Hello and welcome to the 1st official design essay of Project Kobold Love.
Here I’m going to reveal it to you, all 5 scenes of my adventure, including the very Tropa-licious ending I cooked up last week on my plane ride back from Gen Con.
The 5 scenes model
Kobold Love will follow a model similar to Johnn Four’s seminal 5 room dungeon model. It will consist of 5 self-contained scenes (or Encounters in D&D 4e speak) that are linked in a linear fashion by a story.
I chose that model because it makes for a short adventure (I want to tackle another project soon). I also chose it because a 5 scenes adventure can usually fit in a 4 hour gaming session, which is a common time slot in home games and conventions.
Kobold love is not designed for campaign play, although it could act as a springboard to one.
The Adventure Plan
When I prepare a homegrown adventure for my gaming buddies, the first thing I do is a plan of each scene I envision in the upcoming adventure. I don’t necessarily write it all, I’ve made and played 5 scenes adventures without notes, but it often helps me when I do.
While this yet unnamed adventure (Kobold Love is just a placeholder name) will be somewhat linear, I still like to have a high level idea of the possible encounters before I start building it.
The way I do it is to write a few paragraphs for the introduction and each scene of the adventure. That allows me to outline my main idea about each part. If inspiration hits while writing the plan, I pour it in, but I try real hard not to let details creep in too much (and take over my creative cycle), that’s for later.
So here’s Kobold Love’s plan:
Adventure Introduction
A party of big ugly kobolds have lived all their lives with an old Kobold crone that acts as the dungeon’s Oracle/Witch Doctor. What the ugly duckling kobolds lack in grace they more than make up with cunning and a very acute sense of survival. Since their infancy, they have been able to avoid the numerous adventurer raids of their home dungeon, pulling their adoptive mother to safety while most other dungeon denizens perished.
One day, the Oracle had a vision and shared a prophecy with the whole underground complex: Now was the time to break the cycle of raiding and killing in the realm of Darkness. A group of outcasts was to go to the Outside Dungeon, seek the “House with Dark Corners” and slay the Quest Giver!
As soon as the words were spoken, outrage and anger ignited the dungeon…
Chatty’s Comments:
That’s typical me, I start writing and it all pours out… this is basically the whole adventure background. I’ll just retouch later.
At least it gives you all the context of where I plan to go with this.
Scene 1, Dungeons and Diplomacy
Shortly after the Oracle pronounced the prophecy, angry (and muscled) representatives of the dungeons’s strongest factions show up in the Crone’s Cave Lair and demand that she retracts such heresy. They are ready to argue their position with weapons, teeth and claws.
Monsters don’ t just leave dungeons! Therein lies madness!
There the kobold PCs, who have been identified as the obvious “Outcasts” by all factions, must debate with the factions leaders to convince them of the validity of their quest. With a skill challenge based on social skills (and role playing), the PCs can reduce the number of hostile enemies they have to face.
The number of successes and failures determines the number of factions the PCs will have to fight simultaneously as each success returns a faction to its lair.
Scene 2, On the Road…Again
As the Kobolds make their way to the nearest Human city, they have to rest near a road. During their rest, a generic adventuring party is passing by to raid their dungeon. If the PCs are spotted, the party of adventurers cries ‘Kobold Ambush!’ and attacks.
Chances are PCs will attack if unspotted, turning this into a real ambush!
Chatty’s Comments:
This scene is a tribute to Keep on the Shadowfell and countless other In Media Res adventures. I just had to put it in!
Scene 3, Skill Challenged in the City.
Kobolds have to get into the city. Various ways are made available, including climbing the outside wall at night, Bluffing the City guards (Skill challenge: Disguise, Bluff, Diplomacy) and sneaking into the sewers
Chatty’s Comments:
This is the least developed (and least linear) scene in my mind currently. Therein lies the danger of over writing it. For example, in the sewers, I have possible trap-like encounters with monsters or another roleplaying skill challenge to convince sewer denizen of righteousness of quest in mind.
