DigoDragon
2012-02-27, 12:23 PM
or, Dungeon Mastering 102 - Taking Chances
I took a few chances for the most recent adventure that I ran last weekend, namely that I made two villains physically accessible to the PCs. This means that it is entirely possible the players could corner a villain (or two) and force an epic fight. Or, it could be possible the villains stage a trap to either evade or attack the PCs. Either way, it was entirely possible to fight the “final Boss” before even getting to that point in the campaign. I wanted to see just how determined my players were to fight these antagonists.
This adventure featured the fruition of the assistance provided to me by my fellow Play-Grounders (Thank you). The assistance I asked for involved two topics:
1. Whether to make a minor villain (nicknamed Skull) a major villain (The consensus was yes).
2. Ideas for advertisements that might survive a post-apocalyptic world (Fun ideas were had).
It’s a bit long, so I’ll put it under a spoiler tag:
The setup- The PCs reached a quiet town where upon they began finding clues that the infamous villain Skull had passed through there only hours earlier. Skull was a minor villain that was building a telescope to prove the gods no not exist up in the heavens. Somehow the PCs elevated him to BBEG status, so I let the idea take hold.
Jumping on the chance to meet Skull in person (for the first time) the PCs did some quick Gather Information to see where Skull could be heading too. The best choice was an old building called the “Star Sky Vault” to the Northwest of town. It was rumored to hold old artifacts (and dangers) of a past civilization. The PCs went there and found that someone had recently broken in, defeating most of the old traps and locks within. At the end of the vault the party encountered a band of minions looting the few cheap treasures of the place. The PCs dispatched them and took prisoners, interrogating them of the whereabouts of their master, Skull.
Suddenly, a Wild Plot Twist Appears!
These minions did NOT belong to Skull, but belonged to the original BBEG of the campaign, a young female red dragon named Astraxia. The PCs learned that Astraxia invited Skull to a neutral area for a business proposition: Astraxia will fund Skull’s telescope project in return for Skull providing Astraxia access to his library of star charts. Why? Because Astraxia is looking for an ancient (and forgotten) dragon-built city and needs historical star charts to decipher the old navigation maps she has.
The PCs learn where the neutral meeting ground is and they hastily travel westward to the location.
The place is an old dungeon that is festering with the restless undead. This is made worse in that the dungeon is a large maze and it has multiple teleport pads that link to a specific linked pad elsewhere in the dungeon. Now, in the center of the dungeon is a room warded from Scrying, Teleport, and D-Door spells. The two villains were meeting here to make the business transaction. The only two ways into the room are either by finding the right teleport pad in the maze, or by finding the room adjoined to this one that is separated only by a magically reinforced thick glass wall (Much like a separate observation room).
If the players were observant and a little lucky, they could find that warded room and start a fight with the two villains. The villains would not be able to use a cliché escape method- they must either fight back or attempt to break through the glass wall to escape. However, the PCs instead arrived at the observation room. This still had two interesting effects:
1. Both villains were not expecting the PCs to find them (and definitely not at *THIS* close range).
2. The villains just realized that they share the same problematic group of adventurers thwarting their plans (This led to amusing dialog).
The players started pounding on the glass wall to get at the villains and the villains decided to do the sensible thing- RUN!
For added effect I had the Benny Hill music (Yakkity Sax) playing as the PCs split up to chase the villains around the maze. The ONLY detail that allowed both villains to escape the players was the fact that no party member had the tracking feat. Therefore, as traps were ambushing our heroes and minions were sprung from tripped switches (Possible the order was mixed up) the PCs lost sight of the villains and had to settle for the condolence prize of defeating Skull’s right-hand minion and knowing the name of the forgotten city Astraxia is looking for (They can now do their own research).
Despite failing to catch the villains, my players were very happy with the adventure.
They liked the role-reversal, where it was they trying to catch the villains off guard. Also, they enjoyed that notion that both villains could be vulnerable at times and capable of making mistakes (thus making them “human”).
As for the advertisement point at the beginning, the PCs didn’t find them all, but they found a few crystal “mirrors” that that played them informative messages:
1. The nation of “America” was Run by a pastry/coffee making merchant guild called “Dunkin Do-Not’s”.
2. The old world was once besieged by an uncatchable assassin named Dexter.
3. Not only were dragons much easier to slay in ancient times, but dragon crafted clothing, artwork, and toys were commonplace.
4. A wizarding guild by the coastline held annual war games for adventurers. These war games involved heavy amounts of gambling (much dice was used in the tournaments).
