Adventure rush job [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adventure rush job [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sun Stealer
02-28-04, 02:33 AM My players, don't read please.

First, a bit of advice for all new DMs: Don't leave making an adventure to the day before the session ;).

I have to come up with something that'll keep my players occupied for 6 hours in a very small amount of time.

At the moment, I've got three or four lvl 3 characters, a monk, a cleric/paladin and a ranger and possibly a rogue or bard.
They're in Athkatla on their way to Murann (a 1600 mile journey) to help the war effort against Orcs, Goblinoids, Kobolds and Ogre Magi there in a FR campaign I'm running.

So far, I've come up with the following:
- Three days out of Athkatla, they come upon a big caravan convoy of refugees. The convoy's been under constant raiding from Orcs and Kobolds and they've taken a beating. The leader of the convoy will ask the PCs for help. They escort the convoy back to Athkatla and receive a small reward from the refugees.

- Seven days out of Athkatla, they come across a farming village under siege by goblins. The goblins are too strong to beat, so they need to find another way to help the townsfolk.

Any help fleshing out what I've got, criticizing it, new ideas, anything at all!!! greatly appreciated :D.
DeWayne
02-29-04, 12:18 AM Orcs tend to be pretty straight forward fighter types. Kobolds & goblins, on the other hand, are not. Both of these races have lived (& prospered) since the dawn of time surrounded by hostile races that are bigger than they are. They're going to be way too smart to get into any kind of slugfest with villagers, refugees, or player characters.

Run the little guys with 'hit & run' tactics, traps, ambushes, etc. Try to force the PCs to figure out the bad guys' next move in order to stop them. This will also leave the players with the feeling that they've actually done something (solved the problem) rather than just sitting at a table tossing dice.

Give some thought to what the refugees would have to reward the party with. Remember, the 'front' is 1600 miles away - at 20 miles per day, that's almost 3 months travel. Most of what they had when they left home will have been used up, spent, etc. before now. They will likely feel a debt of honor that must be paid, but they are very unlikely to have any money to give. Perhaps the 'reward' will be the hand of the village chieftain's daughter in marriage to the party leader.

As for the villagers, they have manpower, but they're not soldiers or adventurers. What they're going to need from the party is tactical leadership. I suggest trying to come up with a couple of simple skirmish in which the paladin & ranger lead small teams of villagers, while the others provide some direction to the villagers, overseeing the fortification of their village.

Your ideas are good, but if you need to turn this into a 6 hour game secession you'll need to do more than have the two sides hack on each other until the bad guys are dead. I suggest turning them into problem solving & role playing type encounters. That should keep your players busy.

As for writing up the monsters, as you are pressed for time I suggest doing it on the computer. Write up a goblin with all necessary data, do several copy/paste operations, now you have lots of goblins. Repeat with orcs & kobolds. In 10 minutes you'll have all of the monsters you'll need.

Good luck.
OmiKapSi
02-29-04, 02:56 AM Put some treasure en route (perhaps recovered from the goblins) that includes a map outlining some routes through the underdark. One possible route could halve their travel time to Murann.

En route they encounter a wizard traveling with a caravan. He is escorting a magic device of his to Murann that he hopes will turn the tide of battle. Unfortunate that shortly after they join him the caravan is attacked and the device stolen....
Eldren
02-29-04, 04:32 AM I actually rather excel at doing work for the next session the night before the session. It's 1:30 in the morning right now, and I should have been in bed probably no later than midnight, because I have to get up for church tomorrow morning. Oh well. :) I tend to try to keep about two sessions' worth of material ahead of where we're actually at, but at this point, I think I'm probably closer to one session, maybe one and a half sessions (the next adventure is pretty short). Even so, I hearken back to my days of working on my high school newspaper, when I discovered that I did my best work under a deadline. The story I have for the stuff I'm writing now (the first three adventures are all pre-published) is pretty damn cool, if I say so myself, and while this means that over the last three weeks, I've only averaged two levels of a three-level dungeon, I'm pretty happy with what I came up with, considering I had to draw the whole thing line by line in Microsoft Visio, make distance and area notations because you can't print a grid with Visio, and then also write out in Word all the room descriptions.

Hoof-ahhh... I'm tired, but it's worth it. I think my players are going to have a good time.

If it doesn't result in TPK... :devil:
Sun Stealer
02-29-04, 06:47 AM Thanks for the replies guys, I might steal OmiKapSi's ideas ;).

I made a bit of a mistake in my first post, it's a 160 mile journey, which should make the travel time about 10 days.
I'll change the caravan raiders to Goblins and Kobolds and the siegers to Orcs.

The reward from the refugees I was thinking of was a few cp and some sentimental pieces, like a gold watch.

I was thinking of making another town fairly close to the town under siege that has a large enough militia to break it, but is unwilling to help them out of fear of attack from another group of Orcs. The PCs would have to find a way to lift the siege from one town while protecting the other.

Another idea I've had is to make the entrances to Murann too heavily defended to just walk in, but have a sewer entrance hidden near the town.
If I do this I'll be able to throw in a nice little dungeon crawl, but I need to come up with a way to tell the PCs where it is.

Any more ideas very welcome :).

