Hey Folks so I'm going to be running a DnD for a few first time players and they asked me if i could do a disney theme. It's mostly for women and their husbands/boyfriends. The girls are the ones who asked me to run the game as they want to be "bad asses with horses and bows"
So i want to throw out a few tropes and create something a bit more unique. This is a one shot so i need to keep it to about 3 hours But heres what i have so far with them.
Plot Hook: The Magical worlds of Disney have collided. Agrabah now has the jungles of Tarzan and Arendelle is now in an underwater dome of Atlantis. This was at first was very exciting as many different people got to experience whole new worlds they couldn't have ever imagined. Portals opened to make the travel very easy. However, not all who went through the portals we're friendly. Creatures known as the Heartless began an invasion with no clear motive but to steal others hearts.
A Council known as the Princesses of hearts have united a group of heroes in an attempt to locate a powerful Genie in hopes to clear the heartless from everyone's worlds. The Genie has proven powerful in the past by granting 3 wishes to his master. And although he is now free we hope that he will lend us his strength in the fight against the heartless.
We find ourselves now heading towards the Cave of Wonders in Agrabah, the last known location of the Genie. The forest is quiet as if something is watching our every move.
(DM Notes) So this is what I'm going to send out to the players along with some guides on how to make their characters and create a backstory about why they were chosen to go on this adventure. The players will start at lvl 3 and i guided them to a dndbeyond campaign link so they can easily make their characters. _________________________________________________________________________
Part 1: We start our journey on a caracvan riding through what used to be the Deserts of Agrabah but now a lush forest. An old man hunched over steering the Caravan into the former desert leads you all. His beard is long and white, teeth are near non-existant but he was highly recommended as a guide for this adventure.
DM RPs old man to warm up group. old man is secretly Jafar in disguise and goes by Rafaj.
After some time the caravan will start being stalked and will ask those proficient in Perception to scout the area. On Success they see and Ambush of Heartless Monkeys (using ape character sheet) a chase occurs and pcs will fight on horseback (Like player wanted) On fail monkey swipes pc out of cart and combat occurs.
After combat Pcs will continue heading towards Cave of Wonders. Old man Rafaj will unleash two Ruby Scarabs to open the cave (similar to what happened in movie)
(Dm Notes) May have rafaj get swiped away and cart breaking down if the perception fails. i think it would be fun for him to cast a fireball or something out of sight of the pcs but they would notice the explosion from his position. I have a character sheet for Jafar found online.
Part 2: Cave of wonders is giant talking Lion head that warns only those who are worthy may enter. He tells the party that the Genie is indeed inside and if they wish to speak with him they are good to do so but warns not to take nothing from the cave. (Oh the amount of Gold inside). He also tells the Pcs that many trials await before reaching the Genies Chambers.
(DM Notes) Here i want to make a few puzzles and gimmicks to make the game more than just RP and Combat. If you have a disney themed puzzle idea for this so far i would love advice but heres what i have so far.
Was thinking of having a Word puzzle involving players backstories they created. Have an important PC from the world they are as a statue and jumble up the letters to make them have to arrange the letters so to speak. They can only move two letters at a time but should be pretty simple.
Second puzzle the Genie loved music and a door will only open when it hears a great song. Musical notes will fly around the area and will glow when they hear music. a PC must sing a disney song to pass. (Tbh this is just a way to get my fiance to sing disney songs but i think they would like it)
A group of heartless will come in to attack the party once the gate is open . (This is more to soften them up a bit before the boss fight but it would be an easier encounter pending on how well we are doing on time at this point)
A lamp will be across a large open sand pit. The party will fight a Lamia along with some Jackalweres here. (Not totally Disney theme but its Egyptian themed and i thought it made sense but again open to suggestions) They are protecting the lamp. if a player makes it to the lamp they can summon the Genie for help.
A treasure room will open up behind the lamp will attempt to bait the players into grabbing some magical items and gold here which would cause the cave to self destruct triggering an escape scene.
