Conversion Crawl Classes 14: D&D 4th Edition: Keep on the Shadowfell (2): Winterhaven

It is no secret at all that 4th Edition is my least favorite version of Dungeons & Dragons, but I have to admit that Winterhaven is fairly well done for a “starting base” community. There is some conversion work that needs to be done to bring it in line with the DCC aesthetic – Winterhaven is properly tied into the needs and expectations of its ruleset – but these are fairly simple to do. As none of the NPCs are given statistics, we can just use the ones in the Men and Magicians section (pages 432-434) of the core rulebook, modified slightly to taste.

First Things First: What Are Your Needs?

Whether a village, town, city, or farm, a civilized point in a fantasy role-play game has a few requirements. One is an answer to the question: Where can the PCs sleep? This could be an inn, possible apartments or villas for rent, or even the loft in the barn. The judge needs to know what it costs, as well as any security risks or knock-on effects that relate to staying there. For instance, a villa may come with servants, but one or more of those servants may be spies, and not necessarily for the same master. An innkeeper might sell some guests to a cannibal cult while keeping their goods (Shadows in Zamboula) or might not be a real inn at all (The Face in the Frost). In some cases, staying in the right house may increase the PC’s prestige, offer them social opportunities they would not otherwise have, or even provide a unique adventure hook.

PCs require a place to purchase new equipment, sell loot, and to seek out advice, rumors, and answers to questions that have arisen in game play. Not every community will have all of these things, nor should they. You might be able to pick up a hoe staying at a farm, but few farmsteads have spare weapons or suits of armor laying about. In general, the larger the community, the more it will offer in terms of goods and the opportunity to sell treasure. A small village may have a local sage or hedge wizard who can help identify found items through their lore (or by magic), but, then again it may not.

Prices and reliability of goods may vary depending upon where they are purchased. A renowned dwarven smith’s armor costs more than that of ordinary armorers, for the prestige alone. For an even higher price, the smith may be able to increase AC bonus, or decrease weight and/or Fumble Die. Equipment does not have to be magical to provide bonuses or be cool. Similarly, a slipshod weaponsmith’s work might automatically shatter (in addition to other effects) on any critical hit and/or fumble.

Even a hermit knows something of the lands about them, and may be able to provide interesting rumors and leads. Not everyone loves to talk, but enough do that a little coin spent directly or on food and drink can often profit a would-be adventurer. The judge can have pre-written rumors, know the area well enough to make some up on the fly, or fly by the seat of their pants. Most judges in my experience do some mixture of all three.

One thing you might not realize that you need is a unified feeling to a community, even if that feeling is one of great diversity. For instance, Winterhaven sounds very North American or British. It is located in the Cairngorm Mountains, which are Scottish (I have driven through them). The ruler is Lord Padraig, which is Irish. The other names throughout the text are a similar hodge-podge, and there is no reason given why the area should be so diverse. Exotic names only sound out of place when they contrast to a naming convention, and we notice this subconsciously even if we are not aware of it. You may not realize how careful J. R.R. Tolkien was with naming people and places in Middle Earth, but his notes for translation to other languages show just how consistent he was being. There is no expectation that you or I need be as careful, but making a few naming changes to Winterhaven’s population would make the setting better.

For more on NPCs in general, see Care and Feeding of NPCs Part I and Part II. I talk a bit about naming in Part II.

Let’s look at some specific areas.

Wrafton’s Inn

This spacious inn and tavern serves as the public house for the region. Like alehouses everywhere, Wrafton’s Inn offers beer, wine, and, on occasion, spirits. Meals are served for those with the coin, and beds for travelers are available. A crowd of villagers gathers each night to drink, gossip, sing, and play games of chance.

In addition to village residents, any travelers passing through Winterhaven are found here.

Anyone in Wrafton’s knows the general history of the village and the nearby ruined keep. Only Valthrun knows that the ruined keep was built to contain a rift into the Shadowfell.

Salvana Wrafton: Wrafton’s owner and proprietor is a female human named Salvana Wrafton. She employs several waiters, waitresses, and cooks. Salvana is friendly and open, quick with a smile and a warm welcome.

Eilian the Old: This old farmer is a regular customer at Wrafton’s. Every night, Eilian takes a seat at a table in the corner. He has a farm down in the valley along the Old King’s Road. Eilian has an interest in Winterhaven’s history. He is a good source for local information, and he loves to talk.

Valthrun the Prescient: Valthrun is a sage and scholar who lives in a tower within Winterhaven’s walls. On occasion he shows up in Wrafton’s to socialize. Valthrun is knowledgeable about the area, though he knows nothing of death cult activity in the vicinity. He does know about the sealed rift beneath the ruins of the old keep, but he doesn’t discuss such things with just any adventurer, and he never talks about it with the villagers since he doesn’t want to cause a panic. Valthrun is a good listener, asking just enough questions to keep whomever he speaks with talking.

Lord Padraig: From time to time, the town’s lord (level 3 human warlord) visits Wrafton’s. All those present doff their hats and call him Lord, after which he retreats to a corner table and sips beer. He is amenable to speaking with adventurers who approach him. He initially assumes they are dignitaries from another village or possibly merchants scouting new trade routes. Regardless, if he believes they are merely treasure hunters, his respect diminishes unless they prove their worth.

Ninaran: A quiet elf hunter who usually drinks alone, Ninaran is not interested in conversation. Stiff and bitter in demeanor, she is Kalarel’s agent in Winterhaven and reports back to him about happenings in the village.

