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Just he's an escaped slave is an immediate motivation, a looming threat, and in the longer term a story about a hosed up world that needs changing.
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Jul 18, 2020 01:13
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Yeah, as I mentioned the module is super essentialistic and on closer read quite dated - but it is what I am stuck with. As to the slaver thing: That's what I get for trickling in information without properly thinking about it. I completely agree that this is an obviously good starting point, but it is something to be used later as the slavers operate in a nation far away (the only nation tolerating slavers) and the party will probably go there at the earliest in like 10 sessions. But I need something for right now. I am bound by pre-existing lore, so the idea about his family or simply introducing his childhood as the next region, while good, are out. I don't wanna mess with lore that was clearly established in the player's handbook or during play because I don't wanna send a message along the lines of "You don't need to bother reading the player's handbook or expect consistency in how the GM describes the world - the GM will willy-nilly retcon stuff anyways". The plot hook about slaves forming communities is really good. So maybe something like introduce a childhood friend, that was also a slave. They got separated when he got sold to another master. That friend also (recently?) ran away and asks for help in freeing the rest of his family. That will also serve to pull the party into the slaver's region earlier and there are even good ways to introduce some sense of urgency using pre-established lore. That friend will also finally make the PC speak up. Thanks y'all for the advice and helping me think this through.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:00
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Maybe slavehunters come looking for him? hell, chuck in a frozen river to escape across. The excellent Flashman let's read in the book barn just covered this, it's insanely skin crawling stuff.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:00
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Qwan posted:Yeah, as I mentioned the module is super essentialistic and on closer read quite dated - but it is what I am stuck with. As to the slaver thing: That's what I get for trickling in information without properly thinking about it. I completely agree that this is an obviously good starting point, but it is something to be used later as the slavers operate in a nation far away (the only nation tolerating slavers) and the party will probably go there at the earliest in like 10 sessions. But I need something for right now. You're way too twisted up in BUT THE MODULE SAYS RAPE ORCS and whatever other things. Knock it off, your hands are only as tied as you want them to be. The PC got to where everyone's at from the nation far far away, which means other slaves can get there, which means slave-catchers can get there.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:14
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:You're way too twisted up in BUT THE MODULE SAYS RAPE ORCS and whatever other things. Knock it off, your hands are only as tied as you want them to be. anything that doesn't 'make sense' is either going to be ignored by the players, in which case sweet no worries, or questioned by the players in which case you put on your best smug dm face and go 'hmm, yes it is strange now you mention it... I wonder how they got here... and why...?' and listen to them solve the problem for you.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:30
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sebmojo posted:anything that doesn't 'make sense' is either going to be ignored by the players, in which case sweet no worries, or questioned by the players in which case you put on your best smug dm face and go 'hmm, yes it is strange now you mention it... I wonder how they got here... and why...?' and listen to them solve the problem for you. Yes, but "slavers show up to catch the escaped slave" doesn't really require any further explanation.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:41
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Yes, but "slavers show up to catch the escaped slave" doesn't really require any further explanation. true, it was more directed at feeling bound by 'lore' as a dm. Exceptions aren't a problem, they're a mystery to be solved.
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Jul 18, 2020 02:43
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Absolutely. And the PCs, as protagonists, will tend to be exceptions, if not exceptional. We're not going to be telling the story of the escaped slave who kept his head down and worked in manual labor all his life, right?
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Jul 18, 2020 02:52
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Absolutely. And the PCs, as protagonists, will tend to be exceptions, if not exceptional. We're not going to be telling the story of the escaped slave who kept his head down and worked in manual labor all his life, right? If your players don't know what to do with slavers, get new players, yours are broken.
