Granite Mountain Prison Remix Part 1, The World Set Up (1 of 3)

The adventure "Granite Mountain Prison" by Roger Baker appeared in DUNGEON magazine JULY/AUGUST #36 and if you want to make the most of this Remix then I highly suggest picking up a copy of the issue.

illustration by P.L. Wolf from pg 24

 

"Granite Mountain Prison" is, at it's core, an adventure where they players are working against a fascist government. This adventure allows them to approach it from a couple of different angles:

        1. As mercenaries hired by either the "Order of the Holy Ring" or by an allied rebellion group
        2. As participants in the uprising against the High Council
        3. As fellow prisoners looking to escape from the Prison.
        4. As agents of the High Council seeking to infiltrate the rebellion's organizational structure.

The players in my home game are my son and his friends (all teenagers) and have been working to undermine a tyrannical government in my home setting, "The New Sun," so I'm going to be proceeding from the second option (If you read this and would like help proceeding from another avenue please let me know in the comments). This means that I need to make sure that two elements from the Dungeon Master (DM) section are highlighted in play:

        1. The Secret Police of the High Council must make an appearance and be a clear threat to the players.
        2. The Order of the Holy Ring must provide an alternative to the High Council.

To make the Secret Police work in the scenario I need to start implementing them into the game 5-6 sessions before this adventure makes it's appearance.  I'll begin by introducing them through word of mouth long before the players see them in action. The idea is to talk about actions they've been involved in and the get the players aware of them.

"Have you heard about Louis? They came and took him last night. Gods only know where they're taking him."

"Margaret's husband Thom was snatched off the street by the secret police. They claim he's a terrorist." 

" Did you hear about Jean-Luc? They found him with his brains smashed out in the square. It's a message."

"Paolo's wife Adrianna was released last night. Those bastards tortured her for days. Paolo says she's catatonic." 

The Secret Police aren't the good guys - no secret police force ever is - and I want my players to catch onto this early so that there is no ambiguity. I'm going to take role-playing queues for the Secret Police from the Cold War and spy films I watched as a kid. Lots of menacing stares, pregnant pauses, and deadly responses.

I'll follow this up by showing the Secret Police acting in brazen ways as they abduct people on the streets and behave like the thugs they are. The players need to see them and hear an increasing number of rumors about their vile actions. Before the players actually interact with them their minds need to be filled with ideas about who and what these people are within the context of the game. This way when the players finally meet them they will feel fear about the dangerous Secret Police.

The Order of the Holy Ring is described by author Roger Baker as, ". . . a religious order that at one time commanded a large following, including several members of the council. Using the secret police to harass, bully, and terrorize the order's adherents, the council reduced this once-thriving organization to a few hundred die-hard faithful . . ." (24). I'm going to change this as religious orders don't connect well with my players. 

Instead I'm going to make the Order of the Holy Ring a social organization, like the Korean Association that operates in my city, so that they have a connection that my players can recognize. This Order will be focused on societal changes and on bettering the kingdom rather than on a religious artifact or deity. This should also give them a bit more latitude in being introduced to the players as members could be shop owners who display their order's seal, bar patrons who wear the order's seal on necklaces or rings, or they could be running soup kitchens and homeless shelters with their symbol featured prominently. Regardless of how they're introduced I need to ensure that there is a clear line between the tyrannical High Council and the Order of the Holy Ring. 

The players' goal for the adventure is to rescue Jathan Paark, a leader of the resistance. The adventure plays it up as though Jathan is the only reason the resistance has succeeded when no resistance has ever done so through the efforts of a single individual. Jathan is treated as a charismatic figurehead who the movement has coalesced around and without whom it will fall apart. 

I have little interest in a movement that is so unenthusiastic that a single man's imprisonment will doom it. Instead I will treat his imprisonment as a galvanizing moment that will enhance the revolution's reach and cause ferment greater resistance to the High Council's fascist actions. While the players are on the rescue mission the movement will push forward against the oppressive High Council. 

Granite Mountain Prison Remix 

Part 1, The World Set Up
Part 2, The Prison
Part 3, The Three Villains

 

 

Works Cited

"Granite Mountain Prison" by Roger Baker from DUNGEON MAGAZINE Issue #36 JULY/AUGUST, 1992. pg 24

 

Why Play 3rd Edition?

Over the past 21 years I've spent a lot of time playing Dungeons & Dragons; and of the versions I've explored none has captivated me quite like Third Edition. Where Fifth Edition made the game more accessible, and Fourth made it feel more gamey, Third Edition was the version that taught me to tinker with things. It was the one that said, "If you don't like the rule, change it. That's what all the supplemental books with their countless alternative rule sets were effectively saying. 

The game was a massive beast when Wizards of the Coast (WoC) finally decided to end it and release Fourth Edition. There were over 150 books published throughout the life of the system by WoC that ranged from setting books, like Dragonlance, to adventures and supplemental books that changed the nature of how the game functioned, like Tome of Magic. With all those books as a Dungeon Master (DM), which I was throughout that time, you had to pick out which rules you were going to enforce, which you were going to ignore, and which you were going to modify. 

When I first started playing the rules were more a blanket that I could wrap around myself and use to support my own authority as a DM. I didn't have to be the one responsible for stopping a bad form of play (disruptive nonsense, abusive moves, ect.) - it was the rules. I never had to be the bad guy. 

The thing is, as you grow older you realize that sometimes being in charge means that you have to be the bad guy. You have to be the one responsible for making a decision that others won't like for the betterment of the group as a whole. Yes, within rules the Wizard could feasibly create a chain of villagers to move a rock forward and create a devastating weapon to effectively nuke the Big, Bad, Evil Guy (BBEG) but it wouldn't be fun. It would create a world where the BBEG could do the same thing to the heroes or one where an even more inane and stupid idea could overcome everything and end the game in one massive blah moment. 

That's not what we're here for. 

The game is a vehicle for us to have fun together. You, me, and all the other players at the table. We have to work together to create an environment where we have the most fun. This can be stupid ideas that work, brilliant ideas that fail, and even Total Party Kills (TPKs). 

Third Edition made me realize that the role of the DM is about making decisions that affect how the game is played and it was liberating. I wasn't just referee creating a scenario for play and impartially deciding the outcome of the dice. I was an active participant in the game. 

Fourth Edition, for me, felt like that was taken away. The game was too gamey - by which I mean that the game felt more at home on a board than in us playing with the "Theater of the Mind" as I was more accustomed. I didn't feel confident in such a system with breaking by changing it and ignoring rules that might fundamentally affect the overall experience, as I had been in the older system.  

Fifth Edition brought that fun back for me as I was able to adjust the game once more without feeling like I was doing something that would make it less fun for everyone else. It didn't hurt that I was watching others do that very thing from the day that the first playtest document launched. I loved it - still do, but my son is interested in some more crunchy systems and has asked to play 3rd Edition. 

So we're going to do just that.  

Cleaning up the Look

I decided to change the banner on the blog this afternoon. The old one had been there for the better part of the last five years and it was . . . boring. For this one I decided to continue the background color into the the blog itself so that things would feel more organic in the their color design. 

The Path is Blocked. Drums Echo from the Valley.

It's been a few years since I last posted on this blog. During that time I worked on another, Dragons Never Forget, because I thought it might be fun to try something new. And yet everything I wrote still felt like it was a part of this blog. 

 So I've come back home - for now, at least.

 As this is 2025 and some things need to be said:

        This blog will never use AI.

        I will still talk about nerdy shit that delights me.

        Comments are back on. 

 I hope I'll get to see old readers back to the blog, and maybe some new ones as well.