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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Thinking of Using DCC #27, Revenge of the Rat King to Kick Off the AD&D 1e Campaign


I know, kicking off a AD&D / OSRIC campaign with a module for PCs level 4-6, when my players will average 3-4 (I'm giving them 8k expo, so level depends on class(es) chosen), has the potential of killing the campaign before it even starts. Still, my players are tough and experienced at not only thinking outside of the box, but also standing on top of the box and thinking when it suits them.

Besides, it uses one of those scenes I generally hate in the middle of a campaign: "The party is captured and stripped of their belongings", but works amazingly well to start a campaign: "You awaken with other strangers. Last you remember you were drinking in a tavern, now you are in a damp cell with nothing but the shirt on your back and some soiled leggings. What do you do?".

Yeah, I think it will work well. ;)

Did I mention it has a Rat King? Not a single copper in the whole adventure as far as I can tell. I'll need to rectify that.

7 comments:

  1. must be in exact amounts of 2000 coins - dungeon studies revealed dungeon rats were bred to sort coins and stack in neat amounts

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  2. It might not have copper, but it does have a treasure section virtually identical to that. Area 1-8

    "Explorers taking the time to search the real pit (Search DC 20), discover 1d100 gp, 1d20 pp, and 1d4 rubies (worth 25 gp each) amid the old skeletons."

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  3. I've only read the 1E version of the module, but I like your idea.

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  4. hehe. I've started out players shipwrecked, enslaved, gang pressed into military service and dead. All of them were a lot of fun. Good luck with your new campaign.

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  5. I am too considering a similar kick off.

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  6. Sorry, been staring at the warrior woman in the illo you attached to the post. What were you saying?

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  7. I don't know how many games I've been in with a new GM which started with the whole you've beem captured, and you don't have your stuff anymore. It got old for a while, and most of the time I wasn't interested in a second sesssion with that particular GM. This was after character creation, and equiping the characters. Now I guess there was a chance to get the stuff back ( not ), but I felt the time was wasted, and the GM railroaded us, mainly because they weren't prepared. My apologies to whomever wrote the module, but I HATE THE WHOLE YOU'VE BEEN CAPTURED thing to start a campaign. If it happens during play I'm okay with it, and it can be fun, but not to start things out. Uunless of course that's what the players want.

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