Actually I think I’ll give DMs playing the adventure the option of making their own 5 room dungeon just for the Sewer part of the adventure, possibly adding treasures to help the PCs later.
Scene 4, Trope Showdown in the Tavern of Clichés.
PCs make it to the Tavern where they meet a roomfull of the some of the most known D&D archetypes/clichés characters. Among others, they’ll meet a dual-scimitar Drow Ranger, a Naive Fighter and his sickly Wizard brother. a wisecracking halfling rogue and, of course, the Stranger in the Corner.
An epic, very hard fight ensues… with a possible Roleplaying “out” See Scene 5.
Chatty’s Comment:
Yup, a subverted barfight against tired clichés! Choosing the right archetypes for maximum effect is going to be important here. Crunch wise, the encounter must be at the near maximum of the party’s capacity. The Tavern must also be a dynamic environment ripe with props and cool terrain exploits to give bold/creative PCs a slight edge.
Scene 5, You wouldn’t dare!
Edit: This Scene as be marked for possible rework. See comments.
As the stranger in the corner dies, he drops 2 scrolls. The first, written in common, says “Go forth in the nearby Caves of Doom and find an old Kobold Crone living with a small band of kobolds and give her this scroll. Kill everything else!”
The second scroll, written in a secret language the Crone taught the PCs says “My love, I miss you so! I’m ready to be a good father now, if you’ll still have me”
Roll Credits.
Chatty’s Comments:
Did I forget to mention that all PCs were half-kobolds? I did? My bad. =)
If the DM feels especially evil he can let the PCs bring back the scroll without reading it and witness ‘mom’ cry herself to death upon reading the note.
However, I really want to allow the adventure to finish in a different way… Maybe the stranger will be willing to surrender and parlay if bloodied and that might be an occasion to have a ‘Sith Lord Daddy’ moment that’s just as strong.
Possibilities…Endless!
Your Turn!
So any thoughts on this in general? Anyone wants to take this in another direction?
Sound off in the comments, on our Forum or on your own web site (don’t forget to link!)
Up Next: Adventure Background and Summary (and maybe a bit more)
Credits: Wizards of the Coast (Image)
A little side note, my character in this campaign I’m in, saved a Kobold from the wrath of my group… nobody knows why except that my character doesn’t like killing unarmed humanoids. And oh boy, it was odd. He escaped though, which is a shame, as I wanted to see what would happen with a kobold companion. I don’t think that our DM wanted to deal with that though. He’s got enough to worry about with the conflicts that are possible within our diverse group.
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Love encounter 4 especially 🙂
I’d be inclined to have the Quest Giver be a shape-changed Kurtulmak who uses the adventurers to weed out the weaklings from his children.
Let him award the characters for their bravery – extra breeding rights, perhaps – as a reward for their clear bravery.
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@Tenach: In a Gurps Fantasy Con adventure I wrote 12-13 years ago, all PCs were Monsters (The Monstrous Brotherhood). I created a kobold PC names ‘The Dart’ that was so low in power (he was the party’s cook) that I teamed it with a mute, slave mentality Insect Man warrior.
The pair was fun to role play!
@Greywulf: Your version plays very well with the ‘Chosen Ones’ prophecy trope. I like it too.
I’m still partial to my Evil DM/Will E Coyote plot twist… We’ll see how others react.
Ewwwwwwww…
Overall, good…can’t help but be reminded of Goblins…can’t wait to give scene 3 a go…the possibilities of the miniature dungeon within the sewers make my brain dance with glee…
Looking forward to the rest of this series for sure…
Reverend Mikes last blog post.."Happy Birthday!"…"I know."…
You had me at hello. Right up until the ending. So each adventure includes the Revealed Patron trope? Getting that it’s all in good fun, I can be game. I am often accused, justly, of being a very “serious gamer”.
