Jasperak
Adventurer
I did this set up twice. First, between 15-20 years ago my group was burning out from 3e and I threw caution to the wind and started a quick B/X-BECMI game. I made up the starting conditions and map during the first session. I posted the first two sessions of that game in a Story Hour in a forum on another RPG site. In this one the PCs investigated the cellar and found a secret door that lead to a bigger dungeon with large spiders and rats that they eventually learned were controlled by a wererat who worked tangent to the town's thieves' guild. I can't remember if I posted a map or not.
And then a few months ago, I pulled the same for my 9yo son. We are only one session in so he had cleared the cellar and had just found the secret door to the dungeon proper. If I remember correctly he had just walked down the first hallway where I had set up that this dungeon was completely different from the cellar. Since he has just entered the dungeon proper, he hasn't uncovered the wererat's nefarious plot or the vicious dungeon denizens, but the set up is there.
My point is that for a set up that is so 'overused', I only used it twice in forty years and this second time was only because it was so awesome the first time around and I could remember it very well without access to my original notes. Quite frankly, this was one of my most memorable first starts to a campaign, and it is why I went back to it for my son. Truth be told though, he groaned because we have played the remake/port of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the Switch and he recognized the start. I got the hooks in him though with the spider trails and humanoid prints in the dust.
And then a few months ago, I pulled the same for my 9yo son. We are only one session in so he had cleared the cellar and had just found the secret door to the dungeon proper. If I remember correctly he had just walked down the first hallway where I had set up that this dungeon was completely different from the cellar. Since he has just entered the dungeon proper, he hasn't uncovered the wererat's nefarious plot or the vicious dungeon denizens, but the set up is there.
My point is that for a set up that is so 'overused', I only used it twice in forty years and this second time was only because it was so awesome the first time around and I could remember it very well without access to my original notes. Quite frankly, this was one of my most memorable first starts to a campaign, and it is why I went back to it for my son. Truth be told though, he groaned because we have played the remake/port of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the Switch and he recognized the start. I got the hooks in him though with the spider trails and humanoid prints in the dust.
