D&D5: planar pub crawl

I once run a very successful high level one-off D&D 5 game across the Outer Planes with a twist.
It was a group of angels on a pubcrawl across the various planes send by their superiors following a challenge.

The hook is that a deamon has a vital macguffin that he is willing to trade if a group of angels (entry do his challenge, which is an astral pub crawl.

Drinking house rules

Drunkenness increases based on failed “alcohol saves”. A drink is a pint of beer.

Constitution save vs. alcohol DC after every drink.

DC base is 0 + decreasing size modifier – alcohol tolerance (see below).

Save:stage stay the same. DC is kept and is added to. Toilet check.

Fail: increase drunkenness by one stage, DC drops to base.

Penalties: it takes at least 10 in-game minutes to leasurely drink a watery drink if alcohol tolerance is below 0 (see below) —way faster than real life. If faster add +2 to the DC.

Standard drinks DC add +2.

Potent drinks DC add +4.

Mighty drinks DC add +6.

Recuperation: After every hour, a new save is available to revert one stage and the DC is that of the failed minus 5.

After a combat DC remove 2.

After food DC remove 5.

After vomit DC remove 2.

Alcohol tolerance (opt.) It goes from –5 to +5. It increases after every 50 drinks. At +5 the character is an alcoholic and receives a –1 to all three saves for each day without a drink. 0 = default.

Toilet check Wisdom check vs. DC5 sober. DC10 tipsy DC15 drunk. DC20 trolleyed.

If failed by 5 or less character needs the loo and is distracted as is Poisoned (disadvantage on attack and ability checks). If failed by 10 or more the character wets henself.

Stages: For each stage, temporary –1 to Wisdom and Intelligence (not damage, returns once stage is over) for each stage. Conditions stack, unless repeated. Penalties and bonuses are “circumstance” bonuses.

Stage I — Tipsy. –1 Wis & Int

·      Relaxation: –2 passive perception, –2 Sense motive

·      (opt.) Dwarven courage: +4 charisma for skills. This stage only.

·      Low attention span: ½ concentration on spells

·      Decreased inhibition and Mild euphoria (RP constraint)

Stage II —Drunk. –2 Wis & Int

·      (opt.) Drunken boxing: +4 dexterity.

·      (opt.) Blunted feelings: +1 HD temporary hit points

·      (opt.) Dwarven courage: +2 charisma for skills.

·      Poor depth perception: –5  active perception (total).

·      No Peripheral vision: –6  passive perception (total).

·      Poor Glare recovery: double time of spells like Prismatic spray.

·      Disinhibition and Extroversion  (RP constraint)

·      Poor reasoning: : –5 sense motive (total).

·      no concentration spells

·      Spells cast as Wild Magic.

Stage III —Trolleyed. –3 Wis & Int. –1 dex & –1 cha.

·      (opt.) Drunken boxing: +2 dexterity (ignore –1 dex).

·      (opt.) Blunted feelings: +2 HD temporary hit points

·      (opt.) Dwarven courage ends.

·      Over-expression, Emotional swings, incl. anger or sadness (RP const.)

·      Slurred speech: no spellcasting with V

·      Wild magic: –30 on rolls

·      Alcohol poinsoning: –2 Con damage

·      Vomit: a 1 on any roll results in vomit. –5 charisma until washed.

Stage IV —Wasted. The DM gain control of the character and player waits outside.

·      Alcohol poinsoning: –4 Con damage

·      Bad hangover: Character is Fatigued the next day

Pubgolf

Technically it is pub golf with the following points valid across all planes:

+2       Get an eidetic (photo) with a local (once per pub per team)

–5        Char has no drink for more than 10 minutes

+1       Char drinks standard drink

+2       Strong drink

+4       Mighty drink

–2        Smashed glass*

–10     Magically sobering up (Healing Touch)**

–20     char dies

*) Full action to carefully place glass (no DC). Bonus action Dex DC 5 times intoxication state. Free action if sober.

**The team is a bunch of angels, technically the entry level angels (Deva).

Inventory

The players have the following items amongst them

•  parchment with teleportation circle sigils
•  autofilling parchment of achievements
• Alchemi-camera
• Bandolier of bells or other odd pointless item to troll

Route

The crawl starts at the World Serpent Inn and finished in Sigil. The route was determined by drawing cards with the desitination.

