this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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Help me come up with some doctrine for a small society in my game. (lemm.ee)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/dnd
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I recently watched the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode in which they did a parody of "The Island of Dr Moreau" and thought a mad scientist trying to turn people into animals could make for a fun minor character in my campaign. My players are en route to a dungeon and should be there in a few sessions, I'm thinking of making the dungeon the lab of a mad scientist who has gotten locked out of the lower levels due to a containment breach.

The details I have so far is that he is a gnome, currently named Prof. Moreau, who has created mongrelfolk while trying to turn a human into an animal.

The mongrelfolk are safely contained in the lower levels and have started to create their own society, I think the boss of the dungeon should be a Gibbering Mouther called One, as in Attempt One.

I think the Mongrelfolk should worship one as their leader and hate Moreau for keeping them locked in the lab.

What I'm stuck on now is what life is like for the mongrelfolk, what they believe and how they have organised society.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Make them live in terrible conditions, and look like monsters at first glance. This way your players will react to them as standard dungeons & dragons monsters, by which I mean kill them all. Afterwards, they find council chambers, crude medical facilities, nurseries, etc that imply that their society was surprisingly egalitarian and had a budding democratic government.

Give just enough of a hint beforehand so that they could have resolved things peacefully if they had been paying attention.

If harming your players emotionally is the goal.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is a really good idea, I might make their laws very simplistic. I might even steal the ones from Animal Farm.

In my mind the mongrelfolk definitely won't be inherently evil. Paranoid or scared of outsiders, definitely. But they should have near-human intelligence, but slightly diminished.

Professor Moreau to me is the evil one but purely because he doesn't hold much regard for the lives of the people he has experimented on, especially in a world with polymorph magic and Druidic wildshape. Though Moreau will be helpful to the players and give them no good reason to kill him, since they're his chance to regain control of his lab.

I've been going back and forth on if Moreau will want the mongrelfolk dead, since they'd hold more scientific value to him kept alive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Maybe he doesn't want them all dead, but he regularly abducts and dissects individuals who catch his attention. One is of specific interest, but has never been caught because the mongrelfolk are protecting it.

[–] InternetCitizen2 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That was similar to the cut ending for I am Legend.

[–] joel_feila 2 points 6 months ago

And the original ending in the book and old film

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I love this so much

[–] Breadhax0r 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If he's experimenting on humans, and depending on how much of their minds are retained from however he's transforming people; it could be that some of them recall bits of their previous religions and have bastardized them together with The Professor being the central antagonistic deity responsible for all their woes, and the gibbering horror as a living martyr for giving up of its sanity in order to banish the professor from the lab.

The lab could even be seen as a sort of corrupted garden of eden.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Bonus points for art and holy texts or statues depicting the professor as a faceless, looming, menacing shadow in a white coat.

[–] static09 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'd say take some inspiration from Full Metal Alchemist as well, unless you haven't watched FMA/FMA:Brotherhood yet. Then I'd say, watch that and then take inspiration from a particular episode.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I've not seen either of those but a quick search shows me that's 51 episodes of one series, 64 of another and a movie. That might be a little bit too much for the amount of prep time I have

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

If you don't mind ruining it, add Nina tucker to your search.

[–] joel_feila 4 points 6 months ago

Where dies their water cine from, where does their poop go?

These as silly as they sound are important. Say a river flows into the lap, maybe an old drainage system. Niw they have 1 oltace to get water. Do they need some ti cast purify on it? If yes that person is very very important and would respected.

That's just 1 option for water, but yoy get the idea. They must havr food water and way to remove waste.

[–] BLAMM 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Some good ideas here, but if I did this with my group, I'd have to deal with them volunteering for the process.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

On the off chance that happens I'd probably give them one of the beast traits, probably one of the ones that's less useful like keen smell or web sense

[–] Zoomboingding 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Killer Whales's Hold Breath trait: for some reason only 30 minutes lol

Grant them poisonous fangs (1d10) (don't give them a bite attack)

Flyby trait (no fly speed)

Could definitely spur creative use and a new character goal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Maybe model them after orc society in lord of the rings. Or perhaps the nomadic hobbits, depending on the atmosphere you're aiming for.

Alternatively, set it up like a prison state where the citizens (inmates) have become institutionalised over generations and anyone upsetting their serfdom way of life is unwelcomed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Quite a few people have commented about possible societal models for such a community. So I'll extend this by adding some thoughts about specific environmental challenges.

One would assume that the conditions in the lower levels are not very nice, so maybe rampant drug usage could be a thing. Some mongrels might be in pain due to the procedure and abuse pain killers. Others may just want to escape reality. Someone has to supply these. Maybe they're a misguided individual who wants to help their peers, maybe they're a stone cold profiteer who will make for an amazing miniboss. Who knows?

Another important factor is food. Mushrooms grow in dark places and could make up a lot of the diet of the mongrel folk. Or a former botanist could experiment with plants that grow under these conditions. Maybe there's even some animal husbandry going on. Or if you want there to be a darker twist, cannibalism is always an option. Maybe it's even part of their society. Being chosen to be the next meal is a great honor.

Lastly, what do the mongrels do for fun? Do they enjoy pit fights?If so, the players could take the wrong way into the arena room and face a crowd of cheering mongrels and some tough opposing fighters. Are there storytellers who remember some fragments of their human lives? Perhaps even some trash collectors who are willing to sell their strange goods even to outsiders?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Have you seen the movie Us? Not too give any spoilers if you haven't, but you might get some good ideas from that.