Ignoring the treasure room and going for the lamp they must convince the Genie to help, on success he will join on failure he will kick them out and the cave will begin to fall apart. causing an escape scene
If successful in persuading the Genie and ignoring treasure they will be able to escape easily
Jafar awaits outside of the cave and will stun the party and capture the Genie (This will be more cutscene like no save as i dont want them to fight Jafar at lvl 3) He will disappear before mocking the party saying they wont stop him and we would end the session with this.
(DM Notes)
Ok so the only thing I'm worried about here is that my Pcs will get a little upset that the genie was taken from them (Like we stole their prize or something). The only reason I'm doing that is to setup a cliffhanger so if they do want to continue playing this begins the campaign of freeing the Genie and getting revenge on Jafar. The party will be rewarded still for their efforts in XP and gold when they return so it wouldn't be a total loss but still i wonder if theres a better way to end it. ______________________________________________________________________________
What did you all think? would this be a good way to implement a disney theme into the game? Obviously the heartless is from Kingdom Hearts but i felt like it was a good way to combine the worlds. Do you have any suggestions for Puzzles or things i could implement?
I like it! Sounds like fun. The one thing I'm concerned about is having first time players start at level 3. New players need time to get used to features and traits, and starting with so many at once could be overwhelming.
Yeah. I feel like ill probably be helping them with their abilities a lot. Ive ran lvl 3 first time 1 shots before and it wasnt horribly bad. Some of the new players got creative even though their abilities were wrong but i let it go for gameplay sake.
Lvl 1 party is just too boring and I've noticed first timers are just like
"That's all i can do"
More options are intimidating but at least they are options
One potential pitfall to watch out for is you're going to have a lot of fun, quirky, interesting, powerful NPC's, so you want to be careful not to have them overshadow the players. Make sure the plot has few to no instances where the players are required to sit back and watch a cutscene where an npc from a movie fights a big bad, or an npc makes a series of brilliant deductions. It's a bit of a tightrope to balance featuring the cool npc's while still having the story driven by the players.
The only other advice I'd say is let your players fight Jafar. He doesn't have to kill them. Nonlethal damage/control spells are always an option. He can consider them so far beneath his notice that killing them would be a bother, and he's got stuff to do.
That way, the players feel like they did everything in their power to hold onto the genie (rather than "losing" by DM fiat), AND fighting him early on is a great way to tease him as the campaign baddie and set him up as a threat that the players will be invested in taking down ("this time it's personal!"). Not to mention, some of the best D&D stories come from when things go off the rails in a way the DM couldn't have predicted and, because a player did something cool or outrageous or clever, the campaign goes off into a completely different direction. Not saying "don't plan your campaign", just "be flexible." If there is *any* way for the players to figure out how to keep the lamp and escape from Jafar (and don't try and predict what it might be, that's for them), it would be really cool if they had that opportunity to try it, even if they're probably going to fail. It comes down to giving players agency rather than taking it away, and players love being given those opportunities.
One other tiny nitpick: is this post-movie, free genie? I'm assuming so, if the players need to convince him to help them. If so, what benefit does Jafar stand to gain from abducting the genie, if the genie can simply refuse to serve him? How does Jafar abduct him in the first place of the genie is free to use his phenomenal cosmic power to escape?
Also, is the genie still bound to the lamp? I suppose that would mean he's not free, in which case why do the players need to convince him?
It's not a world-ending plothole, you just might want to have an answer ready in case the players ask.
If you're only doing this as a one shot, do another pass and see what else you can cram in. Look for opportunities to reskin. E.g., instead of a lamia and jackleweres, have an underwater "room" where Ursula the Sea Witch has a gang of those coconut guys from Moana.
I don't know whether the Heartless will play to your players as a cute nod to Kingdom Hearts or as you trying to plagiarize. But give that a moment's thought.
Your players may not need that kind of cliffhanger. A feel-good ending with a song might get everyone more psyched to play again than anger and frustration. Also, you've written #4 in a way that presumes they've persuaded the genie, which has a railroady whiff to it. If the genie ending up in Jafar's hands is inevitable, don't lead your players on.
Maybe they end up with the genie, they wish away the heartless, everyone ends up happy. Then, write up a "cutscene" and deliver after the happy ending, where you see the villains are still alive and scheming something new. Or #2, Jafar gets the genie, but they still have some kind of victory. They still blow up a Death Star and get medals, right?
