The Defense of Grass River - A Free D20 Adventure

[joshuakanton]

Just wondering, where are the photos from? Creative Commons stuff?

I searched open source pictures, I don't remember the exact sites. I think some of them are from old books.

Is Creative Commons a web site?

 

[joshuakanton]

Has anyone had a chance to run the adventure yet?

 

[The_Gneech]

Not a bad little adventure, in all. I may yoink it for a one-shot this weekend and will let you know how it goes if I do.

-TG

 

[SWBaxter]

Is Creative Commons a web site?

It's an organization that seeks to make creative works freely available, they've come up with a few licenses that creators can use to release material for public use. If you think of it as a wider version of the OGL you won't be too far off (in spirit, at least). Here's a Wikipedia article on them, for anybody who's interested.

 

[DJCupboard]

This makes me wish I knew more people interested in political RPing.

 

[SWBaxter]

Looks pretty decent, I might get a chance to use it in the not too distant future, and if so I'll let you know how it went. Some random notes on reading through:

- there's no actual river on the map. I'm guessing Grass River is named for a creek or stream? Might be worth including it on the map, since it could be tactically important (maybe the PCs use some ruse to force battle at a crossing, giving them a tactical advantage).

- I don't think you're allowed to take 20 on Hide and Move Silently checks (page 8), since there's a penalty for failure (i.e. being noticed).

- you might want to include some notes on what happens if the PCs split up to deal with several factions at once - say, the Paladin goes off to talk to the cleric of the Sun God while the Bard is schmoozing with the elves. Some other weirdnesses that I could see coming up include the PCs lying to various factions until the battle's over, PCs using Charm Person to convince everybody to get along, etc.

- did I miss a town statblock? Seems like a good thing to include.

- historically, watermelons were cultivated in river valleys (originally the Nile), generally in relatively warm regions. Might be a useful tidbit for some additional colour.

 

[joshuakanton]

- there's no actual river on the map. I'm guessing Grass River is named for a creek or stream? Might be worth including it on the map, since it could be tactically important (maybe the PCs use some ruse to force battle at a crossing, giving them a tactical advantage).

Grass River is more of a metaphor. The city is close to a long stretch of grass lands that loosely resemble a river.

I don't think you're allowed to take 20 on Hide and Move Silently checks (page 8), since there's a penalty for failure (i.e. being noticed).

Oops. Should be adjusted to take 10.

you might want to include some notes on what happens if the PCs split up to deal with several factions at once - say, the Paladin goes off to talk to the cleric of the Sun God while the Bard is schmoozing with the elves. Some other weirdnesses that I could see coming up include the PCs lying to various factions until the battle's over, PCs using Charm Person to convince everybody to get along, etc.

That’s the DM’s job.
The PC's will always do the unexpected, that's why I put in the NPC's motives into the description of the encounter so the DM could adjust the situation based on the character's actions. Charm person and lying may very well win the day, but once the threat is gone, the players may have an angry mob looking for them at the end of that day or each faction may now have an armed group ready to fight for its goals.

Slaughter the goblins, only to start a civil war. I like that.

did I miss a town statblock? Seems like a good thing to include.

The town was intentionally left vague to both keep the spotlight on the players and allow the DM to fill in the blanks to fit their individual campaign.

historically, watermelons were cultivated in river valleys (originally the Nile), generally in relatively warm regions. Might be a useful tidbit for some additional colour.

I know very little about agriculture and the watermelons came up in a random role. Thank you for the information.



Thank you for the comments.

 

[Quartz]

Reading through it it looks good, but it makes you want to give a number of the factions a good slapping for being egotistical eejits.

One concrete issue is the trunk at the end. DC 30 is a little high for that level, don't you think? At best the party rogue is going to have +7 from skill, +3 stat bonus, and +2 for masterwork tools. Which means he has to throw a 18+, and because of the problem of failure, he can't take 20. More typically, it will be only a +5 skill, and a +3 stat bonus, which means that the chest isn't openable at all. So a DC in the low 20s would be more appropriate.

 

[phindar]

If its just a Dis Dev check to open a lock, there should be no problem taking 20. (The only penalty is the lock doesn't open, and they can try as many times as they need to succeed.)

 

[joshuakanton]

The chest is not trapped per se. The vials of alchemist fire will only break if the chest is bashed open.

It is meant to show the players that thought and patience need to be used to accomplish the task, not brute force.