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Tesla was right posted:My PCs are being invited to a wedding, which naturally is going to be interrupted by assassins. I remember once reading a comic, I think it was the wedding between Northstar and his fiance, and it was literally like the first wedding comic ever that DIDN'T have some sort of interruption at the wedding and I thought that was a really novel concept. The idea that, y'know, the single most heavily guarded situation in the kingdom for the last howevery-many-years is actually, y'know, heavily guarded. Personally, I'd turn the wedding into a huge social encounter. Let the PCs solve very non-combat problems (someone dropped the cake, the jester hurts the children, the dress is ruined, the ambassador's a drunk, etc). Hire the PCs as guards for the honeymoon, but in the core of the castle surrounded by every guard (because I guarantee you no one has that day off), maybe the assassin just can't carry it out as they're saying the nuptials.
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Jan 15, 2015 23:55
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Tesla was right posted:Also, what kind of fun situations can adventurers get into at a wedding full of important figures? Noble children deciding that the PCs look like fun people to pester. Noble teenage children deciding that the adventurers would be fun people to ask to dance in order to make other noble teenagers jealous. The mayor's wife has had a bit too much champagne. One of the servants hates one of the important guests and is tampering with their food/drink/centerpiece/whatever. The decorator is in a tizzy because the illusion spells making the floral centerpieces look fresh and sparkly are wearing off unexpectedly. One of the PCs is roped into being the go-between for two guests who are having an affair and is forced to carry sappy love messages from one to the other. One of the PCs accidentally bumps into the orchestra's lead cellist and breaks their bow, and the first dance is in five minutes, what will they do? The father of the bride, who had to pay for most of this stuff, is drunk as hell because his little girl is married boo hoo hoo and the caterers aren't going to serve any food until they get paid but he's too drunk to pay them. The officiant/priest/cleric/whoever is running late and lost his notes for the ceremony. The bride is having second thoughts. The groom is having second thoughts. Their families are trying not to openly encourage the second thoughts. The orchestral conductor is possessed by an evil spirit who can only be defeated if the party's bard defeats him in a rap battle.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:09
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The marriage is happening on a roof top, and after the assassination attempt you get to have a rooftop/sky carriage chase. I assume you're playing in Eberron or the functional equivalent.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:11
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Tesla was right posted:My PCs are being invited to a wedding, which naturally is going to be interrupted by assassins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYwsgm7jT8g
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Jan 16, 2015 00:12
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Guildencrantz posted:The group have to participate in some bizarre local wedding custom. In my wife's family it's custom for the men of the wedding party to kidnap the bride and demand a ransom from the groom. Just an idea.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:15
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Tesla was right posted:
Think about the relatives getting drunk and dredging up old family grudges. Now give them spellbooks and wands. Also the if party has a bard, tell them the hired musician couldn't make it, so you have to fill in for just a few songs.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:33
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The maid of honor is a medusa in disguise. The fondue pot has been taken over by a cheese elemental who attacks anyone approaching the buffet.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:35
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Every wedding gift has been intercepted by the party and replaced with weapons, the confetti's been switched with bags of caltrops, and then the Paladin erupts from the cake singing "Happy Birthday Mr Emperor".
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Jan 16, 2015 00:37
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There's a large wrapped box in the middle of all the wedding gifts with no tag on it; inside is a hungry Utahraptor trained to break out and start eating people when a particular song plays. The groom's psycho ex got hold of a scroll of Charm Person and intends to use it to win back her man before he makes the biggest mistake of her life. The rice that is handed out for the guests to throw has been replaced with magic grains that turn into Aganazzar's Scorcher when thrown. The cake is actually a Mimic.
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Jan 16, 2015 01:38
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Tesla was right posted:Is it a bad idea to force them to leave their weapons/armour at the door (my plan is to get them to come up with ways to prepare for this possibility, since it's not the first time they've been caught short, a fight previously broke out in a courtroom). Personally I don't find it a problem. I enjoy throwing curveballs and monkey wrenches that the players have to deal with rather than just upping the difficulty through sheer enemy power or skill checks. Obviously it'll encourage them to smuggle poo poo in, but when will that not happen? Part of the challenge is seeing how much they can sneak past the guards or finding creative places to plant weapons and gear beforehand. During a sci-fi game I did a few years ago, we were salvagers rooting through an old derelict in an asteroid field that were suddenly set upon by pirates looking to exert their own salvage rights on it. We agreed to a no-weapon meeting in the hanger bay (the entire ship has no gravity, by the way) where we could ostensibly discuss everything and hand over a weapon in trade for the ship. Obviously, our plan was to betray them and we secretly laced the weapon with explosives. During the setup, everyone hid any weapons they couldn't visibly carry in strategically arranged piles of trash around the hanger. One of them had a 9mm SMG that could deploy from a cybernetic arm. Of course, the pirates came prepared as well: as soon as we tried to hold them at gunpoint, they revealed retractable sword blades inside their forearms.
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Jan 16, 2015 01:48
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I've mentioned this in the thread before, I think, but I'm playing Dungeon World this Saturday. I'm the GM but none of us have actually played a pen and paper RPG before. Everything says keep pre-planning to a minimum but I want the characters to be able to have reasonable knowledge of the world around them and the city they're in. Is spending a few minutes before we start expositing about their surroundings generally how you're supposed to do it? Basically everyone has made their characters already and we've decided that we're creating our own universe but haven't established much more than that. I wrote this and was planning on essentially starting out the game with it: You are in the city of Avon Bend. The steading is positioned on a wide river. It was settled long ago by a religious cult fleeing persecution, on the east side of a large bend in the river. The soil in the area is practically clay and offers little in the way of agricultural potential. Where there are not crops, there is tough, sparse grass, making grazing for farm animals difficult. The population of Avon Bend remained low for decades as a result. The hardworking nature of the cult ensured that these people were able to carve out a life for themselves through fishing, apiaries, and the craftsmanship of the brothers and sisters of the order. The streets were wide, clean, and safe and what the town could not provide for itself it traded with other steadings on the river. The peaceful and scholarly nature of the cult created a culture that emphasized tolerance and education in a cruel and ignorant world. About eighteen months ago a discovery was made that would change the town permanently--valuable, rare ore was discovered in the hills across the river. The first group of prospectors arrived before the week was over. Now, a year and a half later, Avon Bend is nearly unrecognizable. Ramshackle bridges span the river and the west side has become a shantytown easily three times the size of Avon Bend's population prior to the discovery. Nets and handbuilt fishing boats struggle for space with colossal mining barges in a river whose width once seemed luxurious and almost impossibly roomy. The roads have turned to mud from the strain of ten thousand handcarts and the sanitation system could charitably be described as a free-for-all. Nothing stays clean here for long. The mines, such as they are, grow deeper by the day and the veins of ore in the earth seemingly only grow richer. Certain enterprising individuals have formed joint-stock companies, staking claim to various ore-rich areas and in the absence of any real authority defending those claims by any means they can. Many of the prospectors are employed by these companies, trading the right to mine in certain areas for nearly all of their haul. These companies are rapidly becoming concentrations of the majority of wealth and power in Avon Bend. The cult's leadership has made little effort to provide for the populace. Poverty,crime, and food are exponentially growing problems. There's plenty of work, but good swordsmen and mages are in much higher demand than unskilled mining labor, or so you heard. You came to Avon Bend because you heard it was a place of riches and opportunity, but for you and thousands of others it hasn't quite panned out the way you had hoped. You're working your way through the crowds when a man bumps into you for a little too long. Before you can chase him down or pat your pockets making sure your possessions are all in order, you realize there's an impossibly clean envelope in your hand. It bears a seal you don't recognize, but is addressed to you. Upon opening the envelope you discover a letter. It reads, in elegant female handwriting: Your presence is requested at a private event in the cellar of the Whitecap at sundown. You are not alone. Reflexively, you glance at the sky. You can barely see the sun through the thick forest of houses to the west. You might be able to make it to the Whitecap, a pricey tavern in the Old Town on the east side, by sundown if you hurry. What do you do? Is this pretty much a standard way of getting all of the PC's together with enough exposition and plot hooks to make things interesting? I'm intentionally vague on the cult, magic, the nature of the valuables in the hills, etc., to provide blank spaces for everyone else to fill in. I just don't want to go in and have people uninterested or feel unprepared. I'm not going for excellence in prose here, necessarily, just trying to get information out efficiently. Basically the idea is that they take it in turns to make their way to the meeting place, see the city along the way, each running into a different minor encounter that should probably be solved without combat. I'm tempted to just say that they read the envelope and then fast forward time to the actual meeting so we can start together but idk if making their characters decide to check stuff like that out is verboten or not. I figured I have to do at least minimal direction to get their characters to the same place, it's okay that I have everyone already in the city and looking for work, right? Where do I draw the line? Gay Horney fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 04:44
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Kind of the point of not pre-planning anything for a DW game comes from the fact that the players are meant to do a lot of the world-building. Don't tell them why they're in the city, ask them. Don't tell them why the bad guys are after them, point to someone and have them tell you who they pissed off and how.
