CAGD 270 Simple DnD Map v3

 For the Simple DnD Map v3 assignment, Valerie played the rogue and Kyle played the ranger. Because of the new rulesheet and theme, I designed a completely new level. The theme was an alien prison break, and the new rules changed the stats and replaced skills with items. 

The starting room is the armory of the prison, giving the players three treasure chests right off the bat. One chest will contain one of four possible items used to unlock doors or cross gaps: the lockpick, c4 explosive, photon bridge, or relocator. Another one will give one possible defensive item, either a medkit, shoulderplates, or a gabapentin shot. The third chest has a random assortment of items. 

With this equipment, the players exit into the first encounter: two escaped convicts. They’re simple and easy. From there, there’s a shortcut if players can get through a vent grate. Players can unlock it with the lockpick, or blow it open with the c4, or teleport to the other side with the relocator. If they do not notice it, they head into the next encounter in a big open room. There’s a pit in the middle that can be crossed with the photon bridge. There’s two ranged prison guards, so players will have to use cover as they work their way closer if they can’t cross the pit. There’s also another vent that lets the players sneak into the lower area, past this encounter, if they can open it. The last thing of note in the second encounter is a chest that will provide one of three weapons. 

If the players go down, they can find a chest with armor in it, a chest with another lockpicking item, and another encounter with two escapees and one melee prison guard. If they go right, they can find the medbay, where there’s a ranged guard and a tough melee guard. There’s two chests with an armor set and a healing item. Behind the tough guard is a big locked door and another pit. This indicates where the players are supposed to go next. After getting past it with one of their lockpicking items, the players will encounter the boss.

The boss arena has lots of chasms, which will be to his benefit (or the player’s if they can cross them). The warden boss has two abilities. First, he can dodge up to three times, which negates 1d8 of damage from an attack and then relocates up to seven tiles away. Second, his forcefield gives him three bonus defense against ranged attacks. 

The players in the playtest breezed through the first encounter. They used the c4 to open the vent shortcut and went to the medbay. The prison guards gave them some trouble and they had to use some healing items. They got some more equipment, giving a regenerating armor to the rogue. They then used the photon bridge to cross the gap around the door to reach the boss fight. 

The rogue rushed the warden boss, who dodged two of her attacks. The ranger threw the c4 at the warden for a large amount of damage. The rogue used her armor and the gabapentin to sustain against the damage from the warden’s attacks. Realizing ranged attacks wouldn’t work very well, the ranger finished off the boss with a melee attack. 

The players really liked the variety of items. They also liked getting to use the lockpicking items to interact with the environment. They found the boss fight engaging and challenging. They also found that the vent passages made things pretty fast, although that’s the only way we completed things within the time limit. 

I think it went very successfully. I think the only changes I would make would be some rebalancing on the boss’s defense, since the c4 did a lot of damage to him. While this was resourceful of the players, I think it was just a little too effective, so I would probably count it as a ranged attack and therefore increase the warden’s resistance to it. 

CAGD 270 Simple DnD Post-Mortem v2

 For the second iteration of my Simple DnD assignment, I made several modifications. Mainly I improved the visuals to make it clearer where the level bounds are. I added two new enemies: one weak enemy in the right path, and one medium enemy in the middle. I also got better graphics for the chests. 

The structure remained the same, featuring two initial paths: the house with a locked door, and a path through the forest. Either one of these will be the first encounter. Both exit into the same place, the second encounter, which leads into a cave with the boss inside.

For the playtest, Valerie played as a mage and Kyle played as a rogue. They picked the right path this time instead of the left one. They made quick work of the easy enemies, each one dying in one or two attacks. I think this was the perfect balance for this encounter. They got an upgrade scroll from the treasure chest. The second encounter was more difficult. When enemies get lucky rolls it does a lot of damage to the players. They were successful, but it was closer than I would have liked it to be. While part of it is just the nature of dice rolls, I might want to make the ghoul enemy do less damage. The boss fight also proved challenging for the players. They had less treasure as a result of taking the right path instead of the left. They were successful as well, but I might decrease the magic damage of the boss.

