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Trouble at Grogg's

Trouble at Grogs is one of the best adventures I ever ran, and Iā€™ve run it many times, in multiple systems.

Grogg with his glorious pipe

It looks like any other adventure at first.

The first time I read it, I was surprised to find it didnā€™t have an ending. I leafed back a page, and read more thoroughly as if Iā€™d missed it. But no - there was no ending. I played it anyway.

It looks pretty simple. It always played well.

The reason for the great games was in the lack of ending. The start is a heavy rail-road: the players come to town, they obviously enter the first tavern, Grogg grabs one.

Day 1 will have them trying things, going places, suspecting people. Maybe Grogg really is eating people? Maybe itā€™s Marsha or Yuri, the other two people who own taverns? The day fills the story with questions as the players doā€¦just whatever players do.

Day 2 will mostly be the same, but if the players slow down, the two thugs are there to stir things up. If not, they interrupt things. Either way, the pace speeds up.

If they watch things at Groggs, they could discover the double-agent maid. If they investigate the celler, they could find a passage to the catacombs. If they watch at the graveyard after hearing rumours of the undead, they may discover another entrance to the catacombs there. Itā€™s a blossoming sandbox in every direction, and each piece leads back to a different part of the village.

They might try to rob the bank and discover the underground passage there. They may kill Yuri, or bargain with him.

Dungeon Magazine with Trouble at Groggā€™s