This is good stuff, and most of what you need to know to run visits to the inn successfully. There are also some specific questions and answers given in the adventure, designed for each of the people the PCs are likely to ask, and this is also useful. 4e assumes that the PCs are “heroes” while DCC does not, so you might need statistics for NPCs beyond what is given here. You can assume most NPCs are AC 9 or 10, with 2 hp. Important NPCs might have 6 hp. Truly important NPCs (Lord Padraig, Valthrun the Prescient, and Ninaran) should probably be given full statblocks. I would suggest building them from King, Magician, and Assassin respectively.

My proposed statblock for Ninaran is:

Ninaran, Elven Spy: Init +4; Atk bronze dagger +9 melee (1d4 or 1d10) or shortbow +12 ranged (1d6); AC 14; HD 3d6; hp 12; MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP infravision 60’, thief skills 75% (disguise, move silently, climb, pick locks, hide in shadows), iron vulnerability; SV Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +4; AL C.

If you compare that with the Assassin statblock on page 432 of the core rules, you will see that I made very few changes – changed weapons, removed the poison, and added infravision and iron vulnerability because the character is an elf.

Market Square

Every other day or so, carts and wagons gather in the square and offer goods to the people of Winterhaven. Once each week, the official Market Day acts as a siren’s song, calling most of the villagers to shop and socialize in the square. Farmers sell produce, hunters hawk smoked meats, villagers sell crafts, and sometimes a trader from the east sells implements or costly goods.

On any given day, there is a 50% chance that items from the adventuring gear list in the Player’s Handbook are available for sale here. Adventurers will almost never find armor, weapons, implements, or magic items in the market square, however.

Delphina Moongem: Delphina turned away from the forest of her elven roots to live an urban existence, if Winterhaven can truly be called such. Delphina can be found in the square on Market Day selling wildflowers from her cart. She is happy to tell visitors about Winterhaven. She collects wildflowers north of the village, and she has seen goblins around the ruined keep visible in the foothills to the north.

We already decided that the kobolds were instead “ratlings”. Now we need to decide what to do about the goblins. Page 380 of the core rulebook is once more handy to help make our monsters mysterious! A roll of 12 on Table 9-1 tells us our goblins are green – nothing unusual there! A 5 on Table 9-2 arms them with slings and clubs predominantly. While we still don’t have a hook, a 14 on Table 9-3 tells us that our goblins have a glowing aura. Finally, a 7 on Table 9-4 reveals that our goblins are “fascinated with jewels, metal weapons, helmets, leatherworking, shoes, etc”, indicating (with their weaponry) a rather primitive group of humanoids. Let us call them “twilight people”, appearing rather like humanish cavemen who glow with a gentle green aura. Like other goblins, they are predominantly nocturnal, and Delphina (from Latin) has only seen them at dusk.

Smithy

A dwarf named Thair Coalstriker owns the village smithy. PCs can purchase a variety of mundane wares here, including spikes, weapons, heavy armor, and so on. Simple weapons are readily available, but military weapons require one day to complete, and superior weapons require a week of work.

My rewrite for DCC:

A dwarf named Thair Coalstriker (AC 10, 4 hp) owns the village smithy. PCs can purchase a variety of mundane wares here, including spikes, simple weapons (dagger, short sword, spear), light armor, and so on. More complex weapons require at least one day to complete (roll 1d5), and superior weapons can be purchased for 1d3+1 times the normal cost. These do +1d damage, and are only broken on a critical hit or fumble that would break or damage a normal weapon if the wielder fails a Luck check. Such weapons require at least 1d3 weeks to create, and the judge should increase this time for larger or more complex weapons. Medium armor can be created in 1d3 weeks +1 week per point of AC bonus, but heavy armor is beyond Coalstriker’s skill to produce.

Valthrun’s Tower

This five-story structure is the highest building in Winterhaven. The tower is rumored to be over 300 years old, and Valthrun the Prescient is its most recent resident.

Valthrun doesn’t use much of the tower; he inhabits the top two levels. The bottom three levels are locked and empty except for the stairway connecting them to Valthrun’s quarters. Valthrun is described briefly above in the section on Wrafton’s Inn. The sage and scholar has a small selection of 1st and 2nd level rituals that he is willing to sell once he determines the worth and merit of an adventurer. Refer to the Player’s Handbook for a list of rituals.

One of the goals in this method of conversion is that you have to neither own nor consult the rules you are converting from. Therefore, we will assume that Valthrun uses the basic statistics of a Magician, from pages 433-434 of the core rulebook.

Under Monsters Don’t Play By the Rules on page 383 of the core rulebook, it says “Spellcasters in particular, whether human or monstrous in nature, should have powers that are unavailable to the players. This does not mean fully defined spells of the same sort learned by the characters. This means a unique power of some kind that would provide a plot hook, leading the player characters to seek out the wizard character and attempt to enlist his services, either as a an ally, hireling, or hostage.” It is, therefore, perfectly fair to give Valthrun whatever unique powers you wish. These can be rituals from the 4th Edition Player’s Handbook if you own it, or they can be as simple as the ability to identify magic items with a degree of accuracy chosen by the judge.

Bairwin’s Grand Shoppe

Bairwin Wildarson traveled the world, or so he claims, before setting up shop in Winterhaven ten years ago. He has a variety of items available for sale, including anything off the list of adventuring gear shown in the Player’s Handbook. He occasionally has a few 1st-level magic items for sale, and he sometimes has a couple of potions of healing available in the shop.

In DCC, you should be very careful about having magic items available for sale, and even in 4e you will note that availability is left up to the DM. I would caution you also against having any normal item available, unless you want your PCs to patronize Bairwin’s exclusively. The Grand Shoppe is, however, an excellent place to sell loot, and could have an occasional occult trinket.

If you have access to DCC Lankhmar #2: The Fence’s Fortuitous Folly, the opening bit is a good model for this kind of shop – a lot of junk that might be occult, and might not be, but being treated as though it were.

