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Draft of an article I've written for the next Out of Character about designing the one-off I ran this year, posted for feedback.
This article is intended to outline the thought processes involved in developing and running the Kobold Keep scenario which ran at this years SAGA one-offs. I hope other GMs and potential GMs may find them useful. Feel free to steal any and all ideas presented here for your own games.
For the one-offs I wanted to run an introductory adventure in the 'D&D style', including character generation. This implied
- a short dungeon crawl with opportunities for roleplay, negotiation and thinking your way out of encounters
- a very simple system, especially for character generation
For the system I selected Microlite20 - as an analog to both D&D3.x and the older basic D&D of my youth.
- 3 stats (generated using 4d6 drop the lowest),
- 4 skills,
- the traditional races and classes
- a HP mechanic and magic system which gives the PCs better survivability and more options than other versions. It was important that someone (a novice gamer) who had chosen to play a spellcaster could not quickly exhaust their characters options and be left with nothing obvious to do.
To serve as the skeleton of the scenario I selected the introductory adventure from the old D&D red-book DMs guide. This was
- partly for nostalgia,
- partly because it was designed with a beginning group in mind so a lot of the heavy lifting was done including
-- maps
-- room descriptions
-- a variety of classic monsters - kobolds, harpies, giant rats/bats, a carrion crawler and an evil wizard
- partly because it is sufficiently familiar to me that it could still be run even if the notes were misplaced
One goal was to support from the start the concept of a character as someone with personaility and motivations beyond numbers on the character sheet. To this end
- the scenario blurb included several possible motivations for players to latch onto
-- exploring the keep as a local rite of passage
-- treasure hunting
-- keep the area free of dangerous humanoids and beasts
-- bounty on Bargle / revenge on Bargle (the evil wizard rumoured to be hiding out there)
-after character generation play started with a quick round of character introductions including appearance and motivation for joining the party venturing to the Keep. As the DM I watched this closely for hooks I could use for playing to each character later - for example providing extra information on a scene based on a character's background or playing up NPC reactions to particular PCs based on the characteristics described at this point
- the system was deliberately simple and flexible so as not to get in the way of good player ideas and the DM's ability to respond to them
To provide more than a hack-n-slash dungeon crawl (fun sometimes, but not the experience I wanted to deliver) the factions in the dungeon needed to be expanded and their relationships to each other and the Keep defined. Here is what I wound up with...
Kobolds in this scenario are little dog-headed humanoids, a bit like fox terriers. They are bold in packs but typically fairly cowardly when outnumbered except for their leaders who are more aggressive. They speak in a yappy fashion, with a tendancy to emit involuntary barks when under pressure. As a bonus, most of them can't count well enough to give an accurate idea of tribe numbers.
The kobold guards at the gate are the first intelligent opponents the PCs meet and the first using potentially deadly force. One or more are also likely to be captured and interrogated as they try and flee once the battle is going against them. Rather than waste time as the PCs dug for every possible bit of information I decided that the kobold tribe are recent arrivals looking for a new lair and these guards haven't been very far inside yet. They know to turn left at the entry hall to get to the lair, and that there is a cellar level where the main tribe has taken up residence.
From this the following relationships were determined:
- the kobold tribe have only explored and claimed part of the cellars and haven't yet encountered Bargle or the harpies
-- although I did include a room where a kobold scouting party had encountered some of Bargle's zombie guards and nearby the remaining scouts who had fled and would rather talk than fight
- if a kobold is able to return to the tribe with stories of the PC's might other kobolds will be inclined to negotiate first
-the kobolds don't yet have a territorial attachment to the lair and could be intimidated into leaving or paying the PCs to leave them alone
A pair of harpies have set up in the main dining hall where the chimney provides access to the ruined upper level. They view themselves as 'Queens' of the dungeon where they have a regular food supply or tribute from whatever humanoids happen to be in residence at the time. They do not ever venture to the cellar level themselves.
This is an encounter designed to allow role-play by charmed characters protecting the harpies and encourage those who have made their saves to come up with imaginative ways to snap their friends out of it (in play casting Create Water above one character worked well). It also came with the possibility of eliminating the entire party with enough failed saves. To avoid this I decided that the harpies would prefer to send their freshly charmed subjects out to gather more information on the new arrivals to the dungeon (and maybe bring back a plump tasty kobold) rather than devour them all immediately.
