Sorry about this thread. I haven't had much sleep and in general feel a bit bleaugh! There are some ladies shouting outside the building. I think the left hand side of my brain is over-compensating. Or maybe all those Philip K Dick stories have finally made me paranoid.
Just let it all out...
PC awakes to discover entire kingdom/nation/world is trapped in sleep/dead.
PC finds themselves in the body of the most wanted outlaw in the world.
PC dies and finds themselves in a new world.
PC can see things no one else can – are these things real or are they mad?
PC suffers periods of blackouts, story keeps jumping unexpectedly to new situations and companions they cannot remember.
PC’s dreams have a consistent linear progression.
People seem afraid of or apprehensive around PC for no known reason.
PC is frequently visited by angels.
Might work best in a 1-on-1 campaign. Some might work with multiple PCs, but others, not so much.
PC has constantly emerging memories of living another life
When the PC takes a life, they gain a momentary glimpse into their own death.
When the PC takes a life, they gain a momentary glimpse into their own death.
Oooh . . . I like this one.
|
PCs awake to discover beanstalk in center of town.
PCs bombarded in the desert by falling angels with their wings hacked off.
PCs asked to babysit.
PCs awaken to find they've switched bodies. (I've actually used this one)
PCs awaken to find they can do things they couldn't before. (1 level increase in a random class. done this one too)
PCs awake to find themselves shrunk/grown.
PCs asked by extremely powerful wizard to do something mundane.
PCs asked to clean out a wizard's house.
PCs encounter a fraternity/sorority opening up memberships for the year. (yes, this can still work in a fantasy setting)
I'll post more as I think of them, but this thread idea is a good one. I love writing down all the one-liners I come across to save for later.
Contributor
|
The PCs discover all their keys are missing, but nothing else.
Livestock across the county have suddenly turned violent, attacking farmers and chasing away anyone who comes to investigate.
The PCs awake to discover it is yesterday.
Recent Chelaxian settlers decide to solve their "Verisian Problem."
The PCs encounter a gnome with no strong leanings or interests.
|
Every NPC the PC kill off is seen as ghostly images by the PCs. At first out of the corner of their eyes, then more pronounced, maybe due to a curse - but they can't go on after death.
PC are off to kill bad guy (caster of some sort) and are prepping to leave town the next day on their quest but when they wake up in the morning and the Inn, the town and countryside are empty and everything is overgrown.
PC finds a picture of himself and an unknown person in a treasure horde
PC discovers no one remembers his who his diety is
PC is tasked with stopping an evil so great no one can speak its name
PC hunts a masked foe, only to realize his face is under the mask
Excellent thread....
PCs wake up in an alternate reality where they have the same stats, but are the antithesis of what they were before - heroes are villains, villains are heroes (Did this as a one-shot adventure).
PCs must travel to the "real world" to protect their creators - the players (Did this as the last adventure of a long campaign).
PC wakes up next to body with a murder weapon in hand.
PC flips between two different realities and cannot distinguish which is real and which is dream.
PC wakes up in asylum and is told whole life is fantasy (very cool Buffy episode).
PC wakes up in body of most hated and pernicious foe and wonders if foe is in his/her body.
PC wakes up as a member of a foreign culture/race in an unfamiliar land.
PC hunts a masked foe, only to realize his face is under the mask
Very nice! A bit twisted. Reminds me of classic Twilight Zone.
|
|
PC wakes up next to body with a murder weapon in hand.
Indigo Prophecy, good game with a poor ending.
PCs are aboard a plane/airship, and start out being suddenly thrown off mid-flight.
PCs witness acts of violence or vandalism; but no evidence of these acts exists, victims are fine when PCs return with authorities.
PCs witness acts of violence or vandalism, but no others witness it; it only happens in their presence, leading people to believe the PCs are the culprits.
PC(s) wake up with no memory, to find wanted posters with their faces(this is also when they discover their names and possibly classes).
PCs are asked to investigate where every single sheep has disappeared to.
|
|
PCs awake after celebrating a victory to find they are the only ones in the inn … in fact the whole village seems to be deserted.
