|
Author
|
Comment
|
HWRNMNBSOL
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/12/04 10:16 pm)
Reply
|
Dawn of the Temple of Elemental Evil
Hi folks, first time poster in this forum. I'm loving everything I've read. I'm running rtttoee in PBeM right now (yes, I know that by the time we've finished we'll all be brains in nutrient vats. I'm doing it anyway) so all the good ideas and info are much appreciated.
I had an idea recently for a new adventure. Were I to develop this, it would be to create a free-distribution adventure in .pdf format for everybody to use and enjoy. Has something like this been proposed before?
Concept: in The Temple of Elemental Evil, the characters revisit places of evil that were sacked and thought pacified a generation earlier. Return to... leaps forward one generation -- it's *still* not all quiet in there, and there's a new and different reason for it! So, what if there were an adventure, Dawn of the Temple of Elemental Evil, that goes backwards in time? Play would involve the Moathouse and the Temple during the time just leading up to the Battle for Emridy Fields.
One of the neat features of rtttoee is that, even though many players may have information about the original adventure, it's not damaging to the fun of the newer module. If anything it's an enhancement -- you get to see some of the NPC's in the original growing up to be something different. My idea takes that backwards; you get to see some familiar characters before they were studly. It's really just looking at an old story from a different angle -- sort of like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, or (more aptly) Back to the Future.
So, perhaps action opens in the Hamlet of Hommlet, a small cluster of buildings around the brand new Inn of the Welcome Wench. This place would be prosperous, but sadly bandits have taken over the area and are running the town. Ostler Gundigoot runs a small resistance out of his inn, and among the seedy NPC's in his inn (a young Otis, a young Smigmal, perhaps even a young Rannos and Gremag) he calls the party down into his secret cellar to assign a mission: go to this 'moathouse' and rescue the Acolyte Y'dey!
Obviously the moathouse would be a lot different. The upper works would be intact and full of defenders. On the upside, for some strange reason everybody inside is insane. Most of the basement tunnels wouldn't have been dug yet (especially the pool room; they just plain haven't found what they were looking for yet) and what there is is used completely differently.
So once they get the acolyte out, this guy back at the inn says 'Good job! I'm secret agent Burne and I've got a mission of extreme importance for you....' They're off for Occupied Nulb, presently a HQ for good-aligned armies preparing to sack the Temple of Elemental Evil. But there's a catch.
Meet Prince Thrommel! My fiancee' is being held hostage inside the temple, he says. Furyondy can't join the fight unless some brave souls get her out. And since you guys are so good at rescues, you can help out. I'll make a distraction up topside [NOTE: and get my butt captured!] while you sneak in and save the princess.
I haven't plotted it too far out, but the upper works of the temple would be intact, the lowest levels of the temple might be inaccessible, and there's always the potential for creating some entirely new encounter area to round things out. There's a lot you can do within the constraints of 1) not giving away the secrets of the later modules, and 2) not ruining any plotlines by killing off important people.
Ideas? complaints? criticism? drink orders?
|
 Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(2/12/04 10:23 pm)
Reply
ezSupporter
|
Re: Dawn of the Temple of Elemental Evil
I think the idea itself is great and I haven't heard of a ToEE Prequel. Perhaps Monte has, dunno. Not sure if he still reads this forum, though. 
Oh, and I'll take an IBC Black Cherry if you have it, or a diet Pepsi with Lime.
|
deafdungeonmasterRIT
Deathmantle Cultist
(2/13/04 11:23 am)
Reply
|
hmm
I agree with this gentleman above me.
What exactly you want from this module? What are you looking for? Which characters you really want to see developed? I am more than willing to exchange some of my really weird ideas, but I don't want to be so sidetrack. Heh
|
HWRNMNBSOL
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/13/04 10:20 pm)
Reply
|
Characters to develop
I think the characters I would be most interested in developing would be the ones who are provided with color text in the older adventures that suggests interesting backstory. For instance, Burne and Rufus were apparently granted the rights to build the keep by the Viscount as a reward for services performed in the area. What were those services exactly? These are questions that could be entertainingly answered.
Other examples: in TOEE there is a character named Black Jay living in Hommlet, a ranger who lost his wife and children to the brigands. Could that story be told in this adventure?
Where did Kella the druid come from, and why does she have such an interest in the Temple? perhaps we could find out.
In TOEE, the father of Elmo and Otis is said to be an old farmer who used to be a great warrior back in the day. Could we see him when he was more in his prime?
In TOEE, Rannos Davl and Gremag, the traders, are clearly an integral part of the community. How did they come to be accepted so? Could they have been planted from the beginning? If so, what would they have been like back then?
I think it would be very interesting to see the beginning of Lareth becoming the Chosen One. Perhaps in the prequel adventure, the party could witness the completion of a ritual that the cult performs to consecrate a young child. Shoot, perhaps that adventure from Dungeon #87 could be incorporated into the module, and Lareth is the kid!
I think some of the higher level villains would be interesting to see in nascent form. Hedrack would be cool, as would Smigmal and Falrinth. And wouldn't it be cool to face Varachan, back when he was still well and truly evil?
It might even be possible to deal with Utreshimon and/or his clutchmates. They'd be nice wyrmlings back then.
Finally, the settings themselves are kind of like familiar characters. Seeing the Moathouse and the Temple before they were sacked would be a hoot.
|
deafdungeonmasterRIT
Deathmantle Cultist
(2/13/04 10:53 pm)
Reply
|
hmm
I have a feeling that you have more ideas to offer... please share.
|
Caedrel
Crimson Coil Cultist
(2/15/04 5:54 pm)
Reply
ezSupporter
|
Re: Nice idea, but how will it work?
