Code Of The Rats
"From Spuds To Studs"

Introduction

By Dave Dollar
Art by Chris Myers

There are many deep and meaningful questions that mankind has been asking himself for centuries...

    "Why are we born?"
    "Where do we go when we die?"
    "Did God create man, or man create God?"
    "What is the purpose of life on earth?"
    "Where do my socks go?"

The list goes on and on. Somewhere, down near the bottom, just after "When do they take out the service charges?", and just before, "Why does the drive-thru teller have Braille controls?" are two questions...

In my new campaign, how do I justify the various characters in my group all having to work together as a team?"

... and...

"How did my new PCs go from average nobodies to steeled adventurers- capable of taking an arrow shot through the shoulder and still not spilling their coffee? Where did they start?"

Answering these questions both effectively and believably, is one of the most annoying and time-intensive problems facing the GM of a new campaign.

You could have them all meet at the local tavern (as starting adventurers with enough scrapes behind them to have gotten through that mysterious 1st Level), roadweary from their respective travels and itching to brag about their new victories; but then, every group always has one maverick who does his best to not fit in with the party and agree to go on your latest brilliant quest. This character always seems to have the attitude, "These guys are bozos and it sounds like a stupid quest anyway. I'm gonna go steal something and/or get in a fight!" The GM usually has to resort to hurling sharply pointed dice across the table and saying, "Shut up! You're going!"

So, unless your party has adventured together before (which really doesn't hold water if you are starting a fresh campaign) or all know each other from childhood (unlikely in most scenarios where the youngest character is 17 years old and the oldest is 580), the GM is forced into a compromising scenario.

How do you get all these varied personalities started in the same direction, and then how do you develop a lasting bond among them that will carry them through the campaign? How do you collect them all under a single banner? And, if you are starting with adventurers fresh off the tree, how do you get them started off as a ready team?

Solving these problems is the main goal of this module. Code of the Rats gets all the characters together and whips them into (what is sometimes a really interesting and unnatural) shape.

But that's not the important part. In the more than twelve years that I have been gaming, I have uncovered an alarming statistic: in any group of 10 gamers, 7 of them will be "Hack-and-Slashers." Much thought has been put into why this is. Careful study has proved that the problem does not reside in diminutive reproductive attributes, as previously thought. Many gamers, at heart, would like to participate in more thoughtful, elaborate, mentally challenging campaigns.

Having a player rely on his wits over his stats is much more satisfying to the player because he feels like he has actually done something when he solves A riddle or defeats a puzzle. The character was not the reason he was victorious. The player did it. By concentrating the adventure on the player's cognitive abilities, rather than the character's combat stats, "Code of the Rats" provides players with a great sense of accomplishment at "graduating."

Yes, that's right, graduating. Code of the Rats is the first ever, hands-on college of adventuring. It teaches a code of survival, a code of adventurers, a code of heroes. To defeat Roshia's Gauntlet is to graduate - a Rat. To fail is to die. So don't cut any more classes...

Pre-generated characters are provided with the module. Code of the Rats is also equipped with a tournament scoring system, if you happen to enjoy putting your players through a little rigorous competition.

What sets this module apart from others of its kind is that it can be run with an extremely variable number of players of extremely varying levels. You, the GameMaster, can throw a zero-level stable hand in with a tenth level superstud and they will both have the same chance of survival.

Primarily, however, it is designed as a starter adventure, taking characters "From Spuds to Studs." Simple modifications can be made to accommodate more experienced characters, although it requires more system-based adaptation on your part.

The watchword of the gauntlet is "thinking," and the players will have to do a lot of it to escape with their hides intact.

Read the module thoroughly before running it, and try to picture each scene in your mind as you do. I personally find that doing this makes for a much smoother go.

Have Fun!

The Gauntlet and your Fantasy system:

The Gauntlet converts easily to any fantasy RPG system because it stresses concerts that are universal to role playing: life and death. Most of the complex is a series of traps and puzzles that could occur in any system. System differences would be the most visible if the adventure relied primarily on monsters, characters or specific spells, which it does not.

There are only four monsters in the complex that are combative: Frack the ogre, the Killer Tree, Boaseth and the Water Beast. Almost every fantasy system has examples of similar monsters. All you need to do is pull out your books and scratch down some statistics for a set of similar buglies. The only important thing to remember is that the buglies must be a lot tougher than the party. If the players just go through offing everything they see, the whole point of the gauntlet (thinking) is lost.

The gauntlet is not a hack-and-slash setup. Actually, the purpose is not to fight anything at all.

Who Built the Gauntlet and Why

On the world where the Rats campaign originally took place, adventurers typically congregated into groups who were in turn sponsored by a wealthy noble or wizard. They then executed the orders of their patron under a group name.

Some examples of group names are:
Roshia's Rats
Estevan's Warfalcons
The Wolfpack (sponsor unknown)
Malichai's Marauders
Westwind Enterprises (independent adventuring agency)

Some enchanters and gentry are more concerned than others that their representatives behave properly. The Wizardess Roshia is an idealist who is very concerned about building not just a group of mercenaries, but a team of heroes. As such, she has asked a boon of her late master, Rorja (a wizard of immense power), that he build for her a testing ground to try the mettle of those who would serve her. A test to choose adventurers.

A test to find heroes.