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Jul 18, 2020 03:39
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Qwan posted:Yeah, as I mentioned the module is super essentialistic and on closer read quite dated - but it is what I am stuck with. As to the slaver thing: That's what I get for trickling in information without properly thinking about it. I completely agree that this is an obviously good starting point, but it is something to be used later as the slavers operate in a nation far away (the only nation tolerating slavers) and the party will probably go there at the earliest in like 10 sessions. But I need something for right now. There is nothing stopping you from making changes to a module to suit you or your group's tastes and I would even go so far as to say that the game is better when the GM takes liberties with things rather than playing it straight. So yes, if you think something in a module is gross then absolutely change it, you aren't cheating anyone by doing it; in fact you risk cheating your players by keeping the gross stuff in.
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Jul 18, 2020 04:02
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also if you established in universe that orcs are "all bloodthirsty savages", you can create a powerful narrative by flipping that on its head and showing that orcs are in fact not all that, and it creates more interesting development as you can tackle how and why these harmful and incorrect stereotypes are being propagated... it also allows you to flesh out the backstory of this half orc PC getting to learn about his heritage that society has lied and hidden away(which, to avoid a long derail, i can promise you first hand happens in reality). rather than being a bad dm who retcons things, it instead makes you an amazing dm who uses intentionally dubious information to give more insight on how the world works, and creates challenging and rich narratives that can stay in peoples heads for years
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Jul 18, 2020 04:19
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pog boyfriend posted:rather than being a bad dm who retcons things, it instead makes you an amazing dm who uses intentionally dubious information to give more insight on how the world works, and creates challenging and rich narratives that can stay in peoples heads for years
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Jul 18, 2020 13:40
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NinjaDebugger posted:If your players don't know what to do with slavers, get new players, yours are broken. The ONE TIME you actually want them to go full murder-hobo and they let you down...
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Jul 18, 2020 13:52
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I could use some ideas for what to add a chase encounter, where the players are pursued by zombies and a mummy lord through a briar maze. I've also not run this type of encounter so any advice there would also be welcome. (DnD 5e, level 4 party) Based on player conversations from our previous session I'm expecting them to pursue an adversary connected to one of the character's backstories. This enemy is a reskinned mummy lord with good long-term antagonist potential, and I want to make him feel threatening to the players. Summoning an endless horde of undead seems like a good way to discourage players from engaging a boss that will probably wreck their day, especially while they are in an area where they are completely disconnected from any allies or support. My first idea was to start the encounter with the mummy lord having a few zombies allies. He would then summon more as lair actions and on his turn, while using legendary actions to make taunting attacks. Based on the party's performance in past encounters, they won't be able to take the zombies down faster than they can be created, which I hope cues them into a retreat. The party is also carrying a magical object that they haven't learned the nature of, and will be used by an unknown NPC to encourage them to run if they stay to try and fight for too long. Otherwise I'm prepared to have my mummy lord guy peace out like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, but I hope that's not how things go down. I've also considered id could be better to not start the encounter (unless they attack first) until the enemy has summoned a bunch of zombies through cut-scene powers. Then I could just say "you realize you have no choice but to flee, roll initiative" or something of the like. I'm concerned that might be removing too much player agency though. If the party does decide to run, I want the escape to be an exciting replacement for the combat. They should be able to outrun low level undead fairly easily, so to keep the pressure on I'm thinking of; 1) Adding a handful of fast zombies to the mix 2) Having zombies jump out branching paths 3) A wave of necrosis passing through the briar and causing it to fall into the path, requiring acrobatics or constitution checks to progress while maintaining regular running speeds I've not run this type of chase scene, so general advice in addition to specific ideas would be welcome!
