DMs, how the heck do you run Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk?

[ozreth]

So, I am not the most experienced DM in the world, but certainly competent enough to run a published module.

I've decided to run ERGH. It's a pretty awesome module and the first session went really well. Thanks to how much fluff is presented for the city of Greyhawk we had 6 hours of in town role play after the opening fight, and it was all relevant to the plot. This is awesome.

But now they are about to descend into the castle for the first time. As anybody who has played this knows, not every room is detailed, in fact only a few are. For the rest of the dungeon we are supposed to make up our own rooms and roll random encounters.

My problem is this: Where do I put the random rooms? How often? How do I make them feel like they fit? How do I remember where every single random room is? What are in these rooms when the players come back up?

This is all very overwhelming for me. I would love some advice on what route other DM's took when running it?

Thanks : )

 

[HoboGod]

A random element in a premade adventure is generally supposed to be mundane filler, the droll bit of meaningless carnage and intrigue that serves no purpose other than to ensure the players do not get overwhelmed by everything else that's going on. Pick something silly out of Grimtooth's Traps, drop a puzzle that's a blatant rip-off of Legend of Zelda, or just improvise a pathetic encounter that makes the party feel good about themselves for not sucking. As long as you don't go crazy, no matter what you put in the room, the players wont question if it fits or not, they'll just roll with it. As the DM, you'll probably be putting twice the thought into these rooms than any of your players, so don't feel bad if you mix up rooms, your players wont notice.

As for when and where? Well, if it needs to be at a certain time and place, it really isn't random. Seriously, though, if you feel like your party needs a break from what the book wants to throw next, nows a good time for one of these random diversions.

 

[ozreth]

oops double post, see below.

 

[ozreth]

A random element in a premade adventure is generally supposed to be mundane filler, the droll bit of meaningless carnage and intrigue that serves no purpose other than to ensure the players do not get overwhelmed by everything else that's going on. Pick something silly out of Grimtooth's Traps, drop a puzzle that's a blatant rip-off of Legend of Zelda, or just improvise a pathetic encounter that makes the party feel good about themselves for not sucking. As long as you don't go crazy, no matter what you put in the room, the players wont question if it fits or not, they'll just roll with it. As the DM, you'll probably be putting twice the thought into these rooms than any of your players, so don't feel bad if you mix up rooms, your players wont notice.

As for when and where? Well, if it needs to be at a certain time and place, it really isn't random. Seriously, though, if you feel like your party needs a break from what the book wants to throw next, nows a good time for one of these random diversions.

Good advice, thanks : ) i guess I just feel like Im supposed to be filling up the entire castle with 20+ rooms of my own design since there are so few rooms detailed in the module. It leaves entire levels blank and gives a two sentence description about each one : /

 

[ValhallaGH]

The other thing to remember is that a ruin is allowed to have empty rooms. Not every chamber needs a desperate fight, a diabolical trap, an imperiled damsel, or a slavering fiend. Some rooms are just empty rooms, and using this lets you build up the creepiness and horrible surprise of the actual encounters.

Good luck.

 

[ozreth]

The other thing to remember is that a ruin is allowed to have empty rooms. Not every chamber needs a desperate fight, a diabolical trap, an imperiled damsel, or a slavering fiend. Some rooms are just empty rooms, and using this lets you build up the creepiness and horrible surprise of the actual encounters.

Good luck.

Good call : )

 

[maelifisis]

That is SO true. If you've ever walked through a castle, Mayan temple or other old ruin, you have noticed just how many rooms are left bare. Tour guides have said how the people who restored the place found only rotted wood and other stuff so moldy and fallen apart that they could not always be identified. That is on the occasions they found anything more than a bare room.

In an adventure, undefined rooms can be lots of fun. I often tell my players that the room is completely bare, or if I've decided it is full of debris, I'll say something along the lines of:

"You come to a room full of unidentifiable mounds of rotted wood and other materials that were, perhaps, furniture at one time. There is no telling what vermin - or treasures - may inhabit that mess."

They love it and nearly always take the bait, doing search rolls and taking 20 when appropriate, as I roll for random treasure and the possibility of random encounters. Sometimes an undefined room can be a highlight to an already awesome adventure.

The danger is letting random/unidentified rooms take precedence over the rest of your adventure. And after searching through several rooms, my team usually gets tired of calling the same actions and making the same rolls again and again.

A trick we use to speed up the action is to do what we call a Quick Search: After the team has ensured the room has no threats, I use the modifier of the PC on the team with the best Search score, rolling secretly to see if they find anything. Or, if I have already decided the room has nothing of value, I roll a die (or dice for a large room), ignore the result, and tell my players they have found nothing of value. They move on and the game keeps a good pace.

Just my two cents.

 

[ozreth]

You are right about the empty rooms. Putting them here and there and the rolling for random treasure and encounters could be fun, I rarely used random tables. It'll add some excitement even for me.

As for your quick checks, couldn't everybody just take 10's and 20's?

 

[Nebten]

For quick checks you could take 10. Taking 20 is like going over the place in great detail. Not a problem if you aren't in a rush, but if there is a time limit, taking 20 on every room is very "in-game" time consuming.