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I'm designing an encounter that I thought would fit into the riot control section of the first CotCTA module: the PCs act as firefighters.
So I thought I'd turn to the boards for help brainstorming:
What hook would you use?
What kind of building?
What obstacles and environment effects would you use?
What kind of encounters?
Would you do it as a map or as a flowchart influenced by PC actions?
I'll start:
Clearly, the PCs should be on the clock, so that the longer they take in the building, the hotter the building gets. I'd make it so that the heat effects in the SRD start at the lowest setting and for each delay the Con checks go up in frequency. In addition, smoke areas expand with each delay.
I think a tenement building would be a decent choice, as there's room to get lost inside one of those. I think setting it in the Shingles area might not be a bad idea either, to foreshadow that setting for later in the adventure. Perhaps they could even meet a certain NPC?
I think one encounter would be to persuade someone to leave their belongings behind and get out of the building. A diplomacy check, methinks. But who would stay huddled in a burning building and why?
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Personally, I'd have it down by the docks lots of Tar and oil there to send up lots of smoke.
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More SRD info to use:
City Buildings
Cave-Ins And Collapses
Something else to have is a crowd watching. A persuasive PC can direct the crowd to help by forming a bucket brigade, for example.
The Dungeon Master's Guide II details Burning Building as an Archetypal Location on pg. 48.
There has been a couple of firefighting scenarios in the Shackled City adventure path.
Chapter 5: The Demonskar Legacy has a burning inn in Event 18: A Fire In The Night.
Chapter 9: Foundation of Flame has a burning building in Event 37: A City Aflame.
I also remember in the movie Donnie Darko where Donnie burns down the house of a motivational speaker he ridiculed at a school assembly, thereby exposing the speaker's secret "kiddie porn dungeon". What kind of secrets can be revealed by the burning of a building in your game?
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I think a final encounter is clearly the collapsing building scenario, especially using the collapse zone rules of the DMG.
Balance checks for unstable floors or two make your way quickly through a narrow space defined by fire or unstable floors.
"Pit traps" obviously.
Listen checks to hear the trapped. Spot checks for signs of life. Search checks to find the trapped.
Places where you have to crawl to avoid the smoke.
Hot door knobs as a means of identifying "fire trapped" rooms.
Persuade a looter to leave.
Find a passed out drug addict: get him to safety or leave him 'till you find the baby?
Climb over rubble, and areas of difficult terrain.
Strength checks to break down a door.
There has been a couple of firefighting scenarios in the Shackled City adventure path.Chapter 5: The Demonskar Legacy has a burning inn in Event 18: A Fire In The Night.
Chapter 9: Foundation of Flame has a burning building in Event 37: A City Aflame.
What were those like? What kinds of challenges did they impose?
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I'm definatly adding a fire fighting scenario to EoA when I DM it. It seems like it would fit nicely after the encounter with Gaedrean Lamm. Along with all the other turbulent events that occur around that time frame. I've have found that crisis's bring out the best, and worst of peoples personalities. It will be a good indicator of where my new group stands morally. Thanks for the idea.(_)3CHEERS!
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Yah! Great idea with the fire! I'm actually running it now as we speak (via play-by-post). It's a bit tricky to run the fire scene round by round via play by post, but it's working out. The encounters with maps and such I've been running live, but the more roleplaying related stuff I've been running PBP.
Surprisingly, one of the PCs actually thought of making a bucket brigade! Another went to the next house and is trying to get people out from the third floor. The other two are bursting in through the front door and combing the rooms using the Rescue rules in the DMG2. I should point out that smart players will probably hold their breaths and avoid the Smoke effects (the rules on holding breath are in the Suffocation effects). Surprisingly, a character with Con 10 can hold their breath for 20 rounds (that's 2 min of real time, assuming each rounds is 6 seconds)!! Seems a bit ridiculous... but oh well.
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Encounter: Fire!
The party comes upon a crowd that has gathered outside a fire making its way through six buildings: three on one street and the three that abut those building's rear sides on a parallel street. The people in the crowd have varied reactions to the fire. Some gawk at the fire. Others from nearby buildings race to save their own possessions. Others linger near these piles of goods, eyeing them for something to snatch. Still others, from the burning buildings, shout and frantically comb the crowd looking for loved ones. No authorities are in sight, likely due to the riots. If the fire's going to be prevented from spreading, it'll be up to the party.