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Jul 19, 2020 05:02
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One thing I've always found that cues players in to "you can't win this fight" is telling them "there are more enemies here than you can count". So maybe have the mummy start off with a ton of zombies already summoned and mark the position of the advancing tide on the battlemat with, like, a dotted line showing where they've got up to. Then as the fight goes on the mummy gets impatient, grabs individual zombies from the horde and throws them at the players (at which point you put a model onto the battlemat amongst the PCs)
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Jul 19, 2020 08:05
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It's maybe just personal preference, but as a player I'd probably be more frustrated / feel more walled-in by an encounter that seems manageable at first but then keeps spawning zombies until I take the hint. If I immediately have a sense of the scale and threat through the drama of the scene (have them encounter the mummy lord in an underground chasm beneath the centre of the maze, perhaps? So they have no forward path and they can see that there are literally *hundreds* of zombies crawling up out of the darkness towards them), that can reasonably cue me into the fact that I need to flee without needing to be pushed into it. Other stuff you could do: - Have the briars close in around the party, changing the shape of the maze to try and entrap them (druids or rangers can try and use their skills to soothe the plants; or they can use fire to blast their way through) - Have some unexpected traps that interact with the players and the zombies in a fun way that can thin the pursuers' numbers if used effectively, without creating an over-reliance on killing them one by one (a statue spits grease to slow the players down - if they dodge it, they can set fire to it to damage the zombies. A Raiders-style rock comes rolling down the tunnel, mowing down zombies as it goes.) - To mix things up, create some more powerful thorn-zombies that have literally fused with the briars of the maze. Give them Thorn Whip or Spike Growth to drag players back or force them through difficult terrain.
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Jul 19, 2020 08:16
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grobbo posted:It's maybe just personal preference, but as a player I'd probably be more frustrated / feel more walled-in by an encounter that seems manageable at first but then keeps spawning zombies until I take the hint. Yeah, that was what I meant -- rather than spawning zombies until the players flee, make the zombies kind of a moving terrain feature on the map to make it clear that this ain't something you can just fight.
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Jul 19, 2020 10:34
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Next week my players will most likely face off against the current Big Bad - a homebrewed Kraken that's been magically weakened. I'd be happy if some of you could look over the monster design and tell me if I'm on the right track, especially if the HP are too high/low. We're playing DND5e. I've got a party of 5 players who just turned level 5 and have full spell slots/HP. They're a fighter, rogue/ranger, warlock, cleric and sorcerer. They will fight the Kraken underwater, but have water breathing and a choice between two boons: Freedom of Movement or Bless and 10 Temp HP. They found out that the Kraken has been severely weakened by an age-old spell that binds it. It's followers have started to crack the seal that binds it - they will want to strike while they can (and once the metagamer who knows a normal Kraken is CR23 gets it through his skull that this is going to be homebrewed :P ) As they 2-rounded a 120HP boss at lvl 4, they've been asking me to make the fights tougher. I want to make this one challenging, but hopefully not end in a TPK. I'm thinking of the following template, with a two-phase bossfight AC 13 200-250 HP, undecided Legendary Resistance: can choose to pass two failed saving throws / day Freedom of movement: ignores difficult terrain, can't be restrained/charmed/knocked down 3 Attacks/Round Tentacle attack: 15ft reach, +5 to hit, 2d6+5 bludgeoning If target is a creature, CON 14 save or it becomes grappled Throw: can throw a grappled creature 30 feet. Thrown creature goes prone. if it collides with another creature, DC 14 Dex save or the other creature is knocked down as well. Beak attack: 10ft reach, +5 to hit, 3d6+5 piercing Legendary Actions: 3 legendary actions/round, after another creature's turn. Movement - 20ft movement without provoking AOOs. Tentacle Attack Ink Cloud - costs 2 Legendary Actions, Recharge 5-6; 30ft radius ink cloud that's magical darkness, centered on Kraken. Moving into the cloud causes 2d6 poison damage. Cloud stays until start of Kraken's next turn. Kraken gets to move 20ft without AOO after ink cloud. PHASE 2 After the players cause 200-250HP damage, the Kraken's armor cracks and reveals three beating hearts. From then on, the players have to damage the hearts. Each heart has 60HP. AOE attacks target all hearts. Destroying a heart causes the Kraken a random disadvantage (-2 to hit/dmg/saving throws) and causes the heart to explode in black ichor that causes 1 round of blindness in 10ft around the kraken unless a DC14 save is made. Also, we play on Roll20 and usually with open rolls and visible HP bars. I've been thinking of putting the HP bar of the Kraken at 500HP just to shock them, but trigger Phase2 at around 200-250dmg done. Luebbi fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 19, 2020 13:43
