Introduction. 

There never was a Dungeon Master's Handbook, it was the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide. It was assumed that a DM was an experienced player, the DM did not need a set of rules, just a guide. Where do you begin as a DM? I began playing D&D as a DM, around 1983/4 more than 30 years ago. Someone gave me the D&D red boxset,

https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/gaming_and_diversion/RPG/TSR%201011%20Basic%20Rules%20Set.pdf

So. my first character was in a solo adventure, but the boxset was such that you can't read it and not be the DM of the adventure it contained. I ran the little dungeon, for two players, one 10 years older than me and the other 15 years older. I was ever after the DM, it was my job to devise the games, while they had all the fun playing the characters.  

I have been a player, but since then have mostly been a the DM. I have seen my share of really bad DMs, Monty Hall DMs, killer DMs and some really good DMs. 

Temple Of Elemental Evil Campaign.

So, with this Blog I hope to share tit-bits from my current campaign. I have a new group of four players we meet usually every other Sunday and play from around 4 to midnight. I'm running them through the Temple of Elemental Evil, the original 1st edition version, using the 3.5 rules. 

It takes some conversion, I have the text or the original module and have expanded upon the text of each location and given the folk stat blocks. Much of which you find is seldom used, but needs to be in place. The village of Hommlet is a nice location to start with, but is written like a dungeon, as many of the folk have stats and the location of their treasure is indicated.

There are no real encounters written, so as written the characters spend a while going from location to location for no real reason, other than ticking off each in their Eye Spy book of Hommlet. Although there is a lot of background info for the DM, other than giving them a long exposition at the beginning of the adventure, there is little room in the locations description to impart the history of the town to the players. What they find out and who tells them.

When detailing the locations, I divided the town into sections, gave each an introductory box text I could read aloud. Then info for the DM only, about who occupied the location, who they were and their alliance to others. I tried to introduce some of the Background into the location.

For example, the Church was built 8 years ago and commemorates the dead at the Battle of Emridy Meadows.

Below is part of the description I wrote for the Church.

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Church of St. Cuthbert.

20. CHURCH OF ST. CUTHBERT.

In sight of the Church.

The white stone Church of St. Cuthbert stands high on its hill dominating the sky line here.  It is obviously newly constructed within the last ten years, Constructed of White stone with stained glass windows, showing scenes from the life of St, Cuthbert. Its impressive spire is white capped with gold. Obviously, the spire is a bell tower as vents can be clearly seen.

Its compound is surrounded by a low white stone wall, with a neat path to its main doors. The area around is neatly cut lawns without trees or bushes and a few gravestones.  Nearby is a crofters hut part constructed of spoils salvaged from the construction of the church, using the same white stone used in it and it’s boundary wall. A gate leads to the crofters hovel. Sheep graze in the meadows of the hillside beyond.

Brown robed Clerics, laity and pilgrims can be seen coming and going.

The church and its grounds are Hallowed Ground and are doubly protected a permanent protection from evil and chaos, pervade the ground. Good and Lawful creatures receive a gains a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saves. All Good and Lawful characters gain the benefit of a bless. Lawful Good creatures gain Double benefit, evil and chaotic a like penalty, and chaotic evil a double penalty. So, chaotic good, lawful neutrals and true neutrals receive no penalty or gain. All clerics of the faith of St Cuthbert and Pelor gain a +1 effective level to their spells and the DC, range and duration. They gain no other benefits such as actual class levels or additional spell, just their spells are cast as one level higher.

On entering the Temple.

A norman arch and portico surround the Main doors. The Main doors are of thick Ironwood Bound by thick black iron banding. One door stands open.

There is a keystone here dated eight years ago, that is carved with the following.

This Stone was laid on Godsday of Growfest CY 676 by the hand of his highness the Viscount of Verbobonc, blessed in his presence by the by the Archcleric of Veluna, this church was raised in honour of those that fell at Emridy Meadows in their Battle against the forces of the Temple of Elemental evil, let their sacrifice never be forgot, honour them by continuing the struggle against evil at every quarter.

