Post by Chris Chinn on Dec 3, 2011 11:26:56 GMT -8
So, classic D&D usually has a town and a dungeon. You buy stuff in town, rest up, then you go and fight things in the dungeon. Mostly, the town is a launch pad to go to the dungeon, with, perhaps the few fictional ties between the to being either to go get a magic thing or kill a source of evil.
But here's an idea: what if you design the town, with something like say, 5 problems in the town that probably could be helped by something in the dungeon.
The weak way would be obvious fetch quests - "Wow, I sure could use 5 glowing mushrooms to make this medicine!", "I need 3 rubies to make this magic item", etc.
The more interesting way is this: what if the dungeon is tied historically to the current town in some way, and, what it holds of value, is information?
Say, 5 generations ago, everyone lived in the old keep, until a terrible disaster struck and everyone had to flee. The current town is full of political stuff going on- families which have been shaken and altered in their traditions. And the info that might be back at the abandoned keep? Stuff like who betrayed whom, who really held power, who really sacrificed themselves, who did the right thing, etc.
Basically, the info in the dungeon is the stuff that threatens to re-shake up the status quo again.
And then the flip side would be there'd be a few problems in the dungeon that require something from town to fix. Maybe there's a magic door that only opens to a particular family motto being spoken. Maybe only one clan can read the forgotten script. These sorts of things.
But instead of making them fetch quests the players are sent on, it goes the other way around - the players are finding all these things and have to convince the people in twon to help them in return. ("Wait, you want me to go where? There's monsters out there!")
The other thing would be to not limit problems to a single solution- if players come up with another solution to a problem, then it works just fine and go with it.
Any thoughts on this? I'll probably have to put together a scenario and do some trial and error to really get a bead on this.
Chris
But here's an idea: what if you design the town, with something like say, 5 problems in the town that probably could be helped by something in the dungeon.
The weak way would be obvious fetch quests - "Wow, I sure could use 5 glowing mushrooms to make this medicine!", "I need 3 rubies to make this magic item", etc.
The more interesting way is this: what if the dungeon is tied historically to the current town in some way, and, what it holds of value, is information?
Say, 5 generations ago, everyone lived in the old keep, until a terrible disaster struck and everyone had to flee. The current town is full of political stuff going on- families which have been shaken and altered in their traditions. And the info that might be back at the abandoned keep? Stuff like who betrayed whom, who really held power, who really sacrificed themselves, who did the right thing, etc.
Basically, the info in the dungeon is the stuff that threatens to re-shake up the status quo again.
And then the flip side would be there'd be a few problems in the dungeon that require something from town to fix. Maybe there's a magic door that only opens to a particular family motto being spoken. Maybe only one clan can read the forgotten script. These sorts of things.
But instead of making them fetch quests the players are sent on, it goes the other way around - the players are finding all these things and have to convince the people in twon to help them in return. ("Wait, you want me to go where? There's monsters out there!")
The other thing would be to not limit problems to a single solution- if players come up with another solution to a problem, then it works just fine and go with it.
Any thoughts on this? I'll probably have to put together a scenario and do some trial and error to really get a bead on this.
Chris