How do we make the old 'Rats in the Basement'

>>50032926
By putting the Rats in the Walls

Basement hatch has been locked shut from the inside, party has to use a potion to shrink down between the floor boards and fight the rats on equal ground.

>>50032926
Rats in a basement are a symptom.
They were driven out of the sewer into the basement.
The trail leads to that place, where they fled and the real threat lies.

There aren't actually any rats in the basement, the shopkeeper's daughter just wanted to lure the party down there for a gangbang.

>>50032926
The rats have their own adventurer's guild.

>>50032926
The rats are a metaphor for the failings of the French monarchy.

A local necromancer is raising rat-kings from the dead to use as quadrocopter rotors for his new drone business

The Royal Guild of Artificers wish to protect their monopoly, and have hired your party to stop him and his crowds of disturbingly loyal early-adopters

>>50032926
Rats are afraid of a giant fire breathing rat that the inn keeper keeps alive by feeding him annoying bards who keep hitting on his dauther.

>>50032926
The rats are the one that hired the party to get rid of that pesky tavern keeper.

>>50032926
the basement actually leads to the tomb of an ancient lich way too powerfull for the party.

The Lich then asks the party to kill the rats, they are disturbing his slumber.

The rats are actually dire rats

>>50032926
Introduce Squatter's Rights

The players are the rats, seeking to drive the innkeeper out of business for killing their father.

>>50032926
The ratfolk have legitimate claim to that basement, and the innkeeper is technically squatting on their land. However the local authorities are prejudiced against rats and have sided with the innkeeper. Now the party has to investigate and represent the rats' case in court.

>>50032926
The rats are of a species that is either not native, it was previously considered extinct

>>50032956
>I break down the door

>>50033245
>Small furry hands cling to your legs, pulling you down into the abyss

>>50033245
>The innkeeper shouts in protest.
YOU'RE PAYING FOR THAT!

>>50033112

The lonely Necromancer spent his days in the crypt beneath the cities sewers. His necromantic powers fading, he found solace in the companionship of the rats and used what little magic he had left to uplift them.

He asked them for nothing but their companionship and after he passed the rats were determined to keep his abode (where his body is but a skeleton on the simple bed he had) safe.

The Inn-keeper heard rumors of a mage who took hermitage in the sewers and built his establishment over an old secret enterance used by nobles in the old days and has been plying the sewers since.

The Inn-keeper has secretly called upon the party to help deal with the sentient rats so he can finally have the necromancer's supposed treasure.

>>50032926
The rats offer to pay you more to kill the innkeeper.

>>50032926
>The rats fill the basement
>And the first floor
>And the whole village
>The whole village flees as the area is literally covered in rats
>The tide of rats isn't stopping any time soon
>Adventurers sent to figure out where the hell all these rats are coming from

I thought the entire point of "rats in the tavern basement" quests were to have them basically be milk runs for new groups; making them complicated sort of defeats the purpose of teaching basic mechanics to new players in a low-risk adventure, no?

>>50032926

Aren't rats able to completely floor your average commoner?

>>50033337
why do you think they send in adventurers?

>>50032926
The Rats are a byproduct of a Mage College student's experiment in creating multiple familiars.

Their consciousness is a shared hive-mind that has developed sentience and expands to other pests it encounters.

>>50033282
>I shout back up at him
YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FOR A POTION OF SHRINKING BUT NOT A LOCKSMITH?

>>50033310
>The players stand on the city walls, looking out over what once was a prosperous city, now a roiling sea of tiny brown rats. Only the Lord's house remains visible above the seething tide. The players can see flashes of spellery from the Lord's sorcerous retinue attempting to quell the tide, but it obviously is a temporary solution. If it's not stopped soon, the rats will soon overrun the walls, then the valley, the entire country.

>>50033304
Using this

>>50032926

Ratfolk in the basement.

Alt.: there's a druid in the basement with the rats, he was hired by the competition.

>>50033337
Considering they do 1d3-4 and have 1/4 of a hit point, no.

Even the world of darkness cat meme does not stand up when you see that cat would roll a die on attack and would deal at most 1 bashing damage and have 1 health box.

>>50033367
The Locksmith's Guild has a federally backed charter and monopoly, as well as federal sanctions on labor production. Of course it's bloody mire expensive than the potion that I occasionally ask Cletus the alchemist to moonshine-up once every full moon or so.

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>>50033381
And that, my boy, is how our civilization began.

>>50032926
You are the rats.

Your life is a basement from which death under the boot of those above you is the only escape

>>50032926
This ship pulled in without a sound
The faithful captain long since cold
He kept his log till the bloody end
Last entry read "rats in the hold.
My crew is dead - I fear the plague"

>>50033427
You cant monopolize something that me and my dick head friends mastered in 1st grade.

>>50033427
Bah, fine. I'll pay for the door but I'm keeping the potion. I can probably make a profit selling it down the line.