The threshold has a barrier Vs evil and a barrier Vs Chaos, placed upon it.  Evil or Chaotic aligned outsiders and summoned creatures cannot pass this barrier, neither can high level evil or chaotic characters, no Chaotic evil characters can pass. Other evil and chaotic creatures who do pass will feel nauseous, and lose 1d4 from Str, Dex and Con, DC16 Fort for each Stat save for half damage, they will lose this each time they pass, they regain lost points at 1 point per hour. They will feel nauseous as the approach the threshold and can choose not to pass. They will continue to feel nauseous in the Church, and the stat loss will not heal until they leave. If they go to a priest repent their sins and do penance, then the curse can be lifted, but only for a change of alignment.

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Each area of the Town I designed encounters to be played out as and when needed as they explored the town. To foreshadow the theme of the Campaign each had an Elemental flavour to them. Water, Fire, Earth and Air.

While an evil party could move from place to place murdering the populace and taking their stuff. I feel that such a campaign would likely self destruct. 

FIRST ASSUMPTIONS.

So, I made some assumptions that the party would be largely Good and Lawful, while I did not dictate that the party members must be so and they could be any alignment. I constructed some initial encounters as alignment tests.  To see how the individual characters acted.  

Such as this encounter I wrote for the trading post.

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Shoplifter.

A female customer is pilfering small items in the shop. One of the characters spot her. Finious Blart (the Guard) has spotted the thief and also the character spotting the criminal. If the character does not immediately, challenge the shoplifter or alert their friends the shoplifter will continue to pilfer and notice that the character has spotted her and give them a wink. Then leisurely attempt to leave.

Another test of alignment how they handle the situation. Chaotics are likely to allow the pilferer, while lawfuls are likely to immediately challenge the thief and neutrals are likely to first alert their friends being in a moral quandary.

As the thief begins to leave by whichever door they choose a lever is pulled by Finious Blart at the back wall and a hidden internal portcullis comes down barring their way.

She sheds her clothing and attempts to fit through the bars. Again, the characters can attempt to grab her unprompted (lawful), do nothing (neutral), get in the way to help her escape use the distraction to steal something(chaotic). The Cult are looking for chaotics and evil characters to recruit. Any one seen helping the thief will be accused of being an accomplice. However, they will be given the choice of a prison sentence (real) or working out their debt in the Trading post. The character can be watched more closely. Where more tests will be staged, moral choices given etc.  To gauge their suitability to be inducted into the cult.

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So, the encounter was an early indication as to the direction that the campaign may go.  The bad-ass fighter, chased after the thief and helped apprehend her.  So even though the player thought his character was a Chaotic, his first instincts were decidedly Lawful. He could have made any of the choices above, the party were free to play evil characters and if their actions told another story they may have been recruited into the cult.

They quickly gravitated to the Church and the Crown, the Lawful and Good factions in the Town. Rather than the Cult Chaos and Evil Factions, or the Druid, Blacksmith, Flan and Neutral factions.

But the door was open, for the characters to lead the campaign, rather than them being railroaded in a specific direction. There is nothing that can break a campaign more than a DM rigidly following a preconceived plot, with each encounter being fixed points. Players can and do miss or ignore signs, go the wrong way. I have written tournament style games, that followed a specific plot in a linear path. They are great fun to play out, but personally I prefer less rigid matrix style adventures, where the characters can choose the path they take, all the same encounters are there but the characters can choose in what order they encounter them and can choose to avoid encounters if they so wish.

One of my worst experiences as a player was playing Dragonlance. I was given the Dwalf to play and really hated the character. I had a fighter type as well. I prefer playing casters mainly clerics, but another player was given the cleric. So, I tried to get my character killed off, taking suicidal risks, whatever I did he couldn’t be killed. I subsequently found out we were not allowed to roll up new characters and as each character had a starring role in the story later on, so they couldn’t die. I had been relegated the role of spectator.

I find set pieces useful at times and specific encounters should be thought out and have some peril, but there should always be more than one way to defeat an opponent.

At the Moathouse I designed the following encounter. I wanted to give a first edition feel to the encounter and remembered when green slimes were mobile threats, rather than the 3.5 hazards they became. So, I created my own version of this creature. The salt hidden in the read aloud text was the key to defeating them without damaging the character enveloped by one. I was impressed how easily they deduced this.

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Doorway to Dungeon.

If questioned the Brigands will relate their terror of the dungeon, they consider it haunted.

