Merry Christmas and happy holidays, readers! Today I'm giving you an early present. This year's holiday adventure, The Chaining of Krampus, is now available to download for free right HERE on my patreon!
Long-time readers know that this is part two of a three-part Christmas-themed adventure sereis that began with Escape from the Lair of the Krampus. The Chaining of Krampus is a light-hearted and humerous adventure for 4-6 ninth level characters using the pfrpg system. Eight pre-made characters are provided, plus guidelines for creating your own custom characters for this adventure. It features my own monsters, including the ice cube and snegurochka, plus tons of ridiculous references to classic holiday mythology and TV Christmas specials. It was a real treat to make; I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Friday, December 26, 2014
Escape from the Lair of the Krampus - A Holiday D&D Adventure
Happy Boxing Day, everyone! My Boxing Day present to you is my holiday adventure, "Escape from the Lair of the Krampus!" It is available to download for free from my Patreon page.
"Escape from the Lair of the Krampus" is a short dungeon-crawl for four to six 7th level characters. The adventure comes with eight pre-generated characters for your group to choose from, but I have also included guidelines for creating your own characters to run through the game with. Last night, I ran (part of) the adventure for some very cool friends and family members, some of whom played the pre-generated characters and some of whom played their own characters - it works fine either way.
"Escape from the Lair of the Krampus" is the first part of a trilogy of Christmas adventures I have planned. "The Chaining of Krampus" will come out for Christmas 2015, and "Assault on the Fortress of Christmas" will come out the following year. They will use the same characters advanced to 10th and then to 13th level. I'll try to have them out sooner next time.
I should note that one of the reasons it took so much longer than I anticipated to get this adventure ready for you is that I created five original monsters specifically for this dungeon, including the figgy pudding and the frostjack. Expect more original holiday monsters in adventures to come!
-your holly-jolly d20 despot
"Escape from the Lair of the Krampus" is a short dungeon-crawl for four to six 7th level characters. The adventure comes with eight pre-generated characters for your group to choose from, but I have also included guidelines for creating your own characters to run through the game with. Last night, I ran (part of) the adventure for some very cool friends and family members, some of whom played the pre-generated characters and some of whom played their own characters - it works fine either way.
"Escape from the Lair of the Krampus" is the first part of a trilogy of Christmas adventures I have planned. "The Chaining of Krampus" will come out for Christmas 2015, and "Assault on the Fortress of Christmas" will come out the following year. They will use the same characters advanced to 10th and then to 13th level. I'll try to have them out sooner next time.
I should note that one of the reasons it took so much longer than I anticipated to get this adventure ready for you is that I created five original monsters specifically for this dungeon, including the figgy pudding and the frostjack. Expect more original holiday monsters in adventures to come!
-your holly-jolly d20 despot
Friday, October 31, 2014
Horrors of the Floating Gardens - a d20 Despot Halloween Adventure
 |
| Illustration by Kent Hamilton |
Apologies for the lateness of the post - I promised on Monday to post this sometime before Halloween, but it took a lot longer to get ready than I expected. I suppose, technically, as Halloween stands for All Hallows' Eve, and it is not yet evening where I live, I'm in the clear.
The adventure is available below as a PDF, with a series of maps as separate images. One of the reasons I took so long is that I had ambitions of creating a professional-looking, publishable adventure, but after much lost sleep and hasty statting-up, I have decided to wait and pretty it up later.
I began playtesting the adventure last night, and it went quite well, though we were only able to make it about half-way through in five hours, so be warned that this one-shot adventure is pretty long.
You many notice that one of the pre-made characters is a swashbuckler, but not the swashbuckler that they've released in the Advanced Class Guide. This swashbuckler is a sneak peak at my upcoming, original homebrewed class that I hope to have available to you sometime soon. My patrons on Patreon can currently view a PDF of the Swashbuckler on my Patreon page.
Alright, the adventure is below! I only ask that people who are currently playtesting this with me, or who are likely to play this with me in the near future, not read the adventure.
Monday, December 9, 2013
A Playtest of Trials of the Mad Mage
Two weeks ago, I wrote a post intended to introduce new players to D&D. Last week, I posted a short introductory dungeon called Trials of the Mad Mage. This week, as the final part of this bizarre triptych, I will post an account of the time that I ran this adventure for a group of new players. Did it function as I had hoped? Did it get them excited about their characters and about the game? To find out ...read on.
I should note that the adventuring party consisted more than the four characters set out in the adventure as you see it on my blog: the fighter/ranger, the rogue, the sorcerer, and the cleric. There were instead:
The cleric - Idissa Halga. The cleric was played by my girlfriend, who had played in several other D&D campaigns but had never played a cleric. She decided to go for a North African theme, and really enjoyed playing a cleric.
