Get Your Game On
So, as promised, here are the blurbs for the one-off games I've been planning:
These Aren't the Droids You're Looking for (8th-level Star Wars): A few years after the loss of their highest leaders at the Battle of Endor, the Imperial remnants are evacuating to the rim worlds under pressure from the strengthening Rebel Alliance. One of your contacts has brought you word that among these refugees is a lone Imperial Star Galleon carrying what could be salvaged from one of the Galactic Empire's droid gladiatorial arenas. With no time to call for reinforcements from the Alliance, your crack team-an Ewok Force adept, a Sullustan agent of SoroSuub, and a Wookiee ryyk-blade warrior, supposedly commanded by a Neimoidian administrator-prepares to intercept the shipment. Although your small band can hardly hope to fight through up to three hundred Imperial troops, you have a crazy notion of infiltrating the cargo hold, freeing the droid pit-fighters, and enlisting their aid against their captors. But as your transport approaches within sensor range of the enemy ship, it appears that something is amiss. . . .
[I managed to keep this one to a mid-level game, as I don't have nearly as many interesting feats and prestige classes available for Star Wars as for the other two. Due to this fact and the fact that there's no true spellcasting in the game, it's a lot simpler than the other two and thus more suited for amateur (?) players.]
Island of Dr. Mordenkainen (13th-level d20 Modern): After the Archmage Gary Gygax discovered the power of magic in the '70s, Soviet scientist Misha Mordenkainen saw his chance to change the world and prevent any repeat of the loss of human life he witnessed at the Battle of Stalingrad. He quickly learned the arts of arcane magic, then set himself to developing slave-beasts to fight our wars for us. But when the new Russian democracy cut funding from his research, he found himself without a way to continue. Now word has reached the CIA that he is negotiating a deal with the terrorist group known as the Crusade, selling some of the war-beasts he has spawned in order to pay for his continuing experiments. You, the anti-terror squad from Department-8, are called to put an end to this. You will infiltrate Mordenkainen's island base, kill him, and destroy all records of his work. There will undoubtedly be resistance from his creations, but you can handle it. After all, you too are magically enhanced and trained to the highest degree for your individual roles-the decorated commander, the medic/chaplain, the marksman, the covert-ops specialist, and the dual-machine-gunner.
[This one is at a higher level and has a spellcaster and a wide range of feats and advanced classes, so it's significantly more complicated than the previous one, but if you know the basic d20 rules, I should be able to walk you through it. I had so many characters and creatures I wanted to try out that this one will probably take two sessions, so it would be a bit more difficult to schedule.]
Selethmeldoom (13th-level Forgotten Realms D&D): Your rrakkma was nearly ready to return to Limbo-you needed kill only one more illithid to match your own number. But in a cruel twist of fate, this illithid happened to be Selethmel. Powerful in both psionics and arcane magic, Selethmel is an alhoon, an illithilich, a fearsome undead mind flayer. Deep in the Underdark below Faerûn, he dwells in his "doom," a lich's tiny but perilous realm where not even the hardened races of the deep dare tread, a realm now decorated by the corpses of your githzerai brethren, their brains extracted from their skulls and devoured out of habit, though the unliving monster no longer needs such nourishment. Finding yourself alone, you swore that you would avenge your rrakkma and return to your monastery in triumph with Selethmel's own rotting brain. So you have trained these four years, hunting the psionic beasts wherever you could catch one alone. Although you have far exceeded your quota, you will not rest until you have finished the business your team begun. Judging your illithid-slaying skills sufficient, you have gathered a new group of warriors, this time from the Underdark's finest-a drow soulknife wielding the ancient psionic arts of the warrior, a duergar cleric of the mind-goddess Deep Duerra, and a renegade svirfneblin illusionist spinning the sinister Shadow Weave. As these dark races can hardly be trusted, you have made sure to keep the balance of power equal between them-as long as they hate each other more than they hate you, you hope they will keep one another in check. Now you must move quickly to put an end to the undead mind flayer before the tension amongst your erstwhile allies gets the best of them.
[Well, that was a mouthful. As you can see, this is set in the Underdark, but it doesn't go too deeply into the setting, as all you're doing is raiding the doom (and I don't have the sourcebook). Due to the famous D&D prejudice against darkness, the creatures of the deep make a party of neutral and evil characters, yet the immorality shouldn't be too stomach-wrenching, as their opponent is at least as malicious as any of them. This is also the most complicated one because every PC is a caster or manifester of a different level of skill, not to mention the fact that the rare psionics are appearing in force; however, as long as we have a few experienced players, it should be all right, because under all that, it's still the same D&D you all know and love. Incidentally, this one is a lot simpler plotwise than the other two, perhaps because I haven't thought enough on it to come up with any twists. It was a bit awkward trying to bring these disparate races together (I didn't want to leave any of the good ones out), and the rationale is a bit iffy, but hey, it's fantasy.]
I'll post the full introductions to the adventures as I get them into workable condition (but don't hold your breath).
As you can see, I've thought up some basic character concepts for each of the adventures, so you don't need too much preparation as players, other than telling me which ones you want. I've left each PC's gender undecided to allow for player preference, but since I don't expect any female players (from previous experience), I can make a pretty good guess about the demographics. If necessary, I can play one of the heroes per adventure, but I really would like to have at least three players each. One player running two characters might not work very well, as you'll be unfamiliar enough with them that it might be a bit confusing.
So, I ask again: when are you people going to be around, and are you interested? If you don't want to deal with this, you could at least take the time to tell me so. If I get a couple of players this summer, I might even be able to finish the Gnoll Patrol (no, I just don't give up, do I?). I had another idea for an epic-level adventure (I'd make it a campaign if I could), but it takes place after the Gnoll Patrol, so I'd have to see how that turns out.