I'm running a modern-day zombie apocalypse campaign. My party is about to enter a peaceful commune created after the zombie breakout destroyed a prison. The prisoners have chosen to live a tranquil life, taking advantage of the crumbling of society and their now guard-less prison building and creating a new and violence-free home (minus the occasional need to kill a stray undead).
The party is looking for one man who will have essential information for them, and I want to think of things he would ask them to do for him in return for that information that don't break the No Violence rule. At least a couple of things, maybe a mission, maybe a challenge, that this guy just wants them to do for him/the commune. I find it difficult sometimes to come up with non-combat encounters that take up as much time as i need them to, and these (one or more) need to fill up a whole session so that I can interrupt their information gathering with a boss dropping down from the sky at the end of the session and kidnapping their informant, who they will hopefully save and get his info from the following session, and even if they don't, they'll get plenty of info from the boss itself :D.
Do they need to be quests? Does your party get distracted easily? A peaceful prison-turned commune would have something that they use instead of violence to solve disputes.
When thinking of the American prison complex, the first thing that comes to mind is gambling. There's probably a lot of games of chance or card games, etc that the community uses for recreation (and maybe a weird sort of currency - "favors"). Perhaps there's a few big names in the community that your informant wants to get on the good side of, and that means the party must either win some games of chance or something to curry favor with the right people.
Ooh, maybe there's a "ball" happening (because doesn't that just sound fun?) where all the prisoners will be letting loose in a dance competition to settle certain ongoing community debates.
I guess my point is, you say that the prisoners have turned to a No-Violence rule. Once you decide what filled the space where violence was (gambling, dance competitions, etc), you'll be able to decide on your side quests.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Do they need to be quests? Does your party get distracted easily? A peaceful prison-turned commune would have something that they use instead of violence to solve disputes.
When thinking of the American prison complex, the first thing that comes to mind is gambling. There's probably a lot of games of chance or card games, etc that the community uses for recreation (and maybe a weird sort of currency - "favors"). Perhaps there's a few big names in the community that your informant wants to get on the good side of, and that means the party must either win some games of chance or something to curry favor with the right people.
Ooh, maybe there's a "ball" happening (because doesn't that just sound fun?) where all the prisoners will be letting loose in a dance competition to settle certain ongoing community debates.
I guess my point is, you say that the prisoners have turned to a No-Violence rule. Once you decide what filled the space where violence was (gambling, dance competitions, etc), you'll be able to decide on your side quests.
This is a super helpful way of thinking about it. I think i was definitely thinking more in the direction of favors, but I really didn't have a motivation down, and wasn't thinking about the breadth of ridiculousness that could have formed with this group of people put in the situation they've been put into. Dance battles... much to think about
I'm running a modern-day zombie apocalypse campaign. My party is about to enter a peaceful commune created after the zombie breakout destroyed a prison. The prisoners have chosen to live a tranquil life, taking advantage of the crumbling of society and their now guard-less prison building and creating a new and violence-free home (minus the occasional need to kill a stray undead).
The party is looking for one man who will have essential information for them, and I want to think of things he would ask them to do for him in return for that information that don't break the No Violence rule. At least a couple of things, maybe a mission, maybe a challenge, that this guy just wants them to do for him/the commune. I find it difficult sometimes to come up with non-combat encounters that take up as much time as i need them to, and these (one or more) need to fill up a whole session so that I can interrupt their information gathering with a boss dropping down from the sky at the end of the session and kidnapping their informant, who they will hopefully save and get his info from the following session, and even if they don't, they'll get plenty of info from the boss itself :D.
:)
Do they need to be quests? Does your party get distracted easily? A peaceful prison-turned commune would have something that they use instead of violence to solve disputes.
When thinking of the American prison complex, the first thing that comes to mind is gambling. There's probably a lot of games of chance or card games, etc that the community uses for recreation (and maybe a weird sort of currency - "favors"). Perhaps there's a few big names in the community that your informant wants to get on the good side of, and that means the party must either win some games of chance or something to curry favor with the right people.
Ooh, maybe there's a "ball" happening (because doesn't that just sound fun?) where all the prisoners will be letting loose in a dance competition to settle certain ongoing community debates.
I guess my point is, you say that the prisoners have turned to a No-Violence rule. Once you decide what filled the space where violence was (gambling, dance competitions, etc), you'll be able to decide on your side quests.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
This is a super helpful way of thinking about it. I think i was definitely thinking more in the direction of favors, but I really didn't have a motivation down, and wasn't thinking about the breadth of ridiculousness that could have formed with this group of people put in the situation they've been put into. Dance battles... much to think about
:)
In terms of mini-quests, you can think about the needs of survival scenarios related to natural disasters like large earthquakes or tornadoes.
How do they get running water? If there is none, they need to find a source of clean water or the means to boil dirty water very quickly.
Without the roof provided by the prison structure, they need shade in the day and warm blankets at night.
Food, of course, is another concern. Once they use up the food stores at the prison itself, where do they find food?
Do the ex-prisoners need fake IDs to get jobs? Do they have an incentive to pass themselves off as non-ex-prisoners?
I really like the idea of the informant passing the party his dirty, boring construction and upkeep jobs in exchange for information
:)