Let’s start by taking apart a funnel that’s traditionally held as the standard against which all others are measured…
Sailors on the Starless Sea, and contrast it against another heavy hitter in the DCC funnel lineup: The Portal Under the Stars
So how does it start?
SotSS:
The PCs are brought on board through a pretty standard fare. Someone or something is kidnapping and bringing their fellow villagers to the adventure location for a nefarious purpose. The PCs are given a rumor list and then read the intro… very quick and simple way to start things off.
TPUtS:
The PCs are told of a magical gateway to a secret place that is rumored to hold treasures and is only open tonight, after they’re read the intro they’re essentially plopped down in front of the dungeon Greyhawk style.
LESSONS:
Get the players in to the action as soon as possible. Unless you have a good reason to do so, don’t dither around too much before getting into the action.
Ok they’ve started, what happens next?
SotSS:
Outside - The first thing the PCs are met with is a pair of guardians in the form of two vine horrors. They’re usually the culprit for at least one peasant death at the beginning of the adventure. Curiosity killed the cat. However, this encounter isn’t completely without reward for the PCs. The corpse vines also contain useful loot that can set up a level zero later on down the line to be marginally better equipped than his pitchfork wielding companions.
In the location proper - Well, they don’t really get to the dungeon till after they choose a way past The Keep’s dilapidated walls. There’s a trap in the form of the rigged portcullis and it leads to a location full of even more danger. Past the portcullis, there is a pit, a temple, a well, a tower and a crumbled wall. In my opinion, the pit is pretty superfluous, but the temple is useful for loot and clues for later in the dungeon proper, at the risk of the PCs lives. The well is a fun little trap that’s very cinematic in the way that it thins the herd. The tomb hidden in the rubble is probably the most interesting and potentially useful to the players, but is located on the opposite side of the map from where the story nigh decrees that they need to go/the tower.
TPUtS:
Outside - The trapped door killing people who aren’t patient enough to enter, followed shortly by a door that will just kill peasants if they open it is pretty funny in my cruel Judge opinion. It’s a good reminder to veterans and a good lesson for newbies not to just face-check every door/challenge you come across.
In the location proper - The giant statue that points and shoots fireballs at you is pretty iconic and tells a little bit to the players about the location in which they find themselves. The doors serving as shields and the specific rules governing the statue are prime real estate for player ingenuity to shine. The snake room is super cool and no sword and sorcery tale is complete without a giant snake somewhere. The room with all the bones is a good way too for the players to cheese the final boss fight, but there’s not a ton of reason that this should work aside from dumb luck IMO.
LESSONS:
Putting a guardian outside the dungeon proper to thin the herd a little seems like a good practice. Setting up trial-by-fire puzzles and such to accomplish this seem to generate the most fun in my experience, but YMMV. Past the guard, it seems like a secondary more negotiable death trap seems characteristic. Further in, a creature to realistically fight and a proverbial key to a proverbial door later in the dungeon seems par for the course.
Deeper into the depths…
SotSS:
Transitionary phase - Fight the vile beastmen in the tower torturing your countrymen! Kill them and their boss and you can free some people (potentially refilling your party) and find the secret trapdoor to the lower dungeon. Lots of loot to gain and multiple enemies that seem at least somewhat balanced for the party’s level. These beastmen are probably not going to be surprised (unless you spot their sentries outside, dispatch them, then get into the tower without failing at knocking open a DC20 STR door) so the PCs are definitely in for a fight where at least one is probably going to die (looking at you RF Slipshot).
The deeper dungeon - After fighting the beastmen, there’s only a bit of respite for the PCs depending on where they choose to go. If they head into the secret passageway they’ll probably lose one or two trying to get that sweet sweet loot. However, if they opt to go straight to the pool room, or if they don’t have any perceptive characters, they’ll end up in a more RP heavy area with the potential for some really good loot at the expense of maybe a character or two (or 6 in my group’s case). Pool room passed, they’ll have smooth-ish sailing (ha) til they get to the menhir and black sand beach (right before which is where I think is the perfect time to cut and plan for the next session is). Then it usually goes one of two ways, either they picked up a skull which tells them of the terrible (but comparatively habitual) price needed paid for safe passage and they sacrifice a living thing, or they have no idea what’s going on and try to swim out to the boat and mostly all die.