All really good feedback. And agreed maybe a small skrimish would be good but again i need to keep it to about 3 hours. Another person suggested him showing up with an army to force a surrender which would still leave the plot open.
This all takes place after any movie
Basically the idea was that he likes his lamp to sleep.
Jafar cast spell to imprison Genie once again
Also no worries on the powerful npc. I want to keep them the stars
If this is supposed to be a one shot that doesn't immediately lead into a longer campaign, I wouldn't have it end with Jafar winning in the end. This sounds more to me like the beginning of a full campaign
Just saying there are other ways to set up a sequel than - "I'm taking everything you just won away from you. Next game you try to stop me, even though I just proved I can and will just push the I Win button." Especially if the girls specifically said they wanted to be badasses with horses and bows.
IMO, the most reliable way to set up a sequel is to make sure everyone has a good time the first time.
Frozen? Happy ending, sequel and two short films.
Tangled? Happy ending, short film and a whole three season cartoon.
If your players have fun, the long campaign settles itself.
I still want the Jafar reveal but instead of him snatching the Genie at the end of the session i have them surrounded with Heartless at the end and leave it at that. That way if we play again we can start at that point. If we dont we can have them use their imagination on what happens to the characters after that
Sounds like a fun idea. Ending on a cliff hanger can be good, but I second that having the lamp taken away may be a little disheartening. I think if they escape the Cave, then you switch to a cinematic moment where Jafar reveals himself and then end which could enough of a cliffhanger for them to really want a second session.
My main thought after that is, what resources are you giving your PCs? The Jackalweres are immune to non magical damage, so will any melee PCs have access to magic weapons? Its ok if not, but another thing to keep in mind with new players. If they're struggling to pick up the rules in the first place throwing damage immunities and such at them might be making it more complex than needed at first.
I liked the Jackalweres because they are lore wise minions to a Lamia so i thought it would be a good combo. But your right i did forget about the immunities.
My instinct would be to just blow something up and then have a medal ceremony with sparkly ballgowns and fancy cake. Then have some mentor like the tree in Pocahontas tell them to enjoy the day, but evil is still lurking out there somewhere and have them show Jafar hard at work on the next scheme, stealing Zeus' lightning bolt or The Black Cauldron or something.
I might do the Jafar reveal at the beginning of Part 2 and then have him whisk the PCs into the strange reality of the lamp, where they go through themed rooms, like that old Castle of Illusions game. Hedgemaze from Alice in Wonderland; Pride Rock; Cinderella's Ballroom, etc. When they get out, they've gained some kind of secret knowledge that lets them free the genie from Jafar and they all escape the collapsing cave.
Off topic, but I like the premise of the combined worlds, but I think you could be doing more with it. As it stands, it seems more like an Aladin adventure with one gorilla encounter (but they're demon gorillas so even that's a little mild), it's like the world's are next to each other but not truly mixed.
Can you think of any way to further integrate the Tarzan jungle? I'm thinking maybe the magic of the Cave of Wonders maybe absorbed part of the essence of the jungle so maybe there's jungle stuff that spilled over into it. Maybe some of the rooms are enchanted jungle with quicksand traps, magic versions of beasts as mini bosses, next to more standard Arabian Nights style setting stuff.
Maybe even describe the tension between the people of Agrabah and the people of the Jungle at the top of the adventure. I feel like there's some wild shenanigans you can get away with.
I would love to get more into that kind of tension of the people a bit more if they chose to continue it. The problem is trying to keep the game about 3 hours XD
I could definitly make the Cave of Wonders in more of a lush jugnle feature and i think a quick sand trap inside the cave might be pretty cool. keeping it a good blend of Sand and Jungle. I dont want to do too much unless it develops into something bigger.
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Hey Folks so I'm going to be running a DnD for a few first time players and they asked me if i could do a disney theme. It's mostly for women and their husbands/boyfriends. The girls are the ones who asked me to run the game as they want to be "bad asses with horses and bows"
So i want to throw out a few tropes and create something a bit more unique. This is a one shot so i need to keep it to about 3 hours But heres what i have so far with them.
