See part 1 here and part 2 here.
Rat and Roll!
After the PCs rested for a few minutes, they continued deeper in the complex of caves and crypts. They eventually found the fleeing rats and followed their light to a large chamber. As they approached, they heard a rumbling sound, like stone rubbing on stone. Right before they entered the last room, they saw a huge spherical boulder roll pass them, pushed by a very large Ratling who paid them no attention.
The PCs entered the large rectangular room. It sported multiple platforms around its periphery as well as a large one in the middle (actually a Bunker with ‘roof’ access). The room had some sort of donut shape around which the Rat Ogre pushed the boulder. This wasn’t all that evident to the players as they entered the room and split, going on both sides of the ‘track”.
As the PC entered, 3 Gunners climbed on the central platform and started shooting at them. Behind the gunners, on another platform, a sinister goggled Ratling, yielding a huge weapon made of a nozzle and a large tank strapped to its back, started fiddling with the weapon’s controls.
Player #1: Oh look, he’s got a Rat Shit Sprayer!
Player #2: A Poop blaster!
Avenger: A Chaos Thrower!
Chatty: Sigh…
They also noticed that the Rat Ogre had an antenna (Avenger: An antenna of Chaos!) sticking out of its head. The seemed to solely focus on pushing the boulder around the room.
Given how tired everyone was, I was impressed at how swiftly they played that last fight. The main highlights were:
The Avenger ran behind the Ogre and asked if he could grab onto the antenna and yank it out.
Chatty: Sure, You would grab the Rat Ogre first and on your next turn you could do an attack against it’s fortitude defense to yank the antenna off.
WalkerP: Cool!
Chatty: However, its seems to be compelled to only push the boulder and ignore everything else, are you sure you want to pull the antenna off?
WalkerP: Hmmm, no, I’ll pass.
The Warlord ran around the “circuit” and ended his turn in a narrow part right before the Rat Ogre pushed the Boulder toward him. When he did, the boulder ended right on the Warlord, crushing him twice with the “trap’s” attack.
WalkerP: I can’t believe you walked right into that one!
Midnight: Shut up!
Rover’s dwarf fighter ran to the flamespewer Ratling and ate a gob of burning stuff (don’t ask) in the chest (taking fire damage over the for the next 3 or 4 rounds) before getting hit by another blast of fire that pushed him back down the platform. Fortunately, he saved and dropped prone. He managed to rapidly kill the monster (I love artillery monsters, high damage, low HP).
That’s when the Rat Ogre woke up!
At this point, the elven Avenger moved behind the giant Ratling and struck him in the back.
Then I had a flash.
What if the Rat Ogre, in a fit of rage, picked up the boulder, tendons and muscle popping, and crushed that pesky elf stabbing him?
Remember in part 1 where I said to the avenger “(…)I reserve the right to do something horrible to your PC later”?
Well now was the occasion. I made a Str attack against the Avenger’s Reflex defense and described what my mind’s eye saw a few minutes earlier. The Rat Ogre hit, dealing High Limited Damage (3d8+3) according to Rule 42.
WalkerP: Ack, my PC is at -6!
Midnight: See, it’s not so much that you’re a Chatty DM, but that you’re a scary one!
Chatty (bowing): I accept the compliment!
At that point, I had all remaining gunners dive for cover in the middle bunker (I wanted to shorten the fight) and we focused on the party fighting the Elite Rat Ogre. Throughout the rest of the fight, I would humorously describe how the Ratling Gunners periodically discharged their guns at the bunker’s door because of a loud noise, much to the laughter of the players.
Eladrin Wizard: Guys, we may let you live but we’re talking your tails all the same.
(Gunfire)
The fight was over rapidly enough, with no PC death. It was passed midnight, everyone seemed to have fun. White Wolf, the player controlling Eladrin Wizard, had horrible luck all evening long and missed with all his non At-will powers. However, he did a lot of damage with Magic Missile and managed to drop the Rat Ogre, so he enjoyed the game too.
All in all, a great 4e game session where ‘Say Yes’, the Rule of Cool and “Shit Happens” ruled the evening.
I may recycle this adventure for con games. It fits perfectly in a 4 hour slot.
Lessons Learned
- Be flexible, make sure your adventure can be changed to fit different game styles. It’s not that hard to do.
- If something is cool, always give it a chance to succeed.
- If a crazy idea pops in your head that does not completely screw over your players, go for it!
- Apparently, adding poop to a role playing adventure makes it better… cross-fertilization perhaps?
And now for those who were patient enough to follow the whole thing, here is a bonus gift!
Thanks for the report series! Having read and DM’ed the Kobold hall a few times, it is impressive how some well chosen changes can change an adventure completely!
Thanks Claus. I was impressed how different these changes made the whole adventure. In hindsight, I should have hidden the Rat Ogre behind the Boulder, on the Platform where the Boulder is supposed to be resting in the original adventure.
When the PCs entered the room, I could have had a nice little cut scene where the Rat Ogre would push the Boulder down, jump down and start pushing it to crush all PCs. 🙂
But it worked out fine anyway.
