Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lennart 07-02-05, 10:18 AM	:twitch: So this is my problem. I am running this game with one Gnome wizard (merchant) and a human necromancer (low noble) Now these are two adventurers who don’t like to adventure. They settled down in a big city and started a casino. They got a nice lot of land and they bought an inn and built a big room next to it and filled it with a bunch of gamble tables dice and card games. Of course they want to expand; the gnome wants to build gambling machines and gambling golems. The Human wants to play the nobles for knowledge. The expansion plans also include making a casino room for the richer people in town, playing out and manipulating the nobles. They plan on becoming real players in the town and accumulating power. BUT what in the Gods names do I give them for adventures? Please be so kind to make some stuff up and if you need extra info just tell me okay? Oh did i mention that the player of the necromancer prefers a fight at leases once every session and that the gnome sees himself as a gentle men who should leave the rougher work for hired help? and that the necromancer agrees. :twitch: (if you agree this is not going to be easy please :twitch: i need to know im not alone) I wish you a good day, happy writing and freedom from stupidity. Lennart the title less one.
Nathaniel SilverBlade 07-02-05, 11:00 AM	They want to start a casino ? I guess that the local thieves'guild will not be happy and will either try to ask them pay for "protection". You can also have some NPC who come in their casino, play and lose lot of money and can't pay, except with a treasure map/a strange magical item/an abandoned mine or building far away (and the map/magical item/abandoned mine is the start of an adventure Or one of their employee is in fact a high level thief who steal lot of money/items from them. You can be sure they will run after him :D
Vapthorne 07-02-05, 11:11 AM	If you have the DMG 2, then look towards the section on running a business. That will give you idea on suited encounters, which some could lead into an adventure. Some ideas; -Someone else has established a casino/inn across the street and it's business is booming, thus hurting "the Necro & the Gnome's Inn" business. -Local thieves guild starts extorting them for protection money. -The inn they bought was once the scene of a burial murder, or is on ancient burial ground. And the dead -The inn becomes a major crime/disaster scene and is forced to shut down. The repairs are excessive and they need money to fix it, or to move on. -The kingdom's military forces are marching in to prepare for an assault/help in a disaster or what not, declared martial law and they taken the inn to use a base. Or an nieghbooring kingdom invades, and taken the inn as a housing area or outpost. The idea is to use their business as an adventure hook. Put it as risk, then they'll need to venture forth and do something, or they lose it.
rbrt_Spade 07-02-05, 11:16 AM	or just use profession(casino)
Vathelokai 07-02-05, 12:39 PM	Could we get the longer version of the story? If they've been adventuring long and hard to get this reward, then I'd say indulge their whims for a few sessions. If you let them set it up exactly the way they want it, then they will rush to defend it much faster in the future. What are the details of how they got the inn. Was it all on the up and up? Are there other casinos in town or inns or guilds that would be annoyed by the casino? Previous owners, local history, and the structure of the nobility the want to be players in would help. Also player style; do they prefer to roleplay alot or do they role alot of dice and try to use every skill and feat they have? What kind of adventures do you want them to go on? It seems that these characters are too pretty for dungeon crawling, but any old noble could walk up and talk them into going somewhere because they want the recognition. They are both wizards; do they aspire to arcane greatness or do they want 'prestige class: businessman' Hooks - 1)bandits nearby are cutting off the flow of tourists, hurting business. The PCs won't want to get their hands dirty, but they could make a game session out of finding someone to deal with it or they might have to lead the group that deals with it. Maybe they could form a pact with the bandits. 2)Assuming necromancy is a crime in your setting, thieves or wizards could stumble upon evidence of it. The PCs would have to move quick to stop word from spreading, possibly chasing the NPC, tracking them, or being extorted by them. 3)An earthquake damages the casino. On inspection, they find a tunnel in the basement that had been hidden and walled over. They could wall it back up or ignore it, but whatever lives in there will now know that it can escape. 4)The gnome wants to design 'gamble-golems.' Make him work for it. Maybe he needs to travel somewhere to research the design. Are all the parts readily available?
