| EvilMinion |
So as we played through a dungeon scenario in our most recent campaign, and we the party did typical party stuff, killing the monsters, disarming the traps, etc... including the occasional oddball situation or solution to a problem, then the eventually looting and wandering off afterwards... I started to wonder what the next batch folks to wander through this particular area would think of what they saw, out of context.
Has anyone tried creating two separate adventures, in the same location, for two separate groups of people with some sort of chronological separation but geographical the same.
I always found it odd at the typical pc's penchant for stripping down dead NPC's to their skivvies cause they were wearing masterwork leather armor that's worth 150gp! What do the clean up crew think when they find all these naked corpses laying around?
What about the GM's enjoyment of describing particular damaging kill shots? The barbarian crits with his axe, and takes the orc to -70 hit points, which the GM describes as cleaving him in two, head to toe... does the followup group come across a body/skeleton apparently cut in two by some unknown force/monster and get all paranoid about what might have caused it or if its still around?
What if the wizard cast a fireball that blew out a door and caught the entire room on fire? How do later adventurers interpret the cinders on the floor, scorch marks on the walls (is that a human shaped void!?) and destroyed dungeon features?
Rock to Mud? Stone/Wood Shape? Leftover walls of stone or iron? Lots of magical effects leave permanent changes... As to some more creative means of disarming or bypassing traps.
What about arrows that missed their targets and didn't get recovered? Potions that got drunk and the empty bottles discarded or wands that ran out of charges?
Maybe the party decided to tear a torch sconce off the wall, or remove a door from its hinges. Maybe they tried to sunder their way through a wall, or kicked over a table for cover?
Anyway, I thought it might be an interesting exercise. The next time your party goes through a particular fixed scenario location, to just keep a little crib sheet on what happened. What got damaged, or moved or changed. How various creatures died, where the bodies were left at the end and in what condition or with what gear? What items got left behind/removed?
Then just save these locations to use later. Either assuming no one ever wandered through afterwards, or perhaps assuming something did...
Then having loads of fun describing the room to the next batch to come through, with all appropriate changes. Would lead to lots of color text (though perhaps that might lead to bit of gazebo/magic cow syndrome)
Might even be the same players (with different characters) to see if they recognize the place and events that lead up to them.
I could easily see a lower level scenario based on the aftermath of a higher level scenario and the fallout thereof.... (perhaps some missed loot... some scavengers that moved in... or angry spirit that got created in the magical aftermath).
Anyway, anyone ever tried something like this, or have any particular success (or failure) stories that attempted similar? what might work or not, etc.