I like the concept, but how is such a prequel going to accommodate the actions of the PCs who take part? Gamers are notorious for "not following the script" - what if they decide they want to take out Rufus and Burne and claim their goodies for their own? It's easy enough to change them to another set of adventurers in both ToEE and RttToEE, but that's a lot harder with, say, Lareth or Hedrack. Are we starting to talk parallel universes here?
I guess it just seems to be the sort of idea that works much better for movies & books with a fixed script than for D&D, where the story is (or should be!) impacted by the actions of the players...
|
Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(2/16/04 7:41 am)
Reply
ezSupporter
|
Re: Nice idea, but how will it work?
That's a good point, but in the world of D&D anything can happen. Just look at Lareth. If the party kills him, he's easy enough to raise or resurrect. The same thing can happen for the prequel into the ToEE or RttToEE, if and where necessary. Even if the PC's save Thrommel (for example), the bad guys can capture and turn him later.
The key point I would be concerned with is not forcing the DM to a strict script. IMO, that was a major mistake with the early Dragonlance modules. When the black dragon flew out of the well, for instance, our party was waiting and just fired all their missile weapons at it. Ho hum, everyone knew it would come out.
|
HWRNMNBSOL
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/16/04 2:54 pm)
Reply
|
Re: Nice idea, but how will it work?
These are good points. I have several responses:
1) I haven't conceived of this as being a module on the scale of the first and second adventures. This is not so much a campaign setting as a series of linked adventures. The advantage of this is that one wouldn't need to have the same level of overarching story as the originals. It can kind of be a 'one-joke' story -- oh look, we're fooling around in the Moathouse before it got wrecked, har-dee-har -- because it's short enough that by the time the joke gets stale, it's all over.
2) One idea I had was to make the overall power levels of the Moathouse and Temple encounter areas extremely high when compared to the party. Disadvantage: an incautious party can easily get wiped out. Advantage: it's much harder for the party to change the course of future history by destroying everything. For instance, in the Moathouse, the creatures in the upper works might be very tough indeed; their mission is to sneak into the dungeons, find Y'dey and get out before the general alarm is raised. If they stick around to clean out the place, they're going to die.
There is precedent for this sort of adventure. A2, the Slavers' Stockade, was set up much along these same lines. If the party takes it slowly and tries to kill everybody in their way, they're probably going to die. The adventure was structured such that there are simply too many bad guys for most parties to smack them all; the action typically evolves where the party breaks past the outer guard and then fights a running battle to make their way inside before the defenders can figure out what hit them.
|
CyberTronch
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/18/04 4:38 am)
Reply
|
My own campaign
Hello All!
Well, I can tell you what I did in my own campaign. It is not exactly the same, but it may be useful. First of all, I'm writting at work and from memory so I don't remember some of the names. Sorry for that.
As I had the old first edition module (ToEE) and I needed characters of 4th level to start RttToEE, I started them at 1st level in Hommlet in the old adventure. They met all the important people like the Druid, Burne and Rufus, Elmo went on adventures with them, etc. After reaching 3rd level they when to Verbobonc to buy magic items and they had a strange adventure were they got trapped inside a Time-Loop (similar to the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell). This story was actually quite good, and after breaking the loop they found out that 15 years had passed in the real world. They went to Hommlet and found everything different (as described in the RttToEE). Fun things about it:
- They met in Hommlet the adventurers that freed Zuggtmoy and destroyed the temple afterwards (they were very pedant and unfriendly) and now they are local heroes!
- One of the party members (the thief, of course) had a one night romance with a farmer daughter and got pregnant. After 15 years he has a young son that is actually the apprentice in St. Cuthbert Church. He is angry at him because he didn't have a father. The mother thinks that the rogue is a bad guy that runned away after knowing that she was pregnant.
- The players have to explore twice the Moathouse and it's interesting, due to the many differences. The map that I drew while exploring the first time (the one on a grid piece of paper), I put it in muddy water, stepped on it, burned it etc to took like old paper. When they explored the second time the Moathouse they had to use the aged paper that was difficult to read!
- This way it is easier to introduce the party to the complexity of the local history as they really lived it!
Maybe my solution will create new ideas on your concept of having a Pre-Temple adventure.
Regards
|
Caedrel
Crimson Coil Cultist
(2/18/04 5:21 am)
Reply
ezSupporter
|
Re: Good responses
I think your responses show that you're aware of the issues and are on the right track to solve them... interesting idea Infiniti about Lareth being killed in a prequel as well - it would make his RttToEE appearance the second time he's come back from the dead, and maybe it would give him more flavour: maybe that's one of the things he's bitter about, maybe he hated coming back to life yet agian, but couldn't stand the terrible torture he was suffering at the hands of whatever afterlife he had gone to a second time...
Interesting idea about the time loop, Cyber - although the time hopping stuff has always made me wonder about the evolutionary aspects of the game. For example, plate mail was the best armour you could buy in AD&D; now, it's full plate, which implies technological development. I don't know if I'd like to introduce that idea into my campaign - I think I prefer my fantasy worlds mostly timeless, although I suppose that's unrealistic. I suppose this is reason why I feel uncomfortable with gnomish tinker technology too...
|
|
Okay -- Your Turn
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies