You’ve noticed by now that this month’s Dungeon Crate is
centered around an adventure, “Xander’s Lost Orb.”
With the four-page adventure, the online extras and the
box’s contents, you can sit down and play the adventure with very minimal
preparation.
“Xander’s Lost Orb,” which takes players on a quest to find
a lost artifact, was written to be a single session game, perfect for GMs who
want something to drop into campaigns, gaming groups who want to take a break
from their regular campaign or as an introductory adventure for players new to
fantasy RPGs.
“Xander’s Lost Orb” was written by Kevin Coffey, so we
talked to the adventure designer about his ideas, his process and how the
adventure fits into our larger world of Halcyon.
Dungeon Crate: What’s
the adventure about?
Kevin Coffey: On
its face, it’s a fairly simple quest adventure. A lord wants you to find a
magical orb that helped his grandfather, Lord Xander Bathall, keep the peace.
Orcs are once again threatening his lands, so the lord wants to find his
grandfather’s lost orb. A map leads to a ruined temple and then the players
will have to explore the ruins. It gets more exciting from there.
It works as a simple one-off adventure. The lord gives you a
quest, you try to go find the item. But it also connects into Halcyon and
further adventures. What’s going on with the orcs? What happened to Xander?
What is the orb? How does it work? Where will they find more information? Can
the lord be trusted?
It’ll all come into play with the adventures that come
after.
DC: Where does it
take place?
KC: The lord,
Theophus, is the warden of north Rhimms, a country in the larger continent of
Halcyon. Wayne from Dungeon Crate designed the entire continent, and it’s huge.
His world map is gorgeous.
Anyway, the orcs are descending out of the Kiln mountains
and wreaking havoc, and Theophus is having a lot of trouble. The adventure
places them in Cairn, where Theophus has a castle, and into the forests near
the mountains. Future installments will venture out further.
DC: Where did your
idea for the adventure come from?
KC: Since this is
Dungeon Crate Adventures’ first published adventure, I wanted to do something
relatively simple. It also has to work in a single session. So, I thought an item quest and dungeon raid
was a fun way to do both.
You can run it however you want, but I wanted it to connect
to larger happenings, so there’s some mystery woven into the adventure to give
GMs further adventure hooks and let me continue the story.
DC: Will it connect
to other adventures in Halcyon?
KC: Yes! Other
writers are doing other adventures, and we’re collaborating about what is
happening in different parts of the world.
I know I keep saying it, but the story of “Xander’s Lost
Orb” will most definitely be continued in further adventures.
DC: What will those
adventures be?
KC: Well, I want
people to play “Xander” first.
But even if not, here’s my spoiler alert: The adventurers
find the orb in a ruined temple after fighting through some orcs and a bunch of
undead. But there are clues as to who else might have been there. And Theophus
probably won’t be satisfied with just the orb. That’s not going to solve all
his problems.
After “Xander,” I’ve written one adventure, and I have
outlines for others. The story keeps going and will take adventurers to some
fun and interesting locations and dungeons.
I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder and other
RPGs for a long time, so I’m trying to tackle scenarios I’ve never played
before. I want to keep things interesting!
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