The kid could have a super rare blood type, that is not only a delicacy to vampires, but also the genetic marker for potentially becoming a vampire hunter. Vampires want them for the dual purpose of being delicious and possibly saving themselves in the future...

@EmberBright2077

6 жыл бұрын

A possible extension to that could be that the blood type doesn’t exist in known scientific record, like blood type idk M or something and that only those in the supernatural side of society are aware of it not that that would add all that much just filling details really

@Fraginator

6 жыл бұрын

James Fisher - I was thinking that as well but didn't want to get too into the details. Watching Flash on Netflix gave me the idea but I won't give spoilers just in case...

@erik95056

6 жыл бұрын

Fraginator 1369 Indeed, it seems like this one shot is about the opening of a door, a door to the supernatural world, I did so before on a cyberpunk game with aliens. I would make it darker! Make this boy be from a "farm" were they are bred! But in the vampire world this is highly illegal for the Kids may become hunters, that's why the Big V came himself. Now you not only have a kid who may become a hunter, you have evidence against the Bad Vamp, he will immediately up the stakes to no end, And your players can try and find the farm and save more kids!

Such cool thoughts! Thanks everyone! The PC's ended up working for the Vampires to help keep the Vampires hidden from the modern world so that the vampires could feed without being caught lol. Who knew!

@HLR4th

6 жыл бұрын

ROTFL Thanks for letting us know, I was wondering how it went! I imagine neither child nor Mr. Vampire Hunter fared well in that scenario. Credit to the PC's for exercising "radical agency" (Non-murder hobos? Pro-murder, non-hobos? Words fail!), and to you the Uber-GM for supporting their choices and rolling with it. The look on your face must have been GIF worthy !

@ananass8030

6 жыл бұрын

I thought you can take the boy' story in another direction; the boy is the vampires son. vampires are not former humans, they are humanoids, and the kid is on the verge of puberty in which he will start to develop vampire abilities and will start to hunt. the vampire hunter kidnapped the kid to kill him and make some kind of hunter repellent of his blood. so in the show down the players should have choose between two evils, to give the kid to the hunter that will kill him, or to give him back to his father who will teach him to hunt humans. (at the start when the vampire gets his kid in the delivery he is going to kill the PC so there'll be no witnesses that he got his boy back, to keep the boy safe.) the rest of the story can go as usual. in any case it was a good FYC! i really like this theoretical D&D vids

@unex7962

6 жыл бұрын

How to be a Great Game Master Hello there. I wanted to ask you a question about a game idea. Even though I have never been a DM myself I have a idea for a game. This idea is that I am setting this in a nuclear apocalyptic world but the players will star before the bombs drop, they will tell each other there backstory but then a siren goes off and they have to take cover. They survive and have to survive in this new world. It would be very hard at the start since they have to worry about fallout particles. As the game goes on it would get easier but still harsh for a post apocalyptic settings. Also thinking of adding a sanity system for choices the players make. Even though I have no experience as a DM would this idea work?

@sciverzero8197

6 жыл бұрын

I had similar thoughts very early on. That the boy was either some sort of new vessel for the vampire's power and will, as the old body has aged beyond what its powers can recover, or that it was a direct relative, or some such. The boy being transported in a pine box is a sort of strange way to find a meal for a vampire, and an even stranger way to transport it, so the boy must be more important.

@Mr.Monster1984

5 жыл бұрын

@@unex7962 he has a video about this kind of scenario

Expression of thought processes are really good for this video format. On my end, I want to use 5th edition DnD to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja *Tortles* adventure one-shot with a dire-rhinocerous riding were-boar as the main antagonist.

