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A Familiar Problem - Bottom of the Barrel!

Happy New Years Everyone!!

Here’s a One-Shot I ran for a few friends at a New Years party using Marisha Ray and Grant Howitt’s, “A Familiar Problem.” We altered a few things about the design such as removing the Break mechanic and designing the purpose of the one-shot beforehand to enable a bit more of a unique experience that catered to my players specifically!

I called it-

A Familiar Problem - Bottom of the Barrel!

Ingredients:

1. A group of easy-going players.

2. A basic understanding of, “A Familiar Problem.”

3. Alcohol - Oh yea, I forgot to mention this has drinking! It was a New Years party after all.

Premise:

The group of Familiars and their Summoners are lodging in an Inn after having recently defeated The Mad Wizard Zazz. Little did they know that Zazz had a trick for them, found the room they were staying in, and using a magically enchanted beer barrel, trapped the summoners inside of a pocket dimension within that beer barrel. Zazz ends up heading down to the tavern floor of the Inn where he confidently leaves the barrel off to the side, thinking he’s won, and has himself a drink off in the corner.

The main bulk of the game is the idea that the Familiars now must save their Summoners by removing the enchantment on the barrel. Talking to the friendly Druid barkeep will reveal to your players that the barrel must first be drained in order to have the enchantment removed, but they run a tight ship here so no one is just going to dump this drink for free. Instead, the Familiars must now earn enough coin to buy drinks of the beer inside, convince patrons of the bar to drink it for them, or find clever ways to get that barrel drained.

Get it? Bottom, of the Barrel?! I’m so goddam clever. . . .

I created a plethora of stupid characters for my PCs to interact with in the hopes that they’d try to utilize the magics that they chose ahead of time to solve little puzzles established by those NPCs. Ex: One of my PCs used Mist to distract a saddened Warlock enough to snag his valuables. Another moment, an Octopus PC used Door Magic on an enchanted Dollhouse. This allowed him to completely bypass a difficult puzzle associated with it that I was putting on a grand display when describing its complicated nature, only for my players to laugh hysterically once they realized how simple the actual answer was. Always give your players the ability to feel like they’ve cheated the system. It is such an absurdly satisfying feeling.

Whenever your PC comes back to the bar with some coin, they have an option to spend it on the barrel to drain some of the beer inside. Whenever they do so, have the player take a shot IRL. If you’re not drinkers, there’s no reason you can’t do this without the booze and just enjoy yourself as normal.

Added Flavor: To express a deeper bond between the Familiar and its Summoner, I requested that my PCs establish a “Side-Quest” before playing. Something small like, “collecting teeth from a monster for a necklace,” or, “find a potion of transformation.” Something simple that you’d think of doing in an actual campaign. Each of the PCs had the ability to complete their Side-Quest during the One-Shot, and once they did, I had a little goody bag waiting off on the side for them filled with snacks, little drinks, etc.

I might post more about this at another date, such as the characters I made and the theme I used. But for now, as always~

This idea is for sale!! The cost, you must run it in your campaign, and tell me all about it! Happy Rolling!!