Superior Games Books T4X 1E8 4813-43 Ave. Beaumont, AB Copyright 2011 by David L. Dostaler. All rights reserved.

. Cover Art: 2011 by Laura E.C. Dostaler. All rights reserved. Interior Art: 2011 by Laura E.C. Dostaler and David L. Dostaler. All rights reserved Copyright Notice: No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author. Made in Canada First Printing: April, 21st, 2012 ISBN 978-0-9868840-4-7

Challenger Role Playing Game Basic Edition

by David L. Dostaler Game Credits: Laura E.C. Dostaler, Joseph A. Dostaler, Elizabeth L.G. Dostaler, Mom, and Dad, Special thanks to: Matt Fleming Formatting Master, Dannick Pomerleau, Thomas Pomerleau, Sean Sandeen The King Bone Naga, (Roel Schuring) The Archwizard and: Istaran, Oxybe, Mellored, and Xguild on the 4E forums for their invaluable advice. Table of Contents (Learn to Play in 9 Easy Steps!) Introductionpage 3 Step 1. Prepare for Adventurepage 4 Step 2. Choose Your Predetermined Characterpage 5 Step 3. Adventure Ho!page 9 Step 4. Adventure One: Bone Skullpage 10 Step 5. Shopping for New Gear and Abilitiespage 16 Step 6. Leveling Uppage 18 Step 7. Adventure Two: The Caverns of Chaospage 19 Step 8. Adventure Three: War of the Goblinspage 29 Step 9. Your Turn to Create an Adventurepage 35 Our Other Productspage 37 Challenger RPG Character Sheetpage 38

Introduction *** ***

Have you ever wanted to play or design an RPG game but never knew where or how to get started? Well, youve come to the right place. The Basic Edition of Challenger will show you everything you need to know to play in 9 easy steps and get you started on creating your own grand RPG games with the 3 included sample adventures. Stuff You Will Need All you need to play are: a few friends, polyhedral dice (or a free online dice roller), pencils, paper, and a little imagination. This game will require 2-5 players ages 13 and up and each adventure will last approximately 2 hours of playing time.

Step 1. Prepare for Adventure! *** ***

Okay, so youve got your friends, a few fancy dice, paper, pencils, and some imagination. Now what? Youll need one special player. This player is kind of like a referee, similar to a narrator in a story (to describe the action), and like the Banker in Monopoly; taking care of the little finicky details of the game. This player is known as the game master or GM for short. The game master doesnt have a character in the adventure. The game master keeps the adventure secret and only reveals the information the players find out as they play. He controls all the non-player characters (NPCs) and bad-guys/monsters in the story. The GM isnt trying to win, hes just presenting the challenges to the players so they can have fun attempting to overcome them (and sometimes succeeding). The GM should play by the rules, describe the adventure to the players (as they encounter parts of it), and award experience points to the players characters at the end of each successful adventure. Experience points will let your character level up and get stronger at the end of each adventure (if you survive!). As your character gains more experience points he will become more powerful, harder to kill, and better at all the things he does. Dont worry, all that will be explained later. So, now that youve picked the game master, all you have to do is create a character to play in the game. You will be the player of your character in the game much like an actor plays the role of a fictional character in a movie. During the adventure you will playact as your character: speaking as she would, describing the actions she takes, and pretending to be your character in all her strengths and weaknesses; flaws of character and extraordinary abilities. This acting is a lot of fun. The GM gets to act too. He also sets the scene your character will act upon. The GMs job is to describe the setting and to play the roles of the non-player characters (NPCs) and villains/monsters in the adventure. You may have to fight some of these monsters, but more on that later. The GM will have to read the 1st Adventure located in this book before play can begin. None of the players should read it beforehand because its a surprise and would ruin the fun if you did so. Part of the fun of the GM is knowing what might happen next and creating your own adventures (when youre more experienced, for now, lets just keep to the script). Normally, in the advanced version of Challenger you would choose all the qualities of your characteryour skills, powers, and abilitiesin fine detail. As it is, we dont want to get into that complicated stuff. Its enough that you know its there for when youre more experienced and more comfortable playing a role playing game (RPG). Below youll find 4 predetermined characters for you to act and play as. Remember: the GM doesnt need a character: hes the director! Its his job to play the extras villains monsters and non-player characters and, of course, to set the scene. That sounds like a lot of work, but really, its quite easy. The adventure script will give you all the information you need to do all those things without much effort.

Step 2. Choose Your Predetermined Character *** ***

Pick whichever character seems the best to you. You want good abilities and an interesting personality to play. If two or more players want the same character, you should flip a coin or let them fight it out. Alternately, you could duplicate the character but switch the name and change the personality a little. Your Character Sheet Every player except for the GM has a character sheet. This is usually a single piece of paper upon which your write down your characters: Personality and Game Statistics. You may also draw a picture of your character, or a small symbol to represent her. When you find treasures or gain experience points you will write them down on your character sheet. At the end of the adventure you will level up and gain more Hit Points, and a new skill to add to your character. You may also buy new equipment with the treasures and rewards you find and receive on your adventures and buy new abilities with the experience points you earn for playing well during the adventure. Bob the Warrior Personality: Bob is arrogant, strong, and handsome. He loves beer and women and seeks them out at all opportunities. Hes not too smart, but hes a ferocious opponent in battle. Not many people want to get on Bobs bad side. Hes famous for saying stuff like, Arrrrgh!, growling, and throwing temper tantrums. Game Statistics: Hit Points: 10. Bob has ten hit points. Bob is still alive until he reaches 0 hit points from taking damage. When your hit points reach 0, Bob dies and cannot continue the adventure. If you lose your hit points you can get them back by resting for 1 day. If you want to rest, agree with the rest of your players and tell the GM. Make sure your rest in a safe area! Weapons: Bob carries a sword. When you see a villain you should yell, Arrgh! and attack him (fictionally, of course). To do this: roll 1 twenty-sided die. If you roll high enough, the GM will tell you that you hit. If you hit, roll your damage. The damage you roll for a sword is: 1d8 which means roll 1 8-sided die. Whatever you rolled is subtracted from your opponents hp (hit points). If their hit points reach 0, youve defeated that opponent! Armor: Bob wears full plate-mail armor. This makes Bob very tough to hurt. When you roll your twenty-sided die to try to hit a monster or villain and you roll a bad number (i.e. you roll a low number, you always want high number to hit) the monster will hit you! However, since Bob has plate-mail armor, when you roll a 2, 3, or 4 on your

twenty-sided die, the blow has bounced off Bobs thick plate-armor and you take no damage! Skills and Abilities: Bob has no special abilities. Hes a pretty regular kind of guy. He does have a couple skills, though. Bobs skills are: Athletics and Intimidation. When you want Bob to do something like: run away from bad guys, climb a mountain, swim a river, or jump over a dangerous pit; roll 1 twenty-sided die and add +5 to whatever you rolled. Tell the GM you have an athletics skill and what your total number is. For example: if you rolled 15 you would have a total of 20 (15+5=20). The GM will tell you if you rolled high enough to do whatever you were trying. Remember: you want to roll high to succeed! If you roll too low you might fail. Once youve failed a roll, you cant use that skill on that obstacle again. If you want Bob to intimidate someone, do exactly the same thing. Tell the GM youre trying to intimidate the target and roll your twentysided die. If you roll high, and succeed, the opponent is intimidated: they wont attack you, will tell you what you want them to, and will run away if you scare them. If you roll low, they arent scared of Bob and wont run away. Remember: you can only intimidate one person at a time! Aronath the Wizard Personality: Aronath is an old, cranky wizard. He tries to give everyone advice and loves tea. Aronath frequently spits, but hes good at heart. Whenever Aronath sees someone who needs help, he will always rush to their aid. Hes famous for saying stuff like, Physics is second nature to me, boy. Elementary, my dear Bob. And Take this, you heathens! Game Statistics: Hit Points: 10 (See Bob for details on hit points.) Weapons: Dagger. Daggers only deal 1d6 (one six-sided die) of damage. See Bob above for details. Armor: None. Aronath the Wizard feels hes above wearing armor. Spells and Skills: Because Aronath is a wizard he has spells. Spells are magic effects he can call upon at will and toss at his enemies. Your spells are: Fireball and Shape Change. When you cast a fireball spell it explodes in a blinding burst and hits up to 4 nearby enemies for 1d6 damage points each. Casting a fireball drains Aronaths power. Every time you do so, you must wait until the next battle to cast another fireball to get your strength back. Shape Change: Aronath can change his appearance by magic to that of any human he sees. This doesnt affect his game statistics, but unless spotted, you can pretend to be one of the bad guys, a rich prince, or a humble peasant. Aronath also has two skills (see Bob above for details on how to use skills). Intellect and Magic Knowledge. Whenever Aronath runs into a problem which requires brains you may roll your twenty-sided die and add +5 to the number. Tell the GM youre using your vast and powerful intellect skill on the problem at hand. If you succeed, the GM must give you a new clue to your problem. If you fail, you cant ask the GM for another clue

