Advice for free-form infiltration scenario

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

Most of the adventure scenarios that I've written in the past have followed the traditional dungeon with encounter key format. E.g., this room has 4 goblins guarding a prisoner, that room has a trap that releases several animated skeletons that attack, etc. The general assumption is that the PCs will go in, defeat the monsters, and take their treasure and whatever plot leads link them to the next adventure.

In my current campaign, though, I have a scenario coming up that I want to run in a looser fashion. Very briefly, the PCs have been following the trail of a group of goblinoids that were raiding their town for plunder and slaves. It turns out that the slaves and supplies are being sent to a large archeological dig site, where the goblinoids have been hired by a mysterious client to excavate an ancient crypt.

I want the dig site to be obviously too big for this three PC party to just wade in and start fighting. And I have some important pieces of exposition I want to get across to the players, as well as introducing one of the main campaign villains (the mysterious client).

The image I have in my head is the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy and Sallah are at a hill overlooking the Nazi dig site and then proceed to sneak in to access the map room. In fact, this whole scenario is inspired by that movie: I even have a not-entirely-evil but callous archaologist playing the Belloq role.

I assume the players will attempt to sneak into the dig to investigate what's going on and somehow eavesdrop on the important exposition. I imagine most of the game will involve a lot of DM improvisation based on player actions, letting their ideas (and my on-the-fly ideas) create the story for the night. They might just find out what's going on and then sneak back out, they might try to lead a slave revolt, they might try to infiltrate the goblinoids and take out their leadership right then and there. I'm not really sure what to expect.

One line of thought I had was having the PCs get captured if they mess up their sneaking, and have the villains do the traditional grandstanding plot exposition, but I worry that a) it's harder to capture PCs than you think, and b) the players might feel like they are being forced into a situation out of their control. So I'm ambivalent about attempting this, even though I think it would lead to a dramatic scene that allows me to introduce the villains and give them some personality. But if we don't have a scene like this, I need some other way to get the same exposition across.

I'm not really sure how to prepare encounters for this adventure. Given that the events of the adventure really depend on how the players choose to approach the situation, I can't really prep specific encounters with any particular expectation of how or where they will be activated. My current thought is to create a few balanced encounters (e.g., goblin patrol group, the villains and their entourage, etc.) and just put them into play at appropriate places given the players actions.

Any thoughts on how to deal with this kind of scenario, where the unfolding events are much more in the hands of the players than is the case for your typical dungeon crawl? I'd also like some advice on the capture-and-exposition scene, and how that kind of thing has gone if you've tried it before.

For the most part these questions are system-agnostic, but I will note that we're playing D&D 4e, since the nature of encounter balancing and system-specific incentives may come into play here.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Sounds like you've got it in hand. You're ready to be flexible and to make it up on fly based on PC actions.

I would suggest (although I think this has already occurred to you) that you already have an idea of what is where (in terms of guards, slave quarters, major NPCs) and what sort of defenses are in place. example: how are the slaves guarded and restrained? What guards are on the BBEG's tent? What are the patrols like? Also plan in advance the goblins' reactions to various things. example: Assuming the goblin captain has any clue he/she will have plans for the most likely events, like a slave uprising and a rescue raid. Troops will move to defensive points around the site, man the catapult, prepare to kill the hostages, et. al.

I would suggest that you forget the idea of balanced encounters. This is a hornets' nest, if the PCs stir it up they will get stung. Conversely if they are clever, subtle and tricky then they get by with minimal hassle.

Sounds like a fun adventure, enjoy.

 

[Gilladian]

In a scenario of this sort, I would tend to use some flowcharts for the enemy decisions and actions.

For example: 1) goblin patrol meets infiltrators. Possible results: A) no alarm spread - no reaction for 4 hours until patrol is overdue. B) minor alarm sounded - intruders suspected but not confirmed - patrols double for 4 hours, then revert to normal. C) major alarm sounded - known intruders, possible violence. patrols double until intruders are dealt with (up to 3 days) and added units are sent to key points. So all you have to do is have stats for the patrol groups, and know the key points they'd reinforce.

The only ways I know to capture PCs are by 1) fait accomplis (you wake up from dinner and you find yourself in a prison cell) or 2) by allowing the PCs to decide to get captured - "the best place to lead a revolt of the slaves is from the inside; to be inside, we need to be slaves ourselves."

Some of your exposition can be wound into descriptions of the place. Also, try having minor NPCs reveal bits of things. A slave may have heard the villains talk, and will happily tell all she knows to her rescuers; a guard who gets captured tries to bribe his way to freedom by offering tidbits about his leaders.

Hope this helps.

 

[Random Axe]

Some of your exposition can be wound into descriptions of the place. Also, try having minor NPCs reveal bits of things. A slave may have heard the villains talk, and will happily tell all she knows to her rescuers; a guard who gets captured tries to bribe his way to freedom by offering tidbits about his leaders.

Hope this helps.

I was going to suggest something like that, too: Be flexible enough to have your important points of exposition be overheard from anywhere, by nearly anyone. But if you are going to have some info come from some of the slaves, be ready to have them also overhear some false (ie. uninformed) information or rumours as well that are generally red herrings. Not all slaves are geniuses. But if the PC's don't end up going anywhere near the "command tent" where you originally thought they could overhear the master plan, be ready to have some subcommander come back to the zone where the PC's actually are, muttering about the meeting he was just in...

 

[Twichyboy]

But if we don't have a scene like this, I need some other way to get the same exposition across.

I actually had a similar dungeon thing, that involved the PC's sneaking in to a BBEG base and i was able to get the exposition across without having to have the PC's captured.

They just snuck into the room the BBEG was giving his grand, "We are going to take over the world" speech to a crowd of his followers, the PC's don't need to be captured, but to be in the right place at the right time

 

[Michael Silverbane]

If your players are anything at all like mine, there's going to be at least one person in the group that is completely inept at hiding and/or sneaking. If you don't want this to throw a monkey wrench into your scenario, there are a couple of things that you can do...

1. Sites of industrial activity are loud. Make sure that you get this across to your players right away (i.e. when indy and his compatriot are looking down at the nazi archaeological site, they can already hear the activity from where they are. Except in very rare circumstances, the characters are not going to have to worry about making too much noise. A noisy hustle from one place of cover to another place of cover, or even two or three rounds of combat, is probably not going to be heard.

2. There are lots of nooks and crannies to steal away into. An excavation site like that is likely to have many sections of stripped out land, with raised walkways, tunnels, maze-like passages, slave pens, tents, out-buildings, and all sorts of other structures that the interlopers can duck into to get quickly out of sight.

3. Allow the sneaky to help the not so sneaky. If you have one or more characters who are very competent sneakers, you can allow them to help out those who are less sneaky... Scouting slightly ahead, making "wait for it. wait for it. now!" gestures, and so on. This'll give your stealthy types a chance to shine, without having to have them run off by themselves.