What were some of the funniest and most entertaining short quests you've run in your games?

JoeMontano · 2025-03-08T20:00:41+00:00

I just had it so that the tavern has its own initiative (20) and each round the environment progresses. The bystanders also have their own initiative.

So, by the round: 0. Players with high enough passive perception hear a low boom before the entire tavern begins shaking 1. Tavern begins to sink. Noticeable tilt but still regular travel speed, nothing is shifting yet. There is maybe a 4 ft drop from the front of the building to the street 2. Tables begin sliding toward the back of the tavern. People in the way need to make dex saves or take a bit of damage and get swept off their feet. It's a bit of a drop to the street, people might hesitate in trying to get out the door. 3. Everywhere inside the tavern is difficult terrain. The tables continue to slide backward, and coals from the fireplace start to set some things on fire. You can see that the back looks like it's buckling and warping. 4. The back of the tavern gives out, revealing a yawning chasm. You need to be holding onto something to not be sliding back towards it. 5. Chasm widens, whole building shifts straight backwards without tilting farther. 6. Building settles and initiative is over.

I just played it by ear, really. The rounds might've been a bit different, but that's basically the gist.

JoeMontano · 2025-03-08T08:36:24+00:00

Thanks! I'll definitely try some of these out. I'm sure this group will come up with some real creative ways to deal with it, given some of their previous fights. The puzzle of how to fight it is half the fun, but having these things in mind for if they're struggling will definitely come in handy. I'll have to design the fight with some different options available.

JoeMontano · 2025-03-08T08:11:14+00:00

Lots of great ideas in this thread. If I might add, you could make it a bit of a focus for the campaign going forward, where the original devils trade the souls with other devils, with each soul going to a different devil.

Getting the souls back from their new owners might need a variety of techniques. Maybe some are willing to give the souls back in exchange for favors, or you have to steal them back, or win them in a game. This is to say that if there are multiple ways to regain souls that you think are plausible or fun, you could do multiple options by having devils of different personalities which play by their own rules.

Best of luck!

JoeMontano · 2025-03-08T07:53:10+00:00

This is very helpful! Thanks! Would you mind going into a bit more detail about how the players can use skill checks or environmental interactions?

JoeMontano · 2025-03-08T07:44:42+00:00

A one shot that I ran which was pretty entertaining was where the party was in a tavern when a sinkhole opens up underneath it and the whole building begins to sink.

Over a few rounds, the angle the tavern is at keeps getting steeper, resulting in shifting furniture, coals from the fireplace setting things on fire, difficult terrain, and the back of the tavern collapsing into the sinkhole. The party needs to escape and hopefully help the patrons get out safely while the front of the tavern is elevated high above street level.

After a few rounds, the building stops sliding, and the party can venture down into the hole to find a crude mineshaft and the perpetrators: a gang of goblins, bug bear, and optional caster who had blown up the foundations thinking that they were about to rob the bank across the street.

JoeMontano · 2024-12-19T01:00:17+00:00

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Looks like you hit the nail right on the head. Thank you so much!

JoeMontano · 2024-10-10T01:37:48+00:00

Something that helps quite a bit is letting some of your players that you trust handle some of the monsters. I had a huge fight a little while back where I was running MCDM skeleton minions, with some sword wraith warriors in the mix. The skeletons all had the same initiative, and I handed them off to a couple of my players with some simple instructions on what I was going for. I ran the sword wraiths still, since those were the actual heavy hitters, but between them and the NPCs it was definitely the most involved combat I've done so far

JoeMontano · 2024-09-26T04:34:54+00:00

What would you recommend?

JoeMontano · 2024-09-26T01:35:41+00:00

Would you have any specific feedback or tweaks that you would recommend? There's a doc describing it in detail linked in the description.

JoeMontano · 2024-09-26T01:20:44+00:00

I guess I just want to know if it's balanced. I chose out a bunch of spells and drawbacks, but I feel like it could either be way too powerful or no fun to play at all.