And so was made the Gauntlet--to teach the Code of the Rats.

How The Gauntlet Works

This is a critical section of the module!

1. Lighting:

Unless otherwise stated, the gauntlet is lit by fairy dust. Yes, fairy dust. Several hundred pounds of fairy dust were collected and incorporated into the paint that lines the ceiling.

The result is a luminescence from above that illuminates the halls and rooms with a dim but comfortable light. The glowing ceiling gives clear illumination out to fifteen feet and shadowy, uncertain distinction out to forty.

Disclaimer: All of the fairies used in the making of this module are highly trained stuntfairies and only a few were killed in its production.

2. Monsters:

None of the monsters in the gauntlet will willingly leave their posts, so wandering monster checks are not necessary. The creatures under Roshia's employ are not particularly hostile to the adventurers. They simply carry out their duties as ordered by their Lady.

3. Death In the Gauntlet:

The gauntlet is not designed simply to kill people. It is designed to teach a code of conduct and to challenge the adventurers' minds. The maze is highly enchanted with magics that the characters will find, quite frankly, astonishing.

The effect of the enchantments is twofold. First, no foreign magics will function within its bounds not even the holy magics of priests or the mental powers of psionicists.

Player spells will not work in the gauntlet.

The second is that the entire place is covered by a highly complex set of illusion and teleportation spells, capable of deceiving even the most acute senses of touch, smell and taste. The purpose of these spells is to simulate character death. The deception is so complete that even the affected character cannot tell the difference. This will likely be quite a shock to the first character who "dies. When a character "dies" the teleportation magics will place him, alive and unharmed, at the rear of the party quite likely frightening the pants right off the characters nearest him. In the unfortunate event of entire party "death," the magics will work to place the entire party back at the beginning of the room test where they will have to try it again. For best effect, the death should be graphically described, right down to the character's dying scream. (Tip: A fork and brick of wet styrofoam make a REALLY heinous noise for impalements.)

For any given group entering the gauntlet the pseudo-death will occur only 17 times . After seventeen deaths the hazards of the gauntlet become quite real. For example, if two characters were going through the gauntlet, one could die ten times and the other seven before the danger of real character death was incurred. Or the ratio could be sixteen to one, or seventeen to zero, or whatever. The GameMaster should keep a careful, secret record of the death toll, but on no account should the charac. ters be informed that there is a limit on "safe" deaths. The illusory deaths are designed to punish the characters every time they fail a room. Carelessness does not make for good heroes, and only a fool will believe that the Gauntlet will be forever forgiving. Forgive me if I seem long winded but this is vitally important to the proper working of the adventure.

4. White Feathers

These large, white plumes represent extra lives. If the party captures a feather and carries it with them, the next "death" in the presence of the plume will cause it to burst into flames and burn to ash. The "dead" character is then "resurrected" at no cost to the party's life tally. Note that the feathers are not indestructible. Should the party deliberately destroy a feather ... well that's their tough luck! It also really bites to be covered in kerosene when that feather in your belt lights up - but, hey ... the Gauntlet is not perfect and life's not fair, eh?

The feathers will not resurrect characters retroactively.

If the party has used all of their "freebies" early and then captures a feather, the feather will be expended to save existing party members later in the Gauntlet.

5. Theme Plaques

At the entrance to most room tests is a brass plaque, firmly riveted to the wall. In some cases the plaque is replaced by a carving or other inscription, but the purpose of each is fairly consistent. The plaques define the lesson of each room. If the players fbl~ low the lesson of the plaque they should live through the test. Not all plaques teach a point of the Code: some simply give clues to defeating a room.

6. The Room of Reversal

This room is designed to keep the play. ers thinking. After the room of reversal, all the theme plaques are reversed. Now they tell the characters how to die, instead of how to live. Trust becomes Mistrust, Unity becomes Disunity, etc.

7. Illusions

The illusions in the Gauntlet are of a special variety that cannot be disbelieved. Nor can they actually hurt a character. They are simple deceptive magics without substance. For instance, if a character is hurled against the 'electrified' grating in the room of Reversal, it will doubtlessly scare the doo-doo, out of them but it will not injure them. Whether they originally believed in the reality of the electricity or not, they will not be electrocuted by the phantasm. Characters will not be able to see through these illusions unless they use some method for testing them, such as throwing small stones at illusory floors to see if the stone falls through, etc.

8. What not to tell the players:

Do not tell the players about the pseudo deaths or hint to them how the theme plaques work. They will quickly figure it out on their own and more power to 'em. Telling them the workings of the gauntlet will make their quest too easy: just keep 'em guessing.

9. Scoring

The score charts in the gauntlet are based on a one-player one-action system. Award points to individuals by the chart. It's probably easiest to let each player keep track of his own score.

10. Ham it up

Game Masters! Here's your chance to describe your players' deaths to them in grisly detail, without being branded a killer referee! Make all the silly sound effects you like, scream all you want, and really become a part of the action. Players really do love that stuff.

Do warn them beforehand that if you start counting on your fingers it does not mean that you are mathematically challenged, it means they had better think fast!

With all this in mind, go to the section marked "The Setup" and have a grand adventure full of perforations, abrasions, lacerations, contusions, multiple fractures, deceleration trauma and fun for all!

More Code of the Rats Introductory Fantasy Adventure

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