Gary Johnson's Living Greyhawk Scenarios

I started writing for Living Greyhawk (LG) in early 2005, after almost two years of regularly playing in the campaign. Around that time, my Selentia campaign was winding up because of player attrition, so I had the free time needed for the time-intensive task of scenario-writing. I also had a desire to write that was born of many frustrations, great and small, with playing LG scenarios. Some of my problems were with DMs interpreting what was in (or left out of) the scenario, and an unwillingness to vary from what was written in the text for fear of making the play experience "too easy" for the table. Other problems were with scenarios that, in my opinion, weren't written well.

It seemed to me that scenarios frequently included phenomena like box text paralysis (where you can't do anything to interfere with an unfolding sequence of events because it's in the text the DM is supposed to read aloud), auto-surprise (where the enemy automatically sneak up within 30 feet of you and surprise you regardless of the situation), unhelpful NPCs ("yes, we'll hire you, but we won't tell you anything useful about the mission we're sending you on - make a Diplomacy check"), and ignoring the rules as written (auto-surprise is really a subcategory of this phenomenon, which included skill DC = X+APL and ignoring EL modifiers that impede the characters). Some scenarios had plots that didn't seem to make much sense, or that made what the PCs did less important than what NPCs were doing in the background. Some scenarios had opponents written specifically to do nothing except fight the characters and die, as opposed to surviving and prospering in the game world. For example, NPCs with all their wealth invested in a one-shot combat item like an elemental gem or javelin of lightning, rather than a less dangerous but more appropriate +1 weapon, +1 armour, and potion of cure moderate wounds.

I felt there was a dearth of scenarios that emphasised what I value and enjoy in role-playing - coherent and self-contained stories, opportunities for world exploration, friendly NPCs, encounters that allow the characters to interact with the environment, and opponents that aren't tweaked to eke out the maximum power possible for their CR. So, rather than (continue to) complain to my friends about how little fun some LG games were, I sent a scenario proposal to my local Triad. They liked it, so I started to write. In the end, I wrote eight LG scenarios over a three year period from 2005 to 2008.

Under Naelv's Hill
An elderly gnome needs brave adventurers to go into an ancient gnomish tomb and recover her brother's long-dead body. However, it can be just as dangerous above ground as below when you're in the Sepia Uplands ...
Perrenland regional adventure
LG code PER 6-02
Average Party Levels (APL) range 4 to 12
Written 1st (March to May 2005)
Published 2nd (February 2006)

As Time Goes By
Someone - or something - is disturbing old graves of almost-forgotten villagers. Who meddles with the dead, and why? Is there a reason the trail leads towards the Vast Swamp?
Sunndi regional adventure
LG code SND 7-01
Average Party Levels (APL) range 6 to 12
Written 2nd (August to November 2005)
Published 4th (February 2007)

Silver is Better than Gold
Hunters have trapped a unicorn in the forests of the Vesve Hills. What fate does this hold in store for the other unicorns?
Perrenland special mission
LG code PERSM 5-02
Average Party Levels (APL) range 6 to 12
Written 3rd (October to November 2005)
Published 1st (December 2005)

Where Roodbergs Fear to Tread
Sometimes the simplest of tasks can take you to exotic places and see you doing unexpected things. Couriers are needed to deliver a confidential document to the secluded grey elven city of Kershane, high in the forested mountains of the Clatspur Ranges. It has only been three years since Kershane emerged from four and a half centuries of magically-imposed isolation from the rest of the Oerth: what opportunities for adventure can those couriers find in the city and the surrounding forests?
Perrenland regional
LG code PER 7-01
Average Party Levels (APL) range 2 to 12
Written 4th (September to November 2006)
Published 3rd (January 2007)

The Qadi's Ransom
A priest of Al'Akbar has been captured by bandits on the way to officiate at a wedding in Krestible, and is now being held for ransom. The priest's loyal acolyte seeks aid from passing strangers in the tent city beyond the Vestgate of Yatilsskaad. Will you respond to his pleas?
Perrenland mini-adventure
LG code PERM 7-01
Average Party Levels (APL) range 2 to 8
Written 5th (March to April 2007)
Published 5th (May 2007)

Diadem of Kirr Russ part 3 (not available for download, as I wasn't the sole author)
From the Isle of Cli a mission sets out to discover the focus for the ancient weapon that can defeat the evil which has plagued Perrenland for far too long. But with only a thousand year old instrument and a prophecy to go on, will this expectation prove to be true?
Perrenland regional
LG code PER 7-08
Average Party Levels (APL) range 2 to 12
Written 6th (June to September 2007)
Published 6th (September 2007)

Return to the Quaglands
A sudden crisis leaves Schwartzenbruin at risk of a devastating attack by the forces of evil. Heroes are needed to travel to the Quaglands in search of a stop-gap solution - but can they find what they're looking for in time?
Perrenland regional
LG code PER 8-03
Average Party Levels (APL) range 6 to 12
Written 7th (January to March 2008)
Published 7th (May 2008)

By Courage Tempered
A terrible draconic creature preys on caravans entering Perrenland along the Krestingtrek, but leaves all caravans leaving Perrenland unharmed. What dark scheme lies behind the attacks?
Perrenland special mission
LG code PERSM 8-02
Average Party Level (APL) 12
Written 8th (October 2007 to June 2008)
Published 8th (June 2008)

Looking back over my body of work, there are some common elements that I think are noteworthy.

