Veeky Forums as DM

>yfw you have to DM

Quick Veeky Forums you forgot you had to DM a game tonight what is the story!?

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youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1vJXTkLWY
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Professionals_(1966_film)
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

Barfight while I gather my thoughts.

I'll just grab my folder of adventures I've been meaning to run, and adapt one to the setting.

Have everyone be apart of a homeless community and have them talk for awhile about how great the last thing they ate was.

Throw them in Greyhawk. Bitches love Greyhawk.

Welp, improv time!
"So you find yourselves in the Sea of Stars when suddenly you come across a whale carcass. One of the BBEG's lieutenant is riding atop it, looking as if they're marooned there for some time now. What do you do?"

If it's an ongoing campaign, then rocks fall everyone dies.
Otherwise, see what chars they built and tailor the world to that.

Depends on the setting but...

Fantasy/Medieval
>Party is already grouped together and traveling through a forest
>as they are traveling through they run into a group of soldiers
>soldiers are waving the flag of a hostile nation
>Fight probably ensues
>after a set amount of time has passed another party bumps into the PCs
>including a young, charismatic lord
>"I see we're not the only ones who've been ambushed in this forest, are you okay?"
>eventually other group asks party to join them
>youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1vJXTkLWY

Modern setting
>Party have all been assigned by different groups to kill the same target
>bump into each other in the same building
>do their stuff
>eventually realized they're all getting rused (or not)

Sci-fi
>"Fuck I can't do sci-fi"

I don't know, I forgot, you fuck.

eh just send them to a town and they'll spend the whole night fucking around anyway

Character A is going about his day job when something horrendous and semi-inexplicable occurs; the incident spills into the area where character B is doing their thing by rule of DM convenience, and subsequentially all the Player Characters are involved in a large scale disaster - natural, man made, magical, supernatural or scientific, it matters not what.

The important part is that the event that triggers their flight from the starting zone is just the opener; they escape just before whatever bullshit is happening goes supernova and reaches it's ultimate to the point of absurd conclusion; this is probably some pretty wack bullshit so the player characters now have news to spread, some bullshit to illuminate and a blitzed hometown to avenge.

Add personal flourish to taste, close scene on session one, and remember to do more prep for next time: that's a rap.

>Quick Veeky Forums you forgot you had to DM a game tonight

I've been prepping all month to run this OSR module.
>fort on the edge of the totally-not-byzantine-empire
>almost all their troops have been called away to wars elsewhere
>beastmen have been raiding villages more than usual, but no soldiers available to deal with it
>big bounty for whoever finds the source of the raids and destroys it
>tracks will lead to a megadungeon
>of course there's going to be a spooky supernatural threat behind the beastmen

Also
>What is the story!?
The story is what will result from the players' interaction with the scenario; there are a lot of directions for it to go. Also I can't post more details because my players browse Veeky Forums, and the last thing I need is to give them spoilers.

Make up a grimdark side story a la cowboy bebop they have to follow. It will probably end with someone needlessly dieing, one of the pcs smoking while looking back at the gruesome scene. The pc can't seem to take his eyes off the sight and another pc puts his hand on his shoulder and says forget about it jake, its chinatown. The pc then takes one last drag from his ciggarrette before throwing the butt down on the pavement and putting it out with his heel. He puts his fedora slightly down on his face before stepping into the backseat of the car. The next shot is a close up on the pcs face in the back of the car as its driving away. You only get a split second view and it looks like hes about to cry, but then he just puts his hat down a little further and all you get to see is a stone cold expression peaking out from under it. The theme from taxi driver starts playing, and the next shot is a birds eye view of the car driving across the mojave desert towards a blood red sunset across an orange sky. Credits start to roll as the camera pans up to the pale blue sky and the moon that is just starting to appear.

