Has anyone ever designed a super-adventure? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Has anyone ever designed a super-adventure?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
sithlore
Jan 26, 2009 8:36:19 I just looked about the concept in the DM Guide and wondered what it should look like and how to design one. The DM guide provided little information about how to design one.
#2
wells
Jan 26, 2009 11:26:24 Well, the setting could be anything you want, but preferably a type of dungeon that lasts for about a tier, give or take. The ruins of the capital of an old city would be good. That way there would be the ground floor, the broken towers and citadels maybe connected by stone bridges and at the highest floors of the towers and buildings there could be portals. Then you have a large expanse below that is made out of ruins from the old city that built on top of itself, the sewers below that, maybe even catacombs. It needs to be big, but the players should have familiarity of the areas after exploring for a while, but mix up the encounters, a tower falls over, tunnels collapse. That way, it is kept interesting.

Hope it helps.
#3
Shiftkitty
Jan 26, 2009 14:53:20 I suppose step 1 would be to have a story that can last for a tier. You'll want to design your conflict, your BBEG, first. Make him, or it, an encounter appropriate for the PC level you want to end at.

At this point it's easy for me to say "Now go back and fill in the blanks", but truth be told, a superdungeon is going to need a lot of hooks, but I don't think it's a good idea to blow them all at the start. Use them as mini-goals to pull the party along with hints about the bigger plot becoming more and more blatant. For example, the party apprehends a rogue who has been selling items identified as things that had been buried with people in the local graveyard. From the rogue, they might learn that a death cult has been responsible for much of the grave robbing that's been plaguing this town (and in fact have threatened to kill him if he steps on their activities), but as they pursue this end, they find evidence that the cult is a cell for a larger operation of necromancers. Then they find out that this operation is a front for a lich raising an undead army to march on the kingdom.
#4
Brys
Jan 27, 2009 9:41:12 If you want to keep One Big Hook for the whole tier, take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.).
#5
Vatras
Jan 27, 2009 12:33:54 I wrote one (1st edition) which was inspired by Umberto Eco's "The Foucault Pendulum". The story of Eco was pretty good, although the novel sucked at the end, but that didn't matter...I only needed the central plot idea, which his hero developed as the masterplan of the knights templar.
They were after the mastery of the ley-lines and lacked the science (=magic research) to utilize their discovery. The idea was wo turn events back and restore the empire of Blackmoor (it was set in Greyhawk), which was covered by ice after the cataclysm. In the present, people have forgotten about the true purpose (correcting the magnetic axis of the planet, thawing the frozen lands) and believe the plan will somehow alter time and bring back Blackmoor. Spinning this out with sidetracks it lasted for about 10 levels in AD&D.

I could also use many of the characters in the book as NPCs (sometimes under other names - the Count of St. Germain was too obvious), and had ready personalities for them.

I think you can turn many novels with a fantastic theme into an adventure arc, and even several which are not fantasy at all. I have thought of turning historical events into military campaigns, but my players don't like the large battles.
#6
nightmare_scenario
Jan 27, 2009 21:17:56
If you want to keep One Big Hook for the whole tier, take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.).

That's precisely what I did. "Oh no, the farmer's daughter is missing and you're the only ones nearby to help! What, the goblins took her into a cave? What, the goblin boss is destroying support pillars? Cave-in? O noez! Drat, stuck in underdark...oh, look, a dungeon."

Any time you want a long story arc, give the heroes a long way to go to accomplish a simple task, then distract the **** out of them with things they can't ignore. A cross-country delivery trip runs across slaver greenskins, rescuing the slaves means parties at their tribe, which means another attack at the home camp, which means a raid into greenskin territory...
#7
perseus_stoned
Jan 29, 2009 17:21:43 I see super-aventures playing sort of like a game of NetHack- not the most logical dungeon, but a giant super adventure.
#8
araes
Jan 31, 2009 18:32:22 I tend to view the motivation for super adventures to work best in two varieties. The first is to use a form of game which revolves around survival or survival / horror. Brys summarized a good thought for it with:
Take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.).

