D&D Plants vs Zombies style – part 2

[There's part 1] I decided that my game will be presented differently from what my other DMs did. I thought of unfolding the story together as I was drawing the battlefield.

Before we start, here are the characters:

• Deva warden (named He-Man)
• Half orc ranger
• Human wizard (orb of imposition. And dressed in T-shirt and jeans)
• Shifter paladin (named Skeletor, with a Skull Mask)
• Kalashtar ardent (my friend wants to playtest the new psychic leader class)
• Sniper rogue (my friend didn’t tell me B.A. Murdock’s race)

I’ve heard it before. “That’s 6 players. At level 5. You’re a completely new DM. What the heck are you thinking?!?” Uh, to have fun?

Continuing the story, I acted as Fillian again.

“I’m so glad you’re helping. The Wardens of the Wood will be eternally grateful. We must make haste. This way!” (Then switched to third person)

On the road, Fillian became quiet, with an air of melancholy. Even though he seemed distracted, he led you along the forest paths with sureness. Sometimes you can hear him sniffing and he’s wiping his eyes. (I pause)

“What’s wrong?”, asked the wizard. (Yes! Some roleplaying!)
“Oh it’s nothing…” replied Fillian.

“I roll an Insight check,” says the paladin (out of character).

At this point, I’m giving you, the storyteller DM, one piece of advice. If you have an awesome story, plan it such that it will unfold, regardless of what the players do (as far as possible). Don’t make them roll checks. Don’t make skill challenges out of it. Don’t give them cryptic clues (unless that’s the fun). Just give it to them straight. I mean, what are you going to do if they fail? For goodness sake, if they care to ask, just give them the answer already.

Anyway, my player paladin wants to roll an Insight check, and I let him continue (the say yes rule, and mostly because he already rolled… hahaha…). Luckily, it was fairly high (13? 17?).

Fillian breaks down, and says, “It’s my druid brothers… they’re all dead… oh Arianna should’ve been here instead of me…”

Yes, I know it doesn’t quite match with the Insight check. So I cheated (following another rule).

Then the wizard asked, “Who’s Arianna?” (Bingo! Objective achieved as far as revealing story plot)

“She’s my sister. She’s been acting strangely these few weeks. Just a few days ago, she disappeared. And then the zombies came…”

“What was she doing, man?” pressed the wizard.
“She mentioned something about studying life…”
“Or is it ‘unlife’?” remarked the wizard. (roleplaying objective, check!)

My paladin player was talking about how his paladin was one lousy defender. “The only status I can inflict on the enemy is ‘dead’. Come and get me. My nipples explode with delight!” Ahh… the joy of character roleplaying banter…

Then I started drawing the map. Let’s start with the map I drew in Excel. Yes, I’m that professional about it.

Legend:

• Sun = Sunflowers. They give sunlight. (if you play PvZ, you know what I mean)
• Umb = Umbrella plant. Creatures who end their move action in one, can fly 6 squares immediately
• RIP = Really Irritating Production (of zombies…). I’m kidding, it represents a zombie-spawning tombstone
• Pea = Peashooter. Another PvZ reference
• Arch = zombie archers.
• GZ = grave digger zombies. It’s coincidentally another PvZ reference, but I’m not using them in any special manner other than flavour.
• The thin lined rectangle between the peashooters denote the area for deploying characters
• The rotwing reference? Follow along to find out…

Remember what I said about unfolding the story and the map at the same time? I drew the sunflowers (I used a smilie as shorthand ) and the peashooter and 3 of my friends recognised it for what they were (PvZ players unite!).

I placed 1 orange crystal (see image above) onto each sunflower, and then went into narrative mode.

“Oh a Peashooter! Let me show you how to activate it” enthused Fillian.

Fillian ran to the nearest sunflower (bottom left), absorbed some sunlight, and went to the peashooter (bottom left) and fed the sunlight to it. (I did all this with a robed miniature and an orange crystal, and actually physically moving them around.) Then he saw a zombie beside a tombstone (I placed a zombie left of tombstone, with purple crystals around the tombstone), and cries “What abomination is this?” And he held his hand on the Peashooter, and one gigantic pea shot out at the zombie.

The pea hit the zombie, and the zombie’s head flew off in one direction and its body fell backwards into the ravine (the area between the archers and the tombstone). Then Fillian ran towards the tombstone. As he did, a bit of the purple aura disappeared from the tombstone (I took a purple crystal away, leaving 5. This was supposed to be a bit of foreshadowing of the upcoming story). Then Fillian started attacking the tombstone.

A zombie appeared near the umbrella plant at the top. “Uurrgh… brraainss” and walked onto the umbrella plant. And flew 6 squares towards Fillian, and grabbed him, and both fell into the ravine. I think my friends were slightly shocked by this turn of events (maybe?). 2 more zombies appeared (the archers) and attacked that umbrella plant and the plant sort of drooped. It’s supposed to tell them that a plant can survive only 2 attacks. But I don’t think that mechanic got into play…

Then I explained the mechanics of the plants and crystals.

Sunlight

It takes a minor action to absorb sunlight. You must be adjacent to a sunflower to do so. Releasing sunlight is a free action. You may absorb sunlight as part of a move action. All other plants must be activated with sunlight before they can be used.

When you have absorbed some sunlight, that counts as 5 temporary hit points (planning not to kill them…). But the sunlight can only deflect damage once. So if you’re hit with 2 damage, and you decide to use the sunlight to block it off, you lose the entire block of 5 temporary hit points.

Umbrella plant

When it’s activated, if you end your move action at the square where an umbrella plant is, you fly 6 squares immediately.

Peashooter

When it’s activated, if you’re adjacent to a peashooter, you may use a minor action to launch its pea attack. Range 10, +10 vs Reflex, 1d8 damage. 1 attack per round. (so you can use a minor to activate and still have a standard action for your normal attacks. I planned this so each player potentially has 2 attacks per round. This is to offset the wave after wave of zombies I planned…)

Basically, with that entire preamble of a narrative, I explained how the sunflowers, umbrella plant and peashooter worked together, all in the form of a story. Then the grave digger zombies tunnelled their way onto the positions stated in the map. And I finally said it. “Please roll initiative”.

That’s a long story. And I haven’t shown you any pictures of my 1st battle yet! This is already very long, so next time then. This will set the tone for the rest of the session, so those should be more story and battle descriptions.

Alright, fine. Here’s a teaser picture:

Up next in part 3: “I drop my bow as a free action, take out my 2 scimitars named Laurel and Hardy, and advance.”