The following relationships and motivations were determined:
- the harpies are aware that kobolds have moved in but there hasn't been any direct contact yet
- Bargle and the harpies have come to a non-aggression arrangement as his zombie bodyguards, unaffected by the harpies song, let him negotiate from a position of strength. They don't know why he came to the dungeon and would be very happy to see him gone
- if hard pressed and unable to flee they would bargain for their lives. Likewise they could be persuaded to let the PCs go in exchange for treasure and flattery
The original adventure suggests Bargle be placed on the third level of the dungeon (map not supplied). There is no way the PCs would get that far in the one-off timeframe so instead Bargle is trying to get to the blocked-off third level of the dungeon and has taken over some of the upper and cellar levels as his base - conveniently on the opposite side of the Keep to the kobolds. He hasn't bothered exploring any more of the dungeon than he really needed to - he has an old map of the place.
Relationships and motivations:
- where would an evil wizard be if he had to do everything himself? I bulked out Bargle's faction with more classic monsters
-- some zombies (supplied by his sponsor for the expedition, some still in their crates along with other supplies like digging tools). Some of these can be encountered as guards, in which case they attack, and some digging out a collapsed stairwell, in which case they ignore the PCs unless attacked
-- a couple of goblin minions, because sometimes you need eyes with a brain behind them, to run and tell you that your guards are being eliminated
- Bargle isn't really interested in any of the other inhabitants of the dungeon. Anyone who might report his presence to the town or getting between him and the treasure is to be blasted and eliminated, charmed and made use of, or paid off in that order of preference
- he has made a deal with the harpies for information and should he encounter the kobolds will simply fireball a few of them and make it clear the rest are to stay in their corner of the cellars
The original adventure comes with rats and bats. These typically serve as food and rubbish disposal for whoever is in the dungeon and don't attack the PCs unless their nests are disturbed. If the PCs don't search a room full of piles of rubbish they might never notice the rats hiding there.
I added some nests of monstrous spiders in the cellars. These typically have a mutual predator/prey relationship with whatever humanoids are present.
- The kobolds have discovered one nest and wisely decided to avoid it for now, but they will happily suggest adventurers explore in that direction
- Bargle has cleared out one nest with a small fireball which may provide alert PCs some clue as to his abilities
The carrion crawler which is the first encounter in the adventure also required special attention. Although it inflicts no actual damage it's many by-the-book attacks mean that a run of bad saves can easily take out the entire party at this early stage. To counter this I decreed that it only got one attack per character in reach and also reduced the duration of the paralysis (sometimes using dramatic licence) to enable fallen PCs to recover and get back into the fight.
(Some people might take offence at this last technique, but it must be remembered that the adventure is being run to give an exciting gaming experience to beginning players, and that doesn't happen if someone spends the entirety of the first fight unable to contribute. This is a defining case for drama trumping rules.)
It wouldn't be a D&D dungeon without some inanimate traps. The dungeon comes with some neat rotating statues (which I included a workshop for building to use up an empty room in the cellar) and some frankly silly magical traps which I discarded in favour of some more 'rogue friendly' installations.
From a dungeon design perspective the zombies-in-boxes also counts as a trap, which is triggered when the PCs start opening these suspiciously recent crates.
When running an adventure for beginning players the DM needs to be sufficiently familiar with the system and the scenario to concentrate on providing a good experience. Even for someone with years of designing and improvising scenarios a playtest or two will show up things which can be done better.
Kobold Keep wasn't extensively playtested, but improvements were able to be made. Another thing about playtesting, planning to do so means you have to start working on your scenario that much earlier which greatly improves the chance that it will be written up properly in time to be run, which provides more time for potential issues to become obvious.
It's actually unlikely that a group will defeat the harpies, expel the kobolds, clear out the spider nests and defeat Bargle (and not necessarily in that order) in the 3-ish hours of play allowed by a one-off (plus half an hour of character creation). Two of the above seems to be most common before the PCs have enough loot and few enough resources that they decide to call it a day or time runs out.
This doesn't matter - the aim is firstly that everyone has fun, secondly that a new player walks away with an understanding of just what it is we do with character sheets and funny shaped dice.
Happy gaming!