@blorfenburger

6 жыл бұрын

dreddbolt *Fuck*

I feel the opening scene have to be worked a bit more at: As I guess the players will have some obvious questions: Why send the boy in a box? Why send the boy to the vampire? Who send the box? And when they deliver the box, then the vampire is too stupid to be realistic. (Would kill the boy FIRST and THEN explain why.) The players have a problem: Who are good and who are bad? (Do you have computer-game-color-coded-health-bars to show who are god and bad?) --- I would make the opening scene different: Have the players know that they have a passenger aboard. Give them a good reason to why they have to transport the boy, perhaps an explanation about saving the boy from domestic violence. And when they arrive, the vampire come disguised as being the vampire hunter, the players was told is the person they have to deliver the boy to. However the real vampire hunter shows up too, making it easy for the players to determine who are the real, and who are the disguised. The vampire hunter orders them to get away, get to the fallen lady or the brass lion. Here it is where the players realizes that the vampire is something paranormal. As GM: Use the boy as your NPC in the group. (Have the boy confirm that fleeing is the best option.) Remember: Then the players most obvious way to get away is by using their truck!

This was a really great video, I found it massively useful as an example of narrative exploration. I'd love to see a few more of these.

Love the part where you basically say: "I can't do such-and-such. Or maybe I could. Hm..." Great videos. They've been a huge help.

Too many possibilities come to mind to type out here. I like the mention of the boy being the hunter's son & about freeing the boy before the delivery. Sounds like a GREAT session is coming. Please give us a summary of how it goes! Thanks for another great video!

quite a change of pace but certainly interesting and informative for theorizing future campaigns for myself.

It is amazing! I can click the like button even before I watch any video here and I would have done it afterwards anyway :D

This sold me on the idea of a game in the setting of the Blade film trilogy.

Put it on a timer: The last delivery is toward the end of the night, almost dawn, and they just need to evade the vampire for a short time before day break. They can find help and discover why the boy is important during the day. If there is a tense moment when the heroes are in danger, perhaps the first slivers of day break thwart the vampire - even if by way of a shard of glass or insignificant mirror. Or maybe they just pull a curtain at the pivotal moment. It's something people don't usually have control over - the sun that is - so it isn't exactly taking power from the players, and they can use individual skills or perks to keep the party safe while escaping the vampire.

Welcome to todays episode of "For your consideration" my name is *GUY* and I need your help

@GoldSabre

6 жыл бұрын

That's a plot hook if I've ever seen one

Enjoyed getting to be in your head, watching you think up the adventure. I would love to see a breakdown of how the session went, with any last minute changes or improvisations, and why you made them. Maybe another "for your consideration?" But, hope you have a blast seeing your old friends, and to you, "happy gaming."

Chicago has trains too, and a great glass bean

Very helpful, I had never considered developing a one shot from a cool encounter idea vs. using a traditional plot formula. Do you think developing from an encounter is a better than the traditional” formula is better for One shots? At what point did you know what sub-genera of horror you were using, and were there any unspoken factors in choosing a more fantasy minimal style, I.e. knowing your players, strengths/weakness of the system, etc. ?

Make the kid a daywalker. Not as much a railroad as making the kid a chosen one but still makes the kid potentially very powerful for or against vampires.

Wait so is Odawara Castle (I probably butchered that spelling lol) the vampire's base or the vampire hunter's base? I like the vampire hunter's base more because then the hunter is mortally wounded and sitting just outside the doors to his safe haven, dying fast. He is so close yet so far from being able to fight another day. It's dramatic, it's sad, and it makes the PC's use their cool new gadgets and the boy to fend off the vampire in hopes of saving the hunter. Very heroic, very epic, which is what you want in a one shot. Of course, then the PCs have the choice to save the hunter in the nick of time, or he dies, depending on yours and their choices. As a player, I would have wanted to see the castle as the hunter's base, not the vampire's base. That's just my two cents, you do you, and happy gaming!!!

They have to get the boy to a specific church where someone else is waiting for him.

I'm imagining this scene with the vampire hunter and vampire roles swapped. The vampire hunter has a little boy delivered to him for unknown reasons, then the vampire busts in. Depending on the reaction to this scenario, the vampire might be the father of the boy and the boy is secretly a vampire or the boy is a student of the vampire hunter. Or both, of course. Depending on who the players react to, the scene will change to accommodate that reaction. The players get back in their truck and get ready to drive away. If the vampire turns out to be the father, the vampire will then pick up the truck and toss it through the window so he can duke it out with the vampire hunter. If the vampire isn't the father, the vampire hunter sets off an explosive charge that has the same effect and the child will comment that an explosion like that will only pause a vampire for 11 minutes and 6 seconds exactly. When the players have been tossed through the window, they find the car on a traintrack. The car won't start and there is no way down. In addition, one of the players' legs has been broken so they can't jump. There's a train coming from behind. The party has to figure out how to escape the train from smooshing them. If they can't figure out how to do that and save their friend at the same time, the boy offers an injection that's only for emergencies if he's the student or offers to make the player heal through unholy magic if he's a vampire himself. Whatever happens, the players will eventually get out of the vehicle worse for wear and arrive at the landmark. Continue from there.