What went right?

The first encounter was balanced really well. Players appreciated the improved visual clarity of the level. Players liked treasure. They completed the level a little under the time limit, so the length seemed perfect. The boss was challenging and presented them with interesting choices. The lich summons skeletons or performs a ranged magic attack each turn. Each player will choose to either focus the summoned enemies or attack the boss, or try to maneuver around the summoned enemies to reach the boss.

Because of the two splitting paths, they got to see a different area of the level this time, making a simple but somewhat custom experience. They still got to use the lockpicking skill on the chest in the middle.

What went wrong?

Some lucky enemy dice rolls left the players at low health. This included the ghoul and the lich. It didn’t happen as much with the weaker enemies since they had melee attacks. 

Also, the players didn’t get to utilize jumping. They only got one chest as a result of the path difference, which meant only one of the players got treasure.

For changes, first I would decrease the magic attack of the ghoul and lich. I might also add a shield item to the chests. Another chest on the right path would be an improvement 

Players didn’t get to utilize jumping, so I think a good addition would be a river to jump over dividing the forest from the second encounter. Regardless of which path the players take, they either jump over to reach the second encounter or jump over the gap to get the treasure chest.

I might also open up the Lich’s cavern more to add more space, or gaps to jump over. 

CAGD 270 Simple DnD Postmortem

 For my Simple DnD Map playtest on September 13, I designed a simple DnD level consisting of four encounters. The level was designed to start with a player choice to go into a fortified house or take a longer path through the forest. The house held one locked door, one strong enemy, one weak enemy, and a treasure chest. The forest path held three weak enemies. Both paths exited to the next open area that has one strong enemy and one treasure chest. For the last encounter, players would proceed into a cave for the boss fight.

Since the rulesheet mostly discussed combat mechanics, I figured that a good tutorial level would feature some simple encounters to get players accustomed to it. Each encounter had a small number of overall enemies, no more than three, and none of them were especially powerful. Some had more defense, but none had high offense besides the boss. 

For the playtest I was in a group with Kyle, who picked the Mage class, and Valerie, who picked the Ranger class. First, they entered the house by unlocking the locked door. They killed the enemies inside very quickly, and found the treasure chest hidden in its back room. Valerie got to it first and was rewarded with a health potion. I added this to the game to introduce it as a mechanic and keep things easy. They proceeded to the next encounter, which they also ended in a single turn. Kyle got to the second chest and found an enchantment scroll, which let him choose one stat to increase. They ended the adventure with the boss fight, who could summon weaker enemies to fight, and use strong magic attacks. They dispatched the boss in a few turns, and struggled more to deal with the summoned enemies. However, they were successful.

What went right?

The players enjoyed the simple dramatic element of having to fight a necromancer to avenge your father. They seemed to enjoy finding items in treasure chests. The final boss went well, being somewhat challenging but ultimately ending with them succeeding. The challenge was important as it made the players consider their combat options. They engaged with the majority of the combat mechanics, such as attacks, magic attacks, positioning, and healing from damage. 

What went wrong?

The thing I noticed most was that they ended most encounters in a single hit with some lucky dice rolls. I think my strong enemies needed more defense, or just to have more of them. This may however been due to class balance, since they both picked characters with high range. The players also noted that the level bounds should’ve been more visibly clear on the map. Graying out the out of bounds area would have added to my level. 

For other additions, players didn’t get a chance to use the jumping skills. An improved version of the level would have some gaps or obstacles to jump over. 

Overall, players had an easy time figuring out where to go. They enjoyed a lot of my additions, such as the items and final boss. However, they didn’t end up using the health potion. Because item usage is mentioned in the rulesheet, I could’ve added another possible potion, such as strength, that would encourage players to use it actively rather than reactively. 

Other than that, I think the level was mostly successful at easing the players into combat. With some encounter rebalancing to create a smoother difficulty curve, and some obstacles to jump over, I think it would be very well off.