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Temple of Elemental Evil is the next Original Adventures Reincarnated
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<blockquote data-quote="fearsomepirate" data-source="post: 7978439" data-attributes="member: 7021420"><p>I have 1-2 sessions left of TOEE. This has been a highly memorable 2-year campaign, and I've gotten tons of positive feedback from my players. I convert it to 5e on the fly using a cheat sheet (or used to; I've practically got it memorized now). Here's my general advice.</p><p></p><p>1. Giving XP for loot is essential. It took a while for my players to adjust, but once they really understood that slogging through the killing fields is mostly a waste of time compared to finding a treasure hoard, it completely changed the dynamics of the game.</p><p></p><p>2. Slow down the leveling pace. I use the AD&D Thief XP chart for everyone. First of all, if you don't do this, they'll be going through the later areas like a hot knife through butter. Second of all, it changes the mentality from "We Leroy Jenkins through this in a couple sessions once we level up" to "We need to find a way to deal with this other than Leroy Jenkinsing our way through it."</p><p></p><p>3. You really, really need to add your own color to the monsters. They shouldn't all just attack on sight. I used the Reaction roll from the AD&D DMG. Some monsters were friendly, some were cunning, some hostile, some dissatisfied with their employment and open to a better offer...the last thing Temple should be is one room after another of smash-door-kill-orc. And don't forget to have the denizens react rationally to incursions, recruiting new help, setting up traps and fortifications, moving treasure to more secure locations, etc.</p><p></p><p>Here's an example from my run of the game: the Earth Node has a pair of adult dragons, and that's about all it says. I left them adult for the fun of it, named them Steve and Carol. Carol is an overbearing nag, and Steve is a hen-pecked husband who jumps on any excuse he can to get out of the cave. So when the party approached the cave, they could hear Carol barking at Steve to go outside and check out that noise...at which point Steve lazily flew out, clearly noticed the party, and called back that he couldn't find anybody, but he'll keep looking. The party cautiously approached Steve and, to make a long story short, negotiated not being killed and eaten in exchange for helping the dragons escape the node. They made their way out through the fourth floor, with the dragons making short work of the ogres and bugbears in their way. Steve and Carol, of course, are still evil dragons, so they attacked Burne's tower and grabbed some treasure, and they are now terrorizing a remote area of Veluna, and will need to be dealt with at some point. (If this story sounds familiar, I have told it with the details changed to throw my players off my online scent.)</p><p></p><p>The stories and events you hang on the tiniest hooks will be what makes this adventure memorable, and why no two runs of Temple are really anything alike. Your players will swear it's one of the best adventures ever played, and be astonished to learn that the past several sessions grew out of, "There are six bugbears in this room."</p><p></p><p>In my campaign, the last year has been almost wholly unscripted. They accidentally released Zuggtmoy, and there is no guidance in the book for what to do afterward. I have had her gradually taking over the Gnarley Forest, and the party has been working double time to try and stop her. Next session is the moment of truth: can they put this genie back in the bottle, or will the country succumb to fungal rot?</p><p></p><p>4. Don't worry about having too many magic items. Temple is <em>hard</em>. There are a <em>lot </em>of monsters<em>. </em>Even with everyone at this point having a Ring of Protection, a magic weapon, some kind of magic armor, and so on, the fights are still tough.</p><p></p><p>5. Yes, if somebody dies, they come back at level 1. Tough crap. Death needs to be a massive setback. I have found that in storybook adventures where you always come back at the same level, players get pretty reckless. In Temple, the cost of death makes them a lot more cautious, and a lot more interested in negotiating. The one thing I do majorly differently than AD&D is that you <em>buy</em> XP with gold; you do not just get it for finding the treasure. The gold stays with the player, not the PC, so if they die, they can use unspent gold to buy their way back up a few levels. A player who is broke tends to be a lot more cautious than a player with stacks of cash in the bank, believe me.