Sometimes having healing potions isn’t a terrible thing. Choose a chance of having them, and a period you need to wait before checking again (for instance, a 1 in 10 chance of having 1d3 healing potions every 1d5 weeks), as well as some details about the potions (25 gp, Luck check to heal 1d3 hp when consumed, sour taste, created by the Sisterhood of Mending in the Temple of Dian Cecht some 25 miles away).

Warrior Guild

Winterhaven villagers can join the Warrior Guild and train, once per week, in basic sword and shield skills. The guild trains in Market Square on days when the market is not open. Some citizens earn militia pay (a few silver pieces per year) by training at least once per month and being on call for emergencies. Rond Kelfem, captain of the Winterhaven Regulars, also oversees the Warrior Guild. He can be found here, in the barracks, or on guard duty, depending on the time of day.

This is a bit of flavor in 4e, and probably in your DCC game too. However, under Weapon Training on page 24 of the core rulebook, it notes that “Generally, using a weapon without training imposes an attack penalty” and this penalty is further clarified on Table 4-1: Attack Roll Modifiers on page 78 as being -1d. The Warrior Guild offers a perfect “Quest For It” opportunity, should the players see it. After every 1d5 weeks training with the guild, the character may make a check to become trained in the use of a longsword. I would add other weapons – short bow, short sword, and spear – as additional weapons one could potentially become trained in. We can set the DC for the check at 15, and make it a Strength check for melee weapons and an Agility check for ranged weapons. You can keep training until you get it right. There is no fee, but the village can call upon you for its defense in times of need.

Tenements

The large tenement structure features apartments for the village residents who don’t own farms or who work in the businesses within the walls. Several families also live in the homes (buildings labeled H) on the west side of the village. Most of the villagers who live outside the walls are farmers and crafters who bring their wares to the Market Square to sell or trade.

You may as well set a rental fee, monthly and/or annually, for residence here. Sooner or later, your players are likely to ask.

Temple

This large stone structure is the village temple. Of the several deities worshiped by locals, Avandra, goddess of luck and change, is the most prominent.

The temple priest, Sister Linora, runs services in the temple three times per week, but otherwise she is not often present. She prefers to travel among the homes outside the walls, dispensing care to villagers and animals and helping with various farm projects. Although Linora is not a cleric, she is a non-heroic priest of Avandra. She doesn’t have access to cleric powers, but she does know the following rituals: gentle repose, cure disease, and raise dead.

Graveyard: Winterhaven has a graveyard for which Sister Linora serves as caretaker. The graveyard is located  a short distance south of the walled town.

While you could shift Avandra two one of the Gods of the Eternal Struggle from the core rulebook, I rather like the idea of a goddess of luck and change, which meshes well with DCC. Sister Linora (apparently Australian) can be treated as a Friar from page 433 of the core rulebook, but what to do about her rituals?

Gentle repose just makes sure the dead are quiet in their graves – or at least, that is what the name implies – so we don’t have to do anything. Properly buried, the dead do not usually become un-dead. Sister Linora is the caretaker of the graveyard. She knows how to properly inter the dead. Easy-peasy.

Cure disease is equally simple. A friar can heal 2/day. We will just allow Sister Linora to choose to cure a disease instead of heal hit points. Alternatively, we can just say that each day under her care allows an additional save to end a disease. Also easy-peasy, and the goal really is to avoid complications that don’t make game play any better.

Raise dead, however, is a game changer, and an ability not normally available in DCC. My first instinct is to simply remove the ability, but…well, remember that bit about NPC spellcasters having abilities no available to the PCs? What if we let Sister Linora keep her ability to raise dead, but introduced some cost to the procedure? Here is my version:

Sister Linora has the ability to restore life to the dead by transferring life from the living. In a ritual taking 3 hours, and which must include at least one close associate of the deceased, Sister Linora permanently transfers some of the associate(s)’ energy to the deceased, restoring them to life. The body of the deceased must be reasonably intact (per judge), or the ritual fails.

Roll 1d3 for each day (or partial day) that the deceased has been dead. This is the number of ability score points which are permanently lost from the associates to fuel the magic. Lost points are evenly, and randomly, distributed, with each point coming randomly from (roll 1d5): (1) Strength, (2) Agility, (3) Stamina, (4) Intelligence, or (5) Personality. These points are lost even if the ritual fails.

 When the ritual is completed, the deceased rerolls their Luck on 3d6, and then makes a Luck check. If the check succeeds, they are restored to life with 1 hp, and their Luck is now whatever score they rolled. At the judge’s discretion, a raised character may be haunted by vague memories of an afterlife, good or bad, and these memories may serve as a conduit of information or hooks to potential adventures.

Final Words

Under “Next Steps”, this adventure says “Regardless of what the player characters decide to investigate next, kobold bandits descend upon them the next time they leave town, seeking revenge for their fallen comrades.”

This is an attempt to make the PCs more interested in the kobold lair than whatever else they might have decided to do, and it is not something you should do in your own game. How do the kobold bandits know when the PCs plan to leave town? If they are not careful, and talk about their plans were Ninaran can hear, and wait long enough for her to report and the kobolds to prepare, fine. Otherwise, this is seriously problematic. “No matter what choices the players make, the consequences are the same” should not be part of your adventure design.

Next: D&D 4th Edition: Keep on the Shadowfell (3): Skill Challenges

DCC DAY: Crash of the Titans

Saturday July 22nd

12 - 4

At the Sword & Board

All Materials Provided!

Down Among the Wreckers

In other news, Down Among the Wreckers is now live!

Danger comes in with the tide.