My default is to bite off general plots from Westerns since the storylines generally tend to translate well into most any setting:
An easy one I like to get new players started is the set up from "The Professionals" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Professionals_(1966_film)

>Have Cattle-baron/Generic affluent townie
>wife/fiance/betrothed is kidnapped by bandits/revolutionaries of neighboring country/territory/whatever
>hires Player characters each an "expert in their field" (ranger/barbarian/wizard/paladin/whatever)
>throw in an extra DMPC to fill in any gaps
>tasked with bringing her back alive
>they find her
>find out she left willingly
>is actually in a romantic relationship with bandit leader
>leave it up to them on whether they want to just force her to come back or help out the bandits to overthrow generic regional dictator
>possibly railroad them into the latter with DMPC insisting on the former since Players usually don't like being told what to do and will do the opposite of what is suggested unless there's a lawful stupid paladin in the group who insist on finishing the job
>throw in a few encounters with either bandits, or local law enforcement depending on what route they choose
>kill off DMPC to increased sense of tension and urgency
>conclude it when they either deliver the VIP, or help her stay

Fuck it you could just straight rip off the bloody barons sidequest from the witcher 3, it would work even better, and depending on the age of your players they won't even know where its from.

Friend Computer needs a lightbulb changed in Sector 32.b, sending Troubkeshooters because malfunctioning bulb might be part of Communist plot.

The room with the lightbulb is dark; the replaced lightbulb reveals that the room is blue.

a tpk.

>The PCs are all Infrared clearances

RIP OFF GRIM DAWN COM-PLE-TE-LY, JUST REMOVE GUNS AND CUT DOWN ON MAGIC ITEMS

I didn't forgot any games, but something similar happend

>Friend calls me
>he likes my sessions
>He says if he can bring some friends for a one shot
>Sure, why not
>"Good, we'll be there in 2 hours"
>WHAT!?
>I can't just create a full out game in just 2 hours
>"C'mon man I know you can do this"
>Accept because he's my friend

He was lucky since it was friday and I didn't have plans anyway, so I said "fuck it" and runned a standart scenario from the book, taking that aside it was a fun time

...

Uhhh, something something, giant dragon, other something, magical treasure, something something, Synesthesia inducing traps, and final something double crossing quest giver.

So I need to run an improvised one shot? Pull out your inner Weeb, we maid Rpg now.

You're in a Mexican standoff around a suitcase all of you believe to be filled with diamonds.
Who's pointing their gun at who?

"I point my gun at the case. It's clearly a mimic!"

...Well, shit.
The suitcase reshapes and points guns at all of you.
Roll initiative to see whether you shoot it or it shoots you first. The Indonesian gentleman gets a +2 bonus on the roll.

>The party is gathered around a book in a basement.
>Bound in human flesh, the book is clearly bad news, and the party needs to discuss whether they open it or not.
>As soon as they open it, unspeakable horror seeps out and unleashes a hellish maelstrom of fuckery. In order to fix the problem, the party will need to hunt down various BBEGs and preform ghastly summoning rituals with their dismembered parts.
>If the party doesn't open the book, a cabal-like group will burst in, some merry sue NPC will fight valiantly, before getting kidnapped, and the party will go on a quest to save their bro.
>if the party disagrees, about the course of action and takes too long, the second someone touches the book, it will bite them and create a doppleganger with fancy magical powers.

Rolled 15 (1d100)

Shit, I forgot which dice

>4 party members with Mold Earth
>Can literally just dig their way to the surface like it's fuckin' minecraft since the starting chamber is raw stone/earth
>Can displace a 5 ft cube of dirt or stone every round (6 seconds)
>Can dig 50 feet per minute per person for 200 feet of excavation per minute

It might be a safer bet to wait until you've reached a bigger room in the event you need to have more space to displace dirt first, but getting to one of the open areas would be trivial since the only steel (The grate) could have the stone around the hinges removed with Mold Earth. The only tricky parts at that point are killing all the bad dudes without losing anyone, but even with just one Mold Earth user it should be possible to escape.

Assuming you started digging at no7 to make sure you have enough room to place displaced earth without clogging the area behind you, and assuming you spent 30 minutes blasting away at the wall to get an opening to raw dirt with Cantrips, and lastly assuming you dig upwards at a 45 degree angle, it would take you around 45 minutes, maybe an hour if you take the time to be careful to avoid cave ins and to make sure your dirt you displace is put out of the way.

Mold Earth is one of the best cantrips ever.

>In the etheral plain of magic, rifts in time and space makes chunks of other planes drop in
>a magically radiated wasteland of floating chunks of rocks where the survivors have gone mad
>and you don't have a date to the prom and it's tomorrow

Doesn't matter, because my players will forget they've got a game tonight too.

