Emergency! Within the first ten minutes of your four-hour game session, the players have already managed to completely nullify the plans that you had made for where the story was going to go. Now what do you do?
Recently, I’ve been thinking about pulling together my own GM Toolkit that will have everything I need to respond to any situation on the fly for an indefinite amount of time. Obviously, that is going to require a lot of work but it should be fun.
BE PREPARED
One of the first products that I’ve looked at (that I have been wanting to look at for months) is “Prepared! – A Dozen Adventures for Fifth Edition.” Prepared! is designed by Jon Sawatsky and published by Kobold Press. This adventure book is intended to provide quick and easy scenarios that can be dropped into any game with almost no preparation before sitting down to the game table. It seems like a perfect candidate for inclusion in my GM Toolkit.
So what is Prepared all about? The introduction presents it as a resource for responding quickly to “real life” events that might derail a session before it begins. Is the GM ill? Was the session planned at the last minute? Did some other life situation prevent the whole group from getting together? If you still need a break from the “Real World,” Prepared can help you get a game session going fast.
THE BOOK
Clocking in at 26 pages, the book is pretty short and a quick read. The 12 scenarios are organized by level “recommendation” ranging from Level 1 to Level 15. Each scenario is intended for a party of four adventurers but would be easy to tweak up or down to match your party. As a handy reference, the level recommendations are listed next to the scenarios in table of contents. The scenarios don’t include any monster stats so you will need to get those from the 5th Edition Monster Manual and Kobold Press’ Tome of Beasts.
The scenarios are brilliantly presented in easily digestible sections. They are quick to read and very easy to follow. Along with a nice map, each scenario features a flavor text introduction, a paragraph on the “Background,” two or three “Adventure Elements,” two to four “Areas,” and a “Conclusion” with ideas for continuing the story. The Adventure Elements are especially helpful to know at a glance whether you have hit all the points of interest for the adventure. If you’ve incorporated each of those at some point in the adventure you can feel pretty confident that you’ve made the most of the content.
The introduction suggests that a successful adventure has three features:
- an interesting and compelling story
- villainous forces
- an opportunity for the players to save the day
Let’s see how these scenarios stack up. I’ll start with the first five scenarios in this post and tackle the remaining seven in a followup post.
THE SCENARIOS
1) The Impregnable Fortress of Dib (1st – 2nd Level)
The book starts off with a really fun scenario with a simple but interesting back story. There are three adventure “elements” and three “areas” of the location that are detailed. One of things that I loved about this scenario is the map. The visual style is nice and well done but what really makes it unique are the flavorful scrawls in red. These quirky notes point out some of the maps features with snide quips about the goblins and their handiwork on the fortress. The simple back story could be as prominent or minimal as you need it to be in your game. This is a strong starter scenario and genuinely could be plopped into nearly any storyline and provide a quick, colorful encounter.
2) The Marrow Mines
The Marrow Mines is again built on a very evocative idea. It features an unexpected location that would be enjoyable to explore. There are two adventure elements and three detailed areas. One of the highlights is a magical substance that may intice the players to make risky decisions with some interesting consequences. The scenario details a couple trap features that can be utilized by the DM to make the location more complex. A small pack of kobolds provide the main source of trouble for the party (which only seems natural coming from Kobold Press).
3) The Vault of Pallon the Pious
I really enjoyed this scenario which has a pirate theme and consists of two elements and five areas. Especially noteworthy are the social nature of the challenges presented. I liked that not everything in this scenario was resolved through combat. I am eager to see how some of these elements play out at the table, like the one that requires players to make up a story from their PC’s past. There are also a couple of clever puzzles that need to be solved to navigate through the various locations. The are some nicely creepy scenes that play out and reflect the madness of the vault’s creator.
4) The Claret Wellspring
This scenario is set in a mysterious desert oasis. The adventure features a lot of magical effects and centers around an ancient ritual and it’s ancient guardian. It is a straightforward story but has some very evocative set pieces and creates sense of deep mystery. I could see this integrating into an overarching campaign story arc really well.
5) The Room with Five Corners
What appears to be the activity of a simple street gang in this adventures actually turns out to be some very dangerous and exotic territory. There are two adventure elements and three areas detailed. The stakes ratchet up quickly when the party discovers that there has been some dabbling in dark magic. The villains and monsters in this adventure are really well chosen to highlight the otherworldly theme. This adventure could open a lot of doors, literally, to some crazy adventures.
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