Plot Hook:
The Magical worlds of Disney have collided. Agrabah now has the jungles of Tarzan and Arendelle is now in an underwater dome of Atlantis. This was at first was very exciting as many different people got to experience whole new worlds they couldn't have ever imagined. Portals opened to make the travel very easy. However, not all who went through the portals we're friendly. Creatures known as the Heartless began an invasion with no clear motive but to steal others hearts.
A Council known as the Princesses of hearts have united a group of heroes in an attempt to locate a powerful Genie in hopes to clear the heartless from everyone's worlds. The Genie has proven powerful in the past by granting 3 wishes to his master. And although he is now free we hope that he will lend us his strength in the fight against the heartless.
We find ourselves now heading towards the Cave of Wonders in Agrabah, the last known location of the Genie. The forest is quiet as if something is watching our every move.
(DM Notes)
So this is what I'm going to send out to the players along with some guides on how to make their characters and create a backstory about why they were chosen to go on this adventure. The players will start at lvl 3 and i guided them to a dndbeyond campaign link so they can easily make their characters.
_________________________________________________________________________
Part 1:
We start our journey on a caracvan riding through what used to be the Deserts of Agrabah but now a lush forest. An old man hunched over steering the Caravan into the former desert leads you all. His beard is long and white, teeth are near non-existant but he was highly recommended as a guide for this adventure.
DM RPs old man to warm up group. old man is secretly Jafar in disguise and goes by Rafaj.
After some time the caravan will start being stalked and will ask those proficient in Perception to scout the area. On Success they see and Ambush of Heartless Monkeys (using ape character sheet) a chase occurs and pcs will fight on horseback (Like player wanted) On fail monkey swipes pc out of cart and combat occurs.
After combat Pcs will continue heading towards Cave of Wonders. Old man Rafaj will unleash two Ruby Scarabs to open the cave (similar to what happened in movie)
(Dm Notes)
May have rafaj get swiped away and cart breaking down if the perception fails. i think it would be fun for him to cast a fireball or something out of sight of the pcs but they would notice the explosion from his position. I have a character sheet for Jafar found online.
______________________________________________________________________________
Part 2:
Cave of wonders is giant talking Lion head that warns only those who are worthy may enter. He tells the party that the Genie is indeed inside and if they wish to speak with him they are good to do so but warns not to take nothing from the cave. (Oh the amount of Gold inside). He also tells the Pcs that many trials await before reaching the Genies Chambers.
(DM Notes)
Here i want to make a few puzzles and gimmicks to make the game more than just RP and Combat. If you have a disney themed puzzle idea for this so far i would love advice but heres what i have so far.
Was thinking of having a Word puzzle involving players backstories they created. Have an important PC from the world they are as a statue and jumble up the letters to make them have to arrange the letters so to speak. They can only move two letters at a time but should be pretty simple.
Second puzzle the Genie loved music and a door will only open when it hears a great song. Musical notes will fly around the area and will glow when they hear music. a PC must sing a disney song to pass. (Tbh this is just a way to get my fiance to sing disney songs but i think they would like it)
A group of heartless will come in to attack the party once the gate is open . (This is more to soften them up a bit before the boss fight but it would be an easier encounter pending on how well we are doing on time at this point)
A lamp will be across a large open sand pit. The party will fight a Lamia along with some Jackalweres here. (Not totally Disney theme but its Egyptian themed and i thought it made sense but again open to suggestions) They are protecting the lamp. if a player makes it to the lamp they can summon the Genie for help.
______________________________________________________________________________
Part 3:
A treasure room will open up behind the lamp will attempt to bait the players into grabbing some magical items and gold here which would cause the cave to self destruct triggering an escape scene.
Ignoring the treasure room and going for the lamp they must convince the Genie to help, on success he will join on failure he will kick them out and the cave will begin to fall apart. causing an escape scene
If successful in persuading the Genie and ignoring treasure they will be able to escape easily
Jafar awaits outside of the cave and will stun the party and capture the Genie (This will be more cutscene like no save as i dont want them to fight Jafar at lvl 3) He will disappear before mocking the party saying they wont stop him and we would end the session with this.
