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.