Things are not as they seem in the seaside village of Whitcliffe. Hard men work the wrecking trade, luring ships onto Deadman’s Reef to take their cargo and sell the survivors as slaves. But last night’s storm brought an unexpected treasure to the village – and with it an unexpected terror!

Caught between rival wizards seeking the Crystal Gryphon, a vampire desperate to recover its native soil from the ocean floor, and villagers with their own agendas, the PCs must decide who they can trust and which smiling face conceals a hidden dagger. No one is safe when they go down among the wreckers!

This adventure includes the Village of Whitcliffe, the caves of the wreckers, and a timeline to help the judge create a sense of rising tension. Also included are The Hungry Islands and a collection of five maritime monsters to use for your aquatic or dockside adventures.

The Hungry Islands

A perfect mini-encounter for your shipboard adventures, colossal mollusks raise shells large enough to be mistaken for islands rising from the sea, and these islands can get so large that low mountains rise from their backs. Millennia of sea birds have carried guano and seeds to these monstrous shells, so that soil, grasses, and trees now grow here. And, although what appear to be islands are themselves alive, they now also offer shelter for other living things. Their metabolism is so slow that they do not require much food to sustain them…yet food they must have, and the Hungry Islands have the means to obtain it

Strange & Perilous Beings of the Waves

Here are several new creatures statted out for Dungeon Crawl Classics. If you are going to have adventures asea or along the coast, these creatures are must-have!

• Brachytaurs are great crustacean centaur-like creatures with a  love of rotting meat. They may be willing to work with you, but you are never their friends!
• The Leviathan is a horrific 50-foot long monster that delights in the pain and fear of its victims. If it pleases the gods, only one of these monstrous beings exists, but the gods are fickle, and what is described herein may not even be the most horrible of their kin.
• Sand fairies are spontaneously born with the lowest outgoing tide within a 24-hour period, and perish into sea foam with the highest rising tide in the 24 hours after their birth. They have the gift of prophesy, and they sometimes grant wishes to those who please them. Are you willing to give up part of your natural lifespan to get your questions answered?
• The Wharf-Side Strangler is an un-dead spirit inhabiting a man-shaped mass of wet kelp and sea-wrack, seeking lonely victims to throttle in the dark.
• No oceanic adventure is complete without at least sighting whales, and statistics are given for toothed whales, baleen whales, and orcas. In a pre-modern civilization, where there are no conservation laws, these creatures may be hunted for meat, oil, ambergris, whalebone, and other valuables.

Don't be caught wallowing in the bilge when there's adventure to be had! 

Is Keep on the Borderlands a Linear Adventure?

In this Reddit thread, I had a conversation with one Chojen. In case the argument was at all unclear to others, I am going to take the unusual step of diagramming it out. In this case RC is myself, and CH is Chojen. By diagramming the argument out, I hope to illustrate the logical (or illogical) connections involved.

RC: Specifically, adventures were designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, occurred in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations.

CH: Aren’t all modules that span multiple levels designed that way regardless of edition or even system?

RC: No.

This is a function of the steepness of the power curve. An AD&D 1e adventure could span multiple levels in its intended PC range and not assume leveling at all. An old school adventure can span multiple levels, assuming leveling, but leave it up to the players to determine when they are willing to enter deeper/more dangerous areas. For a long time, player decisions determining encounter order was the norm for D&D.

CH: I only have personal experience with 3.0/3.5 onwards but even in those editions you were told at the beginning of the module what level players were expected to be at the end of it and the way it got you there was by having the design of the dungeon/progression of the adventure have you face enemies in a specific order. In Barrow of the Forgotten King for example you start facing a small pack of wolves and worgs and low level undead to fighting big encounters with multiple NPC's with character levels along with their henchmen. The whole module you're moving through this excavated tomb and there isn't really a way to navigate ahead of most of the lower level encounters.

Do you have an example of a module having the option to navigate to the hard stuff before intended?

RC: Take a look at module B2 (The Keep on the Borderlands) for Basic D&D. This module has no intended order of play. Closer caves are easier, but there is nothing stopping PCs from heading into more difficult territory immediately. The players, not the DM, determine the order in which encounters occur. This was once so much the expectation of play that the 1e Player's Handbook warns players that the DM may attempt to trick them (through sloping passages, etc.) into a more dangerous area before they are ready.

B2 was intended as an introductory module to teach both players and DMs how to engage with the game. Players starting at level 1 would be level 3-4 before exhausting the challenges presented.

Starting with Dragonlance, and becoming more prevalent though 2e until being codified in 3e, an idea arose that the order of encounters was important, and, eventually. there was a shift in the original idea that the PCs were exploring a world where they were responsible for deciding what risks they would take to the DM presenting a story where the DM became responsible for encounter order.

Once the DM became responsible for choosing which encounters the PCs would face, it became important that those encounters were "fair". Modern gaming's obsession with encounter balance is an outcome of this. In early gaming, if Eric the Cleric died, that was Eric's players fault. Now, if Eric the Cleric dies, that is the DM's fault.

Almost every problem in modern gaming arises from that shift. DMs feel the need to fudge because they are responsible for the encounters. The idea that DMs, rather than players, are responsible for pacing is a direct result of games that arise from DM, rather than player, choices. Long prep times arise from balance concerns, and godawful long combats arise, at least in part, from trying to balance encounters on the DM's side and offer at least some meaningful choices to the players.

You need to go back to see what gaming can be. I would suggest that looking at Basic and 1e adventures is a good thing, but you need to take into account that 1e tournament adventures have a more linear style to facilitate tournament scoring. IMHO, Barrow of the Forgotten King is the worst example of linear adventure design that I know.

It might not be for you, but I am a strong advocate of that original game philosophy. Enabling real player choice is, to my mind, the greatest strength of RPGs, and the most obvious thing they do far better than video games.