</p><p></p><p>6. Prep? Ahahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaaaaahahahahahahaaahahahahaaaha! Get really good at flying by the seat of your pants, because the undirected layout of the Temple means your players can and will end up in places you absolutely did not expect, and turn back from the door to you carefully crafted experience at the last second. They'll do this approximately every single session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fearsomepirate, post: 7978439, member: 7021420"] I have 1-2 sessions left of TOEE. This has been a highly memorable 2-year campaign, and I've gotten tons of positive feedback from my players. I convert it to 5e on the fly using a cheat sheet (or used to; I've practically got it memorized now). Here's my general advice. 1. Giving XP for loot is essential. It took a while for my players to adjust, but once they really understood that slogging through the killing fields is mostly a waste of time compared to finding a treasure hoard, it completely changed the dynamics of the game. 2. Slow down the leveling pace. I use the AD&D Thief XP chart for everyone. First of all, if you don't do this, they'll be going through the later areas like a hot knife through butter. Second of all, it changes the mentality from "We Leroy Jenkins through this in a couple sessions once we level up" to "We need to find a way to deal with this other than Leroy Jenkinsing our way through it." 3. You really, really need to add your own color to the monsters. They shouldn't all just attack on sight. I used the Reaction roll from the AD&D DMG. Some monsters were friendly, some were cunning, some hostile, some dissatisfied with their employment and open to a better offer...the last thing Temple should be is one room after another of smash-door-kill-orc. And don't forget to have the denizens react rationally to incursions, recruiting new help, setting up traps and fortifications, moving treasure to more secure locations, etc. Here's an example from my run of the game: the Earth Node has a pair of adult dragons, and that's about all it says. I left them adult for the fun of it, named them Steve and Carol. Carol is an overbearing nag, and Steve is a hen-pecked husband who jumps on any excuse he can to get out of the cave. So when the party approached the cave, they could hear Carol barking at Steve to go outside and check out that noise...at which point Steve lazily flew out, clearly noticed the party, and called back that he couldn't find anybody, but he'll keep looking. The party cautiously approached Steve and, to make a long story short, negotiated not being killed and eaten in exchange for helping the dragons escape the node. They made their way out through the fourth floor, with the dragons making short work of the ogres and bugbears in their way. Steve and Carol, of course, are still evil dragons, so they attacked Burne's tower and grabbed some treasure, and they are now terrorizing a remote area of Veluna, and will need to be dealt with at some point. (If this story sounds familiar, I have told it with the details changed to throw my players off my online scent.) The stories and events you hang on the tiniest hooks will be what makes this adventure memorable, and why no two runs of Temple are really anything alike. Your players will swear it's one of the best adventures ever played, and be astonished to learn that the past several sessions grew out of, "There are six bugbears in this room." In my campaign, the last year has been almost wholly unscripted. They accidentally released Zuggtmoy, and there is no guidance in the book for what to do afterward. I have had her gradually taking over the Gnarley Forest, and the party has been working double time to try and stop her. Next session is the moment of truth: can they put this genie back in the bottle, or will the country succumb to fungal rot? 4. Don't worry about having too many magic items. Temple is [I]hard[/I]. There are a [I]lot [/I]of monsters[I]. [/I]Even with everyone at this point having a Ring of Protection, a magic weapon, some kind of magic armor, and so on, the fights are still tough. 5. Yes, if somebody dies, they come back at level 1. Tough crap. Death needs to be a massive setback. I have found that in storybook adventures where you always come back at the same level, players get pretty reckless. In Temple, the cost of death makes them a lot more cautious, and a lot more interested in negotiating. The one thing I do majorly differently than AD&D is that you [I]buy[/I] XP with gold; you do not just get it for finding the treasure. The gold stays with the player, not the PC, so if they die, they can use unspent gold to buy their way back up a few levels. A player who is broke tends to be a lot more cautious than a player with stacks of cash in the bank, believe me. 6. Prep? Ahahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaaaaahahahahahahaaahahahahaaaha! Get really good at flying by the seat of your pants, because the undirected layout of the Temple means your players can and will end up in places you absolutely did not expect, and turn back from the door to you carefully crafted experience at the last second. They'll do this approximately every single session. [/QUOTE]
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