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Luebbi posted:AC 13 first things first, i dont know your players so any balance considerations i make are going to be tenuous at best. my first thought is that you need to add lair actions to this party to make it more fun, but i think the battle has a serious design problem which you are not accounting for: underwater fights give underwater creatures resistance to fire, and gives you disadvantage to fight. some weapons flat out dont work, and ranged weapons are limited. so this underwater fight is going to be extremely difficult for them. it does not look like you are accounting for this possibility in the fight, so unless you are, i propose the following alteration: three phase boss battle, first phase is made deliberately harder because you have to deal damage to the kraken underwater but do not use the swallow mechanics, but when you clear the first phase, you do something to create an arena that you can fight on(a pillar emerges from the sea floor surrounded by a bubble of air or something badass like that) and then the fight continues as planned. add a lair mechanic where jets of water knock people prone or cultists will jump into the ring. 250HP for a party of 5 in a big bad fight seems fine. the ink cloud should cause blindness within. you have severely nerfed the bite attack of kraken - why? i think reducing the damage and subsequent acid damage of the bite attack the kraken has and adding a "being swallowed" component to the fight splits up the action economy and also adds a layer of fear to being grabbed. my proposed change would be to add a rule where attacking a tentacle and doing, i dunno, 30-40 damage will break the grapple. remember that if someone is grappled, they should be restrained(this is important! do not take this out of the statblock or grapple does nothing!!). from there, keep an eye on the fight. if the players are being slammed into the pavement, change the encounter subtly so that if they destroy a heart not only is the kraken disadvantaged, it is also disadvantaged literally - give it disadvantage on the next turn. in most cases i think you will want this as this encounter seems difficult... it creates a sort of narrative to the battle of "this is so hard to fight underwater -> finally, we can fight this thing on equal terms -> holy poo poo this thing is strong -> wait, by taking down these hearts, the kraken is finally on its last legs" which is very satisfying.
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Jul 19, 2020 17:06
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Has anyone here ever ran a campaign wherein the party has started out with a piece of property to be protected and invested in? I was thinking of running a D&D campaign wherein the group starts as owners of a tavern, and I was wondering if anyone had any particular tips on how one would do that well. I wanted to place it in a recently war torn place which allows for plenty of crazy and still lost flora, fauna and equipment to still be running around. Whats more I want the tavern to be the driving point to push people out into various sandboxy adventures, which in turn allow the place to be improved. Perhaps certain ingredients could a quest, wherein their eventual use in a drink could win over an NPCs help, or a raid for valuable loot could supply the gold needed for an expansion. The place would have a definitive reason why the group were pulled into the ownership position in the first place, and should have its own character, both NPC and inanimate which helps the players care for it -- how management based it would be depending on players. .
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Jul 19, 2020 17:29
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SkySteak posted:Has anyone here ever ran a campaign wherein the party has started out with a piece of property to be protected and invested in? I was thinking of running a D&D campaign wherein the group starts as owners of a tavern, and I was wondering if anyone had any particular tips on how one would do that well. I wanted to place it in a recently war torn place which allows for plenty of crazy and still lost flora, fauna and equipment to still be running around. Whats more I want the tavern to be the driving point to push people out into various sandboxy adventures, which in turn allow the place to be improved. I'm currently at the starting point of a campaign like this. My GM went a bit broader, we all have our own thing on a settlement type area but it's all added alongside an established module, and I gotta say it's presenting some issues. We have a person controlling the tavern but who also wants to do farming stuff, we have an apothecary/atelier person, a forge/blacksmith type person, and then two players who haven't engaged with their prospective things they chose (fishing, tourist trap museum). Since we're using this alongside an established story, it feels very clunky and why wouldn't we just stay on the farmstead/just not ever visit we have a world to save. Having it be the basis for a story to grow around it is a much better option and will feel a lot more rewarding. You need each player to be interested and desiring to engage with the tavern ownership angle. If you have that buy in, and an idea of how you want progression to feel, I think it is a really cool idea that players will have fun with. There's a fun monster from Kobold Press' "Tome of Beasts" called an alehouse drake, the perfect companion for an up and coming tavern.