The above lays the groundwork, as well as the initial argument. From hereon in, I am going to separate out the threads of the argument rather than posting them sequentially. If you wish to go back and read the original sequence, follow the link at the beginning of this post.

Thread One: RC: [M]odule B2 (The Keep on the Borderlands)…has no intended order of play.

CH: I'm reading through it now and regarding the ability for players to go off course you're right but the manner in which you're describing PC's just veering off course is the same in every module, even the modern ones. Modules don't generally have walls, they have guardrails that you can hop over. Even in my example Barrow of the Forgotten King if the PC's took the insane step of just tunneling straight down in the dirt adjacent to the crypts and popped out in the final chamber with the Yuan ti they can skip to the end. The Design of the module heavily influences going in a linear fashion but there are ways to circumvent them if the party really tries.

RC: For the love of Crom, no one ever said that players couldn't find "totally insane" ways to circumvent heavily linear modules. That shifts the goal posts onto another field entirely. You've gone from "Do you have an example of a module having the option to navigate to the hard stuff before intended?" to "In any module, you can navigate the the hard stuff before intended if you try hard enough", which has nothing to do with the original point.

CH: My point with the tunneling in Barrow of the Forgotten King was to contrast it with your example of Keep on the Borderlands and show that just because you can go in a different way doesn't mean the module isn't guiding you along a planned trajectory. In Keep on the Borderlands the opening background for the module says that you're there because you've heard about the caves of chaos. The other major encounters which are beyond the players are behind natural obstacles that the players have no reason to go to because again their main goal and the reason they're here (the caves) is literally on the road from the keep. In that module the players have no reason to just randomly veer off the road and bushwack through the forest or ford the river to get to the more challenging encounters like the Raider Camp. You are very clearly meant to go to the caves of chaos and enter the lower levels of the caves to fight Kobolds and Giant rats before progressing to the harder stuff.

RC: And in your various responses you showed a clear understanding that Barrow is designed that way. You seem to have a hard time understanding that Keep is not. The caves are not "literally on the road"; they are 2-3 squares from the road in forest that is described as dense.

CH: And the caves are 100 feet tall at the highest level. Each square is only 100 yards long, at 1000 feet a 100 foot high cavern complex is pretty hard to miss.

[EDIT: I feel it is fair to point out here that the ravine the caves are located in are part of a general rise in elevation. If anything, the players might check the area because where the ravine is located the land is not rising so steeply from the level of the road. The caves are not a 100-foot high cave complex, but much smaller openings in the ravine, as anyone with access to B2 can easily see. The nearest (low) caverns are about 500 yards from the road through dense foliage. The highest caves in the clearest part of the system are some 800+ yards from the road, and, again, trees do not have to be 100 feet high to obscure small openings at a distance, if the ravine can even be seen.]

RC: You are not "meant" to go to the easier caves first; you are advised to. Nothing prevents you from doing otherwise, and in my more than four decades experience with this adventure, it is not at all uncommon for players to tackle harder areas first. It is also not at all uncommon for players (who do not know the caves are near the road) to stumble into another encounter first.

Yes, players can fight against linear design. No, that does not make the design any less linear.

Yes, there are ways to approach non-linear design which are better than others. No, that does not make them linear.

CH: I'm reading through keep on the Borderlands right now and it honestly seems the same way. There are other things you can do but you really have to go out of your way to get to them. The Lizardmen Mound, the Raider Camp, and the Spider's Lair are all across the river while the Hermit is deep in the woods. The Caves of Chaos are literally on the road and there is zero chance of wandering monsters unless you're within 6 squares of one of those listed encounters. It's 100% corralling you towards the caves, even in the notes it says the players receive advice to "stay at the beginning of the ravine and enter the lower caves first" The guardrails are lower here but they're definitely still there.

CH: As far as I know no one at the Keep is aware of any of the other encounters and with the natural obstacles in their way (dense forest or huge river) why would they end up anywhere but the caves? You can choose to go to the upper caves and potentially fight the stronger monsters but you are very clearly intended to go through the lower caves first and level up before facing the higher ones. Even if you can go out of order, imo the adventure 100% is specifically designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, will occur in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations.

RC: [Y]ou are somehow interpreting the players having context for their choices as "guardrails". Having context to attempt to determine the level of risk you will face =/= the GM determining the order of encounters.

Yes, the Caves are indeed the main adventure site. Yes, the closer ones are easier, and the DM is advised to give the players enough information to make good choices. But the players are making that choice, not the GM.

CH: Just because you have the option to do otherwise doesn't mean there isn't a very clear intent for the players to fight the lower caves first.

[EDIT: At this point, I think it is pretty fair to point out the obvious:

CH: I only have personal experience with 3.0/3.5 onwards but even in those editions you were told at the beginning of the module what level players were expected to be at the end of it and the way it got you there was by having the design of the dungeon/progression of the adventure have you face enemies in a specific order.

CH: Do you have an example of a module having the option to navigate to the hard stuff before intended?

CH: Just because you have the option to do otherwise doesn't mean there isn't a very clear intent for the players to fight the lower caves first.

When PCs set out in search of the Caves of Chaos, they have no idea which direction they are from the Keep. The river is indeed an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one. PCs which head north looking for the caves head directly toward the hermit, and this has happened in more than one game that I have run. It is unlikely, but possible, to encounter the lizardmen without fording the river if you are going southwest from the hill south of the caves, toward the river. Why would you assume the caves were near the road? Maybe, if you have only played modern games you would assume that things are placed to make them easy to find.

It is absolutely true that there can be a clear intent that X follows Y, even where there is an option otherwise, but simply making the assumption of that intent is dead wrong.]

