I'm considering revamping the original Temple of Elemental Evil supermodule (inc. Village of Hommlet), and I thought I'd share some of my ideas.
The original module did not have any real hook to start the game other than "hey, there's this place you can go to to beat down on some bad guys." which has its place as a hook, but, well... come on.
Rather than assuming the PCs are one of a growing horde of adventurers going after this random bandit hideout in the boondocks of nowhere, I am going to assume my players live in Hommlet.
The village is getting tired of all the recent bandit raids, and has received no real relief from Verbobonc or Enstad. They decide to take matters into their own hands, and muster the town militia. The PCs are asked to join in the hunt for the bandits' hideout, which the militia leaders assume (correctly) is the abandoned moathouse just a few miles away.
I think this could be a prime opportunity to use some of the rules presented in Heroes of Battle. The militia would comprise of 40 armed and able folk. Along the way to the moathouse (rather than right in front of it), the group gets ambushed by a rather large number of monstrous frogs. Then, when the group reaches the moathouse, I can use the bandits to their full strength, and possibly even equip them with a seige weapon or two (ballistas I'm thinking), which they would have had set up to fight off the obviously harsh marsh wildlife.
That's what I've got so far... thoughts?
That's similar to the plot of my first campaign, where old cleric in the village had a vision that orc bandits would wipe out the village. He collected together the smartest, wisest, strongest and quickest in the village, and got them trained as a wizard, cleric, fighter and rogue, and then set them out to find something to help defend the village.
One of the things I noticed with RttToEE was that yeah, it pretty much assumed you were playing a traditional game where the players are content to take for granted that they're meant to be exploring dungeons and whatever else, and much of the plot was just an excuse for that to happen.
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*Nod* I'll agree with you on that one, Johnathan. I'm just about to start the module with a new gamign group, but decided to set the whole thing in Ebberon. It began as a crazy idea and difficult idea, likely induced by lack of sleep ;) But it has driven me to work in numerous subplots, and develop the entire "rise of XXXX" into a multi-organization affair, with many groups unaware of their own puppet strings.
It has not been easy to push the module past the "explore this cave, then the next seventy like it" but I'm crossing my fingers to see how it works out. Personal thoughts requested: How likely would the party be to pursue subplots that remove them from the vast Crater Ridge Mines? Would the opporunity to take a break from the cavernous dungeon delve convince them to aid prisoners of great note back to civilization or follow the links between the Elemental clerics and, say, an Aurum member sending mercenary groups to resecure areas of the mines?
this has often been, to my perceptions, an issue with campaign motivations, as well as module motivations. The Players and the DM know why they're hanging out together and exploring, but the PCs often have little motivation initially, if ever, for the exploration and adventuring.
Why are they adventuring in the first place? Why are these disparate characters hanging out together? And why, once they resolve the initial situation, do they continue to hang out together?
Always something I tried to address in my campaigns, with mixed results.
I'm considering revamping the original Temple of Elemental Evil supermodule (inc. Village of Hommlet), and I thought I'd share some of my ideas.
The original module did not have any real hook to start the game other than "hey, there's this place you can go to to beat down on some bad guys." which has its place as a hook, but, well... come on.
Rather than assuming the PCs are one of a growing horde of adventurers going after this random bandit hideout in the boondocks of nowhere, I am going to assume my players live in Hommlet.
The village is getting tired of all the recent bandit raids, and has received no real relief from Verbobonc or Enstad.
That's what I've got so far... thoughts?
what if Hommlet had requested help from Verbobonc? They party could be part of a platoon sent to 'root out evil' in the local area. This would allow Hommlet to remain defended and keep their militia (mostly farmers from local area) alive to tend their crops, while still allowing for the large combat before the moathouse.
It would also allow you to develop Verbobonc as somewhere the characters could goto for training or upgrading equipment beyond what is available in hommlet or Nulb.
I'd be interested in what you come up, please keep us posted.
What are you doing with the Nodes?
*Nod* I'll agree with you on that one, Jonathan. I'm just about to start the module with a new gaming group, but decided to set the whole thing in Eberron.
Ouch, good luck with that. I tried it once, and decided it was just too much work for me. Dungeon crawling isn't really Eberron's feel, so you would have to de-emphasize the dungeon aspect and weave in a lot more intrigue.
Just to be clear, are we talking about the original (AD&D) Temple of Elemental Evil, part of the epic Greyhawk campaign arc of adventures that includes the Slave Lords, Against the Giants, etc? Or the relatively recent (3.0?3.5?) Return to Temple of Elemental Evil?
I love the original Temple, having played through it in several editions of DnD. Starting the party of as residents of Hommlet does have its advantages, which you have outlined above.
However, I do have another suggestion. Start the players off as returning residents of Hommlet, whose family (or families) moved away a decade ago, and have since returned to their home village. Think Braveheart, William Wallace goes away as a boy and comes back as a man, ready to kick some ass :-) The PCs leave Hommlet as boys, return as men (or 1st level adventures anyways) and find out that bandits are threatening their boyhood home. Boom, instant hook with some emotional ties if the PCs have done a proper job of writing backgrounds.