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Jul 19, 2020 17:47
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It's a cool idea because when you want to present a quest, the consequences are easy, in that you will lose your business if you don't do something about it. My first thought, was Always Sunny ripoff scenarios.
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Jul 19, 2020 19:10
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Luebbi posted:Ink Cloud - costs 2 Legendary Actions, Recharge 5-6; 30ft radius ink cloud that's magical darkness, centered on Kraken. Moving into the cloud causes 2d6 poison damage. Cloud stays until start of Kraken's next turn. Kraken gets to move 20ft without AOO after ink cloud. Think you want this to proc if you start your turn in it as well. Awesome advice from the previous commenter. Do all that stuff lol
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Jul 19, 2020 19:12
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Glory to Italia!
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pog boyfriend posted:Lotta good poo poo Thanks! You helped me make this even more deadly  The players will have the freedom of movement spell, which allows them to move freely underwater. Just sucks for the sorceress that her new Fireball is at a disadvantage, but she'll have to make do and use other spells at Level 3 instead. I've added a swallow mechanic, and a Lair Action that summons a whirlpool, and the grapple/restrain on the tentacles. The multi-tiered map and cultists sounds cool, but doesn't fit the rest of the encounter, so sadly has to go. I'm pretty sure things will be difficult enough for the players either way and with putting it at 500HP and triggering Phase 2 at a certain point, I can react to how well (or bad) the players are doing.
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Jul 19, 2020 19:24
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LRADIKAL posted:It's a cool idea because when you want to present a quest, the consequences are easy, in that you will lose your business if you don't do something about it. yeah, and make sure they are all over-leveraged on the business to REALLY motivate them or else they end up having to burn their social security cards and fight a guerilla war or something awesome
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Jul 19, 2020 19:28
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If you're making them go prone have something that punishes that, like a pool of ooze or w/e
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Jul 19, 2020 20:29
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sebmojo posted:If you're making them go prone have something that punishes that, like a pool of ooze or w/e You can do that, but they're already being punished by the kraken's high mobility and ability to throw characters. Losing half your movement range when the kraken's 20' away is significant. The one concern I'd have is that having to constantly chase after a monster that's playing keepaway can get frustrating. I'd have the kraken change up tactics from time to time to keep things varied.
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Jul 19, 2020 21:00
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If it's in a cavern then the classic huge slow moving chunks of ceiling falling down is a good trick
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Jul 19, 2020 21:37
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punishedkissinger posted:yeah, and make sure they are all over-leveraged on the business to REALLY motivate them or else they end up having to burn their social security cards and fight a guerilla war or something awesome Maybe a couple of the party members get addicted to healing potions? Do they have a Frank-like benefactor/money guy/fixer to work with/for?
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Jul 19, 2020 21:47
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SkySteak posted:Has anyone here ever ran a campaign wherein the party has started out with a piece of property to be protected and invested in? I was thinking of running a D&D campaign wherein the group starts as owners of a tavern, and I was wondering if anyone had any particular tips on how one would do that well. I wanted to place it in a recently war torn place which allows for plenty of crazy and still lost flora, fauna and equipment to still be running around. Whats more I want the tavern to be the driving point to push people out into various sandboxy adventures, which in turn allow the place to be improved. This has been a lot of fun in the current campaign I've been running! For the hardcore crafters in the party, I've been using the Witch + Craft rules to make building stuff for the tavern more compelling. For the more narrative-driven players, it's a great jumping off point to get them pulled into events in the city. A fight outside that led to some property damage pulled them into a mystery/conflict with the city watch. One time a magistrate wanted them to investigate something and dangled handing over the deed (they owned the building but not the land for some reason) as a reward. I think it's a great tool for campaigns that are primarily set in one location, especially since it can often provide you, as the DM, a backup plan for things to do with the group when a player can't make a session or you have some downtime between arcs.