Lennart 07-02-05, 05:04 PM	Long version of story. Well this is the second island there on. They ar currently in the capital of the country Crystal clear…but it doesn’t live up to its name. You got the farmers district out side of the city walls You got the harbour district inside the wall but it’s full of scum (sewers aren’t finest yet so ***** floating around Merchant’s district looks much better home of the central city temple (boccob) and the casino. And the noble district home of the city council noble houses expensive homes and rich people. Well the political situation in the city is it is run by the king and 5 noble houses. The city has 6 seats 1 of the king and five for the houses. In theory how better the people love a house the more members and power it gets. Well now we have 2 evil houses (one fighters 1 wizards) and they are about to fuse in to one house We have 2 chaotic good houses (fighters and sorcerers) 1 LAWFULL good house who totally worship the law (they recently found an artefact witch can turn a person lawful good. (Kind of perfectly lawful l kind of like care bear happy happy telletuby obey the law kind of lawful good) and they are experimenting with it they believe if it follows the law it is good if they break it it is evil. Problem is they are powerful. And these five houses and the king run this country. A bout 50 years ago a new island was discovered and 3 countries are rivalling for it. So they all send settlers. Here is the problem they found out that the north is inhabited by uncivilized races. Wild elves wild Halflings wild every thing it just means they don’t build cities and here is the fun part the north of the island is forbidden for humans. (and that’s why the races are living like they should cuz they are untainted by human influences. Even the gnomes only want clean technology and all races live of the land in harmony with nature not cutting down woods and the elves aren’t sissy either.) so the 3 settlers are bickering for the south side but because the don’t want to start butchering and feel knida vulnerable they made a contract not to attack for 50 years giving them selves enough time to buff up there army. And try to make an ally out of the northern land. Witch isn’t working cuz they are very intolerant of humans and the tamed members of the races. Well the gnome has a little ship with a crew of 6 doing business for him. And he is searching for members of his family. A little while the king organized a tournament and the best wizards and fighters and so on where sent on a mission to retrieve his daughter from a bunch of renegades who took over one of his fortresses and 5 of his villages. So 20 adventurers and 20 carriers set out to the west. At this time we had a human necromancer a gnome wizard and a Halfling rogue. On the way the there were murders and some of the 40 got wasted. And our friends where to Investigate. Oh and a skarossar priestess had the hots for the necromancer and she murdered every body he didn’t like (and he is always *****ing about some body) Well due to lack of subtlety our friends got framed and kicked out of the team. (At this point the Halfling died because he disobeyed some orders. Long story involving him attacking the cleric because he didn’t want to die and ******* of the level 10 Fighter commanders of the team…and our friends being level 3) So only the commander, the priestess, the cleric and his twin daughters. well any hoo they beat the group to the fortress get the princes and make it back to the city using some very very dirty tricks. So the reward (a lot of land to be divided between the ones who rescue the princes) goes to the two friend. And the first year is tax free. And some of the party fortune is used to buy the inn next to there lot. (they kind of keep most of there profit aside in an jar to be divided by them selves and for team in vestments.) So it’s been a month now and it is the first day in business. Oh I almost forgot…the gnome adopted my character (I want to play a little to). Creeper a very talented young rogue age 13…well not exactly. He is a construct built for assassinations and infiltrations built out of some mechanical parts and biological. By a twin elf wizard 1 necromancer 1 transmuter both having some levels as cleric so he kinda like a cyborg. He is also the prototype but he believes he is entitled to a life. (The wizard who made him made him able to train and learns so he could later copy all the important knowledge and use it to program the other 20.) So a little while after the 20 others where brought to life Creeper was send to a mission. But he got struck with lightning losing parts of his memory and giving him a possibility to re program himself and giving him free will. Later on the firs island they killed his father but they gave his uncle to the local authorities. And he still has 20 of his younger brothers and sisters stalking the lands (some of them looking for creeper for various reasons.) so I’m planning on bringing the twin back and having him meeting the other creepers. Thus far the main quest involved I secret organization and a lot of big big plans and secret forces shaping the lands. The two unknown forces in the land are an albino red dragon who has found the secret of immortality 55.000 years ago and an immortal wizard who can travel true and manipulate time. And both are high pieces on the god’s chess boards But I’m still trying to throw them a hook but a few things came up 1 how do I make them in portent enough to let them be noticed by the high rollers especially if they don’t want to crawl true tombs and travel the land. 2 how do they discover the secret organization. 3 what are their goals??? The one wants to get rich the other wants to get power full using knowledge. But neither of them ever wants to fight (the player wants to fight but the PC doesn’t) Are there any more things I need to tell you? Thank you, Good day and freedom form stupidity. Lennart the title less one.