I don't agree that it has to be the Underdark specifically, but any long, difficult to escape, dangerous area will do fine. For example, in one game, I set my players up to be long forgotten sleepers who woke in a crypt from a prior age, and then needed to make their way back to civilization and figure out what was going on. To do so, they had to make their way out of what used to be a perfectly well maintained crypt, but which had been overrun with all manner of scary things in the eons since. Built a good sense of teamwork and camaraderie along the way. However, as was mentioned, I had to be careful that they had the ability to collect food, water, shelter, all the basic needs, along their way.

The second option, is to use this tactic in reverse. IE, have them come from civilization, and need to descend into some vast area to search for a specific, well hidden thing which cannot be easily shifted to through tricks like teleporting, ect..., or which they may not even know the specific form of. Vague things like "Find that which shines brightest with good in all the inverted world." A "super dungeon" may instead then become an entire other place, with peoples, dangers, and interactions all its own.

As before, the Underdark is one good option for this, as it offers the sense of grandness inspired by tales like "Journey to the Center of the Earth." You just have to make sure that it doesn't ever become a "crawl". Make sure to break up the travel with interesting pockets of uniqueness throughout. Societies, natural wonders, mental challenges, ect... Don't make then bathe in the blood of monsters the entire way.

An example of this, which my current players will recognize, while gaming in Faerun, I worked out that one of the great Elfblades of yore, the Warblade in fact, had long ago fallen into the possession of the Drow after the collapse of Cormanthyr. However, it is now needed once again on the surface to shift the path of Armageddon, which is rampaging across the world and planes. The PCs, naturally, have been given this task by a god no less, and therefore must venture miles down into the dark, beneath the very eyes of Menzoberranzen itself, to retrieve the artifact. As they go, they fight some, but they also discover clues about why the apocalypse is happening, how its affecting those beneath the earth, seeing numerous strange geographies they've never been exposed to, and having to deal with the politics of entire societies that exist beneath their feet.
#9
pirateninjaofdeath_dup
Jan 31, 2009 23:17:30 I've got a bit of an outline for a "super adventure," should my PCs ever decide to enter the area where it is.

Basically, a portion of my homebrew world is a large central-american themed jungle, that used to be populated by the empire of the Olmecs. Centuries ago though, some arcane ritual awakened some terrible evil within the capital of their empire, in the city of Gea'khuul.
The evil power has spread, and overtaken a huge portion of the jungle, splitting what was once one empire into a northern (mayan influence) and southern (aztec influence) kingdom.
Once the hook has been taken, the adventure will be to travel deep within the depths of the forest, and defeat the evil that resides within it. The party will be advised that the journey will take months, and will have to stock up. They will be assigned a local guide, and will set out along the long untrodden path to the former capital. Along the way they'll encounter the corrupted denizens of the forest, jungle creatures that have been corrupted by the demonic influence at the core. Most will be structured from fey and dire creatures, perhaps with a few other demonic creatures influenced by Act III from Diablo II, which i've rather liberally pillaged this idea from.
The path will cross lesser temple-cities, which will be rich with abandoned treasure, sacred artifacts, and seething with lesser versions of the creatures the party will have to face once they reach Gea'Khuul.