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Jan 16, 2015 05:34
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Lynx Winters posted:Kind of the point of not pre-planning anything for a DW game comes from the fact that the players are meant to do a lot of the world-building. Don't tell them why they're in the city, ask them. Don't tell them why the bad guys are after them, point to someone and have them tell you who they pissed off and how. Yeah, think more 'what's in the envelope?'
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Jan 16, 2015 05:45
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I'm running my first ever pen and paper game tomorrow. We're going to be playing TechNoir. Only one other person coming has ever played a pen and paper game before. Are we destined for a totally awkward adventure?
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Jan 16, 2015 07:49
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I should also add that some systems make being separated from your weapon more fun than others. In 4e, for example, it means doing a big pile of extra math and losing many of the fun things you can do in a fight. I think it would be far better to let them bring as many weapons as they like and then throw them a load of problems that can't be solved with weapons.
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Jan 16, 2015 08:14
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Sharzak posted:I've mentioned this in the thread before, I think, but I'm playing Dungeon World this Saturday. I'm the GM but none of us have actually played a pen and paper RPG before. Everything says keep pre-planning to a minimum but I want the characters to be able to have reasonable knowledge of the world around them and the city they're in. Is spending a few minutes before we start expositing about their surroundings generally how you're supposed to do it? It seems like you've missed an important part about no-or-low-planning for Dungeon World. The characters already do have knowledge of the world around them and the city they're in. It's just that the players (and you!) don't yet. You're establishing a gently caress of a lot of information that might never ever be important, and that will restrict the characters knowledge of the world to whatever the players remember out of your speech. If you're set on including all the elements you mentioned, then maybe try starting like this (try to pick classes that would have cool stories to tell about each question): Dave, why did you come down the river to the city of Avon Bend and how did you get kinda stranded at the docks? Chrissy, why won't you work for the mining companies here ever again? Joe, why are you investigating the leaders of the cult that founded, and now runs, the city? Theresa, what brought you to the poorest, dirtiest part of this poor and dirty city? Then, after they build the city up a bit for you, "how did you meet" type questions, and fill in bonds. You can use "Dave, how did you meet Joe?", or if they need prompting, you can use "Theresa, while you <her first answer>, what drew your atttention to <Dave> and why are you friends now?" or the completely unsubtle "Dave, describe how you saved Joe from cultists and what he owes you". Then... So (person, or all)... you're working your way through the crowd one day when a man bumps into you for a little too long...<the rest of this part>... but it is addressed to you. What's in the envelope? What are you going to do?
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Jan 16, 2015 11:31
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AlphaDog posted:It seems like you've missed an important part about no-or-low-planning for Dungeon World. This is great advice, and I really like that structured way of setting the ball rolling. Keen to dm DW now.
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Jan 16, 2015 12:49
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Now that I've been quoted, I realise that I said something really unclear. When I said "try to pick classes that would have cool stories to tell about each question", what I meant was "ask each question of a player whose class/race combo would have a cool story to tell". I mean, you could be generic about your questions, but if one dude is a Sea-Elf Sailor, make sure he's the one you ask about arriving via boat. If one of your players is a Paladin, they're probably the one to ask about the cultists. The dwarf gets asked about the mines. And so on. You don't have to do this. Maybe the dwarf arrived by boat. Maybe the paladin is interested in the mines. But if you're everyone's new to the game, tailoring the questions to the characters is really helpful. I know a couple of people in my group would get a kick out of (for instance) deciding to be an Sea Elf Sky Wizard, and then getting asked why they'll never work in these mines again, but keeping it simple never hurts when it's a new group. sebmojo posted:This is great advice, and I really like that structured way of setting the ball rolling. Keen to dm DW now. Try this one as a much vaguer, but still somewhat structured starter: (Probably Fighter or Barbarian), how come you didn't kill all the guards when you had the chance? (Probably Wizard or Thief), what did you do that everyone only has 30 seconds to reach the door? (Probably Thief), what are you currently falling from and why? (I want to use this question for every start of everything ever) (Probably Paladin or Cleric), how did you even get involved in this ridiculous heist? (Collectively), how much trouble are you in now that you've failed? Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 12:57
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I'm looking for advice on how to drop subtle hints for players that don't come across as "this is an obvious 'subtle' hint" while still being something they might catch onto eventually. Some background: I'm about to start GMing a 13th Age game in a custom setting with custom Icons. One of my players suggested including the Guru Icon that's outlined in this thread on Pelgrane's forums so that his character could be all about trying to find him and learn from him. I thought it sounded like a cool Icon, and then I realized that it dovetails pretty nicely with something I'd wanted to include anyway: a shapeshifting trickster "god" with ultimately malevolent plans for this particular plane. I decided to make him the counterpart to this setting's version of the Prince of Shadows, another individual shrouded in myth and notoriously difficult to actually meet. So what I'd like to do is this: every time this player rolls a 5 or a 6 on his Icon roll for the Guru, I want this guy to actually show up in one form or another, but with some sort of hint that he's the same dude. His "main" form is as Mr. Alphonse White, a traveling snake oil salesman who just happens to show up in the most improbable places to sell the PCs medicine and/or get involved in local plots with his troupe on occasion. But if Mr. White always showed up when a 5 or 6 is rolled for the Guru, that'd be too obvious. Plus, he's a shapeshifter! My plan is to have him sometimes appear in animal form, usually as some kind of small, non-rodent mammal (he hates vermin, that's the Prince of Shadow's territory), but with a feature shared between them all. But again, I don't want the pattern to be so obvious that the second time an animal shows up my players shout out, "That's the same animal! Look at insert distinguishing mark here!" I'd kind of like the Prince of Shadows to do the same, though usually in the form of some kind of urban "vermin" like a rat or pigeon or something. My hope is that they'll eventually figure it out and I can weave it into a champion- or epic-tier adventure, but subtlety is probably not my strong suit.
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Jan 16, 2015 17:53
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Harrow posted:I'm looking for advice on how to drop subtle hints for players that don't come across as "this is an obvious 'subtle' hint" while still being something they might catch onto eventually. Make some small and likely part of the person or animal's coloration white? Like, a black cat with white paws, a brown-and-white bird, a woman in red with white lace gloves.
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Jan 16, 2015 18:01
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homullus posted:Make some small and likely part of the person or animal's coloration white? Like, a black cat with white paws, a brown-and-white bird, a woman in red with white lace gloves. I think this works. I'd also suggest having a few red herrings appear to make them question whether or not they're really spotting the right sign of Mr. White's identity. Or have him appear in a guise where white would be expected (like everyone at a masquerade party wearing white gloves or white masks). This keeps them from immediately pointing out white clothing or coloration as the identifier.
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Jan 16, 2015 19:40
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homullus posted:Make some small and likely part of the person or animal's coloration white? Like, a black cat with white paws, a brown-and-white bird, a woman in red with white lace gloves. chitoryu12 posted:I think this works. I'd also suggest having a few red herrings appear to make them question whether or not they're really spotting the right sign of Mr. White's identity. Or have him appear in a guise where white would be expected (like everyone at a masquerade party wearing white gloves or white masks). This keeps them from immediately pointing out white clothing or coloration as the identifier. Yeah, I like that a lot. My original idea was to have the animals always be entirely white, but just having some small, normally-white part of the animal's coloration be white seems good. That way, I can instead ramp up Mr. White's other forms' involvement in things if they're not catching on. Sure, seeing a black cat with white paws or a brown-and-white ferret slink by in the middle of an environmental description (and then having some fortuitous thing happen later) might not lead them to make the connection, but maybe eventually they catch a white cat in the act of helping them behind the scenes, or catch a glimpse of a woman in a white mask disappearing around a corner and implausibly being gone just seconds later. Thanks!
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Jan 16, 2015 20:26
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Maybe try to avoid mentioning the color white explicitly when you describe a new form of his. Do it occasionally, but also go for animals that naturally have a bit of white to them - calico cats, magpies, weasels... (Although I have to say, I like the potential connection of person with white gloves - cat with white paws.)