Vathelokai 07-02-05, 07:29 PM	Well now we have 2 evil houses (one fighters 1 wizards) and they are about to fuse in to one house These houses should demand tribute from the PCs. Or demand that the PCs join them. If they know about the Lawfull artifact then they could coerce the PCs into aquiring it for them. 1 LAWFULL good house who totally worship the law (they recently found an artefact witch can turn a person lawful good. An artifact of this magnitude would definitely be on the high roller radar and definitely on god radar. Since this house is using it, I guess that they don't belive freewill is in the lawfull good domain. They could start a secret group that goes around kidnapping people and turning their alignment. It's for the greater good, right? What if they tried to hit Creeper? Would it work or would it mess with his 'programing'? If they hit a PC would the remorse over their previous life motivate them to a more active role in the world? so the 3 settlers are bickering for the south side but because the don’t want to start butchering...Well the gnome has a little ship with a crew of 6 doing business for him. And he is searching for members of his family. Is this the PC gnome (I'm assuming it is). Members of his family could be living in the north of the settler island. If he found that out there would be plenty of roleplay potential trying to bring the groups together. If he arrived on the eve of an invasion (started by either side or a third party) The PCs would be plunged into combat. That type of news would grab the attention of the high rollers. Oh and a skarossar priestess had the hots for the necromancer and she murdered every body he didn’t like (and he is always *****ing about some body)...Well any hoo they beat the group to the fortress get the princes and make it back to the city using some very very dirty tricks.If the princess was there does she know about the dirty tricks? That would mean that the king would know, and not be to happy that he had to give a prize to some criminals. He could have them under constant survailance to find some reason to get his land back, leading to a story about the kings secret police. If the high rollers know about the kings grudge they would send their agents. If the princess didn't tell the king she could use the information as blackmail to force the PCs to action. She could demand that they go on a dungeon crawl personaly (instead of sending hirelings) so that they could retrieve something for her. Or she could send them to a rival house, maybe even against the king. The Skarossar priestess could show up again right? If the PCs were blackmailed for her crimes before, what about all the other people she killed? Wouldn't their friends and family just assume that the PCs were the culprits and go after them and their casino? An assassin could show up, and if they defeat her they would have clues. Would they go to the trouble of clearing their names by tracking down the priestess? It would be a bit heavy handed, but you could make anyone they hired to do it for them refuse or fail. Creeper a very talented young rogue age 13…well not exactly...He is a construct built for assassinations and infiltrations built out of some mechanical parts and biological. By twin elves (necromancer and transmuter both having some levels as cleric). He kinda like a cyborg.This crew would definitly be on high roller radar, and anyone who interacted with them (like the PCs harboring Creeper) would be interested. The time mage would have an idea of Creepers future actions and could use that to get control of him, preferably with diplomacy. The dragon might just want to kidnap him. Since the PCs are harboring him the agents of the high rollers could show up at any time, possibly doing wierd things like trying to buy him, which could lead the PCs toword interaction with the dragon or mage. Would the PCs chase Creeper if he ran away? Would they save him if he were kidnapped? Would they stop the twin elves if they had to? Thus far the main quest involved I secret organization and a lot of big big plans and secret forces shaping the lands...The two unknown forces in the land are an albino red dragon and an immortal wizard who can thru and manipulate time. If there is a key piece that is in both of their plans, the PCs could stumble across it. Maybe someone at the casino looses badly and cant pay the debt. The gambler offers the PCs an artifact to cover the costs. Some NPCs that are integral to the time mages plan could swing by the casino. The time mage could rig the games or force the PCs and NPCs together somehow. If the two immortals have organizations, why not invite the PCs to join one? If I was super powerful I would want lackies like that. Their dues to the organization could be adventuring. 