Ok, so I'm thinking of running a one shot where my party are all monsters. The twist is that they don't realise that they're the monsters.
They build their characters as per usual. Then they wake up in cells, an alarm is blaring and they just know they need to break out.
When they look at themselves or each other, they just see themselves, or each other, the way they designed their characters. However some things might not add up.They wake up in their cells fully armed and they can't be disarmed. Their ammo replenishes and some of them may or may not unlock abilities as they go. E.g. The lights go out, thermal vision (not just darkvision) or the room fills with water, they can breathe underwater.
The guards, scientists and workers will all look like monsters to them. Knives and swords look like natural blades coming out of their bodies. Any spells, arrows or other projectiles shot at them, just look like natural abilities of the monsters the staff appear as. The reverse is true for the players characters.
I think it'd be fun if I gave all their characters amnesia. Then they try and work out how they got there and where all the monsters are coming from.
I'm not sure what level to run it at, I just like the idea. I suppose if I want them to be proper monsters they should be a higher level. Obviously if the facility is containing these monster they have the means of fighting them. But what are your thoughts should I give them new rules for their character creation, like a set of numbers which they can use for stats?
Amnesia often sounds fun but rarely is. Them being monsters is a better idea. A very good one.
I would not give them amnesia. Instead have them be permanently changed whatever species they started with into a monster by the scientists that were imprisoning them. This was an attempt to create a spell better than True Polymorph, but things did not go as planned and their minds are affected making them mistake humans for monsters, etc.
I think starting them off as weak is fine. D&D has enough ways to boost PC's that you can fiddle with things.
I would suggest the following House rules for this game.
1) No multi-classing. You need to decide on a monster species for them and if they start out as a fighter you can pick a fighter type creature. If they suddenly decide to become a magic user, that would require you to change the species.
2) No Wizards or Artificers. Wizards have spell books and too many capabilities, harder to convert. Artificers make magic items, again harder to convert.
3) Do not actually give them exactly what they ask for when they level up. Make it clear that something weird happens and they get things similar but not identical. Example, if they are playing a draconic sorceror, when they cast fireball it happens to be a cone, originating from them (i.e. they are really a dragon and breathing fire).
Generally you level up after a single good session at low levels. 300 XP to get to level 2, which is 2 regular goblins and a boss goblin. That would be a tough fight if they fought them all together, but an easy one if they took out 2 goblin 'guards' outside of a hut then killed the boss goblin in a separate fight inside the hut where he was searching for treasure.
Yeah, this is just a one shot. So hopefully over in one session. Low level would still work though. I could have each character wake up in a different portion of the facility before coming together for the big fight at the end.
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Ok, so I'm thinking of running a one shot where my party are all monsters. The twist is that they don't realise that they're the monsters.
They build their characters as per usual. Then they wake up in cells, an alarm is blaring and they just know they need to break out.
When they look at themselves or each other, they just see themselves, or each other, the way they designed their characters. However some things might not add up.They wake up in their cells fully armed and they can't be disarmed. Their ammo replenishes and some of them may or may not unlock abilities as they go. E.g. The lights go out, thermal vision (not just darkvision) or the room fills with water, they can breathe underwater.
The guards, scientists and workers will all look like monsters to them. Knives and swords look like natural blades coming out of their bodies. Any spells, arrows or other projectiles shot at them, just look like natural abilities of the monsters the staff appear as. The reverse is true for the players characters.
I think it'd be fun if I gave all their characters amnesia. Then they try and work out how they got there and where all the monsters are coming from.
I'm not sure what level to run it at, I just like the idea. I suppose if I want them to be proper monsters they should be a higher level. Obviously if the facility is containing these monster they have the means of fighting them. But what are your thoughts should I give them new rules for their character creation, like a set of numbers which they can use for stats?
Amnesia often sounds fun but rarely is. Them being monsters is a better idea. A very good one.
I would not give them amnesia. Instead have them be permanently changed whatever species they started with into a monster by the scientists that were imprisoning them. This was an attempt to create a spell better than True Polymorph, but things did not go as planned and their minds are affected making them mistake humans for monsters, etc.
I think starting them off as weak is fine. D&D has enough ways to boost PC's that you can fiddle with things.
I would suggest the following House rules for this game.
1) No multi-classing. You need to decide on a monster species for them and if they start out as a fighter you can pick a fighter type creature. If they suddenly decide to become a magic user, that would require you to change the species.
2) No Wizards or Artificers. Wizards have spell books and too many capabilities, harder to convert. Artificers make magic items, again harder to convert.
3) Do not actually give them exactly what they ask for when they level up. Make it clear that something weird happens and they get things similar but not identical. Example, if they are playing a draconic sorceror, when they cast fireball it happens to be a cone, originating from them (i.e. they are really a dragon and breathing fire).
Interesting thoughts, so a low level one-shot where they level up quickly?
Generally you level up after a single good session at low levels. 300 XP to get to level 2, which is 2 regular goblins and a boss goblin. That would be a tough fight if they fought them all together, but an easy one if they took out 2 goblin 'guards' outside of a hut then killed the boss goblin in a separate fight inside the hut where he was searching for treasure.
Yeah, this is just a one shot. So hopefully over in one session. Low level would still work though. I could have each character wake up in a different portion of the facility before coming together for the big fight at the end.