(DM Notes)
Ok so the only thing I'm worried about here is that my Pcs will get a little upset that the genie was taken from them (Like we stole their prize or something). The only reason I'm doing that is to setup a cliffhanger so if they do want to continue playing this begins the campaign of freeing the Genie and getting revenge on Jafar. The party will be rewarded still for their efforts in XP and gold when they return so it wouldn't be a total loss but still i wonder if theres a better way to end it.
______________________________________________________________________________
What did you all think? would this be a good way to implement a disney theme into the game? Obviously the heartless is from Kingdom Hearts but i felt like it was a good way to combine the worlds. Do you have any suggestions for Puzzles or things i could implement?
I like it! Sounds like fun. The one thing I'm concerned about is having first time players start at level 3. New players need time to get used to features and traits, and starting with so many at once could be overwhelming.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
Yeah. I feel like ill probably be helping them with their abilities a lot. Ive ran lvl 3 first time 1 shots before and it wasnt horribly bad. Some of the new players got creative even though their abilities were wrong but i let it go for gameplay sake.
Lvl 1 party is just too boring and I've noticed first timers are just like
"That's all i can do"
More options are intimidating but at least they are options
One potential pitfall to watch out for is you're going to have a lot of fun, quirky, interesting, powerful NPC's, so you want to be careful not to have them overshadow the players. Make sure the plot has few to no instances where the players are required to sit back and watch a cutscene where an npc from a movie fights a big bad, or an npc makes a series of brilliant deductions. It's a bit of a tightrope to balance featuring the cool npc's while still having the story driven by the players.
The only other advice I'd say is let your players fight Jafar. He doesn't have to kill them. Nonlethal damage/control spells are always an option. He can consider them so far beneath his notice that killing them would be a bother, and he's got stuff to do.
That way, the players feel like they did everything in their power to hold onto the genie (rather than "losing" by DM fiat), AND fighting him early on is a great way to tease him as the campaign baddie and set him up as a threat that the players will be invested in taking down ("this time it's personal!"). Not to mention, some of the best D&D stories come from when things go off the rails in a way the DM couldn't have predicted and, because a player did something cool or outrageous or clever, the campaign goes off into a completely different direction. Not saying "don't plan your campaign", just "be flexible." If there is *any* way for the players to figure out how to keep the lamp and escape from Jafar (and don't try and predict what it might be, that's for them), it would be really cool if they had that opportunity to try it, even if they're probably going to fail. It comes down to giving players agency rather than taking it away, and players love being given those opportunities.
One other tiny nitpick: is this post-movie, free genie? I'm assuming so, if the players need to convince him to help them. If so, what benefit does Jafar stand to gain from abducting the genie, if the genie can simply refuse to serve him? How does Jafar abduct him in the first place of the genie is free to use his phenomenal cosmic power to escape?
Also, is the genie still bound to the lamp? I suppose that would mean he's not free, in which case why do the players need to convince him?
It's not a world-ending plothole, you just might want to have an answer ready in case the players ask.
If you're only doing this as a one shot, do another pass and see what else you can cram in. Look for opportunities to reskin. E.g., instead of a lamia and jackleweres, have an underwater "room" where Ursula the Sea Witch has a gang of those coconut guys from Moana.
I don't know whether the Heartless will play to your players as a cute nod to Kingdom Hearts or as you trying to plagiarize. But give that a moment's thought.
Your players may not need that kind of cliffhanger. A feel-good ending with a song might get everyone more psyched to play again than anger and frustration. Also, you've written #4 in a way that presumes they've persuaded the genie, which has a railroady whiff to it. If the genie ending up in Jafar's hands is inevitable, don't lead your players on.
Maybe they end up with the genie, they wish away the heartless, everyone ends up happy. Then, write up a "cutscene" and deliver after the happy ending, where you see the villains are still alive and scheming something new. Or #2, Jafar gets the genie, but they still have some kind of victory. They still blow up a Death Star and get medals, right?
