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My regular group is meeting less regularly than previously due to various life issues, but there's usually 3 or 4 of us available on any given week. I'd like to use the intermittent sessions as an opportunity to try out an episodic campaign using some systems from Unchained (such as background skills, automatic bonus progression, VMC, and fractional advancement), and maybe some of the newer classes that our group might not ordinarily commit to in a longer campaign (we usually play Adventure Paths).
My idea, which I suspect might sound a bit dull to some but in my head sounds cool, is to have the PCs as a newly formed team of Pathfinders tasked with the retrieval of specific books, documents and manuscripts of interest to the Society. Drawing inspiration from The Librarians and Warehouse 13, they would be sent to track down dangerous, magical or just plain valuable texts from libraries, tombs, private collections or various other locations.
I'm here to ask if anyone knows of any pre-written adventures which cover these sort of themes to get me started or provide inspiration. I'm happy with pretty much anything - PFS scenarios, Adventure Path segments, modules, 3rd party adventures - so long as they're thematic and of good quality.
Anyone have any suggestions, either for good adventures or anything else I could incorporate into an episodic campaign of this nature?
Have you checked out the Research rules in Ultimate Intrigue? Sounds like it could be a big help.
The PFS scenario Library of the Lion would be a great example of something you'd want.
Ancient's Anguish scenario is a high level example of stuff you can throw at party members as they try to find the right text.
I haven't got that far through UI yet, but I've used the previous iteration of the rules while running Mummy's Mask so I'm keen to use them.
I'll check out Library of the Lion, thanks (pun not at all intended).
Low Level: Song of the Sea Witch deals with retrieving a pair of tomes.
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Any module that deals with retrieving a macguffin could be easily tweaked to fit. So... a lot of them.
Many others could, with a bit more work, be set up so that you're doing work for someone, and the reward they give you is either
1. A tome
2. A clue to a tome (basically the next macguffin quest to get a tome)
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
I'm having a scout through the adventure finder database, but it's less of an adventure finder and more of a list of adventures by level so it's not as helpful as I'd hoped.
The macguffin thing is a good idea. Any thoughts on good "go there, get that" adventures I can tweak? I'd love to write my own stuff but with work and a 9 month old baby (and a fear of accidentally writing utter rubbish) I'd rather stick with pre-written stuff for now, though I'm happy to tweak things if need be.
That sounds super cool. Seconding the recommendation to check out the research rules in Ultimate Intrigue.
Hmm...the Shattered Star adventure path is very "go there, get that." You're trying to assemble an ancient artifact, so each book involves the party getting a couple of the pieces (except the last one). You could probably pick out a couple of the books from that and just change what they're looking for. They all work pretty well as standalone adventures (Curse of the Lady's Light and The Asylum Stone were my favorites of the path).
I could also see The Sixfold Trial and What Lies in Dust from Council of Thieves working pretty well as standalones with some modification, and the PCs are supposed to be looking for something in each of those.
Maybe check out Academy of Secrets once they're higher level? Not really "go there, get that," but it does take place at a university, so it'd probably appeal to a bunch of scholarly types.
Great suggestions Meraki, thanks. Sadly Shattered Star is the AP that my regular group is playing irregularly, and most of them played CoT before I joined the group.
Academy of Secrets is a module that's always intrigued me. I'll check it out.
I think you could slightly reflavor Carrion Crown to fit this angle. Many of the adventures have to do with the antagonists trying to get their hands on various relics they plan to abuse. You could definitely play up this angle, with the late professor being a part of the organization. Mummy´s mask is already mentioned, and, well, the plot can very easily fit that description as well. I perfonally find the default hooks for the game a bit weak, but if the PCs are agents of such an organization, they automatically get a good motivation to pursue the leads.
Some "books" might not be made of paper. What if the info the players need to go get is on a couple of walls, carved or painted floor to ceiling in runes? Or if they need to to record goblin sagas, which are only paased on orally?
Could also get conspiracy style if they wonder what this big book written in infernal on human skin is needed for...
There's a great old Dungeon magazine adventure (2ed I believe) called Ex Libris that takes place in a library with shifting rooms much like those old plastic slide puzzles everyone got as kids. Issue #29. I remember it being fun.