If the players try to get a bucket brigade going, they'll need to direct the crowd, which requires them to get the crowd's attention and then succeed at a Diplomacy DC 15 check or an Intimidate DC 20 check. PCs can aid in this action by finding or supplying suitable implements for a bucket brigade (Search DC 15) and finding the nearest public well for the PC who's directing the crowd, as the crowd offers conflicting answers (Knowledge: Local DC 15 or Survival DC 15). Success contains the fire to these 6 buildings. Alternatively, the PCs can risk the fire spreading by using the bucket brigade to aid PCs attempting to rescue trapped people in the buildings. (This tactic will make smoke and fire effect checks occur half as frequently.)
The characters can hear sounds of movement and cries of distress from the burning buildings with a successful Listen check, DC 5. There's a -2 circumstance penalty due to the crackling of the fire and the sounds of the crowd on the street. Remember that there's a -1 penalty per 10 feet of distance. For every 5 points by which the PC succeeds, give him one more piece of information, in order: Building 1 has sounds of movement; it's coming from the first floor in Building 1; Building 2B (building behind the center building facing the PCs) has very faint, high-pitched cries for help; there are two sources of sound in Building 2B. Multiple "low successes" do not reveal information about Building 2B.
To get closer to the buildings requires pushing through the crowd. Each square counts as difficult terrain, unless the PC (or the lead PC of a group moving together) bulls through the crowd with a Strength check, DC 15.
[If they enter the building, the game mechanics for smoke, heat, collapsing ceilings and floors, explosions and backdrafts can be found in DMG2, page 48-9. A brief summary follows.)
Heat: While there may be isolated fires for dramatic tension, these effects occur on floors largely on fire. Roll 1d6 lethal fire damage per minute. The PCs must make a Fort 15 save every 5 minutes or take 1d4 nonlethal and fatigued due to heat stroke. Endure elements eliminates the need for the latter check.
Smoke: While there may be smoke present for general atmosphere, smoke effects appear only on the top floor, or the top two floors if the players delay or go into three buildings or more. On smoke floors, have the PC roll Fort 15 1/round, with each successive check getting 1 harder, e.g. DC 16 on round 2. Failure means a round spend coughing and choking. Two consecutive failures cause 1d6 nonlethal damage. These floors present a 20 percent miss chance and a -4 to Search. I recommend the house rule that PCs that spend a round breathing fresh air reset the Fort save back to 15.
Holding Breath: A PC can hold their breath for 2x their Constitution score in rounds. After that, they must make a Fort save each round: Fort 10 for round 1, Fort 11 for round 2, etc.
Search: No taking 10 or 20! To search for a conscious person requires a Search 15 and five rounds. (A Listen 15 reduces the time spent by 1 round, plus 1 round per 5 points that the check succeeds by. A Knowledge: Architecture 20 check for knowing residential building layouts does the same.) An unconscious person requires a DC 20 to find. Don't forget the Smoke penalties! Only 1-2 searches should be required per floor, as the PCs quickly scan each room they have access to. Feel free to "advance" fire and smoke effects to new floors if the PCs take a long time in the DM's opinion.
An alley connects all six buildings.
Building 1: This building is to the left of the PCs on the street they're on.
The first floor has no fire or smoke effects. A successful search uncovers a family behind a closed, but not locked, door. The father is frantically pushing aside furniture and attempting to pry up the floorboards to get at the family's life savings. The mother and her three children watch anxiously. A Diplomacy 20 will get the man to leave, while aiding his actions will consume 1 minute of time but earn his gratitude. As the PCs get the family out, they say that they think they heard someone upstairs still. A failed Intimidate check convinces the man that the PC is a looter.
The second floor has fire effects. A successful search check brings the PCs to a kitchen in a hastily exited apartment. A Spot 15 alerts the PC to the presence of a large tin jug of cooking oil near a fire and allows them to act in a surprise round before the explosion. Explosion causes 3d6 fire and 2d6 shrapnel. (Feel free to scale the fire damage down based on your party's resources.)
The third floor has both fire and smoke effects. There is no one up hear, but the alley carries the sounds of nearby buildings very clearly. Listen 10 identifies that it's Building 2B that actually has people crying for help in it. Listen 20 reveals that their source is both the second and third floors.
Building 2: This building is in front of the PCs on the street they are on. Three Search DC 15 checks will uncover a TOTAL of one randomly rolled first level treasure (DMG 52) sprinkled throughout the three floors. Only the roof is on fire.
Building 3: This building is to the right of the PCs on the street they are on. It has been shoddily maintained over the years, and the fire has further eroded its structural integrity.
