Bad Frog Bargain
A downloadable game
An unpaid debt to an Elfland lord has put a dark cloud over the town of Burdelen in this fairytale inspired adventure.
This was my entry in the 2019 One Page Dungeon Contest.
It is inspired by Elf/Faerie folklore, Rumpelstiltskin, and Childe Rowland. Also, there are frog people.
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Ran this for my girlfriend and it was an absolute blast. As I type this she's on the phone with a friend, yelling in anguish about the way it all turned out. Easily one of the best sessions I've run. She's gonna be talking about it for a long, long time.
Hello, we have uploaded an adventure translated into Polish. We hope you don't mind. https://teleportgames.itch.io/zabi-interes
Hey I ran this and while I love the premise I'm a bit new to NSR as well as open ended adventures and GM-ing, so I was a bit unsure what to do. I presented things as they were and both times I ran it players just wanted to go back and forth between the two people trying to convince them to work out some sort of compromise and so I just eventually let them do that because it didn't seem to make sense to keep saying no. But we didn't have as much as I hoped. I think it's a really cool idea, but I guess I just need some pointers on how to run it. I saw there's a playthrough of it on youtube so I'm going to check that out for inspiration
I think this kind of adventure is extremely group dependant. I had Sigwin very strongly imply that the curse was not *his* doing, but rather a result of the bargain not being fulfilled. He was lying, of course, but the players didn't know that and it made the players pick a side. "You think that such a bargain can merely be cancelled with no repurcussions? We elves are *magic* beings, our promises hold *magic* weight! The only ways out of this are to give me the baby, or kill me. And if you're considering the second... good luck."
Of course, this adventure might just not be for your group. Some players don't do well with ambiguous moral quandaries.
thanks for this! I agree. I think I'm just not good at running this adventure despite it being a neat little idea.
Ran this for my wife last week, and we had an absolute blast. Her character is an elf warlock, and so was immediately kicked out of the town, and she sided with Sigwin pretty quickly. It's such a great premise, and the tight layout with tons of inspirational tables made it so easy to run as a GM. Excellent work!
That's great! I love that she sided with Sigwin!
Hi, the investigation part is tight, thanks to Tobbit’s shrewdness. But I am left with one question: why does Sigwin invest so much in the child? I think maybe there’s something alien about fae thinking that makes an oath more important than many things. But hasn’t Sigwin other things to do than claim old debts?
I based this off old fairy stories like Rumplestilskin and Changeling legends. Fae have always been interested in obtaining people's children for unknown reasons. Perhaps having a mortal child is seen as a valuable link to the mortal world or a tool for future trickery. Maybe it's just in vogue for fae to have mortal pets. But they definitely are bound to follow through with any deal they have made. They are ruled by traditions and rules. Many Fairy stories have fae making bargains and then using the language of the bargain or technicalities to trick the mortal. Fae have little else to do that is more important than tricking mortals. at least that's the impression I get from folklore
Ran this paired with another simple adventure and had loads of fun.
Favorite moment was when the players questioned a frogling outside of the town about 'magic inside the city'. He would describe various technical or aesthetic things (the watermill, horseback frog soldiers cantering along in their finery, tinsmithing, loans) and exclaim "is that the sort of magic you mean?" He conly got around to the curse on the fourth or fifth go.
Awesome! thanks for sharing