>>50033429
>the earth is just crushed up rat corpses
The Warhammer World is now the only planet to be made out of 95% spooky scary skeletons.

>>50033461
Sure you can, as long as you can limit entry into the market.
Speaking of which, have you seen the new enforcers the guild just got? I heard they broke Jason's fingers just for looking at a bobby pin funny.

an innkeeper begs for aid with removing the rats from his basement, recruiting a local crew of nobodies to do it for him
he explains to them that the door has been bewitched by his angry ex-wife who was a sorceress, making trespassing for any man impossible, by the way his brother who is a wizard cursed it to be immune to any tampering, not even the brother himself could tamper with it at this point.
his father-in-law, a mighty bishop, shrunk the doorway to ten centimetres tall before this, erecting a wall around where the door used to stay, he then blessed all walls and the roof and the floor of the cellar with impenetrability to physical or magical force of any kind
he refers you to a local alchemist who peddles in such matters, he has available a potion that can turn a man into a rat, but nothing else of any kind. the town does not receive such exotic goods in trade and travelling merchants also do not carry around better solutions.
the doorway can only be swung open during twilight of august the 23rd, it is the 22nd

>>50033496
Ah, another one of those episodes.

I quit. You can have it, novelty wore off 6 years ago.

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>>50033564
Oh, you're no fun anymore

>>50033655
It happens in every thread and you just give up.

>>50032926
The campaign starts with w wizard apprehending the travelling party for wicked experimentation, due to unknown reasons the party isn't suitable after insert event here, being a cruel arse hole the wizard shrinks the party and chucks him in his basement, cue fun quest.

>>50032926
The rats are intelligent and have tiny little steam-powered machines a la rat-scale Dragonmech.

The insects of the sewers have made a pact with the outer gods and are culling all insects that do not pledge themselves to their new found gods. The roaches intreat the rats to help them and bother the innkeeper with mischeif to have him call on low level adventurers so they can ask them for help

There are no rats
There are no basement
Just a trap door and behind it there is the drawing of a rat

It's all a practical joke for novice adventurers
>If you are looking for a job, you should talk with old Jerkins, he have a rat problem in his basement, tell them that his friend Bob send you, he will let you pass right away

>>50032926

Make the rats Scaven

>>50032926

>one of the rats is actually a polymorphed princess, whom the party is on a quest to save
>the princess had been cursed to this form by the villain, who believed this to be the most suitable method of stashing her away until her would-be rescuers could be dealt with
>the party is completely oblivious to this fact, unless maybe a magic-user happens to use some sort of detection spell on the rats for some inexplicable reason
>at the start of their quest, the party unwittingly slaughters the polymorphed princess in rat form
>the party proceeds dauntlessly to the BBEG's lair, unaware that their actions are entirely wasted at this point
>after the BBEG is slain, the polymorph curse is dispelled, and the princess' remains revert to their human form
>the local barmaid screeches in terror when she steps into the root cellar only to find the princess' squashed and torn remains spattered across the floor
>the king conducts an investigation to determine just who committed this terrible atrocity
>the king commissions a knowledgeable magic-user to deploy a discovery spell that reveals exactly by whose weapon the princess was murdered
>the king immediately rounds up the party and has them tortured and executed in an excruciatingly ghastly manner
>the GM scolds the party for not having the foresight to use a detection spell on the rats

>>50032926
>the rats are playing GURPS successfully

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Surprised no one has posted this yet.
tfw you will never play a lvl 0 campaign and live out the lives of npcs

>>50032970
>>50033067
>>50033304
>>50032942
>>50032959
Any of these.

My personal take: the Innkeeper hired you under false pretenses, and is plotting to kill you once the party is good and lost in his labrynthian basement. Some of the rats are intelligent (and oddly moral), and offer to help you in exchange for freedom from being a clean-up crew.

Side quest upon side quest!
>wild encounter with weaken skaven on big dire rat with a bloody corpse near town outskirt with weird screeching sound in the back ground
>went to town after encounter to find out what happening.
>bartender say he got rat problem
>do quest
You will learn the following
>there is a vampire problem
>the shaven has protected their home for generation and used and kept the village sewer "clean" as a nest because it the last place you would go to gold if there no need to work there.
>the skaven are fighting the bats

>>50033362
Actually played a character who was this but with leopards.

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>>50032926
>The group descends to find the source of the strange scratching and gnawing noises in the basement.
>The party finds, in some dirty corner of the basement, a massive rat king, writhing and wriggling in every direction
>As you move to kill it, the rats begin speaking in unison, detailing a prophesy of death, disease, and famine
>As you walk back up from the basement, you seek out the owner of the house/tavern/whatever for your reward, only to find a dessicated corpse laid back against the wall, covered in scratch marks, no possessions of value are around
>As you leave, the sky seems to be a noticeably more grey and foreboding, the air stale with a strange hint of a rancid smell, in the windless air
>The rest of the town shares the same fate as the owner, their bodies shriveled and dry.