Salt has been rubbed on the upper and lower door frames, and a bag of powdered salt is kept near the entrance. Religious iconography has been carved into the wood of the door, pentagrams, and other symbols, a horseshoe has been nailed above the door, all, sprigs of mistletoe, wolfsbane and other herbs are tacked up as well as silver holy symbols of various denominations.  Sage and candles have been burnt. All ritual of purification and protection.

STAIRWAY ARCH.

Two nauseous blobs of green slime have been carefully placed and fed in a position over the central arch at the base of the stairway.

Anyone descending the stairs and stepping onto the dungeon floor will be attacked by a slime dropping on them from above.

Any cautious approach, either looking up or moving along the walls, may avoid this.

Green Slimes (2):

hp 12 (2d8), CR 2 XP 600, Neutral Medium Ooze.

Init -5 Speed 5, climb 5ft. AC 5, Touch 5, flat footed 5 (-5 Dex)

Melee Base Attack 2 Grapple 10, Single Attack Grapple +10 (1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage) Full Attack Grapple +10 (1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage); Space 5 ft.; Reach 0

SA Acid DC (19) 2d6. SQ Tremorsense 10 ft, Staggered, Immunity to weapons. Vunrable to fire. Vunrable to Salt. Immunity to cold.  Traits Ooze

Fort +8, Ref -3, Will -3,

Str 12, Dex 1, Con 10, Int 0, Wis 1, Cha 1

Skills Climb 12 Feats:  Languages

Combat.

Green slime attack by literally devouring the flesh of their opponents,  converting the flesh into green slime growing larger as it does so. A small amount of slime from a splash or even a touch if not treated can quickly grow consuming the whole creature turning it into a green slime. When attacking Green slime enters an opponents square where it begins a grapple. A single patch of green slime deals 1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage per round while it devours flesh. On the first round of contact, the slime can be scraped off a creature (most likely destroying the scraping device), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (applying damage to the victim as well). Once the victim reaches 0 constitution they are dead and simply more Green slime.

Heat, light and salt can damage a Green Slime, A remove disease spell destroys a patch of green slime. As will inflict spells. The slime takes double damage from fire and 1d6 points of damage from application of salt.  Direct sunlight also does 1d4 points of damage a round which also will not harm it's opponent. A light spell cast upon the green slime causes it 1d4 damage and extinguishes the spell.  Continual flame destroys a patch of slime completely causing 1d4 points of damage a round until the spell and the slime are extinguished when the slime is killed.  Cold causes non-lethal damage to it, first slows it at 1/2 hit points then renders it inert. It regains hit points, as it warms up usually 1 a round. 

Acid. Against wood, leather, cloth, paper or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone. 

Tremorsense 10 ft. Can detect opponents by their movement.  Cannot detect silent or flying opponents.

Immunity to weapons. Weapons do no damage can only be damaged by energy, force, magic etc.

Staggered: may take a move action or an attack. Must move into an opponents square and immediately begins a grapple, doing damage the following round.

Vunrable to fire. Takes double damage from fire.

Vunrable to Salt. Takes 1d8 damage when exposed to pure Salt, salt thrown or salt water works as a splash weapon 1d4 area effect. Salt rubbed onto weapons takes away it's immunity to those weapons.  Green slime can be washed off with salt water, without harm to the character. Salt rubbed on a door frame will cause it to recoil and not cross the threshold.

Vunrable to sunlight. 1d4 points of damage a round from direct sunlight. A light spell cast upon the green slime causes it 1d4 damage and extinguishes the spell.  Continual light destroys a patch of slime completely, but ends the spell. 

Immunity to cold. Cold does not damage it, it incurs only non-lethal damage from cold, it will be slowed if reduced to 1/2 hit points and inert if reduced to 0. However, will recover these points quickly at 1 a round.

Vampire Regeneration: Each point of constitution of damage a Green Slime deals it adds 1  hit point to its total. If a Green slime reaches 16 hit points it splits into two.

Green Slime:  Move slowly but can move along walls and ceilings as easily as floors. typically cling to Ceilings and drop on opponents that pass beneath.

Slime is potable and it can be collected and stored in earthen wear or glass jars. A normal alchemists Jar will store 1 hp of slime. This is difficult as the slime alive, it needs to breathe and grow and will make every attempt to escape such confinement. If stored in an air tight container it quickly dies and becomes a weak acid.