World Serpent Inn

Description

This demiplane connects to all the planes. A waystation that is a pub.

Large ancient tavern. Vibrant with mirth from the tired travellers. Redolent of wood and ale. Heavy wooden beams. The common room has two roaring fireplaces on the sides, a central bar. Kitchen to one side.

Innkeeper

Mitchifer, the innkeeper is stout, has eyes black as coal (close examination shows it’s a maze of doors and portals that crisscross the cosmos) with white beard (that writhes slowly). Possibly a god. Helpful travelling hits.

Laws

Safehaven basically. Fast healing 2. Impeded spells and like: Spellcraft DC 15 + level to cast. DR 10/–. Invisibility does not work.

Beers

Mitghty:         Mitchifer’s special reserve ale (Imperial Quintupel Eibock, flavoured with pipeweed)

Strong:           Snake bite (serpent cide + serpent larger + liqueur of goodberries)

Std:                 Serpent cider or Serpent larger.

Challenge

Answer a riddle posed by Mitchifer.

·      My life can be measured in hours, I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow. Wind is my foe. (candle)

·      I build up castles. I tear down mountains. I make some men blind, I help others to see. (sand)

·      Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling In mystic force and magic spelling Celestial sprites elucidate All my own striving can't relate (π)

·      I am always in front of you but cannot be seen. (the future)

·      What has six faces and twenty-one eyes? (d6)

·      A box without hinges key or lid. Yet inside golden treasure is hid (eggs —Tolkein)

·      What do you own but everyone else uses? (Your name)

Reference

Manual of planes 3.5, supplement. p243 on pdf

The Crow Graveyard-Tavern in Naratyr, Thanatos (113^th), Abyss

Most likely the characters will not stay long for the corruption rules to apply: Long rest DC 10 Cha. Fail = corrupted. Page 62 on DMG5. 

DC10 Con: Psychic dissonance = exhaustion.

No to –4 cha penalty for LG from 3.5

Demons. Vampires, skeletons.

Cold. Tombstones. Undug graves. Spiderwebs. Putrid. Howls and screams.

Vampire viff zilly accent. The Count.

Mitghty:         Massacre ale (DC20 Wis d20 necrotic damage)

Strong:           Carnage ale (DC20 Wis d10 necrotic damage)

Std:                 Murder ale (DC20 Wis d5 necrotic damage)

Challenge

Talk to a demon about (d10) without offending:

1.     Chastity better than Lust

2.     Temperance vs. Gluttony

3.     Charity vs. Avarice

4.     Diligence vs. Sloth

5.     Patience vs. Wrath

6.     Kindness vs. Envy

7.     Humility vs. Pride

8.     Gherkins in burgers

9.     Weather

10. Their mother plus topic from reroll

References

Demons MM p51. P53

Man Plan 3.5 p99. Not ice. Just regular graveyard.

The base of the imaginary pi(e) Canteen Mechanus

Roll for bartender’s name.

X+d6+X+d6 or R+d6+D+d6

Challenge

MiniYahtzee. Three 3d4 rolls. Σ aces, Σ twos, Σ threes, Σ fours, lower straight (1:3; 15 pnts), upper straight (2:4; 15 pnts), 3 of a kind (20 pnts).

Drinks

Mitghty:         Alchemically compressed ethanol Alcohol DC +5

Strong:           biofuel (DC20 Con to not throw up and lose 2 crawl point)

Std:                 deconstructed beer (DC10 Con to not throw up the vial of hop extract and lose 2 crawl point)

Laws

Law of averages. Ability and damage rolls are not rolled. Averages like NPCs instead.

Barry’s Bar

There was a time before the gods. A time when eldritch horrors ruled the planes - and chief among them were the Aboleths. When the gods appeared, they threw down the Aboleths. Ever since then, the Aboleths have retreated to the dark, watery corners of the multiverse, plotting their revenge.

'Cept Barry. Barry was the Aboleth that didn't handle the whole "not in charge of the universe anymore" thing that well. Barry drank. A lot. So much they he eventually decided to just live in a pool of beer. He spends most of his time sulking in a corner, singing "Fey rover" quietly to himself. Also, he's spent so much time in the beer pool his mucous now forces people to breathe beer instead of water.

