DM Thoughts: Session 09
This session marked the unveiling of the first of my colored maps for the campaign - this one being for the caves under Parrot Island, into which the party was trapped by Vanthus and Anzak at the beginning of the session.
The key difference from the way I wanted to handle maps in this campaign, compared to the past few, lay however not in the use of color (which is more of an artistic touch than anything else) - but in the use of unity. Whereas for Shackled City (the first campaign in which I introduced pre-drawn maps as a tool for improving dungeon exploration), I had drawn the maps on semi-thick card-stock, then cut them up into sections for each rooms, turning dungeons into tiled portions that could be added bit by bit... this time I wanted to experiment with something different. Rather than chop up a dungeon, I wanted to try drawing out the entire thing on a single large sheet of paper. This would come with both advantages and disadvantages, of course. The first advantage was ease of storage - before we had to place the cutout maps sections in large "books" of sorts, which took up a far amount of space and were hard to re-store a map in after it had been used - now a map was simply a rolled-up tube of paper, and could be rolled up again after use. The second advantage was easy of use - rather than search through the book for the right tile for the next room, then try and figure out the right direction in which to place it, we now had a map that was entirely assembled already - leaving out the possibility of error, missing tiles, or wasted time trying to find things. This also made it easier for backtracking: before, we might have had to reconstruct the map if the party wanted to run back to an earlier room - now, the entire map remains there, available if necessary. Both of these advantages, then, make the large paper maps quite a bit more practical and convenient for the DM, requiring less work to create and prepare, as well as less work to understand and use in the middle of the session.
However, there is one disadvantage over the prior method - that with the entire map visible, it may at times "spoil" things for the party, in terms of the layout of the dungeon. Yet, in my eyes, this is not such a big problem as you might think, which is why I was willing to take that risk. Firstly, because oftentimes the size and layout of rooms isn't a full indicator of what the "right" way to go is, or where to find the "boss", either. Sure, a large room might seem like a place for a bigger encounter, but the main enemy could just as easily be in a smaller room as well. And anyway, in the interest of maximizing experience, and finding as much treasure as possible, our group tends to explore the entirety of most dungeons anyway. So it's not as though half the map would be ignored, just because it seems like the "wrong way" to go, to get to the boss. We would usually end up exploring it anyway. Also, lastly, my group has a strange knack for picking the right path by pure chance anyway, heading straight for the boss without even meaning to. Time and time again, we've done that through sheer luck (or bad luck, depending on how prepared we were) - so even if a particular map made it clear where the boss was, all that would likely do is make the party more likely to save that room for last, since time and time again we've speeded through a dungeon a bit too quick, ending up with a tougher boss fight than we would have liked.
Thus, for all these reasons, I decided to test out the paper map idea. And so far, at the point that I write this, we have fully used the one for Parrot Island, and partially used the one for the Lotus Dragon Guildhall. And in both cases, I have been quite happy with the results. Exploring has been sped up a bit, things are so much easier for me in terms of terrain management during the session, and the fights have made use of greater-than-average tactical positioning. So no complaints on this end.
As for the session itself, the other main element was my happiness that things actually turned out better than expected for the party. Which is strange to say, since one of them died, but that one death made for a far smaller casualty list than I was originally expecting.
This was due to the tactics laid out in the previous session, in which Crimson, Gustave and Lavinia were to accompany a suspected Lotus Dragon named Max to a guild safehouse on Parrot Island, while the other two party members (Glaive and Gustave) were going to investigate his house. This I feared as a very dangerous decision, since I knew both sides of the plan were very risky, and should not be attemped with a split party. This because the Parrot Island scenario was not just a small ambush, as suspected, but rather a betrayal of Max himself which was supposed to put the entire party into a trapped position, locked in a dungeon, trying to escape. Crimson, Gustave and Lavinia alone (even with Max's help) would have little hope of getting out alive, knowing what I knew about the dangerous monsters within the caves.
As for Glaive and Garland, I was worried for them as well. I knew that they were being followed and watched by a team of four Lotus Dragons already, ready to jump in if they did anything undesirable. So when the duo broke into Max's house, I fully expected the two to have trouble fighting off the four rogues. Actually, in my mind, I already had a plan as to how I was going to play it out, should they not be able to fight off the thieves: both brothers were going to be knocked unconscious, but not left dead. Garland was going to then wake up the next day, finding himself with a dagger pierced through his hand and a note attached to it, saying: "We have taken your brother hostage - if you and the Dawn Council do not stop the investigation immediately, he dies." Glaive, meanwhile, would be held prisoner within the Lotus Dragon Guildhall, being interrogated by certain higher-ups.
This would have given some extra tension to the invasion of the Guildhall, while also forcing the players to fight with one man missing. It also would not have robbed Chris of a chance to play, since he controls both Glaive and Crimson, and therefore would still have a character.
Furthermore, Garland would have to locate his other missing friends, as they would likely be trapped or potentially dead, beneath Parrot Island.
However, this was not meant to be, as Garland proved quite formidable, and took out four Lotus Dragons all by himself. Then, thankfully, the party united itself before the Parrot Island entrapment scenario - allowing them all to participate in it.
All in all, as I said, things went better than I feared they would for the party. My backup plan could have saved things, had the worst case scenario occured, but in the end, having them all together for the Parrot Island dungeon was certainly not something to complain about!
So, all in all, another great session. And thankfully, even the death of Gustave did nothing but add depth and development to his character, as it moved his relationship with Lavinia forward another step. One of many roleplaying developments that I have loved so far in the campaign - which I shall discuss in the DM Thoughts section for the next session.
