The Dungeon Master Experience: Surprise! Epic Goblins! The Dungeon Master Experience This regular column is for Dungeon Masters who like to build worlds and campaigns Surprise! as much as I do. Here I share my experiences as a DM through the lens of Iomandra, my DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® campaign world. Even though the campaign uses the 4th Edition rules, the topics covered here often transcend editions. Hopefully this series of Epic articles will give you inspiration, ideas, and awesome new ways to menace your players in your home campaigns. Goblins! If you’re interested in learning more about the world of Iomandra, check out the wiki. 2/17/2011 —Dungeon Master for Life, Chris Perkins MONDAY NIGHT. The adventurers are 22nd level, and crewing a ship head- ing west across the Dragon Sea. The Maelstrom is a swift vessel powered by an elemental ring of water (an idea pilfered from the Eberron campaign setting). One of the adventurers, a genasi swordmage, was Christopher Perkins recently relieved as captain of the Maelstrom so that he Christopher Perkins joined Wizards of the Coast in 1997 as the editor of Dungeon® magazine. Today, he’s the senior could lead a special ops mission for his mentor and bene- producer for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Roleplaying Game and leads the team of designers, developers, and editors factor, Sea King Valkroi. (You might recall that the same who produce D&D RPG products. On Monday and Wednesday nights, he runs a D&D® campaign for two different thing happened to Captain Picard in the ST:TNG episode, groups of players set in his homegrown world of Iomandra. Chain of Command.) Three days ago, the Maelstrom survived a run-in with three enemy ships sent by a rival Sea King. Having weath- ered that storm, the Maelstrom has resumed its westward trek toward the party’s ultimate objective. En route, the adventurers catch sight of a lone vessel heading in the opposite direction. Corpses are lashed to the other ship’s hull, and its sails are stained crimson with blood. The adventurers confronted a ship like this once long before, during the heroic tier, when goblins raided their island home. Clearly this blood-sailed vessel belongs to the Kingdom of Sanghor, a savage island nation of goblins far to the west. That’s right. Goblins. At 22nd level, no less. December 2011 | DUNGEON 197 1 The Dungeon Master Experience: Surprise! Epic Goblins! Our heroes would’ve been inclined to leave goblin ship advantage presents a refreshing change of pace, par- creatures in the burst . including other rigged alone but for two reasons. First, the party’s ranger spots a ticularly when they don’t see it coming from a mile goblins. Clearly the best tactic was to take out the cage being dragged alongside the goblin ship at sea level. away. goblins from afar—but a tall order on the confined Within the cage, he sees a prisoner struggling to stay above All that being said, I still had some surprises in and crowded deck of a ship! water. Second, the ship is openly plying the trade lanes and store for them. They say good things come in threes, is clearly a threat to passing tradeships. The noble heroes so here we go: decide to storm the ship and rescue the caged prisoner. What ensues is a rollicking shipboard battle against an Surprise #1: Boom Goes the Dynamite! The gob- enemy the heroes never expected to fight at their level. lins filled their cargo hold with kegs of alchemical “black powder,” rigged to blow up the ship if things REASONS FOR THE went horribly awry. After Captain Mulk got the heave-ho, the goblins decided the time was nigh. ENCOUNTER And they would’ve succeeded too—if it hadn’t been This goblin ship encounter was meant to provide con- for the party’s pesky halfling rogue, Oleander. text for the larger campaign world. I created the side After the goblin demolition squad inadvertently set trek to remind my players (and their characters) that off three powder kegs and filled the lower decks there’s far more going on in the world of Iomandra with blinding smoke (a trick I used to foreshadow than “the quest at hand.” The goblin ship’s ability to the imminent destruction of the ship), Oleander slip past Dragovar patrols tells the heroes something jumped into the smoke-filled hold; once there, he meaningful about the world—that the Dragovar navy used his formidable Bluff skill to impersonate Cap- has lost control of the Dragon Sea. The war to the tain Mulk, telling the demolition squad to forgo west (against a former imperial regency fallen under the black powder and get their flea-bitten hides on horrors from the Far Realm) has taken its toll on