This article is intended to outline the thought processes involved in developing and running the Kobold Keep scenario which ran at this years SAGA one-offs. I hope other GMs and potential GMs may find them useful. Feel free to steal any and all ideas presented here for your own games.
Objectives
For the one-offs I wanted to run an introductory adventure in the 'D&D style', including character generation. This implied
- a short dungeon crawl with opportunities for roleplay, negotiation and thinking your way out of encounters
- a very simple system, especially for character generation
For the system I selected Microlite20 - as an analog to both D&D3.x and the older basic D&D of my youth.
- 3 stats (generated using 4d6 drop the lowest),
- 4 skills,
- the traditional races and classes
- a HP mechanic and magic system which gives the PCs better survivability and more options than other versions. It was important that someone (a novice gamer) who had chosen to play a spellcaster could not quickly exhaust their characters options and be left with nothing obvious to do.
To serve as the skeleton of the scenario I selected the introductory adventure from the old D&D red-book DMs guide. This was
- partly for nostalgia,
- partly because it was designed with a beginning group in mind so a lot of the heavy lifting was done including
-- maps
-- room descriptions
-- a variety of classic monsters - kobolds, harpies, giant rats/bats, a carrion crawler and an evil wizard
- partly because it is sufficiently familiar to me that it could still be run even if the notes were misplaced
Encouraging Role Playing
One goal was to support from the start the concept of a character as someone with personaility and motivations beyond numbers on the character sheet. To this end
- the scenario blurb included several possible motivations for players to latch onto
-- exploring the keep as a local rite of passage
-- treasure hunting
-- keep the area free of dangerous humanoids and beasts
-- bounty on Bargle / revenge on Bargle (the evil wizard rumoured to be hiding out there)
-after character generation play started with a quick round of character introductions including appearance and motivation for joining the party venturing to the Keep. As the DM I watched this closely for hooks I could use for playing to each character later - for example providing extra information on a scene based on a character's background or playing up NPC reactions to particular PCs based on the characteristics described at this point
- the system was deliberately simple and flexible so as not to get in the way of good player ideas and the DM's ability to respond to them
Fleshing out the adventure
To provide more than a hack-n-slash dungeon crawl (fun sometimes, but not the experience I wanted to deliver) the factions in the dungeon needed to be expanded and their relationships to each other and the Keep defined. Here is what I wound up with...
The Kobolds
Kobolds in this scenario are little dog-headed humanoids, a bit like fox terriers. They are bold in packs but typically fairly cowardly when outnumbered except for their leaders who are more aggressive. They speak in a yappy fashion, with a tendancy to emit involuntary barks when under pressure. As a bonus, most of them can't count well enough to give an accurate idea of tribe numbers.
The kobold guards at the gate are the first intelligent opponents the PCs meet and the first using potentially deadly force. One or more are also likely to be captured and interrogated as they try and flee once the battle is going against them. Rather than waste time as the PCs dug for every possible bit of information I decided that the kobold tribe are recent arrivals looking for a new lair and these guards haven't been very far inside yet. They know to turn left at the entry hall to get to the lair, and that there is a cellar level where the main tribe has taken up residence.
From this the following relationships were determined:
- the kobold tribe have only explored and claimed part of the cellars and haven't yet encountered Bargle or the harpies
-- although I did include a room where a kobold scouting party had encountered some of Bargle's zombie guards and nearby the remaining scouts who had fled and would rather talk than fight
- if a kobold is able to return to the tribe with stories of the PC's might other kobolds will be inclined to negotiate first
-the kobolds don't yet have a territorial attachment to the lair and could be intimidated into leaving or paying the PCs to leave them alone
The Harpies
A pair of harpies have set up in the main dining hall where the chimney provides access to the ruined upper level. They view themselves as 'Queens' of the dungeon where they have a regular food supply or tribute from whatever humanoids happen to be in residence at the time. They do not ever venture to the cellar level themselves.
This is an encounter designed to allow role-play by charmed characters protecting the harpies and encourage those who have made their saves to come up with imaginative ways to snap their friends out of it (in play casting Create Water above one character worked well). It also came with the possibility of eliminating the entire party with enough failed saves. To avoid this I decided that the harpies would prefer to send their freshly charmed subjects out to gather more information on the new arrivals to the dungeon (and maybe bring back a plump tasty kobold) rather than devour them all immediately.