I am scrounging the subject matter for more guidelines. Maybe I’ll just email ya directly. : }
Hmmmm didn’t expect that my shock ending would fall flat as I perceive it does… While I thought it was the best part!
Maybe it’s too disturbing? I thought the effect on players would be incredible but maybe I’m missing something cultural here. Some Tropes don’t cross cultures.
Please advise.
I’ll sleep on this and we’ll discuss over the weekend. I’m open to other options.
I know my usual players would react with a collective, “…wait…what?…”…but I could definitely see this getting big laughs if executed properly…I’m not sure it quite strikes you at first just reading it…it’s a good ending and I certainly can’t think of anything better…
Hmm…perhaps the questgiver is an acolyte of Dominicus Mockus, the great puppeteer, and he is simply doing his bidding for reasons unknown…
Reverend Mikes last blog post.."Happy Birthday!"…"I know."…
ugh. I agree with Mr. Helt. You lost me with the ending. Half-Kobolds? I’ll second Greywulf’s idea.
I also suggest some gnome stomping in there somewhere.
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Hey. How does one get in on the contest aspect of all this? And can I enter with a system that has already been “claimed?” Savage Worlds.
Dr. Checkmates last blog post..Applying the Five Room Dungeon and the Microlite Campaign
This is probably the greatest tribute to Dungeons & Dragons in the past 10 years!
I vote Phillipe to become an official deity in the Forgotten Realms! 🙂
Thanks for the feedback guys… I just might have to install a Poll Plugin and make it a vote somehow.
Or rather, I’d like more ending suggestions.
re: The Ending Scene:
One of the reasons why I wanted the Kobolds to be half-kobolds (and they could be half kobolds because of magical fusing, not interspecies yuckie) is that I wanted the PCs to be medium size and not have the dreaded 4e shifty ability for free (it’s a very powerful ability as players of Keep on the Shadowfell realized).
My friend Yan designed a cool 1/2 Kobold racial template and we made the shifty ability into a pair of feats.
Ohhhh! Idea!
They could also just be mutated freaks (making them the world’s strongest kobolds) created by fate to accomplish the prophecy,
The Quest Giver could be a Human Oracle trying to find them to prevent that very same prophecy that ends up killing him…
…only he failed repeatedly because there is a trope about not being able to cheat Fate.
(I’d leave the Yuckie ending as an option for evil DMs, like a good Paranoia Adventure)
@Reverend Mike: That’s exactly what I was going for ‘Man, what?’ There is silliness built in that adventure.
@Dr. Checkmate: Damn, I really have to work with my endings… it was a recurring Gen Con jokes that my stories were often entertaining but tended to crashes towards the end. As you see this project will also be a learning exercise for me. See my rethinking above.
As for calling a system, I never said that systems were exclusive except 4e. Just tel me you are joining and I’ll update the Interlude 1 post.
@Psy: Man, you are one cool fan to have. I nominate you my this week’s official Cheermeister! (I already gave the Super Secret Bacon Prize to Joe for finding my Gen Con Badge)
The only problem I see with the ending, besides just being gross (medical or not), is that it would have to be handled JUST right, and a lot a lot of DMs couldn’t do it right. I know I have doubts if I could. Perhaps a stack of scrolls saying something like “Don’t worry about the kobold dungeon anymore…the goblin dungeon is where the REAL action is” might be a twist that more DMs can actually handle themselves.
After all, not every DM is The Chatty One: DM Rockstar!!! 😉
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@Tom: Actually that’s a very good lesson for me Tom. A lot of modules I read have scenes that make me go ‘Ugh, I don’t see how I can play this with my own natural DMing style’.
If I am to move forward as a credible RPG writer I need to find the formula that will make DMs both comfortable running my adventure and excited about it.
Thanks everyone, I need feedback like that.
Oh, new Idea… that would need to be fluffed properly:
Quest Giver’s new quest: Now that you have finally reached a level of experience sufficient to be useful we can leave the Cave of Training alone, Go forth and recover 7 Wyvern Stingers!
A tribute to World of Warcraft!
