One thing I really like in adventures, especially published ones, is a bad guy roster.
I mean a full-out list of who, what, and how many. Especially if it's done in a tick-off fashion so I can mark down casualties and changes as I go.
WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun does a great job of this. You have a full-on roster of all of the organized bad guys in the dungeon. You know how long it takes for them to reinforce the front, where they come from, and so on. This makes running a battle in the dungeon very easy.
I called out UK2 The Sentinel and UK3 The Gauntlet for doing this well in a large battle, although they also do an inside-the-fold monster list that serves a lot of the same purposes.
Some modules do it a little less effectively. They might only list monster stats in one area, but not the numbers and locations for the pre-set ones.
The former, I like a lot.
This is something I'd like to see in more published adventures.
I've done the same - put all the bad guys on a spreadsheet, print it out, and cross them out as they die or put notes about where they've moved to. It makes restocking and reinforcing much easier - you know at a glance what's left and where. I've done it for the orcs, lizard men, draugr, bandits, etc. in my current game, and I'll do it again for large encounters or groups spread across multiple areas. If a module doesn't do it, it's worth doing yourself.
I did this in several of the one-shots I ran for Dragon Heresy, and it was insanely effective. The bit on reinforcements is a big deal, and when three lizard-folk can step out of a side passage and surprise you because you were making a ruckus killing kobolds in a neighboring room and it's EASY to see from where they're coming . . .that's cool.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, this gives me an idea.
Link to your idea here when it comes to fruition!
Deletehttps://gamingballistic.com/2017/03/19/benefits-of-a-keyed-monster-list/
DeleteThe Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun was one of my favorite modules. I agree with the roster plan for dungeons because it gives some sense of realism. I personally like attack plans for monsters too. Like how they would organize their forces against PCs trying to take their loot.
ReplyDeleteI find tactics really help because it means the monsters don't all fight the way I'd have them fight. That's critical - I have tells, I have styles, I have typical choices. Having the writer say what spells will be cast, who will do what, etc. lets me introduce a tactical element that isn't flavored by my personal preferences.
DeleteI enjoy reading the authors ideas for the tactics that the monster will use. They often have interesting ideas I haven't thought to use. Racenloft was great for this because it gave areas where the vampire would attack and also how he would retreat if things weren't going well for him. Ther were lots of different ideas for attacking too which kept players on high alert because the vampire could be anywhere in the castle and attack at any time.
DeleteThis is something I've included in pretty much all of my adventures; very handy tool.
ReplyDelete