Eric Levanduski's page

Midterms and spring break are over and we got a great session in. We had two more people join us. Now that we have 7 players, if 2 or so can't make it, the group can continue and play without them. That being said, all 7 were there last night. It was hard to manage 7 people, and NPCs and keep things running.

Relius Toppit, NG Half-Elf Gunslinger.
Played by my friend Ray. Relius is the son of two big-game hunters/adventurers in the mwangi expanse. Too bad his elven mom saw his son as the end to her career and left not long after Relius became a toddler. His dad blamed Relius for the loss of his partner and wife. After losing a shootout competition to a girl (where his dad put money on him winning), his dad lost everything and banished his son, saying he threw the match intentionally. Relius took what he could and left on the Anne, leaving Sargava for good. (which unfortunately got shipwrecked on the shiv). Relius is a gentleman through and through and sees the good in almost everyone.

Orin (something I forgret), NG Goblin Cleric of Nethys
Played by my friend Leo. He has some DnD experience with either 2nd or 3rd edition. Orin was on the Anne with Relius and the only other survivor of the wrecked Anne. Since he made his character last night, he doesn't have a backstory done. That being said, he is a goblin, worships nethys, and took rich parents as a trait... I'm curious to hear what he comes up with. :D

We started the session with Olondir, Dierdre, and Piper leveling up. I'm thinking about converting everyone's character into herolab to make it easier for me to look at. (I cannot stress how awesome herolab is for a DM or player.)

Once we begun playing, I had the original 5 be returning to camp in the late evening. On guard duty was Gelik and Ishirou. They looked surprised, confused and relieved to see the 5 return to camp. The other survivors were resting in their tents when they returned. Jask is tied to a tree since the NPCs don't trust him.

They asked questions about what did they see, find, etc. When they discussed a map, I had the players perceive that Ishirou said something about maps, as well. Olondir is not very good at talking to people and comes right out and asks Ishirou about his love life with Aerys. (currently non-existent but he does like her). He says the dwarf is very brash and if he didn't feel so bad killing a madman, he would challenge him to a duel. The other characters stepped in and smothered the heating up situation. Olivia and Dierdre cleverly took Ishirou aside and asked about what he was talking about. He only agrees to let the party (everyone but the dwarf, that is) to see his treasure maps if the girls talk to Aerys for him.

Team Girl Squad goes and finds Aerys drinking in her tent. Aerys offers them more drinks...Aerys is quite drunk at this time. Deirdre and Olivia have girl-talk with Aerys which was role-played out, and after a great roleplay and a natural 20 on a diplomacy role, the two girls become BFFs with Aerys and she goes and seduces Ishirou. Everyone is laughing and having a great time with this.

Meanwhile, the party shows the rest of the group the exonerating evidence for Jask. I rewarded everyone with story XP for this. Jask also told them the story of Sargava, the Free Pirates of the Shackles, and Cheliax.

Sasha skipped over to Soldlon and asked if they saw any flying dinosaurs and how awesome and worthwhile it would be for Saldlon to capture on for her. (She also whispers if he doesn't he may lose a body part.) It is unsure if she is being serious or not.

The dwarf tries to hit on Sasha and smack her butt. She almost skewered him immediately.

After Ishirou and Aerys finish rumbling in her tent, Ishirou hands the girls a scrollcase filled with pirate maps. He discretely thanks the group and is now friendly. On these old maps, there is a big X at K, and on the oldest map, is a picture of a really old, half-built lighthouse at V.

Aerys and the girls talk again and she admits to no longer wanting to be an alcoholic. After some great K(Nature) rolls, they remember that in tropical climates, viper nettles can help her and they grow in deep jungles away from the shore.

As the night befalls the group, the NPCs ask the group if they had the strange "feels like I'm being stalked" feeling as they have had. (the red devil sightings). Here I ask the group to decide a watch-duty order. 1st watch and 2nd watch goes by fine, but the 3rd and 4th watch all get the same feelings of being stalked. Investigating the disturbance brings them to a tree with nothing. Approaching the tree, they heard something big break branches and dart up. They saw dark wings... that's it. They tell 4th watch about their findings.

At the same time, I flashback to early evening. Orin and Relius are in a field and see some grazing jungle goats. Right before their eyes, they see a dark, humanoid shape grab a goat and take off with it. They both panic and run for their lives.