This sounds pretty amazing, but how do you fit it all in a few hours for a one shot? As a new DM, I find it frustrating how slowly the game progresses in a combat encounter when I am trying to run a one shot. This seems overly optimistic to me on what can be accomplished in a single session. Any tips on how to get all this done, or how to have a good storyline with some good combat whilst on the clock?

The boy could be a person that has visions and the vampire neeed him to find his lost lover locked away. And the boy could be his the vampire's half breed son to throw a twist.

When you need a big city setting, you think of Tokyo, I think of Los Angeles. (Cos that's where I live - not in LA but about 100 miles north.)

An interesting idea.

Interesting. I hope that the game went well.

Maybe not so much a hellboy like underworld market but just some kind of underground network of vampire hunters which could be huge or just a small network of people. Also have the boy maybe have a type of immunity to vampirism just options.

Reminds me of the TV show The Strain.

What you're doing is a technique also used in programming. Programmers have discovered that they can find a solution for a difficult problem faster by trying to explain it to someone else and walk them through it. Since programming is a solitary endeavour and there very frequently is noone to talk to, some creative programmer got the idea of putting a rubber duck on their monitor and explaining their problem to the duck. Thus, the technique came to be known as "Rubber Ducking".

So is your process any different for a much larger campaign or is this just what you do for short one shots

Nice Idea. You could have the comming night as a way to escalade the thread-level. When the Players run away with the boy, the sun is still shining, so the Vampire can't follow them out of the shadows of the storage hall The Players have time to think for a moment (the computer-dude can try to find some clues/Plotbasics in the Internet), then simple human servants of the vampire attack. Late, when night falls, the vampire itselve attack them.

@rexaxis3450

6 жыл бұрын

The vampires could easily be tied to the yakuza, he may not need to give chase at all, and corner them that way.

Maybe the boys blood is like a delicacy. Maybe he is like grass fed beef except like people. Maybe the characters then have to sneak onto the "farm" while the vampire hunter distracts them

Escaping the bad guys through tunnels under Shinjuku? Code Geass?

Thought: still have to get to all the places the group was going to hit on their stag night.

Even in New York (not the tyrannical Chicago) allows people to get carry permits for firearms. Other more civilized American towns will have even had open carry. If they commandeer the hunter's car, he may have weapons and a GPS to his hideout.

Oh Great dungeon master I've seem to be in a pickle and I'm trying to play a weird character that references Patches from darksouls. This is my first chaotic or evil character. He is a oddly neutral and chaotic sometimes. Tricking people into getting treasure but killed by pushed from a cliff or ended up in a trap. Then he scavenges their goods. Or if they survived ( hopefully not) he ask for forgiveness and gives them a gift or something valuable. His purpose is just tricky people and sell their goods and makes a living out of it, he punish those who are greedy. He also hates clerics. I took that reference and named him pate who was raised in a devoted religious family but he refuse and questions their faith. Punished and stole the churches relics and left burned down church. Now it seems I messed because we "the party" ended in a prison with our memories wiped of how we ended up there in the first place. Now trusty pate is a rouge lost his golden necklace to a tiefling queen while trying to leave cell. And when the party asks for my help to open one the cells to our ranger. I ask them if they could get my lovely necklace back (which I planned them to get hurt a bit to retrieve the golden necklace but I would've let them have it anyway) But the dm intervene by controlling one of the player characters which was a rouge and pick lock the cell for them anyways. Them from there it seems the dm is trying to ruin my plans and not giving me the spotlight for a bit. I understand I play a quite an annoying player but I do my best to help out the crew but it seems the dm forces me and wouldn't let me persuade some characters. It seems this dm of mine was told how i hate clerics and skeptical about me killing the dm's cleric. What should i say to him? Or what would you do? (Also he put alot of time and creativity he put in his world he created and I'm trying not to tilt on the game or letting it get to me. But the patience i put in his game is so exaggerating.) Sorry for long text but I tried to keep the details in general.