One of the PCs wakes up one morning to the cries of his or her child … that everyone else seems to know, but the PC has never seen before.
A small white lamb keeps giving one or all of the PCs clues to their current adventure, but no one else can hear the thing talk.
PCs return home to find a tall, doorless tower in the middle of the town square where there was none before.
One day all the stone statues in the kingdom become animated and self-aware.
The PCs begin finding small brass keys of identical design everywhere they go.
Haha thanks for not letting me feel too weird by providing all these equally uncanny hooks : )
The ones I would most likely make use of in the near future...
Auxmaulous - PC haunted by the dead they've killed.
Alexander Deel - PC finding a picture of himself and an unknown person
Brian Dunnell - Heroes and Villians switcheroo
And how about...
The PC's see Rod Serling talking about them and introducing their circumstances, before he flies up into the air and vanishes through a closing door in the sky!
The PC discover a key that allows them to open a door into any doorway, anywhere.
The PCs awake to discover each is a different class, with vague memories of different lives.
The PCs wake up to find themselves being thanks by a wizard for agreeing to undertake a mission so secret he had to erase their memories of it, and then he pays them.
The PCs are each told of the gruesome death each suffered, and then they all awake in the lands of the dead.
The PCs walk into town only to be accosted, as criminals using their names and faces just plundered the town.
A PC is constantly woo'd by a lovesick succubus, who tries to change her ways to be :worthy: of her beloved PC.
Three goddess descend upon the PCs, and demand they judge which of the deities is most beautiful.
The PCs awaken in new bodies in a far-future setting, and are told they were just reliving past lives in order to discover where an ancient artifact was hidden.
The PCs discover they are all AIs in a virtual reality world, and the "gods" are just programmers planning to delete them.
|
|
...
The PCs begin finding small brass keys of identical design everywhere they go.
I did something similar, only with Opals. it infuriated one player that he kept finding these gems that noone wanted. whenever he threw them away, he'd find as many +1 the next time. also, it was always him that somhow ended up finding them. eventually, i gave him a bag of opal holding just to carry them all. i think he was in the mid-hundreds when we finished that campaign.
|
|
A PC is constantly woo'd by a lovesick succubus, who tries to change her ways to be :worthy: of her beloved PC.
Three goddess descend upon the PCs, and demand they judge which of the deities is most beautiful.
I am totally going to use that first one.
The second one would be awesome to start a war/siege campaign, but my players would never go for it. plus, they'd all insist on building the wooden alpaca first, without all the bloodshed first. I may end up using it anyway. make it seem like a throwaway occurance, but them have the "favored" goddess watch over them while the scorned ones hinder them...hmm...
The PC regularly finds omens of doom in everyday objects (like tea leaves, the knot in a board, the way the shadows don't lay straight)
|
|
one PC constantly sees a mesagge hidden all over the place. the same group of words written in everything from the clouds to the arrangement of bark on a tree to ancient text on a plaque. so that the foreign text looks like the words, but actually translates to something else when someone else reads it. everywhere he goes, the same group of words.
(wasn't one line, but it works anyway.)
|
|
Three goddess descend upon the PCs, and demand they judge which of the deities is most beautiful.
Ouch! Why don't you just have the male PC guess the age of goddesses while you are at it?
I can see this one being expanded into a full blown adventure. Three goddesses come down, the PC don't exacly know who their are (they could be variant avatars of three major different goddesses). One could be of beauty and dispair, the other could be of torment/pain and the last could be of house and home. You can't really tell by talking to them - you have 24 hours to figure it out - and make the correct praise of beauty.
Or you're dead...
one PC constantly sees a mesagge hidden all over the place. the same group of words written in everything from the clouds to the arrangement of bark on a tree to ancient text on a plaque. so that the foreign text looks like the words, but actually translates to something else when someone else reads it. everywhere he goes, the same group of words.
(wasn't one line, but it works anyway.)
Bad Wolf!
I honestly think anything you saw on the Twilight Zone would work here...