Thread Two: RC: Closer caves are easier, but there is nothing stopping PCs from heading into more difficult territory immediately.

CH: I'm reading through keep on the Borderlands right now and it honestly seems the same way.

RC: Worth reading Melan's article here: https://www.therpgsite.com/design-development-and-gameplay/melan-s-dungeon-layout-article/

If that doesn't help explicate linear vs. non-linear for you, nothing I can say is likely to do so.

[EDIT: In the article, Melan creates a map of the choices of route available to PCs in the Caves of Chaos, and then compares those choices to other dungeons in a similar way. If you can read that and imagine that the Caves of Chaos offers only linear choices, like Barrow of the Forgotten King, nothing anyone can say will ever convince you otherwise. In fact, if you are going to either read this post or Melan’s article, you are better off reading Melan’s article!]

CH: There are other things you can do but you really have to go out of your way to get to them. The Lizardmen Mound, the Raider Camp, and the Spider's Lair are all across the river while the Hermit is deep in the woods. The Caves of Chaos are literally on the road

CH: and there is zero chance of wandering monsters unless you're within 6 squares of one of those listed encounters.

RC: I imagine you are thinking of this:

Nothing will bother the party when camped outdoors, unless they are within six squares of a numbered encounter area. For each square they are within the six square range there is a 1 in 6 chance that the monsters there will seek them; so at 6 squares there is a 1 in 6 chance, at 5 there is a 2 in 6, at 4 there is a 3 in 6, at 3 there is a 4 in 6, at 2 there is a 5 in 6 and at I square a 6 in 6 - automatic encounter. Treat otherwise as a normal encounter.

Which is fine, except (1) the players don't know when they are near an encounter area, and (2) nothing is said about daylight hours.

CH: They don't need to know because of how far and unlikely they are to be near an encounter location. The tallest part of the caves are 100 feet high, given each square is only 100 yards, the caves are 100% visible from the road. It's 100% corralling you towards the caves

[EDIT: It is really hard to read that as anything other than trolling.

As mentioned earlier, the ravine the caves are located in are part of a general rise in elevation, and the ravine is located after 200-300 yards of dense woodland. The caves are not a 100-foot high cave complex, but much smaller openings in the ravine, the nearest (low) caverns being about 500 yards from the road through dense foliage.

I have a hard time believing anyone could actually conclude “the caves are 100% visible from the road. It's 100% corralling you towards the caves” in good faith.]

[Another Edit: If the PCs have no idea where the caves are, they have no reason to follow the road. The hermit and the bandits are much closer than the caves but, as Chojen points out, the bandits are across the river, making the hermit encounter more likely. As a point of fact, I have had several groups encounter the hermit first throughout the years, so this jibes with my experience.)

RC: It is definitely true that the caves are easier to find, but they are near the road, not on it, and there is forest between the caves and the road. They are not literally on the road. They are literally within 2-3 squares of the road. The author didn't want to make "find the adventure site" too tedious, but PCs are not "corralled".

CH: They don't need to know because of how far and unlikely they are to be near an encounter location. The tallest part of the caves are 100 feet high, given each square is only 100 yards, the caves are 100% visible from the road.

RC: Not according to the adventure, which clearly has the caves/ravine visible when you pass through the forest:

The forest you have been passing through has been getting more dense, tangled, and gloomier than before. The thick, twisted tree trunks, unnaturally misshapen limbs, writhing roots, clutching and grasping thorns and briars all seem to warn and ward you off, but you have forced and hacked your way through regardless. Now the strange growth has suddenly ended - you have stepped out of the thicket into a ravine-like area. The walls rise rather steeply to either side to a height of about 100’ or so - dark, streaked rock mingled with earth. Clumps of trees grow here and there, both on the floor of the ravine and up the sloping walls of the canyon. The opening you stand in is about 200’ wide. The ravine runs at least 400’ west (actually 440’) to where the western end rises in a steep slope. Here and there, at varying heights on all sides of the ravine, you can see the black mouths of cave-like openings in the rock walls. The sunlight is dim, the air dank, there is an oppressive feeling here - as if something evil is watching and waiting to pounce upon you. There are bare, dead trees here and there, and upon one a vulture perches and gazes hungrily at you. A flock of ravens rise croaking from the ground, the beat of their wings and their cries magnified by the terrain to sound loud and horrible. Amongst the litter of rubble, boulders, and dead wood scattered about on the ravine floor, you can see bits of gleaming ivory and white - closer inspection reveals that these are bones and skulls of men, animals, and other things...

CH: Pretty sure that's from the pov of you at ground level while your vision is obscured by the tree line. On the flat ground near the road/approaching it you'd have a clear view of at least the rock formation.

[EDIT: I think that I’ve made my point about the caves being visible from the road – assuming that the road is even the first thing you follow – fairly clear by now. It is abundantly clear that the adventure was not intended to be an exercise in frustration. You are intended to be able to find the caves. On the other hand, neither are the caves “100% visible from the road” or the module “100% corralling you towards the caves”.]

Thread Three: RC: The players, not the DM, determine the order in which encounters occur.

CH: even in the notes it says the players receive advice to "stay at the beginning of the ravine and enter the lower caves first"

RC: [P]layers may receive advice to tackle the closer/lower caves first, but they do not have to follow it. Nor is advise always useful; if they trust the evil cleric in the Keep or decide that "Bree yark!" is goblin-language for "We surrender!" they could be in trouble.

[Y]ou are somehow interpreting the players having context for their choices as "guardrails". Having context to attempt to determine the level of risk you will face =/= the GM determining the order of encounters.

Yes, the Caves are indeed the main adventure site. Yes, the closer ones are easier, and the DM is advised to give the players enough information to make good choices. But the players are making that choice, not the GM.