>>50032942
Ayyyyy

>>50033310
>Warhammer Fantasy.jpeg

>>50034354
Stealing this for lamentations

>>50033362
My 5e GM did something like this. Rats in sewers. Swarms using wave tactics, flanking, shit that was way too smart for rats to be doing. Turns out they're being controlled by a rat king stuck in a magic circle (we still don't know what's up with that)

>>50032926
the rats are actually all horny anthro furry wenches, out to yiff the town into decadence and induct them into a chaos cult of hedonism and vice

you know what must be done

>>50034555
The protofurry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRIyw-pJkUk

>>50034555
Join them?

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>>50032926
Rats are actually fairies taking up space in someones basement.

>>50032926

The only time I've ever seen it done even semi-well was just overt lampshade hanging on it.

We were high level characters. We went on a bender with a minor deity, woke up somewhere apparently heavily in debt and with a geas on us to pay it back, and most of our spare loot gone.

Anyway, said inkeeper asks us to kill some rats in his basement, and grumbling, we go down to do the deed.

We fought some absurdly high-statted rats with literally thousands of HP sitting around some gnawed dragon skeletons.

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>>50034354
>mfw I saw a living one in real life

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>>50034555
Purge them.

>>50032926
The rats are the resident's pet and a spiteful beast woman has been placing rotten meat near the basement which has attracted mountain lions.

>>50034612
did it tell you that you'd be trapped in ajapanese pottery class within a screen where people fight over minor slights?

>>50032926
Giant rats are actually a serious threat, not so much because they're individually dangerous but because there are a lot of them and they'll eat everything. Famine and starvation threaten, and the town/regional government is therefore drafting pretty much everyone they can get their hands on as ratcatchers.

The rats have a hive-mind, and were in partnership with the innkeeper as part of a blackmail ring.

Unbeknownst to the adventurers, the rats are actually possessed by minor plague spirits. Once the rats are dead, they attempt to jump into the nearest living body- the adventurers. Cue quest to get the spirits exorcised while simultaneously trying to avoid becoming inadvertent mass murderers.

The rats return to haunt the adventurers in their dreams.

>>50034738
No it saved me from a prison escapee

>>50034612
Story?

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>>50032926
They just want to be cuddled.

>>50032926
>Cranium Rats
>Wererats

>>50034795
I'm on the phone, gimme a few

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>>50034106
>get all the way to the big bad and slay him
>no one bothered to clean up the rat corpses in the mean time

>>50033316
Nobody said to make the quest harder, just more interesting.

>>50033550
I open the door at the specified time and cast fireball through it.

>>50034937
GURPS

>>50034164
>spoiler
Our 5e campaign started at level 0. The characters are:
>a hunter
>the barkeep
>a town guard (Me)
>the blacksmith
>some random herbalist who lives in the woods
Shit we got up to included breaking up a barfight and rescuing the baker's daughter from giant spiders. 3 party members almost died to one fucking bear. The herbalist is apparently a pot farmer and is also trying to make some moonshine.
3 sessions later and we're finally level 1. None of us has any good equipment.
It's pretty fun all things said

>>50032959
This. They aren't there because they want to be; they're there because they absolutely needed to get away from something else. To really grasp how scary this actually is, you've got to realize that rats aren't exactly the most timid creatures once they reach a certain size. In fact they can be down right vicious, especially in numbers. Drive this point home by having the townsfolk bring that fact up and by having the rats actually be a legitimate threat in a large group. It'll make the players wonder just what could possibly be so bad as to drive the vicious vermin tide to flee. It's actually a pretty common trope in movies.

>No matter how many rats are killed more appear
>Innkeeper refuses to pay and you're forced to investigate
>Turns out theres a secret hatch that leads deep into the catacombs of the city
>Theres a smuggling ring bringing in illegal drugs or magical supplies in
>Little Freddy was helping out a band of criminals all along

The rats are half human half rat hybrids who were created by the quest giving mad scientist in an attempt to once and for all give street justice to the infestation of cats in his neighbors basement.

>>50034795
>>50034829
Ok, so I guess I'll greentext

>Be me, taking a late night walk downtown around 3am
>Just what I usually do at night
>Not in a bad neighbourhood, but on a main street that's close to a few
>Sometimes I go down interesting sidestreets or alleys that I'd never have a reason to explore otherwise
>Down one such place behind a theatre, no lights
>I'm checking out a little crossroads, it's like hidden streets back here
>Suddenly hear a voice
>"Hey man, can I talk to you?"
>Turn around, can't see who it is very well
>I'm much bigger than him, but he looks like he was that wiry kinda of strength, I feel reassured anyway because he sounds scared
>I say nothing
>"I just wanna sell you some weed man, I'm in a bad spot"
>Tell him I don't want any
>"I traded cigs for them earlier and I tried to get into a club but the bouncer stopped me and I called him a nigger and some guys chased me and I just need money for a cab to get back to jail man"
>I tell him I don't have cash, start looking down the little crossroads to see where I can bolt if needed
>"Please man I'm not supposed to be out here I think they called cops I just want to get back. I'll just give this to you I don't want it on me"
>he steps closer

