Making Adventures in Greyhawk

[@RonW4684]

GG, you are 100% correct, and I am happy that we both do this (it tells me I am on to something!). I did this with T1. I've run it several times, and characters need to be mostly 3rd level to survive the Moathouse. So I built up 3 mini adventures around Hommlett, that when combined would point players to the Moathouse. They included: A travel adventure from Narwell to Hommlet, Bandit raids around Hommlet, A Gnoll lair north of Hommlet, and an Ogre terrorizing the Gnomes of the Greenway Valley, all of these adventures built them up to 3rd level. I also had a tie in adventure for Slave Lords, if they needed more XP to defeat the Moathouse, and foreshadow the A-series.

[@cpt.loogie]

To this effect, I ran a spur adventure for my Greyhawk campaign that I'll note was based on a simple blurb in Queen of the Spiders where a "breadcrumb" is dropped in the form of a map in the possession of a group of ghouls leading to an area in the underdark adjacent to the primary path. The party was on enroute to the Drow city described in D3 (and flushed out beautifully in your D4 module, of which elements were also used in this campaign). This was simply described as "S/T-17 (not detailed in this module)" in the published work. This highlights one of the best aspects of the setting which was the way Gary would pepper in hooks like this. It feels very natural and special. I imagine most playthroughs of D1 either ignored this detail or replaced the map with another scroll (I am positive this was the case in the tournament variant of this adventure). But when you look at this as part of a greater campaign, this is the perfect way to give the players an excuse to venture off the beaten path to gain some (often much needed) xp or loot or both. I took advantage of this leveraging the "recommendations" in the super module included in Appendix 3: Further Adventures in the Depths and built a 3-4 session side quest on the 2-paragraph blurb related to the mention of a "lost temple of the Elder Elemental Eye". This gave me an opportunity to engender the party against this particular element that (at the time they believed to be at the root of the trouble on the surface), while also giving me an excuse to throw a lich at them (as they completely (and wisely) avoided Asberdies in D1. I also (randomly of course) threw in some unique undead encounters (crypt things and various undead are a fun thing to play with when the cleric cannot simply turn them to death) as well as some nice loot for them to draw forth that played a part in the coming encounter with the Kuo-Toa and (inevitably) their goddess as they progressed to D2. All this to say love the channel, love the content and keep Greyhawk alive!

[@tomtccarpentermusic1]

Journey To Hommlet - great introduction to the village/moathouse.

[@GreyhawkGrognard]

Thank you!

[@PeterNorthsLeftTesticle]

Yes, great module. I'm running it now.

[@pentegarn1]

I kind of felt T1 "The Village of Hommlet" was definitely the first nudge in the #2 type of adventure...just because The Temple of Elemental Evil took so long to come out. By the time Temple came out we'd already run all kinds of type 1 and type 2 adventures in that area of the Flanaess, because we were always returning to the Inn of the Welcome Wench in between adventures. I'd say the same about B2 but back then we didn't even know what world that was supposed to be in. But we played there for a long time. lol

[@MarkCMG]

Thanks for the video! Integrating homebrewed material into a published setting can often be easier the more focused the material and the tighter the scale.

[@torinmccabe]

I like the sly flourish method of writing down 10 secrets that your PCs can find each session. Those secrets can be about the setting, NPCs, plot, etc

[@dr.davidhoward3179]

I have one Campaign ongoing: The Conquering of Greyhawk. My Pal 18/Clr 19 is working with other Lawful Good rulers to change the Campaign to Lawful Good. It's already half done. Most of the Campaign is cinched. Mordekainen just became lawful good.

