Camping and D&D: Preparing for the Trip

I've been recently named Scoutmaster of my Boy Scout troop, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to introduce Dungeons & Dragons to my younger Scouts during camp downtime. But first, I had to come up with something for them to play.

The Camp​

Every year our Troop goes to a week-long camp. Each Troop gets its own campground, but comes together for activities on the lake waterfront and for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Scouts sign up for merit badge coursework throughout the week at a scheduled time every day for an hour (or, for more complicated badges, two hours). These can range from game design to animation to all the other badges associated with camping and the outdoors, like kayaking, emergency procedures, etc. I've been to camp once before and recognized that, particularly for new scouts who haven't bonded with the larger Troop, having something to do during downtime is important. So I put together a traditional dungeon crawl that they could easily join. Except, because I'm me, I went way overboard.

The plan was to play a game each day for a few hours in the center meeting space of our camp, after merit badge work was over but before dinner. These hours tend to be when scouts just hang out on their phones, get into trouble, call their parents, and otherwise feel lonely. Keeping them occupied is critical, and getting them to bond even more-so.

Map courtesy of Dyson Logos.​

The Adventure​

I build my adventures as if they are visits to my campaign world. This means that while higher level adult players may be trying to stop the apocalypse (the 7-8th level adventure in the above graphic), I create lower level adventures that take place behind the scenes for lower-level characters. I did this for my Troop once before when I taught the Game Design merit badge, so this adventure (the third "chapter" in the series) was similar.

In this case a clockwork tower erupted out of the ground near a marshland village, creating a swarm of constructs of various types. These constructs have been burrowing underground, creating mazes of sorts (dungeons), and in doing so drove the underground creatures who lived peacefully there above ground. These plant-creatures range from humanoid-looking to alien in nature, and their burrowing upwards to escape the clockworks caused the nearby village to sink further into the marsh. Abandoned, the remaining townsfolk have scraped together a reward to reclaim their home. It's up to the player characters to clear the place out.

For the town, I used Dyson's map of a Ruined Canal City. Dyson Logos' maps are amazing. You can choose form a huge variety of commercial-free maps at Dyon's Dodacehdron and if you're so inclined, support Dyson Logos on Patreon. I then threw together some monsters, mostly inspired by the Oz supplement I'm working on but taken from some of the other monster compendiums I've published.

For the dungeons beneath the town, I used Donjon's fantastic generator. There are dozens of generators at that site, so I highly recommend buying Donjon a coffee. I then switched out the monsters the dungeon created with creature lairs from the town above for the first level, and with clockworks from my own monster supplements for the second level. I now had three levels of adventure (town, basements, proper dungeon) to keep my players occupied for hours.

For the Players​

For the characters, I used Digital Dungeon Master's pre-made character sheets. I picked the least complicated characters. I also printed out multiple copies with the plan being that, as the characters would advance a level each day.

I have many Reaper miniatures, I've painted, so I set aside a bunch for use, trusting the players to pick the ones they liked best. I also have a lot of dice, so I separate them out into dice bags by color. The plan was that at the end of the camping trip, the players would get to keep their dice and miniatures. My goal was to get these Scouts interested in the game, and owning dice and a miniature is a great way to get started.

Packing for the Trip​

When I play D&D at home, I use all kinds of terrain, miniatures, and dice for our games. But taking the game on the road would require a lighter touch because we also have to pack my son's gear and mine for a week.

The first thing I did was commit to rolled-up maps. There's plenty of flat table space at camp, so we could stretch out as needed. But to give it a little flair, I used Dungeon Craft's Cursed Lands for both paper miniatures and buildings. This meant I was going to need to cut up a bunch of miniatures, so I spent the better half of an afternoon slicing everything up and separating it into plastic bags for easy transport and reference.

I realized afterward that many of my monsters weren't adequately represented by those paper miniatures, so I created my own. This took another day of finding the right graphic, sizing it appropriately, and cutting it out.

But the real test is carrying it. I have two different backpacks, one by Trunab which retails for $80, and one by AFUOWER that retails for $60. In the end, I chose the Trunab backpack because it's better suited for carrying up rolled-up maps. It comes with a sleeve to protect the maps, and the straps to hold it against the backpack are much sturdier.

I was ready. Now I just had to convince them to play with me. It turns out nature had other plans.

 

[jedijon]

I anticipate rain and wind for outdoor activities. Good luck!