[4e] Mrs. Bakersfield's Homemade Preserves (an adventure)

Wogoat

I've just put together an original adventure intended for 4 1st level characters.
I had fun with it and hope some of you will do the same.

I still need to finish up a bit of text at the end to flesh out what could happen after the adventure, but it should be completely ready to run as it is.

Check it out, let me know what you think.

Mrs. Bakersfield's Homemade Preserves

DearAmbellina

Just looking through this, I love it. I've been trying to find a fun and quick little adventure for a couple friends that have never played before and this fits the bill, Its got an entertaining story behind it and its not too overwhelming for starters. Good job! Id love to see some more

Megazver

I thought she'd

be making pies out of dead people.

Looks good, if a bit dungeoncrawly. Hard to say anything about the fights without playtesting.

SkyCaptain

That was my first thought as well Mega. Looks like a good dungeon delve to introduce new players to the game. You should clean up the artwork, formatting, and typesetting and submit it to WotC. If you need help, I'm a pretty good cartographer and can come up with some color maps for the dungeons.

Megazver

By the way, did you post this on EVERY rpg forum or just this and rpg.net?

Wogoat

By the way, did you post this on EVERY rpg forum or just this and rpg.net?

I couldn't find much in the realm of homebrewed adventure modules, so I wasn't sure what community would be most interested in something like this. Or perhaps I'm just a bit over-enthusiastic about this thing.

Rainfall

It's a neat adventure, but it's REALLY linear. I'd probably have a lot of fun playing it, but you might want to add in more options for the players rather than 'proceed down path A'

Megazver

Wogoat wrote: »

By the way, did you post this on EVERY rpg forum or just this and rpg.net?

I couldn't find much in the realm of homebrewed adventure modules, so I wasn't sure what community would be most interested in something like this. Or perhaps I'm just a bit over-enthusiastic about this thing.

Yeah, I get it.

The only other thing that came up when I read it, was that there's like six encounters there without anywhere to do the extended rest without metagaming it a bit.

And maybe the encounter with the six preserves of one type could use some variety, but that needs to be playtested.

Arivia

I only skimmed it, but be sure to include maps without the enemy locations on them.

Additionally, I'd cut the weird random climbing mechanic for preserves getting to the roofs in the final encounter. Include interiors for the buildings, including stairs, assume flat roofs, and just have them move normally. Otherwise you'll have weird interactions with tactical movement powers. Just call ladders difficult terrain.

Wogoat

Yeah, it's 5 encounters with no room for an extended rest, although the first two encounters should be really easy ones to balance it out.

The two times I've play-tested it so far the party is running low on surges at the end but still made it through. The final encounter is designed around the idea that everyone probably used up their dailies on Encounter 4.

However I've only been able to test it with one player being the whole party, I need to try it out with a proper group before finalizing it.

Arivia

Wogoat wrote: »

Yeah, it's 5 encounters with no room for an extended rest, although the first two encounters should be really easy ones to balance it out.

The two times I've play-tested it so far the party is running low on surges at the end but still made it through. The final encounter is designed around the idea that everyone probably used up their dailies on Encounter 4.

However I've only been able to test it with one player being the whole party, I need to try it out with a proper group before finalizing it.

In that vein, I didn't see a recommended party level on the first page.

SimpsonsParadox

I'd also caution that many paranoid players (such as myself) will probably just try to break down the door the moment they're locked in, especially if they've gotten enough information to be suspicious. Not sure how to handle that without railroading.

Other than that, it looks like a good adventure.

Wogoat

In that vein, I didn't see a recommended party level on the first page.

Good catch, it's intended to be for a party of level 1 players.

I'd also caution that many paranoid players (such as myself) will probably just try to break down the door the moment they're locked in, especially if they've gotten enough information to be suspicious. Not sure how to handle that without railroading.

There's two spots where it could get derailed: trying to escape the cellar instead of exploring, or trying to proceed further into the mausoleum. I've got it so the villain attacks them if they stay too long in the mausoleum, so encounter 4 just happens in another room, and then just about any player group will want to chase down the escaping villain and take her out, so that covers the latter.

But that leaves trying to escape the cellar too early as the biggest problem left.