Comment too long, continued in a second post

>>50035085
>Suddenly, I hear a bunch of shit get knocked down near one of the dumpsters, probably a fucking raccoon
>Guy gets fucking spooked, jumps, walks towards me rapidly, asks if anyone else is here. I dunno if he's asking me or whoever he thinks is hiding behind a dumpster
>I start backing up, there are two other directions I can go right now, I'm considering bolting
>I see a garbage bag get tossed out from the wall, it looked light, like it was filled with paper
>And then this fucking dark shape slithering along the floor
>Sometimes inching like a caterpillar, sometimes straight up rolling
>The guy had turned around after hearing the bag, see this thing
>Throws his weed at it and runs
>The thing stupidly travels straight into a dumpster
>It gets louder, I can make out the noise now
>I recognize it, as I used to have pet rats
>I had heard of Rat Kings before
>Realize what I must be looking at right now
>I get closer, I can see tails around the fringe of the sphere
>Fucking thing lopsidedly falls at me
>I sprint out of there, never to return

I felt like this was going to be my fucking superhero origin story, as I've always loved rats.

The thing was so unnerving, the way it moved. And the other guy running made me feel extra spooked.

I can take questions I guess, I'm sure I've left a lot out

>>50035132
Did it make any specific noises?
How many rats exactly were in it? Like 8 or a lot more?

>>50033550

Those rats must be pretty hardcore if they went through all the effort to trap them. What's so valuable that he wants them dead in spite of all these countermeasures.

>>50035132
That sounds more like a Junji Ito story than a superhero origin.

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>>50035132
>rolling

>>50034164

Those five rats must have been pretty hardcore.

>>50032926
The rats ask the party if they would clear out their basements of dwarves.

The dwarves in turn ask if the party would clear out their basements of duergar.

Then the duergar ask the party if they would clear out their basements of drow.

And then the drow...

Anyway, that's how the party ended up in the underdark.

>>50035297
That's a good one, that

>>50035215
It just sounded like a bunch of rats, nothing that crazy. I wish for the story it had been creepier

They werent squeaking as a call, it was more like this certain noise rats make when they're breathing

It looked to me to be at most 12. It would have come up to maybe mid-calf.

>>50035252
it was more of like a log shape than a true sphere, and I guess its center of balance changed a lot. I wish I could have seen it better

>>50035228
Not all heroes wear capes ~;~^)

>>50035252
>When you nut but you keep on sucking

>>50034782
>>50035085
>>50035132
>>50035332
And here I thought you were joking.

Fucking hell, dude

>>50035252
What even is that? A raccoon?

>>50035085
>"I traded cigs for them earlier and I tried to get into a club but the bouncer stopped me and I called him a nigger and some guys chased me and I just need money for a cab to get back to jail man"

Anon, you met a PC.

>>50035374
It looks to be one, yeah
have a tiny rat king https://youtu.be/pqLR5fYt4Yw

>>50035396
more of a rat prince really

>>50032942
/thread

>>50032926
well TES: Oblivion had an original idea. The rats in the basement were pets, and you have to protect them from cougars...

The rats have impregnated an 11 year old girl. Her chest bursts open and the rat king comes out.

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>>50032926
I literally just GMed a session where the party was tasked with a classic rat quest as their first party quest.

Rats were coming in from the woods and eating up the low hanging grapes in some rich bigwig's vineyard so they had to hang out with his brat nephew all night and wait for the rats to come. They then bashed some rats. The owner suspected the rats were the doing of the vineyard across the road, but investigation proved them clean, they were attacked by rats too.

It turned out the nephew and his cousin had been importing rats from the city and letting them loose just outside the vineyards every night so their uncle would keep them on payroll bashing rats because they were pretty much useless otherwise.

Then it devolved into some utter conspiracy shit.

BASICALLY I think theres 2 great ways to do a rat quest:

The rats are a bait and switch
The rats are played straight, but you make them CONSTANTLY anticipate a bait and switch that never comes.

>>50032942

Never seen a thread so over, so fast

>>50032942
Came here to post this.

>>50032926
It's the basement of an alchemist, and the rats have gotten into and knocked over some of the potions.

Party has to fight all manner of rats. Giant rats, flying rats, rats that are on fire, invisible rats.

Culminates with them facing off against one last giant rat, only for another rat to drop a rack of shrinking potions on them, meaning the giant rat is now easily the size of a grizzly to them.

>>50036076
Saving this for later.

>>50033429
any other Vermintide players here?

>>50034106
any GM who pulls that off is going to get their ass kicked inside-out by their players

>>50034164
honestly this doesn't seem like it'd be fun at all

>>50036330
Picked up the Halloween items.