The first floor is filled with rubble. A climb 10 will be necessary to climb the rubble to the second floor.
The second floor has fire effects. In the stairwell between the second and third floors is a passed out drunk.
The third floor has fire and smoke effects. A Search of the third floor reveals a trapdoor in the ceiling hidden by the smoke. It is a pull-down stair to an attic. A Spot 25 notices smoke being sucked through the cracks in the trapdoor up into the attic, while a Search 20 notices that the trapdoor feels hot. If the PCs open the trapdoor, a 30' radius fireball goes off due to the backdraft in the attic (5d6 fire, Reflex DC 15 to halve the damage.)
Building 1B: This building is behind the building to the left of the PCs, facing a parallel street to the one they are on. Only the top floor has fire and smoke effects. Three Search DC 15 checks will uncover a TOTAL of one randomly rolled first level treasure (DMG 52) sprinkled throughout the three floors. The PCs automatically find a cat trapped on the second floor. A Handle Animal DC 15 check will be necessary to calm the animal.
Building 2B: This building is behind the building in front of the PCs, facing a parallel street to the one they are on. This building is where the fire started and the flames are most widespread and intense here.
The first floor has fire effects active. There is nothing to find here.
The second floor has fire effects. A Listen 15 check will locate the source of the feeble cries for help as being from behind a locked door. A Strength 15 check will bust down the relatively frail door in the round of the success or an Open Locks 15 will open the shoddy lock, but that action takes 1 minute. In this apartment is an old man, an invalid, who tells the PCs that his granddaughter may have been trapped while playing upstairs.
The third floor has fire and smoke effects. A successful search finds a room with a bed in the windowless far corner of the room. A Spot 15 will detect the little girl under the bed from across the room, although a PC who gets down on their knees gets a +5 bonus to this check. In between the door to the room and the bed is a 7' wide hold in the floor of much of the room, traversed by a single flaming support beam. Getting to the bed requires a Jump or a Balance 15. The girl, in shock, will require coaxing to get her to come out.
Building 3B: This building is behind the building to the right of the PCs, facing a parallel street to the one they are on. One Search DC 15 check will discover an un-armored Rogue 2 looter who's acquired a randomly rolled first level treasure (DMG 52) in addition to his standard gear, sans armor. Only the roof is on fire.
Very nice encounter! I wish I had this before I ran my version of the fire. I only had one building on fire and three survivors inside. I sort of ran it impromptu and just went with the actions the players gave me. What do you guys suggest for XP for an encounter like this?
Beats the heck out of me. I ended up doing it as a CR 3, a CR2, and 3 CR 1s, but that was totally guesswork.
Oh, and I had a goblin fire department, since one of my locations includes Freeport. So the PC ran into a fire department that was looting and eating pets in addition to saving babies.
Explanation: My PC has adopted the Paizo goblins as part of her crew in an attempt to convert some of them, as the player finds them adorable. She's actually succeeding in nudging one of them towards "neutral." When she gives them shore leave in a port, however, she deliberately doesn't follow up on leads as to what they've been up to, except for one time that she found them working as the garbage men in Saltmarsh.
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Explanation: My PC has adopted the Paizo goblins as part of her crew in an attempt to convert some of them, as the player finds them adorable. She's actually succeeding in nudging one of them towards "neutral." When she gives them shore leave in a port, however, she deliberately doesn't follow up on leads as to what they've been up to, except for one time that she found them working as the garbage men in Saltmarsh.
PLEASE share some stories about how this turns out some time. I'm really starting to fall into the "Paizo golbins make everything better" camp now.
I'll start a thread in the Runelords message boards on Goblins as Followers, then! Thanks!
I'll start a thread in the Runelords message boards on Goblins as Followers, then! Thanks!
It's here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/runelords/opinionOnAGoblin&page=1#517565
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It's here:
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/runelords/opinionOnAGoblin&page=1#517565
Linkified since the messageboard puts a space in the url and breaks it.
Very cool Rouge :D
Oops! And thanks: my player had the idea and then we just riffed on the concept.
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Just thought you'd like to know that I ran your Fire! sidequest today, with a few minor alterations and it went swimmingly. It ended with the district basically burning to the ground, and the invalid old man being thrown out of a window onto a horse and almost dying. I'll be doing up a write-up of my CotCT game shortly so that you can get the whole story then. Thanks a lot for the sidequest, it was awesome fun. Oh, and the Swordsage in the group curses smoke damage now thanks to his near death experience; never had an opportunity to use that rule before, thanks for that.