1 how do I make them in portent enough to let them be noticed by the high rollersSince the time mages has a good idea of the future, he would already know that the PCs have an important role to play. The dragon could easily have heard of their exploits. Either might be more interested in Creeper than the PCs themselves. Huge plans by immortals don't nessicarily require powerfull people, they just require timing and placement. Either immortal could decide to make a puppet out of the PCs, giving them subtle help to take control of the town. That way the immortal is the power behind the throne, and the PCs are happy with the arrangement. 2 how do they discover the secret organization.Unless the organization is hiding from them, it shouldn't be too hard. A customer could get drunk and mention it's existence. The next morning he's found dead in his room; assassinated. They go and buy or find some spellbooks or scrolls and notes on the organization are written in the margins. One of the nonwizardly noble houses could capture a member of the Org. He has magical protection against interrogation and they come to the PCs because they are not affiliated with another house. A group or guild that they have been working with the whole game could just be a front for the Org; the PCs just never realized it. 3 what are their goals??? The one wants to get rich the other wants to get powerfull using knowledge. But neither of them ever wants to fight (the player wants to fight but the PC doesn’t)I'm guessing the gnome dosn't go for the get rich quick schemes (like dungeon delving), since he bought a business and all. What if something is hurting his profits; would he take it upon himself to find the cause? One of the houses or a guild could be cheating at the tables or generaly hasseling the customers. Someone could rob the place; would they go get theri money back or expect the police to do it for them? If the wizard is the patient type who is okay with buying and writing his own spells it will be tough to get him out of his house. He's a necromancer; is he just a specialist in life effecting magic or does he have some undead somewhere? I'm spent. I'll post more if something comes to me.
Evil Glowstick 07-03-05, 12:31 AM	I have 2 words. GANG WAR!!. Some kind of gang or guild war is going on in the city. Wether or not they are apart of the gangs/guilds involved it could make for an interesting adventure. It is easier to do if they are in one though. I am playing in a game like this and so far it has been interesting and fun. Its not just all street fights and bar brawls eather. You have to sneak around and get info. Convince others to join your side. Bribe gards/ not get caught by them if you do have a street fight. There are diplomatic, Stealthy, And straight out brawling adventures that can be done. Plus, Everyone loves a gang war :cool:
Lennart 07-03-05, 06:03 AM	Oh I almost forgot. Creeper has a girlfriend he found in this city. She is the daughter of a kinda Robin Hood thief guild. Since they are both thieves it was a mach made in heaven. Every district has about 3 thief’s guilds. 1 harbour district. Thugs and filth. 2 merchants district mostly pick pockets (if it church time the noble come to the main temple to pray and the poor to beg or pick pockets.) 3 corrupt politicians and con artist who some times come to the merchant district to run some cons. I am planning to run a bunch of cons on my PC’s Today they will get an invitation to joint the M&M guild. (magic and machinery.) I think they will both enjoy it and since I have nothing for today’s session I will try to pull some thing out of my a…aquarium. :rolleyes: So the truce I was telling about is about to run out so the country will go to war soon. And that’s why the noble houses are making some sudden changes because they want to prepare for war. Thus ceasing power by going true House war. Oh by the way. Necromancy is legal as long as you perform it on animals or the person either gives up his bodied for “science” or after a siege on the city usually cleans up and deposits the bodies at the M&M institutes necro department. Gambling is legal as long as the casino has a permit. And I already planed to lure the gnome to the north of the island. But how do I make it worth while for the necro? Of by the way I am playing home brewed world. The world came out of a book I am currently writing. So maybe I can steer them towards a critical historical event. Short story of the island north. Once upon a time there were grey elves. One of em got in bad