How much adventure can be made w/o further prep out of this entry:

2410 The City of Ash (EL 12+): An ash-covered city
almost burnt to the ground lies in a blackened clearing. A young
adult red dragon (CR 12; hp 218) lives in a huge cistern in the
middle of town holding 6 virgin maidens (Com1; hp 2 each;
Cha 14+) captive. Twenty flame jet traps (CR 2; 1-ft. wide, 50-
ft. long stream of flame; 3d6; DC 13 Reflex save avoids; Search
DC 25; Disable Device DC 26) and 10 20-foot deep pit traps
(CR 1; no attack roll necessary; 2d6; DC 20 Reflex save avoids;
Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 20) are set about the ruins to
alert the dragon. In addition to the maidens, its lair contains
41,200 gp, 36,000 sp, 22 gems worth 11,000 gp total, a +3
animated shield, a +2 dragonbane sword, and a bracelet of friends.

Show me, I really wanna know, why this is more than an encounter with an adult red dragon. Show me how the Wilderlands work!

My gripe with it is the following:

While serving as a perfect adventure making hook, it doesn't take the legwork out of making adventures. Which is OK, but people continously claim you can game with entries like this without further legwork.
And I don't see it.

What's the Dragons motivation?
What does he do with the maidens?
Where do they come from?

The most important, non-wingable questions:
Why has nobody killed him yet?
Where did he take the gold from?
What plans does he have?
How far have they grown?
Why hasn't he cleared out all inferiour hexes in his surroundings and claimed their vauluables?
How does he interact with other dragons?


I seee all cool thoughts coming out of it, but they mean

more work!

you've just doubled the text entry of this ash city, and came up with something more useful than stats - (which Im fucking sick of - stat that is) - questions for the GM - Nice Work  - maybe they should hire you to write this stuff next time

Is there any entry like that on every hex for the map?  Because I'm perfectly willing to bullshit my way through the questions you call "non-wingable".  I see the limitations you outline, but I think I'm going to agree with Pundit on this one: I could totally use a box full of hexes like that with little or low prep.

I'd be a LOT more worried about getting some kind of a proper location map set up.  Those flame jets have to be installed somewhere...

I could just shoot everything else from the hip as it became important to the characters.

-O

Quote from: obrynI'd be a LOT more worried about getting some kind of a proper location map set up.  Those flame jets have to be installed somewhere...

You 3rd edition kids and your maps - slows everything down, puts the focus too much on spatial aspects.  Just roll a spot check once on the way in for a trap.  Later, have the dragon lead them over a trap.  

I could use something like this, but I tend to like plot centered games over encounter centered so I'd have to look ahead a bit to weave things into an existing story.

Quote from: SettembriniAnd I don't see it.

What's the Dragons motivation?
What does he do with the maidens?
Where do they come from?

The most important, non-wingable questions:
Why has nobody killed him yet?
Where did he take the gold from?
What plans does he have?
How far have they grown?
Why hasn't he cleared out all inferiour hexes in his surroundings and claimed their vauluables?
How does he interact with other dragons?


I seee all cool thoughts coming out of it, but they mean

more work!

So, in the same breath, you don't understand, but demonstrate it.

What a GM who prefers this approach will do is ask themselves and answer questions similar to the ones you just posed. Quite possibly on the fly. The point of the utility here is that it gets these thoughts rolling in the first place. I for one can say that after a day of slinging code, my thoughts are a bit sluggish and that's just the sort of thing I need.

But let's put my "on the fly" thoughts on paper just to get a feel for it.

• What's the Dragons motivation? - He's a Chaotic Evil Red Dragon. His motivation is pretty much spread destruction and mayhem and grow his hoard.
  
• What does he do with the maidens? - Considering the above, it's probably food on the hoof. Or to be toyed with. But he's pretty intelligent... if any of them demonstrated any talent, he might enlist them. This might lead me to make one a low level rogue or sorcerer instead, that might turn on the dragon and/or help the PCs/request their help.
  
