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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Griffon

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    d20 Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    So, there's a Discworld RPG. It's one of the many flesh-masks worn by that great cannibal of games, GURPs (which is not to say that it's a bad thing) though it can no doubt be run in just about any system you care to think of. The setting is the important thing.

    I intend to run a game for some of my friends - I'm a huge Discworld fan, I have the GURPs books and pretty much everything ever printed with the name "Pratchett" on the front, so I'm not short of source material. The problem is, how to shape an appropriate adventure.

    Discworld is slightly awkward in that it's somewhat jaded towards the idea of "heroes". They exist, in their typical D&D form, though they're generally regarded as either bloodthirsty, sociopathic criminals or as quaint throw-backs to simpler times who are now just biding their time until a paying job with a pension comes along. "Let's go murderhobo our way through a dungeon" can be done, but I feel that it's missing out on many of the themes that make the Disc an interesting place to be since "dungeons" are places far, far away from the normal settings of the novels, which are where all the interesting things are happening.

    Similarly, the vast majority of institutions that generally get involved with trouble when it comes a-knockin' - the Watch, the Wizards, the Government - have very specific and consistently detailed NPCs that take care of it, and it'd be difficult - and probably counter productive - to remove them from the setting in order to insert PCs.

    Finally, the friends that I will be running for run the whole scale from "has feverishly devoured each of the books at least once so far this year" to "remembers once seeing the cover of Soul Music when he was still in school" so while I can play loose and dirty with some things, the 'big' ones will be spotted quite quickly, and again I feel that it would spoil the point of being on the Discworld if I Rule Zero'd everything.

    So, please help me out.... If you had a character on the Discworld, who or what would you be? Would you tell me what you'd do in this situation, so that I can see some examples and make sure that an 'average' character will fit into my plot?

    I have the vague outline in my head of having the PCs be a part of one of the Guilds of Ankh-Morpork. Possibly the Thieves, as I can then justify the presence of anyone who wants to be a 'Fighter' (Highwaymen, Muggers, etc) or 'Bard' (Conman, pickpocket) or whatever. This also means that I have more or less free reign over my NPCs, as asides from Mr. Boggis the Guildmaster there are precious few named Guild Masters and I can freely invent the rest.
    Plots would include the groups' Passing Out exam ("go steal something important, in whatever way you can") to combat or intrigue (a rival organisation is trying to usurp the Guild, and it's up to the PCs to get involved with solving it because Lord Vetinari takes a pragmatic "the loser deserved to lose" view of the event) and more 'normal' adventuring (under the guise of wandering the city fulfilling Guild-related tasks), developing further afield from there.

    Please tell me.... Why do you want to come to Ankh-Morpork, and become a thief?
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  2. - Top - End - #2
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    Eldan's Avatar

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    I'd probably place players in the watch. Sir Vimes is on a "diplomatic" mission in some other country, let's say Überwald, as are all the named officers. That gives them a bit of space to operate.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

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    Daemon

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    I dunno, I think a dungeon delve Discworld style would not only be fun, but a good way to introduce people not familiar to the setting to the idea of it slowly.

    Think about it from the perspective of the Dark Lord from The Last Hero. The dungeon is filled with mooks who are comically to type. The party can overhear one of them get chewed out for suggesting some smart plan when the players arrive, and instructed in what be da propah lingo for dem to use, see? And maybe even overhear some of them complaining about the benefits package.

    In battle, it immediately scratches to a halt as soon as the heroes kill one of the mooks. "Oh geeze, you killed Larry! I mean, yeah, attacks to and fro, good swing of battle, yeah, but then you 'ad to go and kill Larry! I hope one of you plans to go and talk to his wife, yeah, because I'm not going to tell his wife she's dead, hey?"

    When they finally reach the dungeon boss to beat him and retrieve the treasure, he reluctantly reveals that he doesn't have the treasure on hand, strictly speaking. Why, it'd be a bit silly to keep it all in a pile out here, see? Instead, he's got half of it in an account at the AM Royal Bank, and the rest invested in a number of other industries spread here and there. Which gives a natural setup to continue of looking into each of his "investments" and trying to extract the money you're now owed (him having transferred ownership of them to you, after accepting a payment from the party for drowage fees, handling fees, and the such, and accepting an IOU for the rest of the amount they now owe him). Each adventure can thus be pointed at a specific part of the setting, introducing it to them a bit at a time.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Well, this is a GURPS setting - I have the book too, although I haven't looked through it in quite a while - so you set the tone as the GM.

