If any of my players are reading this, stop now.
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Ok. I started a new thread rather than continue the previous one, since here I want to get thoughts for my adventure down while the other thread was supposed to just be for everyone to post their own mythic adventure seeds/ideas.
Anyway, I'm thinking of running a mythic one-shot based on Yuu Yuu Hakusho. Now, if you haven't watched or read it, and you're interested in the first couple of arcs, there will probably be too many spoilers here so I'm not going to try and put everything in spoiler tags, so fair warning.
I haven't made or run a one shot before, so any advice on how to make that work more smoothly would be appreciated.
Right now, I'm thinking that the story begins with the players as level 2, non-mythic characters. They've gone in to some dungeon for some reason (still working on this bit) and it quickly ends in a TPK. Now they find themselves standing in line to be judged by Pharasma when one of the angels (does Pharasma use angels?) waves them out of line. It's explained to them that they're needed (I need to think of a good reason why they are needed though) to return to Golarion and help hunt down some demons that are stealing souls preventing them from being judged and sent to the appropriate afterlife.
Assuming they accept, they wake up outside the dungeon each with a unique artifact that will grant them their first mythic tier. They then have to find these demons (an investigation section) and stop them (a combat section).
Now to make the investigation section work, I need to work out what the demons are doing and why. Well, they're stealing souls to increase their power. I'm currently thinking of having three demons (not specifically to duplicate the anime; it's a nice number) who only loosely work together, but mostly go about stealing souls on their own (ok, so that's pretty much just straight from the show).
So three demons. One steals souls from children because they're the tastiest. Of course, that's the blatantly obvious route and it shouldn't take long to find this guy. Still, I need to work out three clues that would lead them straight to him.
The second one could be stealing the souls of the strong. That would usually mean adventurers, which means he'd be luring them somewhere out of the way before dealing with them. Three clues here will be a little trickier, except that as adventurers the players would also be targets.
The third one could steal the souls of those least likely to be missed. If he's careful, he could be pretty hard to track down. I'll have to think about what kind of clues he might be leaving.
I need to make the investigation sections fairly painless as my group isn't big on investigation (or at least gets stuck easily) and I want to keep the adventure as a whole short enough to finish in a session or two. Three or four combats (if it's a fight that kills them in the beginning) should be doable as long as they don't need to spend an hour or two finding each demon.
I'll have to wait for the mythic rules before making the demons, but I figure 3 APL+0 or +1 fights should be fine for a one-shot.
So any suggestions based on what I have so far?
If your players aren't big on investigation, don't hold back information at all. Example:
There's a clue hidden under a rock, instead of assigning it a DC 25 Perception check, just ask for perceptions, the highest roll, or the top 2 find it. Or just don't even ask for the perception check, just tell someone they notice it.
If their first plan to find information fails, offer a clear alternative, or accept the first one they decide on. Example:
The bard flubs a Diplomacy check to gather information. If the barbarian says he could beat it out of someone, give him an opportunity and ask for an Intimidate check (if he flubs, give it a +5 if he hits the guy, or allow a reroll, etc).
Lack of information stalls a story, so if you want to get through it in one session, don't let failed rolls stand in the way of story progress. It is okay to have bad things happen because of bad rolls though, like they get the information, but now there are ninja's chasing them (extra guys at the next fight making it a little harder).
Does anyone else think of an adventure in terms of a flowchart?
Anyway, that's a good idea. So even if they fail to find all three clues, they'll still end up finding the bad guy (or he'll find them), but they'll just be later, or less prepared or something. (Well, maybe the sneakier third guy might run away if they fail every check, but they'll still technically win in that case.)
Yup, bad consequences make a better story than nothing happening at all.
Any suggestions on where to set this story? I don't want to use a well-documented city like Magnimar, because I don't have any of the appropriate books or maps. I do want to place it on Golarion though because my group has been playing some of the adventure paths recently, and it's fun to think these events could be going on at roughly the same time.
I think I need a place like Magnimar though. It's a fair-sized city with many districts (for the city adventure), but it's also near a lot of not-well-explored wilderness (for the original dungeon, that might also be the final dungeon).
So, my current idea for handling the information gather portions goes something like this:
They're looking for, say, the first guy. Gather information, tough DC at this point.
If they succeed, they'll catch up to him with him off guard, so a bit easier fight.
If they fail, they'll get some information, and can try again the next day with a slightly easier DC.
If they succeed the second time, it's a normal fight.
If they fail, more info, etc. Then another chance the third day.
If they succeed then, they'll catch up, but he'll be more prepared or more powerful.
If they fail even that, he'll come find them.