Boring to Booyah!

[Ravilah]

Okay, so I'm running some players through the very first campaign I ever wrote, and I am finding some of my scenarios a bit...lackluster. They seemed fine ten years ago, but then again, back then I still though that rust monsters sounded like a cool idea.

So the players are on an island with only a few towns (a step up from tribal villages). The local cleric's daughter has been kidnapped by goblins. They have to save her. So...yeah, that's it.

What are some ways to spice this up a bit. No, scratch, that. Spice this up A LOT. I would really like it if there was more to it than just a fight.

P.S. This is 3.5 Dnd. They're level 6 (if that matters).

 

[AeroDm]

Have you tried adding rust monsters?

But seriously, sounds like a perfectly passable base scenario, just make the surrounding more impressive. Have the goblins live in a volcano rumored to be the remnants of an ancient dragon egg after it hatched and litter it with wingless red drakes that breathe noxious volcano fumes. Dangle the girl over some lava, add chains to swing on, ledges to jump to, and rickety wooden bridges and you have an adventure.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Not really enough information on you scenarios to recommend changes. I might suggest making it a goblin rescue, not a kidnapping, if that would fit, but if your gobbos are given to nefarious deeds then that wouldn't work. Likewise finding that the father had sold the girl to the goblins doesn't work if he is a decent hardworking sort. Ditto for the daughter running off to become a missionary to the savage goblins, in hopes of bringing them civilization.

Having the gobbos living in the treetops in large hanging baskets connected by rickety rope bridges might work, but again, not enough info. (Battles in a plummet rich environment can be fun... traps that knock people off of the bridges, false 'huts' that drop like stones if something heavier than a fat goblin enters them, and some yahoo of a goblin sawing through the supports of a bridge when the party is halway across...) and a big ol' pot of Missionary Stew waiting for the cleric's daughter.....

The Auld Grump

 

[the Jester]

I'd spice it up by adding complicated political factions amongst the goblins, some of which may attempt to use the pcs against each other, and amongst the villages; perhaps some villagers were working with the goblins that stole the daughter in order to shake the cleric's faith and start a war. Or... you know, something convoluted.

 

[Mort]

Okay, so I'm running some players through the very first campaign I ever wrote, and I am finding some of my scenarios a bit...lackluster. They seemed fine ten years ago, but then again, back then I still though that rust monsters sounded like a cool idea.

So the players are on an island with only a few towns (a step up from tribal villages). The local cleric's daughter has been kidnapped by goblins. They have to save her. So...yeah, that's it.

What are some ways to spice this up a bit. No, scratch, that. Spice this up A LOT. I would really like it if there was more to it than just a fight.

P.S. This is 3.5 Dnd. They're level 6 (if that matters).

First make sure your group wants "more than just a fight" - some groups really like their plots to be simple and hackey - anything more and they actually grumble.

Assuming that's not the case - why not have the daughter not want to be rescued?

For a slightly comic turn: she's trying to "reform" the goblins and is working to make them "better" (this can either be ludicrous or laudable depending on goblins in your world) and can end well or very, very badly.

For a darker turn: full on Stockholm syndrome. The daughter has been integrated/brainwashed by the goblins and is fully with their cause. The PCs have to kidnap her back kicking and screaming with all the problems that implies - and then have to figure out some way (if even possible) to "reprogram" her (The nice bit is that 6th level is too low to easily accomplish the task with magic
).

 

[Starfox]

I find that the simplest scenarios often work out best. They leave plenty of room for the PCs to take the initiative and add plots of their own.

 

[LostSoul]

There's a lot of good content out there on the web.

Steal. Steal liberally.

 

[Doug McCrae]

1. The adventure is more difficult than it first seems. Goblin leader is a diabolist and has summoned some demons for aid. The cleric's daughter escaped from the goblins but got captured by some lycanthropes. And infected with lycanthropy!

2. The twist. The cleric's daughter hasn't really been kidnapped at all. The cleric had formed an alliance with the goblins, telling them when wealthy pilgrims would be travelling thru the area, enabling the goblins to ambush and murder the pilgrims, and taking a share of the loot. A new goblin leader has taken over, demanding a much bigger share and threatening to reveal the cleric's part in the scheme, so the cleric decided to use the PCs to get rid of the goblins. The daughter is actually in on the whole plan and is, in fact, the cleric's go-between with the tribe, currently residing there.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I'd echo some of the above in more broad form:

1. Motivations/secrets: Compelling reasons beyond the obvious for events.

(e.g. second in command cleric want's the main cleric out of the way and disgraced. he's in league with the goblins to extort money from the main cleric and humiliate him).