On 4th watch, Olondir and Piper, hear this rushing in the bushes. Thinking it is the strange beast they heard from 3rd watch, they are ready for a fight. They call out and hear "<EXPLICIT THINGS> it's gonna get us!" in common. The two run out and don't see anything chasing them. Things calm down and they are introduced to the 2 new PCs. No one seems to care that Orin is a goblin.

That's all I have time to write right now.. class is over.

I saw Battle:LA last night and I enjoyed it. It was no district 9, but for a sci-fi action movie, it did very well.

What were the character's names? No idea. But I had a feeling for who was who. It was difficult to keep track of the characters and who lives/goes missing/dies etc. I think the combat shots.. especially the ambushes were intentionally disorientating. It is to give you the confused, raw-intensity feeling that the soldiers on screen are going through.

I recommend you see it. Maybe not in theaters, but definitely see it sometime.

I admit my players in my savage tide campaign never made it this far (they are fighting their way through the cove right now before a long hiatus) but I have thought greatly about this too.

First, Harliss is the only sentient being left in the cove. It should come to the relief that someone, whether good or bad, survived whatever the hell happened in the cove. She is the first person they can communicate with. I feel like the players wont attack her right away.. especially if she doesn't make the first move either. Between the relief of finding a living being and this living being not (at first) wanting to skewer the PC's organs should ring a few bells in the players heads that sing, "hey.. maybe we shouldn't attack her right away!"

That being said, it really depends on your group. As a DM you should, by this point, have a feel for how your group handles complex encounters... I'm not saying it has to be perfect.. but knowing if they are the shoot first and ask questions later type.. then you describe/run the encounter so they dont necessarily do that right away.

Second, I think the PCs, up to this point, have a more vested interest in the affairs of lavinia and vanthus.. not some sole survivor of some abyssal plague bomb. That is why they are at the cove, no?

Perhaps you should read over the many different campaign journals for the STAP here on these boards and over at ENworld. I found those to be very enlightening.

I am now imagining Kingmaker Dwarf Fortress. Why would you make me do that?

You are not alone. This was in my head as soon as I heard of Kingmaker.

advice on making your own maps/environments, sample towns, and random encounters for environments would be awesome.

I'd especially like rules and designs for hexes/mapmaking that extends not just horizontally, but vertically.

How cool would it be to have PCs in a new/ongoing campaign explore a massive city designed by the players long ago that fell to the forces of evil?

Scott Betts wrote:

I ran through character creation in person with a couple of my players over the last few days, using the online Character Builder. One of them has been playing a lot of Pathfinder. His reaction? "Man, Pathfinder could really use something this nice."

They already do - it's called Hero Lab. =]

+1

Brilliant piece of software. Worth every penny.

Even if it's oratory - if performed while fighting, is it really any different from another PC talking smack to infuriate a foe?

Yes. The difference is that when you choose to play a bard, you aren't choosing a normal class. When you write or type or select "Bard" on your character sheet, you are declaring at the top of your lungs that you are donning the mantle of "awesome incarnate" and fully accept that no one can rival your awesomeness.

One of the many benefits of being this awesome is that your smack talk is mechanically and thematically better than everyone else's.

The world gets to make saving throws against everyone else's smack talk but yours.

If it's singing, can they really keep that up & sustain the supernatural benefits while hacking, slashing, and parrying? I get that the game may allow it in terms of actions, but it induces SERIOUS eye-rolling at my table.

Once again, yes. If eye-rolling does occur, be cool about it and remember "haters gonna hate."

Not really spoilers at all concerning Serpent's Skull, but I figured I'd do it anyways...

This is taken from pathfinder SRD and probably is relevant to your interests. It is a scalykind domain from the inner sea world guide. Specifically the saurian subdomain.

nice greeting

On topic: I am very much looking forward to seeing how this gets resolved at your meeting. Sometimes you just need to remind the players of the expectations you have for cooperative storytelling to be amazingly sucessful and fun for everyone.

I feel like the MendedWall is a good guy and really wants his group to run a good story driven campaign that the players feel involved in. I know first hand how hard it is to try to get players to play an RPG that isn't "grindin' till we get to the good stuff." We are like-minded in what we want from our gaming groups.

