|
Yes boys and girls you read that correctly, Lord Valantru, the false lord of Cauldron, the Big Bad Beholder himself was defeated by seasoning - chili powder to be precise.
First up let me say that I'm one of those DMs who never railroads the party, ever. So when the players came up with an clever plan to lure Valantru out in the open I let them carry it out and so, rather than face Valantru in his trap filled lair, they got to face him in the middle of the street in front of a crowd of Cauldrons citizens.
But enough of the setup, lets get to the battle. Having dispelled Valantru's fake guise as mayor, the party faced him and four of those zombie guards with the hidden Demodand 'bombs' (you know the ones).
The first action the party's mage did was to hurl a sack of chili powder at the beholder - a sack of burning, stinging, irritating, eye watering chili powder.
When Valantru had finished his 11 saving throws (one for each eye) he was down to half of his eyebeams and had lost two of the deadliest ones. The rest, as they say, his history.
Now I know some of you are gonna say "how could you let them get away with it?" or "chili powder wouldn't have that effect!" but that's not the point of my post. The point I want to make is the next time your players come up with an clever idea that screws your carefully laid out plans or changes the module a bit, let them get away with it. I assure you the story of that session will be told and retold time and time again unlike the session where no matter what actions the players took they still got the same boxed text read out for the final encounter.
It just takes a little imagination to not railroad the game and if you lack imagination then why the heck are you playing this game for?
Reebo
P.S. I apologize for the rant
All D&D adventures games are railroaded.
If you have plans for the party, have set up a mission/task for them to complete, placed a monster in a location for them to battle or NPC for them to interact with or even prepared a magical item/spell/piece of equipment for them to use - you are railroaded your party.
In fact if you ever plan anything beyond the moment for the party you are responsible for railroading your players.
By using the SCAP in the first place you have railroaded your party and by having them fight Vhalantru at all you have steered them towards that battle.
By the sounds of it your party were rewarded by you for thinking laterally but I wouldn't have ruled the same way as you. I'm not saying what you did was wrong but I have been building up towards this battle for years (real time) so anything other than a dramatic climax would be a real let down for me and the party. I would have let the powder effect Vhalantru but not disable him to the same extent you did but as I said early - this is a matter of DM styles, party dynamics, motivations and personalities.
I agree that if you are constantly taking the ability to decide and choice away from the party, the players quickly begin to become resentful and disinterested once the party realise they have no impact on the game. But their certainly is a happy medium.
If you can provide plenty of opportunities for the party to follow their interests yet still gentle manipulate them along the campaign path then I believe you gain the best of both worlds.
Railroading is not always a bad thing...
Delvesdeep
The first action the party's mage did was to hurl a sack of chili powder at the beholder - a sack of burning, stinging, irritating, eye watering chili powder.
THAT IS HILARIOUS!
It also sounds like something that would be a good addition to the alchemical items in Complete Adventurer, like the gutmites (jar of bugs that cause things that swallow PCs to puke them back up). You might need to add a bit more kick to it, alchemically speaking, to make it more potent and "fantastic", but sometimes the simplest plans are the best ones. Consider it swiped!
And I wholeheartedly approve of your attempts to not railroad your players; it's an issue I struggle with every session. So long as you create a world for them that continues to react to their decisions, and makes them react in kind, you're not railroading. But don't go overboard letting them get away with it. :)
|
|
Yeah - I think requiring all those saving throws (some of which he was bound to miss) was being a bit generous. But if everyone had fun (and I expect it was a good laugh) then job done.
We had tears (no pun intented) of laughter streaming down our faces from that fight.
You can imagine a beholder screaming out "Why wasn't I born with hands?!" LOL
Reebo
|
|
The first action the party's mage did was to hurl a sack of chili powder at the beholder - a sack of burning, stinging, irritating, eye watering chili powder.THAT IS HILARIOUS!
It also sounds like something that would be a good addition to the alchemical items in Complete Adventurer, like the gutmites (jar of bugs that cause things that swallow PCs to puke them back up). You might need to add a bit more kick to it, alchemically speaking, to make it more potent and "fantastic", but sometimes the simplest plans are the best ones. Consider it swiped!
And I wholeheartedly approve of your attempts to not railroad your players; it's an issue I struggle with every session. So long as you create a world for them that continues to react to their decisions, and makes them react in kind, you're not railroading. But don't go overboard letting them get away with it. :)
I totally agree on your comment about not going overboard Russell. My rant stems from an 'incident' in a Savage Tide game in which the party's actions made no difference to the setup for the final encounter. Obviously I wasn't the DM for that one.
Reebo