| ReleeSquirrel |
So here's the sitch. I decided to run my best buds through a string of connected Pathfinder modules. Actually I think they're the oldest Pathfinder modules. Hollow's Last Hope and Crown of the Kobold King so far, and I want to do the ones connected to them too. But here's the problem. My players avoided more than half the encounters in Crown of the Kobold King, and only went up one level, barely, instead of two. I had already cooked up an adventure to get them from level 4 to level 5 so they'd be ready for Revenge of the Kobold King, but now I've got to come up with another adventure to get them from level 3 to level 4, within the region of Darkmoon Vale.
I'm having trouble coming up with an adventure/story/quest that is a fun and interesting aside, instead of making them grind bears in the woods for EXP again. (I can't believe I did that even once. And my players seemed to like it.)
Now, the fact of the matter is, and I've already told my players this, I'm abandoning the experience point system. The way my players play, which is a kind of genre-savvy metagamey way of avoiding encounters while getting to the meat of the module, doesn't sync up with it. It's like, I was already giving them some exp for solving encounters non-violently, but they weren't even Encountering Encounters most of the time, in either module. They aren't really into 'adventuring' I've noticed. They're very job focused, and careful, and lucky enough to choose the 'Easy Route' too.
So instead of leveling by exp I'm going to level up by adventures. So the adventure can be anything, as long as it's fun and seems like an adventure. For level 4 I plan on having them track down the local disease cult and eradicate them with a powerful cleric NPC ally.
For level 3 though I'm stumped. My first thought was, "Have a Monster attack the adventurer's pub on the edge of town that the book says gets attacked by monsters sometimes, and the monster gets driven off, wounded, and the players are tasked to finish it off." and that sounded kind of interesting. The players have already done a bit of Bounty Hunting (I mentioned grinding bears? Well it was only one bear, and some wolves, in two seperate encounters, before I stopped with the experience tomfoolery) and I think they'd be up for it, but as I developed the adventure I found a problem.
My party is six players at level 3, so their CR is 4, and I read that a good final boss for a party is an encounter with a CR two or three higher. So I look at the chart and say "Oh cool, a Wyvern would be perfect!" but after a day or two of thinking on this I re-read the Wyvern's stats and realized that while my party of six could defeat one, it would almost certainly kill at least one of them with it's poison tail. One option would be to have it be injured by the other adventurers from the pub, who cut the barb off, but I didn't want to go that route I just thought up while writing this.
I decided that it would be better to make a higher level encounter by using a number of tough monsters instead of one super deadly monster. Especially when five of my six players speak Draconic and would probably intimidate and diplomacy the Wyvern into being their pet or something.
So I thought, what about a Troll and a couple of Ogres, that would be a good match for six level 3 adventurers! I could have the Troll and a couple of Ogres steal the casks of ale or mead or both from the adventurer's bar. They're giants, they can do stuff like that right? But then I realized, this is a really lame plot.
Some giants stole our booze! Go rescue it and we'll give you money/treasure!
If I level up my players after something that lame, after getting only one level from a two level dungeon rush, well, I don't think they'd appreciate it, and I'd feel like a wuss GM. So I need a grander adventure.
I'm stumped though. The only hint of an idea I've got is that the giantkin were stealing the booze for some reason the players find out and they have to go to another stage after that... I dunno what though.
TL;DR - I need help crafting an adventure to get my players from Level 3 to Level 4. Any advice?
P.S. The setting is the Darkmoon Vale region of Golarion, around Falcon's Hollow.
| GM Rednal |
This is the perfect time for me to pull out my Tome of Adventure Design. (<- This is an actual book by Frog God Games, and it is amaaaaaazing.)
Let's see...
Mission Type: 1d100 ⇒ 89 Event-based.
Actual Mission: 2d100 ⇒ (90, 71) = 161 Survive or Overcome an Attempted Murder.
No need to worry about hooks, then. XD The villain's plan is...
Plan Type: 1d100 ⇒ 18 ...trying to desecrate something, which is...
Plot or Event?: 1d100 ⇒ 85 ...an event...
Type of Event: 1d100 ⇒ 31 ...that he's just disrupting with violence.
Event being Disrupted: 1d100 ⇒ 80 The event is a Religious solstice ceremony, whose key feature is...
Feature: 1d100 ⇒ 32 ...handing out free food and drink. The giantkin were probably stealing the booze to help disrupt this festival. o wo/ Let's say that the giantkin are trying to weaken the local area as part of a deal with the Kobold King, and surviving the assassination attempt - probably protecting the festival - gets them some renown.
...
Actually, this reminds me of the start of Rise of the Runelords. XD All randomly generated, though. If you need another idea, I can roll again. We'll get something different.
| Andre Roy |
So I thought, what about a Troll and a couple of Ogres, that would be a good match for six level 3 adventurers! I could have the Troll and a couple of Ogres steal the casks of ale or mead or both from the adventurer's bar. They're giants, they can do stuff like that right? But then I realized, this is a really lame plot.Some giants stole our booze! Go rescue it and we'll give you money/treasure!
How about a slight twist. Let's keep the Troll and Ogres (always good to have multiple enemy rather then one big boss as it forces the players to seperate their action).
Rather then stealing booze what if they stole something else: Livestock, Religious Relic (Killing the priest along the way), or -if you party is ok with it- Children/women to be sold into slavery.
The party track them to their camp - a ruined temple/keep in the wood/Hill. They encounter resistance (goblins or orcs troop, Wolves/worgs, the occasional undead of the previous inhabitant (the monster avoid those haunted area). Force them to go up to the second floor to be able to get to the basement by the only usable stairway.
You could even have environmental hazards such as traps, loose/rotten board, unsafe walls, etc.
And the bonus: You have a new location that could lead to further quest (such as reclaim it, find a lost treasure, find out who wasthe originla inhabitant, put the undead to rest, etc.
| ReleeSquirrel |
Oh, that's kind of good actually. The players are both celebrated heroes and an unwelcome element in town so it's reasonable that someone would try to kill them. The Kobold King is dead, he'll be back from the dead later but right now he's out of the picture. But I have another villan waiting in the wings, an evil cleric of the disease god. They could have an acolyte dealing with the giantkin, having them steal the booze to poison it, but the giants didn't do it subtly, and the plot went awry.
Yeah it's a bit different from what you suggested, but I like the idea of the town celebrating the heroes with a feast the next day, and some giants steal the booze for that, to bring it to the cultist who would poison it.
So, the giants will be one encounter, then the cultist! That'll be a short but satisfying adventure, I hope. Unless someone else has a better idea?
I've asked this all in a few places too...
| GM Rednal |
There should ALWAYS be some sort of time pressure, whether it's a literal clock ticking or just their own resources going down. o wo/ If they can rest whenever, it's way too easy.
And yeah, don't be afraid to modify any part of my suggestion. XD The book I used is for sparking ideas, and if you think "oh wait, it would be cool if...", then it's working. Anyway, hope it helps.
| Andre Roy |
[...] But they didn't like the immediacy of "GIT ER DUN OR THE KIDS GET SACRIFICED".
That I can understand, whI checked is why I suggested selling into slavery...at least you can track and rescue them later if worse comes to worse.
But the theft of a Holy Relic, and the murder of a priest/desecration of a temple could be a good incentive too. There is still pressure but not as bad.