>>50033337
Well, if the black death is any measure of flooring commoners, absolutely.

>>50032926
The rats are cultists.

The rats are actually dogs

>>50036452
>i wnat my gaem to be a safe space
Fight your way out of it, you pussy.

>>50034106
i.e: how to be "that" DM

>>50032926
It's a futuristic setting.

The 'rats' are actually drones hacking into the basement server farms.

By being regular rats, not giant rats. Hacking at them with a sword is like swatting flies, and it's not actively endangering lives.

Basically, be hired as actual pest control.

>>50032926
The rats are people who were turned into rats. The houseowner sends you to kill them because a warding spell makes it impossible for him to touch them.

>>50033282
>>50033367
>Rest of the game is a trial where the innkeeper wants the PCs to pay for his destroyed property

>>50032926
The rats hire you to get rid of a tavern that has infested their attic.

>>50033304
Really like this one.

>you stepped on the last of the rats with ease, leaving a mush of fur and guts on the boot that you wipe on the floorboards
>after scanning the basement one last time to make sure all the critters have been squashed, one tiny rodent emerges from a hole in the wall with a tiny stick between its fangs and a conical hat atop its head
>the bard gushes over how adorable the creature is, and asks if you can't spare that one and keep it with you on your adventures, but immediately after a flash of bright colors fills the room
>roll your will saves
>the rat is a sorcerer

>>50037357
>after scanning the basement one last time to make sure all the critters have been squashed, one tiny rodent emerges from a hole in the wall with a tiny stick between its fangs and a conical hat atop its head
It looks at the devastating viscera smeared across the floor, and over to a tiny birthday cake with a banner. There are itty bitty sugar cubes wrapped in colorful thread ribbons. It starts crying.

>>50033310
Deltoraquest.png

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>>50037588
And once you kill him Princess Pring shows up to go Birthday Kingdom on your ass.

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>>50033067
That was a good game

>>50033310
Some idiot wizard opened a portal to the Elemental Plane of Rats. The only way to get near enough to the portal to close it is to go to the elemental plane, find where the rats are flowing out, and close the portal from the other side.

>>50037668
You fool!

You're just asking for the PCs to return to that basement and build a meat-packing empire around that portal!

>>50032926
>The innkeeper offers you gold if you get rid of the rats in his cellar
>The rats agree to leave peacefully if you bring them some rare cheese
>The town's cheesemaker agrees to give you his rare cheese if you bring him a new hatchet
>The blacksmith would be happy to make you a new hatchet, but a local bridge-troll stole his anvil
>The bridge-troll will gladly return the anvil, if the party cooks him a hearty meal of venison
>The local huntsman will trade the party some of his venison for a new pair of boots
>The town's shoemaker... you get the idea

>Eventually the party gets everything together, and goes back to the inn
>The innkeeper has since been bitten by the rats, caught plague and died
>His children, who inherited his money, bitch the party out for not getting rid of the rats sooner, and refuse to pay up

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>>50037711
... ... ... ...

>Someone keeps a cellar full of pet rats and needs to to save them from a mountain-lion that's managed to dig inside and begin eating them one by one

>>50032942
fpbp

>help, im trapped in a rats basement

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>>50032926
"We're in the Rats' Basement. Help us get out."

>>50032926
turns out that the rats are illegal immigrants hiding in the cellar

>>50037668
>Some idiot wizard opened a portal to the Elemental Plane of Rats
Dude, it's called Manhattan.

>>50038502
>Manhattan
That's the elemental plane of flying rats.
Regular rats are New Jersey.

>>50037768
>you must then find out who was luring the mountain lion to the cellar

>>50038664
> Dire wolves were chasing the mountain lions off their native habit
> The dire wolves were migrating because of a massive migration of trolls
> the trolls were migrating away from a drake's nest
> The drakes fled the doom mountains because of ancient dragons
> The ancient dragons were being dicks as dragons are wont to do____________

>>50038664
>it's the lesbian reptilian neighbor

Rats have been hired to get rid of drunken adventurers in the basement of the inn.

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>>50032926
They carry the Plague. Only appeasing and sexing the Queen of Rats will avoid that you die when killing the rats.

>This was a supernatural creature whose true appearance was that of a rat; she would follow the toshers about, invisibly, as they worked, and when she saw one that she fancied she would turn into a sexy-looking woman and accost him. If he gave her a night to remember, she would give him luck in his work; he would be sure to find plenty of money and valuables. He would not necessarily guess who she was, for though the Queen Rat did have certain peculiarities in her human form (her eyes reflected light like an animal’s, and she had claws on her toes), he probably would not notice them while making love in some dark corner. But if he did suspect, and talked about her, his luck would change at once; he might well drown, or meet with some horrible accident.

