Guide to writing Con Scenarios for D&D 4th ed.

This article was written by Graham Turner, long-suffering Scenario Writer and erstwhile former RPG Co-Ordinator.

So, Con Scenario, eh? Dungeons and Dragons, Con Scenario, eh? 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Con Scenario, eh? (I’m getting there! I’m getting there!) There’s nothing wrong with 4th Ed as a system for a Con Scenario- however, there are a few aspects of the game that need to be considered carefully when constructing a 3 hour adventure.

Combat

4th Edition combat is long. You think it’s a long walk down to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts compared to 4th Ed combat. It is notably different to 3rd Edition, AD&D and D&D before it in this respect. Trouble is, by and large, we’re all used to the multiple short encounters that used to populate the dungeons we knew as a lad. The temptation to write a 4 encounter c on scenario is all very well and good, but if each encounter is a combat, and the combat does not include a decent proportion of mooks and minions, then you risk going over time.
A combat encounter in 4th Edition will generally take at least half an hour, and maybe up to an hour (or more) depending on the composition of the parties foes. And that’s not merely due to the proliferation of beefy adversaries. Standard action, Move Action, Minor Action, Free Action- each player can be doing up to 4 things a round, choosing from a fair range of abilities. Nor will shouting at them to make up their minds enhance the game experience in the manner you might desire. Two to three combat encounters should be plenty for a three hour game.
Check the defences of the foes you’re going to pit against your doughty stalwarts (that’s right, your PCs are made of bread) against their relative ‘to hit’s. Make sure the combat will not be an attrition based exercise in frustration. Add to that the fact that Con parties are often not the cohesive group you will be used to from your own weekly game, and the fact that they are likely to be largely unfamiliar with the abilities their characters possess, and you can imagine your party taking an aeon of the world to decide who should stable the horses.
That brings me on to another point; level. Keep the PCs level’s reasonably low. Bombarding your players with 5 dailies and 4 encounter powers each will just confuse and agitate. 4th Ed lowbies are not the anaemic, porcelain boned, whipping boys of previous Editions. Take advantage of their newfound prowess. Keep it simple.

Wait, I get to shift as a reaction…and hang on, isn’t he slowed anyway…

With all the shifting and status effects, playing aides are a must. Minis, a board of some description and an easy to understand, accessible powers list are essential. I like power cards personally, but a power sheet can work just as well depending on taste. Make sure you provide enough play aides not only for yourself, but also for your GMs. It may seem fun to be ‘Jonny-writers-table-get-the-cool-toys’ but as far as everyone else on those other tables is concerned, you’re ‘Jonny-bastard’. This is one of the main challenges in running 4th Ed D&D as a Con Scenario; you have to bring enough for everyone. Figure out how many tables worth of stuff you can provide. This is your hard limit on the number of tables that can be run. Trust me; this system is a whore without props. Inform your RPG co-ordinator of your hard limit.

Wait, it has how many hit points?!?

Playtest! Run through the game before the Con. Present it to willing victims (hereafter referred to as ‘friends’) just as you would your Con scenario players. If they can get a good handle on your character layout and powers summary, so too will others (unless your ‘friends’ are mighty spacemen of the future, endowed with mighty space brains. In this case, get new ‘friends’.)
This will also give you an idea of how long it actually takes to play the scenario. Time is ever the enemy of the Con Scenario- and time is something that 4th can take a lot of if you don’t watch it like a hawk! 4th Ed is a tricksy minx, who’ll steal your wallet and be away out your bedroom window while you’re in the shower unless you chain her firmly to the bed. (In this case, the wallet represents time, and the other stuff are metaphors too.)
So, combat’s been done to death (which, I suppose, is what one would expect from combat) what next? Surely, there’s more to this D&D lark than ‘the pointy bit of the at will, martial, melee, weapon’ power goes in the other guy?
Oh, yes, yes indeed!

Times are tough…*sigh*

It almost goes without saying, but roleplaying’s good. Both within the party (you stole my goat, you prick!) and PC to NPC (Hey! That NPC stole my goat! What a prick!) Writing the PCs so that they have reason’s to interact in an interesting way certainly promotes the former(they could be in love/adversaries/rivals for a maiden’s hand/inveterate goat thieves) although this depends on the degree to which your players feel like playing this up. After all, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it pretend to be an elf.
A few short scenes where the party can interact with one or more NPCs are good. They might need information, be trying to bluff their way into a castle, be haggling for an item that may be of use to them later, be sowing dis-information, or just talking about the sharp increase in recent goat thefts. Whatever. The chance to use their wits instead of their swords for a bit is a nice change of pace.

