Using The Hamlet of Thumble without the adventure?

[Macbeth]

So, I just got The Hamlet of Thumble (thanks, Ed Cha!). First let me give you a little mini-review:

This book is awesome! 3 core classes, a smattering of new feats, rules for dreams, rules for household weapons, an advantage/disadvantage system, all kinds of great stuff. I recommend picking this up.

As for my reason for posting: I want to use the Hamlet without running the implied adventure. Does anybody have any advice on this? Has anybody tried it? The Hamlet of Thumble is going to serve as a place for the PCs to lie low from a powerful enemy. I want them to make as many emotional connections as I can, so that when they are found out, and the enemy burns the village, the emotional effect is all the greater. Any advice?

 

[alsih2o]

i haven't seen the adventure yet, but feel the need to say that one fo the things i look for in an adventure is somethign i can use from liike a hamlet, or castle or some such.

something that resonates without use of the rest of the info.

if it there, it is fair. (this actually rhymes in a large part of the country)

 

[d20Dwarf]

if it there, it is fair. (this actually rhymes in a large part of the country)

So does, "If it's there, it's far."

 

[alsih2o]

So does, "If it's there, it's far."

don't forget "if it's there, it's slayer"

 

[Buttercup]

i haven't seen the adventure yet, but feel the need to say that one fo the things i look for in an adventure is somethign i can use from liike a hamlet, or castle or some such.

Oh, it's good. It's one of those evocative mini-settings that makes me want to ditch my current campaign and start a new one. But my players would kill me, so I guess Thumble will have to wait a bit longer.

 

[Ed Cha]

Hi, I must have missed this thread while I was getting ready for my recent trip Down Under. Thanks very much for the compliment! I'm glad you like Thumble (1A) and please be sure to look out for Oester (1B) when it comes out.

Anyhow, you can easily use the hamlet separately. It's a place full of colorful and interesting NPCs that your players will want to continue to re-visit with their PCs over and over again. The characters are intimately described with not only their personalities and possible dialogue included, but also such details as height, weight, hair and eye color, and children's names.

There is a wonderful Story Hour by Hairy Minotaur here:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60953

There are definitely a lot of roleplaying opportunities in the hamlet. This is a message on Mortality.net about Thumble:

"Ed's product is the first 3rd (or 3.5) adventure that all of my players have been able to get into. It's the easiest adventure I've ever run and his level of detail is unmatched when it comes to the villagers themselves.

So many low level adventures still include combat as the main plot hook that it's VERY refreshing to have a product that out of the five 6 hour play sessions we've had, combat has only occurred three times all of which were one-on-one and two of them were through players' actions.

My players love the roleplay aspect more than the "rollplay" and both of these will give them exactly what they want, with as little or as much combat as they feel they need."

 

[Ed Cha]

The Hamlet of Thumble is going to serve as a place for the PCs to lie low from a powerful enemy. I want them to make as many emotional connections as I can, so that when they are found out, and the enemy burns the village, the emotional effect is all the greater. Any advice?

By the way you are evil.

 

[Macbeth]

By the way you are evil.

Yeah, but the adventure went well. Extremely well. Thumble works great, even just as a location (without the built in adventure). My players left the session I used it in saying that the adventure I had put together was my "best adventure EVER," thanks in large part to the great background that is a part of Thumble. You should have seen them try to save Opee (which they did. in fact most of the population survived).

 

[Ed Cha]

Yeah, but the adventure went well. Extremely well. Thumble works great, even just as a location (without the built in adventure). My players left the session I used it in saying that the adventure I had put together was my "best adventure EVER," thanks in large part to the great background that is a part of Thumble. You should have seen them try to save Opee (which they did. in fact most of the population survived).

Glad to hear that! What happened to Opee? Did the witch kidnap him? Also, did your players' PCs fall into the pit trap? I don't know why, but in convention games the dwarf pre-gen ALWAYS falls in it just like the picture in the book.

It's funny because when I run the good PCs version, the players really like Thumble and interacting with the residents, but in the evil PCs version, they just love to kill each other and try to take control of the party.

 

[Crothian]

When I first read the module I had no intention of using the module (sorry Ed) but wanted to use the hamlet as a great ready to use village. While the adventure seems good, I feel the lasting ability to just have a peaceful Hamlet friendly to the PCs is much more valueible.