And that’s the way it is…
I took a few chances for the most recent adventure that I ran last weekend, namely that I made two villains physically accessible to the PCs. This means that it is entirely possible the players could corner a villain (or two) and force an epic fight. Or, it could be possible the villains stage a trap to either evade or attack the PCs. Either way, it was entirely possible to fight the “final Boss” before even getting to that point in the campaign. I wanted to see just how determined my players were to fight these antagonists.
This adventure featured the fruition of the assistance provided to me by my fellow Play-Grounders (Thank you). The assistance I asked for involved two topics:
1. Whether to make a minor villain (nicknamed Skull) a major villain (The consensus was yes).
2. Ideas for advertisements that might survive a post-apocalyptic world (Fun ideas were had).
It’s a bit long, so I’ll put it under a spoiler tag:
The setup- The PCs reached a quiet town where upon they began finding clues that the infamous villain Skull had passed through there only hours earlier. Skull was a minor villain that was building a telescope to prove the gods no not exist up in the heavens. Somehow the PCs elevated him to BBEG status, so I let the idea take hold.
Jumping on the chance to meet Skull in person (for the first time) the PCs did some quick Gather Information to see where Skull could be heading too. The best choice was an old building called the “Star Sky Vault” to the Northwest of town. It was rumored to hold old artifacts (and dangers) of a past civilization. The PCs went there and found that someone had recently broken in, defeating most of the old traps and locks within. At the end of the vault the party encountered a band of minions looting the few cheap treasures of the place. The PCs dispatched them and took prisoners, interrogating them of the whereabouts of their master, Skull.
Suddenly, a Wild Plot Twist Appears!
These minions did NOT belong to Skull, but belonged to the original BBEG of the campaign, a young female red dragon named Astraxia. The PCs learned that Astraxia invited Skull to a neutral area for a business proposition: Astraxia will fund Skull’s telescope project in return for Skull providing Astraxia access to his library of star charts. Why? Because Astraxia is looking for an ancient (and forgotten) dragon-built city and needs historical star charts to decipher the old navigation maps she has.
The PCs learn where the neutral meeting ground is and they hastily travel westward to the location.
The place is an old dungeon that is festering with the restless undead. This is made worse in that the dungeon is a large maze and it has multiple teleport pads that link to a specific linked pad elsewhere in the dungeon. Now, in the center of the dungeon is a room warded from Scrying, Teleport, and D-Door spells. The two villains were meeting here to make the business transaction. The only two ways into the room are either by finding the right teleport pad in the maze, or by finding the room adjoined to this one that is separated only by a magically reinforced thick glass wall (Much like a separate observation room).
If the players were observant and a little lucky, they could find that warded room and start a fight with the two villains. The villains would not be able to use a cliché escape method- they must either fight back or attempt to break through the glass wall to escape. However, the PCs instead arrived at the observation room. This still had two interesting effects:
1. Both villains were not expecting the PCs to find them (and definitely not at *THIS* close range).
2. The villains just realized that they share the same problematic group of adventurers thwarting their plans (This led to amusing dialog).
The players started pounding on the glass wall to get at the villains and the villains decided to do the sensible thing- RUN!
For added effect I had the Benny Hill music (Yakkity Sax) playing as the PCs split up to chase the villains around the maze. The ONLY detail that allowed both villains to escape the players was the fact that no party member had the tracking feat. Therefore, as traps were ambushing our heroes and minions were sprung from tripped switches (Possible the order was mixed up) the PCs lost sight of the villains and had to settle for the condolence prize of defeating Skull’s right-hand minion and knowing the name of the forgotten city Astraxia is looking for (They can now do their own research).
Despite failing to catch the villains, my players were very happy with the adventure.
They liked the role-reversal, where it was they trying to catch the villains off guard. Also, they enjoyed that notion that both villains could be vulnerable at times and capable of making mistakes (thus making them “human”).
As for the advertisement point at the beginning, the PCs didn’t find them all, but they found a few crystal “mirrors” that that played them informative messages:
1. The nation of “America” was Run by a pastry/coffee making merchant guild called “Dunkin Do-Not’s”.
2. The old world was once besieged by an uncatchable assassin named Dexter.
3. Not only were dragons much easier to slay in ancient times, but dragon crafted clothing, artwork, and toys were commonplace.
4. A wizarding guild by the coastline held annual war games for adventurers. These war games involved heavy amounts of gambling (much dice was used in the tournaments).
And that’s the way it is…