Most of the published adventures for Dungeons & Dragons focus on epic fantasy, tasking players with fighting ancient necromancers, rampaging demons, or invading armies in order to prevent some great calamity. But the stakes don’t have to be so high to have a great session, and a bit of whimsy can prove just as memorable as a dramatic battle. That’s why one of my favorite adventures from Wizards of the Coast is a silly fairy tale inspired by Hansel and Gretel.
Most of the book’s adventures are the standard heroic fare, with players rooting out Orcus-worshiping cultists or facing a powerful white dragon while dealing with feuding frost giants. But in “Baker’s Doesn’t,” you’re trying to rescue a rambunctious wyrmling named Briochebane who’s been captured by a hag. The adventure can be dropped into pretty much any settlement near the woods and kicks off with a fire in a candy store.
The confectioner Edith Applegarth suspects her rival, the baker Fill Flourforge, is guilty of arson. But Fill reveals the culprit was his young ward and assistant baker Briochebane, who has since disappeared. Following Briochebane’s trail leads the players to a candy cottage where they face a wide variety of goofy threats.
If they don’t wipe their feet on the doormat made of fruit leather, it will try to smother them. There are chocotrices – cockatrices whose bite will turn enemies into chocolate statues. Bugbears make saltwater taffy and will try to entangle heroes in their equipment.
There are also multiple opportunities for characters to be transformed into candy creatures. This has no meaningful mechanical effect. It’s just an excuse to tell your players they’ve been flattened into a cookie by stumbling into a rolling pin trap.
Everything about this adventure is adorable, from the names, to the art, to the negotiation opportunities. Its most fearsome monster, a construct that wields a lollipop like a greatclub, can be bribed by gathering candy from other sources. This favors some clever plots, like distracting the chocotrices to steal their eggs or having a druid charm the dryads, who will only give their candied apples to children and animals.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
