Adventure Prep, Session 4: The Dynamic Dungeon Crawl

Image Source: Wizards of the Coast (I’m baiting for a Cease and Desist letter, I know… hope this falls under fair use)

Last time we left our current D&D game, I left my players in the middle of a Sewers-based Dungeon Crawl
taken from the Vile Addiction adventure in Dungeon Magazine #145, much to the dismay of some of the party members.

Now this week’s game is all ready and I could sit on my non-negligible butt and watch some nice BSG actions. The setup is mostly a 5 room-dungeon and the players went through 2 rooms already.

However, since we stopped right in the middle of it more than 2 weeks ago, I now have had plenty of time to think about how the PCs actions and the choice made so far affect the denizen’s plans.

As it happens, the players carved through 2 ‘guardian’ rooms:

• The Otyugh
• The Ambush by the gnome-like Size-increasing Spriggans.

Furthermore, the party’s resources are still pretty intact (except for the some of the Duskblades spells).

If I play the remaining baddies smartly and since they know the party is there (some hidden sentry already alerted the complex) I have a few choices to adjust the denizen’s strategy:

• Mass all the remaining baddies in an all out assault. Smart and logical from a purely tactical point of view, but I risk mauling the PCs and killing a few, which scores pretty low on the player fun scale.
• Create a diversion and run for it. Not very interactive for the players who will just feel the dungeon is now empty, they probably expect some sort of Boss Fight trope.
• Create a diversion and regroup for a final stand. That would be the default choice. Once again it somewhat lacks interactivity bit it sounds better to me than the previous one.
• Attempt to parley with the invading party so the baddies can size up the party and plan accordingly. This offers a nice occasion for some Role-playing for my RP-starved storytellers and could lead to a surprising resolution.

I probably will end up mixing parley and another choice depending on the player’s responses and attitude. The Baddies have an agenda other than killing the PCs and I will keep it in mind while interacting with the characters.

And while they talk, time passes…

Aside: Having evil NPCs attempt parley remains one of the hardest thing to do, you’re basically serving the bad guys on a silver plate to trigger happy PCs. That is, unless you take some precautions or initiate parley from a Mexican Standoff position, which is harder to pull if you have Chaotic Jerk characters. Setting up a believable parley encounter, complete with a clearly defined BATNA* for the bad guys (other than ‘charge!!!!’) will probably be what consumes the most of my prep time on Wednesday night.

As you can see, ending a session in the middle of a dungeon allows for the DM to re-define the dungeon’s dynamics and modify it ways that the players will hopefully enjoy more.

*Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement…. yeah I was a project manager in a past life.