The Most Ambitious Adventure?
- Thread starter Two orcs
- Start date
squeen
8, 8, I forget what is for
Thanks man! The part my players hate is that the warriors hunt is groups of mentally-linked threes, hiding in shadow with Drow-made cloaks and backstabbing etc. Each one has a pair of time delayed grenades (tik...tik...tik..tik..boom!). Area damage, even if relatively minor, is a great level/HD equalizer. Also, I have been told, flat-out, by my players that only THEY get to hide in shadows!
They do build nice traps too, but are no Tucker strategists. In one central hall that's a dungeon artery, just outside of the kobold's domain, they habitually re-set a random trap (in plain sight)---just to screw with travelers. My players subsequently dubbed that fairly benign set-up "The Hall of Death". Melodramatic, but it made me smile.
You are probably addressing the others, but for me it's obviously this dragon. It's the only one I've ever used or placed. Been saving it up for a special occasion.
The only other candidate on the list at this point is likely a major demon lord (likely Orcus). Although, if I'd guess, that will never happen. Too high a level. Too god-like.
I was very happy to have run a beholder for the first time recently. Never even met one as a player.
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The1True
8, 8, I forget what is for
This motherfucker from the old d20 Iron Kingdoms Monsternomicon is my DM wet dream. I've tried to fold him into like 3 campaigns with no luck so far
3.0 stats, but still...
That's a proper dragon...
The1True
8, 8, I forget what is for
Yeah man. It sucks they're WotC IP. They deserve to run wild and free through the OSR without weird name changes and other skullduggery...
The1True
8, 8, I forget what is for
Yeah, I've run all of the Vecnas. Was that the one with his crazy skull city in it?
Beoric
8, 8, I forget what is for
Love the kobolds!
The thing is, in this imaginary universe where I actually have time to publish modules, I would probably aim them at teaching Trad and Neotrad/OC players some of our tricks. So there are parts of this that are really classic, like an old school dungeon and an old school slaver's lair. And then there is the attempted assassination mystery, which also feeds into why everyone is so paranoid (people's dreams are being manipulated by the faction that sent the assassins). Or they could play peacemaker, or they could pick a side (but only one side out of four). But really, there is too much for them to do everything; basically there was enough time to find and explore one dungeon, and then only because characters heal faster in late edition D&D.
That is a lot, and I just thought it would be too much to layer into that B2 advise that essentially says, "there are all these crazy factions, ad lib what they do". Especially at the time, after decades of 2e, 3e and 4e modules, and before some of the looser 5e WotC modules had come out, most DMs had no experience with a module that didn't spoon feed them. If the individual elements required a lot of improv, I thought I needed a mechanic to manage the framework that all these elements ran in.
So the original mechanic was basically (a) randomly determine who raids whom; (b) determine type of raid by the faction's hostility level; (c) if PCs don't prevent raid (or successfully assist it), then certain events occur and target's hostility levels are increased; (d) if PCs do prevent raid, then different events occur and different things happen with hostility levels. So for example:
The fun part for me was that the players can't do everything, and every element they ignore means something bad happens with the others. If you don't solve the mystery, key witnesses disappear and key villains get away. If you don't rescue the slaves they drown. If you don't clear the dungeon, it floods and is inaccessible for a long time. If you don't deal with the rising tension levels, it becomes hard to get anywhere, and you have to deal with random street fights; your haven from the dungeon is no longer a haven.
There is probably an optimum strategy on replay. Like if you can prevent the sewer workers from going on strike, or get them back to work, the sewers don't back up, the dungeon doesn't flood and the slaves don't drown, so you can save them for later. But the odds of figuring that out the first time through are pretty slim.
I get what you are saying, and that is how I would run it in a home game; the question is, is it enough for a published module? Seven years ago I thought it needed more structure, but now I would really have to think it through.
The thing is, in this imaginary universe where I actually have time to publish modules, I would probably aim them at teaching Trad and Neotrad/OC players some of our tricks. So there are parts of this that are really classic, like an old school dungeon and an old school slaver's lair. And then there is the attempted assassination mystery, which also feeds into why everyone is so paranoid (people's dreams are being manipulated by the faction that sent the assassins). Or they could play peacemaker, or they could pick a side (but only one side out of four). But really, there is too much for them to do everything; basically there was enough time to find and explore one dungeon, and then only because characters heal faster in late edition D&D.
That is a lot, and I just thought it would be too much to layer into that B2 advise that essentially says, "there are all these crazy factions, ad lib what they do". Especially at the time, after decades of 2e, 3e and 4e modules, and before some of the looser 5e WotC modules had come out, most DMs had no experience with a module that didn't spoon feed them. If the individual elements required a lot of improv, I thought I needed a mechanic to manage the framework that all these elements ran in.
So the original mechanic was basically (a) randomly determine who raids whom; (b) determine type of raid by the faction's hostility level; (c) if PCs don't prevent raid (or successfully assist it), then certain events occur and target's hostility levels are increased; (d) if PCs do prevent raid, then different events occur and different things happen with hostility levels. So for example:
"The PCs intervene" meant I needed to have a planned encounter for the various types of raids, distinct for each attacker and defender. That added up to 36 planned encounters of this type, of which only a handful are likely to actually be intervened in by the PCs unless they are really motivated to chase down rumors.
The fun part for me was that the players can't do everything, and every element they ignore means something bad happens with the others. If you don't solve the mystery, key witnesses disappear and key villains get away. If you don't rescue the slaves they drown. If you don't clear the dungeon, it floods and is inaccessible for a long time. If you don't deal with the rising tension levels, it becomes hard to get anywhere, and you have to deal with random street fights; your haven from the dungeon is no longer a haven.
There is probably an optimum strategy on replay. Like if you can prevent the sewer workers from going on strike, or get them back to work, the sewers don't back up, the dungeon doesn't flood and the slaves don't drown, so you can save them for later. But the odds of figuring that out the first time through are pretty slim.
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This one.is.by Bruce Cordell, how were they? How did it go at the table?
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