The CritFail.Post - Issue 002
The Thrill of Adventure
Hello and welcome to the official CritFail.Press Newsletter!
In this issue we will take a look at how best to use pre-existing adventure and setting content for your games. We are also providing you with an original adventure location, The Sunken Lair of the Bog Druid, for use at your table today!
Adapting Existing Content
As Game Masters (GMs) it's our job to craft interesting scenarios and challenges for Players and their character's (the PC's) to engage with and hopefully overcome.
Many GM's enjoy the process of developing these scenarios on their own, while others prefer selecting plots and encounters from published adventure module content.
Each approach has its merits, and as one continues to grow as a GM, it is not uncommon to find inspiration from other sources as well. One of these sources may be published adventures for a TTRPG system different from the one your game is using.
How then can we adapt the content from one game system into another?
Numerical Pitfalls
The trap that many GMs fall into is trying to adapt all of the numerical or mathematical content of an adventure (which we'll refer to as our source adventure) from one system to another. Depending on the RPG system of the source adventure and the desired system to use for play, this may be a fairly simple conversion.
As an example, if we are converting the D&D 3E adventure the Red Hand of Doom into 5E D&D, it is fairly easy to swap monsters out 1-for-1. That is, replace the bugbears from the 3E adventure with bugbears from the 5E Monster Manual and so on. Some monsters from the adventure may not have an analog in 5E, but that's ok. We can use a tried-and-true technique called reskinning our monsters to help us out.
When reskinning, we can take an existing 5E stat block that we think provides the right level of challenge for our PC's and simple describe the creature and it's actions in a way that matches the description of the monster being from the source adventure.
In other instances though, we may need to massage some numbers a bit more. 3E was known for a steadily increasing numerical values for checks and saves over the course of a campaign. With 5E's "flatter math" we would likely need to convert some DC's in the example of Red hand of Doom. But we have tricks to help us do that.
If we read the adventure module, we can learn from the text what the expectation of any given encounter is. If a fight or a trap or a social encounter is identified in the text as being relatively simple, than we know what DC's to set for such events based on guidance from the Dungeon Master's Guide (lower in this case). For more challenging encounters, we're obviously going to be setting our DC's higher, though maybe not as high as the source adventure, just high enough to provide the type of challenge the source adventure is intending.
Distinct Mechanics
We could go through the entire adventure using the ideas mentioned above, and in the example of converting a D&D 3E adventure to a 5E one, this would work pretty well.
But what if we want to convert between systems that don't have any real mechanical similarities?
The advice above is still relevant, and here's why: When converting adventures we aren't looking at mathematical conversions, we're focused on matching intent.
Does the source adventure describe a combat as easy? If so, we don't want to throw a deadly encounter that could cause a TPK.
Perhaps a particular investigation is extremely challenging and only the most perceptive character can deduce the truth, or find the hidden clue. In this case we may need to set DC's or Target Numbers very high to simulate this difficulty, or you may require multiple "successes" to find the hidden information, if that's how your chosen system functions.
Trust Yourself
There are so many different and varied TTRPG systems that exist in the marketplace today, it would be impractical for a short blog like this to provide rules for converting between them all.
Instead, the best advice we can provide is to familiarize yourself with the system you want to play. Make sure you understand its nuances, and the mechanical "levers" that exist within to increase or decrease the challenge of play, as well as what the system focuses on and what it makes exciting.
Then, take the source adventure as a seed, a starting point. As you move through the content of that adventure, don't get hung up on the numerical or rules content of the adventure. Instead focus on the story, the characters, and the situations that PC's will find themselves in. These things should typically be what inspires you about a given adventure module anyway.
Lean into those things, and wrap the rules framework of your chosen system around them. Discard mechanical requirements of the source adventure's system that don't line up with the one you want to play, and similarly, add in the mechanical bits from your system that the source adventure may be lacking (where appropriate, this can be tricky sometimes).
Most of all, trust in your skills as a GM, as a storyteller, and as a referee. Remember, the Players likely have no idea what your source adventure is, or where it comes from, so take every liberty that you need to when running the game. They will be none the wiser.
-- Mike
The Sunken Lair of the Bog Druid
Overview
The druid Velonis came to the outlying marsh lands, known to many as the Fetid Mere, several years ago after being ousted by his previous circle. The fell aura of the Mere has wormed its way into Velonis's heart, and from a ruined temple of the Green Mother he seeks to spread its taint beyond the confines of the swamp.
