Thoughts and reflections on what happened when I tried running D&D Basic adventure B6 - The Veiled Society.

I have very little experience running games from pre-written scenarios and often default to making stuff up. Previously, I have tried running an Eclipse Phase scenario "Continuity", and an AD&D scenario released on Dragonsfoot called "spiderfarm" (this one works really well actually).

With that in mind, I decided to try running an early BECMI adventure for a group I have.

The veiled society takes place in a pseudo-medieval city called Speculum/Specularum/something. I put it in my own world. I kept most of the names of NPCs and family groups to save me losing the plot midgame. I also tied earlier adventures into the city so that there were other things to do not involved with what was pre-written.

From the gumph on the back page:

QuoteThe Widow insists there are demons in her house. She hears them at night in her root cellar, and now they call out to her. But she is old and nervous and her mind often plays tricks on her.

Two men, their heads fully sheathed in large black hoods, dig quickly in the darkness of the cellar. The hole grows deeper as their shovels bit into the earth.

"This will teach those meddlers their place," laughs the tall, hefty figure.

"But it's too bad this was an accident," the shorter, slim figure says haltingly.

"But don't you see the advantage?" snapped the tall man. "They will fear us now. They will fear for their lives."

Grunting, they heave a sailcloth bundle into the hole. As it falls, a woman's hand dangles lifelessly from the folds.

Who is the woman? Why will her death trigger riots and unrest in the city of Specularum?

And the assassins: Are they Torenescu, Radu, or Vorloi? Or, curse of curses, the Veiled Society?

This special game adventure provides a section of paper buildings and figures to cut out and use, giving you three dimensions to your game play!

So, did it work? A group of 4 players ran through the module using English as a Second Language. Non-native language game play! Because of that I had to adapt some of the capsule descriptions and dialogue for the group. No biggie. What was more challenging was adapting what was contained to decisions that were not considered by the designer/writer.

For example, in one scene the players encounter a hooded man collecting a shovel in a cellar. It is presumed that he either doesn't see the party and maybe they follow him, and if he does face the party, he escapes. He didn't escape in my game. And, even armed with a sleep spell (to try and shoe-horn play back onto the modules rails!) he still failed his rolls and was captured.

What happens? A speech from earlier in the module (about joining the Veiled Society) is transposed to this character, along with empty threats of serious consequences if he is killed etc etc. Even if it is not for the right person and the right time, they were not to know. As far as they were concerned, this society is attacking the city from the inside.

Other aspects of the module had to be moved around slightly to fit the manner in which the players had engaged with the issues as they saw them. For example, working as a unified collective the group could not be split between factions. Seriously!! When discussing work in an inn (typical early D&D!), the players ask to wait until the next day for a decision as they need to decide as a group. I would say "typical Japanese", but I am sure other players from other cultures have done the same thing. They took the job.

This left the module with all the players "on one side" of the power groups as they had been laid out by David Cook in 1984. They group had apprehended a suspect digging tunnels under houses and handed him over (trustingly) to city security/guards (not knowing that they too are in the employ of the Veiled Society).

The module provided a few interesting points for city play, but did not fair well once the players started exercising their right to "do as they wanted" within the city. When I say "Fair Well", I mean "did it end up as the writer probably expected?"

Did it suffer from me not being prepared? Partially. I read the module several times. I was struck by the "you don't need to read it all!" statement on page two of the document. It is better as something used "in the background" rather than "as the focus".  Perhaps it expects as certain style of play? A certain style of player? Did it suffer from me not really caring about "Politics" (with a Big P)? Probably.

I went into running this expecting that things would probably pan out as they were determined in the module. But I am now left with a group who have made enemies of everyone it seems. Now they are off to a job at the docks (where in the module they would go back into the city and suffer potential attack). I am likely to take them out of the city for a time.

One thing that as made apparent though is how a city can become a living entity. I have suddenly found that things are happening as a result of the party's actions. I have to note these and make sure they are recorded for future reference.

Would I use the material again? Possibly. But I would divorce what is contained from any presumptions there may be of narrative (or direction) in the module. Running a pre-written module is an art in itself, and I think that some GMs have had success with certain writers over the years, whilst others haven't.