What i'm thinking is starting with the second module. I build the characters to level 4 and let them choose which ones to play. They get sprung from jail and told they have been subjected to a Geas and they have to travel upriver to the fort and defeat the giants. I'm thinking the Rick Flagg character is the sole survivor of the party that stopped the siege of Trunau.
I don't have the AP, so do you think this would work?
Well... I imagine it could, with the right group, but is there a reason why you go with Giantslayer in particular? Technically there aren't that many powerful shadowy organizations in the vicinity that could act as the PCs "patrons", and throw out geases like that. If you handwave that, well, it isn't bad - you are in a region where there are few friendlies, so you can destroy almost on a whim and not care about collateral damage. Mind you, it can get repetitive after a while, so the characters should imo have another reason to care about it. Overall, it can work, but you have to prep it up a bit and have the right party (ingame and out of the game).
Personally, I think the best choice for a Suicide Squad Mashup is Reign of Winter, with the Black Horseman freeing the character if they accept his task. He is definitely a powerful mystical creature who could have the ability to geas people, and you end up working for a suitably dark patron who would not flinch from using the scum of the earth for her pawns. So let us say your PCs are serving an undeserved (or, alternatively, much deserved) sentence. Even better - let's say they are awaiting execution. Then you have a spell of terrible weather and as they are being led to the gallows in a blizzard, Black Midnight appears, offering them a chance to live and freedom... of a sort. Their captors may try to stop him and be dispatched quickly, so the PCs get a whiff of just how big a deal he is. The PCs get a good reason to accept what they are being offered (which, let's be honest, is a pretty hard task), they are not likely to worry too much about who they are working for, and they also go to a lot of weird places so things can keep being interesting.
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It doesn't fit - Giantslayer is straight up good guys trying to save the world from bad guys.
Also, the first module is really cool.
IRON GODS might be a better fit. You could have the radio death collars, and having shadowy evil pushing the PCs kinda makes them move forward in an AP where the motivation doesn't always seem clear. It's also an AP where almost all the NPCs have some shade of grey (at the least).
Plus, Alling Third is right there in Numeria to serve as the shadowy evil pushing the PCs. AND you can have Deadshot with Laserguns.
yup... the more I think about it, if you want Suicide Squad, go with IRON GODS.
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OOH OOH!
it fits in even better with Iron Gods for the start. After all, it's like... "well... someone's gotta go down that hole..."
The PCs are bartered for from Alling Third's chattel by the locals, and sent down the hole to find the guy who went down there and never came back. That covers them from 1-2.
3-4 aren't really well connected to 1-2, but someone like Alling Third would be more than happy to send out expendable dudes to go investigate the possibility of a rogue AI deity hidden in some computer chip.
Even the Electrolich wouldn't want Unity to take over the world, so they go finish up the campaign in 5-6... and the unusual nature of the final battle can free the PCs from their evil master and allow them freedom... or revenge.
I'm going Suicide Squad with Wrath of the Righteous. :-)
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OOOOHHHH OOOOOHHHHH!!!!
Alling Third sends them as emissaries to the Palace of Fallen Stars.
I always wondered how the PCs were just supposed to be wandering around the palace like that. Or why the Black Tyrant doesn't just strike them down where they stand.
Now, they have the calling card of one of the baddest undead robot dudes in Numeria.
IRON GODS is custom made for Suicide Squad!
Well, Giantslayer seemed like a good fit at a glance. And we are currently playing Reign Of Winter and already played Iron Gods. We've also done ROTRL, Serpents Skull, Shattered Star, Carrion Crown And Skull & Shackles.
I've been thinking maybe Geas isn't the way to go. It's duration is day/level and seems like if you can cast Geas you could find a better way to deal with the issue than using criminals. Need to think of something else.
A permanent geas-like effect is a bit of a deus ex machina, but it could work. RoW has something like it in book 1.
Curse of the Crimson Throne could work a bit like that with your initial patron getting you out of, say, a jail (or the hands of a crime boss, as you will be working with the law later on) with a geas of sorts. Actually, it might be that you are initially saved from Gaedred Lamm, who features prominently in the backstory, and then payment comes due some time later. Alternatively, Lamm had stepped on the toes of someone with enough power to have the PCs released with a control mechanism to get rid of the old bastard.
Hmmm, I may have to steal this idea if I get to run Strange Aeons. From what I can tell it would slot in perfectly with that AP
Hmmm, I may have to steal this idea if I get to run Strange Aeons. From what I can tell it would slot in perfectly with that AP
It could work if you are making an intro to Strange Aeons before the adventure itself starts, but I think that would diminish some of the impact the characters finding shards of their past is supposed to have on the players. This can be a good thing if you have players who really hate the idea of the DM deciding their backstory for them and wanting to have more say in who their characters were, but I think it would be more of a drawback in most cases - a problem for immersion in an AP whose main theme (horror) runs on immersion.