I want to help because I, too, know how frustrating it is to see new players metagame so much and think about things as XP instead of focusing more on character development and story. I DM a bunch of total newbs and I die a little bit everytime they use metagame knowledge as the basis for their decisionmaking. (My favorites include: A random fortitude save after eating? <explicit> guys, I guess we are being poisioned, Uh oh, perception checks? Ok. I draw my sword before looking around.., and who cares about those guys on the beach with us, they are just NPCs)

It's a shame. Everyone loves playing and they always wanna know when the next time we're gonna play, but I'm stuck using XP to get them to show up on time, bring snacks, and get involved in the game via good character roleplaying, party inventory tracking, or even an in-character journal. I've also been giving them XP for friending NPCs and story plots and reinforcing that there is something to be gained by interacting in the game using methods that don't involve attack rolls.

I'm somewhat concerned with how much XP I give them but luckily I'm sure none of them read the section of the pathfinder SRD that says how much XP you actually need until you level up!

Perhaps you can do something similar. When they get that sweet, sweet 1300th experience point and scream "Yay level 2!!!!!1111" (Yes they say 1,1,1,1 in this example) politely tell them, "I'm sorry but we are playing on a customized advancement track and I'll let you know when you actually level up. It is a modified version of the fast track so you are REALLLLLLYYYYY close though!" (the last part is essential).

Instead of removing XP entirely (not a bad idea necessarily), I'd like to give them XP, give them extra XP for things you like seeing a group do, tell them they are getting close to leveling, but only level them up when you feel like they deserve it. Experience points are a quantifiable measure of success for the players to be able to look at. It is hard to do at first, but maybe once they taste the non-quantifiable success (pull off roleplaying a disguised soul-eating demon for 2 real-time years, see Bob the fighter team up with his adventurer hero who he looked up to all his life to defeat a great evil, etc) they'll see, first hand, that successisn't the best armor or the most XP (as Wow made them believe), but how much fun you have with a group as you achieve amazing goals!

Glitterdust + Fog Cloud.

The will save for glitterdust is for blindness, not the sticky glitter.
AoE "I can see you but you can't see me!"

Aqueas Orb + Hideous Laughter

Could someone be so kind to explain how this combo is particularly devastating?

I'm thinking about making a Bar-Igura be either the gorilla king or the gorilla king's champion that the PCs fight.

Bar-Igura's are demonic ape-creatures most notable for their activities in the Savage Tide adventure path. I think something like Olangru would make a very good intimidating monster for the party to face. Especially if you can build up their constant tormenting and gruesome acts of terror far in advance.

First off, I second the notion to watch that episode of Community (The tale of Fat Neal). Not only is it hilarious, but for the most part, it will be the first time people will ever see a table top RPG being played.*

*Disclaimer: Close enough to "being played"

Secondly, I too am running a bunch of new guys and did a few things differently that what others suggested.

I made a bunch of different level 1 pre-made characters. I had a dwarven inquisitor of abadar named Gauss, a spanish conquistador themed cavalier, a serpent themed druid, and a bunch others. I ran through some examples of combat with me running both goblins and players describing how I'm rolling a d20 and adding my attack modifer to see if I hit.. etc.

Then I let them take over using one of the characters I made. I ran the same encounter again only with them controlling the PC. Everyone seemed to understand and after a few goblins being killed they were ready to make their own character.

Here I proposed to them two different APs. Rise of the Runelords or Serpent's Skull. In retrospect, I should have just run a module. Crypt of the Everflame or hollows last hope (or possibly a fusion of both) would be my strategy. There is a link on the boards somewhere of someone asking what AP crypt of the everflame would best lead into. Read that for some ideas.

They decided that an adventure in the jungle sounds awesome and we started serpents skull a week later. In the time building up that, I had everyone make characters. I gave them character sheets and helped guide them through the process. I thought it was important to use non-automated sheets or programs the first time so you see what is getting added to what. For backstories, I asked them to explain why you are on the Jenivere headed to Eleder and linked them to a 10 minute background link I found on the wotc boards. (Google dnd 10 minute background and it should be the first link). I found this background checklist to be wonderful and everyone loved the creative background parts of character creation.

My players keep forgetting what adds to what, so don't stress out about people not mastering the rules right away. Hopefully the other players will help out the struggling player. That's what mine do. :D

Also, don't stress out about people doing illegal things during their turn.. like going from holding a sling, drawing a sword and shield, and charging someone. Don't bog them down too much with rules and just explain there isnt enough time for you to do all that in your round.

Most importantly: Reward Creativity! Don't discourage thinking outside the box and reward player attempts at roleplaying, crazy combat actions and other things. It means they are getting immersed into the game and let them have their fun! Having fun is exactly what pathfinder is all about.