Pick your poison.
TPUtS:
Transitionary phase - Woah! Weird crystal people that are just vibin’ minding their own business. Invariably some character tries to mess with them and gets one shotted. Typical rpg player stuff. What’s really cool about this room is that not only is it really an evocative mental image, and non-explicitly combat focused, but it can also drastically affect how the players think about their strategy in the endgame (in a way I think the bone room just misses the mark). If you throw in some spacial awareness in the final room with a damp or dripping ceiling, this room can really shine (ha).
The deeper dungeon - The chess set in the hall or war-game with miniature figures is a strange clue to the contents beyond. I think putting a campaign specific insignia on the door to the final fight area is a good way too of foreshadowing that the players are about to encounter something truly threatening.
LESSONS:
Potentially multiple creature combat encounter on the way to the deeper areas of the adventure location. There could be a very slim chance of avoiding said combat encounter (either due to lack of in-game opportunity or lack of PC self control), but there should be something. It’s almost as if the adventure starts itself again with this new more mysterious region of the adventure and necessitate guards to fend off the unworthy. These intense combat encounters that are in theory avoidable seem to be followed immediately by some form of respite for the players to lick their wounds and bury their dead. Kinda like what we saw int he beginning of the adventure… Additionally, the final fight is broadcasted in a “there’s no turning back now” kind of way.
The final enemy
SotSS:
Kill it with fire! ...or something - Once the PCs negotiate the sea without stars, they’re treated to a puzzle/terrifying combat encounter with an admittedly arbitrary timer. I don’t know about other judges, but no matter what the PCs do, there’s no way the cultists aren’t going to pour the gold into the lava and summon the chaos lord incarnate… I mean it’s on the damn cover. Maybe that makes me a bad-railroading-story slave Judge, but I will stand by that ruling. It’s awesome. I know if I was a player and saw the faux leather cover with the crazed cyclops horned thing and didn’t get to fight it on an underground ziggurat while freeing my countrymen…
I’d be more than a little disappointed.
Le Dénouement - The house coming down after the big bad bites it is super cool too and, unless someone rolls extremely bad, mostly harmless. The “Marines, we are LEAVING” -ness of it also serves as a forcing function to start wrapping up the adventure in an exciting way.
TPUtS:
Kill it with fire! …or something - So the PCs just happen to stumble in on a great warrior wizard and his terra-cotta army as they’re about to wake up from their thousand or so year slumber… I don’t know, to me it seems a little contrived, but whatever it’s high adventure. Anyway, the horde of soldiers doesn’t actually have to be fought which is pretty nice. Telegraphing the interconnectedness of the soldiers’ existence to that of the big bad guy can be as obvious or subtle as the Judge determines. Whether they’re spiritually tethered in a visual way or maybe it’s his magic that clearly raises them, the players should at least have an inkling that he’s to blame IMO. There’s also the pool upstairs and the bones upstairs that can serve as alternatives to a TPK.
Le Dénouement - Finding the secret chamber at the back of the throne is super rewarding and one of my favorite parts of the adventure. And the sequence at the end is something straight out of the phoenix on the sword in tone and feel. Not only does it serve as a satisfying conclusion to the adventure, but it also does something that not too many adventures do well: It sets up the next three or so sessions. Whereas other adventures will maybe provide hooks for Judges to throw maybe one or two ideas on top of for the next night of play, this one could be used as a setup for a whole campaign. I’ll say that this hook was the one that my players have bitten on the most.
LESSONS:
The final boss needs to be memorable in a way that links them to the final stage of the dungeon. Making them a result of the activities at the adventure location makes them more believable and imposing. I think that’s something that SotSS does a bit better than TPUtS. However, there should also be some organic elements of the dungeon (that aren’t as contrived as the convenient, video game-esque chandelier above every major boss location) that can be used to the PCs considerable advantage in the final fight. I’m looking at the two areas in the first level of TPUtS and the prisoner skulls and robes form SotSS as prime examples of said tools.
End:
Hopefully that shed some light. What do you think? Is two funnels, no matter how iconic, too few to extract meaningful, actionable lessons about the type of adventure at large? Are my table’s experiences different than yours? Leading you to different lessons? Let me know in the comments. I’m trying to make my own ‘good’ funnel from these lessons by the end of this little project so every bit helps.
Thanks!