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Most of book 3 of Mummy's Mask, "Shifting Sands" is a big library adventure with research rules. The rules are reprinted in Ultimate Intrigue but this version comes with a whole adventure to frame them.
Being an adventure, the library has some monsters. But it also features Golarion's least helpful and most annoyingly obstructionist librarian!
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It might be fun to adapt Master of the Fallen Fortress (1st level) and From Shore to Sea (6th level) into book retrieval quests (especially if you used Sunken Empires to flesh out From Shore to Sea a little more).
Even more great suggestions, thanks everyone!
Sadly Mummy's Mask is already out - we were playing that until I had to put it on hiatus when my baby arrived and I had a huge exam to do. I can certainly look at Carrion Crown, and at the modules mentioned.
I like the idea of non-book written materials, like copying frescoes or carvings. I remember there being a bit in Souls for Smuggler's Shiv with some interesting carvings, maybe I'll have a look at that for inspiration/adaptation.
There's some information gathering involving carvings/murals/statues in City of Seven Spears as well.
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I think the thing for a library campaign should be the interplay between research and other things happening. The research mechanics from UI/Mask basically give you a way to eventually drag from a library what you want; the big question is how many days it takes.
So suppose every night the monsters come out, and every day you're reading up, trying to figure out what to do about them. Can you come up with a new weapon for tonight? Can you deduce the endgame before the monsters complete it?
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As a librarian, I want to be in this campaign.
For this to work, I'm thinking that your best library setting would be something like a large University where you might have 5 or 6 specialized libraries that you can introduce over time.
I also think that you need to read Mr. Lemoncello's Library. And Garth Nix's Mr. Monday Series, with its house that's an observatory for the universe. And the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. All of these would be GREAT inspiration. And don't forget to look at the PFS scenario Overflow Archives.
Here are some of the areas a great library can have, whether it's one large sprawling complex or scattered over multiple campuses.
Hmm
A generally good adventure hook would be to retrieve a collection of books that have been secreted away by an overzealous cult, intending to keep the knowledge within them hidden away forever. Norgorber is often considered a keeper of secrets, so he'd probably be a good candidate for this. Another is a creature of the memory stealing variety. The memory of, for example, a renowned scholar has been drained and secreted away by a unknown a assailant, who turns out to be a creature of a memory stealing variety (Can't think of one off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's an Illithid equivalent somewhere. Caulborn or something?), or a humanoid assailant employing memory moss.
I also think that you need to read Mr. Lemoncello's Library. And Garth Nix's Mr. Monday Series, with its house that's an observatory for the universe. And the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. All of these would be GREAT inspiration. And don't forget to look at the PFS scenario Overflow Archives.
These are fantastic suggestions and I'm going to add Garth Nix's Lirael to that list for an amazing fictional library. (It's technically the second in a series, but you don't need to have read the first one, Sabriel, to understand it. But that's also recommended just because it's a great book.)
As a...well, not a librarian, but someone with a degree in library science, I also want to be in this campaign. :-)
Sounds pretty cool to me too, even though I'm not a librarian and don't have a degree in library science. Is this a PbP, by any chance?
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To elaborate on my earlier post.
Theoretically, if your stats are okay, you can just grind a library forever, and eventually you'll wear it down and get the info. Once players realize that, rolling dice becomes just a chore. If the PCs have an unlimited schedule, don't bother, just state that after an arbitrary number of days/weeks they get the info.
Where it gets interesting is if the PCs don't have unlimited time. If every day or couple of days, the Opposition moves further along the time table. So the PCs are trying to make progress fast enough to keep up or get ahead. What happens outside, and what they look for in the library, goes back and forth.
During the night, the ghouls stalk the streets and the PCs need to be out there to protect the civilians. During the day, the PCs huddle in the library and continue to research the city's ancient history to figure out where the ghouls come from, what they may want, how they can be beaten. Every night, the knowledge gained that day is used, to track the ghouls to their lairs, counter their rituals, undo their curses.
