What is the LEAST contrived reason for literally every enemy faction within travelling distance all attacking one settlement on the same day, when most of them would never work together and few value the same resources?
Hard Mode: No mind control elements whatsoever.
Is there a reason Hitler is on a pike there? Every other "monster" in this image is fictional, is this comic implying Hitler didn't actually exist?
Something much bigger and more powerful told them "Attack this place or I wipe you out."
The city's mayor, Alvarez, has produced the legendary ULTRAFART. Drawn in and maddened by the stench, everything for hundreds of miles has converged on the city to kill Alvaraz and anyone else who happens to look like him.
It's a joke and there is no consistency between any of the monster origins despite them simply not being from his game or novel.
Drought, and the town has a well/lake/spring.
Can we just spend the thread creating a Grimdark PBS Kids setting, and make Elmo a Schizophrenic Badass Gunslinger?
The only time anything like this ever happened in a game of mine, even the city being attacked was in on it all to gut one guy who brought it upon himself.
A hidden necromancer manipulated all the factions in attacking using fake threats and coersion specifically so there would be a bloody battle on the night of a full moon when his powers are at their peak. The night followig the battle, he raises a skeleton army from those who fell and tries to take over the kingdom.
>and there is no consistency between any of the monster origins.
That's not true. They're almost all monsters from things intended for children, mostly TV shows.
And then there's Hitler, for no apparent reason.
This. Think of it like the old punishment of decimation. The province did something to piss off God, so God picked one city in the province and forced everyone else to destroy that one.
The joke is obviously that Hitler was a monster like the others in the image. It is hardly for no reason even if he doesn't fit the theme.
And most of those monsters ans innocent, so what? Are we supposed to put Hitler on the same level as Cookie Monster? Are we supposed to sympathize with Hitler? We're clearly meant to see Geralt as the villain here.
I feel like Hitler's out of place there because he's a metaphorical monster and doesn't fit the goofy theme.
Barney's also a dinosaur so it's about 50/50 on him.
Not that user, but, well, can you name a famous pop-culture monster from something not intended for children?
Besides rpg fantasy monsters.
Or classic movie monsters.
Or sci-fi monsters.
Or monsters from literature.
Okay, you have a point.
I'm going with: the comic creator is immature and Hitler was thrown in for edgy contrast.
The others all being from kid stuff makes sense though.
I don't think Po was ever described as a monster either. I doubt the teletubbies got called monsters.
I always through they were supposed to be aliens.
Clearly the braindamaged rejects from their race, exiled to the planet with the sun that possesses a baby's face.
I was specifically trying to avoid the "under the command of overlord" thing.
Sneaky manipulation works and this necromancer idea is close to what I was first thinking.
But pulling that off seemed kinda unlikely and complicated.
It can be the culmination of a few years of planning and correspondance with various factions. Or can be an entire cult of necromancers working together if that makes it more plausible than just one evil genius.
No. Every part of that comic is meant to make you sympathize with Hitler. He is placed among child friendly pop-culture monsters you probably remember from your childhood, the comic is titled "Killing Monsters!!?" with that question mark at the end, and Gearlt (a POLISH creation) is being portrayed as an out of control bloodthirsty madman.
This is a fucking PSYOP.
I always considered the Teletubbies monsters, second only to their creators.
You ever stop and think we are overanalysing an attempt at comedy?
Nah, couldn't be that.
They launched a holy crusade against one of the other settlements. This is not the first holy crusade they have launched, nor have they only launched them against this settlement. They have been nothing but a nuisance for the entire area for a long, long time. This latest crusade, though, actually did significant damage and it looks like they're gearing up for more. The time has finally come for everybody to get together and solve this problem for good.
They get bribed whatever resource they value in large quantity.
Or the settlement gets a macguffin(s) that all the bad dudes want bad enough they're willing to (temporarily) work together to get it (as soon as combat is over they fight each other to get it)
The settlement is Jerusalem.
>Drought, and the town has a well/lake/spring.
Everyone needs water.
This is actually the best, least contrived idea so far.
It would change too much of the setting to work with what I have planned, but definitely a great answer for the scenario and gives me an idea to rework it later.
The supposedly greatest fighter in the land has stopped in the town and challenged anyone daring enough to come to him and challenge him for his title on that day. The attack is actually just a queuing squabble that got out of hand.
>the culmination of a few years of planning by an entire cult of necromancers working together to manipulate all the factions in attacking using fake threats and coersion specifically so there would be a bloody battle on the night of a full moon when their powers are at their peak using a
>macguffin the settlement recently got that all the bad dudes want
How plausible does this sound everone?
Go home Rick, you're drunk.
There doesn't even need to be a macguffin. The various factions all having misinformation, or even believing there is a macguffin or that all the other factions are preparing to attack works on its own.
It is easy to get caught up in questions of how contrived it is. The fact is, unless you have an extremely picky group, they won't think it is contrived for someone evil to perform an evil plan that messes up the world somehow, even a ridiculously complex plan. The challenge is in how the PCs are able to solve the problem, not what the problem is. So long as you don't railroad them into a deus ex machina, they likely won't care that much about a bit of a contrived problem.
>It is easy to get caught up in questions of how contrived it is. The fact is, unless you have an extremely picky group, they won't think it is contrived for someone evil to perform an evil plan that messes up the world somehow, even a ridiculously complex plan. The challenge is in how the PCs are able to solve the problem, not what the problem is. So long as you don't railroad them into a deus ex machina, they likely won't care that much about a bit of a contrived problem.
Truth and Wisdom.
I just wanted to get it right because it is the event that all other things hang from, so I felt it should be tight as possible.
>Can we just spend the thread creating a Grimdark PBS Kids setting, and make Elmo a Schizophrenic Badass Gunslinger?
As OP, I am okay with this.
As long as Grover as canonically cooler than that cutesy-talking little upstart.
That makes sense. It was why I suggested a necromancer, or cult of necromancers in the background pulling strings. A battle over resources is complicated and messy. There is no clear resolution and no clear enemy. If you want your game to be complicated, that is fine, but I find with most groups, you want to have a bad guy. Having a clear villain who wants something, something that is achieved by all these factions fighting gives the PCs a whole campaign's worth of questing to try and unravel and dismantle the grand scheme.
>If you want your game to be complicated, that is fine, but I find with most groups, you want to have a bad guy.
I want both.
I want a complicated mess for the players to roll around in, obscuring a bad guy that was there from the beginning.
They've all been informed by their spymasters/scryers/oracles that the Big Powerful Mage/Cleric/Warlock/Other has made his lair beneath the town, and is about to perform a Ridiculously Dangerous Ritual that will do Horrible/Terrible/Awful Things to the entire region/country/continent/planet. Obviously no one wants that shit to go down, not even the necromancer cult.
Forgot my picture.
The power of my Stand is drawing the universe towards me from all directions, but within a certain radius the effect no longer applies to sentient/sapient creatures.
>I was specifically trying to avoid the "under the command of overlord" thing.
>Magical item, well of power, or event draws monsters
>Migration for some reason or another
>Overpopulation leads to instinctive assaults against sentient species in order to cull their numbers and eliminate the weak