Keep on the Borderland ... how long does it take?
Certain sub-sections of the Caves of Chaos could be played effectively as a one-shot, but I can't imagine anywhere near the entire module possibly being played in that timeframe. Between the Keep, the wilderness encounters, and all of the separate Caves of Chaos (11 of them IIRC) this module is more like a mini-campaign, and would probably take something on the order of a dozen sessions to play through, or even longer.
I've always seen it play out like so -- 1st session at the Keep gathering info, talking to NPCs and making plans; 2nd session in the wilderness searching for the Caves of Chaos and/or dealing with one or more of the wilderness encounters; sessions 3+ dealing with the Caves of Chaos at an average rate of about 1 cave per session (not counting the ogre cave) -- some will take less, but some might take more (plus there's the other wilderness areas and more stuff at the Keep -- audience with the Castellan and such -- that are also likely to fill in at least odds and ends of a couple sessions). Plus the possibility of the party getting decimated (or TPK'd entirely) and having to go slow for a session or two breaking in new characters -- a very likely occurence in this module. if the party gets into diplomacy and roleplaying, either at the Keep or in the caves (or both) things could take even longer, as they could if the DM takes seriously the module's suggestions about monsters recruiting reinforcements and/or new inhabitants moving into previously cleared caves. The idea of this module being played through completely in 3 sessions, much less 1, is very surprising to me.
khyron1144
First Post
Okay I was running it under AD&D 2e rules, so character creation took a big chunk of the night, but my experience is that a typical party could take most of a session to clear one wilderness encounter (The Mad Hermit) and just find the caves. Then again the players weren't quick enough to catch on that it was MAD Hermit and they should do more or less the opposite of what he says.
DaveyJones
First Post
for a one shot you need to define a set goal.
build encounters that center around that goal.
build encounters that center around that goal.
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