[@hamishshaw4907]

Thank you for doing these, Grog! I always get something out of these. 😁

[@karellanclarke3161]

I just finished hosting a series of sessions with your prelude to Hommlet module. I have been trying to integrate some Greyhawk lore and the mysteries concerning the return of the temple into the adventure in subtle ways. Wrapping my head around all the different factions involved in the broader campaign has been a challenge, but I have followed your suggestions. Some ideas I used to provide a little peak behind the curtain: A - I placed a note on Erin Darkmoon (who they captured, but in a exciting series of rolls ending up escaping) which revealed her suspicions that the 'Abbey raiders were loyal to Belsornig' (The PC's missed the Abbey entirely), a reference to 'old wicked' and her upcoming report to Halga. B - I placed a token on Garoff with an ancient fire rune and another one on the Xvart band connected to Iuz. Jaroo in Hommlet deciphers these to reveal the Iuz and elemental connection, although the latter is still a mystery to the PC's as they have not yet found out about the temple. I did an INT check to determine that the mage in the party knew about the war between Iuz and Furyondy to the North. C - I will gradually reveal aspects of the history of Hommlet from the townsfolk so the PC's learn what happened at the Moathouse, Emridy Meadows and the Temple not long ago. I also put a 'history of Verbobonc' volume in the Church Library that the PC's might get pointed to if they are really intrigued. Its been fun so far, thanks for all your good work!

[@dr.davidhoward3179]

Telling a new DM three of your character's party of five tried to kill your character: $0. Seeing the look on his face that the character is now a Pal 18/Cleric 19: Priceless.

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

Got my POD of the AD&D 2nd ed Monstrous Manual the other day, ahh the memories! Only took 2 weeks (normally 3-4) from UK to AUS.

[@Satori2046]

Nice ! Published adventures extensions is what've Ive always did for my game. Works like a charm, you can add your own creativity and flll in the gaps :)

[@autisticallyaccurate]

Excellent Insightful Advice! Bravo!

[@mattinthehat3]

Very thought provoking video. Many great suggestions.

[@josefreitas753]

A middle ground option is to use the generic adventure - place Keep on the Borderlands somewhere in the southern Wild Coast - then have NPCs of Oeridian, Flan and Suel, and over a few sessions show a subtle bias against Suel... they are the original bad guys way back, that's what the myths say, plus they are losers who lost the Pomarj to the orcs, and they fled as refugees to the northern Wild Coast. That's where you are right: slowly building the world around them.

[@hectorforth2671]

Yes, have a whole campaign against the slave lords and the earth dragon. The mastermind behind the players has made many allies from the free city of Greyhawk to the Scarlet Brotherhood, even has help coming from the silent ones.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

Greyhawk Grognard, you look quite tired. Please ensure you get enough sleep for your health & happiness. 🙂

[@BW022]

I'd be curious as to the copyright issues on this. Maybe another video topic, but I've always been leery of "writing" adventures. Sure, I make adventures and campaigns and run them, but as they being increasingly complex, I'm typically writing them down, including chunks of maps, names, Gods, etc. If I'm playing with my group, I assume it's all fair use? Even if I play online in a VTT, it's still not publishing. However, when you actually PDF the adventures and put them online... what are the rules around that? In Greyhawk, I prefer small campaigns rather than one-shot adventures. You aren't going to have enough time or background in a mere 4-5 hours -- especially if new to Greyhawk -- to have it mean anything. For me, better to pick an area, focus on the terrain, climate, political and ethnic peoples, etc. and then have at least a half-dozen sessions to flesh it out. A session or two just isn't long enough for players to experience and organization, culture, language, etc. and they tend to just become 'name drops' only meaningful to those familiar with Greyhawk.

[@GreyhawkGrognard]

The answer to your question is the Fan Content Policy. Here's the link, but basically you're allowed as long as it's 100% free. There are, of course, some other rules, but do read it for yourself. That's how I publish the free pdfs on my webiste. company.wizards.com/en/legal/fancontentpolicy

[@BW022]

@@GreyhawkGrognard Thanks. 🙂

[@raymondhemphill146]

You are my Avatar the Good.

[@stevestumpy6873]

🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