[Metrocalypse] Conveying atmosphere
Last Tuesday, I ran my second installment of Metrocalypse: Oxford 1605, my setting for D&D 4E. Based on the excitement of the players during and after the 4-hour game, I can safely say that it rocked. It was a pretty bog-standard D&D fighty adventure, so I am wondering what made it so fun.
I think a large part of it is atmosphere. Metrocalypse is, at the end of the day, just a setting, a justification for all the weird stuff in D&D. Its magic is making the player characters come from a more normal place -- in this case, 1605 Oxford, England -- and dumping them into the world and "forcing" upon them terrible transformations and dropping them into a terribly dangerous jungle that swallows the city. Conveying that atmosphere is one of my most important jobs as Dungeon Master.
Atmosphere occupied my mind during the game. In the prior game, when the PCs crossed from Christ Church Cathedral (their home base) to the Bear Inn on Alfred Street (the Mayor's home base), I turned the travel into a random encounter. I wanted to make the players understand that travel was dangerous. In last week's game, I realized that they'd be frustrated by a constant onslaught of random encounters whenever they wanted to move around the city. Still, I wanted them to feel how dangerous travel was.
My solution was to tell them it was dangerous with a little exposition. I described the jungle-clogged streets in some detail. The forest canopy was higher than it was a couple weeks ago, I said. The underbrush was full of choker vines, razor-edged weeds, and carnivorous plants -- not to mention all kinds of monsters. "Just assume that whenever you travel, you have to kill stuff," I explained. "It's never an easy journey." I also described how line-of-sight was so limited, that sometimes they'd walk into the walls of buildings before they realized they were there. Every house and shop was like a hidden ruin, waiting to be discovered in the forest.
I'd prepared a handful of quest cards, 4"x6" note cards with minor and major quests printed on them. Each quest has a name, a minor/major designation, an indication of the quest's level and XP reward, a short description, plus hints about the treasure available on the quest. I am going to enhance them further to explain what kinds of encounters each quest has, so the group can choose what kind of play they want. For example, a quest might offer "2 small combat encounters, 1 long role-playing encounter, and 1 short skill challenge." The group looked over the cards and chose one of my favorites, which involved eradicating some giant ants.
With atmosphere on my mind, I had them come upon an ant scouting party (2 worker/minions, 2 warriors, 2 drones). During the combat, I described the pincer attacks, the acid burns, and the chemical smells (these ants communciate through pheremones). It was a short encounter.
The largest encounter was an ant work party (12 workers, 2 warriors, 2 soldiers, 1 drone). I drew out the battle map with a 20-foot-wide street and 25-30-foot buildings aside it, with several 5-foot alleys between buildings. The players' eyes widened as I dropped the 15 pogs on the table. Unfortunately, I hadn't prepared ant pogs, so I was using kobolds. I regret that but I didn't have the wooden cut-outs. I've ordered some (should arrive soon, I hope) and I have printed and punched a bunch of really creepy ant art for next time! The worker ants were tearing down the buildings, log by log and stone by stone. I drew giant piles of rubble around buildings on the map.
The ants have a special ability that allows all of them to shift 2 squares whenever an ant dies. Man, it's creepy when 14 ants all skitter when one dies. The PCs' clever battle positions were constantly overrun by ants that could burrow under them, shift around them, or climb the buildings. I managed to convey the impression of a swarm of giant insects.
I ended the game with a preview of next week (this Thursday). They followed the ant trail to the northwest corner of the city. The ants have created a 100-foot-tall mountain of rubble with cave entrances in it. It's swarming with giant ants. They need to penetrate the depths of the mound and kill the ant queen. If all goes well, they hope to score some royal jelly, which has magical healing properties (I decided).
For next time, I have a few techniques I want to add. First of all, I want to convey urban decay. In every scene, I will include one bit of narration about buildings and visibility in the woods. I will also mention one or two bits of humanity that have been left behind: a wooden toy on the ground, a table set for dinner but left to rot, a shoe stuck in the mud, a stack of papers. If I can get just a couple of these tidbits into every scene, the world will be richer for it. Second, I will have the players take turns describing what they encounter in each travel scene. I don't want them to take travel lightly. If I remind them that it's scary by letting them narrate spooky and dangerous cut-scenes, they can take part in the building of atmosphere.
Crossposted to Story Games