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D&D Ideas — On the Fly

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is on the fly, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of on the fly some unexpected circumstances kept us away from the usual weekly live chat so this week it’s anything goes! You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Split up and investigate the week that was! Take your Wild Shape in wild new directions, ignore what you’ve heard about sticking together at all times and prepare your D&D session with the click of a button! Plus our weekly hangout and a chat with an industry pro round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

I went away for a couple of days on a mini vacation and hung out with another content creator so I offered to run a one shot of Zoo Mafia RPG. They of course live tweeted. I ran session 1 from the Zoo Mafia RPG campaign we played over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel. It’s fun to run the same adventure — or job in the case of Zoo Mafia RPG — and see how multiple groups deal with the same problems.

I saved this thread to share and you’ll see how wildly different this job panned out. This experience gave me some new observations and insights about RPG one shots. I’ve run lots of these over the years.

One Shot RPGs

“A one-shot is an RPG scenario or adventure that can be played from start to finish in one single session, ranging from 2 to 6 hours. It usually comes with a set of pre-generated characters, who are tied to this story by their personal motivations. This lets the group jump straight into the story without needing to explain why they are embarking on this quest or why they met.” — from DramaDice.com

There are a lot of reasons you might run a one shot RPG session instead of a campaign. If you are at a convention, this is one of the most common reasons but here are others. Perhaps everyone from your normal group can’t make it and you don’t want to progress the story without them but you still want to play. One of the players who doesn’t normally run games would like to try running a session. One shot games are great for cutting your teeth in the Game Master’s chair. Maybe your group wants to try a new roleplaying game but doesn’t want to commit to a campaign. One shots are great for that.

Now for some things I’ve learned from running one shot RPG games over the years.

• Even before we get to the actual adventure start by having the players determine why their characters are together and how long they have been together. (Unless the specific adventure calls for the characters to not know each other.) The reason for this is you want the characters to feel attached to each other. The best way to do this is to take 10 minutes or so and let them figure it out. The reason why you want them to figure it out instead of telling them is because it’ll be more meaningful to the players if they come up with these connections.
• Have a clear objective. Linear adventures are better for one shot games than open sandboxes.
• Start the game as close to where the adventure is to take place as possible. If it’s D&D start at the dungeon entrance. Even in the middle of the action can be a great start. The reason for this is players will spend a ton of time doing everything but the adventure if left to their own devices.
• I generally plan one encounter per hour of play. It doesn’t matter if they’re combat, social or exploration though I do recommend mixing them up. The reason for this is if it’s a one shot it generally means there is a time constraint.

From Ted’s Head

Sometimes things happen, be it in the real world or in game that makes everything planned go all to heck. In the Nerdarchy world we had this happen. One of us was traveling, one person experienced computer issues and two of us weren’t feeling well. We had to take a night off. With that we are going to go off book this week and write about a variety of things all at once. Not our normal schtick but I am sure it will work out.

I am going to bring up two things. First, I am excited to be playing a new character. Second is adding flair to your characters’ actions based on who — and not just what — they are in the game.

Zath is a topaz dragonborn Death Domain cleric. VolcanicKnight over on YouTube is a player in my current Untraditionally Arcane game as well as the We Live on a Boat campaign. He keeps a tradition of running our Halloween game so he is doing a two part game for 2022 giving me a break as I get ready for D&D in a Castle. I wanted to play something spooky and I settled on cleric as the party did not have a healer and I am ok with this role. But how can you make a spooky Death cleric and not stick out like a sore thumb in a group of heroes?

Topaz dragons care about the cycle. They love the concept of destruction making way for new growth so pain that teaches and helps one learn is an example of the little deaths. One who is rather curious or even obsessed with death so much that when possible watches things take their final breath to see what and how the body reacts. As a cleric of the death goddess Oresk, Zath wishes to see his goddess some day but will strive to be a champion and bring other things to her embrace before it is his own time. Creepy I got but he is not out and out evil, seeking death and mindless slaughter just for the sake of death. Sure, it is a bit early but I love Halloween so having multiple Halloween games in one year is just more fun.

The other idea I’m exploring is flavoring character actions based on the character doing them. My son is 14 and loves exploration in D&D but has not fully embraced a number of things that get into character uniqueness. His warforged Oath of Glory paladin is built primarily to have a high Armor Class. He just reached 4th level the other day and he is super excited to get a feat to be able to add the shield spell to his repertoire. Now he can have a 24 AC.