about that problem again this adventure. Magic Knowledge: whenever your group runs into something magical you may roll your magic knowledge skill as above and if you succeed gain information about the magic facing your characters. Johnny the Thief Personality: Johnny the Thief is a fun-loving, carefree kind of guy. He gambles, flirts, steals, and generally goofs off. Hes a practical joker and a bit of a tease. Hes famous for saying stuff like, Too rich for his own good, Now you see me, now you dont, and My grandmother is faster than you! Hit Points: 10 (see Bob for any details that confuse you). Weapons: Dagger 1d6 damage points. Johnny also has the special ability to throw his dagger up to 30 ft. (6 squares if youre using a grid). When throwing daggers, Johnny can attack up to twice per round. A round is a turn in combat. Everyone gets 1 turn in combat. When all the players turns are done, repeat the process in clockwise turn order again. Keep doing this until all of one side is dead, or have run away/made friends somehow. It doesnt matter who goes first, just keep to the same order after that. Armor: Johnny wears light armor so he can get around stealthily. Light armor prevents enemies from hitting you when you roll a 2 or 3 on your d20 (twenty-sided die). Skills and Abilities: Steal, Stealth, Trap Find, Trap Disable, and Pick Lock. You can try to steal any unattended object. If you roll high enough, you have stolen it! If not, you got caught. Using stealth makes you invisible to your enemies if you roll high enough, otherwise they spotted you (but they dont have to let you know they saw you!). Using Pick Lock/Trap Disable will allow Johnny to open locks and disable traps. Remember: add +5 points to your 1d20 roll when using these skills and let the GM know what youre doing! If you want to try a skill you dont have, like athletics, you can do so, but you dont add the +5 bonus for training! You can only try to use Skills untrained. You cant try to use Spells or Special Abilities untrained. Amy the Healer Personality: Amy is a kind, giving, caring and honest woman. Shes very beautiful, attractive, and smart. She loves nature and music, and tends to enjoy the quiet life. She becomes very angry in the presence of evil and tries to smite it whenever she can. Amy is famous for saying, Dont worry, Im here Take it easy, and Why cant we all just get along? Game Statistics: Hit Points: 10 (15) see below. (At 0 hit points you die. Rest for 1 day to heal all your hit points back to 10, but make sure you find a safe spot to rest!) Weapons: Amy doesnt generally believe in weapons, but she carries a stick Just in case of weirdoes. This stick deals 1d6 points of damage on a hit. (see Bob for details on attacking things and Armor).

Armor: Amy doesnt wear any armor. In battles she casts a magic spell of protection on herself. This spell of protection gives her +5 bonus hit points which last to the end of the battle and then disappear. These extra hit points are removed first when you take damage. Until damage passes through this shield of 5 hit points, Amy hasnt even been hurt yet! Skills and Spells: Amy isnt a wizard, shes a healer. Healers cast magic spells like wizards (see Aronath for rules on spells). Her spells are: Healing and Raise Dead. When Amy casts Healing she touches an injured character and that person heals 2d6 (two sixsided dice) of damage points (to a maximum of their original max hit points). She can cast Healing once per battle because it drains her power. Outside of battle, she can cast it once per 3 hours. Raise Dead allows Amy to bring people back to life! As long as someone has only been dead for a short time (10 minutes or less) her powerful magic spell brings them back to life (repairing all internal injuries as well as exterior ones). The character she casts this on immediately returns to max hit points (10 at 1st level). Raise Dead costs Amy a lot: she can only cast it once per adventure. After that, shes too exhausted to do it again. Skills: Amy has only 1 skill: Diplomacy +5. When you need to talk to friendly characters, or convince bad guys not to hurt you, roll a diplomacy check. If you roll high enough, you will have convinced the creature not to hurt you, or learned a clue from a friendly character. Remember to role-play your diplomacy. Say stuff like, Wouldnt it be easier if we made a compromise? or If I pay you this, will you let us go? etc.

Step 3. Adventure Ho! *** ***

If youre one of the players of a character you should stop reading now! Youve already learned everything you need to play. If youre the one player who is the GM, please read on. There are a couple extra things you need to know before the game can begin. Okay, so as the GM, you already know you referee the adventure for the players. You set the scene by describing things as a narrator. And you role-play all the non-player characters, monsters, and villains. What you dont know, is that GMing is an art. It will take many years to master. For now, thats all you need to know. Just follow the script of the adventure and youll do fine. Remember: you know the adventure and what will happen, but the players dont, dont tell them any secrets or youll spoil the game! If they ask, use skills, or investigate, allow them to find out what is reasonable. You may read anything below in italics aloud to the players as they come to that part of the adventure. Only reveal the rest if it as it comes into play. If there is a battle, all the players get 1 action in clockwise turn order. Repeat until one side is dead, have run away, or have reached a compromise. Rewards: When the players finish this adventure, they go up a level. Dont worry about that now. Its explained at the end of the adventure. If all the players characters die, you can retry the adventure if you want. If only 1 or two characters dies, you can replace them with new ones at the end of the adventure but they dont level up like the survivors do. When the players accomplish certain tasks in the adventure they will gain experience points. Usually you need a certain amount of xp (experience points) to go up a level. To keep things simple, dont worry about that. Just let the players know getting more xp means they played better. They want xp. If the players can save up a lot of xp they can get some special powers for their character at the end of adventure. Be sure to let them know this before the game begins. Theyll also be able to buy new equipment, weapons, and armor for their characters after the adventure. You may let them know they should try to find treasures during the adventure so they can buy new and better things for their characters afterwards. Congratulations, youre now ready to read adventure 1. and then try it on your players!

Step 4. Adventure One: Bone Skull *** ***

Your group of brave, treasure-seeking adventurers have roamed the land in search of a villain to fight. They have done this for various reasons. Some of you want to do a good deed, others want more money, some of you may be in it because youre crazy or just for the heck of it. Regardless, your characters have resolved to work together to solve the problem of the Evil Wizard Bone Skull. The King of Sileeria Sean Sandeen has offered a reward of 1,000 gold pieces to the band of heroes who can bring the Evil Wizard to justice. You have decided to be that group of heroes. Youve traveled for 7 days, 7 nights, and 15 afternoons. At last you reach the rolling farmlands of the Evil Wizard. As the sun sets you gaze upon his dark tower, the windows unlit and shadowy. A single door lies in the stone of the wall. You almost wonder if the place is abandoned, but you know the wizard lies hiding within. Bone Skull is famous for controlling the minds of anyone who meets his gaze head on, like a snake charmer. You shiver at the thought, but put it down to local legend. What would you like to do now? As the GM you should allow the players to formulate whatever plans they want. Just make it clear to them their mission is to stop the evil wizard. They cant all agree to go off and go on vacation, think of something cooler to do, or run away screaming. If anyone makes an Intellect or Magic Knowledge check for information about Bone Skull the Evil Wizard, his tower, or his magic; you should give them 500 experience points as a reward (they write this down on their character sheet along with their characters info). They also learn the following: Its true that Bone Skull can control your mind. There is a magic scepter hidden in his tower which will protect you from his mind control magic. Youve heard legends it lies somewhere in the basement. At some point the heroes will have to try to get into the tower. When this happens describe to them the following: The walls are slick stone. Even an Athletics Skill wont let you climb up, no matter how high you roll. Youd need to be higher level to make that kind of attempt. The windows are also too high up and you havent brought a rope and grappling hook. It looks like youll have to go in through the front door. Does anyone want to check for traps? They might be magic traps because Bone Skull is a wizard. Ive given you this freebie warning, but later youll have to think of things like that on your own. Its not the GMs job to warn you of danger! The door is indeed trapped with magic. If anyone uses a Magic Knowledge or Trap Disable skill check and rolls at 15 or higher (remember they get +5 if theyre trained in the skill!) they find and can avoid the trap. Its a magic fire sigil hidden halfway up the door by invisibility magic. By angling their bodies away from it, they can pass safely