2. Other factions: Adding more than "pcs versus single npc group."

(e.g. The cleric has also hired another group of adventurers. They'll be racing the players to rescue the princess...only one group gets the reward. OR A group of gnolls/lycanthropes were aware of the goblin plan. They stole the girl from the goblins and now are working within the extortion plan in one, but don't have the prearranged deal with cleric 2. The goblins are mounting a strike force to get her back...will they ally with the players or compete with them?)

3. Interesting environments: On both the micro and macro level.

(e.g. It's an island...is there a volcano...is it active? Is that a place to avoid or head towards? That's the macro level. For micro level...the goblins live in a mangrove swamp that's difficult for creatures larger than size small to navigate through. They live in a cave that can only be accessed by swimming underwater. The lycanthropes live on a mountain, one that keeps them transformed most of the time because of the cold, but in a cave that they've fashioned to look like a maw, there is geothermal heat from the volcano, and it's roasting, and reeks of sweat.)

4. Interesting combat elements: Monster tactics and environmental advantage.

(e.g. The example earlier of goblins who live in and use baskets. Fights that take place under water. Fights that provide a nice advantage for players...like a player specialized in trip and balance fighting on a long rope bridge, able to trip goblin after goblin, who can only come at him one at a time. For monster tactics, they don't have to be EFFECTIVE tactics, just interesting. For the goblins, maybe they use "shock and awe" where they all run toward one pc, stab him for a round, then disengage and charge a different pc. Lycanthropes might act like their animals...wolves as a pack, tigers as springing from hiding, etc.)


5. Include one bizarre/unattainable/nonstandard reward.

(e.g. PCs find a vein of copper. It's worth a ton, but not easily obtainable. The reward could be intangible like free healing anytime they are able to come to the priest. It could be a treasure map. It could be a goblin servant devoted to them. It could be the cleric's daughter's love (in either big brother form or romantic form depending on her age). It could be knowledge that gives them an advantage later...like a map of the caves below the volcano, or a prophecy that it will erupt on the next full moon.

EDIT...one more.

6. Put some effort into making two NPCs memorable. Don't focus on too many and don't do only one. Players might get overwhelmed by too many, and only one means that the memorable NPC might never be encountered, might be seen as "oh this is the gimmick npc" or might be killed in one round.

(e.g. the goblin leader is very paranoid. he always has a stable of 4 regular goblins around him who are fanatically loyal and always aid another his hits or ac, he speaks in a whimpering manner or shouts commands, he will not go out during daytime, etc... Or the cleric who is a cleric of goodness, but has his faults such as gambling and drinking too much. Make pcs WANT to remember two characters...and remember they don't have to be the main characters in the adventure, they could be very interesting throwaways. To make them interesting, give them motivation, habits, a catch phrase, a prop, a pet, a particular style, a flaw, a behavioral quirk, and give them "screen time" if you can. Darth Maul, while a cool villian, was not very interesting because we didn't really see him do more than fight. Screen time can be accomplished with illusions, letters of communication, the reactions of others to them --goblin minions laugh at their king/are scared to death of him--, personal objects in their rooms, observing battles and speaking --but from a distance -- though that's risky, posession of minions if they have that power, simulacra, etc.)

 

[Living Legend]

Just add a little Emeril's Original Essence Seasoning, that aught to kick it up a notch... BAM!

Just kidding. I always like to write in scenarios that aren't really all that complicated if you know what happened, but to those on the outside it's hard to figure out. For instance, goblins tend to be durps, as in not a foe to really be feared, so maybe when the PC's fight a few goblins, but when they get to the lair to rescue the girl they find the place destroyed, and the girl gone. They have to figure out what happened and where the girl is. I would say that whatever destroyed the place should be much scarier than goblins, a real threat to the area. Maybe some gnolls came through and raided the goblins. In order to get the girl back and stop the threat (which might not mean defeating the gnolls, as they might be too much for the PC'ss to handle) they have to use some creativity. And I would also say that when all is said and done, the stop the threat but the girl ends up being dead, just because things don't always work out the way you wanted them to... but that is just my style.