[IDEAS] Stuck for ideas - here's an easy hack that will make you smarter too!
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2024
- When I get stuck for ideas for my next adventure, I have a few techniques. This is one where you get great free adventure ideas, learning some awesome about our world and look good whilst doing it!
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The Tunche is a sacred spirit. It makes a highs pitched sound when it manifests in the material plane to sanctify recently dead/murdered bodies so that the REAL bad guy can't absorb their souls. Of course, most people think the Tunche is evil and the whistling signifies death.
This makes for an interesting twist
@cinderblocksally recently did a homebrew challenge for monsters that go along with other monsters. This would be an interesting candidate.
In the paracosm I created, there's a statue of a being called the "wassabey". The story is, it "sings for dead and cries for the living".
Then one day, it starts laughing.
In my home town we have a mountain called Mt Diablo. It was named that because when the Spanish settlers showed up we're clearing out the native tribes, the tribes went up the mountain and disappeared despite the Spanish scouring the mountain trying to find them. This spooked the Spanish so they named it Mt Diablo. It's a simple legend but I think ripe with potential.
Contra Costa proud!
I'm from Wisconsin and there is a place not so far from where I grew up that had a legend of the Hodag.
In American folklore, the hodag is a fearsome green monster resembling a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curved spines down its back and sharp fangs. The hodag was said to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen, as the incarnation of the accumulation of abuse the animals had suffered at the hands of their masters. The Hodag ate mud turtles, water snakes, oxen and white bulldogs. It lived in swampy or woodland areas.
from Wales, one of the legends I know of is the Afanc , a lake dwelling water demon/serpent or great animal. It was so large that when it splashed about it would flood the lake banks and ruin farmland and roads and the villiages. Though it would go still when it heard maidens singing to it, even falling asleep near them. The villiagers had enough of it's flooding that they gathered their strongest oxes and their fairest singing maiden and ropes. Lured it onto the banks and let it fall asleep with it's head in the maiden's lap then lashed it to the yokes of the ox. When they began to drag it away it lashed out accidentally killing the maiden as it was pulled miles away further up the mountains to a new lake. The ox were worked so hard and pulling so much some of their eyes popped out and bled badly.
The afanc was left in it's new lake where it could splash as much as it liked.
An alternate version has it slaying the three sons of a king every day as they would always be ressurected by maidens of the court. A hero tries to go with them to slay the creature but is warned it is invisible, he's given an adder stone so he can see it and kill it.
the most prominent legend from germany that comes to my mind is "Nibelungenlied" its the german heroic poem about siegfried the dragon slayer and the betrayel that kills him.
In Bulgaria (or Slavic folklore I suppose) we have the Kikimora (looking like an old lady), which is a spirit of the house. If the residents of a house are not taking care of their home the Kikimora becomes angry and starts doing unpleasant things for the people inside.
The Kikimora lives behind the stove and knits, which, for some reason, seems super creepy to me. :D
Might not sound very dangerous but might spark an inspiration in someone.
Hi Guy!
I just wanted to thank you and your team for making these videos. They're an invaluable resource for my own games that I DM, and I'm ever appreciative of all the work that goes into these videos.
Where I live in Bristol UK there is a local legend of the Bristol crocodile that lives in the river Avon. A newspaper ran an article about a bus driver who saw a crocodile that turned out to be a log, and the city latched onto it 😂
Similar to Arthur, Sigurd in myth here pulled the sword Gram ( _also known as Balmung_ ) out from a stump. Aside from that we also have the stories about the water nymph "Näcken". A spirit in the shape of a young naked girl whom you would find in rivers and streams in the deep forest, who lures men and 10% of the ladies to come close to her, and then she drowns them. Scandinavian Folklore and Myths.
I've always enjoyed the Native American stories about Iktomi, the spider god. He is a trickster, similar to Loki, but also ultimately benefits human kind. He is the one who gave us the dreamcatcher.
When I am developing ideas I have tended to lean this way. But, you you've managed to articulate this approach in a way that is repeatable. Awesome. Thank you!!
My province’s (Manitoba) legislative building was built by Freemasons. As such, it is filled with occult symbols, hidden in plain sight. There are specific tours you can take that point these out, but what if, suddenly, one of them is missing? Or there’s a new one that wasn’t there this morning? Or those symbols are the key to a ceremony to summon an extra planar being on a specific day of the lunar cycle that happens with a certain planetary alignment, and that day just happens to be tomorrow?
We also have our share of ghost stories, most famous of which is room 202 in the Fort Garry Hotel, where honeymooners are said to have stayed some time ago. The bride got sick, and her new husband left to get her medicine, but died in a tragic car crash and never returned. Overcome with grief upon hearing the news, she hung herself in the hotel room closet. She can still be seen grieving her loss in both the room and the hotel lounge.
There’s also a church in a nearby community that is the oldest stone church in western Canada. It is said that if you walk around it backwards three times, you’ll disappear. Where to? That could be a whole adventure right there. There are also, of course, the usual spooky sightings at night in the graveyard: floating red eyes, organs playing spontaneously, and a mysterious woman dressed all in white; and of course, recurring nightmares featuring rattling church gates for those who have dared visit at night…
Thanks for the inspiration to find more inspiration, Guy!
Great video as always Guy!
