Troll Lord Games

I run an RPclub at Jefferson Middle School.

More precisely I run a completely made up system using SIEGE mechanics, 4e tactical combat, and my own house rules, and we have a blast.

I thought it would be fun to log some of their adventures here, and tap the greater TGL community for ideas, plot hooks, and suggestions.
Limitations

We only have an hour to run a game with these kids, so short and sweet is where it's at. I end each session with some kind of cliff hanger where the next game picks up, it works out well and they instantly remember what happened last session.
The Players and Their Characters
Cole (Tavar, Deva Paladin)
Best player I have, soaks up anything I say to him. His character likes neat gear and helping his party members.
Thomas (Death Bringer, Half-Elf Assassin)
Likes to play lots of violent video games. I nicknamed his character "DB", "slayer of kings", or "destroyer of worlds". He use to suffer from randomly killing and robbing NPCs every chance he got. This stopped after I asked why he wanted his character to get arrested and publicly executed so badly?
Erin (Thoradin, Dwarf Rogue)
Made a character last year named "Super Fighter", cheats at the game constantly. His character gives everyone a +5 Flank bonus so they'll help him maneuver in tactical situations.
Samuel (Nindo, Human Sword-Mage)
200 lb African who is quite, and conserved. I like him a lot. His character can teleport like crazy, and has and Ice Sword.
Tiago (Drakoon, Dragonborn Artificer)

His Character tries to talk to everything the party fights, in character. It usually turns out bad, except for that one time it turned out good.
Josph (Leonardis, Human Wizard)

His character is the most badass wizard on the planet and will stab you over beer, although he has yet to do this. He does like his character getting drunk a lot (a mechanic I wrote into his character, old skool Wild Mage).
Lost World The Adventure!

I created a plot hook, a mysterious island has appear in the south region of the world and the Mage Guild wants to know everything about it. Our adventurers accompany Morcalivan the Gray a dotty old wizard to collect artifacts, and delve the ruin's of an advanced civilization lost long ago. The Wizard himself doesn't leave his portable tower, "oh no, too old..." so the PC are left to discover and explore by themselves with the tower as their point of light.

Using a round robin method we created the following features about this island and what was on it. Note, I didn't come up with anything BUT the plot hook. The rest they devised by themselves.
The island is shaped like a crescent moon.
It's dominated by the 4 elements in this case, desert, arctic, mountains, and jungle.
The monsters are all scary large insects.
A portal to another world lies in the middle but nobody knows where it goes, it's guarded by large monsters.
There are ancient apocalyptic cities on the island.
And so their story begins...

Session 1 Where do we put the Tower?

They decided to fortify at the desert part of the island and setup the portable wizard tower in the middle of a small abandoned ruin.

After some pointless bickering and touching everything in the wizard tower itself they decided to scout out some of the strange Ebony Obelisks jutting out of the sand they spotted earlier.

1 hour out in the desert they get attack by a gang of large scorpions that shoot fire from their mouths like flame throwers. Leonardis the most badass wizard on the planet is is severely poisoned and I end the session there.
Sesison 2 Poison

I pull out a sand timer and slam it on the table, it begins to trickle down to zero. "What's that?" They ask. I reply "that's how long Leonardis has to live until the poison takes over his body and kills him." OH SHIT! Josph screams. They panic, and after many scrabbled heal checks and dice falling on the floor (I tap the top of the hour glass a bit), they passed the skill challenge by sucking out the poison (hilarity abound), He lives, a little pale, but he lives.

They take a rest.

They get to the Obsidian ruins and find a dead adventuer lying before a strange door leading into the sand below. "There's stuff on his body" I say. they rush towards it with their little figures, I grin. It's a trap.

An Ant Lion and few of my Scorpion buddies from the last sesison spring out from beneath the sand and attack. I grin, as they mop the floor with them. What more important is the dead adventurer (plot device) has the key that fits into that door strange door leading into the sand.
Sesison 3 Technologically Advanced

The door hisses and slides, "it's something you've never seen before, no magic works like this". They creep down to find what they guess to be somebodies living quarters and a locked door that leeds further in.

Death Bringer, Assassin of Creeds, destroyer of worlds picks the lock, but not before a defense mechanism electrocutes him for 1d6+3 damage.

Inside they find a Cloning facility, everything is smashed except for one tank that has a faux human body floating in it, no face, no visible sex, just a body. They break the tank, a gooy fluid rushes out and the body spills to the floor, they hack up the body, no rolls needed. =(

This room also had two more locked doors, but they require no checks as DB has already figured out how to bypass the weird security measures.

Inside they find a library with books in a language they can't read, Drakoon tries to identify it, he succeeds. The books are all written in Celestial, the language of the gods above, but they can't read it, they can only make guesses. One of the books shows pictures of the anatomy of dragons and other monsters.

Oh and they find a magic wand in a glass case, Leonardis smashes it open. I grin, it's a trap...

