The Parley

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, we're going to be looking inside Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Master's Guide by lead designers Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford, published in 2014.  This is the version everyone has come to know and is the most popular at the time of this writing.  Today, though, we going to be looking more specifically at Chapter 3: Creating Adventures.

In chapter three, the book goes on to tell you about the elements of a great adventure.  It describes a credible threat, familiar tropes with clever twists, and surprises.  Because I'm more into tables and using my random generator, I'm going to skip over to Adventure Types.

Location-Based Adventures, according to the book, "...can be broken down into a number of steps.  Each step provides tables from which you can select the basic elements of your adventure.  Alternatively, roll on the tables and see how the random results inspire you."

I do like rolling, and I do like random results, so the first table we come to is Dungeon Goals.  The book has a list of goals you could choose from.  My generator chose:  "Parley with a villain in the dungeon."  There is a lot to unpack here.  Who is this villain?  Where is the dungeon located?  What was the dungeon before the villain took it over?  Is there some sort of history behind the dungeon?  Why parley with this foul person?

The villain my generator chose is an "aberration bent on corruption or domination."  That's pretty straight forward.  There are many aberrations from many different sources.  Here are three I can think of off the top of my head: Shadow Horror, Gray Slaad, and Mind Flayer.  Mind Flayers are always fun.  We'll explore how the aberration is going to manage its corruption or domination next week, but for now, we'll focus on the adventure.

How do we start this adventure?  The book lists several options to use, but we'll go with:  "The adventurers find a map on a dead body.  In addition to the map setting up the adventure, the adventure's villain wants the map."

Oh!  Interesting... So, because the villain wants the map, there is probably an element on the map that will help with its goal.

Of course, sometimes it helps if you know the climax of the adventure; getting from the start of the adventure to the end always helps in organizing your thoughts.  Everything in between can be sorted out as we go.

The book lists twelve different options on the Climax table.  Randomly, we get:  "The adventurers race to the site where the villain is bringing a master plan to its conclusion, arriving just as that plan is about to be completed."

Putting it all together, so far:

A mind flayer is bent on corruption, but it needs the map to do so.  This is the map the PCs found on the dead body of an elf, probably a former acquaintance or adventurer of the PCs.  This is a recipe for a major battle at the end of the adventure, but instead of going all out murder-hobo on the flayer, perhaps the PCs know it, and instead choose to parley with it.  And then it's a race to the site.  The PCs to need to stop the villain by making it see the errors of its ways.  The villain needs to complete its master plan or corruption or domination.  As the PCs arrive at the site, they witness that plan about to be completed.

Not a bad start to this adventure.  Wow!  How do the PCs know the mind flayer that they would rather speak to it, than destroy the evil fiend?  Maybe there is something in the characters' backgrounds you could use.

Chapter three of the Dungeon Master's Guide goes on to adventure complications, and creating encounters, but at the moment, I'm more focused on the heart of the adventure.

Next week, we'll take a look at Chapter 4: Creating Nonplayer Characters; more specifically, the Villain.

I hope you've enjoyed this entry, and until next time.

Thanks for reading.

The Tower

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

In the coming weeks, I'm going to be covering a few resources that I find interesting for world building any campaign.  Many books can be found with different methods to create settings, adventures, plots, and scenarios a GM could take with them anywhere.  They can use these materials to help them create interesting stories for their players, and keep those players entertained for months, if not years.

Today, we're going to be looking inside TSR's Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Master's Rulebook by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, published in 1974, and revised by Frank Mentzer in 1983.  More specifically, the section aptly called Creating Dungeons, because when Gygax and Arneson first created D&D, it was all about the dungeon crawl.  The dungeon crawl is one of the most classic adventures in the game, and the Basic DM's book does it right.

In Creating Dungeons, the book says, "A 'dungeon' is any place where monsters and treasures may be found.  A dungeon is usually a group of rooms, connected by corridors.  It could be a castle (new or ruined), some caves, or anything else you can imagine."

The book gives us a selection of scenarios to choose from, but as most of you already know, I love to use my random generator.  Some of the selections given are Investigating an Enemy Outpost, Recovering Ruins, or Visiting a Lost Shrine.  It also gives us a selection of locations for the scenarios, locations like a Castle, Crypt, or Ancient Temple.  When you put the scenario and location together, you get some interesting ideas.  My generator chose Exploring the Unknown in a Tower.

The book gives us a description of Exploring the Unknown:  "The party is hired to map unknown territory.  The area might once have been familiar but is now overrun or destroyed.  A strange tower might mysteriously appear overnight in a familiar area."

The description above is very vague, but full of meaty morsels for us to chew on.  The party is hired; by whom?  An unknown territory; how far is this territory?  Was this place familiar and now overrun?  Was it destroyed, and by whom... or what?  If it is a strange tower that mysteriously appeared overnight, where did it come from?  Are there clues inside?  What exactly is inside?

