It Takes a Town
Premise: The characters are part of Wolf Rock which is a small town located in the East of the Empire near the mountains. The town is a relatively quite place that sometimes suffers goblin or in rarer cases beastman raids. Only a month ago however the nearest town of Sunshine Pass which lies some 24km to the south was found totally destroyed. Houses smashed, people found as nothing more then pools of blood and bones, and giant foot prints. There could be no mistake; this was the work of a giant.
Wolf Rock became the center of panic with the news. Surely the giant would come for them next. And it did, 2 weeks after the destruction of Sunshine Pass. He came out of the mountains knocking over trees and casting rocks aside. Clearly the monster did not think this was enough fanfare for its entrance and so it topped off the performance by hurling a rock into the town that crushed a local tanner’s hut, killing him and his wife.
The giant strode into town where a few hot headed youths jumped out to try and engage the monster but they were soon put down, into the soles of their boots to be exact.
The giant then let the town know their new master’s name which was Lord Thundermaw. He then instructed the town of his demands. The town would leave him a payment every month. It would include 2 cows, 8 sheep, 10 barrels of ale, and shiny things of value enough of which to fill one of his huge hands. The village head hastily agreed to the demands egger to get the giant out of the town.
It has been 2 months since these demands were made and the villagers have paid the giant but the payments are putting a huge strain on the small community. Too far from the Empire to acquire any form of aid the community must either continue to make payments or find a way to rid themselves of the giant. But can a small fishing and farming village really fight off such a monster?
Players: 3-5 (Could be more but the giant’s stats should be increased.)
The Heroes or Fools: While it would make it easier to have all the characters be able to pick their carriers this would most likely lead to a group of all warrior types with a few magic users. So in true gritty style the characters will roll on the random career chart. The players may roll once and may use either of the dice rolled as 10’s or 1’s. Thus giving the character a choice of 2 careers. If the character rolls doubles the character will be allowed another roll but this time must select which of the dice is to be the 10’s and 1’s.
On top of that certain characters will not be allowed. Those are as follows: Apprentice Wizard, Mercenary, Solider, and Coachman, ((More to come… maybe)).
Races: Characters may be humans, dwarf or halfling. If there are 3-4 players only one player may be a dwarf or halfling. If there are 5 or more players then a halfling and a dwarf may be played (Thus 3 humans, 1 halfling, and 1 dwarf if the players desire).
Stats: Will be rolled but can be assigned, with the ability to take an average on one roll.
I ain’t no greenhorn: Characters will start with either 4-6 advances. ((Not sure yet))
Gear up: Characters will get some bonus items that are chosen at random. This is to reflect the backwater nature of their location. Not everything is as easy to obtain as it might be in a bigger village or a city.
Characters are free to trade these items before the game begins and will also get some gold to spend on items they want. These may be bought as long but for rarer items the character may want to come up with a story of how they obtained it. Perhaps an outing to a city, a traveling merchant, etc. This should help add a little bit of character to the game.
Even Heroes need help: Fate points work a little different. In most cases in which a character must burn a fate point to survive he will simply not take damage. This can be a miss for the attacker, the weapon catches, glances off the character’s lucky charm, etc. If a character is at 0-2 HP and has to burn a fate point he will also heal 1D10 HP.
Goals: To kill the giant! Or to at least somehow get rid of it. Also not getting the entire village killed would be nice. This is the character’s town so they should care enough to do something, not just run away. So it is important that characters realize they are all playing characters WHO CARE ABOUT THE TOWN AND DO NOT LIKE TO SEE THEIR FELLOW VILLAGERS HARMED AND EXPLOITED.
There will be some twists of course but all of these will be in the adventure notes.
Another goal is to in-force that the players are to be in character. That is, while they might have a pretty nice plan, their character in the game might have no idea how to implement it. Players should remember that their characters are in a tiny back water fishing and farming village where almost none of the residents have an education outside their careers.
Careers are really important. I hope that each player will really come to terms with his character’s career. This will help establish the mood and hopefully allow the players to come up with some really neat ideas to take on the giant.
To have fun! The main goal of course. Taking on a giant with such groups that could include servants, fishermen, farmers, woodsmen, body guards, and other day to day careers I think could be a lot of fun. That is why I think this would make a better one shot… or maybe two shot.