    I think that's one of the cool things about Discworld that would mesh well with Gurps. Most of the main characters are nobodies, and often, throughout whatever book they're in, use the skills they have to get by. However, they don't often get more powerful personally! They might gain in stature, grow up, get better connected, and in general go through many life changes, but rarely 'raise in level'. Out of everyone, I can only think of Mort as an exception.

    So I don't think the existing stories set on the Disc are really skewed towards great heroes... they're more of a backdrop for the real characters like Rincewind or Mag-rat and so on.

    I think your idea of having everyone be thieves could be a good one, if that's what your players want to do, but you could just as easily have them start as regular joes and offer to let them join the guild in game. They might want to join one of the many other guilds though, especially if they've read the books.

    I remember that there are templates for wizards as well as the various races from dwarves and trolls on up to small gods (200 points, right?). You might want to take that into account. Are these guys trolls working for Creosote? If so, will they get smarter in the winter?

    I think personally I'd want to be either a wizard, post Ridcully, or a random guy with just, like, all the skills.

    Some other ideas:

    They're all wizards (or one is and the rest are connected somehow) and they're in the cut-throat pre Ridcully Unseen University where everyone is trying to kill everyone else to move up. Maybe they're even in a quasi-Paranoia situation where they're trying to off each other!

    They're all talking animals that happened to eat Unseen University garbage.

    They're a mixed group, and they stumble upon an incursion from the dungeon dimensions!

    They get stuck in a turf war between two small gods!

    They're all travelling witches... some bad stuff goes down, and one might start to go bad while another might have trouble adapting their powers to the local terrain!

    I don't know... basically, there is so much going on all the time that they never need to encounter a named character... and if they do, perhaps it's all one of Vetinari's many machinations. Maybe getting on his radar is something they're actively trying to avoid, or maybe it's the path to riches as they're moved around like pawns.

    Or maybe, like in a lot of the books, a big H Hero is doing something momentous, but the little guys, the PCs, have to keep the heat off of them, like Xander in the Zeppo episode of Buffy.

    Basically, I guess I'm thinking... have your game be more like the first two books where there's a new adventure every few chapters, running into famous people that maybe noone's ever heard of until now, and generally seeing a lot of crazy new things, escaping from places, and generally running for your life a lot while screaming for help in 15 languages.

    Edit: I seem to remember that there was a game suggestion included in the book that was pretty cool... Had to do with a troll and their sleeping ancestor who was the size of a hill. You could work that in at some point.
    Last edited by Bronk; 2015-04-21 at 09:01 AM.

  5. - Top - End - #5
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    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    First of all, hats off to you for attempting a Discworld RP, it can be a lot of fun with the right people (Discworld fans are probably the ideal players). With Sir Terry's passing earlier this year, it's a great way to keep some of Discworlds concepts fresh in your mind

    I always thought that the best Discowrld stories involved elements of our own world reflected / parodied in a way that turns it up until the knob drops off. If you want to do an original adventure this could be a good way to go - otherwise you may end up with a standard fantasy adventure with a Discworld setting (which is fine if that's what you want).

    Is there a RL concept or institution that you and your gaming group are interested in that hasn't appeared on the disc yet? If so, it could be fair game for your adventure. Sounds to me like you are already very familiar with major Discworld institutions, so you could hazard a guess as to the effect of such concepts in world and plan accordingly.

    Okay, so going back to the OP - I would probably aim to be one of the main guilds professions - thieves, assassin, wizards etc. Although, it might be fun to play one of the more subtly effective professions - Beggars guild, wannabe Barbarian adventurer, watchman or alchemist.

    Humans, gnomes and dwarves are fairly well known in DW, but are you allowing players to be vampires, werewolves, zombies? How about goblin / orc? So many possibilities...

  6. - Top - End - #6
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    LeSwordfish's Avatar

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    GURPS is a classless system, right? (I mean, as in, no player classes, not tasteless.) Without knowing the system... i'm tempted to try and build one of the "heroes" - maybe some kind of grumpy old ranger type. (Gene Hunt, but for plants.) Alternatively, an assassin.