I got ‘da Skillz

I like puzzles as well. Puzzles, mind you, that people do not need to be paid up, card carrying members of Mensa to solve. Again, keeping in mind that we’re on the clock, and don’t want to stall or frustrate, a few puzzles of moderate difficulty (such as all locks being graphical puzzles or magical guardians scattered throughout the dungeon that demand the answers to riddle for safe passage) can be fun, as can a single, more involved puzzle. Puzzles aren’t everyone’s thing though, so you should avoid the trap of failing to solve the puzzle resulting in a dead end and frustration (sorry, the indestructible door can’t be opened without the answer, you dumb fuck).
Speaking of traps, dungeons have been filled with those babies for years. The DMG is good enough to detail some sample traps, all of which have various different ways to bypass them (including just fucking breaking them with a hammer in some cases, a plan which I can get behind). One of the ways is the extended skill challenge, basically, a series of skill rolls of varying difficulty that must be passed to complete a task.
Skill challenges can be used to overcome a number of obstacles, from a tricky safe, to a tricky negotiation. I’m not a huge fan of over reliance on them, as they can, if used imprudently, serve as a substitute for roleplaying and problem solving.
On the other hand, your players may very well ask, what the fuck is the point of being trained and focused in diplomacy, if they have to do all the tedious talking themselves. I advocate a balance. Use skill challenges, but add bonuses to the rolls for good roleplaying or smart ideas (as appropriate- safes are renowned for their resistance to diplomacy).

What is this on the map? Is this…is that actual blood? Cool!

I mentioned play aides earlier. These aren’t confined to minis and scenery. Print a headshot for each PC. Get some pictures for you key NPCs. Make up letters or notes that the party will find lying about. If they have a map, make a cool map. Players need to immerse themselves in Con scenarios quickly, and all this stuff helps.

Five adventurers walk into a bar…

4th Ed has some very definitive roles for the various classes. You want to cover your bases when it comes to the Defender/Leader/Striker/Controller roles. So, a few things to keep in mind when you’re creating PCs for your scenario…

Melee combatants are like Voltron; the more you hook up, the better it gets.

Largely, this is due to the short range of several of the healing and enhancement powers. If your cleric is right beside your fighter, happy days. Combat advantage is also everyone’s friend, and a rogue in a group with lots of other melee-ists is likely to be wearing a perpetual dumb grin of slack-jawed-joy. Fighters are happy chappies when their marked opponents have tempting targets to attack that aren’t them. In general, melee classes synergise well with, and support, other melee classes.

An average party is five people, and there are only four roles. On the fifth Beatle issue, a class with healing capabilities would be my favoured choice. Many a time we’ve all spent several rounds cursing our luck, as our daily power whistled past some jerk’s head, or fizzled with a comic *plop*, and our panalopy of encounter powers went farcically wrong in a manner that would embarrass Tommy Cooper.

Healing powers do not require to hit rolls, and as such will never ‘fail to hit’. The majority give your healing surge value, plus a bonus, plus a dice roll, so even if your middle name isn’t ‘lucky’, you’ll still get a decent result.

I would tend towards, as a 5 man mix…

• A Defender Class. Whichever, they’re all good.
• A Paladin (assuming your defender isn’t already one). Healing capability, defender abilities.
• A Melee Cleric.
• A Ranged Striker.
• Choice of ranged striker/controller OR melee Striker.

To be honest, the controller is finicky as all hell, and very easy to get very little out of, without careful attention on behalf of the player and the person setting up the encounters. A party can do without one. The wizard, for instance, although ostensibly a controller, often falls into the role of the striker. And wizards are awkward to people unfamiliar with them to play. You know what? Fuck ‘em. Fuck wizards.

The 4 man melee with 2 healers is a solid party that will forgive a lot of the mistakes a party unfamiliar with each other are likely to make. The 3 man melee with 2 ranged will prop each other up less well, but may allow for more character diversity.

In short

To recap; in a three hour slot that’s likely to lose ten to fifteen minutes in which people get settled, and in which unfamiliarity with both their characters and each other is going to slow play a little, a heady mix of 2-3 combats, 1-2 roleplaying encounters, a smattering of small puzzles, or one puzzle location, and 2-3 skill challenges/traps will most likely pack enough entertainment to fill the time amply.
Just in case, prepare one additional instance of each type of encounter. Now, you can tailor your scenario to a particular party. They like combat! Bam! Forget the tedious Old-Woman-talking-to-Encounter. Now she’s a Green Hag, bent on their destruction. Not fans of this tactical combat jazz? Kazam! (What is this, 60’s batman?) the iron golem no longer attacks them, but now must be repaired before it can open the door to the next part of the dungeon. You don’t have to write more adventure, just different ways the existing encounters can go.
We’ve all played Con Scenarios in which it has quickly become painfully obvious that the writer just threw the encounters and PCs together with very little care. 4th Ed D&D becomes a nightmare if this is the case (the one where you’re being chased by your old Irish teacher, and she beats you to death, slowly, over the course of a 30 round combat, and you need to roll a 21 on a d20 to hit her and someone forgot to give you any dailies). But, with ample preparation, it’s a system that’ll serve you well. It’s not a bad system- but it’s one which lends itself to a three hour slot only reluctantly, and is likely to charge interest at 16% or over.