Before i settle on my adventures i usually go through three or four versions of what i want them to do

While not particularly on topic, I do have a suggestion for a future video: How might altering the genre of an adventure change the adventure. Take for instance the adventure outlined in this video. As it stands, it sounds very much like a relatively standard Action-Adventure... adventure. However, how might it change is you changed the genre to Horror, but changed nothing else about the adventure. As an Action-Adventure, this would frame itself as a band of friends accidentally getting involved with a supernatural world and very much follows the Hero’s Journey structure in ways reminiscent of a Legend of Zelda game. However, if the adventure was framed as a horror game, so much can change even if literally none of the adventure is altered. As a horror game, you could accentuate the sheer horror of facing off against an ultimately powerful being that wasn’t believed to even exist before being forced deeper into this new, horrific, unforgiving world which again, shouldn’t exist. Again, none of the existing adventure would actually be altered, but rather than feeling like something akin to a Legend of Zelda game, the horror elements could make it feel more like Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Just something for consideration.

If you're going to use Japan as a base then invoking some old japanese Legends would be good. Saigō Takamori is often called the last Samurai. he's often shown with his dog in statues.

How about run till dawn and have the boy empower or pick the next vampire hunter or slayer have the vampire minions capture the boy to take to there master heroes have to stop them from getting to there master

Hello, sir. I feel stupid to ask but... do you know the Fate system ? Have you ever played with it ? What is your opinion.

I literally just get to the table and start making shit up, lol. I have loose plans and the world thought out... and sometimes the players do dumb shit, so i literally stopped writing the adventures in advance... i just think of the monster type, trap level, and how it will progress the story or add seeds

could the boy be a lycantrope? and maybe he will turn soon and go a bit more into underworld territory?

The kid could be related to a vampire hunter who was acknowledged by his allies and feared by his enemies because of the raw natural talent this particular hunter had. Maybe he became a vampire hunter mid to late teens and had been regarded as having the potential to be one of the greatest vampire hunters Japan had ever seen, but had died due to something no amount of natural talent could prevent. Now the vampire hunters and vampires alike had been searching for any offspring this hunter had, and over the decades, came across this young boy related to the hunter, and has showed signs of the same natural talent that his ancestor had shown. The vampire hunters are desparate to recruit this child because they believe if they train him this early in his childhood, that he could easily surpass his ancestor and become perhaps one of the great vampire hunters of the world! Meanwhile, the vampires could be split on what to do. It could seem like the higher ranking vampires are focused on capturing the child, and debating on whether to turn this boy into a vampire himself in order to maximize his battle capabilites and become one of the great vampires, or turning the boy into a familiar in order to operate for the vampires where they otherwise couldnt. And perhaps some low ranking vampires just want to devour the child to end the vampire hunters blood line, and would even go as far as to disobey orders when there are no witnesses in an attempt to eat him.

Maybe when the players encounter the vampire hunter the second time, he's been turned or is in the process of being turned into a vampire.

Do you ever use the hashtag on twitter #RPGHook or #RPHook?

If you set it in EU you could have the players try to get to the “great torchbearer” and it be a journey to make it to New York

Try to keep as much of the plot underground. It Will certainly add to the claustrophobic feeling of the story and a need to get out. Even within that you can have large cavernous spaces where these supernatural beings live which shouldn't exist in a subway.

