Adventure design question. Determining level

[Shadowslayer]

Howdy all.

3x has the cr/el system in place in order to (theoretically) determine the toughness of a challenge, then put a few of them together to form an adventure. Are there any rough rules of thumb on how to do this for C&C?

If I write an adventure, how do I figure out if its a 3rd level adventure or a 6th level adventure?

Any ideas?

[gideon_thorne]

Find the average of all the challenge levels of encounters, traps, critters, ect. Thats your rough level range.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[serleran]

Which is to say:

Add all the monster HD together, and the difficulties of the traps, riddles, whatever else you've got, and divide that total by the number of them. Round up.

So, if you had an encounter with a 10 HD creature, 3 level 8 traps, and a 4 HD monster, the overall level average would be (10 + 24 + 4) / 5 = 8.

Of course, if situations make a monster or other thing harder than it actually is, say, a kobold encounter where the kobolds have extreme adventage, give them a bonus to the calculation. Anything which is impossible to overcome does not factor in since it does not matter what level the characters are... impossible is impossible.

Some tweakage might be needed, as, for example, if you had a 20 HD creature and a 1 HD creature... the difficulty is not 11. It should be 1-4 lower than ther most difficult encounter, assuming the encounter is necessary to completion (if for example, fighting a lich is not needed, then its HD is only a facotr of calculation for overall, and not used to detrmine maximum.)

[Shadowslayer]

Ok, I get what you're both saying.

It begs a second question though. Is there a default number of characters assumed? In 3e its 4...is there a C&C standard?

So, using Serelan's example (10 HD creature, 3 level 8 traps, and a 4 HD monster, the overall level average would be (10 + 24 + 4) / 5 = 8) Would that mean then that it is an adventure for four 8th level characters?

I appreciate the responses. I realize C&C is a lot more free-form than 3x, but I'm just looking for some basic guidelines.

Thanks guys.

[serleran]

4-6 is the assumed party size. Less than that should have the PC levels upped, usually by 2 or 3, per difference (obviously, if this would raise the character far beyond the most difficult challenge, then the level required is the challenge.) More PCs would reduce the level needed by the same, as its assumed more PCs = +% of success.

So, using my example of an 8th level module... that would be for 4-6 PCs. If you made it 8-10, the level needed would go down to 6. If it were a solo dungeon, the level needed would be 10 (same as the highest critter HD.)

Make sense?

[Shadowslayer]

Sounds good! Thanks again.