@Chatty: Tell me about it! I don’t even run modules because so many of them don’t fit with my style, my groups style, and/or our worlds. To many developers seem build modules in a vacuum and don’t seek feedback from a variety of folks like you’re doing here. IMHO, this will make Kobold Love a much stronger module than the typical published modules.
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I”m not sure about the ending as well. If the players know they are half-kobolds it might be okay, but do you want to change the definition of who they are? I’ve done it, but I’ve tried to clue people in (slightly) at character creation time.
I like the second scroll idea, but wonder if it couldn’t have a magical aura that causes it to change when one of the PCs touches it, becoming — a quest scroll written in Draconic, specifically for the party. He is a “Quest Giver” after all:)
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My idea was to tell Players upfront that they were Half-Kobolds… As anything that humans do, they’d get over the concept pretty fast (especially if the DM brings in examples like 1/2 dragons).
Then the finale would bring the whole concept crashing down on the players again.
The scroll in Draconic for the PCs is also a great idea.
I thought I might throw out some alternate endings.
First Idea: Just as the Kobolds lay waste to the quest giver, let them here sounds of battle then have them wake up, and look up to see…There own old characters above them, describe them down to there shoes, have them kill the helpless kobolds and take there stuff.
Second Idea: As the quest giver falls and they proceed to loot the subject, They find on his body the books you have at the table and adventure, and enough scrolls for everyone in that group, that say “You Win D&D”. It will be great if you have a letter to hand all the Players that says this too. As you can always describe the Quest Giver as your self
Thought i might pass on some ideas i had see if you like them.
I really like that Meta-meta gaming approach… especially Subverting the ‘you don’t win at D&D’ trope.
For a Convention game, I’d definitively go with the ‘you Win’ scroll and give out a Gift certificate or something!
Hey Chatty,
I’m going to have to go on record emphatically saying don’t do it! Don’t use that Scene 3, no way, no how. Not only is it asking for trouble (being hard to connect up to Scene 4 without herding cats away from potential side quests), it challenges the players to pick from a menu they can’t see (you don’t have enough words in this document to cover every possibility).
You would be much, much, very much better off going with any idea that you like in a way similar to Scene 2’s in media res. Just pick how they get in and tell the gamemaster what point the kobolds will be in enough trouble that the player’s input is needed.
Please!
Really.
Fang
Get in on playtesting Scattershot!
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Oh and this adventure assumes Either pre-generated characters or that everyone takes the 1/2 (or mutated) Kobold racial template.
As for Gnomes… I expect Martin Ralya any minute to chime in with a Gnome Love hack.
Oh, so you’re calling me out now, Phil? Is that how it’s going to be? 😉
I’m not sure I’ll be tackling this myself, but I’ll definitely post about it on the Stew next week.
As soon as I saw the bit about the PCs being large “ugly duckling kobolds” I thought that they were dwarves raised by the kobold Oracle women since they were young, and so they just assumed that they were ugly kobolds. Of course, they cry of “Kobold ambush” in the second scene kind of nixed that idea.
@ Fang: Trust me, I have a plan… I also want to allow DMs to feel free to add to the adventure like Keep on the Borderlands did.
@Martin: Of course I’m calling you out… Kobolds have been kicking Gnome butts since primordial times when Bacterial Kobolds squelched Yeasty Gnomes.
Do you want me to use stronger fighting words? =)
@Virgil: You know, I had never thought of this that way… what if PCs are just normal non-monster humanoids raised by the Crone? Since they never met adventurers (they always ran away) they wouldn’t know they are not kobolds…
Hmmmm this is definitively a major possible ‘what if’ Hacking point.
I’ll be off line for the rest of the day and the night… I have Work, some meetings and my D&D game tonight so play safe and throw more ideas!
Thanks for your level of participation, this project is already successful beyond my wildest expectations.
Well, I like it! And I love the twist at the end.
I don’t see a problem with Scene 3, since the final adventure will assuredly spell out the options.