hoo doo trying to purify the race. Spell back fired and elf’s where split from drow. They tried to decide witch one was better using a contest. Drow won elf’s pised of. Elf’s run to daddy dragon lords and frame the drow by fooling them. (at this point the drow had all the theoretical knowledge and the elf’s had all the practical knowledge.) so the elf’s tell the drow about a gathering of evil races and they must eliminate this dark monsters. So they got send to a gathering of Halflings dwarves and so on. Elf’s run to dragons and warn them of the evil black elf’s. Dragons cast the drow on to the under dark casting a bunch of curses on them. The first drow makes a prophecy, nobody believes him. Long long time later one of the noble drow houses is good not evil. They define drow laws with among other things mail female equality. The house also has a twin noble children. One born with power over fire one born with power over fire. The other drow cast them towards the surface. Only the twin and there mother survive. (well that’s for the human good ness theory) There mother re marries with a power full necromancer and chief of the necromancers guild. The kids spend 5 years over there safely until some army of crusaders caches the happy little family. One murders his new father One rapes and kills the mother one throws daggers at the fighter brother. One is beating up the necro brother. The fire brother gets a dagger in the eye and his brother thinks he’s dead. And also watches his mother die. So to save himself he raises his mothers body to attack the basterds so he can escape. The fire brother is sent to a anti magic prison and experimented on. And the necro one lives alone in the necromancer’s old castle. Living of the food he grows and paladins he traps. (Raising there skeletons for his defence and eating there meat. Later he is found again by the necromancers guild buy by this time he is mad and kinda turned evil. Later when he reaches puberty he comes to a necro guild party and meets a female drow elf who was captured as a baby and train as a slave. He falls in love and frees her and gets this crazy idea for taking over the island. In the mean while his brother took all this time meditating in a very damp prison waiting for some one to give him some thing flammable. A new guard makes a mistake and gives him a piece of dry bread. So in order to escape he partially fries his own mind and goes to find his brother and he does find him by the time he has freed his bride and taken over the city he was born in. And so their quest to take over the island begins. So I’m trying to get the PC’s in there path some how but what reason can I give them to make sure the twins don’t kill them? I hope you like the story idea and have any ideas about the PC’s I thank you, wish you a good day, happy gaming and freedom of stupidity.
High Octane 07-03-05, 09:25 AM	or just use profession(casino) Great idea! And while we're at it why dont we just roll Profession (Adventurer) for all other adventures instead of playing them!
createvmind 07-03-05, 11:57 AM	If they avoid adventuring then cause them to have domestic issues, attempted robberies and the others mentioned above, also have them get accosted by npcs higher lvl than they are an continously, its only common sense. Two nerfed guys in town making money that we can take, cool.....PCs will have to either get jacked or hire security which can lead to more problems.
Illithid Tentacles 07-03-05, 02:46 PM	I didn't read the whole thread, but there is one thing to keep in mind about the business world: competition. If these guys start doing well, then there's going to be a LOT of imitators popping up all around. Some of them will suck and won't really have any effect on thier business at all. And of course some of them are going to do it just as well, if not better. To quote Picasso, "You invent something, and then someone else comes along and does it pretty." Maybe the owner of a rival casino is a powerful enchanter, and whenever someone leaves, a trap hits them with a modified Compulsion spell that makes them want to come back tomorrow and gamble some more. Maybe someone (like a rival casino owner, or the spouse of someone who's lost a lot of money there, or merchants in the area who are ****** because the casino is taking all the money that would otherwise be going to them), rigs the games, either to always pay off, or never pay off. Either way will be costly, since if there's never any payoff, nobody will want to play, not to mention that it's extremely illegal. And if these guys didn't get a liscence to own and run a casino, that'll bring up a whole lot of legal trouble too.
