Stealing, By the Numbers

One of the most useful pieces of advice new game masters often get is:  steal.  Take elements of myth, literature, movies, and anything else that you like, and find ways of using them in your game.

Recently I had an opportunity to demonstrate fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons for a couple of old friends, none of whom had ever roleplayed heavily.  Most of them were, however, avid fans of massively-multiplayer online games.  So given a session to try to hook them, I decided to steal from an MMORPG.  Specifically, from World of Warcraft.

I didn’t have to think too hard about what to steal.  My favorite low-level instance in the game is a castle infested by werewolf-like creatures and the ghosts of its former inhabitants… and ruled over by a mad wizard.  Kind of stereotypical, maybe, but I love it.

My new players were going to Shadowfang Keep.

At least, they were as soon as I adapted it.

Map of Warcraft's Shadowfang Keep

With a wealth of information available, I didn’t expect that it would take too long.  I started by grabbing some maps.  (That one on the right is from Snowflake’s Shadowfang Keep Guide at wow-pro.com.)

Next, I consulted WoWWiki (linked above) to refresh my memory about the keep’s denizens.

Armed with this information, I could start translating into game terms.  I decided that this would be a heroic-level adventure, between level 6 and level 9 — not high enough to overwhelm my new players with powers and magic items, but high enough to give them a number of options.  Interestingly enough, this level range falls into D&D’s 30-level progression curve roughly where Shadowfang Keep falls on WoW’s 70-level curve.

It helps that the shifters and werewolves in the Monster Manual are levels 6-7 and 8, respectively.  By modifying these entries, I could come up with nearly all of the enemies inside the keep.  Other likely creatures in the same general level range include the dire wolf (5), wraith (5), wight (5), mad wraith (6), shadow hound (6), hell hound (7), worg (9), and battle wight (9).

There would, naturally, be less fighting in a D&D version of the Keep than there is in WoW.  There would also need to be more non-combat encounters — traps, skill challenges, and roleplay opportunities.  With that in mind, I considered what all those creatures were actually doing there.  Blizzard’s world dungeons page was somewhat helpful in this regard:

During the Third War, the wizards of the Kirin Tor battled against the undead armies of the Scourge. When the wizards of Dalaran died in battle, they would rise soon after — adding their former might to the growing Scourge. Frustrated by their lack of progress (and against the advice of his peers) the Archmage, Arugal elected to summon extra-dimensional entities to bolster Dalaran’s diminishing ranks. Arugal’s summoning brought the ravenous worgen into the world of Azeroth. The feral wolf-men slaughtered not only the Scourge, but quickly turned on the wizards themselves. The worgen laid siege to the keep of the noble, Baron Silverlaine. Situated above the tiny hamlet of Pyrewood, the keep quickly fell into shadow and ruin. Driven mad with guilt, Arugal adopted the worgen as his children and retreated to the newly dubbed ‘Shadowfang Keep’. It’s said he still resides there, protected by his massive pet, Fenrus — and haunted by the vengeful ghost of Baron Silverlaine.

In Warcraft, pretty much everything in the place attacks the party on sight.  But in D&D, that doesn’t have to be the case.  What we have here is two factions:  the undead under Baron Silverlaine, and the wolf-men under Arugal.  The worgen are vicious enough to be considered automatically hostile; they’re the main foes of the adventure.  The undead, though, are in opposition to Arugal’s forces.  Obviously, they’re too weakened to get to him — but they might aid the party.  Provided, of course, that the party is clever enough and persuasive enough to get them to set their specific hatred of Arugal and his wolves above their more general inherent hatred for the still-living.

They still have the option, naturally, to cleanse the keep of its undead.  I thought it would be more interesting if the baron were not a particularly noble or virtuous leader.  Instead, I cast him as a tyrant in life, and still a tyrant in death.  He would be content enough to rule over his undead vassals, including the ghosts of the village folk of Pyrewood — but not particularly inclined to living visitors.  In short, he would be the lesser evil.

I also decided that, despite his less savory qualities, he would be a man of his word:  he’d keep to the letter of any agreement he might make with the party.  An alliance with him, therefore, would be of true benefit to the party, not a foolish opportunity for betrayal.  I hoped this might provide for some moral tension — would the party choose the expedient but morally-cloudy path, or the unquestionably-righteous but more difficult path?  Would the party ally with the baron, and then later betray him (showing themselves, I’d be sure to have him point out, less trustworthy than a dead tyrant)?

Now I had the situation.  All that was left was to design the actual encounters and distribute rewards.  Next time, I’ll cover how I started that process.

Related posts:

1. Stealing, By the Numbers (III)
2. Stealing, By the Numbers (IV)
3. Stealing, By the Numbers (II)
4. Wrapping Up Warcraft
5. Renaissance Unfair