within. If they disable it, the sigil explodes in a flash of smoke and disappears. If they fail to find it, it explodes once on the first character to open the door for 1d6 points of damage. It then disappears. The inside of the tower is dark. You pull out your torches and light them. You also cast spells of light if youre a wizard or a healer. You make a mental note to go shopping for better supplies when you get back into town at the end of the adventure. Youre also sure that youll be more experienced and level up if you can manage to survive this battle against Bone Skull the Evil Wizard. In preparation for the encounter, you ready your weapons, spells, and skills and look carefully around. Because you were searching you spot a hidden door in the floor! Remember: eventually youll have to say Im searching for traps/hidden doors yourself. Its not the GMs job to let you know where hidden doors and treasure are! You also see a large granite statue of a gargoyle in one corner of the room. Okay, heres an interesting bit for you to work with as the GM. The next time one of the players says theyre looking for traps or hidden treasures/secret doors have them find one! Its part of the GMs job to make stuff up, and when youre more experienced youll make up the whole adventure on your own. For practice, try making up little features of the adventure as you go along. Nothing major, just little details: the cobwebs on the ceiling, the chill on the characters spine, the mad laughter of the wizard echoing through the tower. Be prepared to improvise if the players do something unexpected. If you make up a wardrobe and someone opens it, whats inside? Its your job to make that up. Is it a trap? A monster? A treasure? A diamond? Nothing? Clothes? Practice creating a few things as you go along. Try to keep the players guessing. Which parts are in the text of the adventure? Which parts are you making up? They shouldnt know. As your eyes adjust to the lighting and you finish searching the room for other hidden doors, you see the large granite statue moving towards you. At first you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, but no! A living statue approaches and it doesnt look too friendly! Allow the players to react. Pretend to be the menacing gargoyle statue moving toward them, snarl and hulk over the table. See if you can scare their pants off. When they state their actions, tell them the following: Just before you can do that, the stone statue opens its mouth and speaks! Trespassers, answer me my name and you shall pass. Answer wrongly, and you shall die. Choose your answer well! There are three correct answers to the riddle: Statue/Gargoyle, Bone Skull, and Granite (the material the statue is made of). If anyone answers any of the following, the statue freezes and lets them pass. If anyone rolls a 15 or higher on a Diplomacy or Intimidation skill check the statue will also let them pass, but for different reasons. A successful Knowledge Magic or Intellect roll of 15 or higher will grant a clue to the answer of the riddle.

If anyone gives a wrong answer or attacks/tries to run away; the gargoyle statue attacks the party! This is a battle. The gargoyle is too fast to escape. Only Bob can run away if he rolls athletics of 15 or higher. No one else can escape even if they roll a 15! Gargoyle Game Statistics: You must roll a 16 or higher on 1d20 (a twenty-side die) to hit the gargoyle, otherwise the gargoyle has hit you! If you skip your turn, the gargoyle automatically hits you! Hit Points: 15 (its made of rock). Weapons: Fists 1d6 points damage. Armor: Stone Skin: Reduce all damage done to the Gargoyle by 1 point. Any negative or 0 result deals no damage (it cant heal in this way). Experience Points: If the party defeats the gargoyle, each character earns 500 experience points. Tell the players they can buy a special ability if they gain enough experience points by the end of the adventure. If someone outsmarts the Gargoyle that character alone earns 1,000 experience points. When the battle/riddle of the gargoyle is done, read the following to the players: Now that youve dealt with the Gargoyle, you have two choices. You can climb the stairs and look for the wizard, or go down into the basement through the trapdoor you just found. What could he be hiding down there? There is a magical electrical trap on the hidden door, if no one finds or disables it (15 to find or disable and avoid) it deals 1d6 points of damage to the first character to open the trap door. If the players climb the stairs, read on. If they go through the trap door, skip to The Basement below. The Stairs You climb up the spiral staircase all the way to the top of the wizards tower. You face a large black door into his personal abode. No doubt hes put some nasty trap on the door. What would you like to do? Heres a new trick to try: ask the players exactly what theyre doing to the door. Dont let them roll any dice yet, tell them they must discover the trap by role-playing the investigation. The trap is hidden in the lock of the door. Anyone who attempts to force open the door will be struck by a magical bolt of lighting from the ceiling. When the players find the trap by describing how they locate it, allow them to roll their dice to disable the trap or pick the lock. Give them a +2 bonus to the roll if they describe their actions well, a -2 to the roll if they do poorly. Explain to them that they can solve problems with their wits alone and describing things well gives them a +2 bonus to rolls, while doing a poor job of describing what they do gives them a -2 penalty to rolls.

Keep applying this rule throughout the rest of the adventure(s). The RR (number you need to roll on a twenty-sided die to disable the trap) is 10. The room beyond the door is dimly lit. You can see a few skulls scattered about on tables with beakers of vile green liquid. The wizard has obviously been experimenting with dark magic. You can see him at the far end of the room. His back is turned to you and a fair young maiden is tied to an altar before him. He seems to be trying to summon a vile demon by sacrificing her! You must act quickly to stop him, but you must do it carefully or hell spot you and kill you with a spell. Hes much higher level than you are, youll have to find an advantage or strategy to defeat him. Maybe take him by surprise. What would you like to do? The players have a lot of options at this point. If they have the magic scepter, they could use its power. They could try to sneak up to him with stealth and kill him unawares. They might try to negotiate with Diplomacy or scare him away by saying Were much higher level than you with Intimidate. Intellect skill use might give a clue about the scepter hidden in the basement. Heres where the skill of the GM comes in. You must rig the encounter based on what the players do. If they come up with a great idea they are at advantage if they dont come up with a good idea they are at disadvantage. Advantage: describe to the players, in your own words, how their plan miraculously succeeds. However, the wizard isnt dead yet! At the last second he diverts the blow, spots the party, or whatever (unless they left for the scepter in which case go to The Basement below and return here when they have it). A battle breaks out! Bone Skull the Wizard (Off-guard/Weakened) Your skills have allowed you to catch Bone Skull off-guard, you free the young maiden before he can react, and his spells arent at full power as you surround him. You need to roll a 10 or higher on a twenty-sided die to hit the weakened Bone Skull. If you miss, he hits you! Hit Points: 15 Weapons: Magic Ball of Fire 1d6 points of damage. (Bypasses all armor because its magic.) Armor: None Special: When Bone Skull would normally die, he instead blows up in a giant fireball. Anyone who doesnt duck out of the way immediately takes 1d6 more points of damage. If this would cause anyone to die, they go to 1 hp instead (the flames arent hot enough to kill). Tell the players congratulations, theyve beaten the adventure! They each gain 1,000 more experience points and may level up see End of Adventure One below. Bone Skull (Full Power)

