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--Lime--
2010-06-12, 12:34 AM
Not sure if this belongs here, but...

Since I've been DMing I'm been trying to come up with a generic-type adventure for newbies. Sounds easy enough.

My aims were to push newbies towards a race they don't usually play and I settled on dwarves, since they have a pretty easy-to-grasp background in general (they like being underground, very proud, good at making things, like ale, beards, etc etc) so even first time DnDers can get in on it. Given the choice, most newbs will be shouting "Skills!" "Feats!" and go straight for humans (or elves, if they're Tolkien-ites).

So I have a bunch of dwarves, and I have a pretty simple setting: they want their mines and castle back. Backstory is in the spoiler at the bottom.

Now, all newbs (myself included when I started) that come along seem to want to be the Hero in a party of Heroes, which is fine and all but really doesn't get to the nub of party cohesion. And also, there's an unspoken expectation for the DM to keep PCs alive no matter what. Well, I want to teach them to run, too.

For accessibility, it uses only core books, which I know hampers some classes a bit, but since the party starts at level 1 to let newbs get used to gaining levels, and also to keep character creation as easy as possible, it's not a huge problem.

Accessability was a big thing, and so it uses only core and SRD as its sources. However, psionics are disallowed to streamline the process.

Then there are all those skills that go unused! Forgery and Tumble spring to mind, but knowledge checks are also often glossed over. Having situations that demanded or allowed use of variant skills was another point of importance.

So what did I come up with?

Well, lots of puzzle-type things, due to the many-faceted solutions each problem faces. I'll give a couple of examples of what I've seen done:
The Sad Giant:
The Sad Giant sits in his cell, bawling and wailing. Hearing this from the other side, and not knowing that an adolescent giant lies beyond, they take the six sturdy iron bars off the steel door and heave the steel barrier open. They'd concluded that whatever was on the other side was in distress, and didn't trust the owner of the dungeon to imprison people fairly. Getting down to the nub of it, the giant finally sniffs:
"My horsey! I lost my horsey!" he moans in Common
It turns out that he dropped his one toy, a stone horse, and it slid through a floor-height hole in the wall into the next cell. He's been in there almost as long as he can remember, and the toy was the only thing he had to remind him of his mother.

Problem is, there was no door into another cell from outside, and the one in here has several sturdy locks, and is also made of steel. How to get the giant his toy back?
Well, the party wasn't evil so they decided to help. Though the giant had grown too large to fit through the door and thus couldn't possibly escape, they still wanted to stop him being so sad.
Best answer: Realising that they probably couldn't get through the door, after trying several times, the party left the room. They broke some stone off the wall and crafted a replacement (this was after they'd been in the dungeon some time). Taking it back in, they bluffed that it was the original toy and that they'd gone round to get it. Good try, but the dice said no. He wasn't angry, since nobody ever talked to him in there, but it just wasn't his horsey. Downbeat, the party moved on through the dungeon to complete the main objective.

On the way back out, someone had an idea. The rogue took a blank page from the wizard's spellbook, and using forgery turned it into a "certificate of authentication" from a toy expert, who said it was most certainly that giant's toy. Another bluff, to tell them they'd been to see this expert, and with the giant wanting to believe it, accepted the replacement. Better than I could have hoped; have some xp!:smallsmile:

Worst answer: Party of six meat shields actually managed to break down the door. Because I wanted it to be an adventure I could give anyone to DM, even someone who hadn't been in charge before, everything had stats. Besides, I don't like railroading too much. Not too bad, logical solution, you're thinking, but they didn't even ask the giant to help.:smallmad:

There are more, like the Liar's Lyre and an associated magical item, the Celestial Helm:
They were created as a pair, so it's the Lyre and Helm of Higher Realms (:smallwink:). Bardic knowledge checks, to be sure, since they're the stuff of legend, but since it's a human item and the party have spent all their life in a tiny town of dwarves with little outside contact, how they roll on that determines just how much they can know about it. After all, these are level 1s, still wet-behind-the-ears, chosen by the elders because it sounded like a suicide mission. No better way to earn glory for a whelp, and no losing the best warriors in town - everyone wins! So if you look at the DCs and go "that's insane" it's both fitting and expands the possibility that, since I DM this quite a lot (I love getting people interested in DnD) it means each game has many aspects that can turn out slightly different, adding up to me not DMing games that are too similar all the time.