I completely agree about new players finding creative solutions to problems.

You should have heard the ideas coming out of their mouths when discussing how they should get to the Jenivere when they got to the rocks and the pit they had to jump. Olandir simply jumped, Piper had the dwarf and the elf hold a rope and created a makeshift zipline (requiring strength checks/acrobatics from the three but was still successful), and then Olandir remembered he had a 10ft ladder which he put out as a bridge for druid and elf to cross on.

Another example: During the fight with the zombie crew, Saldlon recalled that zombies are fueled by negative energy and thusly harmed by positive energy. He asked me if he could toss a cure light wounds potion at one to harm it. Although this is by the rules, illegal, I permitted it because it is creative and sounds fun! I explained that a CLW is in a smaller vial and wouldn't splash, however. He agreed and proceeded to hit a zombie in the face with a potion of CLW for 1d8+1 points of damage.

The party is certainly optimized but not overly so. They were generally good about wanting to optimize their characters, but also chose somethings that aren't as optimized but fit their character's style.
For example, Piper took martial weapon proficency for his halfling slingstaff because he thought it to be a flavorful weapon.

The biggest questions during character creation that came up were what skills do I pick? and what feats/traits do I pick?

I let the players decide what they want to do and then, only when asked,I'd give them advice on a range of feats that might help them. I told them they could take any feat they wanted as long as they met the requirements.

For example:
The druid's player explained to me how she wants to summon awesome animals and wanted to know if there are any feats that can help her in that regard. I replied yes there is the feat augment summoning which makes the animals you summon a little bit stronger and durable.

She also needed advice about her racial skill focus. She wanted to know what skills get used the most and how she could put skill focus to the most use. I told her perception is the most used skill, but a bonus in spellcraft or a knowledge skill is also very useful for identifying things. She chose perception and now, at level 1, has something insane like a +13 to perception. (damn skill focus, high wisdom, class skill, and racial bonuses)

For next session, they won't make it back to camp until nightfall.. so depending on what they do they might surprise their fellow castaways. They also have in their possession the locket that the captain wants so Captain Kinkarian will have to eventually make an appearance to the group. I'd rather not have the Jask and the group around when that happens and I have yet to introduce sightings of the red mountain devil.
They also have yet to encounter the cannibals.

Since time is an issue since we are at school and only meet 1/week, I'm doing this on the fast EXP track and 3/5 members of the group leveled up.

I printed out little notecards with a picture of each castaway along with a little bio of where they boarded and descriptions of their personality so the group can remember who is who.

(Example: Sasha Nevah, Human Ranger. [PICTURE] She seems manic, fiercely independent and also very good looking/somewhat flirtatious. She is missing a pinky on her left hand and also has a tattoo of a red colored praying mantis leg on her back.)

The night they get back to camp, I'm going to have them roleplay a bit and hopefully learn about Ishirou's map. During the night I'm going to give them the third nightmare, more ghosts in the ocean, and also going to play up how quiet the jungle sounds and how anyone on guard duty has a sense they are being watched. When they investigate, they'll find several dead tamarins. The poor things will be shriveled up, half eaten and entirely drained of blood. >:D

Captain Kinkarian won't jump out of their campfire this night because tonight he'll sense it missing when he comes up from his chilling in the abyss for his nightly stroll. The next day, for sure, he will be looking for the one with the amulet... and be surprised when he sees a living red haired half-elf with strikingly similar characteristics holding the locket.

Now that they are level 2, hopefully they'll find the landfall of the Captain and Ieana, encounter a cannibal or 3, and progress the story some.

I think encounters with primates(be it other people, tamarins, degenerate feral gorillas or a even coven of orangutan witches) will be a running motif with this campaign. I'm even considering later on in the campaign adding Olangru from the savage tide for some scare factor.

Although I own HeroLab and love the program, I figured everyone should make their first character by hand. It is a burdensome experience filling in all the bonuses everywhere, but I feel it would teach everyone more of the layout of a sheet and what is getting added to what. Now we usually can only meet 1/week for 3-4 hours... so to get players to do things they should (and remember to do!), the economist in me decided to offer them incentives.

For the first session, I'm providing them with opportunities to get extra XP. Showing up on time, providing snacks for the group, and having a completed character sheet + backstory netted you 275 experience from the get go. (On time: 25xp, Snacks: 50xp, Completed Sheet: 100xp, Completed Backstory: 100xp). Currently: showing up on time, providing drinks/snacks, keeping a character journal, the job of group quartermaster, the job of group cartographer, and good in-character roleplaying will give your character extra XP.

