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Table of Contents Game Description .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Mechanics and Theme ........................................................................................................................................ 1-2

Story .................................................................................................................................................................... 2-3

Dungeons & Dragons Ruleset ................................................................................................................................ 3

Playtesting ........................................................................................................................................................... 3-4

Player Motivation ................................................................................................................................ 3

Game Style .......................................................................................................................................... 3

Response to Playtesting ................................................................................................................... 3-4

Feedback & Response ......................................................................................................................................... 4-5

Initial Feedback ................................................................................................................................... 4

Fleshing Out the Environment/ Characters ........................................................................................ 4

Interpreting the Synopsis .................................................................................................................... 5

Level Scaling and EXP .......................................................................................................................... 5

The Alchemists Torment ...................................................................................................................................... 6+

Game Description

The Alchemists Torment is a ‘slaughter-dome’ style, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition adventure with an edge of detective mystery. A mysterious Alchemist has been developing potions and requires test subjects to explore the chemical effects. He has constructed a challenging testing arena for only the bravest warriors to overcome under the effects of these concoctions and offers great compensation for this experimentation. But, a mysterious force has also plagued the town, livestock and cherished pets have gone missing. Sadly, people have also started to disappear.

Mechanics and Theme

As I started to develop my idea, I initially knew that I wanted to create a Dungeons & Dragons adventure but need to find an interesting mechanic that would differ from an average adventure. So, I investigated a mechanic that would complement my theme. Eventually I came to the revelation of implementing ‘experimental potions’ created by an Alchemist that would require combat testing. Thus, coming to the equilibrium where the theme informs the mechanic and the mechanic informs the theme.

The prototyping process occurred through my brainstorming notepad, where I would develop the ideas, the characters, the mechanics, the potions and everything within this campaign. The entire brainstorming page collection can be seen below in figure 1.

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Figure 1: Planning + Prototyping

After this prototyping phase, I developed the game into a mock booklet following the previous designs of official Wizards of the Coast: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign booklet layouts, the final copy of The Alchemists Torment can be seen at the end of this document. The original booklet used for layout and design inspiration was Princes of the Apocalypse for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.

Story

The players will start the adventure by noticing Ho’Gar pinning a poster to the town’s noticeboards. They can read the poster and talk to Ho’Gar. He tells them about the Alchemists proposal to anyone who wishes to be a test subject of his potions and the grand reward of their participation.

After this encounter the players meet with Agatho Rudemetrix, The Alchemist, in his old fortress outside of town. The Alchemist offers the adventures ten potions to choose from and that they must choose one each.

After they have consumed the potions The Alchemist runs his trials of the Slaughter Dome, a battle arena located in the courtyard of his fortress. The players battle through three rounds of combat.

After the battle, Agartho Rudemetrix offers them gold and a potion each as reward for their glorious triumph.

After this battle the players may return to town. When they return to town they discover the stories of missing animals and people – each having traits of the mutants the group has killed. Eddard Butcher asks the players to find his daughter. The mayor of the town offers the players gold to find whatever is responsible for the disappearance of Randal Tailor and Lillette White.

The players deduce that the Alchemist was behind these disappearances and set off to confront Agartho. He has retreated to his lab and has barred the door shut. The players find a way into his lab and confront him and his assistant Ho’Gar. As the battle begins Ho’Gar begins to grow and swell, he transforms into an unsightly mutant having drank the Transmutation Concoction.

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After the battle the players search Agartho and his lab, they find the cure to mutation and can use it on anyone who is mutated. They find the missing people in cells behind the door at the back of Agartho’s Lab and give them the remedy.

Dungeons and Dragons Ruleset

As this adventure is based in the world of Dungeons & Dragons; The Forgotten Realms, it follows the base lore, world and rules of the format. But, this game can be adapted to whatever ‘homebrew’ format the Dungeon Master wishes and is merely a framework story for a Dungeon Master to implement into their game.

Playtesting

Player Motivation

In a game such as Dungeons & Dragons the main reason people play is to experience role playing a character. The game style of Dungeons & Dragons allows for players to explore both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as they play in a variety of ways – some will adopt their character and never stray from their personality and others will metagame by using knowledge that their character would not have. But, we can summarize Dungeons & Dragons players into a series of archetypes – The Newbie, The Actor, The Competitive, The Power gamer, The Metagamer, The Rule Lawer, The Chaotic Stupid, The Evil Character and The Lucky Bastard. Players can fall into one, or many of these categories.

To simplify the playtesting, I will define each of our players.

▪ Kojo Kimba is a monk. He fulfills the role of the unintentional ‘Power Gamer’, who carries the party, but still maintains his integrity by not being a ‘Metagamer’

▪ Cracked Beak is a wizard. This player falls into a strange amalgamation of ‘Metagamer’, ‘Evil Character’ and ‘Chaotic Stupid’. This players goal is to keep the game interesting by throwing spanners into the works and getting the party into sticky situations.

