I'm currently writing out the makeup and content for an online campaign. Looking for more ideas for content, events or mechanics to use for it.
The base premise is the players have been shrunken to insect-size and are stranded inside the estate and wizard tower of a sorceress (my players insisted she be a Witcher-style "femme fatale" sorceress, lol ok...). The player's goal is to get the sorceress's attention so she can help reverse the shrinking effect on them. This will prove tricky thanks to how small they've become, requiring some creativity on the players.
The intro is still WIP. An early draft is while passing by the estate they get hit by a stray beam of magic from a window, that shrinks and warps them inside. I'm open to other ideas on this.
As for the content of the campaign, a subplot I have planned is the players getting involved in a war between black and red ants. The black ants are neutral alignment, and can be tamed and ridden as mounts with a climbing speed (size of a motorcycle to players). The red ants are neutral evil alignment. Additionally, they've experienced a mutation that allows them to breathe fire, thanks to their queen drinking the spilled contents of a potion of fire breathing. The queen has since gone mad with power, turning the whole colony evil.
The sorceress herself poses a continuous hazard. While she's unaware of the party, her mundane daily activities can prove dangerous to the party. From her footsteps threatening to crush them, to mistaking them for insects and swatting them away.
Cat, mice, spiders should all be roaming threats. You could take inspiration from Myst and have magic books that teleport them to other places. Also magic school bus had several miniaturized episodes you could use for inspiration - e.g. baking a cake, surviving a swamp, ant colony. But certainly things like surviving a herbarium with bees, carnivorous plants, and magical rain would work as a subplot. Finding and obtaining a book in the library with various spiders about would be another good one. - you could make a whole arc of them trying to brew a potion first collecting the recipe from a book in the library then collecting the ingredients around the tower - fur from the cat, herbs from the herbarium, water or soap from the bathroom, etc...
I am actually working on-and-off on a supplement for this, so thanks for reminding me of it!
Important thing would be to rescale all your "monsters", so rather than having a gargantuan cat which has 1hp because that's what a cat has, make them a genuine giant threat. Also be prepared that they will find anything and everything to be cute, and will try to adopt them.
Consider the potential environments which can be explored - a shagpile carpet would be a (disgusting) forest full of creepy crawlies, or might work like quicksand if they stand on top of it wrong. Maybe the sorceress has a magical roomba (broomba?) which constitutes an implacatable threat to only be avoided. For options, maybe they find another group of shrunk people, attempting to steal from the sorceress, who offer them regrowth if they help them pull off the heist (maybe most of them get got by the Broomba), giving the party options of whether to trust the thieves or use their knowledge to ingratiate themselves to the sorceress.
Another important threat, which is touched on by either the film Antz or a Bugs Life (can't remember which) is Water. Because of the surface tension of water, drops of water will act like non-acidic gelatinous cubes. Basically, water becomes an engulfing threat in which you might drown. Now change that to spilt drops of potion, and you can have a lot of fun with magical effects.
Fall damage will be basically gone. This adds an element to the game, so basically assume everyone is always under the effects of Feather Fall. Give them lots of multi-level fights and challenges with which to try out this new feature.
If you want to add a twist that will make the party say, in unison, "Oh god...", then have her calling to her pet. They will all assume "cat". Then she says "There you are shnookums!", and they see her fussing her pet Ant-Eater. This will mean that they can't even guarantee hiding, because anteaters have very long tongues. It will also mean you can foreshadow with the ants mentioning the Great Beast, which they fear, (and the party will still guess cat), which has huge claws (cat) and long fur (yep, definitely a cat).
Thoughts for terrifying mundane things which can be used:
sweeping the floor (or using a Gust spell to do it)
spilling a mug of steaming-hot cocoa
A cat deciding the rug needs to be messed up, whilst the party is on/in in
a shrew which has wandered inside to find a snack
flea powder
crossing an open window on a slightly windy day. There's a reason most insects evolved grippy-feet.
Centipedes.
spilt potions/water droplets
smoke from burning incences
sticky surface from a spilt drink
spiderwebs, obviously
The party hitch a lift on a mouse. Then the cat appears.
Falling through the floorboards
Fire ants holding someone hostage under the furnace, where it's so, so hot.
For the thieves idea, I might use that, but instead of thieves it's the fire ants. Because the shrinking is an accident, so it'd be a little odd to find more people shrunken.
