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Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 elfninja Oct 16, 2010 16:01:10	Hello. I have an ongoing campaign in a homebrew world (well truth be told i have two parallel campaigns in the world, its a big place), and i run on and off at a club where you get a 6 week block. I when i last said i wanted to run in the next block i had already done some prep work on the next part of the campaign and the possiblities for the adventure that was current, then i found out who my players will be and they are all people who were not in the game last time i ran, meaning i need to write a new adventure from scratch in less time than i would normally want. I have several plot ideas that have been waiting for a chance to be implemented so getting started hasn't been a problem, but fleshing out and making sure its likely to be satisfying to play the adventure is what i need help with. Now on the offchance that anyone from the club is reading this i am going to spoiler the rest of this. spoilery stuff So here is the basic plot hook. A Dragonborn mafia don type is looking to hire the adventurers to help him get back his casino. The prize of his moneymaking "enterprises" was this casino, hidden away in a stunningly beatiful natural grotto with limstone pillars, natural crystal veins and more gaming tables, fighting pits, showgirls and gamblers than anything any of his rivals owned, until the fateful day a young blue dragon came by and decided that it would make a nice lair. Several dead bouncers later and Don Khoresh is short one casino and he has lost respect among his rivals who see it as an opportunity to muscle in on some of his other businesses. In the aftermath some of his henchmen deserted him to work for his rivals, some even attempting to kill him, so he has fled his home island for the mainland and is hireing mercenaries who he has personally heard of as trustworthy to help him get back what is rightfully his. Now so far the encounters i see are : 1. the party need a boat to get to the island coast where the casino entrance is hidded behind some rocks in the sea, it so happens that one of the guys who gambled at the casino owes Don Khoresh his yacht, and has used the recent upheavals to renage on his bet, so the party can go down and either skill challenge, straight role play or fight it off him 2. a skill challenge to steer the boat safely through the shallows and rocks that obscure the secret staircase up to cavern entrance, if they fail this it triggers an encounter with some Craud. 3. a combat encounter at the entrance with some of the young dragons minions (thought what these should be i dont yet know) as will be discovered these minions are the new bouncers for... 4. This fully operational casino ! Impressed by the gold generating possibilities of gambling the dragon has build his lair into the back of the casino and kept the front of shop as is with some minor tweeks (its a lot harder to beat the house these days) but its at this point i am a bit stuck, or rather overwhelmed by possibilities, of course at some point a showdown with the young blue dragon will need to take place, but i reckon that should be last.
#2 Grimbus Oct 16, 2010 19:43:50	An operational casino welcomes everyone. That's its business. The guards will be there to keep the law and riff raff out. Perhaps the players need an invitation, or a gold card to be admitted. They may have to obtain this by fighting one of the casino's patrons or stealing one fromsomeone, or simply convince someone connected to the casino that they are rich enough to play. Maybe the player's dwarf or whomever could pretend he's a prospector who's hit a motherlode of gold. Instead of a fight, the game becomes more of a carefully constructed heist. Either the players want the dragon to lose a bet (which is the casino and its contents) or the players want to put the casino in a position where it cannot cover its bets (emptying vault) so the dragon is put out of business. To get the dragon to bet, they need to find something the dragon actually wants - what weakness does the dragon have and what item would it want so badly that it would stake the casino (and how would the players find it, or get a forgery). There may be complications in this - the Dragon employs a crooked halfing croupier - so the players will have to come up with a way of neutralising or exposing the croupier. It could involve anything from a freak accident, a planted marked deck (which weill have to be put in the Casino safe) or a skill challenge. The players wiull get clues as they spend time talking to patrons in the Casino. THe thief in the party may observe to crooked methods used by the halfing and come up with some counters. Alternatively the thief in the party could be emplotyed by the casino and be the substitute croupie when the usual one is ill. Alternatively the players have to put the casino in a position where it cannot pay its bets. This may involve stealing the casino's vault, rigging games or planting forged coins all over the place.
#3 kalfalnal Oct 18, 2010 11:40:42	This could be a very cool game. Makes me think of Casino Royale and the Oceans 11, 12 and 13 movies. I'd steal ideas from movies of that type liberally. You mentioned being overwhelmed by possibilities. Open a document and list as many ideas as you can come up with. Then narrow it down from there. You should be able to come up with some ideas that really excite you and also have some in reserve for when the players get themselves into completely unexpected circumstances. Let us know how it goes!
#4 theapokalypseshovel Oct 27, 2010 7:17:32	I think the key of this adventure is finding out how to get in the presence of the Blue Dragon so the party can kill it. If the dragon just waltzed in and took over the place I doubt it would honor or respect a wager barring extraordinary circumstances. However, the dragon is likely quite powerful, perhaps beyond the power level reached by the adventurers. The party will require outside help, no matter what they do. They will have to disguise their purpose and possibly work with the rival casinos or powerful high rollers who are uncomfortable with a dragon known for banditry. Like Grimbus mentioned, the casino should welcome them in, unless they are obviously identified as agents of the Don, as long as they have money to spend. The fights should only be in back alleys and behind closed doors, most of them probably dealing with rival cronies than the dragon's new organization.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

elfninja

Oct 16, 2010 16:01:10

Hello.
I have an ongoing campaign in a homebrew world (well truth be told i have two parallel campaigns in the world, its a big place), and i run on and off at a club where you get a 6 week block. I when i last said i wanted to run in the next block i had already done some prep work on the next part of the campaign and the possiblities for the adventure that was current, then i found out who my players will be and they are all people who were not in the game last time i ran, meaning i need to write a new adventure from scratch in less time than i would normally want. I have several plot ideas that have been waiting for a chance to be implemented so getting started hasn't been a problem, but fleshing out and making sure its likely to be satisfying to play the adventure is what i need help with. Now on the offchance that anyone from the club is reading this i am going to spoiler the rest of this.

