I'm quite new to DnD and want to make a one-shot so our usual DM can play as well.
I have an idea of a town which has recently been plagued by bad luck and the villagers want this (presumable) curse to be lifted. Out of ideas they tend to adventurers to resolve this.
For the villagers this would be displayed as falling of ladders, dropping their expensive plates, accidently cutting themselves, while for the PC's this would mean rolling everything inside the town with dissadvantage. Now I'm kind of stuck on what could have caused this curse, perhaps someone angry at the whole town for something, or some side effect of a greater plot?Does this have to be cause by a powerfull wizard or can it be a regular (not magical) person praying to some god? I'm not so familliar with DnD gods and their lore (currently playing LMoP).
Is it perhaps also too unbalanced for the player to roll everything in the town with dissadvantage? I'm thinking of placing the BBEG/dungeon outside of the town as he (and the possible fight) are not affected by this. I'm not really an experienced writer and this would be my second one-shot.
I think this sounds like a really cool idea! A god of bad luck (think like Loki) could totally have caused this on behalf of one of his followers. And as long as your combat takes place outside city limits, disadvantage doesn't sound too bad.
My only real piece of advice is to remember, as cool as this town is, the players are there to kick some monster butt. So make sure you give as much or more time to filling out the dungeon as you do to the story. Should be a really cool dungeon in that case, because this is a cool story.
Maybe not everything at disadvantage. Luck doesn't affect how strong or smart I would be, so maybe just things like skills that use Dex, Cha or Dex, Con saving throws?
As for why...perhaps the ground is desecrated in some way? An Acolyte of some trickster god is to blame by trying to prank everyone in town? Maybe something more general, like the Cubs and the curse of the goat? Someone wanted to take their smelly goat into town and either the shepherd or goat was a god or other powerful being in disguise?
I was thinking of an enchanted mirror that folks didn't know was magical at all, and it was shattered or broken during a bar fight. Now the magic in the mirror is cursing the town wishing to be made whole again and shown some respect. Maybe the mirror has attitude like Joe Pesci. "Hey, what are you doin?!! Wha, you lookin' at me?!!"
If I were a player I wouldn’t have fun if I had to roll a bunch of stuff at disadvantage for “story reasons”. But that’s just my two cents
Come to think of it, yeah...maybe a more fun way to do it would be something ridiculously, one-in-a-million foolish happening on every natural 1. It wouldn't affect play, but it would make for some memorable times.
A cursed object of wishing, some idiot wished for the success and luck and this happened. The reverse of whats wished. It would also be funny to have the players find the object and an (evil) wizard say that it grants two more wishes, only for the opposite to happen.
If I were a player I wouldn’t have fun if I had to roll a bunch of stuff at disadvantage for “story reasons”. But that’s just my two cents
Come to think of it, yeah...maybe a more fun way to do it would be something ridiculously, one-in-a-million foolish happening on every natural 1. It wouldn't affect play, but it would make for some memorable times.
I think this would be fun... maybe something similar to the Wild Magic Table, where any time the characters roll below a certain threshold they have to roll on a table to see what silly or weird thing happens.
The Bane Spell seems a good alternative to disadvantage. It’s the negative of Bless.(subtract a d4 from every check, attack, or save roll). Although, I like the idea of creating a Bad Luck table that you roll on every time you roll a nat 1. Maybe use both in different capacities. Maybe every check in the town is Baned, and if after the Bane is accounted for the check totals 5 or less, you roll on the Bad Luck table? Maybe that’s too much to account for on every check.
Others have suggested good ideas for reasons for the luck situation. Being cursed for some offense seems pretty safe. Maybe they offended Tymora herself.
The real make or break of this one shot will be the boss fight. Who will they fight and why? Maybe a charlatan who runs a gambling racket, but has rigged the games (such as 3 Dragon Ante, dice, playing cards). Maybe they have to discover his cheating, then when they confront him, he attacks, with a few tricks up his sleeve.
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I'm quite new to DnD and want to make a one-shot so our usual DM can play as well.
I have an idea of a town which has recently been plagued by bad luck and the villagers want this (presumable) curse to be lifted. Out of ideas they tend to adventurers to resolve this.
For the villagers this would be displayed as falling of ladders, dropping their expensive plates, accidently cutting themselves, while for the PC's this would mean rolling everything inside the town with dissadvantage. Now I'm kind of stuck on what could have caused this curse, perhaps someone angry at the whole town for something, or some side effect of a greater plot?Does this have to be cause by a powerfull wizard or can it be a regular (not magical) person praying to some god? I'm not so familliar with DnD gods and their lore (currently playing LMoP).
Is it perhaps also too unbalanced for the player to roll everything in the town with dissadvantage? I'm thinking of placing the BBEG/dungeon outside of the town as he (and the possible fight) are not affected by this. I'm not really an experienced writer and this would be my second one-shot.
Any ideas from other DM's?
I think this sounds like a really cool idea! A god of bad luck (think like Loki) could totally have caused this on behalf of one of his followers. And as long as your combat takes place outside city limits, disadvantage doesn't sound too bad.
My only real piece of advice is to remember, as cool as this town is, the players are there to kick some monster butt. So make sure you give as much or more time to filling out the dungeon as you do to the story. Should be a really cool dungeon in that case, because this is a cool story.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Maybe not everything at disadvantage. Luck doesn't affect how strong or smart I would be, so maybe just things like skills that use Dex, Cha or Dex, Con saving throws?
As for why...perhaps the ground is desecrated in some way? An Acolyte of some trickster god is to blame by trying to prank everyone in town? Maybe something more general, like the Cubs and the curse of the goat? Someone wanted to take their smelly goat into town and either the shepherd or goat was a god or other powerful being in disguise?
I was thinking of an enchanted mirror that folks didn't know was magical at all, and it was shattered or broken during a bar fight. Now the magic in the mirror is cursing the town wishing to be made whole again and shown some respect. Maybe the mirror has attitude like Joe Pesci. "Hey, what are you doin?!! Wha, you lookin' at me?!!"
If I were a player I wouldn’t have fun if I had to roll a bunch of stuff at disadvantage for “story reasons”. But that’s just my two cents
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?
Come to think of it, yeah...maybe a more fun way to do it would be something ridiculously, one-in-a-million foolish happening on every natural 1. It wouldn't affect play, but it would make for some memorable times.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
A cursed object of wishing, some idiot wished for the success and luck and this happened. The reverse of whats wished. It would also be funny to have the players find the object and an (evil) wizard say that it grants two more wishes, only for the opposite to happen.
I think this would be fun... maybe something similar to the Wild Magic Table, where any time the characters roll below a certain threshold they have to roll on a table to see what silly or weird thing happens.
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The Bane Spell seems a good alternative to disadvantage. It’s the negative of Bless.(subtract a d4 from every check, attack, or save roll). Although, I like the idea of creating a Bad Luck table that you roll on every time you roll a nat 1. Maybe use both in different capacities. Maybe every check in the town is Baned, and if after the Bane is accounted for the check totals 5 or less, you roll on the Bad Luck table? Maybe that’s too much to account for on every check.
Others have suggested good ideas for reasons for the luck situation. Being cursed for some offense seems pretty safe. Maybe they offended Tymora herself.
The real make or break of this one shot will be the boss fight. Who will they fight and why? Maybe a charlatan who runs a gambling racket, but has rigged the games (such as 3 Dragon Ante, dice, playing cards). Maybe they have to discover his cheating, then when they confront him, he attacks, with a few tricks up his sleeve.