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Following my first failed attempt at running a D&D based adventure for my husband I got creative. Perhaps a little too creative by some people’s standards. But you wanna know something? It worked!
My very helpful husband likes to have his finger on the pulse of all things gaming. Therefore, during my first attempt at being the DM he helped by pulling out all the miniatures I would need and arranging the map on the floor.
Okay, I thought to myself… new tactic. D&D is the system that I am by far the most familiar with so in a fit of creativity, while sitting in my son’s room, I created The Incredible Adventures of Winnie the Bugpooh.
Using the basics of D&D I wrote up a two encounter adventure. Winnie the Bugpooh has to return to the land of the 100 acre woods where he must reclaim his family home. His enemies were, of course, Woozles; for which I used a combination of Kobold minions and slingers and a Heffalump that was really a Level 1 White Dragon Wyrmling.
It worked beautifully, especially since I actually pulled out my son’s winnie the pooh action figures! Mark played a 6th level Bug Bear.
The first encounter had Winnie the Bugpooh standing on the edge of the forest. As he moved in he became aware that he was being slowly closed in on by Woozles. For this first encounter there were 8 Woozle underlings (Kobold Minions) and 3 Woozle captains (Kobold Slingers). Even though they were all first level they did cause quite a bit of damage and brought Mark’s character well below bloodied.
So, being the capable DM I worked around my second encounter to shrink the number of enemies but gave those that I left more hit points. My thinking was that if there weren’t so many to do direct damage to his character then it would be better balanced. And being a level 6 character his weaponry did decent damage and could take out an enemy in 1 to 2 turns. It worked out well.
Then there was the Heffalump, who sat poised in front of the tree that was Winnie the Bugpooh’s ancestral home. The fight was valiant and apparently I roll poorly as the DM because the Heffalump didn’t hit once!
Over all it was a good encounter. It took us about an hour and a half to play. I liked being on the other side of the screen. And I plan on doing it again… but this time I would actually like to do a real campaign!
Below is the text that I wrote for the introduction to the encounter. Enjoy!
The Incredible Adventures of Winnie the Bugpooh
The hundred acre woods was once a land made fit for children’s tales… but no longer.
In the past 300 years it has grown dark and the forest now emanates an aura of sadness.
It has been thought that all hope was gone… that is until a descendant of the most revered Winnie the Pooh turned up in a local tavern… Looking to reclaim the land that is rightfully his to have.
He alone has the power and ability to restore the light to the darkened recesses of the forest and to make it the haven it should be. His name is Winnie the Bugpooh…
