Straight from the DM’s mouth, what it looks like to send the players at your D&D table into the teeth of a Braunstein, patron-play campaign. This is how you bridge the gap between powerful patrons and the more street-level D&D with which most people are familiar.
The man who runs Fluid the Druid reports that he ran weekly sessions in October, each of which incorporated the most up-to-date information available:
Session 1 travel from Trollopulous through the Black Lodge to Twin Peaks. PC gained an owl signet ring, got healing effects from coffee and pie at the Double R. Joined the confederates to fight Yankee Zombies besieging the town.
Session 2 PCs drove Ford Broncos from Trollopulous to Rome. On the way explored the ruins of a burned sawmill. One PC death by ghast. There might have been one other death by Hydra. I forget.
Session 3. Obtaining a magic tuning fork by exploring the sewers under Rome. Much climbing, jumping, explosions, and fighting shadows and Koopa Troopas.
Session 4. PCs took the DC 3 from Rome to parachute over the lake where the Undead Gnome King was planning ritual sacrifice to Lamala. I was a player in this part. My 1st level fighter assisted in defeating the Undead Gnome King by overbearing and dumping holy water on him. Later the same players parachutes into Bro-Pans volcano caldera lair to seek a hot springs for dissolving the gnome King hands. Ranger helped avoid BROviet-cong bamboo pungi stick traps. One parachutist stuck in tree and coolie goblins found him. PCs rescued friend, captured a coolie goblin while taking AK-47 fire, dispersed coolie mob with stinking cloud, dissolved the hands, then had the captured goblin lead them to BLipdoolpoolp temple located on the BRO-chi-minh trail. They killed a few lobster men and desecrated an alter with holy water before exfiltrating out along the BRo-chi-minh trail.
That last one was perhaps the most atmospheric of the sessions, due in large part to the Bro-Pan patron giving the DM a bare sketch of his lands and turning the DM loose to embellish as he saw fit. And embellish he did, turning a humdrum volcano lair into something far beyond what even Bro-Pan had imagined for his domain. A truly impressive bit of generosity on display by both DM and patron there, as each adds his own touches to create an adventure far greater than the sum of its parts.
In a few days, we’ll take a look at the experience of Brovenloft’s most powerful lich.