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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 221238" data-attributes="member: 150">Aw shucksI mean, congradulations, Rune!  It's well deserved, of course -- you layed out a very ambitious campaign, going places I decided not to go with my entry because of time and energy constraints. Heck, when I decided not to force a third optional item into the adventure I figured I was shooting myself in the foot.   Because of the Opium and the Tea I gave serious thought to drawing in Oriental Adventures (it would finally justify the money I spent on the book!) but in the end decided not to, that it would be too much, and I would just stick to the core stuff.  I made the same decision with the other sort of anachonistic elements, like the Umbrella optional ingredient -- I didn't want to have to explain the changes in setting it would take to create that adventure.  Trying to explain big setting things like that would distract me from creating the smaller scale details that would make it fun for the players, I felt.I do wish I'd had more time on my entry -- not that I think it would have made a difference in the competition, but there are a few undeveloped areas (now that I have a few nights sleep under my belt and can think clearly again).  For example, yesterday afternoon I was sitting around (in the "library", if you must know -- where I do all of my truly deep thinking and floss a little less frequently than I tell my dentist) and really struggling to deal with Webly's background a little.  I mean, the awakened mouse as co-ringleader of a band of pixies is interesting, but who taught him wizardy?  And so right there on the crapper it came to me -- the only obvious choice was Ottar, the king's wizard, and the connection there would do a LOT for the story -- it would explain the Mouse's wizardry, it would better explain the oddly civic-minded band of pixies (if they were running the little secret prison in part under the guidance of Ottar, through his apprentice Welby), and it would also help deal with the too-good-to-be-true potential hook -- because Ottar is not about to spend months creating magic items for a party of heroes who killed his appretice and destroyed the prison he created to keep the countryside safe.  I realize that my approach to the hook for this adventure was a bit unusual, but it does tend to fit my personal DM style a bit better.  I tend to create adventures in which there is a lot less loot available to the PCs.  I like the action to keep moving, and not to have to deal with all the petty looting that tends to go on.  In this instance, the PCs would probably not find the lair of the Pixies and Welby, they would get only meager equipment from the Tea Party Guests, if they managed to control the clearing long enough to gather it all up, etc.  And more than likely they would not be able to completely win a toe-to-toe fight in the end, so to have succeed they will have had to come up with something pretty creative, or fought really well against overwhelming odds.  A big paycheck at the end -- even one that included a few magic items, would go a long way to make up for the poor loot in the adventure.  Of course, the adventure would not end with the big christmas party of magic items the players would expect -- in the draft that I entered Ottar would stall and drag his feet, and the party would certainly get bored and move on before they had everything they wanted.  And in my more developed revision, with Ottar much more connected to Welby, he would either refuse to create the items for the party, create flawed or even cursed ones, or something else to get back at the party for foiling his plan -- which, in turn, would drive the party back to discover Ottar's involvement in the Tea Party.  Welby is a very interesting NPC, though.  I like the idea that there's a slim chance that the party might find his lair -- some sort of burrow or hollow tree -- with it's library of teenie tiny spellbooks each about the size of a coin, and holding a single spell each (some of the higher level spells might require multiple volumes). Given more time, I would have to spend some time working on Welby's spell list -- he really should limit himself to spells that have no material component.  I mean, the little ball of bat guano that (at least used to be) is required to cast fireball would be about half Welby's weight.  It's possible that some of the scale things in the game break down when you take them to this sort of extreme -- would the fireball cast by a fine-sized spellcaster have the same area of effect as one cast by a medium sized spellcaster? The rules as they are make no distinction -- which is fine, we wouldn't want the fireball cast by a gargantuan dragon to be any bigger than it is already -- but it's an interesting wrinkle in the rules nonetheless.  Anyway, Nemmerle, this has been a lot of fun, and I'm especially excited to have made it as far as I did -- it put me into a position to create entries for all three levels.  I could always have played the home game, or just played around with the ideas myself, but I know this from my other projects -- it's not the same without the real deadline, the real pressure.  And to Wulf, and Wicht, and Xarlen -- and everyone else -- thanks for the support, and for rooting for me.  -rg</blockquote>

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