This way you avoid the cliche (although was it really a cliche when originally published?) of adventuring just because exp & loot (oops, I meant bandits) are in the Moathouse. And you also avoid the complication of the PCs have up to date info on every part and person of Hommlet, which afterall is a very small village, with all that implies.
Just to be clear, are we talking about the original (AD&D) Temple of Elemental Evil, part of the epic Greyhawk campaign arc of adventures that includes the Slave Lords, Against the Giants, etc? Or the relatively recent (3.0?3.5?) Return to Temple of Elemental Evil?
For now, I'm talking about the original arc. Specifically, I'm only dealing with Village of Hommlet, until I can beat it into a shape that more closely resembles an actual 3.5 module.
What I've been working on recently is the map for the frog encounter. If any of you have tact-tiles, you might just notice that one tact-tile is composed of exactly 100 complete squares. This makes it easy to use the percentages listed in the environment section of the DMG to make a marsh (I'm going with the heavier marsh, with a pathway that's been overgrown in most places - effectively the path is sparse forest terrain. I'm also using the Legends & Lairs Wildscape book to make the swamp more... swampy.
If the PCs are originally from Hommlet, left years ago to pursue other things, and return now, perhaps they even have to deal with issues unresolved back then. Why did they leave in first place? Romantic interest turned sour ? Rivalry/enmity with some locals (craftsmen/merchants)? Some criminal activities, and they fled to escape punishment? All these could apply to their parents as well.
And if they are a military unit from Verbobonc, then their superior sent them to Hommlet precisely because he assumes them to have local knowledge if they originally hail from there, not knowing or willfully ignoring the repercussions for the PCs. And he probably didn´t tell them the story of the temple, for typical soldiers only get the information they need.
Stefan
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Slightly off-topic:
I've been hearing these "tact-tiles" a lot recently, anyone have a link to a reputable (and cost-efficective ;)) seller?
End off-topic
In my campaign, I've started the party working in the Passage Institute of Investigations (PII)- an independent organization which generally serves to aid those folks who can't afford, or don't need, the high quality and prices of House Medani. It also is working to put down the protection rackets of a street gang fronted by a halfling propreitor who runs a courier/shipping business (legal) and fences Xen'drik artifacts and black-market goods (quite illegial).
Each party member was either hired for their talents, rescued from the streets/old enemies (in the case of my potential binder PC :)), or convinced to join the "winning side" and leave the criminal organization (in the case of the shifter hexblade).
The party joins the investigation, first providing backup to a PII representative as he meets with the illustrious Mr. Porli Hakkut of Silverclaw Shipping, himself. The party is ambushed by dwarven mercs and catch up to find figures in ochre robes with tentacle whips and a runehound (MMIII) ambushing the ongoing te-a-te. Deaths occur on all sides (halfling guards, PII, cultists), as the PII rep is buried under crates by his soon-slain goliath bodyguard and Mr. Hakkut slips off with his daughter through a hatch in the warehouse's rear. Mr. Hakkut's screams soon pierce the night, and he is soon found, a rotted corpse and his young daughter (~ 4 yr old) a silent witness to his murder.
From there, the party and the mysterious cultists continue to clash as PII's leader, Lord Kenton, tries to decipher what is occuring. A fiery trap at Mr. Hakkut's offices (all attendants missing or similarly rotted), a desperate escape and discovery of his black-market shipping manifestos within a secret chamber and escape route (half of an onyx altar shipped to a local gnomish nobleman's manor?), and a infiltration into the suspected lord's manor later, the party discover the "rotting killer" and the full Dragon Below cult beneath the manor's foundations, along with a fiery eye emerging from the shattered onyx altar. Fact-finding done, they must reject notions of combat to return to PII.
The death of their patron in a modus operendi of the binder's nemesis triggers the framing of the party for his murder, the aid of their surviving PII associates to flee the city, and Lord Kenton's final, pre-mordent, advice to seek "Lady Y'dey, Hommlett, Church of Dol Arrah."
And off the party goes to western Breland, near the Greywall Mountains, wanted for a lord's murder by Passage's Guard (with House Tharask bounty hunters to follow), enemies of a bizarre cult, hunted by a man with hatred for binders and their friends, and already betrayed by a person they count as friend.
End Synopsis
That's the hope at least.
Slightly off-topic:
I've been hearing these "tact-tiles" a lot recently, anyone have a link to a reputable (and cost-efficective ;)) seller?
End off-topic
The official seller of tact-tiles is http://www.bc-products.net/
I was lucky and got my set of 9 for $30 from someone who received an extra set of them. Win-win situation for both of us.
/offtopic
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This is an old topic, and I don't know if this is interesting or useful to anyone, but I'm (slowly) remaking the maps for the old 1985 module, T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil, by Gary Gygax.
I use a software program called d20pro to handle combat and general miniature play with my D&D sessions. We use custom jpgs for characters and monsters, and play on digital maps. See screenshots of d20pro here.
Well, I started messing around with a mapping program called Dundjinni, and it's grown into a kind of art for me. I'm no longer doing this just for my campaign (it's too much work for that). I'm just doing them for me, really. Anyways, these maps are created at a scale of 100 pixels = 1 square = 5 ft. My most recent maps have battlemap versions (8x10 sections that can be printed on a sheet of paper) for those of you who would like a playable miniature surface. I'm slowly getting those converted to PDF for that purpose, but most of my maps are meant to be used digitally.
Anyways, here is the link:
http://www.danielrivera.org/maps.htm
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Oh, I have also started a campaign wiki, which is basically an encyclopedia of what the players know based on experience and Knowledge skills.
And our campaign forums, where you can read character journals.
Our forum
Absolutely gorgeous work! *gushes*
tintagel, You live in Statesboro? As in Statesboro, GA? Just asking. If you do, then you are not too far away from where I live, which is Savannah, GA.
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Why yes, I do live in Statesboro, GA. Been gaming there all my life. Do you know of Galactic Comics & Games? It was formerly Gallops.
I'm just about to finish the 1st level of the temple dungeons - just doing lots of photoshop touch-ups before it goes live. I've also had to create a lot of custom art for this map series. Here is a peek at the throne of Zuggtmoy on the ground level. You know, the one with the special activation procedure? The module describes it simply as "a great throne of purplish basalt, with leering demon faces and carved grinning skulls."
Here is the PNG:
[url]http://danielrivera.org/art/DJ/zug_throne_tint.png[/url]
All of the old 1st ed. modules were basically outlines of adventures - the DM had to do LOTS of work to make them runable. Modern adventure products are much more fully fleshed out, story-wise, which I guess is a boon for the creatively challenged (or people like me, who would like to roll my own, but lack the time and/or energy).
Anyway - just as a suggestion - why don't you salvage what you can from Whispering Cairn? For example, have all the PCs be locals of Hamlet. Locals who are itching to get enough money to move away and see the world and have exciting adventures.
Word reaches them that some adventurers from out of town have come to explore some old ruins in the area. Ruins everyone *knows* to be empty of treasure. However, there are other ruins nearby, all but forgotten by everyone... everyone except people who live in the area and occasionally have to run off small tribes of goblins looking to make a lair. Maybe *those* ruins still have treasures as-of-yet unplundered...
Meanwhile back in town - a group of evil cultists is looking to gain enough power to overthrow the local government (Bern and Rufus) - since they are basically all that stands between them and total domination over the area. The local cleric of St. Cuthbert fears that evil is afoot, but can't quiet put his finger on it.
You could also plant a couple of elves (rangers maybe?) in an old farmhouse - new to the area - and distrusted by all the locals. In truth, they know that something evil is brewing and have come to help, but wish to do so covertly, if possible. This plot hook is actually from 'Cult of the Reptile God' - another classic 1st ed module that's good for starting a campaign. In fact, you could merge ToEE and CoRG pretty easily, mixing and matching the parts you like from each.
The gatehouse could be empty ruins (the destination of the rival adventurers), and the real dungeon hidden in a nearby bog.
Anyway - good luck! I hope this helps.
As always, fantastic work. Keep it up!
However, I do have another suggestion. Start the players off as returning residents of Hommlet, whose family (or families) moved away a decade ago, and have since returned to their home village. Think Braveheart, William Wallace goes away as a boy and comes back as a man, ready to kick some ass :-) The PCs leave Hommlet as boys, return as men (or 1st level adventures anyways) and find out that bandits are threatening their boyhood home. Boom, instant hook with some emotional ties if the PCs have done a proper job of writing backgrounds.
I've long thought about what I would do if I ran a campaign based on the original ToEE, and it would follow Talion's idea closely. To add to the emotional attachment, I would say that the PCs (as children or young adults) and the rest of the villagers might have been evacuated from Hommlet or some other nearby thorp as the Horde of Elemental Evil advanced to Emridy Meadows (you might even want to roleplay the evacuation, and remind them of the battle at the beginning of LotR to make them visualize the clash between the alliance of men/elves vs. humanoids)). Even after the sacking of the temple, it might have taken the forces of good months to reclaim/rebuild the settlements that the Horde would have taken on their way to the battlefield. The PCs and their families/neighbours might have lived as refugees for a while. They might have set down new roots in their "temporary" home, or returned to rebuild their homes once the Horde had been completely routed (hearts full of bitterness and anger). Years later, bandits again threaten the area... this time, the PCs are older, more skilled, and decide to take the fight to the bandits to prevent history from repeating itself...
Its kinda ironic that this thread got ressurected, lol.
Back after I made my original post almost a year ago, I mentioned it to our group, and we got to talking about the old, classic in our eyes, AD&D adventures.
Shortly afterwards, our AoW campaign ended after a TPK, and we ended up playing through an updated version of the old I9: Day of Al'Akbar adventure, and then we hit ToEE, albeit with skipping a lot of Hommlet & the Moathouse due to our level.
Currently we are deep in the Water Node, and liking this updated version a lot.