    I'd love to play this if someone ran it on the forum or by skype, hint hint.
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Alternate-universing things can work if need be. And of course if you need to Rule Zero something or a player calls you on something inconsistent with the books, just say "History Monks."

    For that matter, having the players as History Monks could work well...

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Uberwald as it was in Carpe Jugulum would make a pretty good backdrop for a more stereotypical campaign with a discworld twist to it.

    The City Watch could be good provided the case the players are involved in is too minor to involve the main cast beyond cameos, or the main cast could be absent.

    Hrun and Cohen style adventurers roaming the trackless and parodic wastes could also be good.

    A plot revolving around the less described bits of the setting like Genoa, XXXX, Klatch and so on could be interesting, they're all based on stereotyped cliches and parodies of historical societies with many a pun added in, so expanding them could be amusing to do.
    Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by Grim Portent View Post
    Uberwald as it was in Carpe Jugulum would make a pretty good backdrop for a more stereotypical campaign with a discworld twist to it.
    Uberwald is a good choice for campaign. You can get away with a more traditional campaign, since they're so big on tradition there.
    Defeat the stereotypical vampire lord, who remains stereotypical because it's tradition.
    Help the stereotypical vampire lord defeat his less stereotypical vampire neighbors who are keeping him awake playing their loud music all hours of the day.

  10. - Top - End - #10
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    BarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    I definitely feel that being a fresh batch of Watch recruits would be great, though I agree that the 'regulars' should probably be missing/away/imprisoned. Bonus points if the Librarian is the acting Commander.

    Could do a lot with the watch, fighting (another tavern brawl), Mystery (obviously), diplomacy (broker a truce between the trolls and dwarves). More bonus points if they have work all three at once.

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by daemonaetea View Post
    I dunno, I think a dungeon delve Discworld style would not only be fun, but a good way to introduce people not familiar to the setting to the idea of it slowly.

    Think about it from the perspective of the Dark Lord from The Last Hero. The dungeon is filled with mooks who are comically to type. The party can overhear one of them get chewed out for suggesting some smart plan when the players arrive, and instructed in what be da propah lingo for dem to use, see? And maybe even overhear some of them complaining about the benefits package.

    In battle, it immediately scratches to a halt as soon as the heroes kill one of the mooks. "Oh geeze, you killed Larry! I mean, yeah, attacks to and fro, good swing of battle, yeah, but then you 'ad to go and kill Larry! I hope one of you plans to go and talk to his wife, yeah, because I'm not going to tell his wife she's dead, hey?"

    When they finally reach the dungeon boss to beat him and retrieve the treasure, he reluctantly reveals that he doesn't have the treasure on hand, strictly speaking. Why, it'd be a bit silly to keep it all in a pile out here, see? Instead, he's got half of it in an account at the AM Royal Bank, and the rest invested in a number of other industries spread here and there. Which gives a natural setup to continue of looking into each of his "investments" and trying to extract the money you're now owed (him having transferred ownership of them to you, after accepting a payment from the party for drowage fees, handling fees, and the such, and accepting an IOU for the rest of the amount they now owe him). Each adventure can thus be pointed at a specific part of the setting, introducing it to them a bit at a time.
    This. So much this.

    Start out with a 'normal' dungeon-crawling adventure scenario, then just near end totally subvert the player expectations in Discworld fashion.

    For example, the party are hired to deal with an Evil NecromancerTM in Uberwald. They approach his Fortress of DreadTM, kick in the doors, overcome nasty traps, chop heads off zombies and limbs off ghouls, then finally confront the Necromancer in the heart of his lair. He spouts a couple of clichéd lines, the party gives him a bloody nose, at which point he surrenders with a "fair cop, guvners! You win, the place is all yours. Look, title deeds and everything - just sign here, here, and here. Now, I'm gonna bugger off to XXXX and drink beer on a beach", and disappears.

    Then the fun really starts.
    The Igor starts demanding owed back wages from the new "marthterth".
    Dwarf debt collectors from Bonk show up to remind the new owners they're overdue on their mortgage repayments.
    The community planning association (mostly vampires and werewolves) knock on the door to remind them it's their turn to host the meeting, where they need to discuss changes to the Fortress of Dread to be more in line with local traditional aesthetics.
    A group of Right-to-Unlifers show up to protest about the unlife hate crimes they've committed while storming the Fortress.

