[D&D] Reactive Plot preparation

[zakarntson]

I'm preparing a D&D adventure using some stuff from the DMG and other stuff from Sorcerer and Sorcerer & Sword. I'm not sure what to call it, so I'm calling it Reactive DMing.

• The players know full well they're playing a game. There's no sense of illusion, where I'm secretly guiding them towards my own pre-planned adventure. In my experience, with like-minded players, this leads to open discussion of wants, goals, etc., and a more satisfactorty gaming session all around.
• Play doesn't meander and flow, hoping that continual play will lead from one exciting event to another. It's based on scenes, which consist of a location and an goal. A scene begins with an explicit player-centric (not character-centric) goal, and ends when the goal is met, becomes impossible to meet, or shifts.
• The first scene (or nearly the first) sets up the hook. Behind this hook is one or more things at stake that are directly affected by the adventure. Once these stakes are resolved, the adventure is over.
• Preparation, rather than consisting of a fully-mapped dungeon, or a series of interlacing events, consists of a grab-bag of the following, for mixing and matching:
  
  • NPC Map: A map of NPC interconnectedness, from family to friendship to blackmail. These NPCs will be fully statted and prepped.
  • Encounter Locations: Interesting locations for encounters. Combat encounter locations are fully mapped out. Others are just given a short explanation.
    
  • Encounter Monsters: A set of monsters geared at one difficulty type (Difficult, Challenging, Easy, etc. from the DMG). Most encounters will have ways to ramp them up or down in difficulty.
  • Bangs!: Taking a page from Sorcerer (& Sword, especially) these are events that reveal information, create a crisis, etc. They serve to drive play, and can open or spice up a scene. My rule for a good bang is this: Once presented, the game & characters will be affected even through the character's inaction.

Zak's Group SPOILER ALERT

Here are my plans for our 1st-level adventure. Since we're only meeting twice a month, I want to ramp up XP and treasure awards. I'm thinking of doubling them, at least at first. The DMG says 13 encounters typically equal a level. 13 encounters? I'm guessing we'll pull what, 1 or 2 combats a session. That would be 6-7 months of play! Even doubling might not be enough, but I'll play it safe at first.

Campaign

With the goal of guided "dungeon crawl" (D&D's best features are its combat & combat reward systems), the PCs are members of an elite guard who perform heroic tasks for the Empire. This is a quick way for me to tell them what their mission is, and have buy-in from a player and a character standpoint.

First Adventure

The players are told that a woman has confessed to the city guard that her and her husband are behind the recent rash of nighttime burglaries. She says they took command of a band of undercity ratlings and coordinated their above-ground heists. When her husband took an unhealthy interest in the ratling lord's god (The Usurper), she feared for herself and their son. They fought physically over their son, and she was left to die. She made her way to the city guard and is now recovering in the barracks infirmary.

This isn't how the idea started. It started like so: A human inciter is leading a band of ratlings into stealing from the city above. I added a relationship map and asked questions. My map started out with Inciter. Then I attached Warrior Wife. Then figured they should have a Son. I knew I wanted ratlings, so I put Ratling Lord on the map. Then the questions begged themselves. How does a human come to lead ratlings? What is he offering them? How does the Empire know about them? Why don't the city guard handle the problem? And so on. This is a method that works for me when working on any kind of fictional situation.

Stakes

What is at stake? These things will be answered as the adventure progresses.

• Human/Ratling Alliance: The continuance of the man's leadership of the ratlings. The PC's primary goal is to stop this.
• Son's Soul: Will the son be given to the ratling's god, The Usurper?

NPC Map

I hesitate to use the term "relationship map", because I don't just put blood/sex/murder ties. Turns out, though, that the map below is solely based on blood relations.

• Human Male Sorcerer: Father to Son. Married to Rogue.
• Human Female Rogue: Mother to Son. Married to Sorcerer.
• Young Son: Taken from mother by Male Sorcerer and Ratling Lord.
• Ratling Lord (Warrior/Priest): Helped take Son from Female Rogue. Brother to Ratling Rogue.
• Ratling Rogue: Brother to Ratling Lord. Feels betrayed by the Ratling Lord's following of a human.

Encounter Locations

The adventure, for the most part, takes place in the undercity, which is an old, abandoned city half-carved from the stone of the island. The existing city has been built atop it, and many current buildings either block off any entrances to the undercity, or incorporate it into their design. Many storerooms consist of undercity buildings with any extraneous exits bricked up.

• Market Street: Crowded market filled with panicked NPCs. Action pieces: Market stalls to tip over, overhangs to cut down, carts to push, improvised weapons to throw.
• Abandoned Glassworks Shop: Contains the undercity entrance to the ratling's hideout. Action pieces: Tables covered in glassworks. Rickety supports holdiing up an overseer's room. Deep ash near a furnace.
• Undercity Stair: A stone staircase that begins small at the top and widens at the bottom, to open into the catacombs of the undercity. Action pieces: Glasswork crates stored near the top of the stair. Dangerous maneuvering on the stair.
• Webbed Alcove: A small, cramped area. Action pieces: Spider webs, suspended dessicated corpses to swing and distract.
• Fountain Plaza: A wide plaza with a fountain at its center. Action pieces: Tall, crumbling statues to tip over, the fountain contains a tentacled-ooze monster that attacks those near it.
• Ratling Hideout: A collapsed undercity mansion, with only its foyer and grand ballroom semi-intact. Action pieces: Tables of loot to tip. Loot as improvised weapons. Chandeliers to drop via cut rope. Tapestries to burn.
• Impromptu Altar: Raised in a side room of the mansion, dedicated to the Usurper. Action pieces: Piles of bones to scatter. An altar to topple.

Encounter Monsters

I will prepare several combinations of these, with options on how to ramp them up or down on difficulty.

• Feral Dogs: Disease-ridden dogs driven to attack.
• Ratling Rogue: Basic rat humanoids w/ 1 level of rogue.
• Ratling Brute: Basic rat humanoids w/ 1 level of warrior.
• "Percy", Trained Giant Rat: Giant rat w/ metal damage-increasing mask.
• Giant Spider: Low-intelligence. Holed up in the Alcove location. The ratling have made an uneasy peace with it.
• NPCs: Don't forget the NPCs! Ratling Lord, Ratling Rogue, Young Son and Human Male Sorcerer may all make an apperance.

Bangs!

• Guards! If the Glassworks isn't approached with caution, posted guards burst out near the undercity entrance and attack!
• Betrayal! The party comes upon a ratling who is in the act of killing another ratling! This is the Ratling Rogue. He offers to join the party and stop his brother, so long as he is let free.
• Our Little Pet! A pair of Ratling Brutes appear, taking their giant rat for a walk (or, more likely, investigating the commotion)!
• She's Back! The wife staggers into the area (easier now that the party's cleared a path), wanting her son back!
• Sacrifice! Much to the father's surprise (if he still lives), the Ratling Lord offers up the son's soul in exchange for power to stop the PCs!
• Hidden Agent! (If needed, and if in Betrayal! the Ratling Rogue offers up "proof" of his coalition with the Empire) The party discovers a captured/dead human, who was killed and hidden by the Ratling Rogue, and his body looted for the "proof".