Campaign setpieces

[rounser]

Not really referring to adventures as such, but more a state of play, if that makes sense.

1) PCs are slaves, with lent gear, forced to fight in gladiatorial combat before they eventually escape or earn their freedom (as in the Dark Sun module Freedom) or otherwise thrown into a dungeon gearless (as in the Greyhawk module In The Dungeons of the Slavelords).

2) PCs are guiding a large group of refugees overland to safety. They must find food for the group, scout, guide them away from the roaming armies, and contend with the internal politics of the refugee council (as in the Dragonlance module Dragons of Hope).

3) The PCs are helping defend a fort which is being besieged by orcs, and their ideas and swordarms are pivotal to success (as in the Dungeon magazine adventure The Siege of Kratys Freehold).

Although these are all from published adventures, other examples needn't be...I'd be interested to hear what memorable ones you've played in or DM'd, or failing that would like to one day.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

3) The PCs are helping defend a fort which is being besieged by orcs, and their ideas and swordarms are pivotal to success

I've used this. It works well, especially if you have half-orc rogues or necromancers in the group, because everyone in the fort is just so darn desperate.

Another good one is stranding them on an island. You have to put up with a lot of "Gilligan" jokes though.

 

[RangerWickett]

1. While on an overland quest, an ally of the party is stricken by an ancient magic that stole her soul and left her asleep. The woman's enemies still follow the party as they try to find out where her soul is and how to get it back. Toss in a healthy helping of air-elemental theme so that the eventual rescue of the woman's soul can occur in a massive storm. The PCs each had an individual friendship with the woman, and as they work together they become friends of each other.

2. The group flees a society that is building a doomsday device, and in their flight they uncover that they unknowingly possess the final piece the society needs to end the world.

3. The party keeps falling into plots and conspiracies between the light Elves and dark Elves in one large forest, and they eventually realize that one PC is the son of the main conspirator pitting the two sides against each other.

 

[F5]

When I was actively DMing, I used "setpieces" similar to this, but a little different.

Rather than mini-scenarios like you've got, I would plot out locations as setpieces. The abandoned, ruined crystal city, whose ancient Automaton guardians are still keeping watch over the broken shards, was one location. Another was an ancient city, carved entirely out of one mammoth block of red marble.

I'd have a notebook full of locations, but I'd let the campaign and the players dictate how I'd use them. I had maps and stats worked out for a giant clockwork Dwarven machine in the tunnels under a city before I had figured out that that's where the BBEG would make his final escape to, leading the heroes on a chase through smashing gears and steam-filled tubes, and etc.

It was handy to have a collection of fantastic locations easy to hand, so when I needed something impressive on short notice, I could just reach into my notebook and Voila!

I never did use pre-made adventure modules, though...

 

[RangerWickett]

Guideline for making a cool fight.

Pick at least three things from the following list.

• Different power levels of bad guys, typically with a lot of weak villains and a few toughs. The weak bad guys keep the party divided so they can't all pound on the main villain. Perhaps instead have two different groups of villains, so the fight is a three-way conflict.
• Different terrain or elevation, consisting of at least three options. Perhaps ground floor, balcony, and catwalk in a warehouse; or forest canopy, treetop village, and marshy forest floor. The idea is to encourage people to move from one area to another in the course of the fight. Have some sort of objective in each area.
• Items people can use as weapons or defenses in a pinch. Even some low cover adds a lot if a PC has a crossbow and can snipe. Barrels to roll, windows to throw people through, chandeliers to swing from, or furniture that can be moved.
• A goal other than beating the opposition by force of arms. Maybe you have to disarm a bomb the suicide cult placed, or defend a group of mages casting a spell that will save the world from invading demons, or maybe you need to yank the Jade Circlet off the wrist of Lsi Pu so that he loses control of the Dragon of Thirty Lightnings.
• Use a villain the party didn't manage to beat before. They'll really want to beat him now.
• Make certain types of combat more or less effective. If there are a lot of ledges on a winding canyon, sniping is useful at times, but your opponent has a lot of ways to get cover. If you're in a rainstorm, ranged attacks are hard to use. If you're standing at a planar gate to the dimension of magnetism, you'll really want to fight unarmed.
• Impose a time limit on the fight. If the party is fighting on a sinking ship, or on a train headed for the end of the tracks, they'll be especially unlikely to dawdle.
• Hazards in the battlefield. Vats of molten steel. Fields of slowed or halted time. Areas with landmines or spikes.
• Reward mobility. Have places that require balance, jump, or climb checks to reach.
• Stunning Visuals. Hard to do in a vocal game like D&D, but if you can capture the essence of a locale that impresses on multiple sensory levels, it will be memorable. Never have fights in spare dungeons rooms. At least make them be riddled with cracks in the stone, and filled with skittering insects, or have a cacophonous echo of dripping water from the flooded chambers overhead, or have the undead be tattooed with colorful depictions of angels denying their god.