The Troll Test

[nedjer]

Anyone else up for The Troll Test? This is pretty much how it was presented to me:

‘The Troll Test’ is a scenario or ‘dungeon’ design challenge, which asks GMs, level designers and design gamers to come up with an adventure under certain restrictions. The basic idea is to take away the capacity to use monsters’ skills to provide variety and novelty. This forces the designer to find alternative approaches to setting up exciting gameplay.

The Troll Test​

1. Make a one side of A4, system agnostic adventure outline.
2. Most encounters must involve trolls.
3. The most common creature encountered by players is a troll.
4. There must be at least 30 trolls in the adventure.
5. Once ‘pen is put to paper’ the test is 2 hours maximum start to finish.

There are plenty of alternatives to Trolls. The important part is to ensure the design is completed without relying on a powerful monster such as a Vampire, (or a race like the Drow), where the monsters come with a large variety of gameplay options and a predictable or widely accepted set of behaviours.


I'll post my own Troll Test later when I've typed it up.

 

[Baphomet]

Im interested but im not sure I understand exactly. The challenge is to make an adventure featuring 30 trolls in as interesting a manner as possible?

So encounter/dungeon design is to maximize the creativity then?

 

[Alzrius]

So the test is to see if this thread can survive having thirty trolls appear in it? Hm, that is a deadly gauntlet indeed!

I'll be number one: "I'm a fiery edition war partisan in favor of Third/Fourth/Pathfinder edition! OSR rules, suckers! My hat of d02 knows no limit! I fart in your general direction!"

Only twenty-nine more to go!

 

[Hellzon]

Two amusing facts:
1) There are 37 results on a search for "troll" in the DDI Compendium, covering all five combat roles (admittedly a little thin on Skirmishers) and a variety of story roles. Not exactly lacking in variety.
2) P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens. (Generally considered one of the least bad of the HPE modules.)

Still, an interesting challence, and I certainly got the point of it.

 

[Festivus]

You enter a cave filled with gasoline and thirty trolls. The cave is the size of a sheet of a4 paper. You have a flint and steel in your inventory.

Seriously, that is a challenge for another day for me.

Edit: I am pretty sure the OP is serious here guys. I'll work on this, I just can't today. A4 paper is close to "Letter" for us US folks, yeah?

 

[Evilhalfling]

Essencials is a stealth driven 4.5 edition. Its aboselutely unfair that I have to by new books. Im super unhappy with all the changes that I will be forced to make to integrate the new rules to my existing campaign.

(twenty eight to go.)

 

[Diamond Cross]

Beware my boss monster which is a Fiendish Troll with a ring of fire resistance. And a ring of vampiric regeneration.

Standing in a 20 foot by one foot deep pit of flammable oil.

 

[Aeolius]

How many trolls, again?

 

[nedjer]

Im interested but im not sure I understand exactly. The challenge is to make an adventure featuring 30 trolls in as interesting a manner as possible?

So encounter/dungeon design is to maximize the creativity then?

Yeah, it's take a race/ tribe/ set of monsters usually thought to be somewhere in the region of bland, repetitive, even dull - and make a scenario outline adequate to run a decent game for an evening.

Part of that's about using other options to up the game, and part is getting used to making useful outlines/ minimal prep.

I've looked at 'culture', player choice and plot options. Others might prefer traps, dramatic backdrops or complete sandbox design options.

Turns out I've failed my Troll Test on a technicality, as the Trollmasters called me out for using a 9pt font to fit the outline on a sheet of A4.

Used the following sources: artist called John Bauer, Horrible Histories, Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish and Wikipedia

 

[nedjer]

Two amusing facts:
1) There are 37 results on a search for "troll" in the DDI Compendium, covering all five combat roles (admittedly a little thin on Skirmishers) and a variety of story roles. Not exactly lacking in variety.
2) P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens. (Generally considered one of the least bad of the HPE modules.)

Still, an interesting challence, and I certainly got the point of it.

I don't do DDI - homebrew only. But I'd be well interested to hear how such encounters compare as a prep format when I post my TT.