    Now the adventure becomes 'how can we get ourselves out of this mess?', and go from there.

  12. - Top - End - #12
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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by Dexam View Post
    This. So much this.

    Start out with a 'normal' dungeon-crawling adventure scenario, then just near end totally subvert the player expectations in Discworld fashion.

    For example, the party are hired to deal with an Evil NecromancerTM in Uberwald. They approach his Fortress of DreadTM, kick in the doors, overcome nasty traps, chop heads off zombies and limbs off ghouls, then finally confront the Necromancer in the heart of his lair. He spouts a couple of clichéd lines, the party gives him a bloody nose, at which point he surrenders with a "fair cop, guvners! You win, the place is all yours. Look, title deeds and everything - just sign here, here, and here. Now, I'm gonna bugger off to XXXX and drink beer on a beach", and disappears.

    Then the fun really starts.
    The Igor starts demanding owed back wages from the new "marthterth".
    Dwarf debt collectors from Bonk show up to remind the new owners they're overdue on their mortgage repayments.
    The community planning association (mostly vampires and werewolves) knock on the door to remind them it's their turn to host the meeting, where they need to discuss changes to the Fortress of Dread to be more in line with local traditional aesthetics.
    A group of Right-to-Unlifers show up to protest about the unlife hate crimes they've committed while storming the Fortress.

    Now the adventure becomes 'how can we get ourselves out of this mess?', and go from there.
    And if it doesn't somehow end with a big smoking crater and you chilling on the beach with the evil necromancer, you're doing it wrong.

  13. - Top - End - #13
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by JCAll View Post
    And if it doesn't somehow end with a big smoking crater and you chilling on the beach with the evil necromancer, you're doing it wrong.
    Unless you somehow take the mess and turn it into a profitable business for yourselves, as Morporkians are known to do.

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    DrowGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    First off: Decide on the tone you want for your game. This is always important, but for Discworld can be much more so. The books often differ significantly in tone, so telling your friends in the know "it's Discworld" doesn't mean you're on the same page. Also think about when you want to run it. AM changed a lot over the course of the books, especially when it comes to racial interactions.

    I love the above suggested idea of having it be a satire of assumed RPGs in the same style that the early books satirized Conan novels and such.

    You could do a decent "Watch" game with a bit more straight feel, with the humor and style more coming from the personalities involved (especially with Morporkian literalness if people slip into slang/metaphor).

    Thieves Guild could have a similar overarching feel to a Watch game, but drifting more to the back alleys.

    Maybe something more in the style of the Witches books, where they're being pulled into a story plot and fight to avoid being railroaded (risky, would need the right group and expectations, you want them to feel like the plot is trying to RR them, not that YOU are).

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    Griffon

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Thank you all for your ideas so far - It's gratifying to know that a lot of themes you've all touched on, are ones that I've already been thinking about.

    Quote Originally Posted by huttj509 View Post
    First off: Decide on the tone you want for your game. This is always important, but for Discworld can be much more so.
    This was kind of why I asked if people would suggest what sort of character that would create, if they were to go blind into a game and all they knew was "Discworld". So far, the general theme seems to be "traditional dungeon crawl, with silly and sarcastic encounters".

    I think I can do that.

    So far, here's what I'm shaping up with...

    Spoiler
    Show
    The game will be set in Ankh-Morpork. I know that there are plenty of places to go on Discworld, but by and large most of the more interesting ones happen in it's Greatest City. Also, if I can start out in a city, it creates a large landscape to get people used to the rules and the setting before we try to go further afield, without being stifling or overly rail-roady.
    It also gives me the greatest freedom of characters, as it's such a melting pot for everyone and has links to all peoples and lands, for the purposes of plot hooks. Yes, I would allow players to use any mortal race that they wanted, including trolls, Black Ribbon Vampires and the talking animals, because there's plenty for all of them to DO and plenty of ways to corral them if they start getting to unbalanced.
    Golems and small gods, however.... probably not. Unless it was a REALLY small god, then maybe.

