Hook, Line & Sinker – Fun with Fantasy RPGs

Sometimes you and your gaming group need a break from the main story of the campaign you are running.  This can be especially true after a really heavy part of the story happens.  Even the darkest and gloomiest shows on television have an occasional funny episode or they wind up being the fodder for angst ridden teenagers.   This is not a successful model unless you are writing a series for the CW.

This week I will present some light hearted plot ideas for a game master to use to break up the heavier stories of their campaigns.  They can also be use as part of a campaign that is lighter in tone.  Of course just because a story starts out light does not mean it does not have a darker end as you will see.

I had framed them around a fantasy theme but with some adjustment they should be usable in other types of games.

Idea #1

Hook – A young girl approaches the party and asks them if they will help her find her dog, Fluffy.

Line – The dog ran into an abandon mansion that the girl is not allowed to go into.  The girl is a daughter of a noble that the party has been trying to get something from.  Use this to leverage the players in to the story if they are not so inclined to help the girl when she asks for their help.

Sinker – The mansion is a base for a smuggling ring. The dog is a small terrier and should be able to get itself into and around things that make it difficult for the party member follow it.  Use the dog to lead the party through the building to the smugglers den by the most precarious route.  Things like rotten floors should give way under the characters after the dog goes across the area and the characters should at times be able to hear the dog but not see the dog.  Once the party defeats the smugglers, the dog should lovingly jump into the arms of one of the characters with its tail wagging.  Give them the impression that the dog’s goal was to have them take care of the smuggling operation the entire time.

Idea # 2

 Hook – The party is hunting down a group of evil cultist that has been terrorizing the area.

Line – The party is hired by the local authorities to take out the powerful evil cult.

Sinker – The cult is not actually all that powerful.  During the party’s search portray their actions as bumbling bordering on incompetent.  The party should become skeptical that the cult is the source of the problems that are happening.  The party finds them at the end of a ritual summoning that is supposed to bring forth a demon o f unimaginable power and an imp appears and promptly flies off.  One of the councilmen that hired the party is actually an evil cleric that is trying to get rid of the competition.  His existence should be revealed when a pack of hell hound join the fight toward the end to make sure that none of the cultist survive.  To make matters worse, the imp decides he likes the party and starts to follow them.  Unfortunately he gets bored a lot and will play pranks on the party members.

Idea #3

Hook – The party is traveling through the forest to the next town when they hear what sounds like a large group of people approaching.

Line- The party is swarmed by an large group of orcs that passes by them at full speed without even stopping when they see the party.  If any of the characters understand orcish, they hear phrases like “Is it still following us?” “We’ve got to get out of here!”  A minute after the orcs pass, a young boy emerges from the woods and asks the party if they will be his friends.

Sinker – The boy is actually a polymorphed dragon that is out to have fun with the locals before killing them.  It tells the party that he got separated for his parents and believes that they are over that way, pointing in the direction he is going.  If the party decided to help search of his parents, the “boy” will lead them around the forest and eventually to his lair before revealing himself as the dragon.  If he is attacked before then he will fight the party, but would prefer to wait because he does not want to have to lug all of their cool stuff back home by himself.

Hook, Line & Sinker – Fantasy Role Playing Games

This edition of Hook, Line & Sinker will focus on adventure ideas for fantasy role playing games.  As I came up with them, I was basing them off of my experiences with Dungeons & Dragons, but they are suitable for any fantasy role playing game.

Idea # 1

Hook – The adventurers are sitting in the inn in a town when they hear the story that a medusa has taken up residence in the ruins of a long dead wizard’s home.   A young child who was turned to stone was found in a field close by the swamp where the wizard’s house is.

Line – The town council asks the adventurers to look into the rumors and kill the medusa for them.  They will pay them a small amount of gold to do it.

Sinker – The rumor is not entirely correct.  There is no medusa in the swamp.  The thing that turned the child to stone was a cockatrice.  The wizard kept a flight of 3 of them as pets and for security to keep people away from his home.  Food has grown scarce around the ruins of the wizard’s home so the cockatrice have been looking for food closer to the town.  Make sure to provide the players the ability to turn anybody who has been turned to stone back to flesh by having a few stone to flesh potions available to them.

Idea #2

Hook – The party comes across a caravan that looks like it has just been attacked by bandits.

Line – The caravan indeed has been attacked but the only thing that was taken was the teenage daughter of the local baron on her way to be married.  The caravan master asks for the party’s help in recovering the young woman promising that the baron will reward them for their help.

Sinker – The young woman was not kidnapped by bandits, but was actually taken by the son of another local noble whom she is in love with.  The young man is rescuing his love from a marriage of state that the young woman wants no part of.  The two hope to escape to the lands of a neighboring land and get married themselves.  To complicate matters there has been a feud between the two families that has been going on for generations and their fathers hate one another.  Will the players drag the daughter back to be married to someone she does not love, help the young lovers get away for their own marriage of love, or will there be a Romeo and Juliet ending to the story?

Idea #3

Hook – The apprentice of a wizard who has befriended the players in the past bursts into the party’s camp one night and collapse.

Line – Once the players are able to revive him, the apprentice tells the players that the wizard has been taken captive.  A group of evil wizards need information from the good wizard in order to complete a spell that will cause all magic to stop working in a twenty mile radius.  After the spell is cast no one with magic can enter the area and any one that participates in the ritual will not be affected by the spell and will retain their magical powers and abilities.

Sinker – One of the evil wizards did kidnap the good wizard, but the apprentice is actually working with him.  One of the players has an object that is important to the ritual.  The apprentice’s job is to lead the players into a trap set by the evil wizard and his minions so they can get the object.  If the apprentice can get his hands on the object before then so much the better.