The rogue - Rrrrr. A 12-year-old thief from the ice-fisher people of the north, and worshiper of the squirrel-god of thieves. She was basically a magpie, hoarder of shiny things.
The sorceress - Angaia. She said she pictured her character as sort of a pyromaniac, so I gave her predominantly fire spells.
The fighter/ranger - Dover Madbury. He was open to anything and wanted to play whatever character I made for him. He decided that his favoured enemy should be dragons without knowing that there was a dragon in this dungeon.
The ranger - Wulfric Nettlebrook. A swashbuckling adventuresome ranger who fights the good fight against oppression and tyranny.
The bard - Bob the Bard. He decided that he wanted to be the most painfully boring bard ever, so I gave him a selection of spells including sleep and oppressive boredom.
The barbarian - Suomi. An elderly barbarian who could still kick ass despite her advanced age.
I should note that the adventuring party consisted more than the four characters set out in the adventure as you see it on my blog: the fighter/ranger, the rogue, the sorcerer, and the cleric. There were instead:
The cleric - Idissa Halga. The cleric was played by my girlfriend, who had played in several other D&D campaigns but had never played a cleric. She decided to go for a North African theme, and really enjoyed playing a cleric.
The rogue - Rrrrr. A 12-year-old thief from the ice-fisher people of the north, and worshiper of the squirrel-god of thieves. She was basically a magpie, hoarder of shiny things.
The sorceress - Angaia. She said she pictured her character as sort of a pyromaniac, so I gave her predominantly fire spells.
The fighter/ranger - Dover Madbury. He was open to anything and wanted to play whatever character I made for him. He decided that his favoured enemy should be dragons without knowing that there was a dragon in this dungeon.
The ranger - Wulfric Nettlebrook. A swashbuckling adventuresome ranger who fights the good fight against oppression and tyranny.
The bard - Bob the Bard. He decided that he wanted to be the most painfully boring bard ever, so I gave him a selection of spells including sleep and oppressive boredom.
The barbarian - Suomi. An elderly barbarian who could still kick ass despite her advanced age.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Trials of the Mad Mage: A Beginners' Adventure for Level 5 Characters
Okay, I'm a day late, but there was a lot to write this week:
As part two of my ongoing mission to introduce new players to D&D, I'm posting here a complete adventure of my own device, intended to introduce new (or lapsed) players to Dungeons & Dragons. I tried to give it a very 'old school' feel, with plenty of traps, puzzles, and strange things you would only find in... well, in the lair of a mad mage. I also tried to inject some humour in there to help more reluctant players stay engaged with the group. I made the adventure for level 5 characters because I wanted to give the players a sense of power. Although I am a big fan of starting off at a low power level, it can be quite discouraging for a new player to come into this incredible world of fantasy and magic, only to realize that he or she can be easily killed by a kobold with a sling. Starting at a higher level gives players - especially spellcasters - more exciting powers to play with (hopefully without overwhelming them), and can thereby get them more invested in the game and their characters. For the same reason, many of the combat encounters will be quite easy by the standards of regular D&D players, but I want to take into account the lack of experience of the new players, and I do not want combats to drag on.
Well, enough stalling. Without further ado, here is the adventure: Trials of the Mad Mage!
The following text (even though it isn't yellow) is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. (c) 2013 Jonah Bomgaars.
As part two of my ongoing mission to introduce new players to D&D, I'm posting here a complete adventure of my own device, intended to introduce new (or lapsed) players to Dungeons & Dragons. I tried to give it a very 'old school' feel, with plenty of traps, puzzles, and strange things you would only find in... well, in the lair of a mad mage. I also tried to inject some humour in there to help more reluctant players stay engaged with the group. I made the adventure for level 5 characters because I wanted to give the players a sense of power. Although I am a big fan of starting off at a low power level, it can be quite discouraging for a new player to come into this incredible world of fantasy and magic, only to realize that he or she can be easily killed by a kobold with a sling. Starting at a higher level gives players - especially spellcasters - more exciting powers to play with (hopefully without overwhelming them), and can thereby get them more invested in the game and their characters. For the same reason, many of the combat encounters will be quite easy by the standards of regular D&D players, but I want to take into account the lack of experience of the new players, and I do not want combats to drag on.
Well, enough stalling. Without further ado, here is the adventure: Trials of the Mad Mage!
The following text (even though it isn't yellow) is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. (c) 2013 Jonah Bomgaars.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)