We
met a guy named Fernic. He was a annoying gambler. Next we went to this swamp
near Hommlet. Trying to get back some
wine that was stolen we met the robbers. They let us lick there frog. We did and
go plus 3 of any stat of are choice febee lick it twice and died. Then Jerry Lin
used hold person. {she’s a cleric}. Woflbang used shellighla {he are drewed}.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
About OA6 "Ronin's Challenge" (1990)
Background, specific to my campaign: My use of the module began when Gwinch received the mission from the Emperor to track down the rogue General who he’d sent to
deal with a rogue Governor. After about
a year-- and no word from Gwinch-- the Emperor decided he needed a cat to catch the
birds he sent to catch the spider sent to catch the fly . . . and he called on Tetsukichi. Both Gwinch and Tetsukichi were supported by
other PCs and NPCs.
The geographic area of the adventure is
enormous, comprising a series of valleys based on real world cultures across
Southeast Asia from Yunnan Province China to Indochina (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam)
to Indonesia. The physical scale of the
adventure might not be quite as large as its real-world model, but it is
close. These valleys are roughly 100
miles wide and choked with jungles and swamp.
In dealing with the question of how adventurers could have any practical
hope of crossing such a wilderness in pursuit of their goal, the adventure
relies rather heavily on plot coupons—there’s a chance encounter with a sultan
who tells them a story about a pirate trapped in a tomb, and if the pirate is
released he tells them about such-in-such . . . . It’s a sandbox that assumes DMs will build a
railroad. There are other ways to give
the adventurers a way to pursue their quest without waiting for things to fall
into their lap. I made the following decisions:
Many of the people the PCs encountered had a stake in their
quest, because the mini-war between the General and the Governor was something that affected their lives. The adventure includes a good way of
stitching everything together, but doesn’t develop it properly. There are some allusions in the random
encounter tables to the fact that the rogue general and the rogue governor,
each with his own army played a cat-and-mouse game across this area, and that the
adventurers should encounter ruined villages and burned fields. But this is treated as just background
material. As I ran it, when the PCs arrive
at a large town (Pasar), there were able to find people there who encountered
these armies, and can give some insight into what they were trying to do and
what they might have been looking for.
The devastation caused by the Governor and General created lots
of potential adversaries for anyone else passing through. The adventure also has a weird sub-plot about
one of the Emperor’s advisers sending her own men to spy on the PCs (following
them over hundreds of miles!). Instead,
I reasoned that deserters from the armies had set up shop as slavers and
marauders throughout the region. So rather
than simple encounters, I had good material for developing side
adventurers. This also broke up the slog
of “the longest backpacking trip ever,” but without taking away from the
feeling that it was a grueling, dangerous journey. Plus they were another, more natural source
of information that propelled the PCs forward in their quest.
Underground shortcuts are at least half of what makes D&D
great. The adventure includes one labyrinthine
mini-dungeon. It had a cool atmosphere,
being flooded with slightly acidic water that the adventurers had to navigate
with miniature canoes. But the
individual encounters, beyond the swimming zombies, started to pall after a
while. Later groups of PCs found other
ways to pass through the same mountains.
Some of the tournament modules, with their gauntlet-style series of
challenging puzzles and encounters were very useful to me here.
The various ancient buildings with cool powers and useful
information are all located in Tempat Larang.
As written, the adventurers
should discover a library, and observatory, and a shrine before they arrive at
the climatic encounter in Tempat Larang.
There are a couple reasons why this wroks better in a movie or video game better than in an RPG. First, in passive media, the protagonists' progress from one far-flung location to another just happens. There might be obstacles along the way, but the audience doesn't notice that the protagonists rarely have to stop and ask for directions. In an RPG, the automatic scene-shifting feels more jarring and contrived. Forcing PCs to figure out where they want to go and how to get there adds depth, but can become tedious, so it's good to have just one final destination rather than several. Second in movies/graphics-based games, the visual element comes cheap and can compensate for deficiencies in other areas. In RPGs, the big challenge is helping everyone visualize the surroundings. I wanted this ancient ruled capital to feel like an ancient ruined
capital and to do that I needed buildings.
I used some other modules, including Faster Monkey’s Mor, to develop the layout of the larger city.
Run the climatic encounter as it’s written. It feels a lot like a video game—the PCs take
turns controlling a spirit dragon, with a dizzying selection of magic powers,
while their enemy— after each “defeat”— takes on a new, more fearsome form,
until it’s finally destroyed. It was
really fun for everyone.
(As a side point, the martial arts tournament has no meaningful connection to the rest of the adventure. It's just a way for the Emperor to take notice of the PCs. Their main rival in the tournament has a shadowy backstory and he pops up throughout the rest of the adventure, giving one the sense that he has some interest in the tournament beyond the obvious. But it seems that he just really wanted to win that martial arts tournament and that's it.)
(As a side point, the martial arts tournament has no meaningful connection to the rest of the adventure. It's just a way for the Emperor to take notice of the PCs. Their main rival in the tournament has a shadowy backstory and he pops up throughout the rest of the adventure, giving one the sense that he has some interest in the tournament beyond the obvious. But it seems that he just really wanted to win that martial arts tournament and that's it.)
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