Great to see the process! By definition, One-Shot's are Rail-Road'ish. To motivate the characters to be invested in saving the kid/defeating the vampire /provide an illusion of agency I'd suggest having the introduction include the simultaneous Hen Party gathering to start their festivities. A vampire minion, keeping watch on the Van/Box, overhears the womens' destination. Scene II/Unboxing as planned. Off "camera" Vampire seduces/partially transforms the women to use against the hero's. If the hero's waver, the now fledgling Hen's attack (but withdraw after taking some damage) so they are not destroyed. The kid can share with the hero's that if the Master Vampire is destroyed, his spawn too are destroyed, and fledglings will be restored. This Also opens up some great horror potential for seduction by the Hens before the attack, and a showdown with the Fiance' and the Groom as a part of the climax. If it is going to be a stag theme, gotta make the most of it! (Impaling the Master Vampire on the horns of a Stag might be pushing it, but it would carry the theme to the ultimate conclusion).

Avoid the vampire hunter bursting in scene. Avoid getting the party to the warehouse at all. Just before they arrive, have the boy pound on the box lid pleading to be let out. When/if they do have him go into exposition mode: You’re the unwitting pawns driving me to my doom. I’m the last of a great demon vampire hunter bloodline. They will do anything to end my line. And you guys are just their evening meal - no witnesses. As the child finishes have a vampire or two land on the roof of the van - queue action sequence/chase scene. Further exposition along the way - you need to get me to this place, we might be safe there. Etc,etc. TL;dr Make it your version of Eddie Murphy’s Golden Child.

Make the boy the Hunter's son or nephew Or make him the hunter earlier in life Maybe the hunter went back in time

@derkrischa3720

6 жыл бұрын

A bloodline or reincarnating Vampire-Hunter!

@christianlamberti6059

6 жыл бұрын

Christopher Schröder I like that!!

@derkrischa3720

6 жыл бұрын

Maybe the Vampires try to destroy the Hunters by either killing the next generation of Hunters or break the reincarnation cycle by killing the old and the new Hunter, bevore the old can train the new.

@starspawn507

6 жыл бұрын

If it is time travel, then there are a whole load of issues due to things like paradoxes. You _could_ build paradoxes into the plot as a detail that must be avoided, but that could lead to excessive railroading.

@christianlamberti6059

6 жыл бұрын

Theren Stormwind I was just figuring you can rule of cool it It doesn't have to be integral it just needs to give appropriate motivation to the vampire/hunter

can you do a pirate video

Kinda like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv version).

My question to the premise is why would your players *in a modern setting* be delieving a human child, talk about literal human trafficking. so what im thinking is maybe change the boy in the box to some magical artifact, make it look like some old nitnack when in actuality its some item thats needed for the vampires grand plan of... releasing the Oni Warlords of ancient times upon the world. (sense we're kinda going with this whole japan theme). We can still have the boy but instead make him the young apprentice of the Vampire Hunter who upon the scene is ordered to help the party get the fuck out of here while he fends off the vamps

@dreddbolt

6 жыл бұрын

Papi The Harpy Hmm. It is a one-shot though, so world building should only be a small part of it, where as the encounters themselves should be more epic. A one shot doesn't give enough time to get invested in the world in the long term. Smaller scale events which hit hard and world-build quickly (as opposed to) > A grandiose scheme reminiscent of an epic series. If it were a long term campaign, the oni idea would work much more easily.

@rhysjonsmusic

6 жыл бұрын

oh right, I mustnt have noticed that bit. im still a new dm so i wouldnt really know how to do a one shot

@CCartman69

6 жыл бұрын

Also he said they were delivering a box. The PCs don't know there's a child in the box until the vampire opens it up at the destination.

@rhysjonsmusic

6 жыл бұрын

But why would the company the player would be driving for allow this? The issue with setting campaigns in the modern day is well... you gotta keep laws in mind

@gvendurst

6 жыл бұрын

The vampire could own the company.

never gonna work. I hate one shots on principal because you do not have the time to set up a real story, particularly if you only have a few hours. Mainly because it's not abnormal for one combat encounter to last an hour or more. The best advice i can give is rip everything out that involves plot and just make everyone a high level badass vampire slayer. Try and recreate that opening nightclub scene from the first blade movie. Clearing out an entire nightclub full of vampire thralls (minimum of 30), will take a couple of hours by itself and everyone leaves feeling satisfied, because they contributed and because they did not leave the story unfinished. Leaving the story unfinished is by far the biggest problem with one shot games.