Nightbane one-shot idea, looking for help & feedback

[Glistam]

I've been thinking of putting together a Nightbane one-shot for a while now, but I'm not too sure which direction I want to go so I thought I'd come here for some discussion.

My idea starts as a Dark Day game. The P.C.'s would be normal/average humans who undergo their becoming together during the chaos of Dark Day. I'm thinking they'd be orphans in a foster home for various reasons, but that's flexible. I know games like these usually have pre-gens, and the Human characters would be pre-gen'd, but one thought I had with this was to start by having the players roll on the random morpheus tables and create their Nightbane forms right in the beginning. There'd be a list of Talents provided and I'd allow the fledgling Nightbanes to select from that list, and during the game they could spend P.P.E. permanently to gain new ones as well, as they work to figure out their powers.

Stunned by the horror of their Becoming, they have no time to react further as a group of Hunters mirror walk into their midst, intending to destroy them all. This first fight (if they stay to fight) opens up so many more options I don't know what to go with. If this was a campaign, I'd let it all work out organically, but for a one-shot I need to give it some structure and that's where I could use some help.

• If they run, they expose themselves to more authorities and can become one of the many tales of "monsters" in the streets during Dark Day. The Hounds will follow of course, so eventually they do need to stay and fight.
• Mirror Walking themselves would be an excessively bad idea, as the Nightlord minions on the other side are plentiful and ready for attacking. This would prematurely end the game and I don't know how to discourage it appropriately.
• I need to re-read about the various Factions. I think being involved with one is key here, but which one? And what would their goal be? Again, it isn't a campaign, so there needs to be a clear goal the players can accomplish.
  
  • Unless "survival" should be the goal? Constantly fighting or having to deal with Hounds, Hunters, Panicked citizens, and other Nightlord minions as they search for a safe haven could be the game itself, maybe.
• I was thinking if characters die, the players can replace them by selecting from pregens who aren't Nightbane. Either ordinary people, psychics, or others who basically "join up" with the Nightbane characters for some reason or another.
• An N.P.C. can join them early on in order to provide them direction, but then die (sacrificing him/her self?). In dying they pass on to P.C.'s their mission. If the N.P.C. had lived, it probably would've been a simple mission, but now their ignorance and inexperience will turn it into a challenging task.

Just kind of random thoughts for now. I'm hoping that by writing them out and discussing them, I get the inspiration I need to continue to flesh this out into something playable and enjoyable.

[Soldier of Od]

I've been thinking of putting together a Nightbane one-shot for a while now, but I'm not too sure which direction I want to go so I thought I'd come here for some discussion.

My idea starts as a Dark Day game. The P.C.'s would be normal/average humans who undergo their becoming together during the chaos of Dark Day. I'm thinking they'd be orphans in a foster home for various reasons, but that's flexible. I know games like these usually have pre-gens, and the Human characters would be pre-gen'd, but one thought I had with this was to start by having the players roll on the random morpheus tables and create their Nightbane forms right in the beginning. There'd be a list of Talents provided and I'd allow the fledgling Nightbanes to select from that list, and during the game they could spend P.P.E. permanently to gain new ones as well, as they work to figure out their powers.

Stunned by the horror of their Becoming, they have no time to react further as a group of Hunters mirror walk into their midst, intending to destroy them all. This first fight (if they stay to fight) opens up so many more options I don't know what to go with. If this was a campaign, I'd let it all work out organically, but for a one-shot I need to give it some structure and that's where I could use some help.

• If they run, they expose themselves to more authorities and can become one of the many tales of "monsters" in the streets during Dark Day. The Hounds will follow of course, so eventually they do need to stay and fight.
• Mirror Walking themselves would be an excessively bad idea, as the Nightlord minions on the other side are plentiful and ready for attacking. This would prematurely end the game and I don't know how to discourage it appropriately.
• I need to re-read about the various Factions. I think being involved with one is key here, but which one? And what would their goal be? Again, it isn't a campaign, so there needs to be a clear goal the players can accomplish.
  
  • Unless "survival" should be the goal? Constantly fighting or having to deal with Hounds, Hunters, Panicked citizens, and other Nightlord minions as they search for a safe haven could be the game itself, maybe.
• I was thinking if characters die, the players can replace them by selecting from pregens who aren't Nightbane. Either ordinary people, psychics, or others who basically "join up" with the Nightbane characters for some reason or another.
• An N.P.C. can join them early on in order to provide them direction, but then die (sacrificing him/her self?). In dying they pass on to P.C.'s their mission. If the N.P.C. had lived, it probably would've been a simple mission, but now their ignorance and inexperience will turn it into a challenging task.

Just kind of random thoughts for now. I'm hoping that by writing them out and discussing them, I get the inspiration I need to continue to flesh this out into something playable and enjoyable.