You gave me some thoughts: Instead of a colour, you can pick any sensational impulse. Such as the whistling sound that you mentioned. Or the scent of petrichor. Colours are easier though because there is a discrete amount of them.
I really like your suggestion of "pick an emotion". It brings your preparation process very close by to the experience that your players will have. And what if instead of one emotion, you pick 2? Not 2 emotions at the same time, but a reinterpretation of the first one.
Maybe you pick an ethnic legend that was used to scare children into compliance, and then in the final act of the story you reveal something that reinterprets the situation from terror to compassion. Maybe the monster was benevolent all along and we just didn't see the big picture. Maybe the ghosts that plague this village were the victims of a witch whose souls were stuck in limbo, and they were desperately trying to reach out and tell their lost relatives that their remains must be burnt for them to leave this plane of existence.
Doctor Who stories always love doing this.
In Philippine mythology, the kapre is a creature that may be described as a tree giant, being a tall (7-9 ft (2.1-2.7 m)), dark-coloured, hairy, and muscular creature. Kapres are also said to have a very strong body odor and to sit in tree branches to smoke.
Chartreuse! I swear i was thinking that Guy! Yes, im an old bass fisherman. 😂😂
Great method of coming up with more ideas. I love this! Much better than giving us an idea, giving us a way to come up with our own. Thank you
Florida Man: He is constantly committing absurd and even horrendous crimes yet manages to be caught only to commit more crimes the following day. You hear about him constantly, everyone knows Florida Man, but they just can't seem to stop him for long.
Along with the witch Baba Yaga there's a lich in Russian folklore called Koschei the Deathless. He is an evil, nearly-immortal, hideous, shape-shifting sorcerer who torments people. He hides "his death" inside nested objects to protect it. For example, his death may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a far island.
Great video this time around. Great idea to get the creative juices flowing.
This works well for fantasy. I would like to see a sci-fi /cyberpunk version for this. The folklore might work but it is less likely to work for non-fantasy campaigns.
sci-fi is not as far from fantasy as one might think instead of magic theres technology but fiction is fiction you can take anything and turn it into something else for example take a japanese ghost story and put it on a space station tweak it a little and you have a cool story.
iIt's easy to work, let's say, gray, emotion: resent. The "team" returns from their last adventure and barely finishes their stories when a loud alarm sounds. They are ordered to the briefing room, half drunk on Romulan ale and cheese balls. They arrive in the briefing room, intending to refuse another mission so soon after they just got home and deserved some downtime, when they hear the news. Their sister's team failed to report in from the far corner of space. Suddenly, the room turns monochromatic [gray] as the reality sinks in. How long were they gone? What were they doing out there? Why didn't you tell us sooner? ... Oh man, this is going to get CRAZY! See its simple. And trust Im stopping here, but throughout the entire adventure, I can turn things GRAY, all of the red lights are smashed, only the white lights fill the room, You find gray sludge as you enter the ship, When you find the bodies they are all a dark GRAY, and they seam to be swollen up, almost like they was about to burst out of there suites..... EZ-PZ. @extraneousB
Alien, one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever is simply a gothic horror tale. Star wars is a nod to a Japanese epic tale. Easier than you think. Magic in a sci-fi environment becomes mystery and mind twist.
Feel free to look up the Jersey Devil. There are a couple of variations to the lore. It is a folklore creature that has "existed" in the pine barrens of New Jersey.
Thanks to movies like
Legend
LotR
Conan
Red Sonja
Predator
Alien
There's games like
Final Fantasy
Zelda
Aidyn Chronicles
Star Ocean
Legaia
Dark Alliance
I never run out of ideas
So glad to see Legaia on your list! Heavily underrated. I most recently took inspiration from their Genesis Tree and monster mist for an adventure, combined it with a Koudelka/Shadow Hearts version of that creepy Arachne witha severed hand for a body et voila, great monster hunting adventure right there.
Thanks for the video guy!
Great video!
" I don't know how you pronounce it, it's mine now I've claimed it"
Careful Guy, too many comments like that and people will be trying to cancel you. /sarc
In all seriousness though I'm always astonished at how you're able to take things like not being sure what to do next and turn it into an easily followed process, and then once you point out how it can work it feels like that creative process should have been natural from the beginning. I absolutely adore these kinds of videos, although in my heart of hearts I do wish you would bring back the evil wizard character Etc.
🐢
Is it me or does Guy look a little green with the lighting?
I want to lime the video but it's at 69 likes so ill have to wait
So, just steal stuff? Hell, i could have told you that.
An hour away from here, in San Jose, California, is the Winchester House. It was the home of the daughter of Mr. Winchester, of repeating rifle fame.
She was so haunted by the deaths of the people killed by Winchester Rifles, that she believed that to keep their spirits from attacking her, they would be confused and kept at bay by continually building on to the house.
Because of this, there are stairways that lead to walls. Doors that open to nothing. Windows that do not show the outside.
This could easily be incorporated into a dungeon, or spacecraft with similar issues. You could have the old woman/man living in regret. You could have actual spirits/undead occupying the place. You could have the undead/spirit of the old woman/man who needs closure.
It could be a local banker trying to buy the property cheap, who is foiled by the meddling kids/adventurers/space truckers and their dog/cat/pet dragon/robot handyman.