I have found that whenever I make a trap quite obvious my players fall for it, but whenever I conceal one, they suddenly go mission impossible and disable it.
.-= doomdreamer´s last blog ..Quick Note Conundrum =-.
Great Post Chatty! Heh. Poop guns. Love it.
.-= wrathofzombie´s last blog ..Clockworks Hits 50! =-.
Great series Chatty! I wanted to ask your advice. I’m going to run Kobold Hall (or some version of it) as a one shot for my siblings and my nephew over Christmas. A couple of them have played 4e, but my brother hasn’t played dnd since 2e and his nephew (age 10) has never played. Any advice for running it? I really like your 3 room idea; I’d like to keep it short (3-4 hours tops). I wanted to do a short skill challenge like you did at the beginning to find the hall, but I’m afraid it will eat up a lot of time. Any advice for making it short and sweet? Any advice for playing with kids for the first time, especially with a mixed group? I really liked your idea for quick character bios (I plan to have pregen characters to save time) and backgrounds. Hopefully that will help pull everyone in. This will be a new DMing experience for me (some casual gamers, one old-school who’s been out of the game, and a complete newbie child). It should be fun.
That looked like tons of fun. Sorry I had to miss it. If you do a part deux, I’ll try to make it that time.
@Doomdreamer: I know! It baffles the mind really. 🙂
@wrathofzombies; I’ll convert you to 4e one day… or convert the poop gun to Savage Worlds
@mistr: A few points of advice: Skill challenges aren’t essential elements of 4e that new players have to experiment. If you have a 10 year old, focus all your prep on his tastes and expectations. Go directly to the action… he’ll love it. Play Do like I did, play areas 1, 3 and 4 but add a ‘boss’ that will appear after the PCs beat the Wyrmpriest. Take a lvl 4-5 Elite that should work just fine…
For example, once the Boss dies, have the Bunker’s door open and a Gelatinous Cube come out… it’s the perfect size to patrol around the ‘doughnut’
Action, Action, Action… that’s how you captivate the mind of a 10 yo
Jim Butcher, Author of the Dresden Files Series of books, among other things had some interesting things to say about action. While I cannot quote him exactly, the summary is this: Whenever things ever got too talky, or people seemed clueless or lost, I always had someone burst through a door with a gun and start shooting, or something very close to that. That way my readers are never bored or skipping ahead until the book got good.
I have followed that advice for a while now, and it has served me well in D&D, specially with the ones with short attention spans.
.-= doomdreamer´s last blog ..Quick Note Conundrum =-.
@doomdreamer
I have read that somewhere else before, like it, and keep trying to follow that advice, but the worldbuilder in me keeps asking “Sure, but where the hell did that gunner came from? huh? huh?”
@Claus: Tell that worldbuilder that if he can come up with the answer during prep, he can also come up with the answer just as a player asks him… then he only has to come up with stuff when it matters. 🙂
I’m curious why the rat ogre is a skirmisher. Maybe I’m too biased by my time with Games Workshop products (especially Blood Bowl), but I see them more as soldiers or brutes.
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..SoW: Fresco Chamber =-.
@Colmarr: As a ‘mini-solo’ monster I wanted the Rat Ogre to be mobile and relatively easy to kill. As a level 5 monster, it remained killable for the PCs.
Also, it’s based on the Umbral Ogre Savage, a Skirmisher.
Doomdreamer, that quote is originally from Raymond Chandler.
Great game, Chatty. I had a really good time. I loved that rolling ball obstacle. I don’t have much else to say as I am very busy with work and holidays and life and all that, but also because I’m still trying to process how I take D&D 4e. It’s a weird game to me, just doesn’t feel like anything I’ve played before and I don’t quite know why or how. So I’m still thinking about it.
.-= walkerp´s last blog ..episode 7 – Friendly Neighbourhood Gamer #2 =-.
@WalkerP: My main goal of the night was not to convert any of you to 4e. I wanted to outline how fun this action adventure Roleplaying game was. The rest was just pure fun for me, you were a great group.
Loved the series. It’s a bit like the audio series with Penny Arcade on Wotc podcast.
As my D&D minded friends are limited we are all self-thought and our play-styles can become a bit incestuous (don’t know how else to put it). A series like this shows in a fun and easy to digest way how other’s are dealing with it.
Would love to see more in this genre
Thanks Boris. I’m really happy that you compared my series to the D&D Podcast as I’m an avid fan of them.
I totally get the ‘playing in an internal system’ reference. Many of us have had periods like that, especially before the Internet.
Stay tuned for the game reports of my new D&D Clockwork game. I think it it will be very fun too.
Hey, just a brainfart: you could maybe make it a pod cast (or even a web-cast) too? It looks like you’re a good DM and have a nice party going there. There’s some potential in there if you ask me..
I’ve thought about it, except that I usually don’t play in English (this session being a special exception).
Maybe I’ll record my con games in the future.