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Dunbarth
Acolyte
USA
20 Posts |
 Posted - 20 May 2004 : 14:45:30
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I am currently DMing the boxed set "The Night Below". I placed it in the Thornwoods which is east of Calimport. I'm looking for a good side trek adventure for characters levels 3-5. Anyone have anything interesting centered around this area? I run a 2nd edt game, but I can make changes to any 3rd edition ideas.
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-Did I say something to offend you? Let me rephrase it and offend you some more.
Dunbarth Flashingblade
Dwarf Warrior of Ill Repute |
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Sarta
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2004 : 07:42:29
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One of the things I ran around that level back when running Night Below was the first "Challenge of Champions" adventure to run in Dungeon Magazine. Aside from the fact that this particular issue of Dungeon had just come out, I did it for a couple of reasons:
1. The Challenge of Champions adventures provide a nice change of pace for the party which has up until now been running "fetch me an anvil" type delivery quests and struggling to rescue kidnappees. They needed something a bit lighter in tone to provide a nice break. They also needed a chance to prove that they were capable of more than killing kobolds and delivering mail.
2. The Night Below will eventually require the party to greatly expand their numbers in terms of hirelings. It is simply not feasible for the party alone to attempt to cart out all of the treasure and kidnapped through miles of back-tunnel while still engaged in hostilities. They are going to need a good resource for hiring dependable people to help them out. The first Challenge of Champions provided a reward of free membership to the adventurer's guild that hosted the event to the winning party (or they could pay the 500 gold membership fee). This guild provides an excelent resource to tap later when looking to find hirelings.
I wish I could remember which issue this appeared in, but I would think it is issue 45 - 55 or so. Sadly, mine are all currently boxed up and not available to reference and a google search didn't help me spot the first one that they ran.
EDIT: It appeared in issue 58. I believe you could use any of them though. They have also appeared in issues 69, 80, 91, and 108. The last two will probably using 3.X edition of the game though.
Sarta |
Edited by - Sarta on 21 May 2004 11:29:21 |
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Dunbarth
Acolyte
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2004 : 15:10:50
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| Thanks for the information. I allowed the party to take over Parlfray keep in the woods were the bandits were hiding out. They made some improvements to the keep and are using the treasure they found to hire NPCs to farm, smith and do the majority of the repair work. It's working out nicely as their base of operations. If I might ask, what level were your PC's when you started book two of the set? |
-Did I say something to offend you? Let me rephrase it and offend you some more.
Dunbarth Flashingblade
Dwarf Warrior of Ill Repute |
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Sarta
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 22 May 2004 : 02:00:06
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Honestly, I don't recall. It has been a while. I do remember that book two definitely ramped up the danger level. If I recall correctly, they were slightly underpowered, but it was a group of 7, so that helped. I think I dropped another small non-related adventure into the mix after they nearly got wiped out clearing the first major lair of book 2. They needed another level under their belts to effecitvely continue.
For those of you in the dark, Night Below was a really well put together campaign for 2ed that relied not only on might of arms, but diplomacy and quite a bit of strategy (especially when it comes to logistics). It took characters from level 1 to well into their high teens. It was not designed with a particular world-setting in mind and can be dropped fairly easily wherever one wishes. However, throughout the campaign the plot-hook remains urgent (rescuing kidnapping victims), so side adventures and such can be hard to justify by many pc's.
It can probably be picked up on ebay, through various resellers, opr from RPG now for 4.95 US here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1119.
A 3rd edition conversion can be found here: http://people.bu.edu/darin/rpg/NightBelow.html
I haven't really explored this conversion, so no telling how good it is.
Sarta |
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Elrond Half Elven
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2004 : 22:53:11
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I feel side Trecks are important in any campaign.
Have you tried converting any of the mini-adventures at WoTC?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b&page=1These Could Help.
Also I have been wondering How good campaign is the Night Below? Its one of those ones I've always wanted to run. Along with The Rod of 9 parts.
Hanx
Elrond |
Once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
-The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe |
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Sarta
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2004 : 23:44:17
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I think it was very well written. It rewards players who add diplomacy to their tactics and has several morally difficult decisions to make in terms of diplomacy. It also encourages good organizational skills being that as things progress the party will be best off creating a fairly large and well-organized group of retainers aiding them.
I don't want to post any sort of spoiler, so I'll make up an example of the diplomatic quandries the players will find themselves in: "Would you be willing to team up with drow to kill illithids? After earning their trust and respect would you be willing to betray the drow if it meant forging a better agreement with githyanki in pursuit of killing these illithids?".
It is definitely a campaign where the most disruptive party member will most likely be the paladin. We had a player playing a dwarven fighter. The party got used to tackling him to the floor rather than allow him to use his single-word negotiating vocabulary: "Charge!"
The downside to it is that it is a campaign that takes one from level 1 to around 16 in 2e. As a result, if the players begin getting bored it may spell the end of the campaign. Their characters will most likely be hard-pressed to find justification for just wandering away (unless they are on the neutral to evil scale).
Sarta |
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Looking for a good side trek
