finds things that are familiar that shouldn’t be. A mighty blade that seems drawn to your Paladin’s hands. A comprehensive book of spells in your mage’s handwriting though they have no recollection of writing it. A small demonic familiar who trails behind your warlock, only just within sight as if expecting commands from their master.

All roads lead back to the King, and the King seems eager to obfuscate and evade such inquiries. What is going on? What does the king know?

GM Tools and Tips

This is a quick route to a higher level campaign by way of a low level start. Leave breadcrumbs helping to indicate the party’s deja vu isn’t simply that – it’s echoes of a past in which they were mighty heroes, powerful and well-equipped, until they suddenly weren’t.

Role play the king as familiar in ways that point to him knowing why the heroes are in the state they are in. Provide quests that take them through their forgotten past until they reach a broken, forgotten citadel in which they finally recall the truth: the King had shown himself to the adventurers as a deposed ruler in need of aid, and so the party as heroic as they were stepped in to aid him.

Upon arriving at the seat of the kingdom, the King revealed himself to be a powerful devil who then sent the adventurers back in their respective timelines, carefully burying details of their identity while leaving some alone so they were none the wiser.

As the adventurers find echoes of their past they then level up and move closer to being who they once were.

As always: take care; good luck and godspeed!