RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4
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Fellow DM's, how much mileage did you end up getting out of the Diamond Lake article?
My group is three adventures in, and has yet to set foot in the Whispering Cairn, because everybody is entrenched in various D.L. activities, courtesy of the backdrop articles.
It really helps to set a mood, and everyone's having a great time with the material. I'm curious how far off the path other DM's have been willing to go with the town.
I used the rival adventurers a lot...makes the encounter in the Free City that much more cooler.
I used all the inn / parlors/ tavern
Bottom line I used a lot of the article...ajusted a it, but it's a great aid for RP moments.
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The Backdrop info is wonderfully detailled. I think my party may have wandered around town for weeks if I hadn't nudged them in the direction of the Cairn by putting some words in the mouth of a character whose player was absent on that particular night.
What I love about the it is that they really do feel at home in Diamond Lake. It has that small town feel, well more like a Tombstone-Ok Corral-feel, but that's okay.
My group has been hanging around using it as a base of operations for some time now, but they all want to escape to the free city as soon as possible.
They still have a pile of issues in town. Many of the mine managers want them dead for their attempts to organize the miners, they are wanted by the local law to explain certain activities around the outskirts of town (such as an assault on Smenk's guards and attempted break in of his home), there is a group of seekers who are under the impression that the party is of the same organization, and of course there is a certain albino half-orc who is a bit upset that the group didn't properly dispose of a certain someone.
Yeah, they might get run out of town with tar and feathers soon.
Diamond Lake continues to be a source of material for our game. The backdrop was very thorough. For us, Tidwoads, Lazare's House, the Emporium, the Sheriff's Deputies and mine managers continue to have recurring roles. Of course, Allustan figures prominently, as he is the players' patron. Lastly, there is a backstory regarding the Cult of the Green Lady that involves one PC.
The stats in the overload have also come in handy.
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I think my group has spent about 4 sessions pretty much focused exclusively on Diamond Lake play having nothing to do with the AP adventures.
I ended up detailing the Spinning Giant considerably due to the players choosing close ties with the garrison. One of the players worked really hard to get a job as their cook, before he ended up having to quit after spending immediately needing too much time off...
Since the garrison came into play, the stats for the lieutenants, Tolliver, Velias, etc were all important. I've seen a lot of DMs make use of Melinde, must be something about female paladins.
Allustan's stat block was useful, as one player was his apprentice and wanted to learn spells from his master. Allustan has quite a few good ones too. His 1000gp mirror sounds like it may get some use at some point too.
At first we used it a lot, but the two PCs that were actually from Diamond Lake left the game (one PC died, one player moved to 'Bama).
Since then, most of the backdrop information has been used to help the PCs:
Organize a miners guild.
Form a city council.
Restructure the city's Sheriff department.
Fund a new adventuring group made of NPCs from the backdrop and Overload.
Now that they've met Tenser and are investigating the Spire of Long Shadows, I don't think any of them will be interested in going back to DL.
But I'm still using the backdrop to add to the list of people that went to Alhaster, and I occasionally review it to look for any possible hooks to draw them back.
I found the backdrop articles for Diamond Lake and Alhaster very useful for me, but didn't wind up using the Backdrop for the Free City... of course, that may have been because my Free City was Sharn...
I used the specific parts of the Backdrop that I knew would be central to our story (inns, the dragonchess house, etc.), and also connected each player to one of the businesses or NPCs in town. The rogue was a dungeon guide that hung out at the Feral Dog, the wizard was an apprentice of Allustan's, the druid lived at the Bronzewood Lodge, and the monk was from the Twilight Monastery.
The backdrop also came in handy after the town was destroyed; the players sunk a lot of money into rebuilding it and one was even elected interim Mayor. They built an adventuring guild in town and also convinced a few dragonmarked families to set up enclaves there.
I've probably used about 1/4 of it - partly because some of it doesn't inspire me role-play wise, and party because some parts didn't capture my player's imaginations so they very quickly passed over some pieces. But I've got good mileage out of the bits I have used - Smenk, Allustan and his brother, the Church of St Cuthbert, the Garrison and church of Heironeous, the Feral Dog, Able Carter's, and a couple of pieces of the Emporium (but not dragon-chess). Oh, and the rival adventurers.
Having places that the group comes across more than once is what it's all about, helps make it more real for all of us. But these have all been a piece of the night's session, we've never spent a whole night role-playing withing the town, just parts of a lot of sessions. As a DM, I've really enjoyed having the basics of a whole town laid out for me, it means we can find some pieces to work with and ignore the rest, and saves me from trying to make too much up (it's much easier when you have a starting point to flesh out, often done on the fly).
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4
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My group was practically founded at the Spinning Giant, brought together by a huge bar brawl between the Garrison regulars and the sheriff's deputies. (drawing on a rumor from the overload.)
They've also had a full session of chasing around the Halfling tourists at the Able Carter. (I wanted to use the boat chase from Mad God's Key here but it never quite played out that way.) I think they've met just about all the major personalities even if they don't realize that they've just met a recurring character.
My party's rogue even turned up some documents concerning the Parrin/Gansworth alliance. She sold that info to Balabar Smenk to finance the party's first expedition. It's really a grand stage for starting characters and I'm getting tons of use out of it.