I asked him what his shield spell looks like. He did not have an answer. The character fights with sword and shield so it could be the normal invisible barrier stopping the attack before it even gets to him. Another option could be his sword moves with lightning speed to parry where it could not have done so a moment earlier. It could be his metallic form shimmers with glyphs and then cover his whole body meaning the attack looks like it hits but does nothing to him. (This would be my choice for his character.)

I love flavoring spells and character features so much. Liam from Critical Role is a perfect example of a player who does this all the time. When Caleb casts spells his descriptions were always amazing. Orym’s movements are just as descriptive and he is one of my favorite characters from season three. Look for ways to use the mechanics that already exist and make the descriptions fit the action hero that D&D tends to make you.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

A few weeks ago when we covered sound I shared an encounter themed around the concept. For the follow up on sight the plan was a similarly sense-themed encounter but there were some technical issues and it didn’t pan out. Since we’re writing our editorials on the fly this week it feels like a great opportunity to revisit the plan.

I tend to think of everything about a D&D adventure or even whole campaign in very small increments. Encounters are the building blocks and stringing them together like a flowchart, puzzle or even in the moment is my approach to running games. I’m never quite sure what the connective tissue will look like and this is a big part of the fun for me. What sort of story emerges from your games when the adventurers put their peepers to work on this encounter?

Look Out Below

Introduction

The collection of D&D monsters with only Keen Sight is very slim. There’s plenty of creatures with multiple keen senses but since I am a fan of parallelism and the monsters in the sound-themed encounter only possessed Keen Hearing I had my work cut out for me here. Keen Sight is the purview of eagles and eagle like creatures like griffons and hippogriffs. But there is one whopper of a creature in this feathered family with the fantasy chops to make things interesting.

A roc is a staggeringly big bird straight out of mythology. About the size of a Boeing 777 these monstrosities make the most impact with lower level adventurers. This is true whether combat takes place or not, since a group of 11th level characters won’t be as unprepared to deal with things like flight, hard-to-escape grapples and the possibility of the second leading to a fall to one’s death courtesy of the first.

The circumstances for any encounter idea require different approaches and this one gets pretty specific. Our Keen Sighted antagonist doesn’t have much going for it beyond this trait and especially when a party level equal to its challenge rating is involved. In addition the M.O. for a roc is swooping down to grab prey and carrying it back to its nest, which is a fun and classic scenario but I want my roc encounter more exciting. Rather than ambush the party with a tried-and-true trope I’ll thrust the opportunity upon them and they can use their own keen senses to overcome the challenge.

I’m borrowing a scene from a series of books I loved as a kid. The Dungeon from Philip José Farmer all kinds of wild, fantastical stuff. If you’ve read them and you’ve ever played D&D with me you’d see how influential they were on me.

Environment

Anywhere, but for this encounter we’ll imagine a dungeon doorway

Suggested Level

Beyond Deadly for four 5th level characters (calculated using the guidelines in the Dungeon Master’s Guide). Deadly is described as possibly lethal for one or more characters and how survival depends on good tactics and quick thinking. Maybe it’s me and how our games usually feature only sparse — but exciting and dangerous — combats. I’d prefer most combat this way if there’s only a couple of them.

Monsters

• 1 Roc

Treasure

600 cp, 10000 sp, 1700 gp, 70 pp, electrum shield brooch inlaid with a meandros of orichalcum worth 250 gp, ivory coffer set with amber and jade worth 250 gp, onyx rod inlaid with a filigree of gold worth 250 gp, Spell Scroll of Alarm, Spell Scroll of Heat Metal, Potion of Climbing (2), Potion of Healing, (optional) Spelljamming Helm

Description

Down a dark and dusty corridor, hidden beneath an ornate rug within an ostentatious chamber, submerged beneath a murky pool or anywhere else adventurers may discover it lies a trapdoor embedded in the stone floor. Thick wooden planks bound in black iron form a solid 5 ft. square hatch affixed to the ground and locked with an impressive mechanism. Examining the trapdoor with detect magic or a similar effect reveals strong conjuration magic. The lock can be picked with a successful DC 15 thieves’ tools check or forced open with a DC 20 Strength check.