PC has boot that never feels dry and vauge memories of drowning
|
|
Bad Wolf!one PC constantly sees a mesagge hidden all over the place. the same group of words written in everything from the clouds to the arrangement of bark on a tree to ancient text on a plaque. so that the foreign text looks like the words, but actually translates to something else when someone else reads it. everywhere he goes, the same group of words.
(wasn't one line, but it works anyway.)
wasn't where I go the idea from. actually me and one of my players sat down and came up with it as a way to further his character's insanity. but when I was writing it now I noticed that the two are very similar. only it was mostly his idea and he hasn't watched doctor who. plus, he wanted me have the clouds follow him everywhere, even underground. and also, only he could see the clouds. very odd guy.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
The PCs wake up to find themselves being thanks by a wizard for agreeing to undertake a mission so secret he had to erase their memories of it, and then he pays them.
This is the hook to Marc Miller's favorite Traveller convention adventure. Then they notice that, for instance, there are six Vacc suits for the party of five...
How about:
- After a simple rescue mission in an exotic locale, the party members come to realize they're now all left-handed, but before they can use this to their benefit, they also realize that food is no longer providing any nutrition, and they all begin to starve.
- After explosively defeating a summoned devil in an unhallowed cave, the party is startled to realize that (a) they cannot cast any spells with a good descriptor, but necromantic spells have a +1 caster level bonus, (b) they no longer share a common language with most folk, and (c) just as a PC speaks a few words to the local priest, she immediately attacks the party with desperation in her eyes.
- The PC's are assigned a young party of "apprentice" and "squire" trainees to supervise and evaluate on a simple mission to clean a band of orcs out of an old mill; when one novice goes missing, suspicions fall on another.
|
|
After a simple rescue mission in an exotic locale, the party members come to realize they're now all left-handed, but before they can use this to their benefit, they also realize that food is no longer providing any nutrition, and they all begin to starve.
Cute bit of science geekery there.
Having the party turn out to be copies somehow; either created by Mirror of Opposition, or Simulacra that have outlived their creator, or some sort of Doppleganger/Human hybrids that live as changeling children of their purported species until they hit maturity and 'awaken' to discover that they've been Dopplegangers all along, could be neat.
|
|
After a simple rescue mission in an exotic locale, the party members come to realize they're now all left-handed, but before they can use this to their benefit, they also realize that food is no longer providing any nutrition, and they all begin to starve. Cute bit of science geekery there.
Having the party turn out to be copies somehow; either created by Mirror of Opposition, or Simulacra that have outlived their creator, or some sort of Doppleganger/Human hybrids that live as changeling children of their purported species until they hit maturity and 'awaken' to discover that they've been Dopplegangers all along, could be neat.
Science fiction geekery? how about if the PCs find out at some point that they are all actually experimental warforged? maybe an arm plate comes off in battle? maybe they're told so by their creator. maybe creator is in quotations and they're not actually warforged at all...hmm...i think i might just use this one.
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
There's a "half-golem" template in one of the Monster Manuals. Characters with the template get some moderately powerful artificial body parts, and also get outraged elemental spirits trying to overwhelm their psyches.
Making the party members actually warforged, or dopplegangers, or whatever, I think is close to the "DM screws around with the players' character concepts" activity that many, many players hate.
It's at least a campaign-redefining moment.
Having the PC's wake up after an explosion / energy rift crossing / retributive strike and find themselves rescued by an artificier who's turned them all into half-golems ('cause that was the only way he knew to save their lives), is a great adventure that gives them a motivation to find a means to exorcise the elemental spirits and regenerate the missing bdy parts.
And the artificer might also have planted a suggestion that nobody in the party could consciously notice their augmentations, because previous recipients who woke up looking like a cyborg have tended to go insane.
|
|
There's a "half-golem" template in one of the Monster Manuals. Characters with the template get some moderately powerful artificial body parts, and also get outraged elemental spirits trying to overwhelm their psyches.