Just had a thought: Has anyone tried introducing the library adventure aspect into Mummy's Mask? (This doesn't even have to be totally mutually exclusive with the Indiana Jones aspect.)
Thanks for even more great suggestions everyone.
I've finally got far enough through UI to read the research rules, which it turns out are essentially the same as those I used when running Mummy's Mask.
Ascalaphus makes a good point which I had sort of had a thought or two about but never in such a developed way. The research rules themselves are clear that eventually even idiots can grind their way to all the info, so there has to be some sort of penalty or pressure to make it interesting. I initially came up with things like releasing evil spirits or demons if you read the wrong book, or attracting the attention of malign 'guardians' if you spend too long in the library, but external pressures (i.e. the reason you're doing all this research) also make a lot of internal sense.
I like the covert scholarly society thing, maybe a bit like the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. On the way to work I thought that I could construct the team as 'black ops librarians', deniable operatives for the Pathfinders or some other organisation tasked with retrieval of very important information that their bosses can't let fall into other peoples' hands.
For those enquiring about a PbP, I'm afraid I have my hands full playing in two PbPs, playing a weekly face-to-face game, looking after my 9 month old daughter and being a doctor. Sorry to disappoint!
Also, Buffy's Scoobies were always looking stuff up in the library.
Um, Xander read comic books!
Or at least looked at the pictures.
And he must have studied for his driver's license because he was "Car Guy" for at least a week.
And bowling!
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Buffy-based library stuff. Which is sad, because it's my all-time favourite TV show. Maybe I could create a Watchers Council-esque organisation as the PCs' employer, or use it as a basis for an evil parallel organisation.
The Watchers Council was a bag of d***s. I was glad when Glory or whoever ate them.
EDIT:
But loving to hate your enemies is great in an RPG!!!! Definitely have the PCs work for them, and then try to get free of them. I think the key is to make it so the PCs can't attack them. For example, because of social conventions. Not because they're made out of adamantium or illusions or because they'll lose access to information or healing.
Yeah, definitely LN BoDs. Kind of like the Order of the Rose that $#@+ all over Sturm Brightblade. Maybe an inquisition. Or The Alliance from The 'Verse.
How about an extradimensional library? That's a recurring theme with lots of adventuring potential. Maybe the plane will self-destruct in 3 days unless X happens, and the information is buried somewhere in all those books... and with wandering monsters and nasty guardians around the PCs can't exactly sit down and brute force their way through some pages. Or the place constantly shifts and changes, like Hogwarts or The Amazing Labyrinth board game.
A crafty GM could also turn books and tomes into some kind of on-site currency, as in that a demon bound to a door the PCs need to get through would let them pass if he is handed this one particular tome... only it also details a ritual that needs to be performed later on, so the players must decide if they pass on a brutal fight and MacGyver their way through the ritual later on, or not.
Or, to take a cue from the Inkheart novels, maybe there are books that you can make real by reading them out loud. Need to imprison that nasty guardian golem with iron binds? Read out from the creepy torture manual that talks about such things, and it will happen. Problem for the PCs is that they don't have enough such books to blast every challenge out of their way, or doing so creates other problems that might eventually kill everyone (maybe reading from a book destroys a random piece of the environment, or summons angry reality guardians, or something).
Also, any librarian adventure absolutely and positively must include the "No harm ever came from reading a book" quote from the 1999 The Mummy film somewhere. There really is no other way :)
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Just as long as each adventure ends with a PC saying "Book 'em, Dano!"
;-)
EDIT:
The heroes could actually have a long term project where they need to hunt down characters escaped from books, and "Book 'em" by reading their truename so they get put back in the pages.
Opponents could also steal books to release some literary characters, too.
I like the idea of an extradimensional library, and that monsters/evil NPCs could be released from books and need to be returned.
I wish I was half as creative as you guys!
At this point, if you enjoyed Avatar the Last Airbender. Make the Library Manager a giant sentient avian.
You could pull an NPC that joins the group and or is being hunted by the bad side and is a book character whose power is to draw and spawn more temporary living things. Basically Realm from Final Fantasy 6
That Avatar librarian is probably one of these guys. Though maybe slightly less evil.