    Similarly, I must confess, it gives me a good enough excuse to go out and buy The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, which is currently one of the few gaps in my collection.

    The players are encouraged to be Guild Members but this isn't vital or even particularly urgent; they'd be good ways to hand out plot tokens and resources for those that need them, or they could just be background flavour to justify a 'class' of some kind.

    The actual plot, however, starts in a library. Not THE Library of course, I'm not looking to TPK quite that early, but just a normal one somewhere in one of the middle-class parts of the city. In this library, there is a door. Not a particularly big or impressive one, but the decor matches the rest of the building and although the doorknob has been polished smooth and shiny with use, it obviously hasn't been opened for a long time. No one knows what's behind it.

    This is because it wasn't there yesterday.

    After investigation by the Watch (who aren't interested, because it probably hasn't been stolen) and the Wizards (who similarly aren't interested, because it isn't edible and/or covered in face-sucking tentacles from the lower dimensions) it is finally opened to reveal a small stone room with a deep, brick-and-mortar shaft descending down into darkness. A knotted chain, a fixed to the ceiling via a thick iron spike, suggests that it could be explored by even a semi-competent climber, and for the price of admission (a penny each, tickets to be collected by the librarian Mrs. Bodge) one may do just that.

    That's right - I'm turning Ankh-Morpork into Waterdeep.

    A small (though very quiet, in keeping to the signs in throughout the building) carnival springs up around the newly opened Dungeon Door, as small groups of adventurers and fortune-seeking city dwellers disappear into the dark. So far, none have returned, but that doesn't mean that the players won't either, right....?

    The players band together for safety (and/or chance to loot each other when the time comes) and can run a gamut of whatever encounters I choose to throw at them.I have only one planned at the moment; the last one...

    The players spend hours - days, maybe - traversing the dungeon and picking up equipment, gemstones and all variety of goodies along the way (note: absolutely no coins, this is important as you will soon see) until they reach what is presumably the grand chamber in the middle of the sprawling complex....

    ...There, waiting for them, is a little old man, wizened and bent with age, sat at a wooden counter with an old clockwork cash register beside him.
    "Ah, good morning gents! Had a good look, have we? Anything else you'd like, or shall I just ring you up now?"

    The Dungeon is not a dungeon. It's a single, enormous, and vastly ancient specimen of Commercialis Migratoria Gigantica - a Wandering Shop.

    The party haven't been killing monsters and battling foes - they've been mugging other customers. They haven't been picking up loot and stealing precious magical treasure - they've been, metaphorically speaking, filling up their shopping trolley and making their way towards the till. Hence why they haven't been finding coins among the 'stock' - what kind of shop keeps the contents of the till on the shelf next to the wares?

    Of course, the cost of the items that the party has picked up vastly exceed what they can afford to pay, and the shopkeeper turns nasty. He pulls a lever and his counter stands up.
    Controlled by the keys on the cash register, the shop's counter is an Iron Brigade-style walker, and hilarity ensues as the party get pursued about the shop by an old man with a crossbow, shrieking at them something about "I belong to the Neighbourhood Watch, I do!" and "We always prosecute you thieving buggers Stand still an' be prosecuted, will yer!?!"

    And then either they die horribly or they kill the poor old man, and from their I can either let them recklessly try to teleport the shop to somewhere new and find a new adventure, or if I'm feeling cruel be can have the cash-register-mech be a Load Bearing Boss and the players have to escape before the whole place comes down on them.


    It's a start, I think - I just need to start planning on things for them to do en route.
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  16. - Top - End - #16
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by Wraith View Post
    Thank you all for your ideas so far - It's gratifying to know that a lot of themes you've all touched on, are ones that I've already been thinking about.



    This was kind of why I asked if people would suggest what sort of character that would create, if they were to go blind into a game and all they knew was "Discworld". So far, the general theme seems to be "traditional dungeon crawl, with silly and sarcastic encounters".

    I think I can do that.

    So far, here's what I'm shaping up with...

