Dice and Disney: Adventureland

Adventureland does not present a coherent story like Main Street U.S.A. does, but the individual attractions have richer stories of their own that suggest gaming hooks. So, let's dig in.

Jungle Cruise

(Pulp-mode Trail of Cthulhu one-shot) The Investigators are passengers on an expedition along the Amazon in search of a temple recently reported by another team. A tribe of locals believe that the temple is home to a sleeping god, and they violently resist any outsiders who might wake the deity. The closer the Investigators come to the temple, the more dangerous and eerily coordinated the jungle wildlife becomes as well.

Magic Carpets of Aladdin

No one is sure why Prince Aladdin's friend the Genie created so many flying carpets, but now the streets are full of them. Young people race each other from one side of the city to the other, dodging market stalls and spitting camels. Your characters are members of one such carpet gang, perhaps thieves and street rats as the Prince himself is rumored to have been once. You must deal with rival carpet riders, the city guards, and even with the odd magician who doesn't like to see such magic used  so freely.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Your characters must survive a pirate siege while searching the town for the very loot the scalawags seek for themselves. The innocent townsfolk are caught in the middle. Can you heartlessly leave them to their fate at the hands of your enemies?

A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas

Perhaps with the loot you earned above, you have secured a ship and crew and signed on to a mission that takes you around the globe in search of five even greater treasures. Along the way, you face other pirates, the British Navy, and even the frozen Arctic. You must weave spells and do battle with evil, all in the name of precious booty!

Swiss Family Treehouse

The shipwreck story is sorely underrepresented in tabletop gaming. If you spring a shipwreck on the players in the middle of the game, they will likely feel cheated. And many groups will not find the premise appealing for more than a short campaign.

But I think it has a lot of promise. I would love to play in a game that featured the characters alone on an island, forced to survive with only what they can scrounge or build. Even better if they are not as alone as they think. Once they've built their sanctuary in the trees, they must then defend it against natives, other visitors, or the ever popular supernatural menace.

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

(More Trail of Cthulhu) The Investigators are invited to a lodge or club decorated with lush flowers and home to singing birds. The cornerstone of the decor are the stone tiki idols, carved with menacing faces. Over the course of dinner, their avuncular host explains how he acquired the tikis, taking them from various Pacific islands over a decade's travel. Unfortunately, as he boasts about his finds, the spirits of the "tiki gods" grow angry. The plants and animals start to sing disturbing songs, eventually driving the host mad and forcing the Investigators to placate the spirits or suffer a similar fate.

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