Consequences

Consider the consequences that can arise from your low-level adventures. Remember that adventurers don’t live in a vacuum, and your world is a bigger place than the small area the PCs happen to be in at any given time. When the PCs finish an adventure, you still have work to do.

Start by thinking about what could happen when the PCs leave the adventure site. Ask yourself who’s still hanging around to pick up any goodies the PCs might have left behind. More than one villain got his start by collecting the remnants of his slain master’s treasure hoard. Consider what that survivor might do. Does he flee or retreat and fortify? Would he seek protection from a more powerful creature?

Now think about how much time might pass before creatures that were not directly involved in the adventure discover what the PCs did. If the heroes are given to boasting about their accomplishments, it won’t take long for word to spread. If witnesses escape, or the adventure site receives regular visitors, word of the deed spreads quickly. It might be a very long time before anyone notes the disappearance of a small, independent band of goblins, but a royal messenger’s demise is going to be noticed very quickly.

Consider who might care about what the PCs did. Is anyone helped? If so, how can they take advantage of the opportunity? Is anyone hurt? If so, how can they minimize or repair the damage? Take the preceding example of the slain red dragon. Perhaps the dragon has a charmed servant lurking in a village nearby. The servant is responsible for informing the dragon how much wealth the villagers have hidden and keeping track of the village’s maidens and would-be dragon slayers. As one of the dragon’s confidants, the servant is hated and feared, but the charm keeps the servant from thinking too hard about how unpopular he has become. When the dragon no longer visits the village to collect its annual toll of maidens, the servant is forced to flee.

The servant might make his way to the dragon’s abandoned lair. If he is the first to reach the lair, he might collect a few left over coins and an overlooked magical item or two and go off to start an adventuring career. If something else got to the lair first, the servant might be captured by the lair’s new resident. The servant could be killed, which ends the story line, or he might betray the village in an attempt to reestablish himself as someone to be feared. You don’t have to have all of this in place before the adventure starts, just be prepared to use every adventure as a springboard for new ideas.

Not all consequences have to be bad. For example, the PCs might acquire a follower or henchman when a freed prisoner decides to follow them home. Nor do all consequences have to fall directly onto the PCs. For example, if the party infiltrates a building by using stone shape spells to force an entry, many stone buildings in the area might hastily be reinforced with metal bars, and the PCs might not be affected until they, too, wish to build something.

In many cases, however, simple adventures might have multiple layers that the PCs peel away one-by-one. In the classic adventure Against the Giants, the party begins by dealing with a single group of marauding hill giants but discovers clues that lead to a conspiracy that ultimately was hatched deep in the bowels of the earth. Ultimately, a resolute party follows the trail into the Abyss itself.

Simple, seemingly harmless incidents that the PCs dismiss with a laugh might have far-reaching implications. Bosamp, the villain in the TSR® novel Captains Outrageous, began as a fairly harmless young wizard who suffered from an unfortunate love affair and ultimately threatened to destroy the world.

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