Leibel 07-03-05, 06:27 PM	How to get casino owners adventuring A mafia group demanding "protection" money is obvious Try sticking the character's in a Romeo-Juliet feud; two rival families looking to expand their money/power buying out local business's and neither will take no for an answer; the Gnome and human could not go to local authorities because guess who the local authorities are. And the star-crossed lovers meet at the casino so both families want the place gone. You could lots of things - attempted arson; corrupt legal stuff(get a permit and hit em with red tape; one family condemns the place; one family gets the local temple to declare the place immoral; both families hire thugs to stop people from going to the Casino; family fued between warriors/aristocrats using rapiers in front of the place). Or something more scaled down - local business's don't want the competition and sue the PC's. Or a mafia group could set up in the Casino (sounds like Vegas) and cops raid the place - to get it back the PC's must go on a quest. One player is a card shark (assuming you allow open hand casino style black jack) or rogue or wizard and wins most of the PC's money forcing them to go adventuring to pay the rent. The History Channel special Breaking Vegas could give you idea's on NPC types who could break your PC's casino - especially the woman who swapped out entire decks of cards during blackjack games. Really evil and Really fun(especially in light of RL events) Two words: Eminent Domain NPC Gov Official: We need to build an orphanage here and your casino is in the way PC's: What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NPC Gov Official: Sorry gentleman but your casino will be bought out in one week PC's: What we can we do about it NPC Gov Official: If you can raise the money it would take to build an orphanage(make it more than their casino could bring in) you can keep your business - there's a bunch of Orc highway robbers who supposably have lots of money
Fallen_Angel 07-03-05, 07:20 PM	haaven't read the rest but have you tried: A rival is jealous that they are making more money and sabatages it
Vathelokai 07-04-05, 02:11 AM	Oh I almost forgot. Creeper has a girlfriend he found in this city. She is the daughter of a kinda Robin Hood thief guild. Since they are both thieves it was a match made in heaven.I agree with the above suggestion of the Romeo+Juliet spin. This would be a good couple to do it with. What remains of the Robin Hood guild could assume the casino is in with some of the worse guilds or houses. I am planning to run a bunch of cons on my PCs.Have the other characters in the story (other nobles, the exgirlfriend priestess, the twin elves, etc.) or any of their lackys run the cons. Having too many NPCs is a hassle anyway. This would help keep the story to the point and advance the plot faster. And I already planed to lure the gnome to the north of the island. But how do I make it worth while for the necro?The necro twin (see below) could send him (and maybe some others in town)an invitation to apply as his apprentice. If the PC isn't up for that, he might think it a great opportunity for him steal some spell books. If he still refuses, have the M&M guild know about the invite and order him to go. Short story of the island north. One of the noble drow houses is good not evil. The house also has a twin noble children. The other drow cast them towards the surface. Only the twins and there mother survive. The mother remarries with a powerfull chief of the necromancers guild. {Crusaders} murder his new father, rapes and kills the mother The fire brother gets a dagger in the eye and his brother thinks he’s dead. The fire brother is sent to a anti magic prison and experimented on. And the necro brother lives alone in the necromancer’s old castle. Later {the necromancer kid} is found again by the necromancers guild buy by this time he is mad and kinda turned evil. Later he meets a female drow elf slave. He falls in love and frees her and gets this crazy idea for taking over the island. In the mean while his brother took all this time meditating So in order to escape he partially fries his own mind and goes to find his brother. He does find him {in control of} the city he was born in. And so their quest to take over the island begins.This was a little hard to follow in the above post, so I rearranged it a little. So I’m trying to get the PC’s in their path somehow, but what reason can I give them to make sure the twins don’t kill them?The necromancer twin might be interested in the necro PC for a variaty of reasons: stealing the PCs spellbooks, an extra person to cast animate dead (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=456868) , someone to frame for his own 'bad' necromancy. These would all need the PCs to stay alive, for a while at least. The twins were elf children so I assume this happened around a hundred years ago. Maybe some of the people killed by the S. priestess were decendents of the crusaders and the fire twin would like to thank them, being under the impression that the PCs did the killing. Even big powerfull bad guys are normal people most of the time. They could be traveling incognito to gather information about the comming war. Where better to stop than the casino to make gather info checks? The way the PCs treat these strangers could determine their reception when they go to the newest island.
Lennart 07-05-05, 11:22 AM	Oh my god people look who it is...SIR BUMP-A-LOT!!! :fight!: And he is saving my tread. :bump: My hero. :w00t: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :w00t:
guru7892 07-05-05, 02:12 PM	Great idea! And while we're at it why dont we just roll Profession (Adventurer) for all other adventures instead of playing them! i am acually going to do that... well they have a casino right? now its time for their arch enemy, a fast talking, bluffing,slight-of-hand man. a cheat every casinos worst nightmare. cheats could bring the whole place down. yeah thats an adventure hook for ya.