I am having a difficult time figuring out how to translate this into a space opera setting, though. 🙂 Will think about it more.
I like the “You Win D&D” idea…easily my favorite alternative thus far…
@Fang – Man, Scene 3 looks great…the beauty of D&D is in the freedom allowed by the game…it’s true that you can’t cover all possibilities, but any DM worth half the salt in his pocket can accommodate the weird stuff that may crop up…I mean, if you’ve got dickweed players that want to try catapulting themselves into the city, then it might be difficult…but Chatty seems to have covered the more straightforward ideas thus far…
Scene 3 es good…looking forward to where it goes…
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Hah, I’d buy it if I can, it ought to be fun.
Plus I think my little sisters might get a grand kick out of it.
I like the idea of a shape-shifter father of sorts.
Seems like it’s already quite strong, I keep imagining the characters tieing up Mr, quest giver and using him as a ram to run form the Inn, though the guards, and out back home… 😀
Looks like a decent one-shot.
I like everything except for “Scene 1, Dungeons and Diplomacy”. I’ve seen a fair bit of scaled skill chalenges with successes reducing number of combatants, and I honestly I don’t like em.
I prefer a different approach. Design a balanced combat and map partial successes to a delay before the underlings get their act together.
A good success could be a bloodless victory, in this case the leader is mollified, wishes the party luck and goes away. Yay!
A total failure would be immediate combat; the leader and all his underlings are pissed off and enter the fray with blood in their eyes.
A middling success could a lesser number of combatants in the first round. The leader and a variable number of his underlings are upset and immediately attacking, but some of the underlings thought the diplomacy sounded reasonable, and aren’t ready. When their leader ups and atacks the kobolds though, it’s just a matter of time (one round probably) before they snap out of their confusion, grab their weapons and join in.
(i.e. The leader cries “Attack boyz!” and charges into combat, but the first round all that the rest of the group does is look confused and draw their weapons… the discussion was going so well!)
That way we can have a well planned tactical challenge that doesn’t become dangerous with a total failure, nor trivially easy with a near total success. What happens if 7/8 (or 9/10 or whatever) of the threats wander off, do you really want to play out that combat against the sole foe? How about 0 threats wandering off. TPK?
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scene 1 is a great example of what I think a good skill challenge should be. I think the skill challenges should be during combat, if this hasn’t been said yet.
scene 2 is a great sarcastic jab at shadowfell.
scene 3: putting a 5 room within a 5 room is a very ‘5 room’ move. i like it.
scene 4 is just plain funny, bar room brawl with a twist indeed!
scene 5: no sir, i don’t like it. I’d rather have the quest giver be a shapeshifted kobold who was an outcast from the oracle’s cave and assumed the quest giver role to try to send adventures in to help clear it out so that he could retake it eventually. Maybe have the quest giver escape from the tavern, skill challenge the party to follow him back to the original caves where the quest giver would have his own kobold army ready to move into the caves. The party would have to unite the remaining tribes as well as try to turn the new army against their leader with mother oracle’s help. battle ensues. that almost sounds like a 6th scene though.
aw well, looks like fun, save the ending.
I kind of like the ending. This guy has been giving out quests for years to keep the other residents of the dungeon under control and weak. Of course it begs the question why momma didn’t just tell them that he was an ally (maybe not mention the daddy part).
The “Sith-Lord Daddy” idea reminds me of “Toy Story 2” part where Zerg and the other Buzz decide to reconcile. “Aww your the best dad ever!” (Yes I know it was a takeoff on “Star Wars”)
Oops!
Okay, I have to reiterate in case I wasn’t clear that I often err on the sides of the serious DnD game. Or Pathfinder, as it were. So, don’t let me shell the ending of your project, Phil! If it’s silly you want, you made the right choices. I could likely do to broaden my horizins with silly.
I’m one of those serious types – the fluff is always dramatic and tense, and the crunch is always tough. While 25 years of gaming yearns for a different ending….we are asking for kobold PCs, right?
