Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
For my portion of the birthday game, Bonnie wanted to play her 20th level character Little One, so an epic level adventure was going to be on tap. While it’s enjoyable dusting off retired characters, it also proves to require some heavy lifting in terms of both story and mechanics. All while still ensuring that healthy doses of fun are carefully woven in, because no one wants to see the birthday person zeroed during their own game. With this in mind, and factoring in Little One’s “off the wall nature” it was decided to send the characters on an adventure like none of them had experienced by running them through a epic level D&D version of Wonderland
How it Came Together
The Prep: Brushing up on the source was where this all began for me. Which in this case was re-watching the cartoon from the 50s, and clips of the movie remake from 2010. So a whole lot of movie time and notes later it was time to create the outline for what was going to come.
The Rules of the Universe: Before the madness which was planned was sprung it was explained to the group that in this place not everything will operate as they expected as well as plenty of crazy shit. For example, after retrofitting the Alice in Wonderland story into a high level D&D module I would be damned to gamer hell before the group was going to be allowed just to fly or dimension door past every encounter.
The Plot: Shortly after the party arrived in a mysterious forest, a talking white rabbit stole the signature item of Little One her wand during a cut scene and then ran off screen forcing his pursuit. Afterwards a surge of wild magic mysteriously turned our birthday girl, at least cosmetically into Alice, complete with her signature blue dress.
Props and Scenes: Once committed to taking a stab at this whole recreating Wonderland thing, a search began for props which would add to the immersion. To which I found some relatively inexpensive diecast metal figurines. While Lego makes versions for everything and anything Disney related, you need some deep pockets for that.
Instead I went to one of my favorite go-to’s which is the dollar store. The big finale was going to be with the Queen of Hearts so I was really in luck with Valentine’s Day near the game. Then I went to town and purchased everything that could be used for a prop for $1.25, including heart covered garland which borders the encounter area. For the palace of the Queen of Hearts we (my girlfriend Jenn helped) purchased two decks of cheap playing cards and used all heart cards to wallpaper its floor so to speak. Finally we got some small bears that were made from roses which acted as hedges and then when the party arrived the only way it would have been more obvious that they had arrived to meet the Queen of Hearts would have been a flashing neon sign.
Encounters
While the adventure did not follow either version of Alice in Wonderland scene by scene it was necessary for certain key themed things to occur. For example, the party began pursuing the white rabbit who ran into the ground floor of a wizards tower that had a top which extended out of sight into the clouds. Then once they entered, they were sucked by magical force upwards into this disheveled tower. Mechanically, this became a light hearted five part skill challenge where the characters were being pulled upwards and forced to try to avoid the walls, doors, furniture and even talking objects. Each skill challenge did not result in heavy damage on a failure and there were three options in terms of skills or abilities which were usable to encompass such a diverse party. For example, the first option would be a Strength check to push several objects flying out of your path in succession. While a Wisdom save would be allowed to determine that a door you are about to fly into is actually an illusion. Or you could make a Persuasion check to convince a swarm of flying wall clocks not to attack you. During this chain of skill challenges I took five different clips of Alice falling down the Rabbit hole from the 2010 movie and showed them to the places as they proceeded through the challenge’s stages. When they reached the end they popped up right-side up in Neverland.
Additional scenes included the miniature talking door, the Sea of Tears, the Caucus Race, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. At the tea party, after the Mad Hatter discovered that it was actually someone’s birthday, we played My Chemical Romance singing Happy Birthday, one of Bonnie’s favorite bands, which led into an opportunity for us to have cake.
The Showdown at the End
When the party reached the Queen of Hearts palace they discovered she had Little One’s wand of chaos. The Queen then asked our new Alice if she and her friends would play croquet. But Alice wasn’t having it and a battle ensued. The Queen of Hearts summoned other beings from the Disney franchises to protect her, because it didn’t seem likely that a bunch of playing card soldiers were going to stand up to a 20th level party. Jafar the Genie, Ursula from the Little Mermaid with King Triton’s trident, and Maleficent in her dragon form. All of which came with tailored CR 20 stat blocks, as the Queen stepped back and surrounded herself in a heart shaped bubble of near impenetrable chaos energy. But as this battle unfolded one of the characters thought the Queen of Hearts, who was modeled after the 2010 version, was especially good looking and wanted to seduce her. So as an epic battle was taking place, diplomacy took place on a whole different level and after several successful Persuasion checks, with the first round made a disadvantage and the final one ending on a nat 20, the conflict ended surprisingly with no one losing a head.
Final Thoughts
This adventure was definitely one of the most fun to both put together and run that I have in a while. While some players aren’t down for an adventure which is light-hearted and silly, it is kind of the risk you run when preparing for a game and its nature is a surprise. However, everyone, including the guest of honor, enjoyed it so the mission was accomplished.
Behind the DM screen, the total prep time was rough, between shopping, refreshing with the source material, gathering props, gathering visual aids, and then actually writing the mod itself. So when it was game time, I was extremely well prepped and ready to go. The only real variable is you have to enjoy game prep, as part of the creative process. Because if not you will be burned out before someone rolls their first d20.
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