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Thanks to my new job, I am confident that I will not have time to take part in National Novel Writing Month this year. This makes the second year I will not be participating; however, this year I am responding not with surrender, but with a different plan.
I am going to write an adventure.
I’ve been out of the adventure-writing business for about six years and it’s time to challenge myself again. According to the phenomenal Pathfinder podcast by d20 radio, your average Pathfinder 32-page adventure is somewhere from 25,000-30,000 words. So I’m going to give it my best shot.
Inspired by my time-sink-of-the-moment, Dragon Age, I want to write an adventure that provides players with choices that bear consequences. Not bad consequences, necessarily, but ones that are pretty much irrevocable. I also wanted to get away, at least in the larger story, from a very clear-cut bad guy. The story has one, to be sure, but he (or it might be “she” by Thanksgiving) doesn’t show up until the very end.
As befits a NaNoWriMo-esque project, I invented the plot on my hour commute home. I need it to be self-contained, but to hold parallel storylines depending on how the party makes its decisions. What I came up with is this:
A human outpost is the site of a negotiation in the process of breaking down. An Elven and a Dwarven settlement have already spilt blood and are simply finalizing the excuses they will use before erupting into a real fight. It’s a fight no one wants and that no one can really win but honor will not allow them to back away. Then the party arrives. Suddenly, both sides see a way to convince the other side that attacking would carry too high a price. Negotiations ensue, bribes are offered, threats are made – in the end the party must choose a side (and they will have to choose – to stand aside invites disaster). Once their choice is made, a series of events erupt: battles with scouts, prisoner rescues, dealing with mercenaries brought in by the other side. Eventually, the side that did not win the party’s support invokes a terrible weapon to try and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Should the PCs stop this last, desperate maneuver, they force a return to negotiations, though now with one side in a clear position of strength. The new honesty reveals a third party has been manipulating events. The party must deal with this manipulator and prevent doom from falling on this frontier region.
That’s the essence of it and it could very well change as the month progresses. Because NaNoWriMo is all about artificial deadlines to create impetus, the following deadlines have been imposed:
Week 1 (1-7 November): Plot Outline & Town
Week 2 (8-14 November): Siding with the Dwarves
Week 3 (15-21 November): Siding with the Elves
Week 4 (22-30 November): Dealing with the BBEG and wrap-up
It is my intention to post regular updates as I progress on this adventure. I want to create 3-5 encounters for each “Week”, along with the plot to thread all the events together.
It’s a ridiculous notion, which is why I’m sharing it with anyone who cares to hear: One is more likely to indulge in the ridiculous if one has proclaimed it to the world. Avanti!
Ridiculous? I like it.
Keep it coming. I will use this.
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We have a town!
I went looking across the Golarion Map for a location where woods and mountains might meet, and hit upon the Hoarwood, just north of the Kodar Mountains. The Hoarwood is also in Irrisen, land of Baba Yaga. This proves both a blessing and a curse. Clever players might try to get the government involved. Really clever players will likely figure out that’s not such a good idea.
So what sort of town would we have on Irrisen’s southern border? For the basics, I dove into my Gamemastery Guide and did a little dice-rolling and choosing. I came up with a Lawful Good Large Town, an Autocracy, and it became Prosperous and a Tourist Attraction at a Strategic Location. How does such a town exist in the domain of Baba Yaga? Well, if we make the principal NPCs retired adventurers who set themselves up on some magical ruins, pay their ruinous taxes, and remember to pay proper respect when the hut comes ambling by, they make decent money off the baths.
The baths, I hear you mutter? When rolling on the local features table, I got the following two: Public Bath with Lion-faced outflows and a fountain held up by eight lions. The Lion Motif will run strong in town but will remain local color rather than a plot point (at least for now). Humans are the most populous but who would live in a place that would seem to be fraught with random peril? Why, Gnomes! The Dwarf and Elf populations are smaller, but present due to the nearby factions. Humans, Elves, and Dwarves in a frontier make a cold welcome for half-orcs, so they go into other, as do Halflings who have better things to do than live in such close proximity to sudden death. So I give you the town of Liongate.
Liongate
Large Town conventional (lord-mayor); AL LG
GP Limit 10,000 gp
Demographics
Population 3,410
Type mixed (73% human, 14% Gnome, 6% Dwarf, 5% Elf, 2% Other)
Authority Figures
Filyn Frostfoot, Lord Mayor (NG Male Gnome Bard 10), Rutillus Crispin, Senior Lord of Appeal – the Chief Magistrate in town (LG Male Human (Chelaxian) Fighter 4/Expert 4, Lambach Niklasson, Lord Chancellor – Treasurer and Guard Captain (LG Male Human (Ulfen) Paladin (Abadar) 7). Naronel Edasseril, Elven Ambassador (CN Male Elven Wizard 7), Torra Quicklime, Dwarven Ambassador (LN Female Dwarven Alchemist 7)
I have the outline of events within the town, but I need to flesh it out and stat up the encounters, of which I have two: a group of afflicted Dwarven werewolf rangers (Victims of an Elven retaliatory strike) and the bandit group who means to do in the city fathers and, they presume, earn favor in the Winter Queen’s evil court. More to follow!