Also, once I find out when my stuff is due and how to go about what you’re trying to acheive, I am defintely adding several oportunities for the McGyver trope. They’re kobolds, they deserve their trapmaking moments.
I much encourage the pregen idea, and if it motivates people to buy your event once we’re finished with it, I’ll run the Pathfinder version for your patrons at GenCon next year.
It is quite fun to throw in things like that which people are not used to playing with, but at the same time, you definitely have to be (as a DM) ready for it. As much as it would have been neat to have a kobold along for the adventure, I understand why the DM did not want/allow a player to bring in an unwanted/useless NPC.
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Great feedback all.
Here’s my Summary of things so far.
Overall the adventure piques interest with some scenes appreciated (3 and 4) and one ill received (5).
Note that people hacking this adventure are free to veer off the script and do whatever they feel like.
What I plan to do is:
Scene 1: Explore not doing a reverse incremental combat encounter.I agree with Plotter and I’ll will take his opinion under serious advisement. Possibly use his suggestion as is or I set up a ‘Very Hard’ combat and then embed the skill challenge in the combat and cause a faction to hesitate during combat while PCs fight off (and try to reason with) the remainder.
Scene 3: The Embedded dungeon option will be outlined in a Sidebar (i.e. I’m not going to do it in the scope of this adventure).
Scene 5: Since it was so ill received by some but not by others I’m going to provide alternate endings. I’ll put my original one as the ‘Evil DM ending’ and I’ll provide another one. The best proposed alternatives will feature in another Sidebar.
I thought about un-grossing my ending by saying that the half-Kobold were magically created by the Quest giver (A wizard) as an experiment in the “‘perfect mix of Kobold Cunning and Human Guile”. He then sent the Infant hybrids in the dungeon to see how they fared (and were ‘saved by the Crone’ ). Since then he heard rumours of their exploits so he sent adventurers to find them and give them a scroll.
The Second Scroll would basically be the same trope (I’m your creator) and I could up the Sith Lord Recruitment Speech (You have proven yourself above my wildest expectations, Come rule the world with me!)
So Quest Giver would be an Evil Overlord trying to recover his lost Death Ray…
Is that an easier to DM ending?
This brings an interesting question: What would that make the Crone if she knows about all this?
@Steven Helt:
The potential for Silly is built in but I don’t think I want to impose it, hence my proposal to spilt ending in two ways.
As for GMing the Pathfinder version at Gen Con… Dude that would be so cool. Let’s see how this goes.
Wouldn’t the Wile E Coyote ending be dropping an ACME anvil on each of the PCs? Or ordering jet-rollerskates?
Also, there has to be some opportunities for baby eating in there. After all, King Torg (ALL HAIL KING TORG!) says that babies are rather tasty.
They ARE like veal…
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Another question: What exactly would be the adjustments for a PC playable Kobold race, or even a 1/2 kobold? 3.5 Kobolds had ridiulessly low strength and bizzare skill bonuses for like, trapmaking.
BTW, i REALLY like the “Chosen Ones” idea from Greywulf.
We went for the 4e philosophy and we chose +2 Dex, +2 Con.
Plus some cool abilities…
I’ll post them as an Interlude early next week.
Excellent idea! Now I’m trying to figure out how to run this in a current campaign…
What if your regular PCs received a quest from the Quest Giver to rid the local dungeon of the *terrible* monsters? Perhaps the Quest Giver has this cool magic amulet – he says he killed a dragon in the same dungeon, and promises that even better treasure awaits our fearless heroes.
When the PCs reach the dungeon, they are greeted by the kobold crone. She casts a curse on them, transforming them all into kobolds (I would say keep them small sized and let them shift – your players will be sooooo happy to turn the tables). She then tells them that the Quest Giver is an evil jerk who killed her dear hubby and stole his magic amulet. *If* the PCs kill/capture the Quest Giver and retrieve the amulet, then she will lift the curse.