Taking it from the beginning, let's start with who hired the party to take on this task.  I kind of like the idea of the tower showing up out of nowhere overnight.  So, maybe the king's scouts spotted this thing in the distance, a spire at the edge of the kingdom that was not there yesterday.  The king put out word for adventures to explore this new tower in his territory.  He's worried that whoever put it up, by using some foul, evil magic, could be looking to take over the area.  Of course, he won't mention this to the adventurers.  The narrative could be something like this:

     "King Rass Sunderly is conscripting adventurers for a task.  Only those brave enough to explore the unknown need apply.  The King will be seeing those interested in the afternoon.  Please, be prompt."  That's the notice on the tavern board that had garnered a small crowd to read today's news.

     In the afternoon, you make your way to the throne room of the castle and see King Sunderly upon his throne.  "As you may have already heard," he begins, "last night, a mysterious tower appeared in the fields of Lashtane Grove.  Only one thing could have been used to erect such an evil spire, and that's fell magic.  You are here because you are a curious adventurer, seeking out the exciting and the unknown.  And this is by far unknown territory.  The kingdom will compensate you for your services, of course, at the hefty wage of 100 gold coins upon return."

From here, if the PCs have questions, you can probably improvise your way through some details and then get them on their way.  Of course, because this is about the dungeon and not the journey, you can move the action from the throne room to the entrance of the tower with no problems.

The Dungeon Master's Rulebook has a sub-section called Random Stocking you could use to stock the rooms of your dungeon.  It has traps, monsters, monster treasure, specials (like magic pools), and hidden room treasure.  Of course, I won't be covering those elements here, and let you discover them on your own.

Next week, we'll take a look at Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition's Adventures and Villains.

I hope you've enjoyed this entry, and until next time, thanks for reading.

The Final Battle

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

In my past entries, I've discussed the many elements for the Ruins of Azamar campaign adventure, which we pieced together from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc.

This week, we'll discuss the final element of the adventure; the climax.  The Design Kit describes the climax as:

"...that point, near the story's end, where the story is resolved: Great feats of daring are performed, important decisions are made, the heroes win or are defeated, and rulers or the gods reward the victors. In short. it's the Big Finish."

The book has a short list of suggested finishes to the adventure, like Bloody Battle, Chase to Ground, and Prevented Deed.  I reached deep into my random generator and pulled out the Throne-Room Duel.

"This is set up much like the Scattered Duels, except that you don't separate the heroes. It's harder to control whom fights who in this situation... but if it doesn't matter who has the final duel with the Master Villain, this is a classic climax choice."

To gain a little more insight, we'll reference the Scattered Duels.

"In this climax, the heroes have gotten to the end of their quest - they may have broken into, sneaked into, or escaped from imprisonment within the villain's citadel, or have marched into the little town where the villain is holed up - and they become separated.

"You can separate them by having traps and tricks break the party apart, by having them see two or three things they must resolve (such as danger to innocents or the appearance of minion villains) pop up simultaneously; they'll have to run in all directions at the same time or suffer failure.

"Once the party is broken down into bite-sized chunks, you confront each individual or small group with the enemy or enemies he most deserves to face - his personal enemy, the monster which defeated him before, etc. - for a grand series of climactic duels.

"This works best when the Master Villain is one which can be dueled; if he's a demon or god, the heroes may need an artifact to fight him."

The Throne-Room Duel is probably the most obvious choice our generator could have chosen for us, considering we pretty know that our heroes will be heading into the ritual area (throne room) to confront the cult leader.  I image the leader of the Cult of Ithaqua needs a cadre of members to help garner energy to open the portal, which will let the Death-Walker loose on the world.  Instead of our heroes being "broken down into bit-sized chunks," they arrive at the ritual room together to take on this group of energy-charged zealots.  Each hero will get their chance to duel the master villian in the final battle, in hopes of defeating him and thwarting the monster plan.

This entry will conclude my world building of Azamar and it's icy ruins of Ithaqua.  I have many other resources on world building I want to share.  And I hope you stick with me to discover the many worlds of role-playing games.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

Overwhelmed

 Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Now that we have most of our components in place for our Ruins of Azamar adventure, it's time to discuss the plot of the adventure.  As we have been, we'll be using the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc.

The book states:  "The PLOT of your adventure is the pattern in which the story elements fall and the order in which the story events occur."  It lists plots like the A-B-C Quest, The Event, and the Geographic Progressions.  However, our random generator chose for us The Series of Villains plot.

"This is a very dramatic plot, and very well-suited to oriental campaigns. In it, the heroes have undertaken a quest, usually the finding and defeat of the Master Villain. They may have to travel to his citadel, or head off in another direction to find some artifact capable of defeating him, or run away from pursuing villains until they can figure out what's going on.

