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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Jul 2005 : 15:45:43
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If you have any adventures you have played in the past, please post an overall draft of it here for all to build new adventures from. As a DM you sometimes run into a writing block or just needs a little push. Post your thoughts on great adventures here and lets help each other out with producing cool gaming...
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"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 20 Jul 2005 : 18:45:55
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I ran a good module from Dragon magazine years ago (somewhere around issue #80 ?) that was called "Valley of the Earth Mother". It was in a generic world and introduced a class that was the evil version of a ranger (they used to have to be good). The setting was rather barbaric and had many druids. A town was under seige from an orc horde and the players are enlisted to get help. They are to go to an old druid settlement and look for help. No one has heard from them in a while. The players go and find that an evil group of rangers has killed off all the druids and are in league with the orcs. In clearing out the dungeon, the party purifies a magic spring, kills the evil huntsmen, and find a minor magic relic to bring back to the town.
The module, itself, is really fun and I had a great time running it. Lots of things going on and good stories for nearly everyone. Also, I was able to fit it into the FR pretty easily. I just stuck it up on Thar. I made it the one town up there (is it Glister?). The druids were actually druids of Eldath, which explains the magic spring. The artifact can only be used by a worshipper of Eldath, so the party will not be stealing it for their own use (as few party members worship her) but works great for the story. I usually have a party member need to get something from the shrine of Eldath. A party cleric works great as the church organization wants some religious texts the druids have. That can help explain how the party actually makes it out to Thar. Once there, the local orc horde traps them and they need to go to the druids anyways.....
Much fun was had. |
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Xysma
Master of Realmslore
USA
1089 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jul 2005 : 16:06:07
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| One of my favorite campaigns was set in Tashalar. The PCs were hired by a priest in the church of Waukeen to eliminate a rogue Yuan-ti slaver. In actuality, the priest was working for the Rundeem Consortium and the yuan-ti rogue was cutting into their "legitimate" slave trade with the Yuan-ti of the Black Jungle. The rogue yuan-ti was selling slaves to an ex-Red Wizard who was hiding out in the Black Jungle after rising the ire of a more powerful Red Wizard. His entourage consisted of low-level apprentices, and a few yuan-ti mercenaries hired as muscle. He was using the slaves for experimentation, resulting in some encounters with bizarre mutations. Throughout the investigation, we were given clues of the true nature of our employer, opportunities to free slaves, and of course in the Black Jungle there were plenty of random encounters. |
War to slay, not to fight long and glorious.
Aermhar of the Tangletrees
Year of the Hooded Falcon
Xysma's Gallery
Guide to the Tomes and Tales of the Realms download from Candlekeep
Anthologies and Tales Overviews
Check out my custom action figures, hand-painted miniatures, gaming products, and other stuff on eBay.
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jul 2005 : 17:35:18
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| Cool... Sounds likea great campaign with lots of options.Hate adventures without options for the players |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jul 2005 : 18:17:39
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| BTW, Wooly and I have also writen up adventure hooks that can be further detailed by DMs. They are in issue 1 and 2 of the Compendium...... |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jul 2005 : 21:20:57
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| Thanks... Didnt know that. I will look it up |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jul 2005 : 22:52:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Faramicos
Thanks... Didnt know that. I will look it up
And we are working on issue 3's. :) |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
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Macresto
Acolyte
Denmark
17 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jul 2005 : 07:46:18
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I have played for many years now (16 or so) and I have come to hate plots that goes something like this:
A person approaches the PC's and persuades them to do something. But he is really not who he is pretending to be and thus the players are fooled into doing something evil.
I mean, for whose joy is this kind of adventure ? It needs to be a really good adventure, extremely subtle and packed with good nonplayercharacters (and played very well), before it becomes interesting.
Else the players gets suspicious (they should damn well be allways or their death awaits them in the extremely near-future!) and tear the plot apart while the DM fevereshly tries to force the players into the direction of the foolish.
In the other extreme it is impossible for the players to know they are fooled because there are no indications, and then the fun is gone, cause it's easy (and not funny) to fool someone, if you don't provide enough information for them to "break the code".
I have played many of those adventures, both as a DM and as a player, but it really sucks. Maybe one such story in 4 years is appropriate.
I'm not flaming anyone, just giving my two cents.
Just to prove that I can contribute with more than negative words, please read my next post... |
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Macresto
Acolyte
Denmark
17 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jul 2005 : 08:03:41
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First of all, when writing a new story/adventure/campaign you must decide upon what it should be along those lines:
Is this an add-on to an existing campaign ?
Is it a break from the campaign, totally isolated ?
How many sessions do you want it to last or how many days for the characters ?
Is it a new campaign ?
Campaign
I have just finished a 21 sessions campaign and I am on the research stage of my next, scheduled to be ready in a year or so. (I have work and children and other activities as well).
I start by thinking about what I personally would like to explore as a DM. What story would I tell. It took me a couple of days and then I decided upon a Campaign where the players needed to travel across Faerun and visit all the great cities and countries.
And then it evolves from there. I spend one evening deciding on the route and reading all the ressources I could get my hands on about the places they are going to visit, another evening was spend on writing brief adventure hooks for each place (I wrote around 30 hooks that night). And so it evolves around the initial idea.
I find that the best campaigns are the ones that are the result of research and preparation and then some extra of both!
Story/small adventure
I usually start by visualising a geographical location, some npc's and their relationship. Then I start to speculate on hidden agenda's and how things could evolve. What are their ambitions and their motivations, are there powergroups involved and so on.
And only then I decide upon the nature of the adventure, because at this point ideas floats from my brain. It is by far the most easy way to do small adventures/storys.
