Playing With
Pre-Mades
August 2nd, 2010
Hello everyone, and welcome to Dark Designs. As you may have already heard, we here at Necromancers of the Northwest have recently made an unholy alliance with the nice folks over at www.paizo.com (in case you haven’t heard of them, they’re behind the Pathfinder system which happens to be the system that 90% of our products are designed for). The alliance works something like this: we give them our products, such as Liber Vampyr and Into the Armory, and they put them on their site, where people we might not normally be able to reach see them, download them, enjoy them, and then (hopefully) come here to look for more free content, like this very article. This will (again, hopefully) allow us to slowly but surely expand the Necromancers of the Northwest “family”.
Recently, however, we decided to take this alliance a little bit further. Our next release, on the 15th of this month, an adventure entitled The War of the Goblin King will be released through Paizo at the cost of $5.00. Hey now, hang on, let me finish! Firstly, The War of the Goblin King is easily worth the price: it’s jam-packed with fun and exciting encounters, including a high-octane chariot battle, a desperate rescue mission in a burning building, cunning and deadly traps, and an epic battle with the goblin king himself. Along the way, PCs can find help from more than one unlikely ally, investigate the trading town of Springdale, and storm an abandoned keep which has been taken over by a tribe of goblins with aspirations of claiming a kingdom for themselves on the surface.
That said, I know, I know, I understand your concerns, believe me. But, remember, I did say that this might happen. And I also said then, as I will say again now, that Necromancers of the Northwest does remain devoted to providing quality gaming content 100% free of charge. Our daily articles will remain free, and nothing’s going to change that any time soon. What’s more, this is just an experiment. We want to see how it works out, and whether selling some (but by no means all) of our content is a viable way of staying afloat (it turns out that advertising funds are less generous than we might have hoped. Who’da thunk?). Our September release will be free of charge, just like you’re used to, and from there we’ll see what happens.
Is this a sign of a drastic change in the way NNW operates? I don’t think so. The articles will stay free, as I said, and so will at least some of our .pdfs. Just, please, don’t think of this as “a way to give back” or “a chance to support a company which produces a free product.” That isn’t what this is. We’re not putting a price-tag on our materials because we need a hand-out from the fans that we love. As I’ve said all along, we feel that the material we produce is of high enough quality to be worth something. I’m confident that The War of the Goblin King is worth every penny, and I think that if you decide to pick it up, you’ll agree with me.
Speaking of worthwhile pre-made adventures, that’s sort of the topic of today’s article (convenient, huh?). I know that a lot of DMs out there don’t like using pre-mades, and that’s something I wanted to take a moment to talk about. Could this have anything to do with the fact that next month’s product (as well as last month’s product, and half of the month before that’s product) happens to be a pre-made adventure? Well, sure, a little. I’d be lying if I said that the fact that we’ve been working on a lot of adventures lately hasn’t gotten me thinking about this in particular topic, and even if the column has strayed a little bit from its origins, it is at least still partially a “design diary”.
So, to get right into the thick of it: a lot of DMs don’t like pre-mades. I think that this is pretty unfortunate because, in my experience (which, I admit, is not completely limitless) the people who dislike pre-mades the most are the ones who could benefit the most from using them. Now, I mean, let’s be straight: there’s a lot of different reasons to be wary of pre-mades, and some of them are quite justified. For example, I can completely understand that some people would rather not pay for their adventures, and the vast majority of pre-mades aren’t free (note that while I understand people not wanting to pay for pre-mades, that doesn’t mean I don’t think pre-mades are worth the money, as long as they’re well-made. I stand by everything I said above). Additionally, and on a somewhat related note, some pre-made adventures just aren’t that great, and there’s nothing wrong with steering clear of the mediocre ones.
But even accounting for all that, there are some DMs who feel that pre-made adventure modules just aren’t for them. Usually this is a matter of pride: why should I run someone else’s adventure? I can make adventures just fine, I don’t need someone else telling me what to do in my game! But, assuming the adventure in question is of any quality, I really think that these statements couldn’t be further from the truth. For one thing, when I hear a DM start talking about how he has “a story to tell” or doesn’t want to have anything “fettering his creativity”, alarm bells start going off in my head. I don’t mean to say that DMs shouldn’t be creative, or shouldn’t try to provide at least a semblance of a narrative for their players, but these phrases, in my experience, have always been inextricably linked with novice (or, in some unfortunate cases, merely novice-quality) DMs.
I mean, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, really. Chances are you were a first-time DM once, too. My first go at DMing forced all the PCs to be member of the church of Pelor and then, well, let’s just say that wasn’t the most ham-fisted or railroad-y thing about it. I imagine most people’s first campaign was pretty similar: they sound great in your head, but tend to come out in brush-strokes that are just too broad and with themes that are a little too cliché, especially if you were your group’s first DM and started young. Maybe even if you weren’t: for example, one of the guys in my current group, when he got his first chance to DM, decided that the campaign would begin at level 16, and would center around an alliance between demons and devils, leaving the standard PC races allied with illithid, rakshasas, and beholders, among other things. Another guy ran a one-shot which primarily involved us listening to various NPCs describe how impossibly clever, powerful, and mysterious his bad guy was, how he magically knew everything and could be anywhere at any time, assassinating whoever he wanted and generally being able to prevent us from finding out anything about him, ever, without bothering to just show up and kill us. The highlight of that in particular adventure was a random encounter with a kraken.