1. Go to Veeky Forums
2. Post a thread with the text, "Quick Veeky Forums you forgot you had to DM a game tonight what is the story!?"
3. Wait for the ideas to roll in.

I'd set up a town with very vague mysterious plot occurring, and at a PC's first interesting hypothesis, adopt that as fact and run with it.
>Maybe the reason the townsfolk are acting strangely is...this town is a massive trap for adventurers?!
>Giant Mimic plot is go
Gives someone a eureka moment and makes them think you can run a mystery worth a damn.

>make simple holy symbol and lockpicks out of bones and shit in room 1, collect extra bones and rocks too
>use extra bones to help form better handholds in the tunnel to climb up and out
>use improvised bone lockpicks to open the grate's padlock
>present improvised holy symbol as entering room 4
>throw a rock into the water elemental's pool, run like a bitch, jump back into the tunnel
>water elemental is lured to room 3, can't follow, then eventually returns into room 4 where it's defeated by the statues?
>return while presenting the holy symbol again, loot the stuff in the pool
>lure G-cube down the stairs, trick it into going in the pool where it will be trapped (maybe jump into the center of the pool, watch it follow you in and sink to the bottom? G-cubes can't swim or escape pits, I think).
>go up stairs into room 7
>use the 3 iron rods to Assassin's Creed your way up the sides of Room 7 (stick rod in hole, get on rod, jump up to next hole and stick the hole in the rod, using it to support yourself, repeat), getting you up to a 30ft high hole. A thief might be able to do this.
>launch yourself from the 30ft high hole onto the rope in the middle of the room
>climb all the way up to safety because apparently you're Altaiir's long-lost brother or something
>get equipment, use it to extend the rope, allowing others to climb up relatively safely

How'd I do?

Depends on how well/shitty you roll but it could work.
This is assuming your character already knows about the enemies though.

You arrive in town to learn the Lord is having a birthday party that night and there will be cake.
You haven't had cake in a good while.

You soon discover... the cake is a lie!

...

Deep rot

Villain wants to remake the world in their image using terrors beyond time, go stop them before they unleash something they should not have

>You all wake up in a cave, without shirts on
>Except for the healer, he's hanging upside-down, covered in spider silk
>you have your weapons
>you see a dead giant spider at the far end of the cave
>what do?

>Mold earth out of the oubliette
>make sharp thorns from the bones
>cast Spike Growth and let monk and pally wreck the columns
>commune with the water elemental to get the things on the bottom of the pool and come with us
>wreck the gelatinous cube's shit with ice knife and the monk and the pally wailing on it
>mold earth and go over the pit to get the hemp rope
>cast guidance to make a knot around oneself with the rope and then again to start climbing. Pally is the first one to go, followed by druid then monk

ez

The PC's are guarding a small wagon train of settlers an traders to a wilder frontier region along a semi-safe pathway.
Unfortunately in the year since it was last used a hobgoblin legion and a gnoll pack has migrated into the area and have begun viciously competing for territory.

The PC's must now guide their wagons through dangerous territory fought over between a tribe of organized and aggressive militaristic brutes and bloodthirsty savages while massively outnumbered and guarding thirty-odd settlers and traders over a journey that might take as long as a week depending on the speed they travel at.

Send them in the wilderness and pull out one of the dozens of encounter tables I have.

....that's actually not bad.
It provides lots of combat encounter potential but the PC's can't just automatically fight all the time because they've got charges to protect, they're outnumbered so they can't just expect to win through sheer force, and they have to use terrain and semi-known territory to hide the caravan group and keep as many people and wagons as intact as possible which might slow their journey.

Throw them into Tomb of Horrors, the TPK will give me the time I need to think of something.

An experiment involving wild magic has wrecked a large human city. The city is cordoned off with a palisade and filled with deadly magical anomalies, bandits and mutants. However, the catastrophe also caused the appearence of valuable magical artifacts inside the area. The group is hired as treasure hunters to find one of said artifacts.
Cheekis may or may not be breeki'd in the process.

Oh, I'll just splat another onetimer into my usual setting. Might make this one tie into Storm King's , and have my usual group hear about it later on