Original D&D Discussion - "Mapping out" a Boot Hill adventure

castiglione
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"Mapping out" a Boot Hill adventure
« Thread Started on Mar 26, 2010, 8:53pm »

This idea just came to me but I doubt it's original.

One old-school D & D adventure which almost everyone has experienced is Keep on the Borderlands. In many ways, it is very old-school. It's open-ended. There's a system of caverns there. The caverns are populated by a monster that the PC's would have a very difficult time defeating in a straight-up fight. There's also two groups of monsters that are at each other's throats. In a way, the job of the PC's is to explore that dungeon, figure out how the various elements in it are related to each other and provide some stimuli here and there and basically start moving the chess pieces around to get what they want (gold) with the minimal risk to body and soul. What does this remind me of? A Fistful of Dollars!

I was thinking that a Wild West adventure could be put together the same way. Instead of a map of a dungeon, one could have a map of the relationships between all the NPC's. The job of the PC's would be to figure out the relationships and then to start pushing and prodding to get what they want. What they want can be defined by the players in cooperation with the referee.

The sort of adventure I'm thinking of is something like A Fistful of Dollars, where Clint Eastwood's character comes into town, figures out the relationships between the two groups of hooligans and then starts pushing the chess pieces around. Things go well for a while and Clint's character really isn't in any danger...until things go pear-shaped and then conflicts come out into the open and guns are drawn.

So, instead of a map of caverns, have a map of relationships. Each NPC is a "room". Passages (relationships) link him to other NPC's. Each "room" (character) has things like fears (what he will do everything to avoid), desires (what he will do everything to get), duties (what he feels he must do). These are like alignments and basically regulate his behavior and give the referee (and the players) a guideline as to what to expect from these people. For example, the town marshall might feel his duty is to bring outlaws to justice, his fear might be a nagging feeling he may be in over his head and he's really a coward beneath his badge and his desire might be the local school marm. PC's come into town and start exploring these relationships and then go about moving the chess pieces.

Or, the PC's might already be in town as established citizens but then suddenly, a group of outsiders come into the town and these outsiders serve as a catalyst which reveals relationships which were unknown before now. The local respected businessman might be revealed to have been ridden with the gang that just rode into town. His duty is to protect his family. His fear is that his wife will find out what kind of a man he was until he left the gang. His desire may be to be elected mayor. Or whatever.

What the PC's want to be THEIR goals can be agreed upon between them and the referee. So they may start off "exploring" these "rooms" and then once they figure out how the whole thing works, they can try to exploit it to accomplish whatever goals they've set for themselves.

Of course, violence may break out at any moment. If the PC's find out the truth about the local businessman's past, who knows what he'll do. Or if they get a glimpse into the town marshall's soul and see he really is the coward he fears he is, how will he react?