The views expressed in the following interview may or may not match that of the owners of SwordsAndSchlock and/or the Buddyscott Entertainment Group
Next is Mr ShockTohp, a fellow who’s taking a fairly unique approach to high-level adventuring by presenting us with something more akin to a setting. Very excited to see this one be released (disclaimer: so I can liberally steal from it for my games. sorry).
1. No Art Punk III is about high-level D&D – is this your first foray into upper level adventures? This is my first time writing a high level module, and playing high level OSR modules. I did play a lot of high 5e in the Dark days.
1.5 is there anything from high-level 5e that you’re taking as a lesson? That overt restriction on player powers isn’t the way. Yes Fly is annoying, yes it’s tough to balance around fighters having 9 cleaves in ACKS. But taking it away is just saying that the players aren’t allowed to use the skills they earned in a normal campaign. There are sections with silence where it makes sense, not an entire module where magic just doesn’t work. Other things like that. The end point of the Curse of Strahd module comes to mind, where there are so many things that simply don’t affect Strahd because if they did he would be a pushover. I want to avoid that sort of holistic restriction and still challenge the players where appropriate.
The main threat I’m using is time. If the players waste their high level character’s time effortlessly cleaning out lower level threats [which their henchmen could be handling], they won’t have time to deal with the more complicated ones. They’ll win the battle but not the war as it were. There’s a lizard folk village that will take maybe a week for a 9th level fighter to wipe off the map. But that week may have been spent better elsewhere. The time frame I’m currently working with is a year, but that may get shortened after I run the whole thing a few times.
2. What are some important lessons about high-level D&D that you have learned from past adventures? Wizards are strong and Stone to Mud is a far more useful spell that it seems.
2.5 Has stone to mud caused any problems in your module? have you had to re-write any portions or offer any guidelines for DMs to deal with such spells? I haven’t had any issues with it in this module But I have places where it would be too cheap constructed of non stone materials. The real spell that’s proven an issue is Fly. There are some nasty surprises in store for the next wizard who blindly makes himself a clay pigeon.
3. Have you learned any lessons from writing and testing this adventure? So far it’s mostly been that high level parties are resilient to anything dumb. Numbers don’t matter as much as tactics. And they usually have a solution to any environmental hazards.
4. Since writing this, have your views and opinions on high-level D&D changed in any way? Not really, my opinion of high level has always been that it’s more for domain play and that high level characters should rarely need to risk delving dungeons, except for realm or world threats. They have henchmen for dealing with dungeons and other nasties.
4.5 Do you think that high-level groups would have a reason to go into dungeons that have high-risk, high-reward to fund their domains? Maybe, but domains generally make money through taxes in ACKS, my target system. The transition from dungeon delver to local lord to king should generally leave an adventurer who cares about domain building the money to do so, with out special delves to fund a castle. Secondarily, that’s what henchmen are for. The king doesn’t go into the gold mines, even if they fund his treasury. In a similar vein, the level 9 fighter doesn’t personally clear every disgusting goblin cave in his domain. His army does that. And at the player level, you play the lower level guys in the service of the higher level fighter more often. On the other hand, there are some threats those guys can’t handle that the level 9 fighter should handle unless he wants to be deposed. These are your realm ending threats, Crypts of ancient and unknowable evil, orc army of thousands, etc. All this to say that, generally, a 9th level fighter shouldn’t be dying to gas for 1000 silver. But this may also be an artifact of my play group. We love getting into the politics of the campaign and see the dungeon delving as a proving grounds for those who would rule. A sort of Darwinian sword in the stone.
5. If you’re comfortable with revealing such secrets, can we get a quick run-down of your adventure? Conquest! The player characters are give a small wood walled town and must pacify the surrounding region in a year. Some locations are simple lairs that might be smashed in a day, others are big dungeons or settlements. Players will need to make careful use of minions and followers instead of wasting time on every small threat.
5.5 Are you going to be providing a fair number of pre-generated henchmen? Yes, and pregenerated characters as well. The driving thrust is that the characters are being granted this domain by their king and will owe him for it at the end of the year. The king expects to make money by expanding his domain, but has other duties. So he delegates to the player characters he seems as worthy. This does lead to some weakness in the module as self, as it simply might not fit in a campaign, if the politics don’t work that way. But I’m also using this to provide a thesis on what I think makes high level play fun.
6. What are some fun bits that you’re particularly excited for? Any challenging encounters, memorable scenes, etc The main dungeon. Not particularly complicated, but run by a death cursed local lord and his estranged nature witch wife. Lots of interesting theming and high level undead to deal with there.
7. The so-called OSR has been through a lot over the years – what do you think o the current status of the hobby and the scene? In general I think we’re in a good state. There’s more discussion about what it means to play OSR games than ever. And what makes a good game. I doubt really follow the news about the wider tabletop scene so don’t really have a comment there.
8. What made you decide to participate in NAP III? What does this competition mean to you and what does it bring to the scene? I competed in NAP II and wouldn’t want to disappoint Prince by not showing up again. The NAP contest in general is an outgrove of the higher focus on actually playing the game that has been growing more popular in the last few years. Personally I enjoy the focus on good vanilla that the competition offers.
9. Lastly, do you have a favourite module, high-level or otherwise? My favorite module is B2. Is it generic? Yes. But my tastes are generally for solid fundamentals over flashy anything.
Swords & Schlock 
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