The problem is that unless you formally decide to do a "super adventure," and railroad the party into it, they may well bypass all the preparations you've made. What I'm doing is using the adventure as a backdrop for the entire region, whether or not they decide to take the hook. If they choose not to, all I've done is waste a crude map to the capital, and the rest of the encounters can be recycled as random jungle encounters. Should they take it, throw a few encounters at them, roleplay the journey in that classic JRRT hobbit-style adventure, and stall them until you can think of more cool things to throw at them. Ancient abandoned cities being retaken by the jungle, demonic jungle monkies or panthers, even dinosaurs. Just make sure that they bring some replacement PCs with them, as in the middle of the jungle there isn't likely to be much civilization to draw replacements from.
#10
doomsought
Feb 01, 2009 16:46:38 I was working on a slivers adventure but lost interest in both it and 4ed.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sithlore Jan 26, 2009 8:36:19	I just looked about the concept in the DM Guide and wondered what it should look like and how to design one. The DM guide provided little information about how to design one.
#2 wells Jan 26, 2009 11:26:24	Well, the setting could be anything you want, but preferably a type of dungeon that lasts for about a tier, give or take. The ruins of the capital of an old city would be good. That way there would be the ground floor, the broken towers and citadels maybe connected by stone bridges and at the highest floors of the towers and buildings there could be portals. Then you have a large expanse below that is made out of ruins from the old city that built on top of itself, the sewers below that, maybe even catacombs. It needs to be big, but the players should have familiarity of the areas after exploring for a while, but mix up the encounters, a tower falls over, tunnels collapse. That way, it is kept interesting. Hope it helps.
#3 Shiftkitty Jan 26, 2009 14:53:20	I suppose step 1 would be to have a story that can last for a tier. You'll want to design your conflict, your BBEG, first. Make him, or it, an encounter appropriate for the PC level you want to end at. At this point it's easy for me to say "Now go back and fill in the blanks", but truth be told, a superdungeon is going to need a lot of hooks, but I don't think it's a good idea to blow them all at the start. Use them as mini-goals to pull the party along with hints about the bigger plot becoming more and more blatant. For example, the party apprehends a rogue who has been selling items identified as things that had been buried with people in the local graveyard. From the rogue, they might learn that a death cult has been responsible for much of the grave robbing that's been plaguing this town (and in fact have threatened to kill him if he steps on their activities), but as they pursue this end, they find evidence that the cult is a cell for a larger operation of necromancers. Then they find out that this operation is a front for a lich raising an undead army to march on the kingdom.
#4 Brys Jan 27, 2009 9:41:12	If you want to keep One Big Hook for the whole tier, take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.).
#5 Vatras Jan 27, 2009 12:33:54	I wrote one (1st edition) which was inspired by Umberto Eco's "The Foucault Pendulum". The story of Eco was pretty good, although the novel sucked at the end, but that didn't matter...I only needed the central plot idea, which his hero developed as the masterplan of the knights templar. They were after the mastery of the ley-lines and lacked the science (=magic research) to utilize their discovery. The idea was wo turn events back and restore the empire of Blackmoor (it was set in Greyhawk), which was covered by ice after the cataclysm. In the present, people have forgotten about the true purpose (correcting the magnetic axis of the planet, thawing the frozen lands) and believe the plan will somehow alter time and bring back Blackmoor. Spinning this out with sidetracks it lasted for about 10 levels in AD&D. I could also use many of the characters in the book as NPCs (sometimes under other names - the Count of St. Germain was too obvious), and had ready personalities for them. I think you can turn many novels with a fantastic theme into an adventure arc, and even several which are not fantasy at all. I have thought of turning historical events into military campaigns, but my players don't like the large battles.
#6 nightmare_scenario Jan 27, 2009 21:17:56	If you want to keep One Big Hook for the whole tier, take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.). That's precisely what I did. "Oh no, the farmer's daughter is missing and you're the only ones nearby to help! What, the goblins took her into a cave? What, the goblin boss is destroying support pillars? Cave-in? O noez! Drat, stuck in underdark...oh, look, a dungeon." Any time you want a long story arc, give the heroes a long way to go to accomplish a simple task, then distract the **** out of them with things they can't ignore. A cross-country delivery trip runs across slaver greenskins, rescuing the slaves means parties at their tribe, which means another attack at the home camp, which means a raid into greenskin territory...
#7 perseus_stoned Jan 29, 2009 17:21:43	I see super-aventures playing sort of like a game of NetHack- not the most logical dungeon, but a giant super adventure.