The following relationships and motivations were determined:
- the harpies are aware that kobolds have moved in but there hasn't been any direct contact yet
- Bargle and the harpies have come to a non-aggression arrangement as his zombie bodyguards, unaffected by the harpies song, let him negotiate from a position of strength. They don't know why he came to the dungeon and would be very happy to see him gone
- if hard pressed and unable to flee they would bargain for their lives. Likewise they could be persuaded to let the PCs go in exchange for treasure and flattery
Bargle the Infamous (Evil Wizard)
The original adventure suggests Bargle be placed on the third level of the dungeon (map not supplied). There is no way the PCs would get that far in the one-off timeframe so instead Bargle is trying to get to the blocked-off third level of the dungeon and has taken over some of the upper and cellar levels as his base - conveniently on the opposite side of the Keep to the kobolds. He hasn't bothered exploring any more of the dungeon than he really needed to - he has an old map of the place.
Relationships and motivations:
- where would an evil wizard be if he had to do everything himself? I bulked out Bargle's faction with more classic monsters
-- some zombies (supplied by his sponsor for the expedition, some still in their crates along with other supplies like digging tools). Some of these can be encountered as guards, in which case they attack, and some digging out a collapsed stairwell, in which case they ignore the PCs unless attacked
-- a couple of goblin minions, because sometimes you need eyes with a brain behind them, to run and tell you that your guards are being eliminated
- Bargle isn't really interested in any of the other inhabitants of the dungeon. Anyone who might report his presence to the town or getting between him and the treasure is to be blasted and eliminated, charmed and made use of, or paid off in that order of preference
- he has made a deal with the harpies for information and should he encounter the kobolds will simply fireball a few of them and make it clear the rest are to stay in their corner of the cellars
Unintelligent (unaligned) Monsters
The original adventure comes with rats and bats. These typically serve as food and rubbish disposal for whoever is in the dungeon and don't attack the PCs unless their nests are disturbed. If the PCs don't search a room full of piles of rubbish they might never notice the rats hiding there.
I added some nests of monstrous spiders in the cellars. These typically have a mutual predator/prey relationship with whatever humanoids are present.
- The kobolds have discovered one nest and wisely decided to avoid it for now, but they will happily suggest adventurers explore in that direction
- Bargle has cleared out one nest with a small fireball which may provide alert PCs some clue as to his abilities
The carrion crawler which is the first encounter in the adventure also required special attention. Although it inflicts no actual damage it's many by-the-book attacks mean that a run of bad saves can easily take out the entire party at this early stage. To counter this I decreed that it only got one attack per character in reach and also reduced the duration of the paralysis (sometimes using dramatic licence) to enable fallen PCs to recover and get back into the fight.
(Some people might take offence at this last technique, but it must be remembered that the adventure is being run to give an exciting gaming experience to beginning players, and that doesn't happen if someone spends the entirety of the first fight unable to contribute. This is a defining case for drama trumping rules.)
Inanimate challenges
It wouldn't be a D&D dungeon without some inanimate traps. The dungeon comes with some neat rotating statues (which I included a workshop for building to use up an empty room in the cellar) and some frankly silly magical traps which I discarded in favour of some more 'rogue friendly' installations.
From a dungeon design perspective the zombies-in-boxes also counts as a trap, which is triggered when the PCs start opening these suspiciously recent crates.
The value of playtesting
When running an adventure for beginning players the DM needs to be sufficiently familiar with the system and the scenario to concentrate on providing a good experience. Even for someone with years of designing and improvising scenarios a playtest or two will show up things which can be done better.
Kobold Keep wasn't extensively playtested, but improvements were able to be made. Another thing about playtesting, planning to do so means you have to start working on your scenario that much earlier which greatly improves the chance that it will be written up properly in time to be run, which provides more time for potential issues to become obvious.
You don't have to exhaust the possibilities
It's actually unlikely that a group will defeat the harpies, expel the kobolds, clear out the spider nests and defeat Bargle (and not necessarily in that order) in the 3-ish hours of play allowed by a one-off (plus half an hour of character creation). Two of the above seems to be most common before the PCs have enough loot and few enough resources that they decide to call it a day or time runs out.
This doesn't matter - the aim is firstly that everyone has fun, secondly that a new player walks away with an understanding of just what it is we do with character sheets and funny shaped dice.
Happy gaming!