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Jul 20, 2020 00:04
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Bingo Bango posted:This has been a lot of fun in the current campaign I've been running! For the hardcore crafters in the party, I've been using the Witch + Craft rules to make building stuff for the tavern more compelling. For the more narrative-driven players, it's a great jumping off point to get them pulled into events in the city. A fight outside that led to some property damage pulled them into a mystery/conflict with the city watch. One time a magistrate wanted them to investigate something and dangled handing over the deed (they owned the building but not the land for some reason) as a reward. I think it's a great tool for campaigns that are primarily set in one location, especially since it can often provide you, as the DM, a backup plan for things to do with the group when a player can't make a session or you have some downtime between arcs. i have a hard copy of this book(and faerie fire) and i can second this recommendation. one of the best third party supplements ever
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Jul 20, 2020 04:31
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Primpin and Pimpin posted:I'm currently at the starting point of a campaign like this. My GM went a bit broader, we all have our own thing on a settlement type area but it's all added alongside an established module, and I gotta say it's presenting some issues. We have a person controlling the tavern but who also wants to do farming stuff, we have an apothecary/atelier person, a forge/blacksmith type person, and then two players who haven't engaged with their prospective things they chose (fishing, tourist trap museum). Since we're using this alongside an established story, it feels very clunky and why wouldn't we just stay on the farmstead/just not ever visit we have a world to save. Having it be the basis for a story to grow around it is a much better option and will feel a lot more rewarding. You need each player to be interested and desiring to engage with the tavern ownership angle. If you have that buy in, and an idea of how you want progression to feel, I think it is a really cool idea that players will have fun with. There's a fun monster from Kobold Press' "Tome of Beasts" called an alehouse drake, the perfect companion for an up and coming tavern. I think the concept needs initial buy and benefits heavily from being a focal point from the start. The group I was previously in also had the prospect of owning property and the problem with it was that it came late, and was competing with the main narrative for attention. I think it'd be extremely important for a Session 0 to talk about the nature what is owned by the players, but also how in depth; be it management heavy or merely a suggestion of upkeep. Bingo Bango posted:This has been a lot of fun in the current campaign I've been running! For the hardcore crafters in the party, I've been using the Witch + Craft rules to make building stuff for the tavern more compelling. For the more narrative-driven players, it's a great jumping off point to get them pulled into events in the city What does Witch + Craft offer in terms of crafting stuff? I've been looking it up and It's hard to glean anything beyond the initial Kickstarter/book description.
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Jul 20, 2020 15:50
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SkySteak posted:
basically it is an entire ruleset for crafting, where players specialize in specific types of crafting and based off a number of factors get a series of d6 for a roll. the goal is to pass a DC set by the dm, and many samples are given for estimating power of items. rolling a 1 on a d6 is a flaw, rolling a 6 is a boon, and flaws and boons can either cancel each other out, or exist concurrently, such that any player made item will typically end up very unique. the crafting scales off your player level but can independently be invested in to make someone who is a good crafter. the book also includes many magic items
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Jul 20, 2020 15:59
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Kind of have a specific question here that I can't quite think of an answer to - my characters are in a modern setting, and have been getting visions from an ancient being that's buried below a church somewhere in a metropolis (they don't know this, they're just going to see a white sarcophagus in a white room). The only indication of where this will be is something the being will speak into their minds. Now, I want this to be a little bit of a puzzle. I'd like the being to use an anachronistic term for the church, but I don't know what to have the church be named - for example, I could have him say 'find me beneath the temple of the hiketeria', which is an olive branch in greek, so he's buried under the Church of the Olive Branch, but obviously that idea isn't good. Basically I don't want them seeing a gps in their vision and just driving there, I'd like some deduction, short as it may be. Edit: The how and why he was buried there, that's not important and probably something the players will simply not be able to find out. Like, he'll be buried deep, we're talking about a staircase that goes a hundred meters below the ground, where they'll be able to see different ages represented as they go further and further. This guy's been around since before babylonia. Morpheus fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Jul 20, 2020 |
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Jul 20, 2020 16:32
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How historically accurate do you want to get? Because, for example, anything this guy knows from Babylonian times wouldn't have been called a church as we understand it. You could have, say, three major religious buildings in the city, each with X number of definable properties, and they have to find the only one that has three specific properties, kind of like a logic puzzle. But alternatively, with an eye on the historical stuff, I'd go a route where the being can tell you exactly which temple it's buried under, and you'll be perfectly able to pinpoint the location. If you're in the prebabylonian city that used to stand here. The city and temple are long gone and built over multiple times and the party's job is to trawl university libraries, archives and the goddamn land office to find out any number of - where a temple of XXX used to be - which of the temples of XXX it must be - what a temple of XXX was in the first place - what is standing in that spot now - who it belongs to and how you get in It could be neat if it turned out the spot has always held some site of worship throughout history, but not always traditional temples or churches, any place where people invest spiritual energy will do and these day's it's the stock exchange, but that might not fit your particular campaign.