ALTERNATIVE: Although no outward signs would indicate so the trapdoor radiates strong abjuration and conjuration magic with the use of detect magic and similar effects. In the latter case an arcane lock prevents the door from opening. Speaking the password, “I am an island,” within 5 feet of the trapdoor suppresses the spell for 1 minute. Otherwise, it is impassable until it is broken or the spell is dispelled or suppressed. Casting knock on the object suppresses arcane lock for 10 minutes. The lock can be picked with a successful DC 25 thieves’ tools check or forced open with a DC 30 Strength check.

It takes a moment to comprehend exactly what the adventurers are looking at when the hatch opens and they find themselves looking downward into the wide blue sky. A blast of crisp, fresh air threatens to knock characters off their feet — a particularly perilous outcome given the circumstances. For added tension you might ask for a DC 15 Strength saving throw to avoid being pushed back 5 feet. (Sure, it’s away from the trapdoor but the players won’t know that for a moment!)

Taking a moment to observe shows the trapdoor does indeed seem to open into the very sky itself. A character who carefully peeks over the edge far enough to see the underside of the floor upon which they stand would see simply more sky above. Large, puffy white clouds drift by and far, far below it looks like there’s nothing more than a large body of water in every direction.

Sharp-eyed characters who succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check notice that one of the clouds is not moving like the others. Directly below the trapdoor, albeit hundreds of feet down, a singular dense cloud remains stationary.

Not long after the trapdoor opens (whenever the timing works best for your group of adventurers) a tremendous whooshing sound followed by a deafening screech signals the approach of the roc. Characters who succeed on a DC 11 Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check recognize the distinctive screen and certainly the 200-foot wingspan of the monstrosity, which comes into view 120 feet below the trapdoor, circling in the air.

This roc shares a connection with whatever entity created the trapdoor and the cloud island below. It is a quid pro quo relationship, with the roc guarding the cloud island and the unknown entity providing some benefit to the roc. This could be as simple as providing the roc’s favorite food. It might also mean keeping the roc’s territory safe or performing movements that mimic the roc’s mating dance. You decide.

If the conditions for the roc’s cooperation aren’t met or any characters enter the roc’s territory by moving through the trapdoor it spots them and flies up to make a Beak attack. The roc’s motivation is to protect the cloud island and keep intruders out. Characters can deal with the roc in their own creative ways and depending on any prep work you did they could have discovered solutions along the way such as a journal that contained the trapdoor password and notes about the roc’s mating dance.

The cloud island itself floats 240 feet directly below the trapdoor. There is no rope, ladder or other obvious means of descending, nor any visible evidence it’s anything more than condensed water vapor (or however you imagine clouds are formed in your world). The 40-foot radius cloud is considered heavily obscured. At the center of the cloud bank floats a circular, horizontal plane of force, 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch thick. A black iron chest sits atop this disk, and inside is the treasure above.

SPELLJAMMER ALTERNATIVE: Within the cloud hovers a wasp ship. The treasure described above is found in various places throughout the ship, which also has a functioning spelljamming helm installed. See you later, Space Adventurers! If you don’t have Spelljammer: Adventures in Space not to worry! We’ve been playing D&D Spelljammer adventures for years and there’s a whole bunch of stuff you can add to your games from here at Nerdarchy the Website.

Complications

A plunge of many thousands of feet to the water below looks like a good place to start. I will say though, especially through the lens of D&D as a fantasy superhero RPG, I land on the lenient side when it comes to outrageous circumstances like surviving this kind of fall. Nevertheless there’d be tremendous consequences, but plain old death is a pretty boring one of those.

Maybe the trapdoor is somewhere more innocuous like a tavern or the basement of a house. Does anyone know about this? Seems kind of dangerous for the local residents.

The most obvious question is who devised this crazy contraption in the first place? Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to conceal a bit of treasure. But when you wield powerful magic you’re not crazy, just eccentric.

I can imagine this encounter going so many different ways and not the least of them is the party befriending the roc. Whether adventurers fight, explore or interact their way past this roc to reach the gooey, treasure-filled cloud center I suspect it’ll elicit some memorable moments both humorous and harrowing. Let me know!

*Featured image — We’re going wild with anything goes, on the fly editorials this week. Join the Family and be the first to get your paws on our very own Zoo Mafia RPG Quick Start Rules. Go Wild, Do Crime and Don’t Let the Humans Catch You right here.

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