The temple had fallen decades before when a cult of demon worshippers raided it. Many of the druidic priests perished, or escaped, including the founders of Velonis's former circle.
Description
1. Foyer
- 4 feet of standing water covers the floor. Broken stone doors can be found lying at the bottom of the water, broken off their hinges by the force of Velonis's magic.
-
The doors into Area 2 (Cleansing Pool) are locked.
- Keys may only be found on Velonis in Area 4 (Altar of the Green Mother) or in Area 6 (Reliquary).
2. Cleansing Pool
- 4 feet of standing water. In the center of the room, 2 feet below the water line sits a 2 foot tall ring of stone, encircling a 10 ft deep well.
- The well used to be for purification before worshipping at the Green Mother’s altar. It is now the lair of an ancient Giant Crocodile. Velonis feeds the beast and uses it as a watchdog.
- Assorted coinage and other valuables (300 gp worth) can be found at the bottom of the well. Two half-eaten druid corpses and an adventurer’s decomposing body can be found at the bottom. The adventurer wields a magic weapon of the GM’s choosing.
3. Nature's Bounty
- Tables and long rectangular planters bob in the standing water. The planters once were used to raise small fruit and vegetable bearing plants and bushes. Dead bushes and plants float on the surface.
- The tables, planters and dead bushes slow passage through the room requiring extra movement or PC actions to navigate successfully. Two small animate plant creatures hide in the water, but will only attack at Velonis’ command.
- One bush still holds a single fruit that restores a small amount of health. It is not immediately obvious on the dead bushes and must be located intentionally with some kind of searching action.
4. The Chapel of The Green Mother
- The room rises up out of the standing water, sloping up towards the west wall. A defaced statue of the Green Mother sits sadly atop a crumbling dias. The roots and vines lining the wall are black and weep a foul smelling liquid.
-
Velonis is on the dias tending to three black shrubs growing in black clay pots around the statue, their roots running out of the bottom of the pots, along the floor and wrapping around the black roots bound to the wall.
- Velonis will treat with the PC’s long enough for the two evil plant creatures in Area 3 (Nature's Bounty) to move into position. Then he attacks claiming the PC’s blood will nourish his children.
- The black shrubs will lash out with branches at anyone standing next to them. Once they're destroyed the roots in the room will return to their normal color.
- Velonis has a key to the door in Area 2 (Cleansing Pool). He also has a small hoard of treasure totaling 200 gp and a magic censor that controls plants.
5. Storeroom
- Under 6 feet of water. Full of water logged crates and barrels. Sundry goods and foodstuffs in the crates and barrels are all ruined and beyond salvaging.
- Crates and barrels have been stacked in front of the stairs to Area 6 (Reliquary) by the Green Mother's priests, before they were forced from the Temple. No one has found the Reliquary since then, not even Velonis.
6. Reliquary
- Under 10 feet of water, completely submerged. No roots or vines line the walls. Just a single, meditative relief of the Green Mother on each wall.
- A stone chest can be found along the eastern, western, and southern walls. The corpse of a priest of the Green Mother can be found on the floor in front of the southern chest.
- The southern chest is trapped. The lid cannot be opened more than an inch and a poison needle will shoot out from the interior at anyone trying attempting to lift it.
- The eastern chest is empty and houses dozens of swamp snails, considered a delicacy at restaurants in the more populated corners of the realm.
- The western chest contains 600 gp worth of treasure and a sacred icon of the Green Mother. The Icon can be used three times to moderately heal wounds. After the third use it turns into a collection of small leaves that turn brown and blow away.
- The dead priest holds a key to Area 2 (Cleansing Pool) in its bony hands.
Conclusion
- If Veronis is defeated or driven out, and the corrupted shrubs are destroyed the temple is saved and the Fetid Mere remains a small regional marsh, and nothing more.
- If the shrubs are not destroyed, the Mere continues to grow, slowly at first, and then more rapidly as time goes on. It will consume rivers, lakes, and settlements, driving out all of the regions inhabitants and wildlife.
Next Issue:
- All the resources you need to run your own Dragon Age RPG mini-campaign. Oh yeah, and it's completely FREE!