"All along their route, they are set upon by villains - each villain has a name and distinct personality, and each encounter is life-or-death for the heroes and villains; the villain never escapes to safety if the tide turns against him, he fights unto death.

"The adventure becomes a war of attrition; the villains gradually wear down the heroes, perhaps killing some of them, as the heroes go about their quest. By the time the heroes reach their enemy, there is no doubt that one side or the other will utterly perish.

"This is a type of plot not suited to happy-go-lucky campaigns or villains."

Holy crap!  Our heroes have a ton of villains they will encounter.  Considering our past entries, we already know two minor villains--the Loveable Rogue and the Misguided Moralist--work for the major villains, the Ithaqua Cult Leader.  They wil be obstacles in our heroes way.  However, the description above tells us there is a lot more they will encounter throughout this adventure.  Remember, we've already established the monstrous aberrations creating chaos on the countryside.  We could definitely bring them into the mix.  Maybe one of our side quests will introduce even more obstacles for the heroes.  I think the goal of this plot to wear the heroes down as they get further from home.  They deplete their resources, and by the time they reach the cult leader, they may have already depleted their energy, and could even be exhausted.

The possibilities are endless.

This entry is going to be short and simple, but we still have to discuss the final element our our adventure: the story's end and its resolution.

Next week, The Climax!

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

It's Not Always About Combat

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, we will be exploring the minor villains the PCs will be encountering during our adventure of the Ruins of Azamar.  We'll be taking examples from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc.

These minor villains are the lieutenants of the master villain in the adventure.  We've already established our master villain is an Advanced Agent of Ithaqua.  The leader of the cult will be performing a ritual by the time the PCs get to him.  Of course, the minor villains will be the obstacles our heroes will encounter before getting to the cult leader.  And we can put them pretty much anywhere in our adventure.

The book gives a list of minor villains like The Avenger, The Corrupted Hero, and The Moronic Muscleman.  And it also states that "many Master Villains have two Minor Villains..."  So, I programmed my random generator to choose two for me.

The first one:  The Lovable Rogue

"This character is like the Master Villain of the same name, except that he has no minions of his own and serves at someone else's bidding. However, he's very independent, not always working in his employer's best interests; he often makes fun of the Master Villain's pretensions and may suffer that villain's retaliation because of it.

"It's possible to convert the Rogue to the heroes' cause; if they offer him money, action, adventure, a pardon for past crimes, or even if there's an attractive PC of the opposite sex who appeals to him, he may be tempted over to their side. If he isn't, he'll abandon his employer during the climax, escaping to safety.

"Character Level and Abilities: The Rogue is probably a fighter or thief at a level similar to the average player character level."

The lovable rogue is self-explanatory.  An encounter with him/her could be an opportunity for fun role-playing.  Will the PCs be able to persuade this rogue to their side?  Could he help lead the PCs to the cult leader?  How will Sylula Earthdance, the retired halfling archaeologist, feel about this recruitment?  The drama!

Our second minor villain is the Misguided Moralist.

"This fellow has been convinced that only by helping the villain achieve the Master Plan can he improve the world. He tends to be encountered all through the adventure's plot, usually escaping from the heroes and taunting them for their wrong thinking. Fortunately, he's no more effective as a villain than he is as a thinker.

"It's very hard to convert him to the heroes' cause; he's too wrapped up in his own cause. It can be done, however, if the heroes can demonstrate that the Master Villain has, say, lied to him.

"Character Level and Abilities: This character is usually a fighter or cleric a few levels less experienced than the average player-character."

To me, the misguided moralist has his wires crossed and thinks that what the cult leader is doing is the right thing to do.  He/she thinks that bringing about Ithaqua, the Death-Walker, could be the great reset the world needs.  This minor villain might show up early in the adventure as a harbinger, spreading the "word" of a great destruction, but not spilling the beans just yet.  I like the idea of him being a cleric of Ithaqua, preaching whatever he can to the masses.  A downright religious zealot.

Now that we have out Theme, Goal, Story Hook, Settings, Ally, Master Villain, and Minor Villains established for the Ruins of Azamar, the adventure still needs a plot.

Next week, The Plot!

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

Leader of the Cult

Credit: Bozhko Dimitrov

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc., we'll be discussing Master Villain.

Any decent adventure should have a master villain, and to flesh out the master villain before you sit down with your players is a big help when incorporating their characters' backstories.  When someone says, Master Villain, I automatically think one of the villains from James Bond.  Nowadays, at the time of this writing, one of the most notable master villains is Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  These people have always tried to bring about plans that would bring harm to the known world.  However,  as written by Christopher Vogler, "Every villain is a hero of his or her own story."  We could probably apply this to Thanos, considering he tried to "save" the universe by blinking half of the population into oblivion.

