I’ve been guiding my family through a series of serial one-shots in our DCC sessions, where each adventure seamlessly leads into the next. We’ve enjoyed this format, but I’m now considering shifting towards a more traditional “open world” style of play. I have B2: Into the Borderlands on hand, which offers an excellent framework for this, plus my older brother (a player in the game) ran it for me when we were kids.

However, a new temptation has emerged: DCC #100. It’s a bit too advanced for my family at the moment (they have yet to make it past level 3), and setting it up would require additional resources like a good webcam and Discord Nitro. Nevertheless, it’s sparked an idea in me.

Here’s my thought: The back of DCC #100 features a list of factions emerging from the fallout of the… McGuffin. What if I shove these factions into the caves of chaos in place of mob bosses? I’m envisioning a grand conspiracy to hide the entrance to the… thing… in the caves of chaos and once they reach level 5 I could drop the hook and the adventure could culminate with the DCC #100 module.

I’m looking for advice or suggestions. I’ve only ever run one-shots, where we start at the start. I just drop them at the entrance of the best thing in the module and go from there (I use the Blades in the Dark inventory system.) But then we played Doom of the Savage Kings which was a more open ended, which is what kicked off this whole thing. It was fun letting them take the reins, for the first time they didn’t find everything there was to find and we kinda just made it up as they went… they invented a ritual to bind the Hound for god’s sake, it was dope! I just got the Old-School Essentials box set but haven’t cracked it… but I know what kind of player I am and would not want to DM for me. I’d set up an advanced garrison in the caves with the gold I find and build my own competing keep if I pissed off the local guard, so guess how the rest of my family is, I’m scared!

  • snuff@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I didn’t mean to imply that I would run them “through” B2 “then” DCC#100. I meant to say that I would stock the dungeons and factions with the content from DCC#100, the factions/cults from DCC #100 are described as their own little mini modules with their own hooks and lore and such, so I thought I could dot them around the caves and let the players discover them. Rumors could point them to the factions and they can learn about how they are all connected by the “thing in the caves”.

    B2 is super vague about the politics of the caves; it basically fills the maps with mobs and loot, then says the traveling cleric is a spy. So I thought that the monsters/loot in the cave make a pretty good cover story to keep people out, the perfect place to hide the McGuffin from DCC#100. I wouldn’t push them that way, but the adventure culminating in destroying the thing the evil factions of the cave are trying to hide feels like a natural conclusion.

    Again, I’ve only ever ran one-shots, and the “traditional” open ended game I’m playing sucks as an example.