Multiadventuring!

[Li Shenron]

The last couple of adventures I have run in our (very slow) campaign have been a bit too much straightforward. I am looking forward to make an experiment of merging two published adventures into a single thing, and see if it works.

Have you done this and how did it work?

The two adventures (yet to be chosen) don't have to necessarily be even connected, except that of course they will happen in the same general location and at the same time. It could be similar to what happens in a CRPG like Baldur's Gate: the party can be involved in more plots at the same time, which might be completely separate, and the players choose which is their priority at a given moment, but keep investigating both.

Is this very difficult to run? What are the main dangers to look for when preparing and then running such a mix?

If you also have a suggestion on which adventures could go together quite well, let me know. If it may be too difficult to run two at the same time, one of them can be from the simple online adventures at WotC's website.

 

[Turanil]

Mix two very different things, or the players are likely to be confused and not understand what's happeneing. For example I would have:

1) A political intrigue between noble houses or what not, requiring subtlety.
2) A den of monsters, clearly unrelated to the above plot, from which raiders pour into the countryside, etc.

Of curse in their political dissension, the noble houses could accuse each others of being at the origin of the monsters' raids, while it is an independant event.

 

[Thanee]

The only time where I did something like that was when running Ravenloft and Ravenloft II at the same time, but that is somewhat special on that behalf.

In general, I don't think it is any different to running a single adventure. You just have more NPCs and plots and sideplots to keep in mind.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Li Shenron]

Mix two very different things, or the players are likely to be confused and not understand what's happeneing.

This should turn into a benefit, to make things a little more complicated to sort out, compared to the recent adventures.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I have run Ravenloft/Ravenloft II simultaneously, like Thanee, but recently I combined several adventures to great effect. I had to heavily alter parts of them, of course.

When I began my campaign, the party started in Homlett and found out that bandits were operating from two different bases. One was the moathouse (the original Temple of Elemental Evil version) and the other was a small keep (taken from Necromancer Games' Crucible of Freya). They took care of these two and made contact with the adventurers in Homlett, who went off to destroy the temple. Meanwhile, the party followed leads they found on the villains from the moathouse and keep and went to the nearby Lortmil Mountains to attack a suspected temple of Orcus (Stoneheart Mountain dungeon from Tomb of Abysthor). Leaving there in need of a resurrection (without having explored the entire complex and vowing to return in the future), the party travelled to Verbobonc City. There, they investigated two kidnappings, one of a young Elven maiden by Bugbears (Vanity from a Dungeon magazine) and the other a merchant's daughter (another Dungeon adventure). Hearing from some halfling contacts in the vicinity of Homlett (at the keep from Crucible of Freya, where the party established a halfling village and set up a former PC as mayor) that a dragon was spotted in the vicinity, they returned to the area and tracked the dragon down to the moathouse they had cleared out months ago. This time, they entered the moathouse again (the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil version now, though the dragon was green). They are now (after clearing the moathouse for the second time) 8th or 9th level.

So, as the campaign progresses, they will have pieces of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Tomb of Abysthor active as well. I am not going to use the Crater Ridge Mines from RttToEE, but am using a string of Dungeon magazine adventures, Necromancer Games products and some Monte Cook adventures. Soon, the party will be headed to Sterich for another set of interconnected adventures.

So, it can work. Just be careful to keep the details clear. I used printed handouts of letters and a diary found on the villains to keep the party going.

DM

 

[diaglo]

Read the Story hour in my sig. caution it contains spoilers.

Currently the DM, Olgar Shiverstone, has at least 3 published adventures in motion.. RttToEE, Banewarrens, and CotSQ.

 

[Li Shenron]

Hype! Those two lasts posts are really encouraging... If wolf70 have combined so many adventures and Olgar those 3 huge ones, then anything can be done My plans are more humble, such as merging Speaker in Dreams with Standing Stone or another duet from that old 3.0 line.

Another question, how about two adventures with (slightly) different levels, such as those 2 I mentioned? It would seem more obvious to use 2 adventures at the same level, but perhaps a bit more variety in the challenges can also provide a sort of realism and lesser unpredictability. Or is it just wrong?

 

[Voadam]

I've run Lord of the Iron Fortress and Demon God's Fane at the same time, having the plot hooks from one mix into the other. They are both for 15th level characters and the party mostly did preliminary investigations for one, then almost exclusively focused on the other while having NPCs do some research and periodic checking in on them for the first and are now at 16th level deep back into the first one again. There was some PC confusion as they believed everything had to be tied into one big plot even though the connections were not obvious (or as it turned out, even there). Both of the plots were tied into the party's prior actions in the banewarrens and the campaign world history. I also had a campaign plot of imperial civil war erupting around the same time as they were on the frontier dealing with one of the module plots.

It adds a lot to the campaign to have plots on the back burner and have independent world actions ongoing that the PCs know about and can get involved in. Foreshadowing of things to be addressed adds substance and cohesion to a long term campaign and makes the experience more of a deep story type of thing than the feel of a series of single issue comics that some campaigns can have.

 

[diaglo]

Another question, how about two adventures with (slightly) different levels, such as those 2 I mentioned? It would seem more obvious to use 2 adventures at the same level, but perhaps a bit more variety in the challenges can also provide a sort of realism and lesser unpredictability. Or is it just wrong?

you have to lay the groundwork.

say the lower level adventure has key figures who answer to someone in the higher level adventure.

or there is an item which is a key plot item in the lower adventure to be used in the higher.

do research and place things accordingly. cults, groups, monsters, letters, secret handshakes, maps, etc...

 

[JoeBlank]

I don't know if you would say I ran 2 adventures at the same time, but I did run them back to back with an interwoven plot.

Pretty simple, actually. Both Necromancer modules, Morrick Mansion and Hall of the Rainbow Mage. In MM the mansion and grounds are beset by a strange curse, and in Hall the Rainbow Mage is missing. So I planted clues during the MM adventure that led the PCs to discovery that the Rainbow Mage was behind the curse. Once they finished MM they had all the hooks they needed to head over to the Hall and start poking around there.

Nothing near as complicated as the juggling act Olgar is doing. As a player in that game, I am amazed when our actions in the Banewarrens have significan effects way down the line in CotSQ, for instance. Makes the campaign feel alive.