Game Style

In the terms of narratology and ludology, role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons are essentially the style of game that question if narratology and ludology are the similar or completely different fields. Some argue that games should be studied for their narratives like a book, movie or story. On the other hand, the ludological perspective is that a games narrative can be changed by the players rendering it a completely different communicative structure to a story. For example, Jasper Juul argues that games “for all practicality cannot tell stories” whereas Garry Crawford and Victoria K. Gosling argue against the case and say that narratives are an essential part of a game as “it is impossible to isolate play from the social influences of everyday life, and in turn, play will have both intended and unintended consequences for the individual and society."

Response to Playtesting

My dungeon master, Ben, was left with the campaign for a few weeks as he developed it into a roll20 compatible game which was played with the characters Kojo Kimba and Cracked Beak. Ben incorporated this campaign into an already existing story world by creating this test into a dreamscape. The players had fallen asleep and awoken in a misty forest with one road leading

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toward the town. Kojo Kimba made the decision to follow Ho’Gar straight away, to be introduced to the Alchemist, without exploring the town. This decision brought in a chain of events that caused the players to kill many of the Alchemists test subjects. As Ben described the places and conversations leading up to the slaughter dome, he embellished the world with his own descriptive creativity. Ben made the decision to withhold the effects of each potion and instead describe what they look like and feel like as the players made their decision. Once the potions had been consumed he described the effects it had on the players bodies and what the potions attributes were. This was a very interesting way to utilize the potion mechanic within the game as it gives the players a hard decision with unknown consequences.

Wave 1 of the slaughter dome was slightly overpowered for two level four characters; the boss was hitting with too much damage. Wave 2 of combat on the other hand was underpowered and changes to monster scaling needs to be made.

Although this session only ended at the completion of Wave 2, it had spanned 3 hours of playtime. Which for our players is consistent to the usual time and content we play though, I would think that this entire campaign would take anywhere from 5 to 8 hours to play through to its entirety.

Feedback & Response

Initial Feedback

I initially left the first version of ‘The Alchemists Torment’ with my dungeon master friend – Ben, for a week as he developed this into a playable adventure on roll20 for play testing. We reflected on this first iteration of the adventure and he provided his feedback. Ben, the dungeon master, and Dave, who played Kojo Kimba in the playtesting, also offered a brainstorm for improvements to the game;

• Incorporating a more diverse testing of the potions that involve skill testing and not just combat testing. This could be a labyrinth or dungeon to test the “fun playfulness of the potions”.

• Diversify the monsters and skill tests so that they make use of the potions positive and negative effects. “The potions are the coolest part, but are underutilized”

• Refine potions so that their effects are more easily implemented.

Fleshing Out the Environment/ Characters

Ben’s first notable criticism was that the town needs some fleshing out. “by adding flavorful characters/events to the town as distractions but also for broadness to avoid railroading and give the adventure more legs”.

Also, to develop the basic descriptions and people that fill the town, their personalities and what information they know and some visceral description that will make them unique from other townsfolk. Ben suggested I incorporate character dialogue of “The information they might relate to the players. Which people will tell them about the disappearances, and whether or not they will point the players in a certain direction”

He also suggested to add each townsfolk’s reaction or opinion of Agartho – The Alchemist.

He suggested to add a town map so that the dungeon master and players can visualize the environment and, so the DM does not have to create a town from scratch.

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Interpreting the Synopsis

Ben’s interpretation of the adventure synopsis was perfect, but he had some comments about how the information is presented. He suggested a reconstruction of the event order so that the players are not railroaded to follow one story line and to provide a richer gaming experience.

He wanted to know “how will the alchemist react to being asked questions about the missing people?” Which is a good addition to add to the adventure. If the Alchemist will reject characters or fight if he is accused.

We discussed the freedom of characters choices and what they may do in the world – Sneak around the fortress instead of entering with Ho’Gar (The alchemist’s worker) or perhaps they have an incentive of stealing. Perhaps the characters are driven by their alignment of good or evil.

From this reflection he suggested to close in some gaps of the world and what actions the dungeon master can take to preemptively anticipate what players may do in the world.

Level Scaling and EXP

Ben suggested firstly that the scope of levels for this adventure to be reduced to perhaps levels 1 to 7 (the levels that most adventurers play at). Secondly that the monsters are scaled a different way – instead of just adding more monsters, to add upgraded levels for higher level characters to maintain the challenge at higher levels. Also, he suggested to investigate party size balancing as the challenge will be significantly reduced with more players.

He also commented on adding experience bonus’ for story progression, especially for players who attempt to avoid combat.

The

Alchemists

Torment A Dungeons & Dragons Mini Adventure

By April McMillan

Contents

Chapter 1: The Alchemists Torment

Using This Book

Adventure Background

Adventure Synopsis

Running the Adventure

Chapter 2: Slaughter Dome

Adventure Start

Characters

Ho’Gar

Agartho Rudemetrix

The Experimentation Proposal

The Slaughter Dome

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Rewards

Chapter 3: The Mutant Monger

Mysterious Disappearances

The Mutant Monger

Rewards

Chapter 4: Monsters and Potions

Monsters

The Alchemists Potions

Camouflage Potion

Elixir of Light Bones

Liquid of Blood Replenish

Flame Retardant Brew

Skin of Steel Potion

Draught of Adaptability

Tincture of Transcendence

Point Blank Tonic

Brew of the Dunce

Transmutation Concoction

Credits

Artworks