Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The 56 Good Ideas In Expedition To The Ruins of Greyhawk

Finishing up the Expedition To The Ruins Of Greyhawk scrape-through.

The nice thing (by which I mean the lazy, dull thing) about Expedition is there aren't very many interesting structural things about the set-up of either the plot or the dungeon.

This makes it pretty easy to use the parts you like in isolation, or to recombine them in ways that make about as much sense when you're done as they did to begin with.

So anyway, here are all the good ideas in Expedition To The Ruins of Greyhawk organized by type...

CITY/INVESTIGATION IDEAS

, when the PCs arrive, the bad guys are killing witnesses
, afterward, the PCs are contacted by two investigators about what they saw--the first is pretending to be legit, the second is

(this second batch of investigation ideas is technically about a different investigation, but they could be melded into one easily)
, a crime, the physical evidence traces it back to a shopkeeper who suggests 3 suspects
, culprit "protected" by boss who doesn't like him
, slutty wife of boss, spied on at all times

(some city NPCs)
, zoo owner offers money for monsters brought back alive
, unscrupulous map dealer
, taxidermist
, two prisoners in the jail: the first one offers the PCs a reward for getting the other to reveal the location of a magic ring, the other loudly and publicly offers the PCs a reward to kill the other one in his cell.

(other stuff that is best placed outside the dungeon)
, a ring in an item shop turns out to be the only way to open one of the dungeon features
, a cult that wants to free one of the trapped demigods in the dungeon
, bad guys have city watch, cleric, etc disguises in their closet


BOSSES
(there are many ways to meld and recombine the interesting parts of this handful of NPCs into a more manageable number)

, dracolisk
, dark naga
, mind flayers seeking each other--one has been evicted by the other
, evicted mind flayer sends you on a quest to reclaim its lair
, mind flayer sits in a chamber, meditating, remotely controlling combatants and creatures seeking his foe
, Livashti (impossible to summarize her awesomeness, go here then search "Boccob")
, disguised demoness trapped in a room tries to send you off to find a spell to free her
, city cleric is secretly evil and a rival to the disguised demoness in the dungeon
, woman whose prisoner/lover is a demon prince
, 5 identical creepy witch-queens on tentacles
, Quest: get a bizarro evil NPC to touch the Orb of Opposition
, lieutenant of big boss schemed against by his own sublieutenant

ENCOUNTERS

, inverted step pyramid in the floor with horrible effects on each step
, spell-absorbing T rex
, ape using severed plesiosaur head as weapon
, duo-dimension card guys
, intellect devourers
, aboleth juice and tentacles lying around area of the fight 
, ventriloquism to make dead aboleth talk
, redcaps won't fight in even numbers
, Warhammer goblin-types on juggernaut
, boss pattern mechanism
, suggestion: green slime is water
, librarian creates illusion of big monster to test PCs and make them waste their spells
, PCs captured and dragged to Zone of Truth
, invisible assassin who attacks when you start messing with his allies
, librarian ghost that hurls books and knocks over shelves
, looting wizard plus bodyguards and quasit--encounter happens in room full of potions and braziers

BACKGROUND

, Demon's heart suspended in mid air over 5-sided pyramid
, Prophet living in the head of a dead god of prophecy
, 9 imprisoned demigods
, skulls of the archvillain's enemies arranged along a 300 mile road

WEIRD THINGS IN THE DUNGEON

, psychedelic thought bubbles
, illusory feast=actually rotting food
, gambling shrine: you give it magic items, it gives you luck
, statue that traps you inside it if you say the command word
, a fight on a stairwell that you can collapse, killing everyone inside
, verbeegs afraid to enter the room with the bones of their shaman
, leaf--when grasped tight by an elf it becomes a key
, evil death god whose temple has been ruined by rival evil god worshippers bids you do its bidding three times--do it and you get a favor and nothing bad happens
, ancient library has a register of everyone whose been in it
, sub-boss' notes on mid-boss' fuckups for the benefit of uberboss
, rotate the statue at a door and the door cannot be opened
, the vertical dungeon area/level map
_
_
_

No comments: