It has happened before, and will happen again. You’ve spent your time aligning schedules and everyone can make it. You’ve been making sure everyone has the things they need to play, the dice, and the pens. Everyone has been well-fed or food has been otherwise arranged. All the details are taken care of... except you’ve spent so much time on all of that other stuff that you’ve neglected to plan for the session. Maybe you have a few ideas in your head, but no solid map or villain for the night. What the heck are you going to run as an adventure this evening?!
Does all that sound familiar to you? You could always forgo the scheduled RPG session and just break out a board game. That may be fine every once in a while, but all the scheduling and everything else involved in gathering people (even virtually) is always going to be next time. Before you break out that (non-roleplaying) other tabletop game, or even while you’re doing it, we might be able to take some inspiration from it for the RPG you had been planning to play. So this week, let's pull Candy Land off the shelf and see where it takes us in inspiring a dungeon crawl-style scenario.
Lay of the Land
The game of Candy Land is fairly simple, and for this inspiration I’ll be using the 1999 edition. While it's made for kids, the game is still full of potential. There's a colorful path meandering along the board leading to King Kandy (not to be confused with King Candy) and his Candy Castle. You draw a card and proceed forward based on card color or special location. There are slim odds of teleporting around the board to various locations or using secret paths, namely the Rainbow Trail and Gumdrop Pass. Otherwise, it's a railroad straight to the end, albeit with a lot of twists and turns along the way. There are also other denizens of this Land of Candy that aren’t the King. In this version we also have Queen Frostine, Princess Lolly, Gramma Nut, Lord Licorice, Jolly, Mr. Mint and Plumpy. There are locations too, but as we’re focusing on a dungeon crawl for this post, we’ll leave the rest of the board for you to discover and develop. For a game that doesn’t have much too it, we actually have a lot of content to work with.
Allies and Villains
The artwork for Candy Land is overly saccharine, which makes sense given that the game is for ages 2-6. You’ll have to use your own imagination to decide which of these characters makes it to which side of the spectrum. For today's inspiration experiment, we’re go with some members of King Kandy's family, Queen Frostine and Princess Lolly, who both seem like good benefactors. If you were to give either powers, focus on the cold for Frostine and color spray (or other colorful magic) for Lolly. If you're looking for a villain, the most likely prime suspect would be Lord Licorice - with his mysterious castle in the background, and chocolate bats fluttering about, he almost gives the impression of a vampire. In the Candy Land canon, it makes the most sense for him to play the villain, as he's typically described as such. If you’re going with a fantasy realm, though, it wouldn't be a stretch to go make him an actual vampire. Any of the rest could easily go either way. Gramma Nut could be some simple shop keep for the players to visit, or a hag in the woods with evil spells and a false front. Jolly, Plumpy and Gloppy, or Mr. Mint could easily be henchmen or wandering monsters. If you want to subvert expectations a bit, perhaps consider making Queen Frostine a ruler with an iron fist, with King Kandy her puppet and Princess Lolly her henchwoman. The rest could simply be country folk ruled under that icy tyranny.
Tricks and Treats
This world of Candy Land brings plenty of treats. If you really like, you can just flat out use the map as provided. While it's essentially point A to B, there are still plenty of twists and turns to it. It could be an overland excursion through difficult terrain or a deep journey into the bowels of the chocolatey earth. Either way, that also leaves an opening to use the Rainbow Trail and Gumdrop Pass as secret passages or skill challenges. What might players be avoiding when they use these exits from the beaten path? That's where this world's tricks come in. The Molasses Swamp, Gooey Gumdrops, and Lollipop Woods can all inspire traps for a group of adventurers to combat. Molasses Swamp brings to mind some sort of "quicksand" like or sticky trap. The Gooey Gumdrops could potentially be a rock drop... perhaps molten? Finally, the Lollipop Woods could be a disorienting area that sends the party back in the wrong direction, costing time and resources. For extra credit, consider throwing in a teleporting trap based on the cards that sends players instantly to one of various locations on the game board.
Hooks and closing
While this may not be the ideal way to build a quick adventure, at least it can get you moving in the right direction. To get your players on the path, consider having King Kandy make a request for some MacGuffin - diamond rock candy could work, it's a treat that's potentially valuable in Candy Land or in your own realms. You don’t have to take your players on a trip through Candy Land, though. You could take inspiration from any number of board games geared towards adults or children. This might even be an excellent method to get kids into TTRPGs. Putting their characters into the setting of a gaming world they’re already familiar with certainly can’t hurt... unless the Candy people end up killing everyone... which they almost certainly wood. Until next time folks, enjoy your tables and break some dice!
-A
Send questions, comments, and Candy Land VCR Board Game nightmares to neversaydice20@gmail.com or Tweet us @nevesaydice2.
