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Tuesday, January 13 2009

Prequelling Scepter Tower of Spellgard

By Eric Maziade on Tuesday, January 13 2009, 00:57 - Dungeons and Dragons

I'm currently working on making Scepter tower of Spellgard mine and getting it ready to run my players through it.

One of the core issued I always find myself confronted with is actually motivating the players to actually go for the prize.

In case you didn't know - no huge spoiler here - the prize at the end of Spellgard is to have a question answered by a rather accurate Oracle. The adventure suggests that you talk to your players at the beginning of the adventure to find what question they would ask, serving the dual purpose of motivating players and giving you time enough to come up with satisfying answers.

I find that it is hard for most players to have a good enough feel for their new character to actually have motivating questions to ask.

Since the module starts with players level 2, I figured I could come out with a small free-form adventure to bring them to level 2. A good opportunity to practice sharing narrative control, while we're at it...

The prequel's main goal would be to help develop the characters and find some rewards they would like to gain. Of course, a visit to your friendly undead neighborhood Oracle would put the players on the path to the reward.

Since I'm planning to go at it mostly free-form (random dungeon, prepared encounters), I need to build a list of potential rewards that can be suggested to players... including hooks into the tower adventure.

Rewards could be:

  • A powerful magic weapon
  • A powerful mystical spell or ritual
  • A holy artifact
  • A famous, hidden treasure
  • An answer to a family secret long forgotten
  • etc.

Introducing these element through NPC discussion or even through treasure can be an interesting way to gauge player reactions and plan further development.

I am also working on a team of competing NPC that will go for the Oracle for their own needs. Perhaps my players will hear of them through the initial scenario.

So, what do you think about these ideas? What other type of rewards do you think your players would go for? What other ideas do you have that could have them rushing to the nearest Oracle? Help me build up that list :)

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Wednesday, December 17 2008

Reflections on Scepter Tower of Spellgard

By Eric Maziade on Wednesday, December 17 2008, 17:57 - Dungeons and Dragons

I got my grubby hands on a copy of Scepter Tower of Spellgard lately - the first 4th edition Forgotten Realms published adventure - and I just finished reading it once. Our regular DM (go Steve!) asked if I wanted to check it out and give him a DM break for a few sessions.

Don't worry about spoilers - there won't be any spoilers at this point; any plot-critical info I divulge will be info that players get to know fast enough.

This is the first time I ever read a published adventure - besides the compact, combat-heavy, mini-scenarios that come with the DMG and the FR Campaign Books.

I've always presumed that published adventures were very linear... Turns out it ain't that bad.

There are a few plot elements, but the adventure is not scripted as I would've expected. You're given back story and justifications for why this and that stuff is there - the rest is up to you.

That was very pleasant.

So, Scepter Tower of Spellgard has your adventurers try and figure out a way to get a session with a ghostly oracle that can tell the future with unerring, obfuscated precision.

The prophecy is the great reward... and probably the greatest challenge to the most important question : "so what?".

The rest of the scenario - I won't get into much details in this post - is rather combat-heavy.

There are a few interactions here and there, but there are almost as many fights planned as there are rooms in the whole tower and surrounding environment.

That's not a very role playing-friendly environment.

But - hey - you get an interesting premise, a few maps and a good chunk of encounters all prepared for you - that's not too shabby!

All that's left for me to do is plug that scenario into the campaign I want to build and prepare a few ways for the players to resolve the encounters through some other means than combat.

Now, back to that oracle thing.

Getting a prophecy - a.k.a. a hook to further adventures - as the only motivation to conclude an adventure doesn't sound that exciting. Not nearly as exciting as acquiring this and that item, or saving children from a burning airship, isn't it?

Well, I say it depends on how you prepare for it.

There's a good tip in the adventure: ask your players in advance what question they'll be asking. This will give you time enough to prepare proper, rewarding answers. There also is a nice section to help you build prophetic-sounding answers. Awesome.

The thing that works less for me is that the characters are young - they start at 2nd level (or 1st, if you want to use their ridiculously combat-heavy addition to the scenario). Your role players might not have had the chance to deepen their characters and motivations enough to warrant them seeking an oracle for their own personal gain.

What I plan on doing is building a small adventure to bring them to level 2 and give them things to ask for.

I might throw in a patron or situation that require knowledge about the future (for a greater purpose). Some characters might end up having questions related to their back story. Perhaps they'll want to locate a particular artifact.

An oracle prophecy can lead to wonderful things!

In any ways, I would plan on having the prophecy send the players on very short quests for more tangible rewards - I wouldn't expect all players to receive world-shattering prophecies.

I still have much thinking to do about it but, so far, I don't regret having purchased this adventure.

We'll have to wait and see what happens after playing it :P

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