the deck (whereupon they were promptly killed). imperial fleet, and the goblins of Sanghor are seizing Surprise #2: Advantage, Goblins! I decided not advantage of the situation. to make attack rolls for the goblins because there But there was one more reason for the encounter. were so many of them. Basically, the goblins had This one-night diversion was also crafted to remind no effective attacks. In place of an attack roll, a the heroes how powerful they have become. The goblin could deal 15 damage automatically to one hobgoblin captain (Mulk, a level 8 soldier) was lit- enemy it had combat advantage against. This made erally a pushover—he got thrown off his ship by a the tactical combat more interesting and forced magical whirlwind in the first round of combat. The the heroes to stay mobile, and it also felt right for goblin mage (Zazz, a level 7 controller) was snuffed goblins. out before he could monologue. The bugbear shock- Surprise #3: Minions are the BOMB! Given the troopers were swept aside like dust bunnies. goblins’ propensity for alchemical experimenta- One might expect players to get bored fighting tion, it seemed perfectly reasonable that Captain weak enemies and scores of minions—and yet this Mulk would have a squad of “exploding goblins” became one of the campaign’s most memorable tricked out with bandoliers of alchemical fire encounters. Like many DMs, I enjoy watching my flasks. Any damage dealt to a tricked-out goblin players squirm and wrestle with conundrums, but minion would cause it to explode in a close burst giving the heroes an (occasional) overwhelming 1 centered on itself, dealing 15 fire damage to all December 2011 | DUNGEON 197 2 The Dungeon Master Experience: Previously in Iomandra . By the end of the session, the heroes had not only dispatched the goblins but also rescued the caged prisoner who, it turns out, was first mate of another Previously ship that the goblins had attacked and plundered. Naturally, he presented the heroes with a quest—to transport his ship’s stolen cargo safely back to the raft- town of Anchordown—and thereby earn the favor of in Iomandra . another Sea King. One can only speculate what might happen to the 2/24/2011 heroes in the course of completing this seemingly straightforward side quest…. WEDNESDAY NIGHT. think that every one of my game sessions is unforget- ESSONS EARNED L L It’s 6:15 PM. The players are gathering around the table, table, that simply isn’t true. The Campaign Recap ritual begins thus: At the In any case, here’s what I learned from the goblins having just returned from picking up dinner. As is cus- top of a sheet of lined paper, I write today’s date and encounter: tomary with the group, one of the players has bought my dinner and delivers it with an expression that I take to the name of tonight’s adventure (which I oftentimes refer to as an episode) followed by a short list of bullet ✦✦ Never underestimate the appeal of kicking mean, “Here’s your dinner, Mister DM Sir. Please be kind tonight.” I smile, say thank you, and begin casting a ritual points. Each bullet point recounts, in the past tense, ass. Players need to feel powerful once in a something that occurred in a previous session (not while, particularly at high levels. that has served me well for years, and which I now share with you. necessarily the last session) that might be significant ✦✦ If you want your campaign world to feel like a This ritual is neither arcane nor divine. In fact, it’s to tonight’s game. The bullet points are carefully living, breathing place, let the players encoun- something I learned from watching episodic television. thought out, and I try to limit them to a handful. ter things below their level. Many of the things that define my DMing style come from Sometimes in my haste to jot down these notes, I get ✦✦ Even low-level monsters can surprise the watching lots of serialized TV. Shows such as Lost and the order mixed up, so after writing down the bullet heroes with clever tactics and a never-say-die Battle star Galactica immediately spring to mind, and points I number them in the order in which I intend attitude (just consider the history of asym- you’ll see me referring to them from time to time in this to recount them. metrical warfare). Don’t be afraid to use them, column. At this moment, the player characters are in the particularly as minions, and don’t be afraid to The ritual in question is called Campaign Recap, and it middle of an adventure entitled “Death Incarnate,” mess with their stats. always begins with the same three words: having found themselves in the city of Io’drothtor searching for the lair of a dracolich named Icristus.