My players have just made it to the Malachite Fortress and are pressing pretty hard to make it to the hostages who they believe will all be there. I had one player quit and another join. The one just joining then has to be somehow integrated into the game.
I guess I am curious how others went about replacing players who had dropped off or characters that had been killed in this campaign? Any specifics?
Sean Mahoney
One player joined mid-campaign (between The first adventure and Flood Season) and wanted to play a rouge, so I had him meet the current party rouge (an NPC who was Keygan's assistant) and after some talk, they decided that he was a better fit for the adventuring party and she needed to take care of Keygan's shop anyways soo...
Another PC replaced the NPC cleric, a shackleborn who was killed by Skaven in flood season. The PC made a Wee Jas cleric. Ike sent him to the funeral for the first PC to express his condolences. He told her to keep an eye on the PCs. Ike also ended up killing this PC in Soul Pillars. The player then made a cleric of St. Cuthbert, who was born in Cauldron but had been "busting heads in the name of the Lord" in Sasserine. A contemplative, he recieved a vision telling that his home was in trouble and to seek the Heroes of Cauldron (which just happens to be the party's name.)
Another PC played a gnome wizard from Sasserine. He was from a big family of nobles and was often competing with his fellow wizarding brothers. While in school, he indadvertantly caused a disaster that killed his entire alchemical class. Disgraced, he changed his name and fled to Cauldron. It was really cool backstory and secret too (i.e. the cleric healed him and noticed all these scars under his robes (burn marks?) Unfortunately the wizard was killed by Kaurophon in the Test of the Smoking Eye.
The party new that he was from Sasserine so they went there and asked around the gnome quarters. Eventually, they found his family which had effectively blamed him for the disaster. They were hunting for him, but they had placed that particular task to his lazy older brother, who had instead been spending his budget getting drunk and high in Sasserine. His father forced him to join the party (more just so he would get out of the damn house). Unfortunately, the wizard was killed by 3 reflected disintegrates in a row from the Morkoth (damn heroics.)
This PC was replaced by Vortimaax Weer, whose shop was destroyed during Cauldron's evacuation.
Hopefully, this'll be it for character replacements but the party is about to finish the climax of Thirteen cages so I guess we'll see.
I like for my players' characters to have backgrounds that tie them to a guild, a large family, some faction or other active group in the campaign. I then use this family or faction in the campaign as allies, occasional rivals or patrons. This sets up a believable source of replacement PC's who may already be familiar to and with the rest of the party.
The key is to occasionally involve members of the family or faction or guild in the campaign so that it doesn't seem like they just appeared out of nowhere just to provide a replacement PC.
I try to introduce new PCs via campaign components, like farewell2kings. Here's some examples:
Due to a character death in the SCAP (via a phantasmal killer spell by Skaven), my player wanted to create a different PC. The players retreated due to the PC death, and attempted to enter again a few days later, but by this time the area was under alert. The new character's background was that she was trying to infiltrate the Ebon Triad to get close enough to Triel to avenge the death of her former pirate crew (Triel killed them to hide the fact that she was returning to Caldron). The new PC recognized that "her enemy's enemy is my frient" so made sure she was on watch when they came back, and killed the other guard, and role-played her way into the party.
In my Age of Worms campaign I introduced a new PC druid that was going to be sacrificed in the Temple of Vecna. The druid foiled the cultists early attempts to bring a kyuss zombie out of the Mistmarsh, but was captured. (Yeah, I know... pretty standard.)
Next in my AoW campaign, the party recently had a hard time trying to enter the Sodden Hold, and will have to use their limited contacts to try to find a reliable ally. The bard has made an impression in the local theaters, so I can use one of the patrons as a go-between, or maybe through Eligos, or even someone they've seen in the pit fights. I won't know until I see what character the player brings.
I think it would also be great if a new player were willing to play a character based on an established NPC from the setting, such as Rufus or Artus, but I imagine that most players wouldn't go for it.
I think the key for me is knowing enough about the new PC's background and PC concept. Then I'll look for something that it fits into, then approach the player if they would be willing to adapt their idea to fit better.
Some examples:
A player wanted to be a hexblade. His idea almost fit into the Cult of the Green Lady (AoW), and he was willing to change little things to make him a worshipper of Wee Jas.
A player in my SCAP campaign approached me with a request to be a yuan-ti. I couldn't pass that up, so we worked on his background from what he had to end up that he tracked some evil yuan-ti activity near Cauldron. He was amazed at the results of his character background by the time they got to Strike on Shatterhorn.
My players have often said that they've never had so much fun in a published adventure as they have had in my SCAP and AoWAP campaigns, so I guess it works out okay.
Oh... and I think that for the Malachite Fortress, the perfect place to introduce a character is as one of the prisoners. You can either add the PC to the list, or replace one of the NPCs.
Again, it's a little cliche, but the adventure is already set up a little like that anyways, what with being able to free some of the prisoners who can help in the final battle. Or if they go through the big fight scene before they find the prisoners, the PC could be in chains along with the kids.