I started things off on the Jenivere. Specifically, the captian ordered a feast for 100 days at sea. I described how chicken wings and other assorted delicacies were prepared and how wonderful it was to eat something other than boring soup. I had Gelik go around with a plate of chicken wings and talk to all the characters and have them introduce themselves. Only after everyone was finished roleplaying with Gelik and each other did I make them roll fortitude saves. Hilariously enough, Matt, the confident dwarven barbarian rolled a natural 1 on his save while the halfling rolled a 19 and first to act. Everyone else was somewhere in the middle. I described how Piper slowly was regaining consciousness when he felt a sharp pain in his foot as a massive lobster/scorpion looking beast nibbled through his boot.

Combat was great! Everyone loved it. Everyone picked up the rules rather quickly. Now it is just a matter of locating bonuses to add to your rolls on their character sheets. Notable points were the NPC castaways unable to roll anything above a 9 while ganging up on a sea-scorpion, (in fact: Sasha got critted twice by the same scorpion!) while the dwarven barbarian, on his first ever attack roll critted one for 30 points of damage. Balor, the tiger, was missing and not on the beach.

After everyone found their supplies and got their bearings, they talked to the NPCs and found them to be quite unhelpful.. except for the one chained up. They grown to like Jask and figure he is a good guy and could be of use to the group if he is free. They spot the Jenivere up the beach and proceed to investigate. They had trouble climbing the rocks and making a jump over a 7ft wide chasm as they made their way up to the boat. I described sounds of combat ensuing inside the ship. The sounds of snipping and scuffling could be heard among the waves and rockings of the boat. As they crossed the chasm, the combat finished and they heard a tiger roar. Emerging from the wreck, with a eupteryid in its mouth, was Balor! Finally Balor and Deirdre were reunited!

They searched the ship and found the cook and first mate's bodies. They began putting some pieces of the puzzle together. They also found useful supplies, jask's items and keys, and among other things, a large quantity of fayleaf.

They returned to camp and proceeded to establish a more permanent base. They talked to the NPCs some more who were getting ready to rest as the heat of the day was fast approaching.

With the start of the evening rain, 4 large giant rats emerged from the jungle looking for what smells so tasty (24 days worth of rations + fayleaf). This is where I ended the first night's session. We started the next session with rolling for initiatives in camp. A few rounds later, another solid victory was had for this group of castaways. They followed the tracks of a crippled rat and found their fellow passenger Olivia in the woods re-arming her crossbow after killing a wounded direrat.

Roleplaying was had when it was decided they would rest and start searching the jungle in the morning. Nighttime came, and I proceeded to highlight stuff about the ghosts in the surf. Everyone got armed and ready to fight this ghostly underwater beings when they realized they didn't leave anyone guarding the front of their base! The dwarf and the halfling rushed to the front when they heard a crash coming from inside their tent while the rest prepped for their undead enemies. The alchemist deduced the glowing water was nothing but bioluminescence, but these spirits were certainly undead. They freaked as another one showed up under the waves. This one was a male, swashbuckling type. Half his face was missing as well as bits of his clothes. The two ghosts both moved to kiss eachother and as they did... a nova of light occurred from where these ghosts once were and were gone... The waves went dark as well. Particularly spooky for the Elf who was so sure it was algea/plankton.

While this was going on, at the front of the base, 3 monkeys were taking off with a can of fayleaf. The halfling and dwarf sprinted after them, with the bard casting sleep on the one holding the cannister. They proceeded to kill the thieving, sleeping monkey, as the others got away. These Golden Lion Tamarins seem to have a thing for the party's fayleaf.

The alchemist had a terrible nights sleep and was struck with a nightmare (nightmare #1).

The party left the following morning, hiking through even the hottest parts of the day and by the evening got to the eastern rocky cliffs of the shiv... only to be attacked by 2 diomorphodons! They proceeded to dispatch the two dinosaurs and decided to recuperate and rest. In the morning they'll attempt to climb up one of the rocks to the dinosaur's nest. (End of Session 2) The bard, during the night, saw Captain Kinakrian walking on the beach crying for someone (but he couldn't remember the name). They also saw a wrecked ship (The Brine Demon) a mile or so down the beach when everyone woke up.

