Next Gen Princes 02: Princes of the Apocalypse
Princes of the Apocalypse is an official module for D&D 5e. It was published by Wizards of the Coast in 2015, making it an introduction to the edition for many players.
My plans are to get experimental with D&D, embracing new tech to see what else is possible with the game. Why, then, have I turned to an eight-ish-year-old story?
Because I have a bit of a complex relationship with Princes.
I like the idea of it. The four elements of classical Greece appeal to me. So does the idea of having multiple enemy factions. It creates a dynamic element to it. If the PCs stomp one group of enemies, won’t that only make their rivals stronger? Won’t those rivals also learn from the stomped faction’s mistakes?
Will the PCs play the factions off each other? Join any of them? Run psyops campaigns against them? Or just choose to brute force their way through a variety of enemies?
There’s a lot of fun to be had here.
It also has these large, sprawling dungeons that would work great in 3D. They’re big enough that one set could keep your players occupied for weeks and haunting enough to look amazing in this new medium.
But while I like the idea of Princes…
… wow, do I dislike the implementation.
Things get off to a bad start with Red Larch - a village somehow both boring and too complicated, where the essential information is scattered randomly throughout the module book.
From there, it’s a series of interesting locations with varying enemies, but not much to draw the players there. It works well for murderhobo/low-RP groups who will happily go where you point them. The GM has to work hard to hook the players in, though.
If you’re running this in person, I recommend using Post-it notes or some other way to label key sections. There’s a lot of flipping back and forth, trying to keep four scattered pages open at once.
There are a lot of side quests that don’t amount to much. Go to this cave in search of treasure, fight four zombies, joke’s on you because the rumours of treasure were wrong. Most of these are worse than what you’d improvise, even without my workshop on how to improvise well.
Wizards of the Coast learned a lot from writing Princes. Later modules fix a lot of these mistakes.
Looking back on it from the present day, we can see a lot of chances to improve it.
(NOTE: From now on, this series will contain spoilers for both Princes of the Apocalypse and my remake of it. Princes belongs to Wizards of the Coast and I’m discussing it under fair use laws.)
Using AI: Characters and Story
Red Larch can’t be easily fixed. I’ve run it a few times. The first run through, I put the effort in and ran it as written.
It was exhausting.
Red Larch is a bloated mess. It’s a small village with 20-something buildings - two taverns (one fancier than the other, fair enough), a boarding house, something like ten places to buy adventuring supplies (?), two butchers (!), a shrine, a wagon maker…
It’s a lot. The descriptions cover eight pages and don’t say much worth saying.
It also means there are a lot of NPCs to keep track of.
Worse - some of these NPCs are secretly evil cultists. Which ones? I forget where it mentions that, but it’s not anywhere easy to find in the heat of the moment.
The module talks about confronting “the cultists”, but it doesn’t list them. You’re expected to flip back from the encounter part of the book back to wherever it mentions who the bad guys are.
It’s boring, too long and utterly disorganised.
We can do better.
I tossed Red Larch away and placed it with my own mining town. I wanted to give this town a temple to Horus - the god of war, might, fire and justice. The obvious choice for a mining town would be a temple to the earth goddess, the Morrigan, but Horus fits. After all, they use fire and might to extract and refine rocks from the ground.
Creativity guideline: the first thing that comes to mind is usually less interesting than the second. That’s because the first thing was obvious, while the second needed time to get ready.
The town also needs a tavern, because it just does.
Rather than following Princes generic stuff, let’s see what generic stuff ChatGPT can provide. I asked for a mining town and got:
~ ~ ~
Village Name: Ironvein
Description: Nestled at the foot of a towering, mineral-rich mountain range, Ironvein is a sturdy, resilient village built by miners and their families. The buildings, predominantly constructed from timber and stone, show signs of wear from the hard labor that sustains the community. At the center of the village stands a large, impressive statue made of various ores, honoring the miners of Ironvein's past and present.
People Inside:
Mayor: Yorvin "Hardhat" Gritstone - A former miner, Yorvin is a broad-shouldered dwarf with a hearty laugh and a practical mindset. He cares deeply for his community and is always looking out for their welfare.
Miners: A group of hardworking men and women, dirty from a day's work in the mines but brimming with stories about their finds. They're fiercely proud of their work and loyal to their comrades.
Blacksmith: Thalia Forgeheart - Thalia uses the ores mined from the mountains to create tools and simple weapons. She's known for her exceptional skill and hardworking nature.
Local Healer: Elys 'Touchstone' Muran - A soft-spoken elf with a vast knowledge of minerals and their healing properties, Elys runs a small clinic, treating miners' injuries and the common ailments of villagers.
Unique Aspect: Ironvein is known for its bioluminescent caves found within the mountains. They are a beautiful, natural phenomenon, where the walls of the caverns shimmer with ethereal, multi-colored lights. Miners often find 'Starstones' within these caves, a type of luminous gemstone that is considered a good luck charm in the village. Every year, a festival is held where these gemstones are displayed throughout the village, creating a spectacle of lights that attracts traders and tourists.
~ ~ ~
Yeah, that’s pretty good. It’s a lot tighter than Red Larch.
I asked for a mining town and got the most generic one possible. Even the name is low effort. But I like that part about the luminous gemstones.
Some changes I made to this response:
Forget “Ironvein”. I’m naming the village after what makes it special. I christen thee “Glowvein”.
Hardhat isn’t just the mayor, he’s also the innkeeper. For a small village, that’s not unusual.
Touchstone is a priest of Horus. That’s an obvious place to put the healer.
I also added assistants to both the temple and tavern, to add some life.
Who’s feeding these miners? I add a small farm for veggies, chickens and eggs.
Already, Glowvein is saying more with a lot less than Red Larch did.
Let’s see what it looks like.
Using Tale Spire: Building Glowvein
A screenshot of Glowvein - very much a WIP. In fact, this is so early on that I haven’t updated its name yet. That red box in the back means it’s not visible to players.
I started with the temple. This was a learning experience for me. I’d played around with a few mock dungeons, getting a feel for how to place rooms and objects, but this was the first real thing I made.
The first thing was to make a room, with an area out the back for storage and the priest’s quarters. I also wanted to introduce height here - hence a few stairs.
Putting this together and seeing what assets Tale Spire had, I realised I was missing an obvious bit of worldbuilding. Horus is the god of war. His temples should resemble fortresses or - at least for small towns like this - a barracks.
I put a palisade around the front. In-setting, it’s mostly cosmetic - the wooden fence wouldn’t keep out anyone that the stone walls couldn’t, but it adds to the militaristic feel. From a design perspective, it let me hide a lot of the blemishes and gaps in my creation.
Inside, I added a wall to make the temple more defensible.
I decided this temple should be a library, too. Maybe all temples in my world should double as stores of knowledge.
After that, I added the tavern. It was fun creating rooms for people to sleep in. There are three tiers of rooms - an opulent room, a comfortable room and a bunch of cheap cots tucked in a corner.
I then added a fountain, some cottages for the locals and some temporary accommodation for transient miners.
It then occurred to me that Glowvein wasn’t living up to the name. There were gorgeous, glowing crystals included in Tale Spire, allowing me to realise the vision that ChatGPT had come up with for the town.
That’ll do for now. While a bit bare, it has personality, key locations and interesting people.
Next time: giving the PCs something to do in Glowvein.