Use all the same stats as above, but Bone Skull can attack twice. (Remember: if a player misses, Bone Skull hits! So every time someone misses him, Bone Skull gets 2 attacks which both automatically hit whoever he wants! Armor doesnt help against his magic.) Try to have him attack the players with lots of hit points, dying is no fun, and the GM isnt trying to win. The GM just wants the players to have fun, and challenge them to the best of their ability. If you want to improv the battle, go ahead. Just stick to the combat rules as much as possible. You can give Bone Skull more or less HP as you deem fit or perhaps give him a weak monster minion to aid him in battle. If the party is having a tough time, consider lowering his HP or giving him a penalty to damage rolls. Mind Control: Anyone who meets your gaze has fallen under Bone Skulls Mind Control. They must do whatever he says until he is defeated! If the players cover their eyes and describe how theyre defending against his powers, they are immune to his mind control. However, its difficult to fight blind so they take a -2 to rolls (You can let them open their eyes now to play! We know their characters still have their eyes closed). If the players win, see above for their XP gain and the skip to the End of Adventure One below. If the players want to search the rest of the tower, read on below. Remember: Bone Skull will only use mind control while at full power. Any character who tries to break free of mind control may make an unmodified d20 roll and if they get an 11 or higher they succeed, otherwise they cant attempt to break free again. The Basement You step down into the basement. Its damp and cold down here. You can see a chest before you on the right wall, and a magical scepter on the left wall. What would you like to do? There is a trap on the chest. A player must roll a 15 or higher to discover it (Trap Find or Search) and also another 15 or higher to disable it (Trap Disable). Otherwise, touching the chest will trigger the trap. The trapdoor slams closed and the room starts to fill with water. Inside the chest are 1,000 pieces of gold (used to buy stuff after the adventure). The magic scepter is white with a diamond on the end. (It isnt trapped.) The scepter will make anyone carrying it immune to Bone Skulls magical fire spells and his mind control ability. It can also shoot bolts of magic which (on a hit) deal 2d6 (two six-sided dice) of damage. Anyone can use the staff, but it only has 5 charges and when it runs out, it stops working. It can be sold for 1,000 gold coins. If the players trigger the water trap, role-play their heroic escape. Force them to come up with an improvised way out, or to use their skills creatively. The End of Adventure One You may inform each of the surviving players that their characters have leveled up. In the full version of Challenger this will give them all kinds of options about what to advance and which new powers to take. For now, just tell them to add 5 points to their characters Hit Points making them tougher (which will now total 15 HP) and make up 1

new skill for their character. Tell them it must be reasonable, but otherwise it can be anything they want. They are now Level 2 characters. Since theyve beaten the adventure they can now shop for new gear and, if they have enough experience points, buy a special ability. If anyones character died, they can come back with a new one now. If there are no characters left, they can duplicate one of the characters, but just put a new name and personality to make them different. If the whole party died, you can retry the adventure from the point where they made a mistake or died, until you complete the quest. When your players attempt and complete the next two adventures, have them come back to the below sections. Every time they complete an adventure they level up and gain 5 more Hit Points and 1 new skill of their creation. If they have enough XP they may buy a special ability with it. If they have gold and treasure they may use it to buy new Equipment. Congratulations! Youve just run your first successful adventure! When you run out of adventures youll have to make up your own or get a hold of the complete Challenger rules. Theres also a supplement out with 7 free adventures for Challenger called Adventure Pack One. You can use that, but you might need to update to the full rules to fully enjoy them. Good luck! The King, Sean Sandeen, pays you handsomely for your deed. You receive 1,000 pieces of gold to be split evenly amongst your group. You may use this gold and any treasure you found on your quest to buy new Gear. If you earned experience points, you can use it to purchase new abilities. Also remember to level up after each adventure you survive!

Step 5. Shopping for New Gear and Abilities *** ***

Every item in the game is worth a certain amount of gold. Sometimes a value will be listed in the adventure, other times the GM will make up the value of an item. When you return to the village you can sell any items you dont want any more and buy new items. If you have some gold at the end of any adventure you may go to the village and shop for new items. You cant shop in the middle of an adventure, but when its over, you can usually do so. At the end of each adventure you can also buy New Abilities if you have enough XP to purchase them and meet their requirements. You cant buy new abilities during an adventure but, when its over, you can usually do so. Equipment List: Dagger: Costs: 1 gold, damage 1d6 Stick: Costs: 1 gold, damage 1d6 Sword: Costs: 10 gold, damage 1d8 Huge Sword: Costs: 50 gold, damage 1d10 (one ten-sided die). Plate-mail Armor: Cost: 500 gold. Blocks all enemy attacks when you roll a 2-4 when attacking. However, you cant sneak when wearing heavy armor, its too noisy. Wizards and Healers arent trained how to use Armor this heavy, so they cant wear it. Two Sword Combat Training: Cost: 1,000 gold. If you buy this, you can re-roll your attack roll on 1d20 once per round up to 2 times per battle when youd normally miss. You only miss (and take damage) if you fail the second roll as well. Bow/Crossbow: Cost: 100 gold 1 gold per 10 arrows. You can fire this weapon up to 60 ft. (12 squares on a grid). Because you can attack far away, if enemies are outdoors and you fire this weapon, you get it as a free attack before the regular battle starts. You cant use a bow when surprised, indoors, or in close combat. Torches: Cost: 1 gold for ten torches. Good for seeing in the dark. They last 1 hour each. Rope and Grappling Hook: Cost: 50 gold. Handy for climbing: adds +2 to all climbing skill rolls (athletics). Special Mount/Pet: Cost: 10,000 gold. You can ride this animal, or its your friend. It can be pretty much whatever you want (within reason). This animal/creature can attack once per combat round (right after your attack) and its attack deals 1d6 points of damage. Your Mount has 10 hit points if any monster attacks it. You can only have one mount or pet.

Abilities List: Stealth Attack: You must be a Thief to take this power. Cost: 1,000 experience points. When you roll a 15 or higher on your stealth roll and then attack you lose the stealth but you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage with your sneak attack. Speedy Dodge: You must be a Thief to take this power. Cost: 2,000 experience points. Once per adventure you can dodge any attack that would have otherwise hit you. You take no damage from this attack. Great Strength: You must be a Warrior to take this power. Cost: 1,000 experience points. Anything which requires your strength to roll on a skill gains a +3 to that roll. So if you were climbing you would add +3 to your roll (and any other bonuses you had such as +5 for being trained in Athletics). Combat Cunning: You must be a Warrior to take this power. Cost: 2,000 experience points. Every time you drop a foe to 0 Hit Points, you get an immediate free attack. Even if you miss this second attack on a new foe, you still take no damage from that opponent when you make this free attack. Lightning Bolt: You must be a Wizard to take this power. Cost: 1,000 experience points. Once per adventure you may fire a mighty lightning bolt of power. This bolt deals 2d6 points of damage (two six-sided dice) to any foe you throw it at, if you hit. You gain a +2 to the roll to hit because Lightning is fast. Armor cant protect against it, either. Teleport: You must be a Wizard to take this power. Cost: 2,000 experience points. You can teleport at will over short distances. This makes you harder to hit. You are considered to have armor 2-4 (see Plate-mail in equipment) while youre teleporting in battle. You can only teleport where you can see. Mass Healing: You must be a Healer to take this power. Cost: 1,000 experience points. Once per adventure you can heal all your allies 2d6 points of damage and it takes only 1 round. You also dont have to be able to touch them for this to work, but they must be within 60 ft. (12 grid squares) of your character. Bonus Life: You must be a Healer to take this power. Cost: 2,000 experience points. Whenever you die, revert to 10 hit points instead. You can only use this power once per adventure.

Step 6. Leveling Up *** ***

Whenever you complete an adventure and survive, you level up. Add 5 more Hit Points to your character, and make up 1 new skill for your character (within reason). Some skill ideas are the following: Tracking, Hunting, Magic Detection, Enchanting of Magic Items, Healing Ability, Athletics, and Acrobatics. Im sure you can come up with more on your own! Because I havent included many powers in this Basic Edition, you might have to make up your own powers to buy with experience points. To make a new power: come up with a cool idea and then assign it to a type of character such as Warrior and give it an experience point cost to master. Good luck! Some power ideas are: Multi-attack, Invisibility spell, Flying power, X-ray vision, Telekinesis, and Laser Eyes. For loads more powers and skills, and complete rules on them, see the full version of Challenger. Its free!