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Jan 16, 2015 20:32
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:The orchestral conductor is possessed by an evil spirit who can only be defeated if the party's bard defeats him in a rap battle. ding ding ding ding! We have a winner! Seriously though, throwing a gruff bunch of road-worn PCs into a high society event is always fun. There are so many ways you can take it. Social interactions with anyone high-born should be positively abrasive and bordering on offensive to both sides. Escaping the night without offending everyone should be a major goal. Also make sure the PCs wear the right clothes. Make them get fancy tailored outfits and jewels. Otherwise they'll just look completely out of place. They will gripe about spending money on stupid bullshit but them's the breaks. Hidden weapons are going to be important. Bladed belts, weighted sleeves, sword canes, and pretty much anything else they can come up with should be the only things making it past the front gate. And if they do manage to survive the night without making a bunch of enemies they will have made some valuable noble connections that may turn out to be very lucrative. deedee megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 20:59
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HatfulOfHollow posted:Also make sure the PCs wear the right clothes. Make them get fancy tailored outfits and jewels. Otherwise they'll just look completely out of place. They will gripe about spending money on stupid bullshit but them's the breaks. The old Dragon magazine had a fun article once for PCs spending gold on grooming and finery before an opera, which I've loved to reuse over years.
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Jan 16, 2015 22:57
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I just started GMing a new group several weeks ago, and it has become clear right away that there's no dominant personality in the group who will take a leadership position. Generally I've always had a person who kind of brings the group together as a leader for teamwork and stuff, so this is new for me. Advice?
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Jan 22, 2015 20:12
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HexDog posted:I just started GMing a new group several weeks ago, and it has become clear right away that there's no dominant personality in the group who will take a leadership position. Generally I've always had a person who kind of brings the group together as a leader for teamwork and stuff, so this is new for me. Advice? Sounds like it's time for your finest GMPC to shine  Serious answer: I'd need more details about what sort of issues it's causing. Like, if nobody is taking initiative to get stuff done, for example, you might have to step up the degree to which plot events or macguffins effect their in-game experience, or just get them into a position where somebody is giving them steady, lucrative contracts with tight deadlines.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:19
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My friend was DMing when one of his players latched on to an NPC kid who he proceeded to adopt. It was a high level game, so the big bad targeted the little girl. From then on in, the player was all-in. The campaign ended with him and his best friends sacrificing their souls for the kid. It's a trick that only sometimes works, and it hard to do well. But sometimes, all you have to do is find what their characters love, and destroy it. That said, my friend and I run really grim campaigns. The humour comes from dry sarcastic quips the players constantly provide, and the stints of downtime to allow for recovery and character development.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:42
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deadly_pudding posted:Sounds like it's time for your finest GMPC to shine Mainly that they are dithering around. They have a clear long term objective: go to the North to aid a dwarven city that has been getting attacked by demons at night and deliver a foreign magical stuff to a wizard in the dwarf city. They are getting paid for this. So short-term they have been doing little quests along the way. The problem is that the healer GMPC (since noone wanted to play a healer) has been the one mostly pushing them along to complete various small quests, they don't have much initiative to do stuff themselves. I thought that maybe this was because they were bored and uninterested in the game, but the entire group has been really into the game and I have been watching long chat discussions about how excited they are to play every Friday night. They particularly love to roleplay with and care for the GMPC, who also happens to be the one carrying the foreign magical staff. I was considering murdering the GMPC and having the staff stolen, since I know that the group will become very emotional about it. That will probably solve the dithering problem, but won't solve the lack of leadership. Or maybe it will.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:45
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HexDog posted:Mainly that they are dithering around. They have a clear long term objective: go to the North to aid a dwarven city that has been getting attacked by demons at night and deliver a foreign magical stuff to a wizard in the dwarf city. They are getting paid for this. So short-term they have been doing little quests along the way. The problem is that the healer GMPC (since noone wanted to play a healer) has been the one mostly pushing them along to complete various small quests, they don't have much initiative to do stuff themselves. I thought that maybe this was because they were bored and uninterested in the game, but the entire group has been really into the game and I have been watching long chat discussions about how excited they are to play every Friday night. They particularly love to roleplay with and care for the GMPC, who also happens to be the one carrying the foreign magical staff. Have the group get poisoned and give them a time limit to get healed. Every few hours take a point off the top of their max health pool which cannot be restored until healed. I bet you one of the low health players will step riiiight up.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:47
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HexDog posted:Mainly that they are dithering around. They have a clear long term objective: go to the North to aid a dwarven city that has been getting attacked by demons at night and deliver a foreign magical stuff to a wizard in the dwarf city. They are getting paid for this. So short-term they have been doing little quests along the way. The problem is that the healer GMPC (since noone wanted to play a healer) has been the one mostly pushing them along to complete various small quests, they don't have much initiative to do stuff themselves. I thought that maybe this was because they were bored and uninterested in the game, but the entire group has been really into the game and I have been watching long chat discussions about how excited they are to play every Friday night. They particularly love to roleplay with and care for the GMPC, who also happens to be the one carrying the foreign magical staff. Yeah, I'd considering murdering the GMPC and stealing the staff. Preferably have the staff be stolen some cultist or whatever related to those demons in the north, and also maybe put the GMPC's next of kin up there so they at least have a good reason to head north and go alert the healer's family.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:49
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HexDog posted:I thought that maybe this was because they were bored and uninterested in the game, but the entire group has been really into the game and I have been watching long chat discussions about how excited they are to play every Friday night. They particularly love to roleplay with and care for the GMPC, who also happens to be the one carrying the foreign magical staff. Do you actually have a problem, then? If you're unhappy with how it's going, let the players know, because your enjoyment is also a goal; if you're happy, and they're happy, then carry on as you are.
