Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Comes the Mountain - Adventure Locale PDF

Below is a short (4 Page) PDF of an idea that didn't quite fit as a one page dungeon.  It's likely better than the one page dungeon I did submit this year, but I just couldn't cram it down in size enough to work.


I'm not fully happy with the adventure, which is obviously some high level fare given that the enemies include a chamber of 35 specters.  However, I think a good 3rd or 4th level party might be able to survive the Mountain, as it's secrets don't require encountering any of the really dangerous creatures, and running the adventure as a stealth mission might be more fun then as a regular exploration type adventure.Though the stealth mission would likely be "Drop the kidnapped baby Prince/Princess into the volcano" so not really a feel-good romp.

The whole thing becomes fairly straight forward if the party has ways of becoming immune to fire, which I am unhappy with, but then it's not may favorite adventure, and a walking mountain as engine of destruction really deserves a larger dungeon.

Here's the PDF

4 comments:

  1. This is really well done. Great idea and lovely production values. This is the sort of DIY I want to see/make. Good show.
    Further, I think "under ten pages" is a far superior metric to aim for than the OPD which I find too restrictive.

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    1. Thanks, I've been playing around with design - this lacks my preferred "room blocks" at the start of each keyed area, but I do like the way it looks.

      OPDs are an interesting thing - I think the form (or efforts to hold to it) can be helpful for folks like me who are a bit loquacious.

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  2. I think this looks really cool! One of the things I can’t figure out though is how will adventurers get from the ground to all the various locations on the mountain? I would have thought that the areas closest to the ground would have been keyed first (effectively, areas “D” and “E” would be your “A” and “B”… and then progress as one climbs further up). This may sound like a crazy idea, but what if the drawing of the mountain was illustrated more like a maze? The areas in shade (black) would be solid areas that a party could not go, while the positive areas (white) would be pathways up the mountain. All the linework would become the “walls” of a maze that indicate divisions of the paths. This would effectively turn a three-dimensional illustration into a two-dimensional map. It would be a clever way of visualizing how a party could venture to each keyed area. Anyway, great stuff!

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    1. The maps are an artifact of the original effort to make the a one page dungeon: elevation in the center of the page, with maps next to each area. Obviously it didn't all fit.

      Now as to climbing and mapping out routes, I did leave that unsure - I suppose a simple recolor of the elevation with routes and a designation for hazards would be useful. Maybe climb route with a no of turns between stages noted and 'x' for a space requiring a climbing check. Random encounter table of both monsters and shattered trophies/monuments would also improve the adventure, were it longer.

      I have no intention towards adding these things as I consider this a failed experiment.

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