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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Feb 22, 2018 11:58:50 GMT -5
What assortment of adventuring experiences happened in all of your campaigns taking place in key village buildings within Hommlet?
Have you had adventuring parties explore/investigate and/or precipitate action unprompted by the DM within key village buildings such as the inn, church, traders' establishment, and/or guard tower? Or did the DM instigate actions which prompted the party to explore/investigate and/or take action within any of these buildings?
I am interested in some ideas, because these village building locales are interesting to spur adventurers to investigate? What are some ideas to consider some DM prompting for any of these buildings and their inhabitants, or even other building/inhabitants locales that are not fully developed/detailed within the VOH module?
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foster1941
Warlock
Duke of California, Earl of Los Angeles, Knight Bachelor
Posts: 475
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Post by foster1941 on Feb 22, 2018 12:42:45 GMT -5
We always saw a lot of adventuring in and around the Inn of the Welcome Wench - mostly break-and-entering (but also occasional assassination) attempts perpetrated both by and against the PCs. We also saw some combat in the traders' place, and in one campaign the PCs took over running the shop after the former owners' unfortunate demise and it became their headquarters and received lots of additional detail. I can't remember much play ever occurring in either the church or the guard tower - certainly the PCs had encounters and conversations with the occupants, but even those were just as likely to take place at the Inn.
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Feb 22, 2018 12:54:10 GMT -5
We always saw a lot of adventuring in and around the Inn of the Welcome Wench - mostly break-and-entering (but also occasional assassination) attempts perpetrated both by and against the PCs. We also saw some combat in the traders' place, and in one campaign the PCs took over running the shop after the former owners' unfortunate demise and it became their headquarters and received lots of additional detail. I can't remember much play ever occurring in either the church or the guard tower - certainly the PCs had encounters and conversations with the occupants, but even those were just as likely to take place at the Inn. Cool, Trent! Did you typically instigate break-and-entering and assassination attempts first as DM before players followed on with other actions, or were the PCs usually the instigators? Did you typically experience the traders' cover blown at some point while PCs were still investigating the moathouse, or was it more typical that the traders' cover was intact until after the PCs had moved on to investigating Nulb and the temple? My PCs are brand new to first edition AD&D, so I might need to instigate some action as the DM before PCs get the clue to adventure within the village buildings at all?
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Feb 22, 2018 13:03:13 GMT -5
Zert ended up betraying the party during their second moathouse expedition and got away {I still need to catch up with moathouse expedition updates I am posting in the new campaign notes thread}, so I could end up using him {with some hired hands?} to strike at the PCs at the inn {rather than directly involve the traders right away} - any ideas?
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foster1941
Warlock
Duke of California, Earl of Los Angeles, Knight Bachelor
Posts: 475
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Post by foster1941 on Feb 22, 2018 14:10:51 GMT -5
Generally how it would play out with the traders was that the PCs would clear the moathouse and defeat Lareth, try to sell his treasure to the traders which would trigger the appearance of the assassin, who would make contact with the traders and then try to assassinate the PCs at the inn. Once he was defeated, there would be clues pointing back to his association with the traders and there would be a confrontation (perhaps following some preliminary spying/b&e work) and they would also be defeated. Some of that's probably me - especially in my younger, less patient days. I both wasn't interested in trying to keep these guys around long-term as deep cover agents so I made their actions more overt than they probably needed to be. Also, defeating them and the assassin tends to provide enough XP to get a party who started at 1st level and gained 2nd level from the moathouse up to 3rd level before taking on Nulb and the Temple, which I think is necessary. If I were to run this campaign again I'd probably address the second issue by having more optional red-herring-type side adventures (and/or allowing some players to bring 2nd or 3rd level characters into the adventure instead of everybody beginning at 1st), which would allow me to perhaps play the traders more subtly and keep them around longer.
As for the b&e work in the inn, it was usually instigated by the PCs: they'd meet the various adventurer NPCs in the bar and want to find out more about them so they'd try to break into their rooms to investigate. Of course the tables would be turned once they returned from the moathouse loaded down with treasure, and especially once the assassin is called in to deal with them. (I also had issues back in the day with PCs breaking into each others' rooms to steal from each other, but that was mostly peculiar to that group of players and probably not something that will typically be seen.)
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Feb 22, 2018 15:38:08 GMT -5
Yes, I think before long I will need to pursue one or more of the following expansionary options, as the PC party is getting further along completing expeditions investigating the moathouse:
1) expand the moathouse by including an additional underground dungeon area that has an obscured/concealed by collapsed rubble entry, perhaps somewhere in the vicinity of the brigands hidden loot in the "black chamber?"
2) instigate action within the village of Hommlet itself?
3) drop in other adventuring locales nearby - keep on the borderlands tie-in? Some threat near Ostverk, Greenway Valley, or within the Gnarley Forest? Maybe Gene will send out chapter #1 of his TOEE expansion😀?
4) a tie back to the DMG monastery adventure {adventurers broke off from their incomplete exploration of this locale to head W to Hommlet}, which is where I started this adventuring campaign, to the NW of Narwell towards the headwaters of the Jewel River?
5) any other ideas anyone has or used before?
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