Step 7. Adventure Two: The Caverns of Chaos *** ***

The young maiden you rescued from the wizard, Bone Skull (They did rescue her, right? If not, its time for some quick improv!) tells you her name is Arianna. She was captured by vile creatures known as Ogres along with her kid brother, Marco. She pleads with your group on her hands and knees for you to save her brother. Being decent folk, you readily agree. It appears you have your next adventure, rescuing Marco from the Caverns of Chaos where the Ogres live. Perhaps Arianna has some more information she can offer you? or would you like to seek out the caves themselves? Theres only one problem. You dont know where they are! Arianna was blindfolded when the two Ogres Stink and Pig captured her and her brother. She cant tell the group where it was. She knows it was very smelly in there and thats all. She cant offer the party a reward because shes not rich, but she promises them the Caverns of Chaos are filled with treasure, traps, and dangerous monsters. Its now time to learn a new GMing skill: role-playing an NPC (non-player character). Try using a funny voice as you play-act Arianna, wave your arms around in desperation for your brother Marco. Plead with the Players Characters (PCs) on your hands and knees. If the players ask questions, answer them as Arianna. If they roll skills, role-play the results. If they roll high, their skills garner successful information about the adventure. If they roll low, they learn nothing (and cant roll that skill again!). Remember: you always want to read an adventure through before playing it. Otherwise you might not know what to tell the players when they roll for a new clue! Your next Task: make up a small map of the area. Put the following things on your map: a forest, a river, a range of mountains, the village (give it a name!), the castle of the king, and mark the tower of Bone Skull and your dungeon on the map. Also, include a coastline and a port village named Talath. Thats not important right now, but itll come into play in Adventure Three: War of the Goblins. This is whats called world-building. You can show your map to the players if you want, but you dont have to. Try adding a few things of your own design. Here are some ideas: a magical pool (what does it do?) a buried treasure (what is it?) some hills (are there dungeons to explore there?), an evil castle (a stronghold of a villain? Whats his name?) Okay, now let the PCs explore your map and role-play any friendly NPCs they meet. Allow them to use Intellect and Knowledge Magic skills to help them discover clues which will eventually lead to the Caverns of Chaos marked on your new map. When they finally find the place, read them the following: At long last, you have found the Caverns of Chaos. Because of your great skill and effort in finding the place, you each earn 500 experience points. You enter some low hills and see torchlight flickering ahead at the entrance to a dungeon. Before the dungeon is a

small yellow creature with evil eyes holding a spear. This is a goblin and he hasnt noticed you yet, but he doesnt look friendly! When the players have some time on their hands, try to get them to each draw a small picture of what they think their character looks like on their character sheet. If they dont want to, at least make them draw a symbol for their character. This makes it easier for everyone to visualize their character. Also, try getting them to add to their characters personality entry. Include things like: background, likes and dislikes, traits, appearance (in written description), and mannerisms/favorite catchphrases. This will make the character their own and add to the fun of the game. When you create your own NPCs youll be doing the same thing! But dont work too hard, most NPCs wont have as much screen time as the heroes. Do the most work for important people like the king of the land and the villain of all the adventures. People like farmers and peasants rarely need more than a brief description of appearance and one or two quirks of personality to be role-played effectively as an individual (and a name of course!) Try writing a list of ten names on a piece of paper before the game. When the players ask for someones name, youve got one ready! Just mark down who you assigned the name to. The Goblin To hit the Goblin you will need to roll an RR (Risk Rating) of 10 on your d20 (twentysided die), otherwise he hits you! Hit Points: 5 Weapons: Spear 1d6 Armor: None. Special: If the players want to Intimidate, or Negotiate with the Goblin, they will need to roll only a 10 or higher to make him run away, or leave peacefully. He can see hes outgunned. There is no experience point award for killing the goblin, because hes an easy challenge but if the Player Characters cleverly negotiate with him, each character to do so earns an extra 500 experience points to write down on their character sheet and use to buy new abilities later at the end of the adventure. The Goblin doesnt know much about the Caverns of Chaos, but he does know the Goblins of Fire have claimed this land as theirs, if the heroes trespass into the dungeon they will have declared war on the goblins! (setting the hook for next adventure). Creating Your First Dungeon Grab a piece of scrap paper and a pen or pencil, its time to design your first dungeon! Dont worry, its easy. All you have to do is draw a load of aimless squares on a piece of paper with lines connecting them. These are rooms and corridors. Add a few doors, a few hidden doors and traps, maybe a couple of treasures and stairs, and a map key. The Map Key tells you what each symbol on the map means. A D might mean a door, an H a hidden door and a T a treasure. A simple way to remember which room is which is to give each encounter area (whether in a room or a corridor) a consecutive number.

Lets say from 1. to 10. for this adventure. When the players arrive at that location, read them the description for that area. Ive already written ten room descriptions by number below, but when youre creating your own dungeon, youll be the one creating them! You can also put encounter areas outside of rooms in corridors, or in wilderness areas, but more on that later. Dungeon Room 1. When the players reach the spot youve marked a 1. on your map, read them the following: As you enter the room a strong smell of sulfur hits your nostrils. You see before you a terrible dragon! It snarls and roars, preparing to throw a ball of fire at you. Its green tail flicks ominously. This challenge may be too much for you, perhaps you should retreat? This monster isnt meant to be fought. The party should retreat and go somewhere else, or sneak past the dragon. It has no treasure, but usually dragons have vast treasure hoards to sleep on. If the party insists on fighting, you can shake your head and proceed with the battle. Be sure to offer them opportunities to run away if they seem to be losing. In this battle, running away is automatic, the dragon just wants to go to sleep and wont pursue the party. If it did, theyd be in trouble! Dragons can fly. Green Dragon (Small) Hit Points: 50 Weapons: Bite and Claws, Eat Whole, Fireball. Every time a character misses the dragons RR (target number to hit) of 18 the dragon can choose which attack to use on that character. Claws and Bite deal 1d6 damage and then another 1d6 damage. Eat Whole kills the character instantly unless they make a saving throw. A saving throw is a single d20 roll against a target number of 11. If the character rolls 11 or higher, they negate the attack/effect. If they roll a 10 or lower, it takes effect as usual. From now on, let a character roll a saving throw every time they face instant death, but not against regular attacks! Youre also allowed saving throws against mind control (like in the last adventure). The dragons Fireball breath deals 1d6 damage to up to 4 characters at the same time! Armor: The dragons thick armor is nearly impenetrable. Reduce all damage dealt to the dragon by 5 points. If this results in a negative number or 0, the attack deals no damage to the dragon and glances off. The dragon cant get extra hp in this way. If the heroes somehow manage to slay the beast, they can forge 1 suit of dragon armor each out of its hide. Dragon armor offers protection on all d20 rolls of 2-6 and is the strongest armor available in the game (including magic armors!). They must find a special armor smith to do this for them and pay him handsomely (at least 1,000 gold per suit of armor). See Plate-mail in equipment for what 2-6 protection means. Special: when the Dragon reaches 10 or less HP, it roars in fury and flies away. The PCs cant catch it unless they pursue extraordinary means. If the party would die, have the dragon capture them instead. They now must escape. If they try to fight it again it kills

them this time. (New Rule: when someone reaches 0 hp, the character/creature dealing the damage has the option of knocking them out instead of killing them). Tactics against the Dragon If the players use good tactics against the dragon, such as ganging up on him, flanking him, or sneak attacking. Give all the players characters to do so a +2 advantage to their to hit rolls. Keep using this rule whenever the player characters use brilliant tactics or clearly outnumber their foes. Dont overuse it, just use it to reward good play just like you do for good role-playing in a skill encounter. Dungeon Room 2. The Blob This room contains a green blob sitting on a pile of rubies. The rubies can be sold for a total of 5,000 gold coins if recovered. The blob wont move and its made of a jelly acid. Anyone to touch it takes 1d6 points of damage. If attacked, the blob multiplies! The only way to kill it is with the fire of a torch. Describe the blob and the room to the players in your own words. Remember to include the rubies under the blob! Dungeon Room 3. Goblins Some of the Fire Goblins are here sitting around a fire. There are 5 Goblins. Each goblin has the same statistics. However, any goblin which at least one player doesnt attack gets a free hit against any character he can reach. A free hit automatically does damage and cannot be blocked by armor or a saving throw. The players better defeat these goblins in a hurry or they could be in trouble! As always, Intimidate and Diplomacy might be helpful and befriend/turn away the Goblins. Using a fireball on them would also be a good tactic. Goblins (5) RR: 10 (the heroes will need to roll a 10 or higher on 1d20 to hit a goblin, otherwise they miss and the goblin hits them!). Any goblin not attacked by any PC in a round gets a free hit against anyone he wants! See above. Special: On the second round, let the players defend a doorway. Then only 1 goblin can attack them. (The others dont get free hits because they cant reach the characters to do so.) 1 Round=1 Turn for each player. Hit Points: 5 each Weapons: Spears and Clubs 1d6 damage each Armor: None Treasure: 10 gold pieces each. Special: One goblin has a magical potion. This potion can be drunk as a free action (you still get your normal actions) and heals 2d6 hit points instantly like a healing spell. Once you drink it, its used up. If you happen to have 2 potions, you can only drink one as a

