Caseman's page

One of the issues in my campaign stems from party dynamics. The outspoken character-actor type is the one with the biggest beef against Lavinia. The quiet types at my table have little real problem with her, but the character-actor tends to sweep them up in his enthusiasm. Maybe saying the entire party hates Lavinia was inaccurate. Most of them could take her or leave her, but the really enthusiastic one hates her so it looks like the entire party does from behind the screen.

Why did they accept in the first place?

The first scene in the campaign actually had the party waking up in a Sasserine City Watch jail cell nursing hangovers from carousing the night before. Lavinia marched into the jail, paid for their release and told them that if they were interested in a high-paying job involving a "little bit of skullduggery" they could inquire at her mansion for the details.

I set it up this way precisely because I felt that Lavinia needed a immediate favorable impression. Shows where that got me.

I had to go out-of-role and ask what the problem was and why the group was giving me such a hard time with her and the response was "She keeps giving us jobs that get us attacked and beat-up".......YOU GUYS ARE ADVENTURERS!!! What the hell did you expect! That was how I responded, along with a smart-@ss comment about how we could play Accountants and Academics instead of D&D if they didn't want adventure......Goofy players.....

FH

This is pretty much precisely their attitude. They feel that she's not being up front with them because their jobs for her are "dangerous."

My response is "Dear God in heaven, are you fifth graders? She gives you the jobs she does because they're dangerous and she thinks you can handle them."
I've been generous, even too generous with her money towards the party and yet . . .
Someone else posted on making her more helpful, maybe that's the key, but I don't want the party to expect that they can go to her for help at every drop of the hat

I honestly don't know what to do. She's been nothing but nice to them, and I haven't played her as deceitful in any way, but for some reason the party has decided to despise her very core. While this is causing only minor issues now (just started Sea Wyvern's Wake) I worry about motivation down the line. Any suggestions on how to change a party's perception of an NPC?

My reroll tokens were actually pretty popular, and could be beneficial in surprising ways. I had a player once whose character ended a session in a really bad way (trapped by a roper). I awarded "hero points" based on character development. The player brought two sketches of his character and some diary entries because he was so sure his character would bite the big one without a couple hero points to back him up.
I'm not proud, I'll take it.

There's a new two-CD set of pirate songs and sea chanteys out called (most appropriately)"Rogue's Gallery." If that isn't an open invitation for use in a D&D game, then I don't know what is.

OK, let's say you want to encourage character development in your campaign and let's say you're willing to reward players for doing this. What form of reward are you willing to give? XP, loot, reroll tokens, bonus feats; there are a number of options. What I'm wondering is what other DMs may have used and liked in the past.

Yeah, I just started Grad School there. If you want you can E-mail me at caseman419@juno.com

So here's the deal.
I'm moving to Lafayette to go back to school and I want to start up a D&D game. I've had a lot of experience as a DM and I run mostly Greyhawk. My wife games as well and also cooks a meal for game night. (Ah, the advantages of marrying a chef's daughter!)

Anyway, I've just finished a couple of campaigns that were heavy on the light-hearted and I'm looking for something more serious. Post here if you live close and we'll talk.

I admit that some powers, like Spell Resistance, are probably too powerful to give away at first level, but I personally prefer to just let the player "pay off" the debt in XP. I can't see penalizing a player on every roll they make for the first couple of levels, especially because at those low levels, the difference between success and failure is usually just 1 or 2 points.

What I think may be better is a more indiviualized approach. If a player is choosing a race for some obvious physical advantage, simply stagger the advantage through the first couple of "non-levels." (i.e. a race that has a +6 STR and a +3 LA, give the character +2 STR every time he earns a level.)Of necessity, this would be on a case by case basis. Some powers can be given right away depending on the nature of the ability. Does anyone really care that a svirfneblin has continuous non-detection for the first 5 or 6 levels?

My wife and I are moving to Lafayette, IN and we're looking for a gaming group. I'm not quite sure how long a drive that is, but we're willing to drive for an hour or so for a good game.

Basically, that says it all. How do you deal with players who want to play ECL races when you start a campaign at first level? Do you use the system detailed in Player's guide to Faerun or do you have other systems?
Just curious about how other people do it.

I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with the problem I'm experiencing:

I'm in the imagination phase of designing a new campaign and I have this real problem with moving forward. The problem is not lack of ideas. On the contrary, there are too many out there. I have several hundred supplements, both official and unofficial, sitting on my shelf at home, some of which I've never even touched on in a game. Not to mention all of the Dungeon adventures. How do you sort through it all?
Or, asked another way, if you wanted to "theme" your campaign (i.e. fighting undead, saving the city, becoming rulers of the land) how many themes are appropriate and not too much?
I'd love some feedback from other DMs who've had this issue.

My wife and I are moving from California to South Bend, IN and we need to find a group to join. We are willing to play in pretty much any D&D campaign setting and I have several years experience as a DM if there are people out there who need a Dungeon Master. My e-mail address is caseman419@juno.com.

One of my favorite D&D memories is of "Hard Core Gaming Night."
I'd had a hard weekend (our game was on Monday nights) and I was in a bad mood. We'd agreed to start a new campaign the previous week, but I was in no mood for an evening of coming up with backstories. I made everyone roll up characters the old fashioned way: no adjusting, or assigning scores, just straight down the list. Then I put them through absolute hell. The first encounter in a forest glade killed three characters, one of whom never even had a name (due to a well-placed crit from a psychotic boar). I killed two more on the forest path and one more going down into the valley where the main part of the adventure was set. As my players' characters died, they'd make up new ones, throw them in, and watch them fall to my fury in under five minutes.
Odd thing was, as the night progressed, I lost my bad mood and began to really enjoy the game. My players, usually blase on everything from dragons to demigods, were in stark, living fear of such simple things as darkened cave mouths. It turned out to be a wonderful evening.
And you know what? My players still feel, years hence, that it was one of the funnest D&D sessions they'd ever played in.

"Crom! What dark sorcery is this?"
Various wet chopping sounds follow.

Actually, I liked the adventure quite a bit. A good way to introduce newbies to the hobby. Strange creatures, but some good laughs, too.

I'd just like to chime in here and say that the very first 3e campaign I ran was based off of Sean K. Reynolds' Against the Giants: Liberation of Geoff. (You know, the silver anniversary addition.) That remains one of my favorite D&D products ever, and one of my best campaigns ever. No place to share war stories, but I just wanted to thank Sean for the great ideas and all the memories.