All really good feedback. And agreed maybe a small skrimish would be good but again i need to keep it to about 3 hours. Another person suggested him showing up with an army to force a surrender which would still leave the plot open.
This all takes place after any movie
Basically the idea was that he likes his lamp to sleep.
Jafar cast spell to imprison Genie once again
Also no worries on the powerful npc. I want to keep them the stars
Isn't Jafar in the lamp?
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
Crap plot hole ^^
He was freed for this campaign lol.
If this is supposed to be a one shot that doesn't immediately lead into a longer campaign, I wouldn't have it end with Jafar winning in the end. This sounds more to me like the beginning of a full campaign
Its me trying to make it a long campaign with them XD
I felt like trying to give them a reason to play again would be better than having them all finish and ppl live happily ever after
Just saying there are other ways to set up a sequel than - "I'm taking everything you just won away from you. Next game you try to stop me, even though I just proved I can and will just push the I Win button." Especially if the girls specifically said they wanted to be badasses with horses and bows.
IMO, the most reliable way to set up a sequel is to make sure everyone has a good time the first time.
Frozen? Happy ending, sequel and two short films.
Tangled? Happy ending, short film and a whole three season cartoon.
If your players have fun, the long campaign settles itself.
Very good point and its kind of what i worry about, i dont want them to feel like it was for nothing. . What would you suggest?
I still want the Jafar reveal but instead of him snatching the Genie at the end of the session i have them surrounded with Heartless at the end and leave it at that.
That way if we play again we can start at that point. If we dont we can have them use their imagination on what happens to the characters after that
Sounds like a fun idea. Ending on a cliff hanger can be good, but I second that having the lamp taken away may be a little disheartening. I think if they escape the Cave, then you switch to a cinematic moment where Jafar reveals himself and then end which could enough of a cliffhanger for them to really want a second session.
My main thought after that is, what resources are you giving your PCs? The Jackalweres are immune to non magical damage, so will any melee PCs have access to magic weapons? Its ok if not, but another thing to keep in mind with new players. If they're struggling to pick up the rules in the first place throwing damage immunities and such at them might be making it more complex than needed at first.
I liked the Jackalweres because they are lore wise minions to a Lamia so i thought it would be a good combo. But your right i did forget about the immunities.
Maybe Dust Mephites might be better.
My instinct would be to just blow something up and then have a medal ceremony with sparkly ballgowns and fancy cake. Then have some mentor like the tree in Pocahontas tell them to enjoy the day, but evil is still lurking out there somewhere and have them show Jafar hard at work on the next scheme, stealing Zeus' lightning bolt or The Black Cauldron or something.
I might do the Jafar reveal at the beginning of Part 2 and then have him whisk the PCs into the strange reality of the lamp, where they go through themed rooms, like that old Castle of Illusions game. Hedgemaze from Alice in Wonderland; Pride Rock; Cinderella's Ballroom, etc. When they get out, they've gained some kind of secret knowledge that lets them free the genie from Jafar and they all escape the collapsing cave.
What a fun Kingdom Hearts campaign.
Off topic, but I like the premise of the combined worlds, but I think you could be doing more with it. As it stands, it seems more like an Aladin adventure with one gorilla encounter (but they're demon gorillas so even that's a little mild), it's like the world's are next to each other but not truly mixed.
Can you think of any way to further integrate the Tarzan jungle? I'm thinking maybe the magic of the Cave of Wonders maybe absorbed part of the essence of the jungle so maybe there's jungle stuff that spilled over into it. Maybe some of the rooms are enchanted jungle with quicksand traps, magic versions of beasts as mini bosses, next to more standard Arabian Nights style setting stuff.
Maybe even describe the tension between the people of Agrabah and the people of the Jungle at the top of the adventure. I feel like there's some wild shenanigans you can get away with.
I would love to get more into that kind of tension of the people a bit more if they chose to continue it. The problem is trying to keep the game about 3 hours XD
I could definitly make the Cave of Wonders in more of a lush jugnle feature and i think a quick sand trap inside the cave might be pretty cool. keeping it a good blend of Sand and Jungle.
I dont want to do too much unless it develops into something bigger.