|
Hello all, from the start of my Reign of Winter game, I have been getting some strange, dark things going in Reign of Winter. This, hopefully, giving some better, more sinister perspective on the Reign of Winter outlook.
I started this, with this thread before I decided to start this one up for everybody to get some amazing ideas on.
I wouldn't mind some additional ideas as well as this one, I am basically going to be doing a Copy/Paste from the other thread to this one. So, bear with me!
Hope you all enjoy this thread!
|
|
My last game with Reign of Winter was a complete success, they did a lot of stuff and discovered a few creepy elements in the Adventure Path that the AP didn't think of. This was for the Snows of Summer, Book #1.
I'd like to share some of them, so I can inspire others to try adding some spook to their Reign of Winter game:
1) The Chillbane Fever, turned out to be some type of Curse or Disease, it literally turned the people's bones to ice to make Ice Skeletons. These would act as the temporary Winter Guard until they got some more trolls other than Teb out into the Border Wood.
2) This one might be a little tricky, but, creating a larger mystery around Thora while she is in the hut. I tried doing this and it worked great. The mirror basically was used as a conduit to look into her memories, or see it from 3rd person. When doing this, think of anything you want that is gruesome and devilish (after all, Thora is supposed to be a sad story), and don't make her evil, have her be the sad story.
For example, when they took the mirror out of the Hut and made a reflection of the spirit (not the doll) the character was able to see one of the memories. The most gruesome I thought of is getting her eyes plucked and tongue cut out and later being handed a porcelain doll by Nazhenna.
This may present a beautiful character development scene, as they decide whether or not to leave the doll, destroy the doll, or take the doll with them. It may prove to be a little tough, but, spook this encounter out as best as you can.
3) Having the Giant Weasel's fur change from Brown to White, as the White Witch witchcraft starts defiling the land, it starts to defile the animals. Hence, I made it to where the animals looked like they have Chillbane Fever, but their fur was changing from brown to white and their skeletal structure was turning to ice. Those that were already turned were aggressive and hungry, the others were in pain and looked like they were dying.
One of my players said that this one of his most exciting 1st level games he's had in a while. Try it out and see how your players react, just remember, if it gets to be too much, dial it down and get back in the comfort zone of the players. It's meant to be creepy, not horrifying.
If you guys made any cool adjustments to Reign of Winter, let me know, I'd be awesome to read. Thanks for reading!
|
|
Alright, there was not a whole lot of additional ideas like I had a fortnight ago, however, we did have plenty of roleplaying involved that caused us to not get far. However, the players had a lot of fun with it (literally, we went from from the troll fight to where the guards arrive in Nadya's house).
We had a new player enter the game who decided to play an Aasimar Cleric of Cayden Cailen. Personally, I as a GM tend to allow many things be accepted and allow things to be accepted through character concepts. So, here is where my first idea came through:
1) You can use your tankard as your holy symbol, and I'll allow it to do as much damage as a gauntlet.
Being that this was a cool idea, I allowed it to happen. Next, this happened during the time when the party had met up with the caravan and decided to join in to speed up their time to get to Waldsby.
One of my player's characters had died and he brought in a new character. So, he decided to challenge the Cleric of Cayden Cailen to a drink battle.
Being that Priests of Cayden Cailen are, in my opinion, always drinking something from their hip flask or something of the like, I came up with another idea:
2) You can take up to a number of shots without a roll, equal to your Wisdom Score.
This, would allow them to outdrink plenty of other people. Proving that they were, really, a true cleric of Cayden.
This is my last one that I came up with, this was right before they decided to start drinking their hearts out, a blessing of Cayden:
3) A blessing of Cayden Cailen, placed on the cups, would negate the hangover from overdrinking.
If you want to know, the Cleric of Cayden Cailen was able to last up to three battles with the miscellaneous caravan guards and the PC, before finally putting down his glass knowing that he had hit his limit.
|
|
Okay, I have some new ones, my GURPS DM was feeling sick so I DMed earlier.
1) For the Sergeant of the White Guards or Winter Guards (I keep getting them mixed up) that arrived in Waldsby, I had him kill both the Bartender and Waitress (Emil and Katrina) because they did not know where the PCs were.
2) When the PCs went to town on the guards in the White Weasel Inn, they killed all but three of them, one being the Sergeant. The Sergeant was the only one with a mirror, therefore, Radosek made him an "Boreal Skeletal Champion". After they thought he was dead, because everybody who got their skeleton turned into Ice died. I made it to where he walked up, and left with his skin. In my eyes, this provides a great mini-adventure when the PCs get back to Waldsby when on of their people are found dead with his skin skinned and hung in the hands of the "Cold Lady" in Waldsby.
3) The Witchcrow, Lytil, I decided actually does have a nest with five other baby witchcrows, however, they hate their mother and they're not that crazy as Lytil. So, when the PCs entered a den in order to get the precious items in her larger cave, the little Witchcrows come out and wonder what is happening. If the PCs say that they ARE indeed thieves, the younger witchcrows will say okay. These smaller witchcrows are as they appear above the Greater Witchcrow in the back of the Snows of Summer book. This provides an excellent opportunity for a witchcrow to become the familiar of a Wizard or somebody that accompanies a Bard, or even a Rogue who can spy on people and enemies. (The main witchcrow that talked to my PCs was named Casis [Kass-ess)
4) When they get inside the Pale Tower's Courtyard, the female Ice Troll actually is just a stuck-up b&~*@. Don't make her attack the PCs unless they do, indeed, attack (naturally, the Troll would defend herself). This provides a very cool, and interesting encounter for those who have stubborn PCs.
I would say, try exploiting every Role-Playing opportunity you can.
|
|
Alright, here is another application of some cool things in Reign of Winter.
1) Ice Cubes that function as miniature Bags of Holding (more like a Handy Haversack), with one downside, if they melt their contents are lost as well.
2)For the keys, have a small patch of ice gather around a specific place in the Portals as it pulses with a brighter blue glow.
3) The cauldron is what Radosek gets his summoning from, have it almost be like a chest board, where he is raising the board to about chest level. On the small small chess board, it looks like there are six wolves on it, that grow bigger as he streches his arms out toward the PCs. Though this is kind of tough, a simple way of taking care of the Wolves is to knock over the Caldron. However, this is totally up to the GM, I would say no if you want the wolves to be a major problem in the encounter with Radosek.
Thanks for your ideas. These are really interesting, and I'm going to use some of them.
The ice troll, for me, was just grumpy and hungry. Nobody spoke Giant, so the party was at an impasse with her until the fighter beat her down (to the immense joy of the watching guards). He failed spectacularly at his intimidate check, otherwise he wouldn't have had to worry about it.
I like the ice skeletons and love the ice elemental wolves.