free action, drinking the second uses your regular action and you get no other actions that turn (You cant drink a third potion!). You can allow the PCs to buy new potions when they get back to the village from a friendly wizard/healer. You set the price! You see a glint from one of the goblins pockets. It appears youve discovered a magical potion! When you drink it, something magical will happen, but what? Tell the players they may want to search the bodies sometimes to find good stuff. If anyone uses a Magical Knowledge skill they learn what the potion does (no roll required). If anyone searches the bodies allow them to find another potion. You make up what this potion does. Feel free to make up a few other potions when the PCs search the bodies later on. Maybe even a few coins or something else magical youve invented? Dungeon Room 4. Armory You seem to have found an abandoned armory. There are all kinds of weapons and armors here. Perhaps if you search here you can find some magical weapons and armor? Allow the players to stock up on as many weapons and armors as they could reasonably carry and wear (see Equipment for statistics). If anyone searches for the magic weapons they find them hidden in a chest at the back of the room. The long chest is locked. It must be broken open with a strength or athletics skill or the lock picked by a pick lock skill to open it. The players must roll a 15 or higher to do so. When youre making up your own adventures and monsters, youll have to assign the target numbers (RRs) yourself for challenges. Dont worry, its easy when you get the hang of it. The Magic Weapons (Only if theyre found!) Read the following only if the players uncover the magical weapons and armor: As soon as you crack the lid on the chest, your eyes are dazzled by bright magical light and fine worksmanship. Youve uncovered some magical elven blades! In the full Challenger rules youll be allowed to play elves, dwarves, elementals, giants, and a host of other races and not just human. Youll also have access to special professions and abilities which will let you make your own magic items! These magic items are obviously powerful, but what do they do? Will they harm you or help you? Youll have to experiment and find out! Allow the players to mess around with the magic items. Describe each one in detail, but dont give away their powers unless the players roll a 15 on their Magic Knowledge skills, or find out through role-playing the discovery. Magic Sword This long sword is made of finely crafted silver with intricately carved leaves. The hilt is of solid gold, and the pommel is studded with a star sapphire which sparkles in your torchlight. Something is written on the blade, but its in elvish, and you dont know elvish, do you?

The elven writing says Foe Slayer If anyone speaks these words in elvish, the blade glows bright green for 1 battle every time it is activated. When activated the elvish sword adds +1d6 damage to the characters damage for the sword for a total of 1d8+1d6 damage points on a hit. Because it is so well made, it adds +1 to the to hit attack rolls of the character who wields it, even when its not activated! The first time the character uses the sword in battle, inform her about the bonus to attack so she may write it down on her character sheet. Magic Bow This longbow is made of solid unicorn horn, it is at least 8 ft. long and the string is made of unicorn hair. There is a button near the grip. Would you like to press it? A quiver of 20 fine elven arrows accompanies the bow in the chest. Pressing the button while holding the bow will temporarily enchant any arrow knocked to the bow. If it is then fired, the arrow will seek out the target aimed for, and hit regardless of armor. This attack requires no roll and deals 1d6 damage points. Because this is such a strong power, the bow will run out of charges after 5 uses. Afterwards it simply adds +1 to all attack rolls when activated because it is so finely made. Magic Dagger This dagger appears to be completely normal. Perhaps it is not magical at all? Appearances can be deceiving. This is a Boomerang Dagger. Whenever it is thrown, it will always return to the hand of whoever threw it! The Magic of the dagger even works when it hits a target. Because of its magical nature, this dagger adds +1d6 to all damage when it hits for a total of 2d6 (two six-sided dice) of damage on a hit. It adds +1 to attack rolls because of its magical qualities. Magic Armor This suit of magical elven plate-armor is enchanted to be almost weightless. A character wearing it can still sneak around as if he was wearing light armor. It affords the second best protection in the game 2-5 on 1d20 (see plate-mail for what 2-5 means in Equipment). The only armor better in the universe is Dragon Hide armor which can only be forged from the hide of a dragon and can be worn by anyone. Anyone can wear this set of Magic Armor. The Magic Armor has one more power. Once per battle it may negate any one hit which would otherwise have hit you by springing a magic force bubble into existence before you a second before the blow lands. Magic Shield Whoever picked their magic item last should find the magic shield. As long as the character only wields a 1-handed weapon (not a huge sword which requires two hands) they can use the magical shield. The magical shield adds +5 hit points to the character

who wields it as it blocks attack. Remove shield Hit Points first in any battle. The character isnt injured until they take at least 6 damage. Dungeon Room 5. Nasty Monsters and Traps Place three traps in this room wherever you wish. Some ideas are: on the door, on the floor, and hidden in the walls. They can be activated by trip wires magical sensors or pressure plates in the floor. Each trap deals 1d6 points of damage. One is an arrow trap, another is a magical flame trap, and the last is a poison dart trap. If the poison dart hits someone they must drink an antidote within 10 minutes or their character dies. If the dart hits heavy plate-mail or a shield, it doesnt poison the character. The antidote can be found in the possession of the monsters in the room. Time to learn something new! Lets say you have lots of monsters (like below) but you dont want them taking free hits on the players, or you dont want the battle to last forever. In Challenger you can avoid this by stacking monsters. Its really easy to do. Just take a band of monsters and rename the challenge: x amount of monsters. If any player defeats that stack of monsters by reducing the stacks Hit Points to zero; all of the monsters are defeated! This will save you loads of time. Lets try it out. Stack of 5 Goblins Challenge RR: 15 (its harder to fight 5 stacked goblins at the same time than 1 goblin alone.) Hit Points: 5 total (because we raised the RR we dont need to raise the HP too!). Once at 0 Hit Points all of the Goblins are defeated! Weapons: Spears and Daggers. 2d6 damage (because its all 5 goblins attacking you!) Armor: none Treasure: 500 gold total. Stack of 2 Trolls Challenge RR: 16 Hit Points: 10 total. Weapons: Claws 3d6 damage. Armor: none. Treasure: a diamond worth 1,000 gold if the bodies are searched. 5 bottles of antidote to poison. Stack of 10 Giant Spiders Challenge RR: 10 Hit Points: 5 total.

Weapons: Bite: 1d6 damage and poison (dead in 10 minutes unless antidote is drunk!) Armor: none Treasure: none. If things go badly for the characters Allow them to run away without a roll, negotiate with the monsters, or go outside and rest up to regain all their hit points. Remember to tell them they can retreat and fight elsewhere! Another good tactic is to sneak in and steal the antidotes, then leave! Monsters Ganging Up Usually any foe not engaged gets a free hit on any character he can reach. In this battle, the monsters fight each other instead! (they each want to eat the PCs themselves). Whenever a monster gets a free hit have them use it against one of the other monster stacks instead. Dungeon Room 6. Chasm You see before you a giant chasm barring your way. To continue onward, youll need to find a way across. Perhaps if you had a rope? Its role-playing and skill time! There are two ways across the chasm: skills and roleplaying. Anyone who comes up with a brilliant idea may cross the chasm for free. Anyone who rolls a 15 or higher on a Jump or Climb skill (with a rope only) may cross that way as well, however, if they fail the roll they fall into the chasm! Allow any character who falls to roll a saving throw to grab a vine and pull themselves out. Remember: a saving throw is a d20 roll which succeeds on a roll of 11 or higher. You get a saving throw when youre facing instant death! Anyone who still falls to the bottom takes 2d6 points of damage and still must find a way to climb out. If they fall again they take only 1d6 points of damage because theyre only half way up. Allow the players to help each other out. Any character doing so gives his friend a +2 to the roll (total, not cumulative) and each helping character earns 500 experience points for doing so. Dungeon Room 7. Hidden Treasure Room You come into an apparently empty room. What would you like to do? There is a hidden door leading into an alcove with treasure. Anyone who searches for it finds it. Sometimes youll want to make the characters roll to find something even when they search for it. Just assign an RR and go to town. Characters might want to take a search or perception skill when they level up to aid them in searching later on. The alcove contains 1,000 pieces of gold, a Topaz worth 500 gold coins, and a golden crown worth 300 gold coins.

