Broken Ones

[Shadowdragon]

This post contains spoilers for Neither Man Nor Beast. I'm not sure if it's worth putting in a spoiler warning, but I figured I'd include one just in case.




I'm planning on running Neither Man Nor Beast in my campaign. The problem is that the heroes will have already encountered broken ones in an earlier adventure. Dr. Fran does mention that the creatures on his island were created by a disease, most likely a warped form of lycanthropy, which I think is a great cover. But, if the heroes examine a broken one, wont they discover that the creatures are not victims of a disease? How easy is it to recognise a broken one for what it really is? I mean, if the heroes examine a "disease victim" and find out they're actually broken ones, it'll destroy Dr. Fran's cover story.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

It could be next to impossible to determine the origins of Markovian broken ones. Markov uses a process that is unique to his own hideous powers. Its up to the DM to determine the exact outward signs of his tamperings, but there wouldn't necessarily be tell-tale signs. After all, who is to say that a bizzare form of mutated lycanthropy couldn't also create beast-men?

I suppose it would depend also on the exact origins of the previously encountered broken ones. If, for example, the aforementioned broken one was created by a student of Markov's, then there should be similarities.

[Shadowdragon]

The previous broken ones were created by a Lamordian mad scientist into grafting animal parts onto humans. I guess those broken ones would be very different from the Markovian ones. For a start they'd be much cruder as the Lamordian guy had only recently started his grafting experiments.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Definitely.

Markov's origins clearly indicate that he used injections, in addition to grafts. One can only assume that he became more refined and subtle in his construction of abominations.

Perhaps emphasize the lack of stitches, staples, and other overt signs of surgery.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yup, make it sound more like genetic tampering or some sort of elegant mutation, not a frankenstein-esque hacked together creature.

[MrClever]

Shadowdragon:
I plan on running Neither Man Nor Beast in a few weeks' time. Have you updated the stats to 3.5, by any chance? If so, would you give me a copy of what you've done?
Much appreciated!
- Mr Clever

[Shadowdragon]

Shadowdragon:
I plan on running Neither Man Nor Beast in a few weeks' time. Have you updated the stats to 3.5, by any chance? If so, would you give me a copy of what you've done?
Much appreciated!
- Mr Clever

Sorry, the campaign I'm running uses Savage Worlds, not 3.5. If you want to see my Savage Worlds conversion notes for the adventure I'd be happy to send them to you

[MrClever]

Hrm... I don't know. I don't know anything about Savage Worlds. If you think it would help, I would like it.
One more thing. Have you found that you had to update or reconfigure some of the events in the module? What I mean by that is, some of these adventures were less than ideal in terms of presentation or motivation of the NPCs. Any changes you made that made the story more compelling?
-Mr Clever

[Shadowdragon]

Hrm... I don't know. I don't know anything about Savage Worlds. If you think it would help, I would like it.
One more thing. Have you found that you had to update or reconfigure some of the events in the module? What I mean by that is, some of these adventures were less than ideal in terms of presentation or motivation of the NPCs. Any changes you made that made the story more compelling?
-Mr Clever

It may not be of much help actually. Savage Worlds is very different from D&D. Now, if you're interested in trying Ravenloft with Savage Worlds, then the notes might be of some use.

The biggest problem I've found with older adventures is that they expect the heroes to actually trust some of the NPCs, and just go along with the story without question. I don't think many players these days will trust someone like Dr. Fran. They may put up with him for a while, but they will find his "dark side" pretty quickly, or just assume he has one even if they can't find any proof of it. This can quickly derail an adventure like NMNB.

*Edit: Now that I think about it, the heroes don't really need to trust Dr. Fran. Fran's compound is the only "safe" area on the island. The heroes have to stay with him until they can find a way off the island. In fact, Dr. Fran doesn't even need to put on the nice guy act. Eventually the heroes can just discover they are staying with a psychotic and that maybe camping out in the monster-filled jungle may actually be safer.

I'm thinking of adding in more stuff with Akanga, and removing the part with the ancient dead and the evil table (which I think is a bit pointless anyway). The adventure would then focus on the quickly rising tensions between Dr. Fran and Akanga. The players would then get caught in the middle of a civil war. There would be a lot of double-crossing, spying, backstabbing, deciding between the lesser of two evils, etc. This way the heroes wont have to put all their trust in Dr. Fran, there wont be some random raid on a monastery for an evil table, and Akanga's attack wont suddenly come out of the blue.

I haven't actually finished any of the modifications to the adventure's story. When I'm done I can send you a copy, maybe even post the modifications here.