Monster Manual Plot Hooks

There is not a lot of description to the monster in the Monster Manual, but enough for a number of campaigns.

I will start noting down some ideas for low level characters.

Elves (MM1: p.106, Encounter Level 2)
The player characters have to cross a wood and are ambushed by elves that got enough of armed humans (etc.) crossing their territory. After all the civil war in the human lands creates ambiguity for them and they don't really see a difference between the factions. All are cruel, armed and therefore evil.

Fell Taint (MM2: p.104, Encounter Level 1)
The player characters are hired by an old astronomer (a starlock?) to accompany him to a mountain observatory. Once he starts his work there Fell Taint start to appear. What looks like an act of evil is actually an accident.
Variant: They are hired by 2 astronomers, a young brother and sister couple. Both of the two plans to see when the stars are right(TM). But they don't know about the fact that the other one turned starlock as well. When the PCs think they have figured out who the evil one is, the other one turns even more dangerous and lets his/her mask fall.
You get much more info and stats for Fell Taints in this article from Dragon Magazine 376.

Gnome (MM1: p.134, Encounter Level 3)
RRRoar! They are interesting because of their connection to the Feywild.

Halfling (MM1: p.152, 2x Encounter Level 2)
Every cliche of gypsies that travel around and have drakes (MM1: p.90) instead of chicken and horses. Offering to sell their kids to heroes for a few silver coins?

Homunculus (MM1: p. 156, MM2: p.143)
These creations make good encounters because they can be in the service of nearly every lowlevel mage or sage. Especially the stationary ones from MM2 seem to be interesting.

Orc (MM1: P.203)
An orc seems to be an amazing thread to a first level party. He is supposed to be just an orc but he can appear as something exotic and dangerous in a human countryside environment. I imagine him as leader of human mercenaries in a rural human civil warish area. (Could be that his stats are not fun to fight though, because of high AC for example. I have to check that out.) Maybe it is two orc brothers leading the bandits.
This mercenaries are probably the only hope for a human village, that otherwise gets run over by the enemy forces, but they are barbaric and cruel and earlier or later would get lynched if they were not so strong. And if they get killed some more orks will want to have revenge. Could be that the main army of the orcs arrives and they find their (littel) brothers dead.

Skeleton (MM1: p.234, MM2: P.183)
Undead cavalary (Skeletal Steed, MM2: P.183, Lvl. 3) is for sure some of the most impressive enemies low level characters can face. They seem to be especially to handy, to ride in a small village and scare the shit out of the denizens.
Maybe spice them up with a few Decrepit skeleton minions (MM1: P.234) and if you want to be really mean, a Blazing Skeleton (ibd.).

Wererat (MM1: p.180, Encounter Level 4)
This the perfect low level city gang encounter - spiced up by the transformation of some bandits at a crucial moment.

Here you find part 2 of the Monster Manual Plot Hooks.

Savage Worlds Toys: Plush, Power and Plunder

I created the adventure "Hospital" for Plüsch, Power und Plunder - the plush animal RPG, but did not run it yet. Due to popular demand this will change soon. But as I don't feel too comfortable with the system - the chances for success are really low for spoiled contemporary gamers and there is no way I would learn the baroque magic and martial art rules for a single session - I decided to transfer it to Savage Worlds.
Actually the over the top action in Savage World seems to be a good fit for the physics that the living toys follow.
Even the though the "Hospital" should feel quite gothic, this seems to make the one shot much easier for me to run.