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Jul 20, 2020 16:55
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I had my session in the City of Brass Saturday and it went phenomenally. I wanted to give a trip report about how I implemented advice from here to foreshadow things and give the players options that lead to the same place. Warning, long! Players: Safiya the Fire Genasi Sorcerer  Sprinkle, the Faerie Dragon Bard  And a third player who couldn't make it. I used the display of earth elementals with slave collars breaking down a building that pog boyfriend posted, right as they entered the city. Also showed off slave collars by showing some NPCs the characters knew from a previous adventure, an adult red dragon and its dragonborn progeny, caught and led down the avenues of gold from the city's port. One of the two players died last session and decided to play a faerie dragon bard (I use a supplement called monstrous races, so players can be pretty much anything. ) Since they're a trickstery little fae creature, we decided he was an escaped pet slave, and I figured they'd be down for releasing an adult red dragon in the middle of a city, which I was extremely correct about. So together we worked out "you were hired for the price of a handful of candy by a thin, white haired man to press this cylinder of magical ice to one of these slaves' collars." As the collar and cylinder touched, they both exploded with shrapnel and it took about 6 or 7 Efreet to get the dragon re-collared, and several slavers died. Unknown to the player, he was simply hired to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ice cylinder item, not to actually free a dragon. They still continued to follow the slaves, and eventually bought the dragonborn guy later on. The fire genasi player, Safiya, seeks to become a warlock with a pact to an earth genie, and wanted to use her connection to her great great grandmother, the fire genie Shabhanu Al-Maraqq, who she barely knows anything about, to network to one of these earth genies. Al-Maraqq was hinted to be royalty and has deep connections in the city... Turns out they are the owner of the best coffee shop in the universe, the Burnt Bean.  Both of them desire power: Al-Maraqq had previously been very powerful royalty in the City of Brass, but she attempted a failed coup 500 years ago and was exiled. Now she's back to slowly work her way back up and try again. Safiya wants a more direct kind of power: the patronage of an earth genie, called a Dao, and the magic that brings. Al-Maraqq knew of two Dao in need of aid who would also be glad to have her great great granddaughter under their influence: - In the first case, a half-orc spirit is being hunted by Azer, fire dwarf slavers, for questioning regarding dealings with a powerful Dao merchant. He has a slave collar on so he can't leave the city or be teleported away, and since he's a spirit he can't be killed, bad news for the Dao who wants to ensure his silence. The Dao wants him sent to his afterlife, and wants the Azer killed to send a message to not stick their nose where it doesn't belong. - In the second case, Al-Maraqq has "caught wind" (planned) that those earth elementals at the entrance of the city are going to have their collars broken soon (she was the one behind having the faerie dragon test the ice cylinders, she's planning a slave revolt.) And this Dao recently displeased her in a business deal so she was going to punish him.) Having the players quell these dangerous monsters would endear them to the Dao and grant them a big favor. This was a more straightforward option if the players didn't want to deal with the puzzle of the half orc. They chose the half-orc ghost option, and chased off the fire dwarves nonlethally by making them think they were losing their jobs lol. The half-orc led them to an ice devil's home, where the devil forges those ice cylinders. Unknown to them, the devil was also the white haired man who hired Sprinkle the faerie dragon earlier in disguise. Since the devil has already pre-sold the items to Al-Maraqq, however, he wants Safiya to agree to grant him one favor of his choice at some point in the future in exchange for a cylinder. She cheats on the paperwork, the devil doesn't notice thanks to a really good and bad roll respectively, and after the collar of the ghost blows up, it's off to visit the