My favorite one-shot that I’ve ever ran involved the PCs being hired by a city to go kill some kobolds. The kobolds had taken over their mine, had fortified the place, and were violently rejecting any attempts to make them leave.
When the PCs arrive, it’s basically as described: The mine is overrun with kobolds, who have erected makeshift barricades and are armed with crossbows.
In actuality, the city had hired the kobolds to mine the ore for them, but then refused to pay them after taking delivery. It’s a labor dispute, and the PCs had been hired to kill them because nobody would question some adventurers killing some kobolds. The players discovered this and were upset enough about being lied to that they joined the kobolds’ side and basically acted as the (very well-armed and aggressive) union reps, negotiating better pay and more favorable terms for them. Was a great time.
I was in a game where we all played kobolds and lived in a old mine, except during a winter food raid on the local gnomes we managed to break into the mayor’s house and steal the treasury. When they demanded we return the safe we swapped the gold for lead, then they sent adventurers who we bribed with a gold bar each and the knowledge they had been lied to about the number of kobolds they had to fight.
In the end we ended up bloodlessly annexing the gnomes and putting them under “oppressive” restrictions and tax burden that ended up better than before we took over accidentally exposed former mayor’s massive embezzlement (In character we still don’t understand what he did wrong, we see it as dragon behavior) which started a pattern. We would scheme and plan evil things but end up being a net good for the area and because our party face was adorable as a sack of kittens no one noticed that both of the planners are evil as fuck
My favorite one-shot that I’ve ever ran involved the PCs being hired by a city to go kill some kobolds. The kobolds had taken over their mine, had fortified the place, and were violently rejecting any attempts to make them leave.
When the PCs arrive, it’s basically as described: The mine is overrun with kobolds, who have erected makeshift barricades and are armed with crossbows.
In actuality, the city had hired the kobolds to mine the ore for them, but then refused to pay them after taking delivery. It’s a labor dispute, and the PCs had been hired to kill them because nobody would question some adventurers killing some kobolds. The players discovered this and were upset enough about being lied to that they joined the kobolds’ side and basically acted as the (very well-armed and aggressive) union reps, negotiating better pay and more favorable terms for them. Was a great time.
I was in a game where we all played kobolds and lived in a old mine, except during a winter food raid on the local gnomes we managed to break into the mayor’s house and steal the treasury. When they demanded we return the safe we swapped the gold for lead, then they sent adventurers who we bribed with a gold bar each and the knowledge they had been lied to about the number of kobolds they had to fight.
In the end we ended up bloodlessly annexing the gnomes and putting them under “oppressive” restrictions and tax burden that ended up better than before we took over accidentally exposed former mayor’s massive embezzlement (In character we still don’t understand what he did wrong, we see it as dragon behavior) which started a pattern. We would scheme and plan evil things but end up being a net good for the area and because our party face was adorable as a sack of kittens no one noticed that both of the planners are evil as fuck
This is the best sort of rpg story, in my humble opinion.
Needs more murder of the oligarchs that tried to use the party but we can’t have anything