The key difference from the way I wanted to handle maps in this campaign, compared to the past few, lay however not in the use of color (which is more of an artistic touch than anything else) - but in the use of unity. Whereas for Shackled City (the first campaign in which I introduced pre-drawn maps as a tool for improving dungeon exploration), I had drawn the maps on semi-thick card-stock, then cut them up into sections for each rooms, turning dungeons into tiled portions that could be added bit by bit... this time I wanted to experiment with something different. Rather than chop up a dungeon, I wanted to try drawing out the entire thing on a single large sheet of paper. This would come with both advantages and disadvantages, of course. The first advantage was ease of storage - before we had to place the cutout maps sections in large "books" of sorts, which took up a far amount of space and were hard to re-store a map in after it had been used - now a map was simply a rolled-up tube of paper, and could be rolled up again after use. The second advantage was easy of use - rather than search through the book for the right tile for the next room, then try and figure out the right direction in which to place it, we now had a map that was entirely assembled already - leaving out the possibility of error, missing tiles, or wasted time trying to find things. This also made it easier for backtracking: before, we might have had to reconstruct the map if the party wanted to run back to an earlier room - now, the entire map remains there, available if necessary. Both of these advantages, then, make the large paper maps quite a bit more practical and convenient for the DM, requiring less work to create and prepare, as well as less work to understand and use in the middle of the session.
However, there is one disadvantage over the prior method - that with the entire map visible, it may at times "spoil" things for the party, in terms of the layout of the dungeon. Yet, in my eyes, this is not such a big problem as you might think, which is why I was willing to take that risk. Firstly, because oftentimes the size and layout of rooms isn't a full indicator of what the "right" way to go is, or where to find the "boss", either. Sure, a large room might seem like a place for a bigger encounter, but the main enemy could just as easily be in a smaller room as well. And anyway, in the interest of maximizing experience, and finding as much treasure as possible, our group tends to explore the entirety of most dungeons anyway. So it's not as though half the map would be ignored, just because it seems like the "wrong way" to go, to get to the boss. We would usually end up exploring it anyway. Also, lastly, my group has a strange knack for picking the right path by pure chance anyway, heading straight for the boss without even meaning to. Time and time again, we've done that through sheer luck (or bad luck, depending on how prepared we were) - so even if a particular map made it clear where the boss was, all that would likely do is make the party more likely to save that room for last, since time and time again we've speeded through a dungeon a bit too quick, ending up with a tougher boss fight than we would have liked.
Thus, for all these reasons, I decided to test out the paper map idea. And so far, at the point that I write this, we have fully used the one for Parrot Island, and partially used the one for the Lotus Dragon Guildhall. And in both cases, I have been quite happy with the results. Exploring has been sped up a bit, things are so much easier for me in terms of terrain management during the session, and the fights have made use of greater-than-average tactical positioning. So no complaints on this end.
As for the session itself, the other main element was my happiness that things actually turned out better than expected for the party. Which is strange to say, since one of them died, but that one death made for a far smaller casualty list than I was originally expecting.
This was due to the tactics laid out in the previous session, in which Crimson, Gustave and Lavinia were to accompany a suspected Lotus Dragon named Max to a guild safehouse on Parrot Island, while the other two party members (Glaive and Gustave) were going to investigate his house. This I feared as a very dangerous decision, since I knew both sides of the plan were very risky, and should not be attemped with a split party. This because the Parrot Island scenario was not just a small ambush, as suspected, but rather a betrayal of Max himself which was supposed to put the entire party into a trapped position, locked in a dungeon, trying to escape. Crimson, Gustave and Lavinia alone (even with Max's help) would have little hope of getting out alive, knowing what I knew about the dangerous monsters within the caves.
As for Glaive and Garland, I was worried for them as well. I knew that they were being followed and watched by a team of four Lotus Dragons already, ready to jump in if they did anything undesirable. So when the duo broke into Max's house, I fully expected the two to have trouble fighting off the four rogues. Actually, in my mind, I already had a plan as to how I was going to play it out, should they not be able to fight off the thieves: both brothers were going to be knocked unconscious, but not left dead. Garland was going to then wake up the next day, finding himself with a dagger pierced through his hand and a note attached to it, saying: "We have taken your brother hostage - if you and the Dawn Council do not stop the investigation immediately, he dies." Glaive, meanwhile, would be held prisoner within the Lotus Dragon Guildhall, being interrogated by certain higher-ups.
This would have given some extra tension to the invasion of the Guildhall, while also forcing the players to fight with one man missing. It also would not have robbed Chris of a chance to play, since he controls both Glaive and Crimson, and therefore would still have a character.
Furthermore, Garland would have to locate his other missing friends, as they would likely be trapped or potentially dead, beneath Parrot Island.
However, this was not meant to be, as Garland proved quite formidable, and took out four Lotus Dragons all by himself. Then, thankfully, the party united itself before the Parrot Island entrapment scenario - allowing them all to participate in it.
All in all, as I said, things went better than I feared they would for the party. My backup plan could have saved things, had the worst case scenario occured, but in the end, having them all together for the Parrot Island dungeon was certainly not something to complain about!
So, all in all, another great session. And thankfully, even the death of Gustave did nothing but add depth and development to his character, as it moved his relationship with Lavinia forward another step. One of many roleplaying developments that I have loved so far in the campaign - which I shall discuss in the DM Thoughts section for the next session.
posted by Markus the Mad | 8:03 PM
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