>>50038946
>Hey Frank, you wanna bubone some humies?
>Sure why not. Lemme just see if I've got a good set of fleas ready.
>You guys gonna bubone something?
>Sup, Tim. Yeah, we're getting ready to roll out.
>Awesome, can I join in?
>Absolutely. Just be sure to pack a full set.
>Alright, squad is up, Tim, Frank, go for the transients, Bob, go around the corner, turn right at the next one, get in a grain sack, and just fuck up everything.

>>50032926

They're witches' familiars holding an elaborate convent/meeting.

Depending on your definition of elaborate:
>complicated rituals are performed with minor trinkets of the PC's
>all of the familiars are wearing tiny silk garments

>>50038946
>tabletop game where your party are a group of rats
>The bbeg is...

Give them political nicknames! Trump Hillary Bush, the story will write itself.

It's actually a tiny female ratling, who was separated from her underground horde who would have mutated her into a breeding monster the moment she reached puberty

she will die without someone to look after her, as she's only a child

>>50034894
Nowhere in that post was the word "harder" used.

>>50032926
Here you go, op, enjoy listening to Vincent Price in Three Skeleton Key, the story of rats who invade a lighthouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyuoR23lUBk

If this doesn't give you any ideas on how to make rats a player's nightmare than nothing else can help you.

Happy Halloween and all that shit.

>>50034681
Oh yes...
"Purge" them...

>>50036452
>honestly this doesn't seem like it'd be fun at all
Sorta the point. Its to establish that PC's shouldn't bitch when old man jenkins needs some help with something as simple as rats because the rats WILL kill him.

>>50033426
D&D, cats can kill commoners or 1st level wizards pretty easy

>>50041173
Cats can kill you and everyone you love in real life.

>>50032926
>The basement is a ratfolk inn
>The owner needs a bouncer after a bar brawl left him a tail short

>>50032926
The rat infestation is actually a GOOD thing, because there is some fledgeling eldritch entity down there below them

. They keep on gnawing at it, befouling its body with droppings and nests and it is stunting the creature's growth while distracting the monster's attention from the owners far above

>>50035227
Lewd magazines he hid there

>>50032926
Read a post on Leddit about a playgroup that did a level 0 campaign. They went to clear out some giant rats and all died. Got new commoners from the same village but realized their previous characters didn't lock the door before dying, so now there's giant rats in the streets killing everyone. They all die again. Repeat four or five times until they attempt escape and realize the town gate is locked. It was four or five TPKs and everyone was slaughtered.

In their next campaign the players (now actual adventurers) came across the very same town and slowly peiced together where they were before being attacked by rats the size of Grizzly Bears. The added out-of-character backstory from playing through the town's downfall made the fight much better for them.

>>50041212
>ratfolk inn
>human invasion in the basement

Will someone rid us of these turbulent mostly hairless monkies!?

Bonus points if it is just that pesky gang of evil orphans again.

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>>50034681
sauce?

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>>50032926
Rats are vicious mix of saturday morning villains, the worst guy you met in your whole life, and nazis (twisted experiments included).

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>>50037668

That's basically the Kingdom of Loathing quest where you have to find the rat faucet in the tavern basement.

The rats were attracted by a mass grave buried under the tavern. The innkeeper has no idea where the bodies came from, but none are more than a week old. Murder mystery ensues.

>>50032926


We are the rats.

https://boards.fireden.net/tg/thread/48967642/

Bump for rats

>>50041573
>Kingdom of Loathing
There's a name I hadn't heard in a long time. A long time.

>>50032926
-There are rats that came from a distant country via illicit smuggling. After a minor outbreak a local doctor has proved that the rats are carrying a communicable disease into a society that until now has never been exposed to the disease. Find the rats and contain them to stop a massive public health crisis.
-The rats are inside a metal bucket pressed against a restrained PC's bare skin, and the BBG is slowly heating the metal bucket on one side. Find your compatriot before it is too late.
-The rats in the basement were stolen from a research laboratory. The pharmaceutical company is now worried about losing trade secrets to the unknown competitors that financed the heist. They will generously pay any investigators that identify the conspirators, and secure their lab animals.

>>50032926
City wide problems, ROUSes, claims of strange creatures (your choice of low level monster, kobolds, goblins etc) seen guiding/releasing them.

End the adventure with a rat dragon. Which is just a low level dragon reskinned as a rat and given a disease breath instead of its normal breath weapon.

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>>50032926
Ratspiders. The party has triggered an entire nest of them.

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>>50032926
I'm surprised nobody has said this yet but...

Turns out that the basement is actually a rat tavern filled with rowdy rat adventurers who are actually much higher level than the PCs and will kick their asses in a straight up fight.

>>50042707
Spider-rats
Spider-rats
Does whatever a spider-rat can

>>50043119
Sucks all the yellow from your cheese and leaves it full of holes.

And that, dear friends, is where swiss cheese comes from.

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>>50033245
>>50033282

>>50032926
Run a parallel campaign of Mouse Guard.
Have the rats in the basement look and behave like their characters.