In the following post you will find the necessary conversions:

Skills and Edges:

Rolling* Edge

Ventriloquism ?
.
Persuasion Skill
.
Berserk Edge
.
Chemistry ?
.
Electronics ?
.
Drive Toy Vehicles Skill
.
Trap Building Skill
.
Dexterity (Finger stuff) ?
.
Fly* Edge (2?)
.
Language, Additional ?
.
Bouncing Ball* Edge
.
Growing Hair (and loosing it)* Edge
.
Hacking Skill
.
Healing 1/PlushP; 5
.
Jump High Skill?
.
Hypnosis Edge
.
Detachable Eye* Edge
.
Mechanics ?
.
Knowledge of Human Nature Skill?
.
Night Vision Edge
.
Robbing Plushdurance* ?
.
Ride Animal Skill
.
Acting -?
.
Stealth Skill
.
Pick Locks Skill
.
Fine Arts Edge?
.
Reading (automatic with IQ 8+) Not Auto?
.
Skateboarding Skill (Drive)
.
Swim Skill
.
Ropes - (rope monkey?)
.
Jump: Landing and Wide J. Skill?
.
Tracking Skill
.
Pole Jumping Skill?
.
Camouflage Skill?
.
Climb Stairs Clim Skill?
.
Open Doors Skill (Str)



Equipment:

Twitter Support

My twitter account is suspended since 10 days. Only today - at my third try - it seems I was able to navigate to the proper place to post my complain:

http://twitter.zendesk.com/requests/new

Is this Cyberpunk now?

D&D4 Aventuria: Sacrileges are fun

I decided just to kitchensink everything D&D4 has to offer (including the unaltered rule system) into the Dark Eye campaing setting of Aventuria. This will create lots of fun: normally Aventuria has no halflings for example. I will just decide that the travelling (human) merchants there - the Norbarden - were cursed into this smaller form centuries ago.

First thing to do, is to contextualise the low level encounters from the Monster Manual for Aventuria.

EL1: 2 Fire Beetles, Kobold Slinger, 2 Kobold Skirmisher
EL1: 2 Goblin Warriors, 2 Fire Beetles, Goblin Blackblade
EL1: 2 Kobold Skirmishers, 2 Fire Beetles, Stirge
EL1: 2 Stormclaw Scorpions, 2 Kobold Skirmishers, Kobold Slinger
EL1: 2 Kobold Slingers, 8 Kobold Minions, Stormclaw Scorpion

EL2: 2 Guard Drakes, 2 Elf Archers, Elf Scout
EL2: 2 Elf Archers, Elf Scout, 2 Gray Wolves
EL2: 2 Halfling Slingers, 2 Halfling Thieves, 2 Guard Drakes
EL2: 4 Halfling Scouts, Halfling Thief, 2 Guard Drakes, Needlefang Drake Swarm
EL2: 2 Kobold Slingers, 4 Kobold Minions, 2 Dire Rats, Rat Swarm

EL3: Young White Dragon
EL3: Ochre Jelly, 3 Orc Raiders
EL3: 2 Shadowhunter Bats, Goblin Hexer, 2 Goblin Skullcleavers
EL3: Doppelganger Sneak, 3 Human Guards, Human Mage
EL3: 2 Gnome Arcanists, 2 Iron Defenders, Pseudodragon
EL3: Human Berserker, 2 Human Guards, 2 Spitting Drakes
EL3: Hobgoblin Warcaster, 2 Hobgoblin Guards, 2 Skeletons
EL3: 3 Gray Wolves, 2 Hobgoblin Archers, Hobgoblin Warcaster
EL3: 3 Dire Rats, 2 Kobold Slingers, 2 Rat Swarms
EL3: Imp, Goblin Hexer, Goblin Skullcleaver, 2 Goblin Warriors, 4 Goblin Cutters
EL3: Kobold Wyrmpriest, 2 Kobold Dragonshield, 4 Kobold Minions, 2 Guard Drakes
EL3: 2 Goblin Sharpshooters, 4 Goblin Warriors, 4 Goblin Cutters
EL3: Deathlock Wight, 3 Zombies, 6 Zombie Rotters
EL3: Kruthik Adult, 3 Kruthik Young, 8 Kruthik Hatchlings
EL3: Kobold Wyrmpriest, 2 Kobold Skirmishers, Spitting Drake, 6 Kobold Minions, 4 Fire Beetles