Sounds like you've already got the basics of a good introductory dark-day adventure. In fact it's very similar to the first Nightbane game we ever played. We rolled up some normal human teenagers living in foster care, and as Dark Day arrived one by one we had our becomings. It was only at that point that we randomly rolled on the morphus tables to see what we would become! The NPC pushing us in the right direction but then dying was there too! I think the most appropriate Faction for any Dark Day/Becoming adventure is the Underground Railroad - they're really the only Nightbane-centric Faction in existence before Dark Day. You can throw in encounters with the others, or perhaps fledging versions of upcoming Factions like the Warlords. In our adventure we eventually made our way to Jagged Rock and were witness to the schism that resulted in the split in the UR and the formation of the Resistance. As far as objectives go, survival was the main goal, specifically to find an Underground Railroad safe-house where we were assured we would be safe. If the characters are new Nightbane, they might not even know such a thing as mirror-walking exists, or that they can do it, so that might not be a problem until you decide an NPC mentor can show them how. I hope that helps!

[Glistam]

That's very helpful, thanks! And I'm glad to see I'm not off base with my ideas.

[Mr. Jays]

Adding loved ones into the midst is and help your with your plot, if you are wanting to expand it beyond survival. One or more of the characters have a distant relative: a brother who's been adopted, an aunt in rehab, ect. After the initial assault, they would want to save their relative from the chaos erupting around them.

[Glistam]

One of my intentions with this was to give the players pre-generated teenage characters, and then have them all roll on the random Nightbane tables in order to discover their Morpheus forms. For a game that would only last a few hours though, is that perhaps taking up too much time? I intended to have the tables typed out in handouts that would put all the available options (perhaps minus a few I don't believe add to the setting or would detract from the game) in one place for them to use. Do you think it's doable? Should I instead have the morphus forms already figured out? What if I had, say, 8 pre-generated characters and 8 separate, pre-rolled morphus forms, and the two were mixed and matched?

[Glistam]

I submitted to run this game at the Palladium Open House. I titled it Dark Day Desperation. There's still a bunch of details I need to work out but for now, this is the "description" I submitted with it:

There is no sun, no stars. Only a blanket of night which has suddenly and inexplicably covered the entire world. You stare at your friends in horror, shocked to see monsters standing in their places. These monsters stare back at you in the same horrified, confused way. You know why. Deep down without even looking you know you, too, have changed into something monstrous. You are about to speak when out of nowhere skeletal figures clad in black armor rush toward you and the monsters who were once and perhaps still are your friends. The wickedly sharp weapons in their black-armored hands effortlessly and expertly slice through the furniture barring their path. Menacingly, they close in. What do you do?

[Glistam]

One of my intentions with this was to give the players pre-generated teenage characters, and then have them all roll on the random Nightbane tables in order to discover their Morpheus forms. For a game that would only last a few hours though, is that perhaps taking up too much time? I intended to have the tables typed out in handouts that would put all the available options (perhaps minus a few I don't believe add to the setting or would detract from the game) in one place for them to use. Do you think it's doable? Should I instead have the morphus forms already figured out? What if I had, say, 8 pre-generated characters and 8 separate, pre-rolled morphus forms, and the two were mixed and matched?

As I think on this more I believe I'll be keeping the initial idea, that the players all roll for their character's Morphus forms once they get their character. I won't include every option when I type up the tables but it'll be a more options than the original Nightbane book, while having less options than the Nightbane Survival Guide.

[Zenvis]

Add one more element of flavor by having something they fear, hate and love in their morphus. I.e. fear spiders, love wolves, hate that car wrech that killed their love one. So their Morphus wolfman with broken glass and spider limbs. Just an idea.

[Glistam]

So as I had weeks left until the Open House, I still had the plans that I would put together tables for Morphus traits, with bonuses already provided, pass them out with the characters and let the players roll randomly at the start of the game and go from there.

Once I had only days left until the Open House I modified my plan to instead have pre-made Morphus pages, independent of the character sheets, and hand them out randomly after the players picked their characters.

As I got to the point where I had only hours left until the game, I gave up and just did the random rolls and let the dice decide. I think the characters ended up being fun, and I enjoyed running the game. Here's the character's I ended up creating and passing out: POH 2015 Nightbane DDD

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!

[Razorwing]

The Dark Day Chronicles short story series in the Rifter had something similar, and by the time it stopped, it looked like the gathered Characters were going to try to stop some sort of magical ritual happening in the city.

Maybe a goal like this is what you are looking for. It probably won't stop Dark Day from happening... or prevent the city from being taken over, but it would give the players at least the feeling that they have accomplished something. Since it is a one-shot adventure, it could culminate with some sort of personal sacrifice on their part to stop the ritual... a chance for them to assert that though they appear to be monsters, they are still humans (at least in their hearts) that will never stop fighting evil... no matter the cost.

[Glistam]

Yeah, the game definitely needed... more. I really should've play tested it before the Open House rather than use the Open House as the play test. The point was to survive but it really worked better as a campaign intro rather than a stand-alone game.