I am running a holiday themed game at the moment and I'm trying to set up an encounter where the party has to work through three encounters, one for the spirit of northmas past, one for the spirit of northmas present and one for the spirit of northmas future. I'm drawing a blank. The party is a group of 6, all level 12 and reasonably well optionmized. Puzzle and non combat encounters and ideas are welcome. Help?
Why do you need stats? are you going to have the party slaughter them all?
It's always a distinct possibility.
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Just use monsters that are already there and name them something else.
-Spirit of the Past, use a chain devil, bump him or add class levels to make him CR 14-15, so he can use his horrifying gaze/visage to make your heroes see their past encounters or fears.
-Spirit of the Present, A time dragon , a nalfeshnee or whatever pick something.
-Spirit of the future use the Shinigami, as far as I recall, the spirit of the future is always used to represent death.
Well are you trying to run them like the Christmas Carol? In that tale the spirits play as guides to take you to the secret knowledge that may change your future - if your game is the same premise, killing the ghosts seem counter-intuitive, just as laying them to rest does.
Next question - are the trips to the past, present and future have anything to do with any one (or all) of the PCs personal past, present and future? Does the PCs have succinct knowledge of their past, such that a ghost showing them past memories have any affect in game? Will their be any impact for being exposed to a past situation? I would think the PC's past would have clear knowledge of their past, for any past memories to have any impact on the present. If they don't its going to tough to make socalled past memories have any meaning for play.
If these were ghosts of beings the party killed, even accidentally, over the course of their past adventures - that could have impact. Then the puzzle becomes laying them to rest, revealing why the killing of these beings were wrong and problematic today, so laying them to rest solves their issues. Make each ghost story a mystery that must be solved, revealing how they died, why they died and how to rest their spirits. (Although this doesn't feel very Christmas-y).
If your party doesn't fight, nor lay to rest these specific ghosts, then they only serve as MacGuffin guides to your 3 puzzles and have no real other purpose - which to me defeats their purpose as ghosts at least in regards to a PF game.
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Well are you trying to run them like the Christmas Carol? In that tale the spirits play as guides to take you to the secret knowledge that may change your future - if your game is the same premise, killing the ghosts seem counter-intuitive, just as laying them to rest does.
Next question - are the trips to the past, present and future have anything to do with any one (or all) PCs personal past, present and future? Does the PCs have succinct knowledge of their past, such that a ghost showing them past memories have any affect in game? Will their be any impact for being exposed to a past situation? I would think the PC's past would have clear knowledge of their past, for any past memories to have any impact on the present. If they don't its going to tough to make socalled past memories have any meaning for play.
It's a silly, lighthearted game with everybody playing halflings and gnomes with builds like a gunslinger using a redrider BB gun who only has one eye. It's mostly just a game to keep things going during the holidays until people's schedules stabilize in January and we can get back to the normal game. So not a lot of material for deep drama.
If these were ghosts of beings the party killed, even accidentally, over the course of their past adventures - that could have impact. Then the puzzle becomes laying them to rest, revealing why the killing of these beings were wrong and problematic today, so laying them to rest solves their issues. Make each ghost story a mystery that must be solved, revealing how they died, why they died and how to rest their spirits. (Although this doesn't feel very Christmas-y).
While an awesome idea, not fitting for this game in particular. Not very long lasting.
If your party doesn't fight, nor lay to rest these specific ghosts, then they only serve as MacGuffin guides to your 3 puzzles and have no real other purpose - which to me defeats their purpose as ghosts at least in regards to a PF game.
Last week they had to win a game of calvinball (a game where everybody was making up rules on the fly) vs owlbears who had been given sentience by the last Druid of the Order of the Owlbear (owlbear being the replacement for turkey in this game's thanksgiving) and then subsequently rebelled against their "Father" and became highly civilized and gentlemanly. Next week I plan to work in the Grinch. Eventually they will have to defeat the Saint of Claws to prevent him from enslaving the halflings and gnomes and forcing them to create toys for human boys and girls across the world.
Anything I can come up with regarding a Christmas Carol is seemingly too long to be of use for a one shot. If this is more light hearted as you say, perhaps all 3 ghosts can be laid to rest simultaneously with the same murder mystery solved. Perhaps the sprits was of a schizophrenic single being in life with 3 personalities, one stuck in the past, one current and one of the future - in death his personaliites have manifested as 3 separate ghostly beings. Include obvious anachronistic elements like the ghost of the past dressed like an ancient Greek statesman, the current dressed in PCs current time frame, and a ghost with cybernetic body parts, ray guns and what not. But make all 3 look like the same person, aside from dress appearance.
Then contrive a story that highlights his death and mystery, and solve it. Give the mystery a tongue-in-cheek Christmas flair, and you've got something.