Getting the Lyre is a bit of a sidequest in itself: you have to find the room with a well, then choose to go slowly down the well (instead of jumping down it), pass a spot check to find a hidden tunnel half-way down, and then see an injured musician who owns the lyre. Or, since in this game there's always an or, if they make enough noise, the musician hears them and calls out. Which I've seen cause the party to think it was a wishing well, or to simply run away, not being to fond of disembodied voices.

Whatever the case, he's doubled up in pain and immobile, and has survived by eating the rats that came to eat him (he can crawl, and use his arms etc). All the musician knows is that being away from his instrument hurts. Hurts so bad. It was taken by some goblins who tricked him by pretending to be muses. So, you go burst into the goblin lair, with intimidate and other things being possible alternatives to hack-n-slash and you finally get the lyre (if they don't end up lying to you).

Up to this point, all you know is that it's a prized instrument, that it isn't yours, and that being away from it hurts its owner to the point that he can't walk. Bardic lore checks are:
DC 5 - Know its name, and that it helps with deception [actually +2 on bluff and +1 on disguise]
DC10 - Know that in the hands of the right musician, it has inspired crowds and kings alike, and the harder the musician tries the better it works [minor instrument based checks are increased by +1, major by +2]
DC15 - Know that it's ritually bonded to each new owner, and that being away from it isn't metaphor but a stark reality [actually 1STR damage for every 50ft apart the two are]. Know that the bluff and disguise apply even if the one holding it doesn't know how to play it.
DC20 - Know that the helm exists, and that the two are powerful together.
DC25 - Know that when the helm and lyre are brought together, it is said that strange and wonderful creatures have been said to appear, sometimes acting out the story of the song.
DC26+ - For each point higher than 25, know one of the 5 creatures which is said to have been summoned.
DC30 - Character knows details of how the style played for each creature, and doesn't have to make UMD checks (Usually DC15)

Yes, a DC30 that low in the game? Well, other characters can help with the knowledge checks. After all, if the wizard is told that there's a bonding ceremony, he might study a certain aspect of the device after the bard and have a fair idea of the sort of ceremony which might be used, whereas otherwise he might look at it and say "Divine magic, not my field". Two bards might help fill each other in on things they've forgotten: for that reason, should the party have two bards, both roll, and if they work together add half of the lower score onto the higher score to get a final result.

A separate Knowledge(religion) check of DC10 reveals that "it might have something to do with celestial matters, judging by these symbols and engravings... or it could just be decoration.

Identifying the helm is again bardic knowledge, but due to its celestial properties also falls into knowledge(religion). This can be really useful, since if only a 5 was rolled, a religion check can inform the party that the helm has its own lore, and - hang on - that mentioned a lyre too! Something to do with summoning outsiders...
There is another list of DCs I have here, but I won't bore you with that.

So, every possiblity I could think of has been accounted for. Don't have a bard? You'll probably give it back to the musician. Or maybe the rogue wants to keep it. Or maybe an evil party wants to see the poor sod suffer, and taunt him with it. Or extort with it. Maybe they ask him to join the party. Maybe they don't. It's all been accounted for. And if it hasn't, there should be more than enough info for the DM to make an executive decision.

So, what do I need?
Well, the thing I've never been good at is creating encounters and especially choosing traps. So what I have is effectively a bunch of situations where combat isn't necessary, and I've been throwing them at players as I've felt like it. Same with encounters: I look at the party before looking at the monsters (It's just that they all end up fighting a monstrous spider of varying sizes as a final boss, in the Dwarven Feast Hall)

What I'd really like to do, though, to complete the adventure, is to have a map that everyone can follow, traps that can be there when you need them, in set places, and a good selection of monsters to roll a d% for at varying depths of the dungeon.

So, tell me what you think of my idea, my effort, and if you'd be interested in helping put all the pieces together with me. More info for anyone who wants it!

brujon
2010-06-12, 01:03 AM
I really enjoyed the lore about the lyre and everything... Seems to me like a well-crafted well thought out idea, and the ways you've think of it, i think it's really, really good. For traps.. I remember seeing an article about kobolds, don't quite remember the name they called them though, but it was a thought exercise by a DM that wished to show his high level (10+) party that even lvl 1 kobolds could be enough of a threat. So he prepared a whole cave full of tunnels where only small size creatures could pass without squeezing into, prepared cave-ins, murder-holes, gunpowder, alchemist's fire and what have you, becaming more intricate and maze-like the more they dove deeper and deeper into the dungeon making their way to the lower levels. Ah, i remember now. Tucker's Kobolds.