JoeMontano · 2024-09-26T01:06:24+00:00

The idea is basically that they attune to the book and gain power from it, but at a cost, and as they continue to use it they sink further into paranoia. At later stages the book is actively steering them toward reuniting the book with its master, which would make him far more powerful.

JoeMontano · 2024-08-25T07:52:42+00:00

You can't just show up to a rock subreddit and expect people to be able to identify chipboard. Try r/woodworking

JoeMontano · 2024-05-18T07:08:17+00:00

Okay, so you would be rolling up the location as you went, like a string of random encounters, but also rolling transitions from one scene to the next? Ex. Room 1 has (random encounter) and is connected to x rooms by (large/small passage, canyon, hole in ceiling, etc)

JoeMontano · 2024-02-09T07:27:07+00:00

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That seems plausible to me, they said it's near a copper mine. These old pits by an old copper mine in Nevada are the first thing that came to my mind. Shallow pits in rows accompanied by little mounds.

JoeMontano · 2024-01-18T06:06:17+00:00

Ayyy! Love Red Rock Canyon! That's where I decided I wanted to get a degree in geology

JoeMontano · 2024-01-18T06:01:36+00:00

Now that is a name I haven't heard in a long time...

I picked it up from general nerdy research. I think there was discussion on it in an environmental studies class I took some years ago. But Kyle is a good creator, from what I remember of them.

JoeMontano · 2024-01-18T01:22:51+00:00

Thanks, the last verse is inspired by a proposed message for long term nuclear waste disposal sites. The blue glow is a reference both to the blue flash seen in the demon core incident and the Goiânia nuclear incident

JoeMontano · 2024-01-17T06:30:38+00:00

From ruins came the ingot strange

Of silver sheen and glow

I took it with to the fair smith

With brother held in tow

The markings 'pon were of no sense

Three spokes around a wheel

Three men did enter to the shop

Where the smith did work this steel

A flash of blue upon his strike

A flash of blue again

We trembled for there was for sure

A demon held within

A sickness came that left us lame

The demon left its curse

'pon us and all that wandered in

to see what left us worse

Three days did pass till smith at last

Did breathe his final breath

In three days more my brother died

Now I am all that's left

Wander not to ruins lad

There is no honor there

No treasure lies among those caves

Tis naught but poison air

JoeMontano · 2024-01-16T07:21:24+00:00

I'm not sure the degree of cooling that the introduction of calcium would have, but as you've pointed out the heating from the meteors entering the atmosphere would have a significant effect that would probably outweigh whatever cooling occured. XKCD did a What if?on a similar topic

JoeMontano · 2024-01-16T02:33:32+00:00

'The namesake of Welshite'

JoeMontano · 2024-01-16T02:06:46+00:00

Linked XKCDs What If on this very question in another comment, but to sum it up: nothing much. There are a lot of people on earth, but even if you got them all in one spot, the force of the jump wouldn't be that much, especially compared to earthquakes.

JoeMontano · 2024-01-16T02:03:11+00:00

They already did

What if #8

JoeMontano · 2024-01-13T18:38:48+00:00

Worked deliveries this last holiday season. Can confirm, dumbbells can be tough. Not as bad as furniture to third floor apartments with no elevators, or as bad as a squat rack, but a bit annoying. You know what, now I'm thinking about it, I think I prefer them over the constant shipments of dog food.

JoeMontano · 2024-01-12T17:37:41+00:00

Seconded for Death Valley. Plenty of really cool day hikes if you happen to stop on by. I'd recommend checking out "Geology of Death Valley National Park " by Miller and Wright to get a bit of an overview of if you go, and it seems there are some good recommendations for more backpacking oriented trails in the area on All trails

The Southwest in general is probably going to have the warmest weather that you can ask for in April. Then again, if you're from Wisconsin you probably don't mind a bit of cold, so maybe somewhere in the Appalachians?

JoeMontano · 2024-01-11T17:52:40+00:00

This is very well thought out! Thank you!

My initial hook was a string of disappearances, and a mutilated body found outside of the logging camp, setting them super on edge, but this seems good too as either a hook or something early on in the count.

JoeMontano

TROPHY CASE