    Spoiler
    Show
    The game will be set in Ankh-Morpork. I know that there are plenty of places to go on Discworld, but by and large most of the more interesting ones happen in it's Greatest City. Also, if I can start out in a city, it creates a large landscape to get people used to the rules and the setting before we try to go further afield, without being stifling or overly rail-roady.
    It also gives me the greatest freedom of characters, as it's such a melting pot for everyone and has links to all peoples and lands, for the purposes of plot hooks. Yes, I would allow players to use any mortal race that they wanted, including trolls, Black Ribbon Vampires and the talking animals, because there's plenty for all of them to DO and plenty of ways to corral them if they start getting to unbalanced.
    Golems and small gods, however.... probably not. Unless it was a REALLY small god, then maybe.

    Similarly, I must confess, it gives me a good enough excuse to go out and buy The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, which is currently one of the few gaps in my collection.

    The players are encouraged to be Guild Members but this isn't vital or even particularly urgent; they'd be good ways to hand out plot tokens and resources for those that need them, or they could just be background flavour to justify a 'class' of some kind.

    The actual plot, however, starts in a library. Not THE Library of course, I'm not looking to TPK quite that early, but just a normal one somewhere in one of the middle-class parts of the city. In this library, there is a door. Not a particularly big or impressive one, but the decor matches the rest of the building and although the doorknob has been polished smooth and shiny with use, it obviously hasn't been opened for a long time. No one knows what's behind it.

    This is because it wasn't there yesterday.

    After investigation by the Watch (who aren't interested, because it probably hasn't been stolen) and the Wizards (who similarly aren't interested, because it isn't edible and/or covered in face-sucking tentacles from the lower dimensions) it is finally opened to reveal a small stone room with a deep, brick-and-mortar shaft descending down into darkness. A knotted chain, a fixed to the ceiling via a thick iron spike, suggests that it could be explored by even a semi-competent climber, and for the price of admission (a penny each, tickets to be collected by the librarian Mrs. Bodge) one may do just that.

    That's right - I'm turning Ankh-Morpork into Waterdeep.

    A small (though very quiet, in keeping to the signs in throughout the building) carnival springs up around the newly opened Dungeon Door, as small groups of adventurers and fortune-seeking city dwellers disappear into the dark. So far, none have returned, but that doesn't mean that the players won't either, right....?

    The players band together for safety (and/or chance to loot each other when the time comes) and can run a gamut of whatever encounters I choose to throw at them.I have only one planned at the moment; the last one...

    The players spend hours - days, maybe - traversing the dungeon and picking up equipment, gemstones and all variety of goodies along the way (note: absolutely no coins, this is important as you will soon see) until they reach what is presumably the grand chamber in the middle of the sprawling complex....

    ...There, waiting for them, is a little old man, wizened and bent with age, sat at a wooden counter with an old clockwork cash register beside him.
    "Ah, good morning gents! Had a good look, have we? Anything else you'd like, or shall I just ring you up now?"

    The Dungeon is not a dungeon. It's a single, enormous, and vastly ancient specimen of Commercialis Migratoria Gigantica - a Wandering Shop.

    The party haven't been killing monsters and battling foes - they've been mugging other customers. They haven't been picking up loot and stealing precious magical treasure - they've been, metaphorically speaking, filling up their shopping trolley and making their way towards the till. Hence why they haven't been finding coins among the 'stock' - what kind of shop keeps the contents of the till on the shelf next to the wares?

    Of course, the cost of the items that the party has picked up vastly exceed what they can afford to pay, and the shopkeeper turns nasty. He pulls a lever and his counter stands up.
    Controlled by the keys on the cash register, the shop's counter is an Iron Brigade-style walker, and hilarity ensues as the party get pursued about the shop by an old man with a crossbow, shrieking at them something about "I belong to the Neighbourhood Watch, I do!" and "We always prosecute you thieving buggers Stand still an' be prosecuted, will yer!?!"

    And then either they die horribly or they kill the poor old man, and from their I can either let them recklessly try to teleport the shop to somewhere new and find a new adventure, or if I'm feeling cruel be can have the cash-register-mech be a Load Bearing Boss and the players have to escape before the whole place comes down on them.


    It's a start, I think - I just need to start planning on things for them to do en route.

    The one flaw I see
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    in planning this to be a boss fight: the player says "Oh, sorry, well you didn't have your prices listed, so we'll just return these to you, they're more expensive than we thought." And the they drop their sacks of loot on the counter and leave peacefully, with apologies to the shopkeeper for the inconvenience, and the suggestion that he try out a new technology known as the "price tag."