Oh... and I think that for the Malachite Fortress, the perfect place to introduce a character is as one of the prisoners. You can either add the PC to the list, or replace one of the NPCs.
That, of course, was my first thought. However the player was not too pleased with the idea. I am not sure if he just didn't want to start from a point where he had no weapons or goods, but he was having none of it.
So I did what it sounds like most of you are doing. I started asking him what he wanted for his character background.
He read some stuff I posted on summoning and how you could use that to make your character more power (aid another action mostly). He had decided he wanted that for himself but that summoned creatures don't last long enough. Hired mercenaries, on the other hand, are pretty cheap and could serve the same purpose (the vast majority will hit AC 10 just fine).
So, since there is already a mercenary captain working in the area I figured he would react one of two ways to this upstart creating his own little mercenary company.
1 - He would see him as a potential rival and do what he has done with all that won't join him and destroy him.
2 - Offer to give him a job.
I went with 2. I decided that the PC had been hired by Zarn Kyuss as a sub-contractor to provide protection to one of his regular customers as he went on one of his trading runs... Pyllrak Shyraat.
In his background then the PC uses the front money from Zarn to actually hire his mercenaries (so he isn't starting with a character who is behind in actual funds... but magically that money has run out as play starts and any further services will need to be paid out of his own pocket). He currently has 5 men-at-arms (1st lvl warriors).
Pyllrak, of course, is on his way to the Malachite Fortress via underdark tunnels to purchase some children as slaves as he had previously requested (easier to train and all). The player is a bit uncomfortable with his new ward he is assigned to protect but has no idea at this point what he is actually going to be trading in... I am hoping that shocks him enough to think about refusing to finish the mission with him.
The reason Zarn needs someone to cover his regular for him is that all of his men are tied up with a new customer... Thifirane Rhiavadi has tasked him with establishing a secret route into the city through "Drakthar's Way." Zarn though is a tricky customer and one he met Drakthar and saw his unstability realized that this wasn't a sure thing. To hedge his bets he has tasked the new PC, Tesla, with finding out who it is that Pyllrak is trading with that has secret access to the city. This route, through underdark to the Malachite Fortress and then through Jzadirune into Sundabar (I am running in the North portion of Faerun), could act as an alternative to Drakthar's Way should that route not turn out. He rightly fears what will happen to him should he fail the Cagewrights and knows he will up himself in their opinion if their option they tasked him with fails and yet he still has another viable option.
All of this gets the PC through the underdark and into the Malachite Fortress where he will learn the truth about what is going on there and has deep reservations about it. However, he has not decided how to ask and still has limited access to the Fortress as a whole when the PCs launch their attack. My plan is to have him in Zenith's Hall (M6) just taking a walk by himself and deciding what he should do when the main party busts in.
This all should set things up for the new PC to have info about the layout of the fortress that will aid the PCs if he should choose to roleplay things out that way. His other choice is to attack the intruders who are attacking his employers new trade route and well... that will likely be the end of him. That's what you get for siding with slavers!
I think the players are getting somewhat tired of the protracted dungeon delve and would like to cut right to the finally and his knowledge of where to find Kazmojen should help them do that. I am thinking for the future that I will run another adventure in place of Drakthar's way and have the Stormblades complete the Drakthar issue. I will likely have the PC who is member of the guard (reports to Sargeant Skylar Krewis) make a break in the goblin grafitti case, but then have the powers that be suddenly swoop in and give the gig to the Stormblades who pulled political strings to keep the PCs out of it (more glory for themselves). This will help set up even more of a rivalry with the Stormblades and give me one more thing to have being told about them around town. The PCs on the other hand will run through an adapted Dungeon adventure that is not a dungeon crawl that is changed to fit more tightly with the SCAP.
Overall I am pretty happy with it as a way to get the new PC involved right away and still give him an indepth background and tie him to the plot in an area that none of the other PCs are currently tied to.
Sean Mahoney
My players have just made it to the Malachite Fortress and are pressing pretty hard to make it to the hostages who they believe will all be there. I had one player quit and another join. The one just joining then has to be somehow integrated into the game.
I guess I am curious how others went about replacing players who had dropped off or characters that had been killed in this campaign? Any specifics?
Sean Mahoney
Here's what I did. Pick someone on the kidnapped list, have the newbie investigate their disappearance. Have them learn about Ghelve from a drunken town guard (or if his involvement has been revealed to the populace at large, then you can skip this step). Have the newbie bump into the PCs at Ghelves Locks, or follow their tracks to the Malachite Fortress.
Here's what I did. Pick someone on the kidnapped list, have the newbie investigate their disappearance. Have them learn about Ghelve from a drunken town guard (or if his involvement has been revealed to the populace at large, then you can skip this step). Have the newbie bump into the PCs at Ghelves Locks, or follow their tracks to the Malachite Fortress.
Wow. Simple and efficient... I wish I had thought of it. Would have been a heck of a lot quicker than my slaver route... though I am happy with my solution.
Sean Mahoney