T1: The Village of Hommlet - why are the PCs there?

[MerricB]

Quick question about the original AD&D module: Why are the PCs in Hommlet?

I was reading through the old adventure recently, and I was struck by a line in the description of Lareth: Lareth has been really careful and his taken his bandits quite some distance away for raids. This seems somewhat at odds at the description in the introduction of rising lawlessness around Hommlet.

Cheers!

 

[jaerdaph]

Tavern hopping?

 

[MerricB]

Tavern hopping?

"Inn of the Welcome Wench! Now, that's a name I like!"

"Next stop, Verbobonc!"

Cheers!

 

[Ed_Laprade]

To kill things and take their stuff!

Actually, I was reading my old copy a couple of weeks ago and caught that too. One good reason would be if all the (1st level) characters came from there. The only things going against that are that everyone in town is pretty much mentioned and the lack of diversity for divine characters. (St. Cuthbert and Druids are it.) On the other hand, one thing we did at one point was to have all the characters either come from there or be kin. (Lots of cousins.) This allowed us to be from close by, but scattered so that comparing notes allowed us to realise that things were worse in a larger area than we thought. An area centered, more-or-less, on Hommlet, but mostly excluding it.

How others handled it I don't know.

 

[The Ghost]

Because the PCs are on their way up from the wild coast and have run out of cash? At least, that is what I remember from playing the module.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

When I ran it, I had a relative of one of the characters who was a resident go missing.

 

[Votan]

To kill things and take their stuff!

Actually, I was reading my old copy a couple of weeks ago and caught that too. One good reason would be if all the (1st level) characters came from there. The only things going against that are that everyone in town is pretty much mentioned and the lack of diversity for divine characters. (St. Cuthbert and Druids are it.) On the other hand, one thing we did at one point was to have all the characters either come from there or be kin. (Lots of cousins.) This allowed us to be from close by, but scattered so that comparing notes allowed us to realise that things were worse in a larger area than we thought. An area centered, more-or-less, on Hommlet, but mostly excluding it.

How others handled it I don't know.

I like this approach a lot as it also gives a detailed home town for the player characters. It is amazing how many interesting subplots can be worked into the game if you actually have a detailed town and relations to the PCs to work with.

 

[darjr]

It's at a crossroads. They get folks passing through, ya know.

It does say something about being broke and needing to hole up for a bit. Harmless unknown village at a crossroads seems like a good enough place.

Though I always thought of it as a retracing of an older brothers steps in his fight in that last war with evil. He went to fight the good fight but was never heard from again, the village would be as good a place to start as any, his last known whereabouts before the real fighting started.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Like a lot of the older published adventures, the hook for the PC's was left for the DM to decide to suit the individual campaign.

 

[D'karr]

Quick question about the original AD&D module: Why are the PCs in Hommlet?

I was reading through the old adventure recently, and I was struck by a line in the description of Lareth: Lareth has been really careful and his taken his bandits quite some distance away for raids. This seems somewhat at odds at the description in the introduction of rising lawlessness around Hommlet.

Cheers!

The lawlessness is rising around Hommlet, which seems to imply that Lareth's raids far away are working to keep attention off Hommlet and the Moathouse.

Hommlet might seem like an idyllic base of operations away from the lawlessness.