• Where do they come from? - Two possibilities. a) Offerings to keep the dragon at bay. The dragon accepted the gift and torched the town anyway (CE is like that). b) They are offerings from a nearby town who, after the dragon made this little demonstration, decided it was best to keep him happy.
  
• Why has nobody killed him yet? - This is not really a question I would ask. He's a Cr12 creature. I don't assume heroes that could take him on grow on trees. (Someone might have already tried. See the Dragonbane sword in his collection.)
  
• Where did he take the gold from? - This town. Other victimized or extorted town. Perhaps the nearby towns were getting recalitrant in their offerings and this was a show of force. (See 3b)
  
• What plans does he have? - Rule in dominance over the petty humans.
  
• How far have they grown? - They who? Huh?
  
• Why hasn't he cleared out all inferiour hexes in his surroundings and claimed their vauluables? - Can't answer that without looking at what's in nearby hexes. But again, maybe the locals were keeping him happy but were slacking off, and this was just a show of force. Again, see 3b.
  
• How does he interact with other dragons? - That's a background detail that probably wouldn't be important to detail to run the encounter unless there is another dragon in a nearby hex. If I really needed more ideas, I have draconomicon.
  

Already, I have a hook or two and some salient details to run encounters with local NPCs. Plenty to go on for a night's gaming.

Quote from: obrynI'd be a LOT more worried about getting some kind of a proper location map set up.  Those flame jets have to be installed somewhere...

If I were runnig off the cuff, I'd just start drawing on the battlemat and introduce jets of flame where my capriciousness suits.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad

• What plans does he have? - Rule in dominance over the petty humans.
  
• How far have they grown? - They who? Huh?

I'm going to take a stab and guess that he is asking how far the dragons plans have grown towards thier goal.

Caesar Slaad, not only do you have a great avitar, you also have great ideas off the cuff. :bow:

Quote from: cnath.rmI'm going to take a stab and guess that he is asking how far the dragons plans have grown towards thier goal.

He's got six of the 9 virgins needed for The Ritual.  His plans are nearly complete.  Now if he can just get [village PCs are staying in] to cough up some more virgins.

Quote from: NicephorusYou 3rd edition kids and your maps - slows everything down, puts the focus too much on spatial aspects. Just roll a spot check once on the way in for a trap. Later, have the dragon lead them over a trap.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadIf I were runnig off the cuff, I'd just start drawing on the battlemat and introduce jets of flame where my capriciousness suits.

Yeah, I've improv'd maps before, but I really like to have something set up beforehand just so I have places to add touches of charm and ... well, for lack of a better term, filler.  There's a lot of room to add neat little flourishes, and a little help beyond this description would, I think, encourage this creativity rather than stifle it.  Something as simple as a non-scaled pencil sketch of the area would rock.  It wouldn't describe everything - that would defeat the purpose - but a little structure would encourage further creativity in my mind.

I see the info in this hex as a great way to get started.  Me, I'd like to have a little prep time to set things up, read an MM entry or two, get a rough sketch, and try to figure out why any of this should be important.

-O

Quote from: jrientsHe's got six of the 9 virgins needed for The Ritual.  His plans are nearly complete.  Now if he can just get [village PCs are staying in] to cough up some more virgins.

In which case I don't know that I'd have the village elders accuse a female pc of being a virgin, but telling the pc's that the cute but shy waitress from the tavern/inn is missing due to the town elders having taken her to be the sacrifice...

Quote from: cnath.rmIn which case I don't know that I'd have the village elders accuse a female pc of being a virgin, but telling the pc's that the cute but shy waitress from the tavern/inn is missing due to the town elders having taken her to be the sacrifice...

Shit... and you were complimenting my run-of-the-mill ideas...

(Of course, it helps come up with these sort of things if you have Dragonslayer in the back of your mind...)

@Jeff: How can there be meaningful strategic decisions in a "through-bullshitted" campaign?

Quote from: Settembrini@Jeff: How can there be meaningful strategic decisions in a "through-bullshitted" campaign?

Give me an example of what you mean by a strategic decision in this particular situation.