Ravenous Role Playing

Don’t forget that this Saturday (June 20th, 2009) is Free RPG Day! You can find out more details here: http://www.freerpgday.com/

Click the link for the store list (it’s alphabetical by state, not store name) and see if your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) is participating. Make sure to call them just to make sure they will have stuff.

I took part in this last year (as a consumer) and picked a wide range of very good (and some not so good) stuff. This year, I’ll be reviewing the items I picked up at Free RPG Day as I get the time to do so. I can’t wait to see what goodies are in store for us gamers this year!

The Red Glove appears in a set of finely woven silk gloves. It will often find its way into fine clothing shops, and all attempts to divine the location of the glove or detect magic on the glove will fail.

If the glove is worn alone then all gold taken from a purse will reappear back in the same purse in 24 hours.

If the glove is worn with its sister (which is non magical) then all gold taken from a purse will remain with who it is given to, but coins of extra value will follow the coins given away. Thus, costing the wearer double the amount of coins for a normal purchase, gift or donation.

The Red Glove seems to have a fondness for the coins of certain kingdoms and empires and will do its best to stay in those areas. If the wearer moves away from these areas for an extended period of time, then the glove will vanish from the wearer’s possession only to reappear in the stock of a fine clothier.

Because of the properties of The Red Glove, it is well known in the areas in which it likes to live, and anyone seen wearing a single red glove will usually be shunned from doing business transactions or making donations without first removing all gloves. There are even some areas in which all deals, even minor purchases, must be made bare handed because of the fear of someone dyeing the glove a different color.

I’m going to have to change the way I handle the site. My original plan was to post an adventure hook every day, and do some reviews on random days, and then an artifact on Tuesdays.

Ain’t gonna happen. Sorry.

I made these plans while I was on vacation from work, and I figured I had plenty of time for daily posts. It turns out that when I’m not on vacation, I don’t have as much time as I thought. Go figger.

Instead….

I’ll be posting an artifact on Tuesdays, and an adventure hook on Thursdays. The reviews of other materials will come as time permits, but I hope to do one a week, which will probably land on Wednesday or Saturday depending on the week. I may also post on Sundays how my RPG group went the night before, but we’ll see how that idea floats with my busy weekend schedules.

Look for a new hook tomorrow!

This one’s for you sci-fi folks out there.

One of the PCs receives a text message (or instant message or email or packet transmission or some other form of instant communication) that states they will die in 15 minutes. That’s it. Just a 15 minute warning of their death. The source of the transmission is not readily available.

Fifteen minutes later, an “accident” happens that almost claims the PC. It could be a car crash, an errant light rail train, a crane collapse or something that could be written off as coincidence. Immediately after the “accident” the PC receives another transmission, “We missed. You won’t be so lucky in an hour.”

The PC (or group) now has an hour to track down the source of the transmission. Each hour this repeats itself. Each “accident” will become more and more perilous as the day drags on.

Once the PC (or group) tracks down the source of the transmissions and puts a stop to them, the “accidents” come to a sudden stop.

The party witnesses the kidnapping of a small child by a group of men (and maybe women) that swoop in on a flying carpet to scoop up the child. The shocking part is not the kidnapping, but the fact that the entire group on the carpet looks just like the party!

Framed!

Now the party has to find the child and the group responsible in order to clear their good name.

Algorond made his way through life as a horribly unlucky warrior who always managed to bumble his way through battle after battle. He survived long enough to advance to the ranks of General in his army. Upon receiving his promotion, it was discovered he was an incredibly gifted leader of men with a keen sense of strategy. His favorite weapon was the war hammer, and he was never seen without his favorite chunk of steel at his side. Through an unfortunate mishap, probably Algorond’s fault, his stronghold was gutted by a fire. Everyone, except the general, managed to escape the ravages of the fire. No remains were ever found within the citadel, but his hammer survived the conflagration intact.

The hammer was hung on display in the restored citadel, and it was not until many years later when it was taken down for cleaning that its powers were discovered. The servant charged with cleaning the hammer swore he heard Algorand’s nasally voice emananting from the hammer, and an investigation was launched. It was discovered that the deceased general’s spirit was trapped within the hammer, and quite happy to be there.

Anyone wielding the hammer gains bonuses (editor’s note: I’ll leave it to the GM to determine bonuses based on their power level and game system) to strategy, leadership and charisma checks. The downside is that if the hammer is not used in battle, it becomes jealous of other weapons, and will leave the owner for someone more suited to use of the hammer. While the hammer is used in battle, the GM may, at whim, declare that attack and/or damage rolls from the hammer must be rerolled. This is generally done when an exceptional roll is cast, but should not be done too often at risk of forcing the PC to discard the hammer. The hammer does have high bonuses in combat despite the unlucky spirit trapped within the hammer.

To destroy the Hammer of Algorond,  a PC must heat the hammer to white-hot temperatures and then quench the head of a hammer in a glacier. When this action is taken, the hammer will shatter and Algorond’s spirit will be released.

After the PC purchase a container of some sort (backpack, chest, saddle bags, sacks, whatever) they find a signet ring in the container.

A quick heraldry/history/knowledge check will lead them to discover the symbol on the ring is from a long-lost dynasty that vanished in a nearby jungle hundreds of years ago.

The location of the lost dynasty is well known, but only a few of the treasure seekers who have braved the jungle have never returned. None of them found anything other than large insects, poisonous snakes and heartache.

However, there is one person who entered the jungle and returned intact. He’s too old to adventure anymore, but has always wanted to fund an expedition into the jungle to find ruins he just knows are there.

When getting a room for the night, one of the players finds a folded piece of paper under his pillow.

The paper has a death warrant filled out, but not signed by anyone, for a local political official. It’s an order for assassination!

Who was the note intended for? The PC? Someone else? Will the intended party be missing the note? If the PCs turn over the information is there a reward, and who will be upset by this information?

Hmm….

The group stumbles across a dead messenger with several crossbow bolts in the back. His corpse has been thouroughly ransacked and left naked on the ground, but all of his equipment seems to be left lying by him.

If anyone casts detect magic, they will see a tattoo on the messenger’s chest which glows brightly under the spell. The tattoo is a message of peace from one king to another. The two kingdoms have been at war for ages, and it appears there are attempts to broker peace. If the message does not get to the recipient, then war will continue to rage on.

Something I plan on doing on this site to bring you crazy people back day in and day out are adventure hooks that I’ll post every weekday. The hooks will be game agnostic, but will still probably fall in the fantasy genre. There will be the occasional hook for sci-fi, cyberpunk, pulp horror, spies and other genres as well.

When you see the moniker “AHotD” followed by a date, you’ll know an adventure hook lies in wait for you to discover. Please let me know what you think of the AHs that I throw out there. Hopefully they help kick start some ideas for your own games.