Chojen goes on to say: “So again, the entire point of everything I've ever said was in service to replying to the line from your original post:

Specifically, adventures were designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, occurred in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations.

None of that has anything to do with choice, more about how the encounters you play and face as a player are generally tailored to the level they're at. Even in Keep on the Borderlands the insanely hard encounters that you can walk into immediately in the caves like the Ogre or Bugbears aren't outside the realm of possibility for a party of 6-9 level 1 adventurers to take on and defeat.”

And, again we go back to:

This is a function of the steepness of the power curve. An AD&D 1e adventure could span multiple levels in its intended PC range and not assume leveling at all. An old school adventure can span multiple levels, assuming leveling, but leave it up to the players to determine when they are willing to enter deeper/more dangerous areas. For a long time, player decisions determining encounter order was the norm for D&D.

We don’t have to worry about “the insanely hard” encounters, because the power curve is shallow enough that “the caves like the Ogre or Bugbears aren’t outside the realm of possibility for a party of 6-9 level 1 adventures to take on and defeat.”

But, outside of that, when you look at the map to the Caves of Chaos, the really difficult caves – the temple and the minotaur, can be entered first if you are so inclined. The order of encounters is not up to the GM; it is up to the players. Even those encounters, because of the shallower power curve, might be surmountable. I played KotB before I ran it, and the first cave I entered was the minotaur’s. And we defeated the beast, although not without sacrifice.

You are not "meant" to go to the easier caves first; you are advised to. Nothing prevents you from doing otherwise, and in my more than four decades experience with this adventure, it is not at all uncommon for players to tackle harder areas first. It is also not at all uncommon for players (who do not know the caves are near the road) to stumble into another encounter first.

CH: The original comment I responded to was:

Specifically, adventures were designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, occurred in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations.

The Keep on the Borderlands fits that definition to a T.

RC: You clearly are just trolling here.

A bit about the goalposts.

(1) [M]odule B2 (The Keep on the Borderlands)…has no intended order of play.

(2) In B2, closer caves are easier, but there is nothing stopping PCs from heading into more difficult territory immediately.

(3) In B2, the players, not the DM, determine the order in which encounters occur.

(4) [Modern D&D] adventures [are] designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, occurred in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations.

None of these goalposts have moved.

In conclusion, by untangling the threads of this discussion, I hope to make it clearer to the reader. Keep on the Borderlands is not a linear adventure.

 

Conversion Crawl Classes 13: D&D 4th Edition: Keep on the Shadowfell (1)

I don’t really mind if you are a major fan of 4th Edition. To me, this was the low point for the various editions of the game, and following the “Delve Format” from the late 3e era, it had some serious problems in adventure design. Specifically, adventures were designed so that encounters, or series of encounters, occurred in a specific order to facilitate leveling expectations. Initially, the designers indicated that they would address the problems with combat length from the previous edition, but reductions in resource management coupled with the idea that PCs should get to use their cool combat maneuvers in every fight led the designers to instead make combats even longer than those in 3e.

On the other hand, 4e introduced several good ideas to the game, even if they were not always utilized in the best possible ways. These include the idea that creatures have triggering conditions (bloodied) which can change their statistics in a fight, minions, and a formal system of skill challenges. These things had sometimes popped up in older adventures on an ad hoc basis, but it was a good thing that GMs were given reason to think about them. In addition, some 4e adventures broke with “D&Disms”, either giving new spins to their creatures or going back to their literary roots.

I am working here from the free pdf of Keep on the Shadowfell, available from DriveTruRPG. This is a 145-page document containing quickstart rules, characters, and battlemaps for miniatures in addition to the adventure itself. The adventure contains a lot of advice for the perspective GM, which pads out its length, but also offers a good example of how much more concise a DCC adventure can be in comparison to 4e.

For published examples of conversion from 4e, I direct you to Dragora’s Dungeon and Curse of the Kingspire. Out of all the editions of D&D that I have converted to DCC, I have found that conversion from 4e takes the most work. This is not just because the material needs to be seriously pared down, but because 4e’s skill challenges need to be accessed in terms of DCC. 4e is also fairly jargon-heavy, and even the names of monsters need consideration. I believe that this is (at least in part) due to WotC’s first attempt to move away from the OGL.

On the Road: Kobold Brigands

Keep on the Shadowfell opens with an encounter with 12 kobold brigands. This was clearly intended as both a warm-up encounter and a chance to learn the basics of the combat rules. Not including battlemats or GM advice, the encounter takes up two pages. Because of the nature of 4e combat, it can also take up considerable time, and I have heard of groups which never made it past this point. Given the size of the adventure, it should take multiple sessions to complete, but our goal will be to allow the players to do more than have a single combat in the first of those sessions.

In this instance, I am including images of the original statblocks from the adventure rather than trying to convey the same information via text. It should be obvious why 4e required minions when you look at the statblocks – in most versions of D&D, kobolds are mostly slain with a single hit. Hit point bloat in 4e, meant to allow the PCs to use their most interesting powers in any given combat, would mean that most opponents would be making attacks against the PCs each round if some of those opponents were not easy to eliminate. What we are going to do here is reduce all three types of kobolds to a single statblock.

In fact, because DCC has its own vision of what kobolds are, let’s eliminate that name altogether and call them “ratlings”, reskinning them into short rat-like humanoids. It is an easy change, and it helps to Make Monsters Mysterious.

Let’s consider how we might convert our kobolds/ratlings to DCC terms, consolidating all three statblocks:

Init: The kobold minions and slinger both have a +3, and the dragonshields have +5. Given the nature of the foes, I am happy to leave these with +3 across the board.