Start the adventure with everyone mouse-sized (~1-2 inches), with the goal of performing a ritual spell to reverse the shrinking. Alas, when they complete the ritual, they discover the spell isn't reversed but strengthened, further shrinking them to insect size.
I'm currently writing out the makeup and content for an online campaign. Looking for more ideas for content, events or mechanics to use for it.
The base premise is the players have been shrunken to insect-size and are stranded inside the estate and wizard tower of a sorceress (my players insisted she be a Witcher-style "femme fatale" sorceress, lol ok...). The player's goal is to get the sorceress's attention so she can help reverse the shrinking effect on them. This will prove tricky thanks to how small they've become, requiring some creativity on the players.
The intro is still WIP. An early draft is while passing by the estate they get hit by a stray beam of magic from a window, that shrinks and warps them inside. I'm open to other ideas on this.
As for the content of the campaign, a subplot I have planned is the players getting involved in a war between black and red ants. The black ants are neutral alignment, and can be tamed and ridden as mounts with a climbing speed (size of a motorcycle to players). The red ants are neutral evil alignment. Additionally, they've experienced a mutation that allows them to breathe fire, thanks to their queen drinking the spilled contents of a potion of fire breathing. The queen has since gone mad with power, turning the whole colony evil.
The sorceress herself poses a continuous hazard. While she's unaware of the party, her mundane daily activities can prove dangerous to the party. From her footsteps threatening to crush them, to mistaking them for insects and swatting them away.
Did you watch dimension 20's Tiny Heist? Could be a source of inspiration.
Other ideas:
Cat, mice, spiders should all be roaming threats. You could take inspiration from Myst and have magic books that teleport them to other places. Also magic school bus had several miniaturized episodes you could use for inspiration - e.g. baking a cake, surviving a swamp, ant colony. But certainly things like surviving a herbarium with bees, carnivorous plants, and magical rain would work as a subplot. Finding and obtaining a book in the library with various spiders about would be another good one. - you could make a whole arc of them trying to brew a potion first collecting the recipe from a book in the library then collecting the ingredients around the tower - fur from the cat, herbs from the herbarium, water or soap from the bathroom, etc...
I am actually working on-and-off on a supplement for this, so thanks for reminding me of it!
Important thing would be to rescale all your "monsters", so rather than having a gargantuan cat which has 1hp because that's what a cat has, make them a genuine giant threat. Also be prepared that they will find anything and everything to be cute, and will try to adopt them.
Consider the potential environments which can be explored - a shagpile carpet would be a (disgusting) forest full of creepy crawlies, or might work like quicksand if they stand on top of it wrong. Maybe the sorceress has a magical roomba (broomba?) which constitutes an implacatable threat to only be avoided. For options, maybe they find another group of shrunk people, attempting to steal from the sorceress, who offer them regrowth if they help them pull off the heist (maybe most of them get got by the Broomba), giving the party options of whether to trust the thieves or use their knowledge to ingratiate themselves to the sorceress.
Another important threat, which is touched on by either the film Antz or a Bugs Life (can't remember which) is Water. Because of the surface tension of water, drops of water will act like non-acidic gelatinous cubes. Basically, water becomes an engulfing threat in which you might drown. Now change that to spilt drops of potion, and you can have a lot of fun with magical effects.
Fall damage will be basically gone. This adds an element to the game, so basically assume everyone is always under the effects of Feather Fall. Give them lots of multi-level fights and challenges with which to try out this new feature.
If you want to add a twist that will make the party say, in unison, "Oh god...", then have her calling to her pet. They will all assume "cat". Then she says "There you are shnookums!", and they see her fussing her pet Ant-Eater. This will mean that they can't even guarantee hiding, because anteaters have very long tongues. It will also mean you can foreshadow with the ants mentioning the Great Beast, which they fear, (and the party will still guess cat), which has huge claws (cat) and long fur (yep, definitely a cat).
Thoughts for terrifying mundane things which can be used:
Look forward to hearing how this goes!
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You mean like Mario 64 paintings? Lol that'd be fun for variety.
Whew! You had loads of good ideas!
For the thieves idea, I might use that, but instead of thieves it's the fire ants. Because the shrinking is an accident, so it'd be a little odd to find more people shrunken.
One suggestion a friend gave:
Start the adventure with everyone mouse-sized (~1-2 inches), with the goal of performing a ritual spell to reverse the shrinking. Alas, when they complete the ritual, they discover the spell isn't reversed but strengthened, further shrinking them to insect size.