My little (?!) SCAP adventure has begun, finally - we had our initial meeting last night and hashed out characters, and taught two new folks the basics of 3.5e (One total newb, and one who hadn't played since old old 2e).
I am a bit worried that we're low on healing, though, as we have the following:
Flin: Elfin Swashbuckler 1
Catelin: Human Evoker 1 (Fire Specialist)
Dermina: Halfling Rogue 1
Balkaz Onoru: Human Ranger 1 (UA non-casting variant)
Naral Greenvale: Half-Orc Druid 1
Balkaz and Flin are the folks that haven't played 3.5 yet, so that'll be interesting. The party will encounter a small "prep combat" on the way from Sasserine to Cauldron, so hopefully that'll help 'em get their feet wet.
We've no website yet, but I'll do my best to share our hijinks with y'all, as your comments, wit and wisdom have been exceedingly helpful to my set-up so far!
Good luck.
Just make sure you make absolutely certain how dangerous SCAP is and that they spend some money on mobile healing magic.
Another thing I stressed to my players was not to be afraid of leaving a dungeon for the night.
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Yes, try to help your players with the following
- suggest they buy a wand of cure light wounds
- tell them not to be afraid to run
- tell them this is dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, and don't discourage a certain level of paranoia.
- try to strongly emphasize the allies they have at their disposal (the church of St. Cuthbert, to start), and let them ask for help from Jenya if necessary
Good luck with SCAP and remember that the DM should be having some fun too :)
As the adventure is designed for six party members you may wish to make a NPC follower available or just remove the odd critter from multiple encounters.
And as others have said, do not be afraid to run. "Those in plight who run away, live to fight another day."
Or as one of my players says in his most suave British accent "Is that the time, must dash."
I recommend that Rufus offers to join the party after they rescue him.
But I really believe that the campaign works so much better when the characters are from Cauldron, with a campaign NPC or two incorporated into their background. The player's emotional buy-in into the campain increases when they are out to "save my town" instead of "save the town", or "help my childhood friend, who is the cleric of my church" instead of "help Jenya", or "find my missing brother" instead of "find kidnapped kids."
Really, why have the PCs be from anywhere other than Cauldron, or the adjacent towns? If they are from somewhere else, will they ever go back there during the entire run of the campaign?
But I really believe that the campaign works so much better when the characters are from Cauldron
This really can not be stressed enough to DMs and players about to start their journey on the "path".
But I really believe that the campaign works so much better when the characters are from CauldronThis really can not be stressed enough to DMs and players about to start their journey on the "path".
Good points - our Heroes are from Cauldron, actually, but have spent the last few years away, "coming of age", so to speak. They all still have individual ties to the city and the plotlines, so all should be well on that front.
They were in Sasserine to formally register as a Free Company, and are now heading homeward to family, friends and a city that is not quite the same as they left it.....
Do keep us up-to-date on how it's going, and always feel welcome to ask more questions. I'm on my second run-through of the SCAP, and my party of five are now well into chapter 3: Flood Season. Last session was all roleplaying, and we went through the entire flood-festival sequence, from the confontation with the Stormblades (which my ladies roleplayed their way through beautifully) to the Demonskar Ball (to which they were invited after the group's bard attracted Zachary Aslaxin's attention with her performances at the street festivals). They're becoming very enmeshed with and attached to all the characters they're meeting, and two of them (ranger and bard) have now officially joined the Striders, giving me excellent opportunities to motivate them in the future. I'm considering starting a campaign journal of my own on these boards once I get my notes from the early sessions together, so it'll be fun to see how another group moves through things.
Good points - our Heroes are from Cauldron, actually, but have spent the last few years away, "coming of age", so to speak.
We did a very similar thing, you can see the results here:
http://scap.teknohippy.com/default.aspx/TheShackledCity/SessionZero
I've tried to make sure that all the players have a connection to at least one NPC if not more.
Benner the wizard was set up in the Blue Crater Academy by Lord Vhalantru and now Lord Vhalantru will also be sponsoring their Adventuring party.
Artemis the Spellthief is the sister of Benner and she's a bad seed that Benner is trying to save. She has pulled a few jobs for the Last Laugh in the past and is frequently contacted by Jil.
Leif the Scout has been employed by Tyros Amberhelm to escort shipments from the city to the surrounding region.
Freida the monk of Heronious fled her monestary when Hookface destroyed it. She stayed with Shensen Tesseril for a while before moving to Cauldron to establish a chruch there. She has been an instructor for Cora Lanthenmire for a number of months, but now that the Stormblades are "famous" for routing the kobold menace the monk will be fired shortly.
Clarissa the favored soul of Heronious was an orphan and grew up in the Lantern Street Orphanage. She was taken in by the Temple of St. Cuthbert when she started to manifest divine powers. Frieda is now her mentor and Jenya Urikas watches over he like a mother.
And the last party member Thump-thump the barbarian is the half-orc son of a woman that used to work in the monestary of Heronious before it burned down. He is feircely devoted to the teachings of Heronious and believes in "giving evil a good thumping". He lives with his mother in Cauldron and is a bouncer at the Tipped-Tankard. After Life's Bazaar he will become friends with the "fifth" member of the Stormblades (that I am adding) which will complicate matters when the Stormblades start stirring up touble.
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Something else you will want to note is that the SCAP is for 6 characters. So if you have less than that you may want to scale some of the encounters back a bit. Especially in Jzadirune, and Malachite Fortress.
My group consists of 4 players.
Amanes Anohon: High Elf Swash
Kinless: a Goliath Barbarian
Sylfer Rhomus: fire-half elf from UA, Fire Domain Wizard variant from UA.
Miles Teg: Halfling Fav Soul / Warlock
The guy playing Miles lost his first character Riddick, a human rogue, fighting Kazmojen. The barbarian and the swashbuckler also went down before the fire mage finally finished Kaz off.
I have tried time and again to warn them of the dangers of this adventure and that someone should play a cleric, but nooooooo. I swear my players are the most stubborn bunch of lunkheads this side of Jecklea Bay.
I even gave them all the speel about making your characters actually be from Cauldron, and two of them insisted on having characters from elsewhere. Oh well... best laid plans of mice and men and all that.
back to work...