Making the party members actually warforged, or dopplegangers, or whatever, I think is close to the "DM screws around with the players' character concepts" activity that many, many players hate.
It's at least a campaign-redefining moment.
Having the PC's wake up after an explosion / energy rift crossing / retributive strike and find themselves rescued by an artificier who's turned them all into half-golems ('cause that was the only way he knew to save their lives), is a great adventure that gives them a motivation to find a means to exorcise the elemental spirits and regenerate the missing bdy parts.
And the artificer might also have planted a suggestion that nobody in the party could consciously notice their augmentations, because previous recipients who woke up looking like a cyborg have tended to go insane.
Your Idea is much better in terms of gameplay. I was just trying to recall as typically SCI-FI as I could and rememberesd all theose stories where either the main character or one of his frieds turn out to be a robot. I do like your saved, but as half-golems idea though.
|
|
Making the party members actually warforged, or dopplegangers, or whatever, I think is close to the "DM screws around with the players' character concepts" activity that many, many players hate.
It's at least a campaign-redefining moment.
A valid point, it's the sort of thing that's only useful for a one-shot or convention game, IMO.
OTOH, it could all be a multi-layered deception. A Doppleganger Enchanter might think it's 'funny' to convince a bunch of human adventurers that they are really it's changeling children and use them as agents until they figure it out... It might even have some sort of ritual / incantation that allows it to use it's telepathy on them at a range (they only *think* that they are reading minds, actually they are being told what their 'dad' wants them to believe) and / or allows them limited use of Disguise Self, to further the deception.
Three goddess descend upon the PCs, and demand they judge which of the deities is most beautiful.Ouch! Why don't you just have the male PC guess the age of goddesses while you are at it?
You can certainly do a lot with this idea (hey, if it's good enough for the Siege of troy...)
Of course, there are lots of variants. A goddess selects the PCs to choose her next mortal mate who will become a demigod -- a wise wizard, a handsome but useless bard, or a scarred warrior.
The Lord of the Dead commands the PCs to select which of three goddess is most beautiful(perhaps as payment for returning a friend to life), but the goddesses bribe the PCs to NOT be picked.
The PCs win a tournament, and must select the Queen of Grace and Beauty to share the prize with them, but there's a RUMOR there is a goddess of beauty lurking the crowd ready to punish anyone who doesn't select her.
Gods (or very powerful other beings) can be a lot of fun. I once DID force the PCs to choose who was most beautiful from a succubus queen, an angel of pure love, and an elemental of the life-giving mother earth.
(They choose the succubus, on the theory the other two were less likely to be vengeful. Bad theory.)
- The shopkeeper you're haggling with suddenly falls forward with a dagger in his back and gasps "I thought Blacknife was dead!"
- You suddenly wake from sound sleep in a cold sweat with your heart pounding, but everything is quiet and you can't remember what you were dreaming about.
- As you ride toward the road-side inn, you suddenly notice that it appears deserted, even though smoke rises from the chimney and the smell of fresh cooking hangs in the air.
- Sorting through the treasure, you find a strangely shaped black amulet covered in angular silver runes that match no alphabet or language you've ever seen before.
Three mice scurry past you and up a sun dial. All three seem to have something over their eyes.
Gods (or very powerful other beings) can be a lot of fun. I once DID force the PCs to choose who was most beautiful from a succubus queen, an angel of pure love, and an elemental of the life-giving mother earth.
(They choose the succubus, on the theory the other two were less likely to be vengeful. Bad theory.)
<*wince*> Poor metagaming and a complete lack of respect for classic mythology. It wasn't just the Greeks who had vengeful deities punishing mortals who pissed them off in some manner (although it seemed to happen quite often with the Greeks).
|
|
<*wince*> Poor metagaming and a complete lack of respect for classic mythology. It wasn't just the Greeks who had vengeful deities punishing mortals who pissed them off in some manner (although it seemed to happen quite often with the Greeks).Gods (or very powerful other beings) can be a lot of fun. I once DID force the PCs to choose who was most beautiful from a succubus queen, an angel of pure love, and an elemental of the life-giving mother earth.
