"Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Level 1B: Kobold Warrens

Level 1B is now available HERE.

A few notes:
I stuck firmly to the process from Moldvay's Basic rulebook that I used for the Citadel of the Amazons. I am a process guy. It is likely a symptom of my years in business school and investment banking. But like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a difficult time if I have to sit down with a blank piece of paper and come up with an adventure. I find the Moldvay process gets the ball rolling and inputs some force to the inertia of my lack of creativity.

I wanted to make sure this level was not just "slaughter the kobolds" so I tried to include the possibility of a few interesting interactions (the NPC party and the Hobgoblin Escapees).

I also wanted to include something that could be used as an interesting and somewhat different sort of hook. A different type of mcguffin (the magic fish). This also has the potential to develop into a difficult encounter.

I took a look at Keep on the Borderlands' kobold caves for some inspiration. See if you can find the areas that are lifts.

I blatantly stole a trap from Sham's Dismal Depths. I wish I had his creativity.

And finally, I wanted to include something a bit goofy but easily changed if you don't go for that sort of thing.

Once again, please comment if you have any feedback or comments.

The beginning of Level 2A: The Foul Fortress will be delayed for a while as I change my focus to prep-ing for the upcoming Cal-Con convention. Question: Should I make some flyers about the B/X game I am running at the convention to put up in stores beforehand and at the Con itself?

8 comments:

  1. I really like the specials! Those are my favorite bits to read in other peoples' dungeons.

    I like the map, too. You're following the lines on the graph paper, but it looks very organic all the same.

    Not much criticism. Um, "loose" in 14. and 19. should be "lose."

    How do you rule playing in the low passageways?

    Overall, excellent job!

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  2. Thanks for the catch. I have updated the pdf.
    I always pooch loose-lose and affect-effect.

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  3. As for the low passageways it would depend on a few things. Of course, two-handed weapons would be unusable. Movement would be greatly slowed. Attacks from human-sized characters would like suffer a penalty, etc.

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  4. I'm getting a 'file not found' error at orbit.

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  5. I just downloaded it fine. Maybe you tried while I was updating the pdf to fix my spelling error?

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  6. Very nice, can't wait to see more!

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  7. Very reminiscent of B2...which means it's just about perfect for a low level party.

    By the way, I think the Amazon level is really quite inspired...despite your "lack of creativity claims," I find the whole PoTS adventure to be very creative. The imagination is a muscle...you're exercising it!

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