Continuing on our campaign adventure, Ruins of Azamar, that won't be the case.  In this high fantasy adventure, the villain is going to be down-right evil.  The book lists a few villains you could use, like The Conquerer, The God of Chance, or The Ravager.  In this case, our generator chose the Advance Agent:

"This villain is the vanguard of some sort of invasion; often, he is trying to open up a portal to a dimension full of trapped demons and evil gods. He is best used for horror or espionage adventures.

"Character level and Abilities:  Experience level significantly higher than player-characters' average; often a magic-user or cleric."

Although chosen randomly, I love when certain things fall into place, and this is one of those moments.  The Advance Agent is a perfect villain for our adventure.  We've already established that he or she would be performing a ritual to open a portal and bring forth Ithaqua.  But... what if the portal brings forth other creatures?  Kind of like a byproduct of opening the portal.  Unbeknownst to the cult leader, this would indeed bring about the end of the world.

Although, we would like to see it happen, let chaos reign free, this adventure is designed to have the heroes thwart this monstrous plan; after all, they are heroes.  But that doesn't mean we couldn't have the heroes fail and then have to clean up the mess.

There could be a lot more details we could discuss about the Master Villain, but for this article, I wanted to keep it somewhat vague.  Let your imagination run wild!

Next week, we'll discuss the minor villains, because what's a master villain with his minions?

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

The Retired Archaeologist

Credit: Peter Nijenhuis

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, referencing the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc., we'll be discussing allies and neutrals.  In Book III: Adventure Cookbook, Johnson and Allston mention:

"One of the most entertaining parts of dungeon-mastering is the opportunity to portray some interesting NPC - in effect, to chew up the scenery with some entertaining character, both to spice up the game and to challenge the players to play their own characters more vigorously.  Here are several such ALLIES and NEUTRALS which can be part of your adventure."

And they go on to list a handful of NPCs one could use for such a challenge.  My random generator chose the Crusty Old Professional.  The book describes this person as follows:

"The heroes need an expert in a certain field - this time a craft or art, such as blacksmithing, engineering, horse-training, or whatever.

"The only or best professional they can find is an aged expert.  He's crusty, cranky, and sharp-tongued; he constantly complains about the food, the weather, his companions, the decline in skill of his co-workers since he was a young man, the road conditions, his working conditions, the rotten pay he's receiving, and so on.  You can have him actually possess a heart of gold or be just as nasty as he sounds.

"Character level and Abilities:  Experience level just below characters' party average."

I like the idea of an old, retired archaeologist that had explored the Ruins of Azamar long before the Cult of Ithaqua moved in.  He would be long lived, a little too long lived, in his most venerable years; very forgetful, and on the verge of senility.

Since they live a long time, and my setting is high fantasy, I would be tempted to use an elf.  But elves are sharp-minded, and sometimes arrogant, so full of themselves.  Somehow, an elf would not make a good fit for a crusty professional.

Dwarves are crusty enough, especially when they get up in age.  But, the gruff old dwarf is a bit cliché.

I was thinking a gnome could fit the bill.  They can live up to 500 years, and some of them could get rather brusque.

But what would be fun is an elderly halfling.  They can live up to 200 years, and even that is pushing it.

The party's ally:  A female halfling by the name of Sylula Earthdance.  She was Azamar's renown explorer and recoverer of ancient artifacts.  Now retired, she lives in a village destroyed by the aberrant, cultish monsters.  When the heroes find her, she is living in ignorant bliss as if nothing has happened.  She has a lot of stories of the past, especially stories of her time within the Ruins.  Sylula knows all the nooks and crannies of the derelict structures, which should seem promising to the heroes.

When the heroes encounter her, Sylula would try to convince them she would be the best asset they could have, like a living map.  Reliving her glory days, she wants to return to the Ruins, and she could lead them within, find all the traps, and skirt the baddies.  At least, that's what she would tell them.  Obviously, we, as the adventure designers, know that Sylula Earthdance is whacked out of her mind.

If the party decides to let her join their journey, that's when the complaints kick in.  And then, when they arrive at the Ruins, she gets turned around and confused.  But she's not completely useless.  After all, she is a professional, and all that archaeological knowledge is at the forefront of her memory.  She could be used to notice differences in rock formations, subtle disturbances in the dirt, or maybe she has some latent, magical power that makes her a fantasy metal detector.  This NPC could go a long way.

But that's my take on the Crusty Old Professional.  In the book, they describe many other allies you could use for your adventure.

Next week, we'll discuss the one behind all the chaos in the kingdom of Azamar, the one based out of the Ruins of Azamar; the Master Villain.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.