To spice it up, you could mix up the classes – the fighter gets transformed into the kobold wyrmpriest, etc. They could even keep all of their equipment, and then be forced to trade each other for the correct weapons.
You would also want the Quest Giver to really be a jerk, so that the paladin-type players don’t feel any remorse.
Thoughts?
That would be a perfect Hack for integrating KL into an ongoing Campaign… a Bit like Gary’s Dungeonland adventure.
It occurred to me that maybe the problem with Scene 5 is that there’s no foreshadowing. It’s too sharp a twist, too quickly (a right-angle, perhaps?).
If you have the Old Crone sighing over a portrait in the back of her lair as the PCs enter – which she hastily covers up – this might help.
Just a thought. I have them sometimes.
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What if:
1) Players Know they are 1/2 Kobolds from the start
2) The adventure informs the DM that the Crone never, ever speaks of their origins (and hides a look of pain) when the subject comes up…
Yep, that would work. Or how about ALL Kobolds are halfbreeds – half human, half dragonborn outcasts; the Old Crone is an aged and misshapen Dragonborn who still pines for her human lover.
Or something.
And they said half-orcs were morally wrong. Ha! What little they knew. There so much potential in a good outcast backstory.
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I like the idea of alternate endings myself. I just can’t get past the “I am your father!” bit, you know? Just a little to Empire Strikes Back to me 😉
@Greaywulf: All good stuff!
@Tomcat: I know how you feel. But I’m convinced that what is a tired cliché in a medium can actually be a surprising trope in another.
The alternate endings will certainly feature some sort of 1/2 Oedipus Complex finish and another more ‘classic’ finish. The shapeshifting Quest giver ‘test’ calls to me now.
Just thinking out loud here, but what if in scene 1 they have the option of continuing the skill challenge during combat? If you make it a very hard encounter, then let the PC’s keep making diplomacy (or maybe bluff or intimidate) checks after the first faction has already engaged in order to keep the other factions undecided for a round at a time.
Wow, I’m really surprised that so many people aren’t feeling the twist at the end. I thought it was brilliant on at least two levels. First, it is just darkly funny and will throw the players for a real loop, allowing for some awesome roleplaying. Second, it subverts the subversion (of the classic dungeon crawl) that the adventure has set up. Now you are seeing it from the monsters point of view, but they are doing the exact same things the adventurers do to them (just opposite), killing them and taking their stuff. But at the very end, what was fun guiltless killing suddenly comes back to bite them in their heart, hard. And isn’t killing your father a classic trope of geeky literature? Personally, I love it.
@Dr. Checkmate, I’m the one who “claimed” Savage Worlds. But feel free to take it from me, or do your own thing or we could even work together. I don’t think there is very much work to do, actually, except the skill challenges (more on that later). I mean really, Chatty is doing all the work here :), we just have to stat it out in SW, which as everyone knows takes barely any time. That’s assuming we won’t rework the adventure in any major way.
However, there is no systemic equivalent in Savage Worlds to Skill Challenges. They serve a really neat function in the way Philippe has structured the adventure, allowing the characters to non-combat there way through some interesting confrontations which will have ramifications for later parts of the adventure. Very cool. So how do we do something like that in SW? Just simplify the crap out of it and make it a simple test of skills, with each raise neutralizing an opponent? Or maybe using the mass combat rules, but make it a giant debate instead of a fight?
@Shane: That’s what I’m planning to do, based on the comments to that effect. Thanks!
@Walkerp: Thanks for your support…
For the record, I told you at the restaurant a few days before I wrote this post and you had time to recover…
I saw your reflexive facial expression when I told you the adventure’s punch… it was priceless but it was not, initially, an expression of awe.
I’m also noticing less resistance as people get used to the idea. I just have to be careful in guiding DMs who read the adventure without following this project to achieve the desired effect (Foreshadowing, Explain it in the adventure’s Background and such)….
Hence I’m going to stick with a dual ending.
🙂