Kraken vs. Kraken

This post is how I used a Reverse Storyboard technique to choreograph the encounter.  

The scenario?

Kraken A is attacking our Adventurer's ship, the H.M.S. Intrepid,

but then another Kraken (B) starts attacking A, leaving the ship caught in the middle.  

It wasn't until I was done setting up the scene that I realized it parallels the plot of the 1979 movie, Kramer vs. Kramer (which, ironically, I have never seen).  

So the title of our movie is (drumroll please...)

                                

          Kraken          

              vs.              

          Kraken          

                                

(not a spike lee joint)

KvK:  The Climax ... and the beginning?

You may ask yourself "How did I get here?"

To begin the process, I took all the parts and pieces that I had assembled and put them ALL on the board.  I included all the extra critters just to see how many could fit on the board.  (When I was a little kid, this is how I frequently played with my Fisher Price Little People sets and later my Star Wars toys)

One piece of advice I heard from an author was "write the ending of a book first, then reverse engineer how you got there throughout your writing process."  I'm going to use a variation of that advice with all of the pieces - keeping in mind that I want to trick the party into thinking that they're fighting one Kraken until it's too late.

Step by step, I removed pieces from the board, reversing time.  Then I snapped a picture.  

Removed another piece.  Snapped a picture.  

Wash, rinse and repeat until only one piece was left on the board - the Beige Shark.  

To establish the timeline of the encounter, I then reversed the sequence of pictures 

so it shows the buildup from an empty field to a very crowded one.  

If you want to see the original order, go to the bottom of the page then scroll up.

 

 KvK Step 1: Beige Shark as Red Herring

KvK Step 2: Enter the Kraken!

KvK Step 3: 2 arms, 1st attack

KvK Step 4: 3 arms, 2nd attack

KvK Step 5: 3 arms, Head & Claw

KvK Step 6: 4 arms, Head & Claw.  Arm vs Arm??  WTF?!

KvK Step 7 : All Hell Breaks Loose -  Kraken vs. Kraken, Salamander and Snake!

KvK Step 8:  All the pieces are on the board - but wait, where's the 8th arm?

It turns out that I forgot the last tentacle on the board (I'd left it in my backpack).

No problem - plot twist!  Kraken A lost one of his tentacles, Kraken B knows it and is looking to challenge the older male.  If your players overthink it, they'll be expecting the last tentacle for the entire encounter, possibly holding back when they don't need to.

So here is the end (that was actually the beginning) seen from three angles.

With all of these components, we're going to need help keeping track of all of it.

Next post - my next cheap project - the initiative/turn tracker!

(Starting with these cute clothespins I got at Target for 2 bucks)