Source
r/DnDPlotHooks•
SteelCode

You all wake up in your cells...

Fantasy

... surrounded by the familiar steel bars you each are used to now. There’s shouts and running. You’re each in separate areas, alone. You don’t know each other, but you’ve occasionally seen one another around this place. These memories are sort of foggy, like you don’t quite remember anything before just now. You blink, squinting around your dimly lit cell. You look down at your hands; no, paws; covered in fur and tipped with claws. You’re not like the people that keep you in this place, the ones that are now chaotically trying to capture and restrain the other animals that are escaping similar prisons like the one you’re in now.

Will you stay in the zoo or will you make a break for it?

[This maybe isn’t unique, but I’ve long wanted to run a cliche prison break plot hook but with the twist that the players are all various awakened animals that escape and then adventure together. It works for fantasy, modern, whatever really.]

Posted Mar 8, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

188
damnaturuscary69•

I like this, but it may not run perfectly in D&D. It may require a more versatile engine, like FATE. Then again what do I know, I'm a faceless voice from the internet. I betcha it could work with enough rule skimming.

5
SteelCodeOP•

My idea is to basically session 0 them as the basic animal profiles and then let them get into a class from there. It's never become reality because it would need a lot of work to hammer into the 5E system as-is.

2
chewbaccolas•

I liked this. At first, I thought they were polymorphed people forced to live in a zoo.

1
SteelCodeOP•

Technically possible, but my intent was to have some mysterious force awaken the animals and have them adventure in a humanoid world. This would probably take some “magical manipulation” to give them opposable thumbs and the ability to stand upright but the idea was always to have them be traveling through the big world to figure out what happened and how to survive against people that were naturally giants to them. Scavenging garbage, sneaking in towns, etc.

0
chewbaccolas•

That's really cool! It reminds of the time I was planning on turning the PC into monsters for a few sessions, but I ended up throwing the idea in the limbo.

Are you going to use homebrew races for the animals?

0
SteelCodeOP•

I was starting literally as the animal profile and then tacking on classes after session 0. So if someone was a raccoon, they’d be a Tiny animal with Raccoon HP and attacks, likewise a Monkey would have Monkey stats. They’re awakened and have to escape with the most basic of profiles and then as they collectively come together and make their way, they discover they can do things and become adventurers... whether that’s in a fantasy setting with magic or in a modern setting without.

Really I could hammer this into any system as long as it makes sense to how the game should play with the animals obviously outmatched against the zoo keepers but then having to learn how to survive bigger dangers outside of those walls.

1
chewbaccolas•

That's cool, you could have animals in the party that can dig for example, that would take exploration to a new level.

0