New DM questions

[Da3mon]

Help me "spice up" Kobold Hall

Greetings!

I am also a newbie DM to 4e, and since this is a beginner DM help topic I will ask my question here.

I plan to run Kobold Hall as a beginning, or tutorial for 4 players that are completely new to pen-and-paper RPGs in general, and I want to give them a bit more richer experience, not just a simple dungeon crawl.

My question is this: Those of you who have run KB, how did you modify it for you game, or what tips do can you give?

Here is my current plan:
I plan to use a "Single and Dread enemy" campaign arc from the Open Grave supplement, which allows me to run fairly episodic adventures with some overarching plotlines.
The story of Kobold hall would be that once these kobolds served this dread enemy (*insert scary villain name here*), collecting magic artifacts, so that he can gather enough residiuum to cast World-Ender No.147 (also temporary name ). Then this attracted Szarwhatshisname, and took over, and since this was a relatively small cell of the operation nobody cared, but they continue to gather stuff for the dragon.

In Fallcrest the players would be asked by Lord Markelhay to investigate where the kobolds coming from, and stop the attacks on the caravans. The players than could investigate the townsfolk for the possible location of KB. This would introduce the players to skill checks, and find out where to go.

Inside Kobold hall, I would put some runes, or signs on the wall, that players could determine, that is not standard kobold design, and something is foul. The kobolds themselfs would belive that the players are sent by the dread enemy, and yell "We have defiled our old master, doom has come!" or something like that to introduce the players to the story. Gork the wyrmpriest would also give up when a nearing death, and could be interrogated.
Szartharrax would also not attack at once, but talk to the players. Since he is rather young, he also assumes, that the players are sent by MrBigBad, and tries to persuade them to serve him.

Gameplay wise, I have modified the encounters for a 4 man party, and I am thinking to add some fantastic terrain, mainly ice, for slideing around, and falling in the acid pit (fun for the whole family!), but I am not sure how that would increase difficulty. Or to do this at all because KH's layout is feels kinda complete.

Thanks for reading any comments,tips are welcome!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Moved this to its own thread.

 

[Rechan]

To make the final encounter with the dragon a little more than just a stationary slugfest, you could put icicles on the ceiling - when struck, they fall, doing damage. An icy ledge along one wall. A frozen pile of treasure, with a clearly magical weapon stuck in the ice (so a PC could run over, yank it out of the pile and wield it).

 

[jbear]

To make the final encounter with the dragon a little more than just a stationary slugfest, you could put icicles on the ceiling - when struck, they fall, doing damage. An icy ledge along one wall. A frozen pile of treasure, with a clearly magical weapon stuck in the ice (so a PC could run over, yank it out of the pile and wield it).

Be careful about making the final encounter anymore lethal than it is, especially if there are only 4 players. That dragon is quite deadly, especially if the players walk in bunched up together.

You could put in a frozen rune puzzle to open the doorway down into the dragon's chamber.

The ideas that come to me add quite a bit of difficulty to the encounters. For example having that rolling stone trap be a rolling ball of ice with a little ice Imp running inside (the dragon's familiar?) like a little hamster. He could fire out blasts of ice if anyone ends their turn too close to the ball (I found the ball was pretty easy to avoid for the players) which could do a little bit of damage (1d4) but slows and on the first failed save immobilises. They could capture the Imp for some good old fashion RP and eek some info out of it about that puzzle door and the story in general.

The Wyrmpriest controls a snowball hurling snowman golem (swap for one of the slingers, giving similar refluffed stats, like cold damage and a slow/immobilsed effect). You could give it vulnerability to fire, so smart play will bring it down quick.

Anyway, it's a pretty neat little intro adventure. I'msure you'll have a good time.

 

[_NewbieDM_]

Allow me to direct you to my downloads page.

I have a "New Dm's Starter Kit"which includes scaled battlemaps for Kobold Hall and handdrawn (badly) enemy tokens. It also includes a combat tracker.

I put it together specifically for new Dm's like you running Kobold Hall.

Downloads « www. Newbie DM .com

 

[Mr. Teapot]

I want to give them a bit more richer experience, not just a simple dungeon crawl.

...then why are you running Kobold Hall? It's as dungeon-crawly as can be. It is in fact designed to be the prototypical simple dungeon crawl.

That's not a snark answer: Is there some reason you chose this module? Does some part of it appeal to you? Did you think it was more than a simple dungeon crawl. It seems very poorly suited for the purposes that you outline.

There are plenty of other modules out there that you could use that aren't just simple dungeon crawls. I'd say either write an adventure yourself (it's not hard!) or run a less dungeon crawly adventure, like The Slaying Stone (suitable for 1st level and new players).

 

[Jhaelen]

...then why are you running Kobold Hall?

Probably because it's right there, conveniently placed in the DMG?

I think it's perfectly fine as an intro into 4e where the focus is on learning the 4e (combat) mechanics.

 

[Solvarn]

Probably because it's right there, conveniently placed in the DMG?

I think it's perfectly fine as an intro into 4e where the focus is on learning the 4e (combat) mechanics.

Yeah I agree. I understand the stated goals, but they have to learn to walk before they run. A good dungeon crawl in a small sandbox is great for learning mechanics.

 

[surfarcher]

Urm... Part of the problem with Kobold Hall is each encounter is tougher than the last. So for a new group... Well that last one has a really good chance of killing off the whole party.

Yeah it has a reputation for TPK

Finding another sandpit might be a good idea. Or maybe turn the final encounter into a skill challenge for the party to talk their way out of the place - that's what I did the one time I ran it.

 

[jbear]

Yes. It is deadly. Especially if the players aren't careful about how they enter that last encounter.

But, as far as learning the ropes it has a nice rythm. It is a Dungeon, yes. And it has a Dragon. What more could one wnat out of their first four encounters playing Dungeons and Dragons. And if everyone dies? Well, no one has had time to become emotionally attached to their characters. Everyone has learnt the system. Everyone has had a chance to try out a class and see other classes in action, so they might have a better idea what character they would like to play now. And hopefully they will have learnt some healthy respect for the hazards that await their characters during their adventuring life. So roll em' up and start again with some valuable lessons learnt.

If they survive... well, they are going to feel pretty good about themselves aren't they? When have lvl1 characters ever been able to slay dragons on their first adventure???? Plus, it's short, it's sweet, and from there they can go any direction towards a richer and deeper adventure.