Tag Archives: TTRPG

NaNoWriMo with a TTRPG Twist: Day 4

Posted on by under NaNoWriMo

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!

NaNoWriMo With a TTRPG Twist: Day 2

Posted on by under NaNoWriMo

The Forgotten Starfall and the Glass Expanse

Ages ago, long before the party was soiling wee adventurer diapers, there is a story of a star that fell from the heavens. It was no ordinary star, of course, but a wishing star—the colors that spilled outward from it across the sky as it tumbled to the ground were quite the spectacle, showing any who saw it glimpses of what wonder it could bring to their lives should they manage to retrieve it.

However, the star landed in an especially treacherous desert. None who sought it ever returned, and so the star fell into legend.

Legends, naturally, have a way of creeping back into current affairs, and as luck would have it many years later your adventuring party has been summoned by the Princess of Astertide. The meeting is highly secretive, and your party pledges and oath to not reveal its nature – that she has called upon you brave adventurers to find the star so she may wish her father have a few more good years of life so that the kingdom may ease into his eventual absence.

Should the party agree to this journey, you find yourselves given an abundance of supplies for crossing the desert safely as well as means to get back to Glimmerspire Palace to fulfill your end of the bargain.

The journey through the desert leads to a curious spot not fully depicted on any maps; one where the sand gives way to a place only heard of through rumors and tall tales—the Glass Expanse. This is where the star fell, where its wishes and heat gave way to glass that became a living, shifting castle of illusions and deceptions. Dare you and your party brave a place of reflection and trickery for the sake of the kingdom?

GM Tools and Tips

Begin with the summons to Glimmerspire Palace and allow the players to accept on their terms. Play up the friendly yet guarded nature of the Princess until the meeting begins, at which point her true nature – that of a concerned daughter who wishes more for her father and for the kingdom – is revealed.

The journey through the desert should be challenging, with a number of skill checks to see how the players handle terrain and its denizens that clearly do not want them to be there. This all lets up abruptly upon their arrival at The Glass Expanse…which we’ll cover tomorrow. Stay tuned! Take care; good luck and godspeed.