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Running DDAL04 (Ravenloft) Adventures as a Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 8064732" data-attributes="member: 6702445"><p><strong>DDAL04-07 "The Innocent" & DDAL04-11 "The Donjon"</strong></p><p></p><p>Both of these adventures had some really great, flavorful stuff in them but were (IMVHO) frustratingly marred by having the displaced-Forgotten-Realms story elements shoehorned in. "The Innocent" has at its heart one of those stories of family tragedy that underpin the best adventures in this series. But the villain is lackluster (he doesn't even have a name!), the orcish archeological dig has no purpose except to say "Hey, there are orcs here," and the half-dragon-half-troll ghost is a serious WTF plot element unless the players happen to have played "Raiders of the Twilight Marsh" (DDEX1-12). And even if they have, it's still pretty random. "The Donjon," on the other hand, has a wonderfully creepy journey through the swamp (the screaming statues are simply great) and a nicely atmospheric if perhaps a little overlong dungeon crawl. But it all revolves around rescuing the leader of a random orc tribe from the Forgotten Realms and doesn't connect to Barovia much at all. So I tried to take the best bits of both adventures and turn them into one really good one. I would say I had mixed success; there are definitely things I would do differently if I were to run this again.</p><p></p><p>"The Innocent" shows signs of being substantially rewritten from its first version. The NPC summary on page 24 hints at a different, and more interesting, dynamic between Regold, Benedek, Sari, and the Visitor from what is in the finished adventure. Regold, Sari, and Benedek were in a love triangle.* The Visitor also became infatuated with Sari and deceived Regold into murdering Benedek in a jealous rage, but Regold also killed Sari as well (accidentally?). The Visitor then intended to sacrifice Regold in order to resurrect Sari. This is good, juicy stuff, but there's no room for the ghost and the gloves, so presumably it had to be rewritten to work in those plot elements. I tried to restore some of the original storyline by bringing back the love triangle (see the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/running-ddal04-adventures-as-a-campaign.657625/page-2#post-7802110" target="_blank">opening scene</a> I added to "The Broken One," for example).</p><p></p><p>Broadly, the way I combined the adventures was this: I took the opening scenario of "The Innocent" and followed it as far as when the characters enter the Glumpen Swamp. The journey then continues with some selected encounters from the swamp journey in "The Donjon," bringing the PCs to the Tower of the Chained Man and the first level of the maze beneath. That leads to the "Vault of the Royal Dead" section of "The Innocent," where the final showdown takes place. Since both underground areas have a serpent theme, they tie together nicely.</p><p></p><p>The toughest part was getting the adventure started. Since I had a brain lapse and neglected to give the main villain much buildup in the previous adventure, I opted to use Sergenna Bogarav, since I had already decided to expand her role in the later part of the series. I had her come into town to warn the PCs that she had just done a Tarokka reading, trying to determine the whereabouts of the vampire who had bitten Lela Moslavaric. The cards told her that there was a charlatan posing as a holy man, and that he was a danger to the innocent.</p><p></p><p>I thought that would get the PCs looking for Father Onegin and planned for them to find some more clues in his room at the burgomaster's house, but again I bobbled the exposition and they ended up going straight to the forest without getting any of the background info.</p><p></p><p>*ETA: Or at least, that's one way to read the reference to Regold being "jealous."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jayoungr, post: 8064732, member: 6702445"] [B]DDAL04-07 "The Innocent" & DDAL04-11 "The Donjon"[/B] Both of these adventures had some really great, flavorful stuff in them but were (IMVHO) frustratingly marred by having the displaced-Forgotten-Realms story elements shoehorned in. "The Innocent" has at its heart one of those stories of family tragedy that underpin the best adventures in this series. But the villain is lackluster (he doesn't even have a name!), the orcish archeological dig has no purpose except to say "Hey, there are orcs here," and the half-dragon-half-troll ghost is a serious WTF plot element unless the players happen to have played "Raiders of the Twilight Marsh" (DDEX1-12). And even if they have, it's still pretty random. "The Donjon," on the other hand, has a wonderfully creepy journey through the swamp (the screaming statues are simply great) and a nicely atmospheric if perhaps a little overlong dungeon crawl. But it all revolves around rescuing the leader of a random orc tribe from the Forgotten Realms and doesn't connect to Barovia much at all. So I tried to take the best bits of both adventures and turn them into one really good one. I would say I had mixed success; there are definitely things I would do differently if I were to run this again. "The Innocent" shows signs of being substantially rewritten from its first version. The NPC summary on page 24 hints at a different, and more interesting, dynamic between Regold, Benedek, Sari, and the Visitor from what is in the finished adventure. Regold, Sari, and Benedek were in a love triangle.* The Visitor also became infatuated with Sari and deceived Regold into murdering Benedek in a jealous rage, but Regold also killed Sari as well (accidentally?). The Visitor then intended to sacrifice Regold in order to resurrect Sari. This is good, juicy stuff, but there's no room for the ghost and the gloves, so presumably it had to be rewritten to work in those plot elements. I tried to restore some of the original storyline by bringing back the love triangle (see the [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/running-ddal04-adventures-as-a-campaign.657625/page-2#post-7802110']opening scene[/URL] I added to "The Broken One," for example). Broadly, the way I combined the adventures was this: I took the opening scenario of "The Innocent" and followed it as far as when the characters enter the Glumpen Swamp. The journey then continues with some selected encounters from the swamp journey in "The Donjon," bringing the PCs to the Tower of the Chained Man and the first level of the maze beneath. That leads to the "Vault of the Royal Dead" section of "The Innocent," where the final showdown takes place. Since both underground areas have a serpent theme, they tie together nicely. The toughest part was getting the adventure started. Since I had a brain lapse and neglected to give the main villain much buildup in the previous adventure, I opted to use Sergenna Bogarav, since I had already decided to expand her role in the later part of the series. I had her come into town to warn the PCs that she had just done a Tarokka reading, trying to determine the whereabouts of the vampire who had bitten Lela Moslavaric. The cards told her that there was a charlatan posing as a holy man, and that he was a danger to the innocent. I thought that would get the PCs looking for Father Onegin and planned for them to find some more clues in his room at the burgomaster's house, but again I bobbled the exposition and they ended up going straight to the forest without getting any of the background info. *ETA: Or at least, that's one way to read the reference to Regold being "jealous." [/QUOTE]
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