If the story is to be part of an existing campaign it is usually because I have come to realize, that my campaign needs some strenghtening. It be that a sub plot needs to be expanded or the players have taken a course of action I did not anticipate. Then of course the story needs to support those event unforeseen.
I usually deter from writing stories that are not connected with the ongoing campaign, as I feel they only distracts the attention of myself and the players regarding the campaign. |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2005 : 18:40:09
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My favorite campaign concept dealt with the player's characters. It was an ethical test for them.
Background
It all revolved around Lashan of Scardale taking over the Dale and starting his war on to become King of the Dalelands. Lashan did some adventuring in the Vast when he was younger and gained a fair amount of gold. Lashan wanted to use adventuring companies to acquire varoius lost magic items to help in his bid for control of the Dalelands. Of course, this is all before he went to war and didn't announce his intentions to anyone. The players never bothered to wonder why this local lord was tring to acquire all these magic items.
Concept
The players are young adventurers and were trying to get a contract from Lord Lashan to retreive some magic item. They first had to work at getting a reputation before they could get a job. After that, they were asked to get magic item after magic item. Sometimes it was more difficult then others. The nature of the magic items started to get more morally questionable then the last. At first it was to retreive lost items. Next, they had to get some items that were still wanted by the surviving family. After that, they were hired to raid tombs of elves for magic items (before the Retreat). Each mission getting slightly more grey each time. Finally, the party was asked to take a magic item away from a hermit scholar who wasn't evil.
The point was to see where the party will start to question their orders. When will they say "Hey, I'm not going to do that!". Most players just do what the DM wants them to do, but I was trying to introduce the concept of the players picking what they want to do and create more of a dynamic world for them.
Of course, the war would break out and it was interesting to see at what side the party would be on. Did they do whatever Lashan wanted and would they try to help out his side in the fight (which Lashan would loose no matter what)? Would they rebel early and then try to stop Lashan once his ambitions were realized? After the war, would they be stigmatized by the rest of the Dalelands for their working with Lashan? It was their magic items that helped kill and destroy in the war (or at least the ones they recovered).
It was a really fun campaign that was cut short as I moved for a great job at Microsoft that I couldn't refuse. Too bad. |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2005 : 19:22:52
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| Sounds like a great idea... Perhaps i should try it out and see how far my group are willing to go before they are morally challenged. Probably very far. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 26 Jul 2005 : 14:33:10
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The best part of this campaign is that it deals with magic items, but the party doesn't get to keep them in the end. It's a great way to have some neat stuff, but not make the players over powerful.
I particularly liked to play up the part about raiding elven tombs. Most of the time there is at least one elf-lover in the group that plays an elf. They SHOULD be appalled by the idea. If your elf player agrees, then you should play up what it is they are doing.
Don't forget that the elven nation of Cormanthyr is still around. They don't leave until the middle of the war. It could be interesting for elven players to be given a choice by some NPC to go away to Evermeet or to stay. Also, will they tell the party about the elves leaving?
If you want some good ideas, I've done some work on the idea. For their first adventure I used Against the Cult of the Reptile God. That is normally set in Greyhawk, but I put it in the south end of Tasseldale. It's close enough to the swamp there to have nasty things. The merchants going back and forth can mostly be coming and going to Sembia. Once they smashed the cult, they had enough fame to get hired by Lashan.
I liked to finish the whole Lashan thing with that module that was originally in Dragon and reproduced for the orginal grey boxed set. It dealt with Lashan going into the newly opened Myth Drannor for fresh magic items. The party has to go in and try to stop him.
I've got a ton of stuff that I've worked on for this game. Just let me know if you want some of it. |
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Snotlord
Senior Scribe
Norway
476 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2005 : 21:52:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Lashan
I've got a ton of stuff that I've worked on for this game. Just let me know if you want some of it.
Oh please continue My current Waterdeep campaign includes an arrogant sun elf wizard, and I bet some of your Cormanthyr stuff should fit Ardeep.
As for Faramicos' topic, well, I am short on prep time these days, so I try to build a campaign around Dungeon adventures and other published sources.
I've been collecting Dungeon magazines since the release of 3e, and its starting to pay. I enjoy putting together "adventure paths" that might suit a certain style or setting, so I don't have to work out basics like dungeons and monsters, and can spend more time creating npcs to bridge the various adventures, new magic items and developing backstories. I find it a very rewarding and efficient way to set up a campaign. It takes less time, and I get to focus more on the stuff I like: background and actual gaming. |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2005 : 10:46:00
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| Sounds like a great idea to use the magazine in that way. I dont have any dungeon magazine, but after reading what people have to say about it, perhaps i should by some. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2005 : 15:16:04
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I use old Dungeons, old modules, and anything else I can get my hands on. Even if it is just for a map!
How do you want me to get the info to you? I can try to find what I can on my old hard drive. I can email it to you. |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2005 : 16:07:58
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| That would be awsome... I will send my E-mail to you in a private message. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2005 : 11:36:59
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| My E-mail should be with you in a private message. Have you received it? I am very excited about seeing your stuff. |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 05 Aug 2005 : 14:26:21
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| I have gotten stuff, but I have yet to dig the stuff off my hard drive. When I get home my wife tends to dump my newborn in my arms. She doesn't care for me "disappearing to the computer room" like I used to. I promise that this weekend I will dig out my old stuff. |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 05 Aug 2005 : 15:53:17
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@lashan:
take your time with the babe, thatīs more important than everything else. even if your mail comes in a tenday or later, thatīs fine with me.  |
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