#8 araes Jan 31, 2009 18:32:22	I tend to view the motivation for super adventures to work best in two varieties. The first is to use a form of game which revolves around survival or survival / horror. Brys summarized a good thought for it with: Take them on some piddling little adventure at level 1 where they get trapped underground and have to make their way back to the surface through the Underdark. Keep in mind that they'll need to find appropriate resources while away trapped(food/water/light source/magic items/etc.). I don't agree that it has to be the Underdark specifically, but any long, difficult to escape, dangerous area will do fine. For example, in one game, I set my players up to be long forgotten sleepers who woke in a crypt from a prior age, and then needed to make their way back to civilization and figure out what was going on. To do so, they had to make their way out of what used to be a perfectly well maintained crypt, but which had been overrun with all manner of scary things in the eons since. Built a good sense of teamwork and camaraderie along the way. However, as was mentioned, I had to be careful that they had the ability to collect food, water, shelter, all the basic needs, along their way. The second option, is to use this tactic in reverse. IE, have them come from civilization, and need to descend into some vast area to search for a specific, well hidden thing which cannot be easily shifted to through tricks like teleporting, ect..., or which they may not even know the specific form of. Vague things like "Find that which shines brightest with good in all the inverted world." A "super dungeon" may instead then become an entire other place, with peoples, dangers, and interactions all its own. As before, the Underdark is one good option for this, as it offers the sense of grandness inspired by tales like "Journey to the Center of the Earth." You just have to make sure that it doesn't ever become a "crawl". Make sure to break up the travel with interesting pockets of uniqueness throughout. Societies, natural wonders, mental challenges, ect... Don't make then bathe in the blood of monsters the entire way. An example of this, which my current players will recognize, while gaming in Faerun, I worked out that one of the great Elfblades of yore, the Warblade in fact, had long ago fallen into the possession of the Drow after the collapse of Cormanthyr. However, it is now needed once again on the surface to shift the path of Armageddon, which is rampaging across the world and planes. The PCs, naturally, have been given this task by a god no less, and therefore must venture miles down into the dark, beneath the very eyes of Menzoberranzen itself, to retrieve the artifact. As they go, they fight some, but they also discover clues about why the apocalypse is happening, how its affecting those beneath the earth, seeing numerous strange geographies they've never been exposed to, and having to deal with the politics of entire societies that exist beneath their feet.
#9 pirateninjaofdeath_dup Jan 31, 2009 23:17:30	I've got a bit of an outline for a "super adventure," should my PCs ever decide to enter the area where it is. Basically, a portion of my homebrew world is a large central-american themed jungle, that used to be populated by the empire of the Olmecs. Centuries ago though, some arcane ritual awakened some terrible evil within the capital of their empire, in the city of Gea'khuul. The evil power has spread, and overtaken a huge portion of the jungle, splitting what was once one empire into a northern (mayan influence) and southern (aztec influence) kingdom. Once the hook has been taken, the adventure will be to travel deep within the depths of the forest, and defeat the evil that resides within it. The party will be advised that the journey will take months, and will have to stock up. They will be assigned a local guide, and will set out along the long untrodden path to the former capital. Along the way they'll encounter the corrupted denizens of the forest, jungle creatures that have been corrupted by the demonic influence at the core. Most will be structured from fey and dire creatures, perhaps with a few other demonic creatures influenced by Act III from Diablo II, which i've rather liberally pillaged this idea from. The path will cross lesser temple-cities, which will be rich with abandoned treasure, sacred artifacts, and seething with lesser versions of the creatures the party will have to face once they reach Gea'Khuul. The problem is that unless you formally decide to do a "super adventure," and railroad the party into it, they may well bypass all the preparations you've made. What I'm doing is using the adventure as a backdrop for the entire region, whether or not they decide to take the hook. If they choose not to, all I've done is waste a crude map to the capital, and the rest of the encounters can be recycled as random jungle encounters. Should they take it, throw a few encounters at them, roleplay the journey in that classic JRRT hobbit-style adventure, and stall them until you can think of more cool things to throw at them. Ancient abandoned cities being retaken by the jungle, demonic jungle monkies or panthers, even dinosaurs. Just make sure that they bring some replacement PCs with them, as in the middle of the jungle there isn't likely to be much civilization to draw replacements from.
#10 doomsought Feb 01, 2009 16:46:38	I was working on a slivers adventure but lost interest in both it and 4ed.