Dungeon Room 8. Empty Room This room is also empty. Perhaps there is something hidden here? This room actually is empty. Allow the characters to search as much as they want and make skill rolls to search too. Theres nothing to find here, but dont tell them that! They might think there is and they just cant find it. Keep the mystery alive! If the players waste too much time, you can let them know that sometimes there isnt anything to find. Oryou could make up something for them to find, but it doesnt have to be good. Dungeon Room 9. Trial of Fire Up ahead you can hear the screams of a small boy and the growls of two large, smelly Ogres who are tormenting him. Marco yells, Stop trying to feed me dead rats, you nincompoops! Honey, cries one of the Ogres, he wont eat his dead rat soup! Im trying to read the paper, Marge, replies the second Ogre. The path to the boy lies through a bed of hot cools ringed with magical fire jets, going ahead may be extremely dangerous but there appears to be no other way. The trial of fire is a test of the characters courage. As they run down the corridor, have them take 1d6 damage each turn. Keep telling them they havent reached the end yet, do they still want to go on? When the characters have only 1 hit point or similar left, they make it through (unless they ran away, in which case theyll have to try again). The fires disappear. It was all an illusion to test their courage! (they get all of their lost hit points back). They can now save Marco and finish the adventure! Dungeon Room 10. Marco and the Two Ogres (Final Room in the Dungeon). You enter a small living room where two Ogres sit. One is trying to feed a small boy with a huge spoon. The other Ogre is reading what appears to be a large parchment newspaper and hasnt noticed you yet. You get the feeling you wont have to fight here. The Ogres are sad because they lost a son to some nasty adventurers. If the players characters are nice to them, they grudgingly let Marco go and the adventure is a success! Each character earns 500 experience points and goes up a level! (See: steps 5. and 6. earlier in this book). They may now shop for items, and buy new abilities if they can afford them. If the characters try to fight the ogres anyway, or if theyre nasty to them, a battle breaks out. 2 Ogre Stack RR: 18

Hit Points: 80 Weapons: clubs 3d6 damage. Armor: None. Special: The Ogres are fierce fighters and cannot be intimidated. Treasure: None Experience Points: for fighting them? None. It takes more skill to negotiate with them (see above). End of Adventure Two Arianna cries as you return her brother to her. Marco shakes your hand. Thanks guys, you really saved my butt there, do you have any idea how bad rat brains taste? You return to the village to restock your supplies and equipment and train for your next levels of experience. However, one thing bugs you. The Goblins you fought in your adventure are known as the Fire Goblins and they had territorial rights on that area. They will probably seek their revenge soon. Perhaps that will be your next adventure?

Step 8. Adventure Three: War of the Goblins *** ***

Are you ready to try something new? Dont worry, you already know loads. Youre probably well on your way to becoming a master GM if youve read this far. GMs can never have too much help, though. When youre done with this book and this final adventure you might want to check out: Adventure Pack One: 7 free adventures for Challenger, Challenger RPG (the full version) which contains over 60 pages of GM advice, or any other GMing books you can get your hands on. Theyre always packed chalk-full of great advice for you to use. How to Play a Role-Playing Game (And Win) might also be useful to you, as well as Free E-Book Dice Roller on Amazon Kindle. Okay, now for that new thing. Some adventures are in dungeons. But not all of them. There are wilderness and ocean adventures too. You design them in pretty much the same way you made your world map. Draw a map of the area and put numbers on it where the players might run into encounters. When the characters reach that area, describe what youve made up there. Wilderness encounters are a little harder to run than dungeon encounters because the players can go in any direction. There are no walls and rooms to keep them boxed in. You must be prepared for them to go anywhere. If they leave your map you must make up new things on the spot or give them a good reason to go back there (an adventuring hook). A hook is something to hook the readers/players into the story/game. Such as: Theres lots of treasure there, There is a villain who must be stopped, or, Innocent people are in danger. Im sure you can come up with good hooks on your own. Time limits also help: If you dont stop the mad wizard in ten days, hell destroy the world! etc. The hook of this adventure is the goblin invasion the PCs are responsible for. If it wasnt for their meddling last adventure, it wouldnt have happened. They owe it to the people to help stop the invasion. The hook of adventure 2. was Arianna and her brother Marco who needed rescuing. The hook of adventure 1. was the treasure promised by the king, and stopping the evil wizard Bone Skull for the good of all (it might have been a weak hook, but its a start). Okay, so lets try making a wilderness map. This adventure will take place on the ocean. Remember that port village of Talath I made you add to your area map on the coast? Thats where this comes in. Create another map of the ocean containing the coastline and 5 islands. Also include a pirate ship and a giant whirlpool. Place these things wherever you want on your ocean map. You can even add a few things if you feel up to it. Number each island 1. thru 5. and add notes for anything you decide to put in yourself. Adventure Three Introduction: Not long after your last adventure, you learn the Goblins of Fire you angered have started a war on the humans. You feel terribly guilty, but you had to save Marco. It is now your honorable duty to stop the Goblins. Okay, even if you didnt want to, youd risk

becoming outlaws if anyone ever found out it was your fault, its probably best to stop the problem now. You make for the port city of Talath which was attacked last week and find it in a shambles. Everyone is running about and trying to build impromptu defenses. The mayor of the town Garrold comes up to your group and looks relieved. Thank goodness youre here, heroes. Youve come not a moment too soon. The Goblins of Fire attacked unexpectedly from the Sea of Fire! Before we knew what was happening they kidnapped over half of our villages women and children even a few of the men. They sailed away and our search parties at sea havent returned. We have only on ship left, the Nebbercannazerschnozer. Its kind of broken, but well help you fix it. Will you rescue our families from the Goblins? Its now your chance to create a non-player character. Give Garrold a brief appearance and a couple quirks of personality. Role-play with the players characters and help them in any way that is reasonable. Garrold doesnt have loads of money, but what he can provide is time, and information. The players may be able to gain clues about the islands, the Goblins of Fire, a magical crystal skull, and the upcoming adventure. When theyre ready, they should repair the boat (role-play that!) and get underway at sea. Tell them they can go whatever direction they want, but try to keep them on the right track to finding the goblins. Perhaps the winds of the sea and a few storms steer them the right direction? Try creating another NPC: the captain of the ship. Give him a name, some low combat stats, maybe a couple of skills, and a personality! The Whirlpool Your ship is being sucked into a giant whirlpool at sea. It came out of nowhere! What can you do? This is a role-playing challenge. Allow the players to come up with a brilliant way to save their lives and award them 500 experience points each for doing so. If they cant, the ship is wrecked and they must swim (RR 10) to the nearest island on your map and build a new ship with what remains of their crew. The Pirate Ship You see the Fire Goblin pirates! But theyre many leagues away. Before you can catch up with them, a storm blows in and separates you. There is one good shred of luck, though. Now you know where theyre headed. Use this encounter just to point the players in the right direction, or if theyre getting lost. Feel free to re-use it in different forms if the PCs get sidetracked on the ocean. Island 1. Deserted Way-stop Youve been at sea for over a month. Your supplies are running low when you spot land. You hope theres game to hunt on this island, or at least some fresh water. Youre running desperately low.

This island is deserted but there is a magical well-spring hidden at the center of the island. When the PCs find it they find the magical waters restore all strength to the men of the ship! It fills the belly just like a full meal! As an exercise, try creating your own monster on the island, perhaps guarding the magical pool. It should have a name, appearance, and Hit Points from about 1-30. Its RR shouldnt be higher than 18 or lower than 10. Its attacks shouldnt deal less than 1d6 or more than 3d6. Try giving it a special ability like: flies, breaths fire, invisible, controls minds, or can dig through sand and attack with surprise. Once you get the hang of making your own monsters, youll be well on your way to making your own adventures! You can also find pre-made monsters in the full version of the Challenger book. Island 2. Volcano Island This island has a volcano on it. Will you risk stopping here? If the ship stops here, they find the island is safe; inhabited by friendly, beautiful natives; and rich in food and fruits. This is because of the nutrient-rich, volcanic soil. Award 500 experience points to whoever wanted to stop here and then continue on the voyage. Also, try role-playing some of the natives. Perhaps some of the native women take an interest in the PCs or the shaman lays a special magical ability/spell on one of the party? Island 3. Ghost Island This deserted island is filled with mists and old gravestones. Long ago an ancient battle was fought here. This island is haunted. When the PCs go deep inland, ghosts, skeletons, zombies, and ghouls rise up from their graves in ancient battle armor and seek to destroy the party! Ghost RR: 13 Hit Points: 10 Weapons: Touch of the Dead (bypasses all armor) deals 1d6 damage +1d6 more damage on the next round unless the character immediately runs away screaming and jumps into the sea. Special: cannot be harmed by anything other than magic and magical weaponry (all other attacks pass right through the ghost and do nothing to it no matter what you roll). Skeleton RR: 10 Hit Points: 5 Weapons: Sword 1d8 points damage.