BOOM!
Session 4 The Centapede

3d6 damage later they investigate the other door. Which leads to a long open hallway that ends with a cave in. The floor has tiny crystals that act as a runway for a floating tram, also of alien design.

They deiced to dig out the cave-in and see if they can get the tram operational. They're obviously in some kind of "subway system".

They fail the skill challenge (I love failure). "You finally break free to the other side. Erin, your characters hand has pushed something smooth and shell like on the other side" Throadin has roused the head of a giant Centipede, which instantly bites and grabs him. I ask him how a Dwarf screams? Erin replies "he goes "Ahhhhhh!"

"and that's all you hear as he's pulled though the hole you created..."
Session 5 Blood & Vengeance

Now it should be noted none of the other players really like Erin, he cheats, he takes stuff that's not his, and he has no idea what's going on half the time. I was surprised by the following attitude.

NO f**k giant centipede is going to f**k with OUR party members,

YOUR SHIT IS f**k CENTIPEDE!

Every last one of them dived into the hole after him, Tavar grabbed onto the Dwarfs feet and held firm, while the rest of the party managed to beat the ever loving shit out of that poor creature, just defending its home on the other side of the cave-in.

106 damage, two rounds of combat. Throadin was puked from the creatures gullet on a natural 20, Death Bringer then followed up with a rather gory decapitation.

They ditched trying to dig out the cave-in to follow the tracks below the desert, 3 hours later it opened up to a dense and humid Jungle.

Story continue next week.

If you have any ideas or plot devices you would like to see included, please, I'l love to read them!

As a teacher, I wanted to offer a little friendly advice regarding your post:

Don't go into detail as to the quirks of the students you are playing with (especially when giving their names). They or their classmates could see your notes, get offended and/or use your words against you.

Sorry to sound like a teacher but sometimes I can't help it.
_________________
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/dnd3e/cnc.htm

Funtimes!

csperkins1970 wrote:
Don't go into detail as to the quirks of the students you are playing with (especially when giving their names). They or their classmates could see your notes, get offended and/or use your words against you.

Edits made for sensitivity issues.

Learn through the Perkins. He KNOWS the deal.

~O
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> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

Preparation

Following a "subway line" beneath the desert, our middle school heroes have emerged into a humid jungle. If anyone has played "The DIG" I'm describing a lot of the lost civilization architecture in similar fashion, alien, rigid, lay-lines, good taste in color schemes.

The Dig

So they're in the jungle, within is the lost remnants of a civilization, they have technology that still works after thousands of years of neglect, and Celestial is their primary language, the language of the gods.

I need some kind of interesting bug monster to throw at them, and a interesting artifact they can find to give to the gray wizard, ideas?

You have them, of couse you have them.

Interesting bug monsters hmmm, interesting artifact hmmmmm

Shouldn't be a problem. My favorite bug monster is Mobile Diss

Imagine a jawed mouth and two tiny feet about knuckle size. Now imagine millions of them swarming, sort of like the dung beetles of the Mummy movie. Your characters can easily bash one, while thousands are biting. My players commonly fireball themselves to get rid of them.

The famous dragon orbs of the city of Dragonkind are fun. Take the soul of a dragon, any color, and put it into a fragile orb. The sphere lends its powers to the holder. It can even control other dragons of its same color. It reallly wants the sphere to be broken so that it can Magic Jar itself into the sphere carrier. Also, when people know you have such a sphere they really want to steal it, life is tough in the fantasy world.

James M. Ward

James M. Ward wrote:
Imagine a jawed mouth and two tiny feet about knuckle size. Now imagine millions of them swarming, sort of like the dung beetles of the Mummy movie.

DONE! They will be swarmed with crazy teeth-bugs!

Those poor children.

James M. Ward wrote:
The famous dragon orbs of the city of Dragonkind are fun. Take the soul of a dragon, any color, and put it into a fragile orb. The sphere lends its powers to the holder. It can even control other dragons of its same color. It really wants the sphere to be broken so that it can Magic Jar itself into the sphere carrier.

I will introduce such a plot device but keep it within the other world theme I have going.

csperkins1970 wrote:
As a teacher, I wanted to offer a little friendly advice regarding your post:

Don't go into detail as to the quirks of the students you are playing with (especially when giving their names). They or their classmates could see your notes, get offended and/or use your words against you.

Sorry to sound like a teacher but sometimes I can't help it.

Agreed. I am a teacher as well. One must be careful......

L.S.
_________________
When All of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed" -- M.Manson (Man That You Fear)

Society Member: http://www.cncsociety.org/

Today I will assault the PCs with this, after they get a little too close to it's hive. Did I mention they make pitfall traps for larger insects? Well they do!
Bug's with Teeth
Shhh, what's that horrible chattering sound?

Huge Swarm

AC12, F12/R15/W10

HP: They have two hundred billion hit points! (Around 200)

Speed 6
SWARM! If you are within the swam on it's turn, you take 1d6 damage automatically.
Secondary Attack +8 vs Fortitude, you are slowed this round.
Weakness FIRE! +10 Damage on a fire based attack.