I'll be running the adventure soon, so I'll post how it goes.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sun Stealer 02-28-04, 02:33 AM	My players, don't read please. First, a bit of advice for all new DMs: Don't leave making an adventure to the day before the session ;). I have to come up with something that'll keep my players occupied for 6 hours in a very small amount of time. At the moment, I've got three or four lvl 3 characters, a monk, a cleric/paladin and a ranger and possibly a rogue or bard. They're in Athkatla on their way to Murann (a 1600 mile journey) to help the war effort against Orcs, Goblinoids, Kobolds and Ogre Magi there in a FR campaign I'm running. So far, I've come up with the following: - Three days out of Athkatla, they come upon a big caravan convoy of refugees. The convoy's been under constant raiding from Orcs and Kobolds and they've taken a beating. The leader of the convoy will ask the PCs for help. They escort the convoy back to Athkatla and receive a small reward from the refugees. - Seven days out of Athkatla, they come across a farming village under siege by goblins. The goblins are too strong to beat, so they need to find another way to help the townsfolk. Any help fleshing out what I've got, criticizing it, new ideas, anything at all!!! greatly appreciated :D.
DeWayne 02-29-04, 12:18 AM	Orcs tend to be pretty straight forward fighter types. Kobolds & goblins, on the other hand, are not. Both of these races have lived (& prospered) since the dawn of time surrounded by hostile races that are bigger than they are. They're going to be way too smart to get into any kind of slugfest with villagers, refugees, or player characters. Run the little guys with 'hit & run' tactics, traps, ambushes, etc. Try to force the PCs to figure out the bad guys' next move in order to stop them. This will also leave the players with the feeling that they've actually done something (solved the problem) rather than just sitting at a table tossing dice. Give some thought to what the refugees would have to reward the party with. Remember, the 'front' is 1600 miles away - at 20 miles per day, that's almost 3 months travel. Most of what they had when they left home will have been used up, spent, etc. before now. They will likely feel a debt of honor that must be paid, but they are very unlikely to have any money to give. Perhaps the 'reward' will be the hand of the village chieftain's daughter in marriage to the party leader. As for the villagers, they have manpower, but they're not soldiers or adventurers. What they're going to need from the party is tactical leadership. I suggest trying to come up with a couple of simple skirmish in which the paladin & ranger lead small teams of villagers, while the others provide some direction to the villagers, overseeing the fortification of their village. Your ideas are good, but if you need to turn this into a 6 hour game secession you'll need to do more than have the two sides hack on each other until the bad guys are dead. I suggest turning them into problem solving & role playing type encounters. That should keep your players busy. As for writing up the monsters, as you are pressed for time I suggest doing it on the computer. Write up a goblin with all necessary data, do several copy/paste operations, now you have lots of goblins. Repeat with orcs & kobolds. In 10 minutes you'll have all of the monsters you'll need. Good luck.
OmiKapSi 02-29-04, 02:56 AM	Put some treasure en route (perhaps recovered from the goblins) that includes a map outlining some routes through the underdark. One possible route could halve their travel time to Murann. En route they encounter a wizard traveling with a caravan. He is escorting a magic device of his to Murann that he hopes will turn the tide of battle. Unfortunate that shortly after they join him the caravan is attacked and the device stolen....
Eldren 02-29-04, 04:32 AM	I actually rather excel at doing work for the next session the night before the session. It's 1:30 in the morning right now, and I should have been in bed probably no later than midnight, because I have to get up for church tomorrow morning. Oh well. :) I tend to try to keep about two sessions' worth of material ahead of where we're actually at, but at this point, I think I'm probably closer to one session, maybe one and a half sessions (the next adventure is pretty short). Even so, I hearken back to my days of working on my high school newspaper, when I discovered that I did my best work under a deadline. The story I have for the stuff I'm writing now (the first three adventures are all pre-published) is pretty damn cool, if I say so myself, and while this means that over the last three weeks, I've only averaged two levels of a three-level dungeon, I'm pretty happy with what I came up with, considering I had to draw the whole thing line by line in Microsoft Visio, make distance and area notations because you can't print a grid with Visio, and then also write out in Word all the room descriptions. Hoof-ahhh... I'm tired, but it's worth it. I think my players are going to have a good time. If it doesn't result in TPK... :devil:
Sun Stealer 02-29-04, 06:47 AM	Thanks for the replies guys, I might steal OmiKapSi's ideas ;). I made a bit of a mistake in my first post, it's a 160 mile journey, which should make the travel time about 10 days. I'll change the caravan raiders to Goblins and Kobolds and the siegers to Orcs. The reward from the refugees I was thinking of was a few cp and some sentimental pieces, like a gold watch. I was thinking of making another town fairly close to the town under siege that has a large enough militia to break it, but is unwilling to help them out of fear of attack from another group of Orcs. The PCs would have to find a way to lift the siege from one town while protecting the other. Another idea I've had is to make the entrances to Murann too heavily defended to just walk in, but have a sewer entrance hidden near the town. If I do this I'll be able to throw in a nice little dungeon crawl, but I need to come up with a way to tell the PCs where it is. Any more ideas very welcome :). I'll be running the adventure soon, so I'll post how it goes.