Almost A Hero's page

Hi, guys

So I'm about to start a campaign with Hollow's Last Hope, and have been reading through the adventure. I just would like to query two things.

Firstly: The players background story in terms of how they got together is that they were all hired for some mission/task which ended up being sabotaged... they've been very vague on the details, so I'm going to play it in medias res and add details as the campaign goes along.

So the idea is that they're going to be lying low for a bit, and I thought it would be useful to say that the ranger knows of a quiet little lumber town on the outskirts of a forest in the middle of nowhere and has a old friend who would be happy to house them for now.

Now, the idea is that the friend is frantic about finding a cure for the epidemic - either due to his child or himself having become ill during the players trip to the town.

He'll ask the heroes to help him. Should they not wish to do so, there's two ways I'm thinking this can go: he'll either blackmail them - saying he left instructions that if he dies, a message will be dispatched to the nearest city of their location.

Alternatively, he'll state that he's spiked one of their drinks with the contaminated water, and that their only chance is to find the cure before it takes them.

Obviously, he'll be scared, and apologetic, and he knows he'll have betrayed the friendship and so on, and say as much, but I think it has a greater impact at indicating the level of desperation the townspeople feel.

Which do you think is the best route? Should I change it somewhat? I don't want to railroad too hard, but I'd like to run through the adventure and I think this is a pretty fitting way for the adventure to get started.

Secondly, what's the best way to play the Worg's request for "assistance" with the outlaying creatures? I see it working once, but I imagine the heroes will be very unlikely to go and kill a second batch of monsters when he only hands over one or two mushrooms for the dark mantles.

Do you have some suggestions on the wheedling out/backpedaling on the apparent lack of faith and get them to handle the other monsters? If they want to fight him, that's fine, but I'd like to play the Worg as cunning as they describe him in the module.

Hi, guys

While I have DM'ed before, it was a long time ago (like, 14 years ago) and a for Dark Sun campaign that grew in player size gradually over time, making it easy to work in new PCs.

I've taken an interest in Pathfinder and am keen to begin a new campaign. The issue is that it's a group of five (two old-hands, three relatively new) from the get go, and I know from experience that these players sometimes are prone to the "Why would my PC want to hang out with these guys" argument or inter-party drama.

What would you recommendations be for starting the campaign in a way that gets around this scenario in an uncontrived manner? While I'd love for them to fall naturally into a group, it can be difficult to steer them in that direction and I'd prefer they all start on good terms from the beginning.

My thoughts at this point are:

1. During character creation, work in a hook into each character's background where a PC is at least related/friendly/a colleague of another PC.

2. Mutual survival: The PC's start shackled and rowing on a slave galley far from home (their starting equipment is essentially stored in a storage hold of some sort), when the galley is attacked by a third-party - in the ensuing chaos, they have the opportunity to deal a blow to the slavers and escape to a distant shore. Or the city where they were all located is aflame, and they've all managed to escape the inferno via the city's long-abandoned catacomb network... something along those lines.

Anyway, have any tips or recommendations?