Continuing the Legend: Dyson's Delve Conversion, level 2

Last night something monumental happened. Okay, not really, but dramatics can be fun. Last night my group of friends finished running through the second floor of my 4e Dyson's Delve conversion. I've talked in the past about my initial conversion (direct link to download found in the upper right) and my review of actually having play-tested it.

What did the second level hold for the players that the first didn't? Well, if the picture above is any indication... GHOULS!

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Let's straight up talk about something mechanically that really helps give this dungeon crawl a fast and furious mechanic: NIGHTMARE DAMAGE!!!! While this idea originally comes from Ross over at DMG 42, my brain doesn't work so well with those upper-level math problems frequently used in analyzing 4e D&D. Utilizing this Nightmare level damage output in addition to straight-up halving monster HP (save for minions of course) we get a fast game. Seriously, most combats last 2.5 rounds on average with the occasional combat stretching into 4-5 rounds. Even the 4-5 round combats move quickly, you can bust them out in about 30 minutes. So here is a simplified version that works wonderfully ---->

Play in the second floor of this delve turned pretty episodic, with a rotating cast of characters. Character death did in fact happen, quite frequently. My total kill count as DM is: 10 PCs (that does include one TPK.) Now, I realize that for many people this would immediately be a huge turn off and understandably so; this type of play isn't for everyone. It works well in this old-school delve mentality, but not necessarily for a campaign. The players loved the change of pace from feeling overly safe. They become paranoid and fretted over resting, a real risk versus reward mentality here. They retired some characters and founded an adventuring guild in town to find quests for them as they delved deeper into the dungeon. While they didn't get too attached to their characters as death loomed, they became better role-players, believe it or not. Mechanics were important here, too. They really did focus on what their characters could do and then stretched those limitations and thought outside of the box. It was very rewarding to see! I can't tell you how many times we ignored mechanics for a Rule of Cool override. 

Now, as my group has at the best of times 4 people in it and at the worst of times 3 (one person is fairly unreliable, sadly.) I concocted an NPC follower to come along and kick it with them. Well, actually more like 4 initially, but I broadened the horizons here and came up with a total of 8 for the second floor. Story-wise, their guild's influence had become far-reaching and more people were recruited. You can find the NPC document here. The NPCs include: a Binder, a Cavalier, a Knight, a Mage, a Slayer, a Thief, and two different Warpriests (Sun and Death.) 

Click to enlarge!!

I tried to make this delve a little more engaging for the players. Sure, rush in kill stuff is fun, but I wanted to encourage goals. In the first floor I had created quests given to the party by the town's leadership to explore the delve, kill rats, etc. Basically make the floor safe. This trend continued to the second floor, except this time the guild had taken the liberty of collecting said quests. ---->

The delve itself is pretty straight forward. Characters will die, so having back-ups is wise. I went ahead and expanded the available character options outside of the Heroes of Shadow, Heroes of the Forgotten Lands, and Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms line to include the other Heroes of... books (including the Bladesinger from the Neverwinter Campaign Guide as it utilizes the Essentials design.) This includes feats and power selection as well. Themes and Backgrounds are still a no-go.

As far as monsters are concerned, I have a few notes. There are a few creatures that are 3 or 4 levels above the party with Action Points. If they were to nova on the party, they could potentially destroy them in one round when coupled with Nightmare Damage, so use your best judgement here as DM. I pulled a few punches here, but that didn't affect the integrity of the combat. No one felt cheated! More importantly, in room 11, "The Natural Alcove," there are some Ghouls, specifically the ones I designed for the May of the Dead blog carnival that can be found here. If one were to use Nightmare Damage with these Ghouls the combat would be over far too quickly with the victor being simply a toss of a coin. For that reason, I ruled that any Maydeath Ghouls encountered on the second floor act normally, meaning no Nightmare Damage and regular as-listed HP.

The 2nd Level Dyson's Delve conversion for 4e can be found here. I should note that the PCs are all level 1 until they completely explore floors 1 and 2. Upon completion and return to town for a safe Extended Rest they may level up 2. In addition to that, reading over the Legend4ry D&D Basic Rules serves as a good primer for the methods of Short and Extended Rests used while delving, along with some other helpful information so that this conversion can be used in the spirit of the source material. My group also makes use of custom Critical Hit and Fumble charts, along with some option rules for them.

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Next up from Legend4ry D&D is my conversion of the DCCRPG system's level-0 adventure/character grinder The Portal Under the Stars. In addition to that you can expect more unique magic items and monster conversions. As always, requests are welcomed! In addition to that, I've been reading through the AD&D update to Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff and have been toying in my head of how to bring that to 4e, perhaps even with options for Legend4ry play. I'll keep y'all posted!

Until next time,

-blob

You can follow me on Twitter @Sorcerer_Blob or via the hash-tag #legend4ry. You can also find my blog and others at the Fourthcore Hub and at the RPG Blog Alliance.