Olandir decided to climb and get the eggs! The poor dwarf slipped about 30ft up in the air, though and fell. After being healed, he was determined to get up there and succeeded! He found 4 eggs and a bag with jewels in it. He pocketed the jewels and only showed everyone the eggs.
Everyone realized that they were lacking rations for this trip and were eager to dive into some bread the dwarf has with fried diomorphodon eggs.

Afterwards, they examined the Brine Demon and were attacked by 6 zombies. (They were steam rolling the zombies so I decided to up the CL by 1 so they could continue the fun.) Everyone realized that their slings or earthbreaker did reduced damage to the zombies... but that didn't stop Balor and Saldlon wrecking the faces of these zombies. That late morning, the beach smelled overwhelmingly of burnt carrion thanks to the alchemist. It has not been the witch's best day after getting the shakes and then encountering mindless undead. They looted the wreck and find the locket, Jasks' papers of innocence, and a bag of gold coins. Out of food, they decided to make it back to their beach camp. Fortunately for them, the rains came early and it was just a horrid, miserable trudge north to their camp. (3/5 of them have survival as a skill!)

The final encounter of the third session was an edited encounter with once again, golden lion tamarins. They made it about 4 hours worth of trudging north, soaked to the bone when they get to a jungle clearing and they spot hundreds of monkeys in trees looking at them, hollering.
A rather large tamarin with black fur spots cautiously approached the party (his two sidekicks stand back a little) and holler at them with his hands out. The party looks around and is unsure what to do. It was interesting seeing them so nervous! The halfling drew his lacrosse-stick and the monkeys freaked out! The leader backed off some, afraid of the men, but kept his hands out gesturing for something. They threw food at the direction of the monkey which was prompty given to one of his sidekicks, but it seemed to still sit there with his hands out...
The halfling decided that it possibly wanted the fayleaf he had.. so it gave it almost all it had. It cheered and took it happily to his other sidekick. The king disappeared for a little bit and returned with poop as a return gift. The monkeys, upon receiving the fayleaf cheered and exploded in so much noise as they scattered off in various directions... and after a little the jungle, besides the rain, sounded the most quiet it has ever been.

We are picking up next session with the group returning to camp.

DM Notes:

The golden lion tamarins are actually working as agents (loosely) for Aycenia. She was the first to know of the castaways on the island and the fact they have fayleaf! (I'm playing her as a pure hippie). I'm considering linking the fungus and vegepygmie's island to an island with a rare breed of fayleaf that Aycenia likes, but since the fungus, she hasn't been able to get. She asked the monkeys (via a quickened further a fun gm plot spell) to retrieve some fayleaf from the castaways so she may try it out.

I can't wait to do more roleplaying of the castaways. As of right now, the party is unaware they have personal quests taht will help them. The proof of Jask's innocence and a story EXP reward amy open their eyes that getting to know these folks could benefit them... we'll see.

I've decided I'll keep a log of the events of my group here online.

First, I'll share a little bit about the players and then I'll do the cast of characters. We are all either juniors or seniors in college. My group's total amount of pen and paper experience totals to about a 1.75 years. (I being 1.5 years worth of it.) I gave them all the option of whether or not they wanted to play the a classic save the world game (Rise of the Runelords) or a indiana-jones jungle adventure game (Serpent's Skull).

Cast of Characters:

Saldlon of the Vial, LN Elf Alchemist
Played by my friend Dan. (The one who makes up the remaining .25 years of gaming). Not much is known of Saldlon. Boarded in Cheliax, he is travelling to Sargava to continue his personal alchemical research. He is socially aloof but extremely knowledgeable. Very sarcastic/arrogant.

Olandir Onyxbeard, CG Dwarven Barbarian (Invlunerable Rager)
Played by my friend Matt. Olandir was a dwarven soldier when the drow attacked his clan's hold somewhere in Varisia. He hid while his whole clan was massacred. His personal cowardice combined with the gruesome scene forced him to flee and get away from it all. He took the first boat out of Magnimar. Perhaps here he can regain some of his honor and quell the burning rage that is building within him. He is quite peculiar, personality wise. He owns 10 pounds of soap and remains as clean as possible.