Atk: We are given the possibility of daggers, sling, spears, javelins, and short swords. We can include each of these in our statblock, and then delineate what each group of ratlings has, as you will see below. Let’s also give all ratlings a bite attack for 1d3 damage, with an additional chance for disease. Finally, the attack bonuses in 4e are a result of numbers boat, and even the newest judge should realize that they are far too high. Let’s say +0 with melee weapons, +2 with ranged weapons, and -2 when biting. Yes, their initiative bonus might indicate a +3 Agility modifier, but we don’t have to follow the rules when creating monsters.

AC: Listed ACs are 13, 15, and 18. Given their nature and initiative bonus, AC 13 might be appropriate, but I am going to reduce their average AC to 12, with the two shield-bearers have an additional +1 bonus.

HD: These are not listed, although hit points (24, 1, or 36) are. We don’t need hp to be this high in a warm-up encounter for a low-level DCC adventure. Moreover, because the PCs are likely to explore their lair later, we don’t want to set that precedent. Worse, if they have a large number of hit points, how does a goblin end up in charge? The easiest thing to do here is to reduce their hit points, and given them HD 1d4. Note that this eliminates the need for minions. We can choose to give the shield-bearers 2 HD if we wish.

Hp: Based on our new Hit Dice, we can say that the average ratling has 3 hp, and the shield bearers have 5 hp. Or we could roll for them.

MV: I translate “Speed 6” to 20’, based on the size of the creatures. As with all of these conversions, I have no interest in looking through the original rules to see if I am “right”. My only interest is to make this work for DCC.

Act: 1d20 is the standard for Action Dice, and I see no reason to deviate here.

SP: There are a few things to note here. First off, if ratling bites can cause disease, we need to determine the effects. Because I want to limit the time it takes to do the conversion, I am just going to say “DC 13 Fort save every hour or 1d3 Stamina damage until a save is successful”. Similar to the “shifty” ability, we can say that they can disengage from melee without provoking a free attack. We will also give them a +1 bonus to melee attacks per ally attacking the same target, and make a note that the slingers have special ammunition.

SV: Let’s say Fort +1, Ref +2, and Will -2. That seems fair, and in keeping with the creatures we are presenting.

AL: Kobolds may be Evil in 4e terms, but that doesn’t help us at all. Reskinning the creatures to ratlings makes Chaotic an easy choice.

Crit: Following the table on page 385 of the core rulebook, we get a result of III/1d6, and III/1d8 for the shield-bearers.

Put altogether, our DCC ratling statblock looks like this:

Ratlings (12): Init +3; Atk by weapon +0 melee (by weapon) or by weapon +2 ranged (by weapon) or bite -2 melee (1d3 plus disease); AC 12 (13); HD 1d4 (2d4); hp 3, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 7, 7; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SP Disease (Fort DC 13 or 1d3 Stamina each hour until save is made, can disengage from melee without provoking attack, +1 to melee attack rolls per ally swarming the same target, special sling ammunition; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will -2; AL C; Crit III/1d6 (III/1d8).

5 ratlings are armed with sling (1d4) and dagger (1d4). Each has three rounds of special ammunition (roll 1d3 when used: 1-2 firepot [DC 12 Reflex or set on fire for 1d6 per round until DC10 Reflex succeeds] or 3 gluepot [DC 14 Reflex or Move 0’ for 3d6 rounds].

5 ratlings have three javelins each (1d6) and spears (1d8).

2 ratlings have 2 HD, 7 hp, and are AC 13 due to shields. They are armed with short swords (1d6).

Hopefully, not only will this take up less space, but is should be easier and faster to run. It would be possible to even further consolidate the statblock by removing the shields, making them all 1 HD, and giving them all the same weapons. I rather prefer this version, however.

Battleground Features

The text of the adventure gives us some features, among them:

Boulders: Scattered boulders sit along the side of the road. They provide concealment and possible cover for creatures hiding behind them. They also serve as obstacles to movement; a creature can’t move directly into a square that contains boulders. The boulders are 5 feet high. Climbing onto the boulders requires a DC 15 Athletics check and costs 4 squares of movement. A character atop the boulders can move onto other boulder squares; treat them as difficult terrain.

Foliage: Thick foliage grows near the road in several places. These areas are lightly obscured and provide normal cover for those attacking from or into the area. Areas covered by foliage also count as difficult terrain.

Rock Outcropping: The sheer rock outcroppings bordered by a heavy black line are 50 feet tall and require a DC 20 Athletics check and a total of 200 squares of movement to climb.

Gravestones: These stones provide cover to anyone standing in their spaces.

In DCC terms:

Boulders (5’ high) and gravestones offer cover, granting +2 to AC. Foliage offers concealment (+4 AC vs. ranged attacks). The boulders can be climbed with a DC 5 Strength or Climb Sheer Surfaces check, and the 50’ tall rock outcropping can be climbed with a DC 15 Climb Sheer Surfaces check each round, at a speed of 10’ per round. Faster climbing is possible, increasing speed by 5’ per round for every -1d shift to the check.

I would also reduce the 34 sp to 34 cp.

Note that this could be a tough fight for a small group of 1st level DCC characters, and that is entirely okay. The judge could choose to reduce the number of opponents or give them some chance to detect the ambush before it occurs. It should be noted that, in the 4e version, the GM putting out a battlemap and telling the PCs to place their figures on it should be a clue that something is up.

Moving Forward

I am going to spend some time with this adventure, spanning at least four blog posts, because there are multiple things to consider when converting 4e adventures. We need to examine Winterhaven, map configuration, skill challenges, and at least two more encounters. By the time we are done, you should be ready to convert any adventure from 4e to DCC without too much difficulty.

 

Next: D&D 4th Edition: Keep on the Shadowfell (2): Winterhaven