Thursday 2 January 2020

S3 Needs More Plot




















Played and run this as adventure. Imaginative setting  I give it 10 out of 10. Plot or story I rate low. And this is from a person who likes stylish weird meat grinders and dungeon crawls. After a while weird setting, loot and monsters and exploring isnt enough. When my bored players killed the froghemoth in 2 rounds and yawned I said next time needs other goals. That intellect devouter though yikes. Anyway I ordered my S3 reprint hardback November and its still not here. So i keep thinking about it.

One of the best campaigns I ran was using after with Anomalous Subsurface Environment. Though S3 kind of normal and even a bit dull by comparison.

One of the biggest lost opportunities of TSR was not putting robots and androids in MM2.

Preface

My players might not respond to "strange monsters". So when you assemble with other adventurers to get quest you hear of the strange gated cave monsters come from and strange bodies. Who is responsible? The army will clean up after you or possibly rescue you if you fail. Your crown provided minions will wait 4 days without news from you.

Discover where lots of monsters come from is cool but one possibility is have adventurers travel to past and the creatures that survive end up being more common on return. Certainly have consequences. Anyway use several of these or one for each player or use em all.

d12 Rumours

1 A shooting star fell from the heavens and strange happenings started then
2 Strange humanoid tribe, at first we thought it was goblins till dead were seen and nobody knew what those things were 
3 Strange beasts and plants have been appearing in the area the last year or more 
4 Strange fragments of metal some think from the shooting star have been found
5 The worried ruler is seeking adventurers for a expedition to seek the source of the troubles with strange creatures
6 Someone had a child eaten by a plant! Just a few days ago, they burned it but nobody ever saw a plant do that before
7 Tiny humanoids have been raiding for prisoners and robbing farmers manure and compost stores
8 A noble family lost a child in the area who was adventuring with friends, were seen in area looking for adventure
9 When the star fell some say they heard a huge thunderclap from the wilderness and some trees and houses fell
10 Some say the bad omens and strange happenings are a sign of other worldy evil come into our world
11 Several rewards have been offered and adventurers are flocking here including some unsavoury types not welcome around here
12 Several churches and wizards have sent agents to investigate, some say the elf and dwarf folk have sent agents


Patrons
Mentioned in the text as interested in hiring and selecting 15 adventurers are these groups I couldnt find much on 
Society of the magivestre,  the fellowship of the blinding light,  the magsmen's brotherhood and Highlord the Elves. So as not to break some canon I made this patron table. I also expect lots of rival adventurers as threats. Especially if they return before you. Anyway patrons might hire you all, give one of you a private mission or vote with other groups to hire you in the 15 official chosen.  

d12 Patrons
1 Local nobility - several are interested if troubles are a threat or even has any profit, want a report assessing threats and valuable assets
2 Wizard guild - is curious about the strange creatures as spell complainants and vivisection, want monsters alive or dead
3 Holy order - believe the evil star is a moral evil force possibly demonic chaos so require adventurers to assess if it is a threat to lives or morality
4 Alchemist - guild seek new metals and monster organs for potions or golem formula
5 Elf court - require a agent to investigate some ecological threat and new creatures here
6 Dwarf court - has hear of a strange new metal from the sky and requires a sample for the kings alchemists. Extremely important threat to dwarf kind
7 Goblin king - seeks agents to find out about new monsters driving goblins from the area
8
 Dangerous cult often uses dupes and pretends to be a merchant and banking company. Seek to discover valuable resources from the area, is it a sign of their evil dimensional bosses?
9 Foreign power - wants to know if this will weaken enemies or make invasion through that area a problem. Anything that might aid power is rewarded including sabotage
10 Druidic order - senses a disturbance in the balance of nature with new species of plants and animals druids cannot change into. The order want a report on creatures possibly live samples
11 Hunters lodge - a rich lodge have heard on new creatures to kill and make into trophies, they want samples of interesting monsters members can hunt or at least hear about and see trophies at expensive dinners for the elite
12 Menagerie owners - often a rich wizard or noble seeks specimens for their private zoo or park. Many such keepers compete for the most exotic specimens

d12 Missions 

1 Document the cave, who or what is responsible and possibly stop it
2 Bring back skin, furs, bones, seeds and samples of strange life
3 Bring back strange plants and animals as proof, especially ones that could make money
4 Bring back strange artefacts and documents for analysts
5 Someone went in with early expedition and is missing, find them
6 Find what has happened to the missing people, are they dead? how?
7 Confirm not a plot to destabilise the nation and draw army from somewhere
8 Exterminate every strange creature and cover this mess up
9 Some creature from here took a relic from travelling agents of our cause
10 A wanted fugitive cultist went into the area to hide out and has not been seen since
11 The wizard Tanthaniel and followers went into the area seeking plants and animals
12 Gang of criminals driven to area by enemies and the law have good rewards


d12 Factions inside the ship
1 Vegepymie strain (north) tend to use more tech and scavenged weapons
2 Vegepymie strain(south) use pet wolf weed "thornies", grow weapons and tools
3 Worker Robots - just want to work and fix the ship
4 Police Robots - subdue intruders and imprison or stasis if investigation too long
5 Androids - mostly insane and on killing spree against living human like beings
6 Computer - hostile to intruders but limited and trying to fix ship and save cargo
7 Doppelgangers - pretend they are adventurers or play factions against each other
8 Intellect Devourer - will have some extra thrall agents mind controlled
9 Adventurer party - mixed group with various motives, possibly lost
10 Evil Cult - really hoping was demonic site, disappointed but still seek any assets
11 Wizard Party - with followers seeking lore and power might help but mostly greedy
12 Strange Sect - know of the ship and it's terrible secret, protect ship secrets, wear hoods 


So lots of extra reasons to go inside as group and possibly personal as well
Include lots of clues for goals, dealing with rival explorers and meeting factions

4 comments:

  1. Yes it does. Here is how I shoe-horned some plot into this module. I buried it under S4 with some weird drow merchant using the trapped vampiress as an arcane engine to make this "generation" ship live once again.

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  2. In the original S3 the ship just wasn't that big that you could do all the mega-dungeon tropes. We I played in it back in the day I thought it was bullshit we couldn't convince a android to be party member. And there wasn't a lot of amazing technology compared to magic.

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  3. I think humans should be able to use translation magic to robots and androids but i like some androids that don't go insane

    im thinking of doing androids as a type of abhumanoid

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