A map that Victor whipped up for a Dungeons & Dragons/Dungeon World/probably FATE (which I picked up last week) adventure I am working on in between writing A Sundered Dungeon World (which is almost at 100 pages). The hard part is getting the plot squared away; once it comes to monsters/encounter building it is a simple matter of just switching up the mechanics.
Aaand here is the last map that Victor and I made for Keep on the Shadowfell.
…for like, the third or fourth time.
Here is the map before the characters went inside. The green pillars contained souls of previously sacrificed victims, and could be used to charge up Necrotic powers, and the moat of blood concealed zombie minions.
The characters managed to sneak in before the paladin botched a Stealth check, causing Kalarel to open up with a blast of grave dust that dealt necrotic damage–which he resisted most of–and left a zone of damaging terrain. Shen (tiefling hexblade) leapt on top of the portal, surprising Kalarel but still missing with an eldritch bolt.
The zombies are up after a turn of failed ranged attacks. I held back due to all the bad rolls so as not to immediately overwhelm them all.
The dead body on the alter turned out to be a ghoul playing possum. After Shen leapt off the portal and knocked Kalarel over, it charged her, somehow missing despite charging and her being prone.
After luring the zombies up, Kamon fey stepped off the high ground into melee with Kalarel to help out Shen. Unfortunately, the defender and other striker were stuck with a trio of zombies.
This was quite a few turns later. They managed to kill Kalarel and stopped him from opening the portal any further (though he got it far enough to deal necrotic damage to adjacent living creatures). At this point they were just playing mop up with the ghoul and zombies.
Almost done. The ghoul decided to leg it, and eventually was killed off with a well-placed vampire slam and blood drinker.
I really dislike drawing maps, so often I try to play out the events of the adventure in my head to get a feel for what might happen (as opposed to what I would like to happen), usually resigning myself to the task of mapping a day or two before game night.
The campaign started out with the players going through a few arena battles before having an ideal chance of escape when a silk wyrm starts wreaking havoc on the place. The intent is that after escaping that they go through a door leading to the mess hall, beat up the guards in there, head into the kitchen, and then use a waste disposal pit to get to the sewers.
When I was writing up the adventure, I figured that not all the guards would get eaten by the silk wyrm, instead fleeing and locking the door behind them, giving the characters extra incentive into taking the other door. The problem is that that whole thing is contingent on the characters not interfering with the guards, and not being slaughtered by a level 3 solo.
When I ran it, the wyrm eventually ran away on its own and the guards followed it, making sure to lock up the prison from the outside. The players armed themselves with loot from the dead guards, and then proceeded as planned when I had a squad of guards show up in the mess hall looking for escapees.
Ultimately it felt like that there was too much that could go wrong, and in the interest of helping things run more smoothly the next time I run (or put it online) I decided to make some hefty cuts to the previous map, making it a bit more straightforward in its purpose. I put the waste disposal in the same room, figuring that it made sense because those cells are not going to clean themselves and it gives the guards a place to go. I also put the whole structure underground, making a lift necessary to access the place. Makes sense, as slaves–as well as dangerous monsters–will now have a very hard time getting out this way.
Here’s a map I sketched up for my current Dark Sun campaign, based on a map that I can no longer find, adjusted for the encounters and direction I want the players to go.
ThePlaneswalker likes to do maps and make brand-spanking new classes (as well as update this site) and he’s really good at them.
Awful Good Games 