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T1 Moathouse adapted to Torchbearer
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8838058" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I've never used T1 or the Moathouse. I do have some thoughts about the contrast between the D&D version and the Torchbearer adaption, that I'll explain below.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It took several hours - probably single digit, but more than just a few. Some of that was typing; some of that was thinking.</p><p></p><p>To explain the thinking, I'm going to borrow a contentious phrase once used by Thor (the Torchbearer lead designer) to describe some of these old D&D modules. This was in the old Burning THACO pdf, which I think is no longer available but used to be hosted on the Burning Wheel website and discussed how to adapt old D&D modules to BW. I guess it's not there anymore because it's been superseded by Torchbearer.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, in that document Thor said that some of those old modules have "the structural integrity of mushy peas". What he meant by this, from the Burning Wheel perspective, is that they have no innate narrative trajectory - they have obstacles and challenges, but these just sort of "sit there" with little innate dynamism to them. In the context of the moathouse, I would put the following things into that category: the killer frogs, the giant lizard, the giant snake, and at least to an extent the undead in the dungeon.</p><p></p><p>For me, the key thing in the conversion was to impose the sort of structure that is central to Torchbearer. TB isn't BW - it has site-based adventuring at its core. But it uses some of the same core "procedures" or "tech" as BW: no retries (BW calls that "let it ride", TB calls that "fun once"); and when a check fails, things happen in response (ie "fail forward"): in BW this is done via "intent and task"; in TB, a failed check either means that the player (and PC) achieve their intent but the PC suffers a condition, or else there is a "twist" which is a new obstacle that has to be confronted.</p><p></p><p>So in doing the conversion, I tried to pick up elements of the moathouse but reframe them through this lens of obstacles and twists. This is how I've dealt with the killer frogs, with the rotten drawbridge, with the brigands having (in the original) a 50% chance to be on watch as the PCs approach the entryway, with the giant tick in the kitchen, with the very-hard-to-find-in-the-original secret door in the torture room, and with the two secret doors in the dungeon that gate access to the "inner" area including Lareth's chambers. I've also used this to try and make the rubble in front of the storerooms more interesting - rereading that, as much as an aptrgangr attack it could be a Gnoll ambush that makes for a good twist there.</p><p></p><p>There are parts of the Moathouse that I think do have structural integrity (in Thor's sense) in the original, and that I've tried to preserve and build on in my conversion: the brigands setting an ambush if they spot the PCs; the bats that can extinguish light sources; the green slime (creeping ooze) at the bottom of the stairs to the dungeon; the politics with the Gnolls; and the possible negotiations with Lareth.</p><p></p><p>I hope that what I've described above helps show how the conversion is not just from one set of stats to another, but from one set of procedures of play (unstructured or semi-structured exploration) to a different set of procedures - the Torchbearer ones, which as I've tried to explain place a greater emphasis on "narrative" dynamism.</p><p></p><p>Another aspect of converting, that was more technical, is to have halved most numbers appearing; to turn the giant snake into a giant lizard and drop the lizard from where it appears (the loose rubble in that room seems enough to me); to drop the giant crayfish in the dungeon pool (the challenge for getting the loot seemed enough, and for me the giant crayfish strained credulity); and to move the Gnolls into the Ogre's room, which then allows me to put most of the Bugbears into what was the Gnolls' room while having their shaman on his own in the stranger area that the module originally has all of them in.</p><p></p><p>I also had to convert treasure - which I did by having an eye on the TB rules for loot drops, and thus mostly cutting down or in some cases getting rid of altogether the rather generous Gygaxian loot; and I had to make up a few new monster stat blocks: for killer frogs, the giant lizard and the giant tick.</p><p></p><p>That's a long answer but hopefully gives a sense of how I went about it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8838058, member: 42582"] I've never used T1 or the Moathouse. I do have some thoughts about the contrast between the D&D version and the Torchbearer adaption, that I'll explain below. It took several hours - probably single digit, but more than just a few. Some of that was typing; some of that was thinking. To explain the thinking, I'm going to borrow a contentious phrase once used by Thor (the Torchbearer lead designer) to describe some of these old D&D modules. This was in the old Burning THACO pdf, which I think is no longer available but used to be hosted on the Burning Wheel website and discussed how to adapt old D&D modules to BW. I guess it's not there anymore because it's been superseded by Torchbearer. Anyway, in that document Thor said that some of those old modules have "the structural integrity of mushy peas". What he meant by this, from the Burning Wheel perspective, is that they have no innate narrative trajectory - they have obstacles and challenges, but these just sort of "sit there" with little innate dynamism to them. In the context of the moathouse, I would put the following things into that category: the killer frogs, the giant lizard, the giant snake, and at least to an extent the undead in the dungeon. For me, the key thing in the conversion was to impose the sort of structure that is central to Torchbearer. TB isn't BW - it has site-based adventuring at its core. But it uses some of the same core "procedures" or "tech" as BW: no retries (BW calls that "let it ride", TB calls that "fun once"); and when a check fails, things happen in response (ie "fail forward"): in BW this is done via "intent and task"; in TB, a failed check either means that the player (and PC) achieve their intent but the PC suffers a condition, or else there is a "twist" which is a new obstacle that has to be confronted. So in doing the conversion, I tried to pick up elements of the moathouse but reframe them through this lens of obstacles and twists. This is how I've dealt with the killer frogs, with the rotten drawbridge, with the brigands having (in the original) a 50% chance to be on watch as the PCs approach the entryway, with the giant tick in the kitchen, with the very-hard-to-find-in-the-original secret door in the torture room, and with the two secret doors in the dungeon that gate access to the "inner" area including Lareth's chambers. I've also used this to try and make the rubble in front of the storerooms more interesting - rereading that, as much as an aptrgangr attack it could be a Gnoll ambush that makes for a good twist there. There are parts of the Moathouse that I think do have structural integrity (in Thor's sense) in the original, and that I've tried to preserve and build on in my conversion: the brigands setting an ambush if they spot the PCs; the bats that can extinguish light sources; the green slime (creeping ooze) at the bottom of the stairs to the dungeon; the politics with the Gnolls; and the possible negotiations with Lareth. I hope that what I've described above helps show how the conversion is not just from one set of stats to another, but from one set of procedures of play (unstructured or semi-structured exploration) to a different set of procedures - the Torchbearer ones, which as I've tried to explain place a greater emphasis on "narrative" dynamism. Another aspect of converting, that was more technical, is to have halved most numbers appearing; to turn the giant snake into a giant lizard and drop the lizard from where it appears (the loose rubble in that room seems enough to me); to drop the giant crayfish in the dungeon pool (the challenge for getting the loot seemed enough, and for me the giant crayfish strained credulity); and to move the Gnolls into the Ogre's room, which then allows me to put most of the Bugbears into what was the Gnolls' room while having their shaman on his own in the stranger area that the module originally has all of them in. I also had to convert treasure - which I did by having an eye on the TB rules for loot drops, and thus mostly cutting down or in some cases getting rid of altogether the rather generous Gygaxian loot; and I had to make up a few new monster stat blocks: for killer frogs, the giant lizard and the giant tick. That's a long answer but hopefully gives a sense of how I went about it. [/QUOTE]
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