It doesn't really require much thought, kobolds have naturally high craft(trapmaking) skills, and with enough of them to use Aid Another, they could craft some really high DC's traps. Also, i don't know if you have access to the supplement, but Races of the Dragon has some amazing info on Kobolds you may be using, like where do they get their wealth, why, and other bits and bytes. For goblins, you might be using a similar fluff. In the case of kobolds, they're doing it for the dragons, but the goblins might be doing it for some major Hobgoblin chief who's currently helding into ransom their ancient goblin heirloom, and it fits all the same.

Mostly, what makes good stories are good backgrounds and well-thought out ramifications to an event. It's not easy to do it, and i really do appreciate your effort, and making things on the fly really some times do make things seem out of place, but look on for Tucker's Kobolds, they gave me some really neat ideas, and so did an article i read about dragons... It was someone commenting on everyone's notion that dragons were under CR'D and showing that they really weren't, it's just that the majority of DM's weren't using them to their full power, basically making them into big hunks of meat and fiery death, which they really aren't. They're cunning malicious beasts.

Basically, if you want a challenge, just try and think the way goblins and kobolds do. They're persecuted, they're small, they're weak, and they're outnumbered. The only way they can defend themselves is by being cunning and malicious. Think misleading signs, crooked passageways, crumbling bridges(only collapse when XX weight is over them), think trapped rust demons(spiders?)... Basically, they're not honored, they will fight and protect their young, their treasure, and their heirloom. They're not different from anyone else.

When you want them to engage in combat, do so in a way they feel threatened, make the goblins/kobolds/whatever hide behind murder holes taking pot shots at them, make them run circles around them, bar doors in order to lead them to other corridors where they'll be mounting an even better defense position. Wear them down. Make them feel less superior, less more of heroes, more like adventurers stepping into something way bigger than them, and still coming out on top, not because of raw strenght, but through outthinking and outsmarting. Lay down a many-leveled dungeon where at first there's little defense/offense, and progressively more and more, so they can have a feel what's like. The more they come closer to their main objective, the more the mooks try and thwart them by any means necessary...

Sorry if i rambled too much. I got a little carried away.


EDIT: I am really interested into having a campaign at hand, so i could get some of my friends into D&D too, so i'm willing to help at what i can to make it happen, if need be, send me a PM.

--Lime--
2010-06-12, 01:07 AM
Well, speaking of fighting in a frightened way, what the PC's run into for the boss battle is a load of (you're right, I was thinking kobolds :P) weak creatures, which attack because they're cornered. Suddenly, however, they begin running, even towards and past the PCs. Now, spot checks to see who notices the giant spider descending silently from the ceiling...:smallwink:

brujon
2010-06-12, 04:10 AM
A spider jumps. It's body the size of a human, it's legs making it look really bigger than they really are. It's webs are everywhere in the room, but it's dark and you can't see exactly where the webs are. When the PC's arrive the kobolds lie in wait. But suddenly what they hear are screams, kobolds saying that they shouldn't be there, they shoudln't have disturbed "her" lair. They feel scared, they run. They've known this place, they've known this spider, but they've never disturbed her, they only fed her the ones that wandered into their lair and were killed... But this time they really had no choice but to keep running, these adventurers were too powerful. If the PC's had some sort of ligthing or somehow they could perceive... They could make out that one of the many corpses caught in the web was holding, passionately, some kind of lyre.(Or another macguffin)

EDIT: Monstrous Spider, Medium. CR 1. Maybe with some kind of psionic ability, telepathy to mess with the PC's, or a degree of inteligence, maybe some minions.

--Lime--
2010-06-12, 04:39 AM
Loving the way you write, it really sets the scene.

I think I'm going to take this to the next step. There's now an ongoing game between myself and brujon to start working through this methodically. If you want in, PM me. Being "in" means it doesn't work like a normal game. I'm only looking for one or two more experienced people to complete the R&D team.

Thread here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8684340#post8684340