A16.
This is part of the #Dungeon23 challenge in which you make one room to a dungeon every day for a year. In an effort to link my memories to the creation, I am also writing a personal journal entry with each room that may or may not be related.
You don’t have to read that part.
A16.
This locked room is almost completely empty, except for two features.
On the western wall, opposite the door is a large chest of impeccable quality. Its lid features intricate carvings of cherubs bounding from cloud to cloud. It’s iron bands are polished and pristine.
The other feature is a ceiling covered in spikes.
Yes there are skeletons stuck to the ceiling.
So clearly there is a problem.
When someone steps on the pressure plate directly in front of the treasure chest, the floor of the room, east of the dotted lines, becomes super bouncy. All movement becomes one square at a time. Each time you move into a new square you must avoid bouncing into the ceiling. Probably some check or save. For every success you get to bounce an extra square. So the deeper you are in this room, the worse this is going to be.
The chest is a mimic.
Enjoy.
Made with midjourney.
1/16/23
Am I taking my kids to a trampoline park to celebrate my nephew’s birthday today?
Yup. And so this room was born.
…
Ran our weekly D&D game last night (after I’d played in a game earlier that Saturday).
I may have mentioned that we’re running the Age of Worms adventure path that was originally published across 12 issues of Dungeon Magazine. It was designed for the Edition 3.5 of D&D, so there’s some mechanical adjustments I have to make.
I think running modules in general puts game masters in a weird headspace.
When you’re just starting out you’re so unsure of what you’re “supposed” to do. So you get a module, which is basically a script of events that you follow. I’ve heard some people express disdain for modules, but I think they’re great for ideas, or taking the pressure off of a GM who may not have a lot of time to prep a game.
But of course every new GM, and seasoned ones like yours truly, run into the same problem. Sometimes the players do something that makes following the story stupid, or you realize the story is kinda dumb as it is, and you realize you have to rewrite it. Or, egads, improvise.
Something hasn’t been sitting right with me in regards to the current chapter of the adventure. There is a massive battle being fought between Dragons and Giants. Cool. The players are sneaking into this battle in order to get a very important artifact. The Dragons want that artifact too. And the Giants are sworn to protect it from anyone and everyone.
You can see the conflict here. The Dragons are clearly the enemy, and the Players may appear to the Giants to also be the enemy. And a lot of the module hinges on the idea that the Players always appear to be the enemy to the Giants.
But last night, I’d had enough. They’d really done so much, killing historically important Ancient Dragons in battle, that I was like - fuck it, these Giants are cool with you all.
So what does that mean? It means we’re skipping to the end of the module. The players made their case, the Giants believed them, and now we’re going to skip the dungeon crawling and go straight to getting the artifact.
And it felt great. The Players felt like they earned it. They don’t give a damn what’s in the book. We don’t have to run all these encounters. Why should we? Because it’s there?
And I felt great because I didn’t feel shackled to the script.
This game has been an experiment in running a pre-written, linear campaign, which isn’t something I don’t normally do. I’ve learned a lot from it, but I also feel like this is just not my style. Which means, sometimes I have to throw it out and give my players what they deserve, even if it’s not what the book wants.
Anyway, I got a birthday to get ready for.
See you tomorrow.
-Jae
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