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Griffon

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

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    Then he gets angry because they've used his merchandise without intending to pay for it, and they get to fight him after having dropped all their good stuff on the floor. Problem solved.

    Seriously though, I know my players. If an angry old man starts getting uppity, they will not be able to resist the challenge.
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    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    I see an earlier problem.
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    What if they don't enter the dungeon?
    Quote Originally Posted by Red Fel View Post
    But you, as DM, have to be prepared for the PCs to do something stupid and self-destructive, because they will. They can't help it. They're like adorable homicidal children with pennies near a light socket, except that the pennies are chainsaws and the light socket is your plot. Also, the chainsaws are on fire.

  19. - Top - End - #19
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Griffon

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    On the one hand, wild rumours of treasure and riches untold. They're adventurers after all, and Ankh-Morporkian ones at that, the concept of free money should mesh nicely.

    On the other, they'd be encouraged to do so by their superiors. This is why I'd encourage them to be Thieves' Guild Members - since no one obviously owns the dungeon, it certainly won't have an active thieves' guild 'insurance' policy - but I can probably think of a reason why an Alchemist, or Wizard, or Beggar would wind up wanting to go to.

    On the... other... other hand.... There's the big, neon pink, invisible sign that says "Plot Hook" on it. I can certainly find something else for them to do if they adamantly don't want to do it right away, and I wouldn't force them with blunt rail-roading, but as with any other RPG there comes a point where it becomes a matter of "do you want to play the game or not?"
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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Silus's Avatar

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by daemonaetea View Post
    I dunno, I think a dungeon delve Discworld style would not only be fun, but a good way to introduce people not familiar to the setting to the idea of it slowly.

    Think about it from the perspective of the Dark Lord from The Last Hero. The dungeon is filled with mooks who are comically to type. The party can overhear one of them get chewed out for suggesting some smart plan when the players arrive, and instructed in what be da propah lingo for dem to use, see? And maybe even overhear some of them complaining about the benefits package.

    In battle, it immediately scratches to a halt as soon as the heroes kill one of the mooks. "Oh geeze, you killed Larry! I mean, yeah, attacks to and fro, good swing of battle, yeah, but then you 'ad to go and kill Larry! I hope one of you plans to go and talk to his wife, yeah, because I'm not going to tell his wife she's dead, hey?"

    When they finally reach the dungeon boss to beat him and retrieve the treasure, he reluctantly reveals that he doesn't have the treasure on hand, strictly speaking. Why, it'd be a bit silly to keep it all in a pile out here, see? Instead, he's got half of it in an account at the AM Royal Bank, and the rest invested in a number of other industries spread here and there. Which gives a natural setup to continue of looking into each of his "investments" and trying to extract the money you're now owed (him having transferred ownership of them to you, after accepting a payment from the party for drowage fees, handling fees, and the such, and accepting an IOU for the rest of the amount they now owe him). Each adventure can thus be pointed at a specific part of the setting, introducing it to them a bit at a time.
    Foreseeable downside with doing that for a group that is unfamiliar with the setting: Incorporating Granny Weatherwax or the other Lancre witches to a group that are generally familiar with the murder-hobo mentality.
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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    DwarfFighterGuy

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    Default Re: Discworld: Tales of the Big Wahooni

    Quote Originally Posted by RagingBluMunky View Post
    I definitely feel that being a fresh batch of Watch recruits would be great, though I agree that the 'regulars' should probably be missing/away/imprisoned. Bonus points if the Librarian is the acting Commander.

    Could do a lot with the watch, fighting (another tavern brawl), Mystery (obviously), diplomacy (broker a truce between the trolls and dwarves). More bonus points if they have work all three at once.
    How about a bunch of Ankh-Morpork watchmen who've taken jobs in one of the other cities of the Sto Plains? It nicely deals with why Sir Samuel and company don't show up to solve every problem, while also allowing the DM to drop them in for a special treat.

    You could even have a running gag where every time they solve their crime, it ticks off the local powers-that-be, who unlike Vetinari, did not intend for the Watch to discover the truth...and there happens to be a chap recruiting for Watch in the next city over...that would let you do Quirm, Pseudopolis, and Sto Lat, and then move on to the rest of the Disc as appropriate.

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