>Cue everyone gets a familiar pocket rat

>Ctrl + F
>"cranium rats"
>1 match
there is still hope in man

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>>50034555
I roll to seduce

>>50043790
I'm pretty sure win or lose that roll they still have their way with you.

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>>50032926

Idk.

>>50032959
That's literally the start of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, though.

>>50037711
would never work in DnD, party would get to the third quest, kill the cheesemaker, take cheese back, kill the rats, eat cheese, get paid by innkeeper, fuck his daughter, eat the innkeeper, steal his beer.

>>50041400
Found it
some good shit right there

>>50033310
>>50033381

So sort of the plot of the manga "Region"? could be fun to play

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>>50035867
That one screwed with my head a little. Morrowind was my first Elder Scrolls game, and I had taken the Fighter's Guild mission. Yup, rats. Chewing on your pillows. I thought it was a little funny, if not cliché, just because the woman seemed like a nutjob.

A couple years later, I get Oblivion, take that Fighter's Guild mission. "That sounds familiar." I get to the client, recognizing the name. "Ohgodnotthisagain." Cone to find out, they're pets.

My face: pic related.

>>50045941
I'd forgotten that existed. I don't think I beat it.

>>50037620
my nig

>>50032926
I ran a game once where Awakened rats were setting up magic nexi throughout the sewers at the bidding of an arch-mage. The party didn't stop them in time and a whole section of the town got Plane Shifted to a small diskworld where the wizard and a few other mages each had Plane Shifted different groups of critters to fight it out while the wizards wagered over the "games".

>>50033550
>the only way in is to become a rat
>all the rats in there were once people asked to deal with a rat problem
>the potion never wears off

>>50048576
So... what is the point? He sells premium grade a beef that's actually ratburgers? Of course that seems like a huge waste given he shrinks you down to rat size first.

>>50033550
>>50048576
>Universe 25.jpg

>>50033142
Underrated

>>50032963
So the first chapter in Rise of the Runelords?

>>50037620
Noradzeer.

>>50032926
make them ROUS's

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>>50032926
The rats ask the players if they can remove the infestation of apelings in their attic and return their stolen cheese

The PC's literally only have to do the job of an exterminator. There is no combat, just putting down some traps in some key spots. No one else wants to do it 'cause they're scared of rats.

Perhaps they find something interesting in the basement, or someone else offers them a job 'cause they're handymen who don't afraid of anything

>>50036452
>honestly this doesn't seem like it'd be fun at all
Honestly I'd kill to be in a (well done) campaign like that.
Then again, I'm an autistic masochist that likes playing you-don't-win games on hardest difficulty/made up limitations

>>50047206
>doesn't link it
You fucking faggot

>>50049552
If you lead a mouse to sauce it will fap for a day. If you let the mouse find its own damn sauce it can fap for a lifetime.

And that is how the adventurers solve the innkeeper's rat problem. Poor little bastards just fapped themselves to death.

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>>50034555
>>50034681
>>50041134

>>50034726
Oh get over it Arvena, that was almost ten years ago!

The party returns to town a few days later to find that the town is sufferring from a pandemic of the Scuttle plague carried by the over-breeding mutant cockraoaches. That's what you get for fucking with mother nature. Now go kill the cockroaches in the basement.

>>50032942
Some should catch a picture of this thread. It has a potential.

>>50032926
wererats cultists in the sub-sewers

>>50032926

The rats are the PCs. They have come for cheese and glory, but can they outwit or outfight the innkeeper's cat?

>>50033279
Too lewd.

>>50032998
>raising rat kings from the dead
Even if he had the fortune to find one, let alone multiple, what good would it do? Its just a wad of rats stuck together, its like piling three zombies on top of eachother and fusing them with glue and calling it a superzombie. The extra zombies/rats actually make it less useful than if they were seperate.

>>50034555
Show them /trash/ and watch bad animu together?

>>50032986
underrated

>>50053470
Magic: The Gathering disagrees.

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You meet some ratmen who hire you to clear out their basement which is infested with human children.

>>50037711
>>50037711
>>50037711
>implying the party ranger can't just hunt down a damn deer himself
>implying that he doesn't also keep at least two hatchets for personal use

Some steps can be skipped entirely by having the right party members and gear.

I had them summoned by that sewer lord prestige class i forget the name off.
There may also have been a portal involved its been a long time so my memory is hazy

>>50048789
>fell for it
>rolled a 19 on my perception check, hear noise upstairs
>ask if it sounds like regular shop noise, being that we're under a shop during business hours
>says yes, sounds like regular walking around noise
>assume nothing of it
>lol u get caught

It was nonstop shit like that with that GM.

>"I search the room for clues"
>"What are you looking for?"
>if I don't specifically declare what part of the room I'm investigating I don't find anything

Anyone ever read the Stephen King short story "Night Shift"?

>>50055962
Jesus Christ, you're a genius.

