Problem: I've agreed to host a prank on our DM this Friday evening, in honor of his 40th birthday (which happens on Saturday). He'll sit down behind his DM screens and whatnot, only to have the assembled players stand up, rotate chairs, and I'm the DM for the evening, running a one-time event with something cool or funny or interesting that keeps everyone entertained. Difficulty: I haven't DM'd in years. I can fake it as a player, but people expect you to know your shit if you're going to DM. Options: I could run a quick adventure that I noticed over on Metafilter. It has the advantage of being short and funny. Only problem there is that the stats don't necessarily align with any system I've ever played, and the last time I rolled up characters was for an AD&D 2nd Edition campaign, circa 1980-something. I could create something out of whole cloth. Everything I've thought of in the last 24 hours, however, has been the start of something epic, and I'm worried that it won't be satisfying to a 4-hour gaming session crowd. No closure. What say you, Obi-Wannabies. You're my only hope.
Run an adventure about this totally hilarious situation where it's someone's birthday and he's about to do all the stuff he normally does but his friends switch roles on him. So, say he's settling in for a long night of raising the dead, summoning eldritch beings from beyond the veil of reality and then his band of incompetent but lovable apprentices sit him down while they get on with rending asunder the barriers to the realm of nightmare with hilarious consequences.
I'd dig up as many of the old orange spined 2nd edition AD&D books I could find, and spend a hilarious filled 4 hours trying to find the correct tables. Okay maybe not.
How about finding one of those RPGs that's made for short and humorous play? Something like Kobolds Ate My Baby! will be a fast, silly game that can be wrapped in one evening, and doesn't put anyone at a penalty for not knowing how to play the system already.
Based on IainC's excellent suggestion, above, I drew up the following. My intention is to have the apprentices purposefully botch summonings of nightmarish critters. Each summoning gets progressively worse and worse, until Kristoph is forced to intercede. I think I'll play it fast and loose with the abilities and dice rolls, figuring when it's most advantageous for the monsters to gain the upper hand, and when it serves the purpose of entertainment for the party to succeed. That way, people aren't forced into situations where they have to have specific knowledge of spell abilities or the like, and can just enjoy themselves. Now I just have to come up with a series of equally disgusting, fearsome, and potentially funny monsters.