Back to the point, there’s nothing to be ashamed of as far as being a neophyte DM and making some…er…questionable plot choices is concerned. As I said, we’ve all been there, or, at least, I have, so if you managed to skip that phase perhaps you should be the columnist here. However, pre-made adventures are more than just a source of entertainment. Good DMs are always looking for ways to become better DMs, and playing a pre-made is an excellent way to do that. A pre-made adventure module is like a window into the mind of the author (or authors), which allows you to pick up on some of their tips, tricks, and style. Things that you like are easy enough to implement into future adventures you run, and things that you don’t can be left behind later (or, Vecna forbid, you could probably edit the adventure module to remove the parts that bother you, or even add in things that you like.
Just because someone laid out the groundwork doesn’t mean that it isn’t still your game).
Really, pre-made adventures are a lot more than something to throw at your PCs when you’re too lazy to make something yourself. They offer new DMs a good starting guide for what real, professional-grade adventures look like, helping those DMs to find their footing faster and easier, and they can still prove a useful exercise to keep the experienced DM’s abilities sharpened, providing new ways to improve themselves and make the adventures they do create themselves (something I wholly endorse! Man probably could live on pre-mades alone, but I wouldn’t recommend it) that much better.
Join me next week, when I’ll be discussing how playing D&D can feel a lot like trekking through the desert (what can I say, it’s a theme week). Until then, may your players challenge you to greater and greater heights of dungeon-mastery (or, if you’re a player, may you never play an adventure where the best part is a random encounter).
Oh, right, of course. The main attraction. The one. The only. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn!
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (CR 26)
XP 2,460,000
N Colossal aberration (extraplanar, eldrazi)
Init +6; Senses all-around vision, low-light vision, darkvision, blindsight; Perception +32
Aura Aura of Annihilation
DEFENSE
AC 39, touch 21, flat-footed 37 (+2 Dex, +18 natural, +13 deflection –4 size)
hp 580 (40d8+400)
Fort +22, Ref +17, Will +29
DR 25/epic; Immune critical hits, disease, energy drain, massive damage, mind-affecting, negative energy, poison, sleep, stunning ; Resist acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic 10
Defensive Abilities Spell Immunity
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee 6 tentacles +43 (1d6+15)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Spell-like Abilities (CL 20th)
Constant—fly, mind blank
At will— crushing despair (DC 27), detect thoughts (DC 26) , enervation (DC 27), lightning bolt (DC 26), resist energy, see invisibility, speak with dead, tongues,
3/day—blight, dominate person (DC 28), feeblemind (DC 28), finger of death (DC 30), reverse gravity
1/day—circle of death (DC 29), energy drain (DC 32), insanity (DC 30), hold monster, mass (DC 31), horrid wilting (DC 31), meteor swarm (DC 32), power word kill, shades, time stop, wail of the banshee, wish
Spells Prepared (CL 20th)
9th—etherealness, implosion (3) (DC 32), storm of vengeance (2)
8th—earthquake , fire storm (DC 31), mass inflict critical wounds (DC 31), symbol of death (2) (DC 31), symbol of insanity (DC 31)
7th—destruction (2) (DC 30), repulsion (2) (DC 30), symbol of stunning (DC 30), symbol of weakness (DC 30)
6th—geas/quest (DC 29), greater dispel magic (2), harm (DC 29), symbol of fear (DC 29), symbol of persuasion (DC 29)
5th—insect plague, planeshift (2) (DC 28), slay living (2) (DC 28), symbol of pain (DC 28), symbol of sleep (DC 28)
4th—chaos hammer (DC 27), freedom of movement (2), holy smite (DC 27), order’s wrath (DC 27), poison (DC 27), unholy blight (DC 27)
3rd—bestow curse (DC 26), blindness/deafness (DC 26), contagion (DC 26), stone shape, wind wall (3) (DC 26)
2nd—bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, darkness, death knell, enthrall (DC 25), hold person (DC 25), silence
1st—bane, cause fear (DC 24), doom, entropic shield (4), obscuring mist
STATISTICS
Str 40, Dex 14, Con 28, Int 2, Wis 36, Cha 15
Base Atk +30; CMB +61; CMD 63
Feats Combat Casting, Eschew Materials, Toughness, Improved Counterspell, Lightning Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Maximize Spell
Skills Perception +32, Spellcraft +23
Languages Eldrazi (can’t speak)
SQ
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Annihilation (Su): Any living creature who moves or begins his turn within 120 feet of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn takes 6d6 negative energy damage. For each point of negative energy damage dealt this way, Ulamog heals 1 hit point.
Spell Immunity (Ex): Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is immune to spells or spell-like abilities that allow spell resistance.
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure incidental
And, in 4e-ese...