Piper Peppergrin N Halfling Bard (Savage Skald)
Played by my friend Thom. Piper is from Whistledown in Varisia. He is a kind-hearted halfling and always had big dreams. He blames his lofty ambitions from the comics of Grognak the Barbarian he read as a boy. He left for Magnimar to live among the tall folk and hear more stories of adventurers. He got a rude awakening in Magnimar when he realized how terrible most people are. They made fun of his shortness but the kid kept up hope as a tavern waiter. He loved hearing the stories Don Tomas de Colours would share with him. He told Piper he too could be a hero and if he has the cojones he should catch up with him in Eleder sometime. Piper dreams of being a barbarian hero like Grognak from his comics, a Noble Paladin like Don Tomas. In the meantime he is okay with playing his flute and smoking fayleaf (basically weed) for musical inspiration. He wields a halfling warsling (which is described by him as a glorified lacrosse stick).

Deirdre McRath, NG Half-Elf Druid (with Balor the Tiger)
Played by my girlfriend, Beth. Deirdre also comes from Varisia.. from a town called Willow Pond near the Ember Lake. She was an orphan and constantly bullied as a child due to her elven heritage, and spent her time in school attempting to develop a charming personality to fit in. When she entered into he teen years with little success she began to withdraw, spending more and more time in solitude in the forest. She befriended a tiger cub and was taught the druidic path from Bretta, an elderly druid from Willow Pond. She got in a slight incident involving her tiger almost mauling a boy so she, too, left for Magnmiar looking for the first boat out. Maybe on her adventures she'll find out something about her elven mother.

Olivia, N Human Witch
Played by Dan's girlfriend, Steph. She is a newcomer who hasn't provided me with a full backstory yet. She has an owl familiar and I believe either deception or trickery as her patron. I'll update her backstory when she sends it to me.

My thoughts on the party:

WOW. I can't get over how good these backstories are for people who never played any sort of tabletop RPG before. Everyone (besides Seldlon and Olivia since they haven't sent me an official backstory) loved the 10 minute backstory and the creation of a background for their character. (If you don't know what this is, it is a wonderful template someone made on the wotc boards that I've shamelessly stolen to help my beginner players with what I'm looking for in a backstory.) Since mostly everyone is from Varisia, I'm thinking about as the campaign progresses having a portal to Viperwall and running some stuff up there that ties into the serpentfolk/characters backstories.

Next up is a rundown of our first 3 sessions.

Classic.

Benefactor to BBEG is a great campaign idea.

First off, to better answer what sort of errands you want your PCs running, I think it would be good to know what kind of cult the BBEG is heading up. Murder? Demonology? etc.

I'm a very new DM so my 2 cents is quite worthless, but here it is nonetheless.

Generically speaking, collecting artifacts or creating a diversion (so he can go off and do something else) would be excellent. Perhaps eliminating a rival cult/corruption shtick? (He could use this event as his chance for emergency governing powers or something.)

Something to think about:

Simple tasks done by monsters, NPCs and the PCs independently to achieve some goal is a thing of beauty. Are you familiar with the movie, The Dark Knight? The opening scene is a perfect example of what I mean. ("I'm supposed to kill the bus driver."... "What bus driver?")

Witch or Oracle. I prefer bone oracle.

Whichever mystery you pick, the more important part is the wasting curse.

Perhaps cannibalism is her ticket to ward off the decay?

This adventure is fairly tough to manage for a newbie group. They have all this wonderful freedom (sandbox nature ftw) but completely unsure what they should be doing with it.

On a (un)related note:

Anyone else lucky enough to have a good looking red-haired female half-elf in their party?

I can't wait for Captain Kinkaran to see his beloved standing there while on his routine stroll of lamentation.

I started Souls For Smugglers Shiv last night with a bunch of newcomers to DnD in general.

Everyone took the time to make a backstory and had a completed character sheet for last night and everyone is enjoying themselves!
They are learning the game and (more importantly) learning to roleplay... but I can't help but feel like the NPCs are being tossed aside. They are there on the beach with them but I just think the party is not used to the idea that NPCs aren't just people who stand around and give you quests. Does this make sense?

The party and everyone's character is obviously the focus, but how can this new DM help liven up the NPCs and make them more meaningful?

I know each NPC's tendencies but I'm having trouble translating this into a believable character and mannerisms.

I'm playing Gelik as kind of a jerk and snobby (Kids these days don't appreciate my humour... et al), but I need help with the others. The party watched Sasha, Aerys and Ishirou struggle to bring one of the 3 sea scorpions down by grappling, flanking and pummeling it to death.

I'm also having a difficult time giving Jask a good personality. He knows he is innocent and decided he knows vaguely what he is charged of. (He knows he is under arrest for crimes against the Sargavan government.)

