So, in this part we are going to talk about your role as a GM in preparing a module for the game. Can you just give as a quick rundown on the adventure.
It was a fairly short module that played out over an evening (including chargen). It started out with the characters encountering a ghost and some skeletons. When they later arrived at a nearby village, they learned that the undead had started to haunt the area some weeks ago.
The players then made some investigations in the village. They learned that there is an old story about the Traitor. A man who supposedly betrayed a local knightly order so that evil creatures could attack them in their sleep. It seems like the ghost is the ghost of that traitor. Perhaps the answer to his haunting lies in the knights tower, where the betrayal took place.
During this time, they also got to know some of the villages. One of these was a warlord who didn't fit in with the rest of the farmers and fishermen of the village. He basically came across like a protector of the village.
The players then left for the knights tower to see if they could solve the riddle. On the way there, they had to pass through some goblin-infested hills.
When they reached the tower, they had to make a rather ardous climb to get there. Inside the tower, they where attacked by small winged drakes. In the combat, they accidentally set of a rockslide.
After the battle, the players search the tower, and realise that the knights wheren't betrayed. It was them that was the betrayers. They sold themselves to the foces of evil to get richess and power. The so called betrayer discovered this and was slain by the knights.
With this redeeming knowledge, the players headed back to the village. Before they got there, the encountered the warlord. He had armour that revealed that he was a member of this knightly order. Of course he wanted to stop the PC's, so with the help of two bandits he attacked them. After this final battle, the players continued to the village and released the restless spirit from his haunting.
Wow, that was some story. How would this translate into encounters?
4 combat encounters. One against the ghost and his skeletons, one against some goblins, one against the spiretop drakes in the tower, and finally one against the warlord and his bandits.
We also had two skill challenges. One to do research in the village and one to get to the tower.
Did you first come up with the story and then find the encounters suitable?
No, actually I did it the other way around. I used the Random Encounter-section of the DMG to get three encounters. My original plan was to do three battles and two challenges. With that I got my encounters with type and level. After that I flipped through the MM to find enemies that suited the encounters.
So, finally I had three encounters of different types and different creatures. From that I sat down and tried to figure out how to weave these encounters together as a story.
Did you adjust the encounters after having the story.
In this case I didn't. It all fitted together rather nicely.
Did you add anything special to the encounters?
Yes, one of the encounters had a hazard. After looking through the section on traps, I figured that a rock slide would fit the overall arch perfectly.
You said you generated three combat encounters, but in the story there was four.
Yeah, the last encounter was added when my players told me that they propably would have pregenerated characters. So, in order to make the session a little longer, I added a final encounter the the module. This was the final battle with the warlord.
When you had the encounters, how hard was it to prepare these for actual play.
Not hard at all. All enemies (except for the warlord) was statted out in detail in the MM. This includes the human bandits. The only thing I had to do was to draw up the maps, and then the encounters where ready.
So, what's your verdict on preparing modules for DnD4?
As long as you stick with what the designers intended and use the material in the books as presented, it's very easy to build an adventure with a couple of encounters. If you want to go more free-form it's not easier or harder than any other game system. To sum up, the more you go with the intended flow, the easier it is.
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