RETROSPECTIVE: Dragon of Icespire Peak

Back on my old blog, I ran a feature called Retrospective. Inspired by Grognardia, I used this series to discuss games that impacted my approach to the hobby.

Well, now that I finished Dragon of Icespire Peak, I decided to look back at it and how it changed my solo RPG approach.

The Beginnings

Before I began this campaign, I was big into Four Against Darkness. However, I had some gripes so began looking for something a little different. Not finding what I wanted, I decided to create my own rules set for solo roleplaying. Along with the new rules, I created a new character to use for testing. And thus Killian and his companions were born. 

Long and Winding Road

It took me nearly 3 years to finish the campaign. This is because I would often let the campaign sit for months between sessions. I think I was having trouble coming up with an effective approach to playing solo RPGs.

The Traditional Approach

At first, I tried to run the games using a traditional approach. In a typical RPG, the players will go through a dungeon room by room, with the GM describing each room in turn.

To achieve this solo, I referred to the dungeon map, made a plan about how I would traverse the dungeon, then read the descriptions for each room in turn. It worked, but not well. I have some ideas on why.

• Spoilers! There would be references in the intro and sometimes in room descriptions that gave away encounters.
• Empty Space. A lot of rooms are empty, at least for combat encounters. Reading a description and then going to the next is rather boring. I assume that the empty rooms are designed for the next point.
• Suspense? It seems that many of the adventures in the module were short on combat but high on suspense. Here is where empty rooms can work. The GM can describe the rooms in a way to  keep the adventurers on their toes. This would make the adventure interesting. But it just doesn't work for solo. I can't really keep myself in suspense.
• Needs more swords! As I mentioned above, combat encounters are few. I guess this is because D&D combat is now so complex it takes forever to finish. But I prefer combat and my system can handle a lot of fights in a short time. So again, the traditional approach did not work well.

Random Encounters Approach

Because I was dissatisfied with the way the campaign was progressing, I changed my strategy. I would not do each room. Instead, I created a simplified map of the dungeon, such as this one of Axeholm.

I then randomly generated encounters for each area. This generated that sense of suspense. I knew what I might encounter, but I never knew if I would or when.

Because encounters are so slim in the module, I found that I needed to add more monsters to make this approach viable.

This approach worked OK. But it required some effort to convert the published adventure to one ready for the random approach. I sometimes had trouble doing this. The Woodland Manse was an example. The manse is fairly small so it did not lend itself to this approach.

The MicroDungeon Approach

Back in December, I outlined an approach for abstract, quick-play fantasy adventures. I initially called it Pocket Dungeon but have since changed the name to Micro Dungeon (MD). The main feature of MD is that I dispense with a formal map and instead have abstract encounter areas, leading to the main boss. I'm still playing around with the idea but it seems that it allows me to set up and play an adventure very quickly.

I used the MD approach for the last 4 adventures of the module. If I hadn't switched to MD, I think I still wouldn't be done!

Thoughts on Icespire

Throughout the campaign, I had multiple complaints about the Icespire Peak module itself. In hindsight, what did I think?

• I like the overall concept. A series of adventures leading to a climatic showdown with the big bad.
• For the most part, however, the big bad did not really appear in my campaign. There is a mechanism to determine where the dragon is at any point in time. I did not use that; instead I treated the dragon as a wandering monster. It only appeared once, briefly, in the campaign. Perhaps I should have used the module's mechanism, but I'm unsure if it would have helped. There should have been a planned off-screen encounter where the dragon attacks Phandalin while the party is gone. That would have upped the stakes and made the dragon seem like a more existential threat.
• There is a second major quest line - a fight against agents of the evil god Talos. I did not particularly care for that. It seemed like a distraction from the main quest.
• The individual adventures seemed a bit lackluster. I think this is because I'm used to old school modules where there is a lot more monsters and combat.
• Nevertheless, it delivered a fun narrative and some good games.

The Path Forward

What next for my RPG experience?

• The MicroDungeon approach works well for me. Quick, but fun encounters.
• I would like to continue Killian's adventures. There is a follow up module called the Storm Lord's Wrath. I have already purchased the module.
• I would like to test my MicroDungeon rules using lower level monsters. This has me thinking on starting a new campaign with level 1 characters. I have some options for this.
• Run the Lost Mine of Phandelver. But after Icespire Peak, I'm a little wary of a 5e product. And I'm not sure I want to adventure in Forgotten Realms anymore.
• Get an old-school module, perhaps Keep on the Borderlands. I could set it in my own campaign world.
• Just create random adventures and see where it all goes.

I'm just not sure what I want to do next. Stay tuned and find out!