I'm considering the return of an Ain Lion that managed to get away about three sessions ago, clever bug.

The cave-in will lead to an underground dungeon, swarming in Bugs with Teeth.

Recommendations? Tweaks?

Session 6 Apocalyptic Jungle City

Nindo, and Leonardis had stand-in players from another group from a fellow GMs game. I don't remember their names, but I distinctly remember one of them saying "We just want to kill things."

Our motley crew exit out of the techno Mayan-age subway station and into a Apocalyptic city overgrown with thick jungle brush. I ask each of them what they wanted to do in their new environment.

Drakoon says he wants to see if he can spot anything interesting. He blazes a Perception check. I tell him Drakoon see's a pillar of faint green light not too far away (It's getting towards dusk outside). He tells the other players NOT to go towards the green light.

Of course, they totally ignore him.

Death Bringer "stalks" towards the green light, and Tavar darts past him. The other players deiced to dink around and do next to nothing of value. Their character, their call.

Tavar finds the light source is centered on a techno Mayan-statue with a grinning face. I run toward the statue! I have him woof a reflex check, the ground gives way beneath him and he falls 10 feet down.

He wakes up prone seconds later, covered head to toe in bugs, bugs with many teeth. I ask him if our brave paladin screams, he says he screams like the Dwarf (see session 5) "Ahhhh".

I should have had the "bugs with many teeth" do a bit more damage but we ran out of time before they could be defeated so I had them run off with the Paladin fancy ice shield (he'll recover that before the end of the next session).

Oh yeah, and the end of the fight the "enraged" Tavar attacks the statue, it explodes in divine energy and the earth begins to quake "something is waking up"...

After the wrap up, I had the player "who just wants to kill things" come up to me and ask if he could be in my game instead...

It has a good vibe. Puts me in mind of the world of the Dark Tower as per Steven King's dark tower/gunslinger with wierd bugs, wierd heroes and bits of present, past, and future tech. Did you see Pandorum? They have an interesting take on critters in that film.

Good gaming. I started heavy gaming with other kids in middle school. A couple of those guys I'm still good friends with.

C.

Session 7 Master of the Bugs with Many Teeth
Tiago, and Joseph did not show up =(

So the players are being stalked by Lizardman that has limited control over the "Bugs with Many Teeth". This was a simple fight, kill the lizardman jerk who set the trap in session 6. At the end of the fight they recovered their hi-jacked items and found a Snake Bracelet! (which I don't know what it does yet). This was also the session I did a level 3 respec of all their characters. I hit a milestone with Erin, he is now everyones favorite player, here's why.

Erin as I mentioned before doesn't pay attention, his goal is to roll dice. He get's frustrated if his character didn't really "do anything" that turn (don't we all?), and he cheats behind my back so he can counter that fact.

So here is what Thoradin can do:

Quote:
Super Flanker You give allies a +5 Attack Bonus to flank.
Cheater Once per session you may flat out lie to the GM and tell him you actually rolled a Natural 20!
Sporadic Decision If you take less than 15 seconds to make a decision you get a +2 Roll Bonus to that action.
Idiot Savant You know crazy bits of random knowledge. Spend a Drama Point to get a +5 Training Bonus to any skill check.
Fortunes Friend You may spend a Drama Point to re-roll any one dice.
Improved Initiative Spend a Drama Point to automatically go first in the initiative order. You may also spend another to act in a surprise round.
You maybe wondering what a Drama Point is, or I don't believe I've mentioned what they are until now. Players can earn them for making the game more interesting, and they're worth a +2 bonus to any roll. I'm a firm believer in positive reinforcement (I also hand them out like candy).

Erin's power set for Throadin instantly made him the "roll master" when his turn came around. I had a fully engaged player that session and it felt good to finally get him more involved with the other players. Oh, and his new "Masterwork Dwarf Battle Axe" does half damage on a miss!

I nicknamed Erin the groups "Lucky Dwarf".

I did similar changes to all the other characters as well, powers that highlighted how they interacted with one another, but Erin took stage yesterday, he won that gaming power hour.

I purchased a condo last Wednesday so I didn't have time to run for the Jefferson crew.

This Wednesday I plan to take them back to the Wizards tower in the desert where it has fallen "under siege" by a devote army of Dragonborn hunting for the Lost City of Arkosha.

The Wizard is just a bit frightened because the army made their camp around his tower, and tried to get in. This will give the PCs a chance to roleplay a bit, and cool the wizard down perhaps even strike up some bargains.

Then I hit them with a desert variant Remorhaz, with a pissed off lizard man rider (see previous session). At most I expect them to drive the creature off by killing the lizard dude.

Strange things on the island

-Small earthquakes occur every night around midnight.

-The apocalyptic techo-mayan city lights up with arcane lay lines interwoven with the architecture around the same time as the earthquakes.

-The Shroud hiding the island has been turned back on, and the Wizard has lost communication with the outside world.