I've already had two or three sessions that consisted primarily of role-playing in town--selling loot, buying equipment and magic items, and especially gathering information (whereabouts of the Land bodies, Dourstone Mine, looking for leads concerning unkillable zombies in the mistmarsh, etc.) have made for some interesting and memorable moments--the Feral Dog and the Emporium have been enjoyable.
Since my party also killed an innocent guard getting into Dourstone mine and got spotted (and shot at) on the way out, they've had interesting encounters with the law, and with Smenk, who knows the party has dirt on him, and wants to silence them permanently.
Each of the four party members has a connection with a family member or former employer in town as well (militia, wandering minstrel working at the Spinning Giant to make money to get to Greyhawk, wayward daughter of a guest of Ellival Moonmeadow being punished by scrubbing the boat, and Allustan's apprentice), and connections with Valkus Dunn and Allustan have been key.
I like the setting so much that I've engineered things to make the party interact with it more, e.g. when they use up the cure wand they bought from Valkus Dunn they had to go out to Bronzewood Lodge to buy their next one. I'm planning a bunch more roleplaying when they get back from the Mistmarsh, and hopefully quite a bit on their homecoming from Champion's Belt as well.
Haven't gotten to the Free City yet, but I think I'll be using the material in the Adventure Begins more than the Midnight Muddle backdrop in Dungeon. One character has connections to Jaikor Demien, the high priest of Hieroneous there, and to Count Petrides, the Urnst Ambassador. There are lots of interesting taverns in the Adventure Begins, and I plan to use some of them if the party decides to go bar hopping to gather information. Some of the info on prominent citizens will be useful for the pre-tournament banquet in Champion's Belt as well.
I expect to use the Alhaster backdrop extensively as well--it's an undeveloped site in the GH literature. However, I'm using the Iuz sourcebook, which has a ton of info on the Bandit Kingdoms, to cover travel into the hinterland. (I'm going to be tough on teleportation--the way things are set up with Tenser's "teleportraits" (to coin a new word) is fine for parties that just want to get on with the next dungeon, but make things feel just a bit too high magic for me. I'm pretty much going to have the characters travel out to sites the old-fashioned way, but be able to teleport back to a familiar and safe site if they need to. This will provide some interesting encounters/sidequests to give more Greyhawk campaign flavor, but avoid the tedium of the return trip.
I've used the backround quite a bit. We've spent half our time in the Cairn and half our time in town with great RP on the PC's parts. Last session the PC's were involved in a (hopefully) memorable brawl just outside of the Feral Dog. It involved around 60 miners (all dealing non-lethal damage) that somehow managed to crush the PC's into the middle of their drunken mosh pit. The PC's also got a good look at Kullen who leapt into the fray through a broken window and could be seen over the crowd raging and throwing hapless miners around like dolls. Best RP on PC parts: the rogue trying to pick pockets in the middle of it all, and the attention seeking bard not trying to extricate himself but taunting the miners around him while taking full defense actions (he was only touchable with a natural 20). I can't wait until the PC's burst into the political scene and have to deal with Smenk et al..
Town is just as entertaining as the dungeon crawl!
The first session was all Diamond Lake.
The characters had to get together.
I even used some of the flavor text.
They saved the halfling who turned out to be a paladin.
He has been the party's primary NPC healer ever since.
First I need to say - Wow, Russell Jones, have you been playing with our group unnoticed these past several months? Besides your mention of a druid from Bronzewood Lodge (in our group it's a ranger), all your characters mentioned exactly match the ones in the group I DM with the exact same backstories!
Anyway, I can't heap enough praise on the authors who created the Diamond Lake backdrop or the Alhaster one either. Diamond Lake is so full of flavor I feel regret that the starting premise is one of the characters feeling desperate to leave this place! Sure it's a gritty, corrupt "smudge" on humanity but it's got STYLE!
Anyway, outside of the backstories, the PCs have spent many fond gaming hours at the various inns and taverns (especially the Feral Dog and the Emporium). The group I DM also includes a character with ties to the garrison, as well as the previously mentioned Bronzewood Lodge and Twilight Monastery. Allustan is the wizard's mentor so he's probably the NPC I've gotten the most mileage out of. The rival group and the PCs have encountered each other several times but the players are currently ignorant of the mechanations supported and perpetuated by the trio (can't wait for the "reunion" in Champion's Belt!). They attacked Smenk's home after Three Faces of Evil and have become linked to other unsolved crimes in town. Despite a willingness to do so, I never really got the chance to involve the PCs too much in the politics and they are largely unaware/unconcerned about the intrigue/complex plot involving the mine managers, etc. I role-play all interactions between the PCs and the NPCs involved with liquidating treasure,purchasing weapons/supplies, etc. Bottom line, we've had a lot of fun with Diamond Lake and I'll be sorry to see it go (I'm already salivating over the possibilities after the dragon devastates the town). I'm excited about Alhaster and much more comfortable allowing the PCs to invest time & energy into it (since it's intended as their likely retirement home). Right now they're in the Free City (HOHR) and Alhaster is a ways away. I've enjoyed the resources provided in the AP and find the backdrops very useful. I take pleasure in knowing the full story regardless of whether the PCs ever come to realize it or not. I also appreciate how the resources are presented which allows DMs to pick and choose exactly what and how much they want to introduce into their campaigns.