spoilery stuff

So here is the basic plot hook. A Dragonborn mafia don type is looking to hire the adventurers to help him get back his casino. The prize of his moneymaking "enterprises" was this casino, hidden away in a stunningly beatiful natural grotto with limstone pillars, natural crystal veins and more gaming tables, fighting pits, showgirls and gamblers than anything any of his rivals owned, until the fateful day a young blue dragon came by and decided that it would make a nice lair. Several dead bouncers later and Don Khoresh is short one casino and he has lost respect among his rivals who see it as an opportunity to muscle in on some of his other businesses. In the aftermath some of his henchmen deserted him to work for his rivals, some even attempting to kill him, so he has fled his home island for the mainland and is hireing mercenaries who he has personally heard of as trustworthy to help him get back what is rightfully his. Now so far the encounters i see are :
1. the party need a boat to get to the island coast where the casino entrance is hidded behind some rocks in the sea, it so happens that one of the guys who gambled at the casino owes Don Khoresh his yacht, and has used the recent upheavals to renage on his bet, so the party can go down and either skill challenge, straight role play or fight it off him
2. a skill challenge to steer the boat safely through the shallows and rocks that obscure the secret staircase up to cavern entrance, if they fail this it triggers an encounter with some Craud.
3. a combat encounter at the entrance with some of the young dragons minions (thought what these should be i dont yet know) as will be discovered these minions are the new bouncers for...

4. This fully operational casino ! Impressed by the gold generating possibilities of gambling the dragon has build his lair into the back of the casino and kept the front of shop as is with some minor tweeks (its a lot harder to beat the house these days) but its at this point i am a bit stuck, or rather overwhelmed by possibilities, of course at some point a showdown with the young blue dragon will need to take place, but i reckon that should be last.

Grimbus

Oct 16, 2010 19:43:50

An operational casino welcomes everyone. That's its business. The guards will be there to keep the law and riff raff out. Perhaps the players need an invitation, or a gold card to be admitted.

They may have to obtain this by fighting one of the casino's patrons or stealing one fromsomeone, or simply convince someone connected to the casino that they are rich enough to play. Maybe the player's dwarf or whomever could pretend he's a prospector who's hit a motherlode of gold.

Instead of a fight, the game becomes more of a carefully constructed heist. Either the players want the dragon to lose a bet (which is the casino and its contents) or the players want to put the casino in a position where it cannot cover its bets (emptying vault) so the dragon is put out of business.

To get the dragon to bet, they need to find something the dragon actually wants - what weakness does the dragon have and what item would it want so badly that it would stake the casino (and how would the players find it, or get a forgery).

There may be complications in this - the Dragon employs a crooked halfing croupier - so the players will have to come up with a way of neutralising or exposing the croupier. It could involve anything from a freak accident, a planted marked deck (which weill have to be put in the Casino safe) or a skill challenge. The players wiull get clues as they spend time talking to patrons in the Casino. THe thief in the party may observe to crooked methods used by the halfing and come up with some counters. Alternatively the thief in the party could be emplotyed by the casino and be the substitute croupie when the usual one is ill.

Alternatively the players have to put the casino in a position where it cannot pay its bets. This may involve stealing the casino's vault, rigging games or planting forged coins all over the place.

kalfalnal

Oct 18, 2010 11:40:42

This could be a very cool game. Makes me think of Casino Royale and the Oceans 11, 12 and 13 movies. I'd steal ideas from movies of that type liberally.

You mentioned being overwhelmed by possibilities. Open a document and list as many ideas as you can come up with. Then narrow it down from there. You should be able to come up with some ideas that really excite you and also have some in reserve for when the players get themselves into completely unexpected circumstances.

Let us know how it goes!

theapokalypseshovel

Oct 27, 2010 7:17:32

I think the key of this adventure is finding out how to get in the presence of the Blue Dragon so the party can kill it. If the dragon just waltzed in and took over the place I doubt it would honor or respect a wager barring extraordinary circumstances.

However, the dragon is likely quite powerful, perhaps beyond the power level reached by the adventurers. The party will require outside help, no matter what they do. They will have to disguise their purpose and possibly work with the rival casinos or powerful high rollers who are uncomfortable with a dragon known for banditry.

Like Grimbus mentioned, the casino should welcome them in, unless they are obviously identified as agents of the Don, as long as they have money to spend. The fights should only be in back alleys and behind closed doors, most of them probably dealing with rival cronies than the dragon's new organization.