• I tried to give players more opportunities to make interesting choices about what their characters did and how they did it. For example, the principal antagonist in As Times Goes By isn't evil, though they are breaking the local laws and disrupting the peace in their quest for wealth: do the characters take them back for trial, help them complete their quest, or kill them and complete the quest themselves? The principal antagonist in Where Roodbergs Fear to Tread is a formerly good person who has been turned to evil by magic, and whose allies are still good-aligned: how do the characters deal with the antagonist and their allies?
• I always set up combat encounters so the GM had resources for dealing with the characters using means other than combat to defeat their adversaries. For example, I always gave intelligent opponents a starting attitude towards the characters and guidelines for what they would do if the characters changed their attitude.
• I tried to use a variety of opponents in my scenarios, and avoid using the Perrenland staples of demons and undead. For example, most of the opponents in Where Roodbergs Fear to Tread were fey - and good-aligned fey at that. I always included maps with terrain and environmental features, so that GMs who wanted to do more than conduct a fight in an empty space would have something to use as a guideline. In general, I tried to present a wide range of tactical challenges, so that the combats were more interesting, and hopefully more rewarding.
• Conversely, I deliberately didn't try to make the combats more dangerous for the characters by manipulating Encounter Levels (for example, by not adjusting for advantageous terrain, or giving opponents 1 warrior level so they had an extra hit dice for the same Challenge Rating). I wanted combats that were fun, memorable, and winnable.
• I did my best to avoid including read-aloud text that could be used to induce box text paralysis. I consciously did not script automatic failures into the scenarios, and removed them when they were added in during the editing and revision process. For example, when I wrote the original draft of Diadem of Kirr Russ part 3 I couldn't include Drelnza in the final battle. This changed only a few days before the scenario was due for release: When I was advised of the change, I saw that the revised draft didn't allow the characters to interact with Drelnza during the final battle, and that the read-aloud text for what happened if the characters didn't meet the only scripted way to win was a read-aloud "nothing you do works and you all die" screwjob. I stayed up until 3 AM reworking the draft so that it included Drelnza's stat block, tactics, and guidelines for the combat. I also removed the read-aloud text and replaced it with short instructions to the GM for how to arbitrate the outcome of the battle.
• I tried to use the history of the setting and the campaign without making the scenario unfriendly to casual players. For example, many of my regional scenarios used cities and regions that had appeared in previous scenarios, rather than create new locations. I also made sure to include background information in my scenarios for GMs flagging the continuity elements, so that they wouldn't be put in the difficult situation of having to improvise their responses when players of those earlier scenarios brought up past events during play. I think Return to the Quaglands was the most continuity-rich of my scenarios, as alternate universes make the most sense when you know how they're different to the regular universe. In my defence, I wrote that scenario once I knew the campaign was ending, and one of my goals was to write a "farewell to the campaign" scenario.
• I tried to provide plot hooks that future authors could use for their scenarios, and build on plot hooks from scenarios by other authors. For example, I used the same NPC as the Man Behind the Man in two scenarios; a significant background element in Under Naelv's Hill was the annexation of the Sepia Uplands, which had been announced in an earlier scenario and subsequently received no screen time.
• Because I usually wrote stand-alone scenarios, and not scenarios that were part of the Nation Mocked regional plot arc, I consciously tried to showcase the diversity of Perrenland by using a variety of settings, plots, and characters. I tried to avoid being typecast as "the expert" for any particular region: I was surprised when people assumed my Year 8 scenario would be set in Kershane and follow up on some of the "dangling plot hooks" I left behind in my Year 7 scenario. From my perspective, I'd finished with Kershane for now: I'd moved on to working with other aspects of Perrenland.

Writing for LG also gave me a greater appreciation for the unpolished aspects of other scenarios, because everyone higher up the chain was always time-starved. If I finished the draft of a scenario months before publication date, it often didn't get reviewed until a couple of weeks before publication because of the backlog of other scenarios to be written and reviewed by the Perrenland Triad. Even if it was reviewed early by the Triad, the Circle member who was responsible for the final review and approval process was usually swamped by the workload being passed up to him from the five Triads he was responsible for. These choke points led to some of my least satisfactory experiences as an author, because when changes needed to be made, the feedback arrived with very little time to do anything about it. I've already mentioned the last-minute rewrite to include Drelnza in Diadem of Kir Russ part 3: another last-minute crisis that comes to mind was finding out that there was a new 50-page maximum length for scenarios during the review of the 64-page Where Roodbergs Fear to Tread (it got down to 55 pages by publication).

Even more frustrating was when changes were made at the last minute, and the first I found out about them was when I saw the published scenario.The most frustrating one was a change to the final battle in Diadem of Kir Russ part 3, where I'd deliberately included a vampire in Drelnza's personal guard at high APLs to provide some diversity from the usual horde of demons and to give Drelnza a buffer from being destroyed by a radiant servant's greater turning ability in the first round of combat. There had been some discussion of how easy this was on the Perrenland Yahoo group in the lead-up to the Diadem of Kir Russ, so I knew it was something some players were waiting to get to do to Drelnza. In the published scenario, my vampire had been replaced with another demon. Worse, the vampire's equipment was still listed in the treasure for the encounter and on the Adventure Record. Three years later, I'm still frustrated that they didn't consult with me before making the change: if I couldn't convince them to keep the vampire guard, I could have made sure the treasure gained and Adventure Record were corrected to reflect the change.

All in all, these experiences made me glad that the RPGA addressed these workload issues when they set up Living Forgotten Realms, both by reducing the number of regional scenarios per year from 8 to 4 and by requiring that regional administrators not take on the additional responsibility of writing scenarios. I'm not sure how well that worked out, as I didn't enjoy 4E enough to stay involved in LFR and I see the regional administrators ended up writing several scenarios anyway. Still, I think it was a step in the right direction as far as workload management was concerned.

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