His domain is a surprisingly popular place to for planar travelers to go to on pub crawls, since there's no where else in the universe that claim to have genuine Aboleth beer. When planar travelers show up, Barry tends to shift between:

·      Trying to murder them for being a part of the gods' world (He's not very good at this, as being drunk for tens of thousands of years have not been kind to his sense of coordination). He also rants about how good the ol' days were, before those gosh-darned "gods" and their "laws of physics".

·      Trying to hug them (which is arguably more dangerous, because of the Aboleth mucous thing) while going on weirdly uncomfortable rants about how "most of the creatures in the gods' creation are a**holes, but you guys are a few of the good ones." He's not above Enslaving people into hugging back.

·      Going back to his corner to sing Fey rover.

Mitghty:         Aboleth poteen (permanent insanity)

Strong:           Aboleth brandy (long insanity)

Std:                 Aboleth Ale (temp insanity)

Barry does not like eidetics

+5 Sing with Barry. His song requires that  a player rolls a d30, d12 and d100 for the day

On the x of x, xx hundred and six

We set sail from Mithrendain in Feywild

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

For the Grand City Hall in Sigil

‘Twas a wonderful craft

She was rigged fore and aft

And oh, how the wild wind drove her

She stood several blasts

She had twenty seven masts

And they called her The Fey Rover

We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags

We had two million barrels of stone

We had three million sides of old hag hides

We had four million barrels of bones

We had five million hogs

And six million blink dogs

Seven million barrels of porter

We had eight million bales of old nanny-goats’ tails

In the hold of the Irish Rover

We had sailed seven years

When the psychic storms broke out

And the ship lost its way in the fog

And that whale of a crew

Was reduced down to two

Just myself and the Captain’s old dog

Then the ship struck a rock

Oh Lord what a shock

The bulkhead was turned right over

Turned nine times around

And the poor old dog was drowned

I’m the last of The Fey Rover

Valkyrie’s Bosom Alehouse @ Ysgard

Swedish chef accent. Alternating tonality and longer and deeper Us.

A toast in Swedish is skål.

+5 get a helmet off a Viking. Roll for names of NPCs.

1.     Canute

2.     Harold

3.     Rudolf

4.     Gorm

5.     Godfred

6.     Gyrd

7.     Björn

8.     Ragnar

9.     Hagbard

10. Haki

11. Hemming

12. Swen

13. Abel

14. Eric

15. Olaf

16. Helge

17. Rothgar

18. Frosti

19. Sigurd

20. Reroll add half-

All Vikings are friendly, but a Viking helmet is a big deal, every time they talk to a new Viking they get a toast to something and they have a high chance of getting a new drink. The first Viking that they talk to asks that they find who took his Eagle-splendour beard rings. They are actually in his tankard (DC20 perception). He was last speaking to someone, who saw another person with fancy beard rings or something like that, but she can’t be bothered talking to him. Turns out because he is deaf. Players will probably try the helm of someone else.

Another Viking wants to know where they came from. She will give them her helmet if they are willing to have a raid to an Evil plane again with her.

Another Viking challenges them to a Viking drinking game.

Mitghty:         Asgardian whisky (grants resistance to cold for d4 hours)

Strong:           Asgardian strong ale (nettley and bitter)

Std:                 Asgardian weißbier (get the piss taken)

Mirror cocktail lounge Plane of mirrors

Mitghty:         Reflective shot

Strong:           Mirror Illusion cocktail

Std:                 Mirror lite

Outdrink doppelgängers who have a mustache after ST TOS Mirror, mirror.

Each round is bought in alternation between party and doppel party.

During the doppel round, they poison the party’s drinks for 1d100 damage. All the party can have a go at detecting the sleight of hands (passive perception). If spotted, they can do a switcheroon. Is it a bluff or double bluff?

Doppels might be able to heal or not depending on the likelihood of a TPK.

The King’s Arms Pub in Sigil

Their challenge is to draw three cards from the deck of many things each and survive.

Acknoledgements

I got help from fellow gamers in a forum:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?392277-Inspiration-for-planar-pub-crawl