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What is consensus here? Are people planning on doing alot of in-town Role-Playing stuff between 124 and 125? How much downtime will there be between scenarios? We game about 5 hours every Sunday, so I expect we'll be OK until the new issue comes out. Will there be any sidebars with developing any in town stuff? Such as a friendship between the PC's and Tirra? It probably will be left up to us, but in developing stuff like that, I am not sure if it will step on any future installments...Any hints would be cool.
I am... even during 124. I told them that they did not quit their jobs to go explore a tomb that might not reward them in any way. Especially since most all of my characters each have two job to make ends meet in this pitiful town. Housing is expensive, there are too many people and too little jobs. Maybe later in the game they can reduce this interaction but for now when we take breaks, they are in essence going back to their "real" jobs.
I am doing a little role playing in town when they have to come back and sell items or identify things but it is tough not knowing the bigger picture. Plus it is a little harder because it is significantly less linear. They can go anywhere and it is hard to prepare unless you have the whole damn place memorized and every NPC accounted for.
I'm about to take the party back to town for their first roleplay in town. I started them out in front of the cairn, and they've cleared through the false tomb and the architects level. They want to take the red metal pedastal back, plus they managed to get the architects tools and they want to identify them. It's a good opportunity to take them into town, roleplay a little at the shops, introduce them to allustan (the wizard is apprenticed to him), etc. They also reached second level after the architects layer.
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Ebb,
Are we running the same game? My group got to the exaact place, and earned exactly 1000 XP. I will not know what they want to do until Sunday, but they have only spent 2 hours in the Cairn so far. I had them meet Tirra, and enter a dagger throwing contest with her. My Wiz PC is apprenticed to Allustan. My Elven Hexblade is one of Moonmeadows men, they have the Halfling Bard, who needs to be at work at the Spinning Giant tonight, and the Priestess of Heironus needs to be at evening prayers. So I think they will leave. I plan on having them come across Kullen and his group in the street. Kullen will have a few wounds from the Owlbear, and be in a pissed off mood. This will give me a reason for them to recognize the Tattooed arm later. I will RP selling stuff, and if they are wearing new armor and blabbing all over town, Khellek may hear of it. We have been gaming together for about 20 years, and I am pretty sure that they know to kep their mouth shut, but Allustan may reinforce that to the Mage, because i do not want a fight between them and the NPC Adventurers without knowing what future part they are going to play...a little help Eric or James? It has been a while since I have been looking forward to GMing Sunday nights...you guys are awesome...Great adventure Mr. Mona
If things go according to plan (and no, I don't expect them to come anywhere close), when I DM Age of Worms the party will spend nearly a whole session roleplaying in town before even seeing the Whispering Cairn. I'm planning on halving exp and treasure and filling things out with a lot of side missions and subplots based on character background (assuming I can get all of my players interested in actualy writing detailed character backgrounds). I realy like the idea that was mentioned about the characters having "day jobs", but I think that will go right out the window as soon as my party starts adventuring. If I handle things realy well I might get it to work, but I don't know if I was that good of a DM when I wasn't rusty.
After reading The Styes and purchasing Lords of Madness I'm realy hoping to add a good solid horror mystery feal to Age of Worms (which looks like it has plenty of potential to be an amazing horror mystery all by itself). I think Diamond Lake is the perfect setting for a gritty and dark story, where the party only has eachother to trust, everyone in town seems to have more than the typical share of closet skeletons, and the further into the campaign the adventurers make it the more they wish they would have stayed carpenters and stableboys.
Ebb,
Are we running the same game? My group got to the exaact place, and earned exactly 1000 XP. I will not know what they want to do until Sunday, but they have only spent 2 hours in the Cairn so far.
My group camped out for a day in the abandoned mine building and came back the next day to finish the architects layer. In real life it was getting pretty late and I was the one that suggested they go back to town, since it would make a good breaking point in the game, they wanted to sell the red pedastal, and they needed to identify the wands and goggles (the architects tools).
This was my first attempt at playing any dungeons and dragons -- as either DM or player -- since 20 years or so ago. I went pretty light on the players, since it was my girlfriend her 12 year old son and daughter, and they had never played before. They really enjoyed it, which I am happy about, because I put quite a bit of prep into it.
Tonight we're going to start off back in town, role play a little bartering at the shops, and have Allustan fill them in on what exactly this cairn appears to be about. Also, after my first session, I've prepped for this session a little better by printing out some monster stats ahead of time for the monsters in the Laborer's Layer, and also reading up on their special abilities a little more. I plan on being a lot more strategic with the monsters this session and giving the party more of a run for their money.
The most interesting part is going to be the water elemental, but I have a feeling I know what the party is going to do. They'll send one person into the water first, to check it out. When the elemental goes after the player, the player will either immediately come back out of the water, or someone will have to go in to save them. I'm assuming that they'll probably be able to make it back out of the water, and the elemental will follow them, where they'll end up clobbering the elemental. Still, it should provide for some nice scary moments for them.