D&D Folks -- I'm in desperate need of ideas

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Lissibith

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Not sure if this is the right place for something like this, but I'm writing a game for my D&D group next month. The gist is that there's a ghost haunting a wizarding school and our group is being asked to figure out what it wants, since it won't talk to any of the professors.

The first third is going to be roleplay heavy -- they have their entrance interview (complete with false identities), then have to work out how to get themselves detention and deal with some bullies without outing themselves or getting actually arrested.

The final third is going to be combat heavy -- they discover the murderer and subdue (or more likely kill ... le sigh) him, then deal with a group from the organization he's working with.

But I'm stuck in the middle third, which I want to be more puzzle/investigation type stuff. Usually this is the stuff I love making, but for some reason with this game it's just not happening. Part 1 ends with them finding the ghost's corpse, locked away in a room no one has really entered since she died in it. There's information in that room showing she was developing a new spell, and also that she worried someone at the school was going to steal and sell her new spell for their own profit.

I need to get them from the murder room to the teacher who actually did the murder (and who totally did end up stealing and selling the spell too). My initial thought was to have only one person who was at the school during the murder and also in present, but that feels way too boring. Then I thought they could trace back this spell to whoever sold it initially, but that would be a lot of travel for the group and would likely blow their cover. And now when I try to think of other ways to get them to this guy, my brain just goes "no, use the timeline thing, it's easy and that's fine."

So I come to you creative folks to see if anyone has any ideas to break me out of this rut. The group is fairly high level (8-9) and includes a wizard, warlock, paladin and rogue, so things that require more advanced abilities are fine. Any help would be endlessly appreciated.
 

RedRajah

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What sort of spells/magic items is your group packing? 'Cause I start thinking about stuff like Speak With Dead and the like...
 

Lissibith

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I'd have to check, but I don't believe any of them have speak with dead. I'll grab a full list when I get home tonight if that'll be helpful.
 

fenyo

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I think that the finding of the corpse should be in the middle of the second part. the first part that is heavy on role play need to give them just the background story and familiarise them with the place and people.

they need to find the corpse and later to who ever is responsible as part of the investigation.

and in part three fight the evil guys.

any way, sound like a good adventure.
 

Lissibith

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OK, so rogue 1 is actually assassin rogue/shadow monk. He has the typical associated things, and shadow monk gives him darkness, darkvision, silence and pass without trace.

Second rogue is a swashbuckler. She's super evasive. No magic, but items make her immune to fear (and that same item can lead her to throw herself into dangerous situations randomly thanks to a curse).

Third is the warlock. His spells are Chill touch, eldritch blast, poison spray, burning hands, hex, protection from evil/good, witch bolt, mirror image, fireball and hunger of Hadar. His eldritch blast can push 10 feet.

Fourth, I was mixed up -- there isn't a wizard, he's a warlock who pretends IC to be a wizard. Spells are Chill touch, eldritch blast, poison spray, spare the dying, acid splash, fire bolt, ray of frost, expeditious retreat, with bolt, comprehend languages, detect magic, find familiar, identify, tenser's floating disk, unseen servant, cloud of daggers, hold person, mirror image, fear, fly, leomund's tiny hut.

And the paladin is a vengeance paladin. He has divine sense and a ring of jumping, along with the level 1 and 2 paladin spells. Vengeance's automatic spells are Bane, Hunter's mark, hold person and misty step.

Our group is pretty killing focused, so it's going to be interesting to see how long they can last in this before they do a murder. >.>

My sister suggested maybe padding out the timeline option -- maybe giving them a few clues in the murder room or from the ghost's foggy memory, and they have to either try to persuade the teachers to give them information that a student probably doesn't need, or else they need to solve puzzles to find/unlock an archive at the school which could have the information, but I'm not sure even that's enough?

And thanks Fenyo! I'll keep in mind where the placement should go as the actual writing comes together. (And with this group, the timing is all sort of up in the air anyway. They could blow through the RP stuff in 20 min, or get distracted for an hour or two messing around with a single piece of nonsense :D )
 
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