Defending the Stronghold

This week has been crazy, and no one has prepared anything for game night. Do we call everything off? No, you keep it simple and make the best of the time you have.

The biggest trouble with trying to make something up off the cuff is finding a way to provide something interesting and creative. Usually, preparing an adventure involves drawing out a map, placing defenses and traps, and at least mentally anticipating how the monsters will react defensively, regardless of how much you actually write down. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking takes time and relies on thoughtful preparation. So how can you make something quick that still delivers?

Put the characters on the defensive. Generally, most adventures involve the PCs tracking monsters to their lair, overcoming their defenses and carting off the loot. For a change, bring the monsters to the PCs, and make them do the defensive preparation and strategy as the game plays.

Defend the Stronghold - The stronghold doesn't need to be a fully plotted castle with moat overlooking a broad countryside, it can be an abandoned cabin in the woods, a knoll in the forest, or anything similar. The key to the situation is that they are the defenders. They need to assess the situation, choose a defensible position, and ration their resources to withstand the assault. My suggestion is that they defend themselves through the night or day, long enough to provide multiple sallies against them, but some period with a definite ending. This will help in parsing resources.

One beauty of this setup is that it allows players to see some of what goes into designing an adventure, and possibly inspires them to create their own to DM.

Another benefit is that since the situation will be more challenging to process, the monsters themselves can be very generic. Run some orcs and goblins at them, maybe some wolves, or a bear. With three or four basic fights, you'll have enough to take up an evening, and keep everyone entertained. Instead of time between encounters taking characters from town to town, up mountain paths, or so on, they can spend time healing, making forays into the woods for firewood or water, searching outlying buildings for lost supplies, healing potions, or a better spot to defend. It might be worth loosening some of the rules about long rests to allow an extra healing, or spell recovery. I suppose you could say they were defending for a longer time with fewer attacks per day.

This is a "lite" encounter night, so there is more to gain from relaxing time constraints in order to get a few hours of play in than being a stickler for going "by the book" and sending everyone home because you have nothing prepared, or the first two fights exhaust the party's resources. Let the creativity and non-combat elements of play come from this risk, and give them options in scavenging to make up for what they need.

Forests and Trees

It bothers me that WOTC doesn't seem to understand that D&D is a game and not a marketing contest. The closest they seem to come to providing content is when they have a new product to hawk. "Let's talk about the white dragon... oh, you can buy these miniatures of it soon!"
They have created a workable game system, and I like it. I don't think I'm alone in that. So why can't they generate some actual content for it?
Where is the reincarnated Dragon or Dungeon? Weren't they put in suspended animation last year about this time until the new system was out and they could reemerge in some form?
The Eberron content they added recently did offer a useful insight into magic item creation, particularly scrolls and potions. It may be the only useful item in the document, but it offers a way to handle those concerns. The DMG suggests magic item creation of the most common magic items takes 100 GP worth of time and money, with a spell caster able to contribute 25 GP of effort per 8 hour day. So a Scroll of Magic Missile takes 32 hours over four days and costs 100 GP to create? Yet once that is accomplished, another spell caster can spend 2 hours and 50 GP to scribble it into their spell book, with the time a result of figuring out the original caster's shorthand. This is a flawed system.
In Eberron, apparently, a certain class of wizard is able to expend a spell slot and spend 10 minutes creating a potion at 2nd level, and the same at 3rd level to produce a scroll. This is offered as a "path" available to spell casters.
Frankly, this is something that should be available to all spell casters automatically (at least, the primary casters - clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and druids - warlock powers are derived from their pact, and paladins, rangers, and eldritch knights are primarily fighters).