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Jan 22, 2015 21:13
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Find out what motivates their characters. I've often asked people when they've generated characters: what motivates your character? What, besides a threat to themselves, will drive them to get involved in a situation or put themselves at risk? Once you know what bait they'll jump at you can design plot hooks for them accordingly.
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Jan 22, 2015 21:26
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Good advice from everyone. I really appreciate it. So happy that I stumbled across this thread.
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Jan 22, 2015 21:32
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HexDog posted:I was considering murdering the GMPC and having the staff stolen, since I know that the group will become very emotional about it. That will probably solve the dithering problem, but won't solve the lack of leadership. Or maybe it will. Don't kill the cleric. Kidnap him. This is a guy they like, right? Kidnap him but leave the staff, leave some clues and a trail to follow. Next town over, kidnap someone else (little kid, maybe) and leave similar clues that point to the north. Then pick whichever character has the highest Charisma and say "the people are looking at you for guidance." They don't need to lead right now because they're following orders. Take away their leaders and have someone look to them for advice and suddenly they're in charge. Someone would have to step up by that point. Also there's always benefit in a recap followed by the question "what do you do?" You know the dwarven kingdom needs your help, that the forest is being invaded, and that the cult is living in the sewers. What do you do?
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Jan 22, 2015 22:03
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Swags posted:Don't kill the cleric. Kidnap him. This is a guy they like, right? Kidnap him but leave the staff, leave some clues and a trail to follow. Next town over, kidnap someone else (little kid, maybe) and leave similar clues that point to the north. Then pick whichever character has the highest Charisma and say "the people are looking at you for guidance." This is a better idea than mine. Probably don't kill their favorite character 
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Jan 22, 2015 22:16
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Good call.
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Jan 22, 2015 22:18
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HexDog posted:I just started GMing a new group several weeks ago, and it has become clear right away that there's no dominant personality in the group who will take a leadership position. Generally I've always had a person who kind of brings the group together as a leader for teamwork and stuff, so this is new for me. Advice? Find out what the characters want, and dangle it. If they don't act, take it away. Find out what the characters like, and threaten it. If they don't act, damage it. Repeat.
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Jan 22, 2015 23:05
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I have a player who takes charge, but does it too much. We have our campaign set up so every character has a personal quest and we go through them in distinct chapters, and I'm starting to feel a little strange always talking to the same guy and always having the same character take charge even though whatever's currently going on isn't even his business. At the moment I'm making it a point to always ask the player whose chapter we're in directly for input. Less "you enter town, what do you do", more "you enter town, where could someone know something about the lost temple".
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Jan 22, 2015 23:19
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 03:16 |
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Ok, first time DM here, about to start my first campaign. I wanted to run an idea past somebody before I do it. I have a PC whose family caravan was destroyed by orcs (the only background hook of her PC). On the first night she's back in that area, I want her to have a nightmare about it like this: while she's asleep, I'll say she wakes up and that the person on watch fell asleep. Orcs (too many to be a fair fight) have crept into the camp. Combat will ensue as normal, and at some point she'll be grappled by an Orc. As it shakes her, she'll wake up being shaken by a PC at the undisturbed camp. I'll pass notes to the other PCs beforehand so they'll be in on it, so if they want to act out of character and do things like just hide, run away, or attack suicidally they can. Is this a good sequence and a way to get a PC to open up to the party, or is it just a good way to get a player feeling ganged up on and mad at me?
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Jan 25, 2015 11:35
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