Trouble at Grogg's
Trouble at Grogs is one of the best adventures I ever ran, and I've run it many times, in multiple systems.
It looks like any other adventure at first.
- The players find a roaring tavern owned by a half-ogre named 'Grog'.
- Grog asks them to find out who's been stealing things in town.
- Reading more, you (the GM) find out that Yuri (another tavern owner) has hired two half-ogres and two elves to start the trouble.
- The bad-guys (Yuri and his crew) have found underground tunnels, and use them to steal and make mischief.
- On day 2, Yuri's two half-ogre cut-throats come to rough the players up.
- The town is brimming with various people and places, such as an ex-ranger sheriff, a banker, and a maid at Grogg's who secretly works for Yuri.
The first time I read it, I was surprised to find it didn't have an ending. I leafed back a page, and read more thoroughly as if I'd missed it. But no - there was no ending. I played it anyway.
It looks pretty simple. It always played well.
The reason for the great games was in the lack of ending. The start is a heavy rail-road: the players come to town, they obviously enter the first tavern, Grogg grabs one.
Day 1 will have them trying things, going places, suspecting people. Maybe Grogg really is eating people? Maybe it's Marsha or Yuri, the other two people who own taverns? The day fills the story with questions as the players do...just whatever players do.
Day 2 will mostly be the same, but if the players slow down, the two thugs are there to stir things up. If not, they interrupt things. Either way, the pace speeds up.
If they watch things at Groggs, they could discover the double-agent maid. If they investigate the celler, they could find a passage to the catacombs. If they watch at the graveyard after hearing rumours of the undead, they may discover another entrance to the catacombs there. It's a blossoming sandbox in every direction, and each piece leads back to a different part of the village.
They might try to rob the bank and discover the underground passage there. They may kill Yuri, or bargain with him.