WIP Wednesday! Passenger Pre-boarding Now Available

Those Wednesdays just keep on a comin’. Let’s take another peek on the progress of our randomly built road encounter that we rolled up courtesy of Loke Battlemats: The Long Road RPG Toolbox.

We’re smart, efficient encounter builders, right? That means we always make a checklist to keep us on track and focused:

• Motiv: Hired hands for a caravan escort ✔
• Setting: Travel from Water Deep to Phandalin ✔
• Main NPC 1: Sir Mimford Fugelfort of NewCastle Imports Exports ✔
• Main NPC 2: Miss Shelley Packatase of the East Indies Trading Company ✔
• Plot Twist: Which NPC do you trust? Was this a planned ambush?!
• Monsters: Picked Red Caps (7) | but still need to paint minis
• Rewards: 1 scroll, 1 potion, 2 items, 3 ammunitions ✔ | but still need item cards
• Scatter Terrain: TBD
• Ancillary Miniatures: Today’s Task!

You can read up on all our previous WIP Wednesday travel encounter installments by using the links at the very bottom of our lil’ ol’ RPG article but the gist here is we’re setting up an ambush encounter and we need some Star Trek redshirts innocent commuter bystanders to add to the eventual potential chaos.

We have a whole cast of miniature makers represented here (starting left to right):

• Wizards of the Coast
• Wizards of the Coast
• EC3D Designs Everyday Folk
• EC3D Designs Everyday Folk
• Bruegelburg Miniatures
• Brite Minis
• EC3D Designs Everyday Folk

So why did we pick these particular victims commoners and what’s our next move as a DM to roleplay these eventual corpses innocent travelers? So that first fella is a simple farmer and he’ll talk anyone’s ear off about Hydroponics. That middle guy is just looking for work after an unfortunate “misunderstanding” with his last Water Deep employer. And that last robbed fig says zilch and keeps to himself.

For the next set, we have a couple of minimum-wage wagon drivers who will almost certainly run at the first signs of trouble. Our middle fella is the talker of the group and is simply hitching a ride to Phandalin to visit some family but will try to pick up any female party member with the cheesiest pickup lines. He will defend his life to the last breath.

And that leaves us with the hireling. He serves at the pleasure of Sir Mimford Fugelfort of NewCastle Imports Exports. He holds all his master’s gear, journals, extra coin, etc. He will use the Bandit stat log too but only engages an enemy that specifically attacks Mimford.

For NPC names, we suggest using Sly Flourish’s The Lazy DM’s Companion or Roll & Play’s Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit which are both excellent dungeon master supplements. Or, for the super speedy approach, try any online NPC name generator.

And just like that, we have our supporting cast of bodies characters. Now, can I see your ticket and what was your name again? 😉

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Previous D&D blog installments of our traveling caravan by Loke Battlemats: The Long Road RPG Toolbox:

• Part 1: Rolling the Initial Encounter
• Part 2: Sir Mimford Fugelfort of NewCastle Imports Exports
• Part 3: Redcap Monsters
• Part 4: Miss Shelley Packatase of the East Indies Trading Company