afterlife and the players have completed their quest. Later, back in the coffee shop, the dust on the floor swirls and a Dao in the form of a knight in extremely heavy armor emerges from it and thanks Al-Maraqq and Safiya for a job well done, saying to the latter "should you continue to give form to my will, then I will grant you my strength." Fin. Queue milestone level for everyone. On top of this, the players did buy that dragonborn man from the slavers. Currently he still has his collar on and they've been messing with him since he used to be somewhat antagonistic toward them, but I think they'll let him out if it soon. Otherwise I'll have a Talk with them. And another npc has found them with information to get them back on track in the greater campaign. Jinh fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jul 20, 2020 |
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Jul 20, 2020 18:06
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My Lovely Horse posted:How historically accurate do you want to get? Because, for example, anything this guy knows from Babylonian times wouldn't have been called a church as we understand it. Don't give a care about historical accuracy, this is nWoD so there's no reason you can't just say 'oh it was actually different in this world'. The spot being a non-traditional site of worship is a good idea, in this campaign these types of locations are actually important - they represent locations where intersecting leylines mean a weakening of barriers between worlds, which the antagonist cult is attempting to use to break through to their god. The place they just encountered them at was a lighthouse-turned-museum that had been the site of the largest ship crash in the city's history, a peace treaty, multiple authors writing their greatest works, etc. Edit: it occurs to me that this is an american city, so having a babylonian temple here might be stretching the history a little much, even for nwod... Double edit: gently caress it, there's an ancient city. Regarded mostly as myth and fables, similar to atlantis, but it was there before it suddenly wasn't. Morpheus fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Jul 20, 2020 |
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Jul 20, 2020 18:33
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Have also asked this question in the OSR thread, since it relates to an adventure meant for OSR-style systems, but it's not really related to the system so I figure you guys would also be able to provide some help.quote:Looking for some DM advice regarding the popular Tomb of the Serpent Kings adventure. My question contains spoilers for the adventure so if you're not already familiar with it and think your DM might want to run it for your group some time... look away now!!
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Jul 20, 2020 19:38
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cargohills posted:Have also asked this question in the OSR thread, since it relates to an adventure meant for OSR-style systems, but it's not really related to the system so I figure you guys would also be able to provide some help. my first immediate thought is doppleganger, and (thanks for the excuse to pull out my ad&d stuff) it looks like it will be a 4 hit dice creature as opposed to succubus 6 hit die, as well as being a fair bit easier to hit with an AC of 5, and does not use energy drain. it would make the encounter easier as a whole, but dopplegangers do get the element of surprise
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Jul 20, 2020 19:50
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| # ? May 12, 2024 19:16 |
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Foocubus pretending to be a Paladin. Humanoid of indeterminate gender and race, due to the full plate they wear, that swears to aid the party until they can return the favor with Lay on Hands. Won't break character until the Lay on Hands trap is sprung. Can be trusted to stand watch, carry baggage, basically anything but Lay on Hands. All of the jokes, much less of the embarrassment. The doppleganger idea is good too. But you might want to have 1.5 Dopplegangers, by having 2 Dopplegangers doing the old, "shoot them, I'm the real person."
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Jul 21, 2020 06:09
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