Written by Trent Smith AD&D, Levels 1-6 (approach-dependent) Orphanage set somewhere it won’t get burned down. A fortified homestead established and operated by the church of St. Durham in Warnell for the purpose of sheltering and rehabilitating non-combatant (female and young) humanoids: to raise and nurture and steer them away from the path of Evil so they may become productive members of society? Ah, the old classic conundrum. “We slaughtered all the warrior orcs of the Black Tooth Grin Clan, hooray! Now what do we do with the abundance of orc babies we find ourselves with?” Well, Trent offers at least one solid answer: “We send them to St. Durham’s Home for Wayward Youths, of course!” Ostensibly set a little outside of a rural village, the orphanage can be anywhere in a setting with nonhuman noncombatants, which I realize might be a somewhat divisive proviso. The site is described first in terms of its mission, then in terms of the personalities within, then the daily and weekly routines are described, and only at the end is the room-by-room key given (28 keyed locations). Nary a bullet point nor a table to be seen, the prose is brisk, clear, and workmanlike. It’s appreciated in the bulk of the keys and descriptors, it is tolerable in the hooks and rumors, but there’s a missing piece in terms of Order of Battle, or more likely Order of Those Darned PCs Are Heisting Again Let’s Get ‘Em. Muscular, simple, direct…the author expects the adventure site to stand on its own merits, needing no false rouge of linguistic frippery. The map is in pencil on gridded paper, so clearly not in an art contest, but as stated we don’t care about that. What we have here is, in the most common use case, is a Heist Target. Heist Targets different from dungeons in how their exploration takes place in phases; first you scope out the location, either through scouting or subterfuge or some combination, then you plan, then you “conquer” the space by looting either That One Thing or everything not nailed down. Typically, there’s also a third phase, which is discovery/alarm/panic/fleeing/murder (the fourth phase, justifying atrocities, will be notably intense on this one but the map doesn’t affect that phase). Anyway, a heist site still needs secrets to be uncovered and explored during the “delve”, but there should also be multiple entrances and exits clearly visible, with multiple benefits/costs associated with the given ingress/egress. Realism and verisimilitude matter a lot for the site’s layout to aid players’ planning, and this one has those criteria in droves. The secret passages that do exist all have reasonable locations and means of opening. Lest I leave the reader with the impressive that things are too dry, the site has a ton of potential energy here. The orphanage headmaster is a harsh disciplinarian (to the extent of having a hanging tree) who nonetheless believes in the orphanage’s reform mission while his assistant is lax and friendly and sweet and secretly sells the inhabitants into slavery. A goblin shaman engages in shenanigans in a secret tunnel down in the basement while the guards and the inmates all also have goals, desires, and vices just ripe for clever exploitation. Despite the nominally lawful purpose of the reformatory there’s plenty of justifications if the PCs decide the place needs to interacted with violence, larceny, or violent larceny. Social PC groups will have a field day figuring out the factions and exploiting those divisions. Treasure is a nice combination of “stuff getting worn”, big heavy/awkward stuff, and the occasional secret stash. Magic items are all book stuff, that makes sense, and the gear of the clerics in charge makes up the lion’s share. The secret double-booking ledger in the assistant’s room showing both slave sales records and a letter of credit for a nearby bank is nice touch. Knocking the orphanage over for everything and stripping it to the studs should be nicely profitable, but targeted raids are worthwhile too, and there’s even a little cash available in saving the orphanage if you have a shining pillar of morality among the player characters. There’s a slightly…I don’t know what to call it…Greyhawkian? There’s set of assumptions at play here leading to the concept of a reformatory/orphanage/prison for goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs that won’t fit into all settings or worlds. Obviously, every game of D&D needs an orphanage to rob, and it can be adapted more generally, but I do feel like it would do some violence to the initial concept. But I really am not kidding about how often “orphanage as adventure site” can come up in almost every game.
2 Comments
Stooshie & Stramash
2/10/2024 06:36:41 am
When you say: "There’s set of assumptions at play here leading to the concept of a reformatory/orphanage/prison for goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs that won’t fit into all settings or worlds", I know exactly what you mean. I always try to avoid orc babies and the like in my own campaigns - goblins, ogres and trolls are of the darkness or the spirit/fairy world and are inherently evil.
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The Rescuers IS a vastly underrated film, and orphanages a delightful subject for horror and violence. In my own campaign, we’ve made use of some historical abuses (Indian reeducation schools, for example) as inspiration for explaining orcs palling adventuring with humans. This adventure might make for an excellent insertion into my game.
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