(They choose the succubus, on the theory the other two were less likely to be vengeful. Bad theory.)
I would have to say that the goddess situation is one of those times when suicide is the only good answer.
That, or somehow, through some amazing mastery of words, you can convince each one that you chose them over the other ones, feeding all of their egos and saving the nearby community from certain destruction. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so you have to find a way to not scorn any of them.
PC feels compelled to eat dirt.
|
I know this is a bit of a cheat but the DMG has 100 of these one liners ... somewhere, as do ELH and most usefully for this discussion Heroes of Horror (HoH also has 100 creepy atmospheric effects, which were intended to merely be a bit of window dressing but tweaked could be bizarre adventure hooks ... assuming an appropriately imaginative DM >:))
One from ELH: A mistake in a resurrection (raise, reincarnate, etc.) leaves one PC alive by day and undead by night. (Most of the ELH stuff would need to be scaled down powerwise for non-epic campaigns but the basic idea could remain intact)
PCs awake to discover beanstalk in center of town.
PCs bombarded in the desert by falling angels with their wings hacked off.
PCs asked to babysit.
Yeah and the creature they're watching is a wyrmling dragon!
PCs awaken to find they've switched bodies. (I've actually used this one)
PCs awaken to find they can do things they couldn't before. (1 level increase in a random class. done this one too)
PCs awake to find themselves shrunk/grown.
See possible effects of cursed items in the DMG for this one
PCs asked by extremely powerful wizard to do something mundane.
PCs asked to clean out a wizard's house.
PCs encounter a fraternity/sorority opening up memberships for the year. (yes, this can still work in a fantasy setting)I'll post more as I think of them, but this thread idea is a good one. I love writing down all the one-liners I come across to save for later.
|
|
<*wince*> Poor metagaming and a complete lack of respect for classic mythology. It wasn't just the Greeks who had vengeful deities punishing mortals who pissed them off in some manner (although it seemed to happen quite often with the Greeks).Gods (or very powerful other beings) can be a lot of fun. I once DID force the PCs to choose who was most beautiful from a succubus queen, an angel of pure love, and an elemental of the life-giving mother earth.
(They choose the succubus, on the theory the other two were less likely to be vengeful. Bad theory.)
I would have to say that the goddess situation is one of those times when suicide is the only good answer.
That, or somehow, through some amazing mastery of words, you can convince each one that you chose them over the other ones, feeding all of their egos and saving the nearby community from certain destruction. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so you have to find a way to not scorn any of them.
Heh, was in an almost identical situation. I stated to them all at the same time that they were each the "most beautiful" in their own respective ways. As the sources of Lust, Love, and Life; there was no greater beauty. They each had their own strengths(while avoiding any mention of weaknesses), and were simply different aspects of beauty, which could not be concievibly measured by a mere mortal such as myself, but I felt incredibly honored that they had asked me, all the same. I also went on to state that were I to die that day, I would have died with a smile on my face for having met each of them, and the worst of hells could not take their presence from my memories.
It worked. :)
Because I... am SUCH A GENIUS!!
|
Random PCs start waking up naked in a field outside town.
The PCs learn that all the rivers have started flowing backwards.
All of the fruit and vegetables from a mysterious farmer's harvest scream when bitten.
The local forest has changed locations entirely with no mark of disturbance.
A PC keeps finding teeth left lying around.
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
- The party inadvertantly awakens a vampire, or maybe releases a djinn, who demands that the PC's solve the mystery surrounding the death of his beloved child, a murder which transpired 650 years ago.
- After an encounter with an unspeakable cult, the party's cleric begins receiving spells from some deity inimicable to her own, instead of the spells she prays for, her shadow is that of some terrible humanoid mass of snakes, and her holy symbol feels hot to her touch.
- The fortified town that serves as the PC's home base is in a panic: a half-dragon bard has persuaded all the children in town to go with him on a great adventure, and has lesser geased all the adults to stay in their homes and not speak of the missing children unless someone directly asks.