>>50056037
Well, I mean, it's the classic "get hired to clean the rats out of the basement" story.

Just checked, the story itself is called "Graveyard Shift"; the collection it's in is called Night Shift.

>>50056340
Honestly, I get the names of every story in that book mixed up. I called Strawberry Spring The Booeyman for a week before I noticed that there was something wrong with that.

>>50056462
>yfw you will never hang out on a beach at night with your A6-immune friends listening to a story about an astronaut with aliens in his hand

The Boogeyman terrified me in a way no other King story ever could

>>50056577
I read that story when I was like, 11, and it freaked me out to the point I refused to go near a bed/bathroom with an open closet.

>>50032926
Use Lovecraft's 'The Rats In The Walls' as inspiration. Just do it.

>>50049912
im on mobile, and reverse search shows nothing.
fuckyou

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There's a giant rat that makes all of the rules.

>>50035925
>no one else was in that thread

>>50033459
criminally underrated

>>50055962
No.

>>50032926
The innkeeper who gave the quest is actually a shapeshifting rat and hired the party to take out his competition.

>>50032926
Personal favorite? The 'Rats in the Basement' are drugs. The adventurers have accidentally given all the proper signs and counter-signs to be given the drugs. The door locks behind them, and a secret passage opens up. There are limited directions on what the party should do to complete the smuggling run. The sheer fucking chaos that ensues is always, just, the best.

I want to take this thread in another direction: what about low-level encounters with the undead? Switcheroos of the old 'skeletons woke up in the crypt' and 'necromancer's pet zombies escaped' situations.

>>50032986
explain?

>>50032926
The rats are known to spread a currently incurable disease. Indentured servitude to a religious order awaits you if you become infected, to pay for the continuing treatments.

>>50032926
The innkeeper has hired you to solve a rat problem in his basement. As you go in the basement, you see complicated mathematical formulas scribbled with chalk over nearly all surfaces, and in the corner, three rats squeak excitedly, as if having an argument. Each of them hold a piece of chalk. Upon noticing the adventurers, one of the rats clears their throat, and says, "Oh, finally some outside opinion! What do you think of these equations? Jerry here thinks P does not equal NP, while Brain here thinks it is. I say it's balderdash, you cannot prove either conclusively."

>>50037620
kek

>>50037620
There's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

>>50032926
You go into the basement
There are no rats
The door doesnt budge
The real adventure begins

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>>50032942
My N*ggerman.

>>50032998
sounds like someone is shitposting instead of studying

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>>50034555

The innkeeper was the son of the town's Lord using an illusion spell to disguise himself. The rats were the rest of the royal family.

>>50032926
>The adventurers are tasked to clear the rats in the basement
>at the same time, rat adventurers are tasked to clear the humans in the attic

>There are rats in the cellar, please get them out!

>2nd Floor: Inn Rooms
>Ground Floor: Tavern
>Basement F1: Caverns of the Lizardpeople
>Basement F2: Temple of the Disguised God
>Basement F3: The Muck Forest
>Basement F4: Lair of the Chameleon Dragon
...
...
>Basement F34: Ghostlands
>Basement F35: Ruins of the Forgotten Silver Kingdom
>Cellar: Food storage, filled with rats

>>50032926
Made it dire rats once, the barkeep asked one of the party members who wasn't out at the market if they'd take care of them so they'd have ale for the evening festivities. He almost died fighting them in the dark cramped basement

>>50057928
e621. Search "rat" "female" "solo" "nude" "-final_fantasy"
first page

>>50037668
just open a portal to the elemental plane of fire on the other side of it. Problem solved

>>50058529
Is that 3D Movie Maker?

>>50034555
>Their leader is two rat sisters whose tails were tied together at birth
>The rat queen is a rat king

>>50032942
Came here to post this.
FirSt post best post.

>>50061585
You've never had Marie Antoinette try to hide out in your basement?

>>50036610
Technically that was fleas that were on the rats.

My GM made it interesting by having the rats first act unusually smart, using group tactics and terrain and near the end, some magical devices. Turns out we were under mind control of some lich or whatever (never found out for sure) and we were murdering a village. Not as edgy as it sounds because that village was a big supplier for an enemy army and the wizard-or-whatever was somewhat on our side but frequently pushed "ends justifies the means" to the extreme.

So unreliable narration is one option.

>>50032926
There's also a door in the basement with 30 keyholes. Each rat has a key in its stomach. On the other side of the door is a huge ratqueen who eats adventurers and births rats.
The person that gave the quest keeps sending heroes down to kill rats so they don't take over the whole house, but he fears the ratqueen too much and silently locks the door for the heroes who find out about it, leading to their doom for the most part.

>>50032926
>Please help, a group of bandits have made their home in my basement! I will pay you handsomely for disposing of them!

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>>50045941
>Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

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>>50032926
All the rats are secretly elves.
Or are elves secretly rats?