Armor: None. Special: No vital organs. When a skeleton would normally die, it just loses an arm or a leg and keeps on fighting. You must cut off the head to stop it. Even then it keeps moving, but it can no longer see. Zombie RR: 10 Hit Points: 8 Weapons: Claws 1d6 damage. Armor: None. Special: Already Dead! You cannot kill a zombie. It just loses body parts when it would normally die. The only way to kill it is to cut off its head (4 hit points damage to do so, and you must declare youre aiming for it). Ghoul RR: 14 Hit Points: 4 Weapons: Ghoul Gaze: Any character who meets the gaze of the ghoul is instantly set on fire for 1d6 points of damage until a full round is spent rolling around on the ground to put it out (no attack or other actions that round) or the character runs away and jumps in the sea. A character may make a saving throw to avoid this effect. Fighting blind will also negate this power, but doing so is difficult and the character will take a -2 penalty to all rolls while blind. Claw: damage 1d6. Using Ghoul Gaze is a free action for ghouls once per turn. (a turn is all players taking 1 action in a round). Your Choice Now is your chance to try making monster stacks and/or choosing how many and which types of monsters attack the party. Dont try to kill them off, just try to challenge them. Allow them to run away if theyre getting beaten, and award them 500 experience points each if they defeat the undead. Island 4. Treasure Island This island is surrounded by a dangerous reef. The players must find some way around it if they want to land. If their ship is broken, they must swim to shore or risk drowning. Make up the RR numbers they will need to roll for these skill checks. A good number is 15 for a tough task. 10 is a good number for something easy to do.

This island is full of wood (for building or repairing a ship) and also has a few treasure chests hidden in a grotto for anyone who searches for it. Each chest contains 1,000 gold pieces. And one of the chests contains a magic wand. Make up the effect the magic wand has and how many charges it has left. Of course, only a wizard can use a magic wand. There is also a magic lamp of three wishes. Each wish can do pretty much anything, but the meaning may be twisted too. Only allow wishes which wont unbalance the game. Remember: the players dont know what the magic items do until they experiment with them! Wishes can also spoil adventures, be careful! Island 5. Pirate Island! This is the last island! The Fire Goblins pirate ships are docked here. When they spot the PCs approach (if they do) they set sail and a ferocious sea battle breaks out. Role-play the sea battle and let the PCs attempt attack rolls with catapults to sink enemy ships (RR 15) but the enemy ships have rams and catapults too! If the Fire Goblins board the PCs ship (or vice versa) or if the PCs catch them on the shore, use the goblin stats below for the battle. There are 3 goblin pirate ships. Fire Goblin Pirate RR: 10 Hit Points: 5 Weapons: Cutlass 1d6+1 point of damage. Armor: None. Skills: Seamanship +5 Climb +5 Treasure: 1 gold piece each. Try stacking up the goblins into sets of 5. Allow the PCs to fight several sets of goblins before the battle is over. The crew helps in the battle too. You dont need to roll attacks for them. Just tell the players the crew is fighting with them but outnumbered. They will have to defeat 25 goblins themselves for the battle to swing in their favor! Allow the players to heroically save members of the crew from danger and the goblins. Add sharks to the waters if you want to increase the risk and let people get pushed in! Remember to give the sharks stats and have a RR set for swimming back to the boats and climbing back up and climbing into the rigging. The Battle is Won! Assuming the PCs won (or theyll have to start over) they can find the prisoners on Pirate Island. They are all incredibly grateful for being rescued. Try role-playing one or two of the kidnapped prisoners. Give them names and couple of personality traits each. Try

describing them briefly and using funny voices. Yeah, basically act like a fool, your players will enjoy it and the praise. If one of the players searches the island, they automatically find the crystal skull see below. Otherwise, one of the villagers gives it to them as a reward. The Crystal Skull You hold in your hand a small, clear crystal skull. It is yellow and glassy to the touch. No man-made tool crafted this perfectly formed object. It appears to be the skull of a small Fire Goblin. Even as you gaze at it, the skull glows brighter and brighter, mesmerizing you with no saving throw. As it reaches a blinding pitch a sharp sound rings out!... This is whats known as a cliffhanger. Its what keeps the players interested in coming back and playing next time. Always try to include a cliffhanger whenever you end an adventure or have to take a break to do something else. Cliffhangers are always exciting developments, and they always leave questions in the players minds. Never tell them what the cliffhanger is! If you do, youll ruin your cliffhanger. Always say, Come back and find out next time Itll keep your players interested in your adventures. I leave the resolution of this cliffhanger up to you. Try to use it to build your next adventure. Some examples are: the skull teleports the party far away into an unknown and dangerous land/dungeon. The crystal skull summons a giant demon who swears to destroy the kingdom and teleports away, or the crystal skull shows visions of fabulous treasures and the means to find thembut it will be a difficult journey with many obstacles on the way. Im sure you can come up with something much better on your own. Good luck! The End of Adventure Three The mystery of the crystal skull will be revealed in the next adventure (right?). For now you may level up your characters and purchase any new abilities you can afford with your experience points. You cant buy new equipment yet because youre way out to sea! When you find a village, you can buy new gear. If you enjoyed these adventures, please feel free to check out the full version of Challenger with more types of characters to play, more powers and levels to achieve, more skills, and more races to play. You can also find Adventure Pack One which contains 7 free adventures for the full rules of Challenger. You might have to make small changes to your existing characters to update them to the full version of Challenger, but you can keep playing your favorite character over and over again as long as you want, or even make up your own new one from scratch! You could even keep creating adventures, powers, and new equipment for this version of Challenger, if you want. You might be missing out, but as long as youre having fun, its worth it.

Step 9. Your Turn to Create an Adventure *** ***

Well, thats it. Youve learned to play a role-playing game in 9 easy steps. Lets look back at what youve learned: What a Role-Playing Game is How to understand Game Statistics How to Create Personality for your Character How to Create a Character Sheet How to use funny Polyhedral Dice How to create an Adventure How to create Monsters How to Role-Play How to Make an NPC How to World Build How to Create a Dungeon How to Create Magic Items How to Create Maps and Wilderness Areas How to Set RRs for Skill Challenges How to work Advantages and Disadvantages How to Stack Monsters How to Level Up a Character How to Buy New Equipment How to use Experience Points to Buy Character Additions How to use Skills And, How to Create Traps and Hidden Doors/Treasures

Congratulations! Youve certainly learned a lot. I hope you learn even more, and enjoy yourself thoroughly while playing your favorite RPG. Its now your turn to create the adventure!

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For a full list of products put out by Superior Games Books (the makers of Challenger) click on the authors name on Amazon.com. Also keep an eye out on RPGnow.com and Smashwords.com for other new releases and books in your favorite e-book, PDF, and text formats. There is even a print edition of the full version of Challenger out! Its for sale on Amazon.com. The Full version of Challenger is free in Kindle format, just like this book. Enjoy. If you have any questions or comments about this game, or any ideas to improve Challenger (the full rules), please let me know via e-mail at: sendmedavid404145@hotmail.com. I always read everything everyone sends me. Just be sure to include Challenger RPG in the titles of any e-mails so we dont accidentally delete them as spam. Thanks. Follow us on Twitter. Well follow you back! Also, like us on Facebook. This book is free. If you want to pay us back for our hard work, the promo would be much appreciated. Even better would be a kindly review. Paying for any one of our free ebooks would also be appreciated, but dont feel its necessary. Thanks again for all your help in making Challenger what it is today. I couldnt have done it without the help of all the fine people who told me how crappy it was and how to fix it. Best Regards David L. Dostaler Author, Challenger RPG