So far, they survived and met their former shipmates and explored the wreck of the Jenivere for survivors/supplies/answers. Afterward, the party built their camp in the blistering hot sun. It is now ~4pm and afternoon showers have come.. but all the commotion and smell of 24 days worth of rations caught the noses of 4 large festering rats.

Just had our first session tonight. It is pretty much everyone's first time playing any sort of tabletop RPG.

I'm impressed at everyone's willingness to come together and make up great backstories and everyone had a great time.

Cast of Characters:

Seldlon of the Vial - LN Elf Alchemist. Researcher and bomb lover. Tends to find complex solutions to simple problems. Boarded in Magnimar.

Deirdre MacRaith - NG Half Elf Druid. Never fit in or felt at home anywhere. Left Varisia on the first boat out to a new place. Hopes of one day finding her elven mother and bringing the murderer of her father to justice. She has a pet tiger named Balor.

Olondir Onyxbeard - CG Dwarven Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager). The sole survivor of his clan after an attack by drow. He left with a few gallons of ale and 10 bars of soap for Sargava in hopes of finding himself and one day hopes to avenge his fallen comrades.

Piper (Pippenweed?) - LN Halfling Bard (savage skald). Poor guy left his halfling village to the big city of Riddleport. Got stuck working at a pub where he was always abused and made fun of. Inspired by an adventurer named Tomas and the comics of Grognak the Barbarian, he set off for Sargava for treasure, glory and adventure. Digs nature and smokes fleyleaf "for musical inspiration." He likes slings.

Next week, we will be getting another player. She will be playing a human witch but she hasn't sent me a name or backstory or anything just yet.

They just visited the wreck of the Jenivere and set up camp.Too bad the late afternoon rains and the transportation of so much food to their camp attracted 4 hungry dire rats.

A concept I am toying around with is a pharoah-to-be with an anubite guardian/caretaker.

I think it would work best in a Kingmaker game where he/she can aspire to build and rule an empire (complete with pyramids etc).

I can't wait for the next installment! I really find your game inspiring and hope to imitate your style of play in my own upcoming game.

How experienced are your players with tabletop RPGs?

Mine are COMPLETELY new to the game and I want to set the tone of my game to be not only fun for everyone, but that what you put into the game is what you will get out of it. (hopefully this encourages not only people looking up rules, and character options, but inspires the players who would want to do little side-adventures for character development)

For an odd reason, I really like Bruthy and I hated to read about him getting bested by Nualia. In my game he never fought her. Instead, he is still active in the Nettlewood and a thorn in Shalelu's side. (who I will be playing identically only including the bitter rivalry between the her and Bruthy).

Similarly to your game, if my players don't go looking for the bandits, Shalelu will. However, if the Stag Lord tires of her meddling in his affairs, he may look into hiring the notorious Bruthazmus of the Nettlewood to try and solve his elf problems.

Bruthy on night duty sounds good. Its a shame you sent Shalelu off to Magnimar sort of. I'm sure she would love to take a shot at ol' Bruthy since they kind of have that rivalry going.

Awesome!

I see you are using him as a self-made bandit lord and not tied up in the webs of the Sczarni. In a lot of ways.. I kind of prefer it like that. I respect that because a simple bandit encounter will certainly be juxtaposed to the mystery of who/what is behind what is going on in the skinsaw murders (The process of connecting Aldern to Xanesha to Karzoug).

In fact, I am planning to leave the Stag Lord open ended. What I mean is that he can help the PCs if they are having trouble connecting the dots to the main story or help tie up some personal backstory notes of a character or two.

EDIT: I saw your updates to the main story. The primary thing I enjoy as a DM (besides making players have a great time of course) is that it provides you to have an organic world.. where the actions of the PCs influence the modules and you get to do what you are doing now. So great job! I would like to see the EL 7 (the most believable) but perhaps playing it on the fly a little easier on the PCs. (Perhaps the goblins are hungry and shaken about the ruckus or some other appropriate negative modifers to make it easier).

Greycloak- I find your works incredibly insightful and inspired me to run my very own RotR/KM campaign for a bunch of first timers here at school. Great job dude. Keep it up!

What are you doing about the Stag Lord and the bandits from kingmaker? I'm not sure where I want to establish the Stag Lord's base of operations in relation to sandpoint and I am also toying with the idea of the Stag Lord having ties to the Sczarni somehow.

Maybe in your case, the Stag Lord's operations will show up in some records while the party is taking down Jubrayl (assuming the rogue gets his revenge!)