Ok guys here it is: all 1st level
Setting: Loosely Forgotten Realms/D&D Mags
*Lorian Geiger Male Aasimar Sorcerer -noblemen son from across the continent. Mulhorandi. Sent to Manzorian, but is to busy so he sent him to Allustan.
*Kraven male elf monk -from the small village out side of the high forest. Kinda like hippies. Village got wiped out his family lost and sister never found. ( made the faceless one raze the village for bodies to experiment on. Filled with rage and not being able to cope. Got sent or went to the twighlight monastery.
*Tanamyr male Elf ranger- small village got ravaged by undead in a crag fissure. Eventually started to help the bronzewood lodge out.
*Garanna Velzer female Half-Orc Cleric of Tempus- raised by a blacksmith. Left for mercenary work with other half breeds. Found a cleric school and became a cleric. Went in search for battle stopped in diamond lake.
Now I have the plan to get them together by having them be sneaky, sneaky to get the map for Allustan. Lorian is currently staying with Allustan. Allustan has requested the help of one of Izenfen’s pupils.(Kraven) Tanamyr has asked Allustan to identify a family heirloom. He is broke so in trade he asks him to help Lorian and Kraven. The trio now gathers information about the garrison and at night go to the feral dog. The make a bet with Tirra that she would dance if she lost.(Got to keep it Pg)LOL well I couldn’t believe it she lost. Fair and square here enters Garanna. She is approached by a punchy Lorian. The have something in common. Their both not from around here.
The map to the Whispering cairn is in the Chief cartographers office. (I’ve laid out the garrison full size on my Auto CAD so this will be neat.) Allustan gave then a few days to prepare. We shall see how successful the Pc’s will be in “acquiring” the Map.
I’ve typed up a full background in cooperation with my player for them. Don’t know if I’ll post then their like 1 to 1.5 pages.
Any suggestions are more than welcome ^_^
I like the relationships developing with Allustan. However, not to be harsh, but remember that the dungeons, particulary the first, second and fourth module are deathtraps...well, as long as their smart, they'll do okay. Just remember (looks like post 351 on obit threads, and I haven't even posted the ten-some from my campaign), the path is lethal, and character death happens all the time. Be ready for this, and think about expanding upon your earlier concepts if and when someone dies and you need a new character that somehow connects. Also, everyone hates Smenk (except me, I didn't use him to the villianous extent others did), to the point that I believe his name has crept onto threads from other adventure paths. He's lots of fun to play up and easy to nail as the evil ringleader, even if he's just a wealthy coward.
Is there anything that I might be able to help them to survive WC? I thought of some how bringing up the Alchemist's fire to help with the acid beatles. Or Allustan mentioning something about equipment.
What do you mean by expanding on my earlier concept? Which one?
Orbits?
Thanks for the tip about Smenk I’ll do my best to have them hate him.
I'm still a Noob GM so I'm having a hard time knowing where I should focus my time and energy. With my personality I want to have everything so detailed I'm afraid that I'll never bre prepared and do a good job. Thanks for the post.
Access to healing, be it a Wand of Cure Light (or if no one can use it), cure light potions. Alchemist fire is also recommended, or at least something flamable to take on the often posted Acid Beetle Swarm. I would suggest lowering the price to make it more accesible to a starting PC, but limiting the number that can be bought at once (like 3 or 4 flasks in the whole town). You could even use this to setup more reasons to adventure in the caern, either by trading potions for rare, underground herbs (such as subdued brown mold) or tracking down a lost apprentice that went into the the Cairn.
Also, read the Threads that pertain to your module if you have questions about specific parts. You'll find that many people will have the same questions as you. The archives are great for this.
AS far as expanding, it's easy to have background family characters that go and do their own thing. Just because a PC doesn't have leadership doesn't mean he doesn't know another fighter or wizard that travels here and does this. Besides your PC's main concepts, have them come up with two to three other guys that their character knows. The adventuring world is after all full of, well...adventurers. Then they can trade that masterwork set of half-plate no one can use to their fighter friend who just got back from patroling the hinterlands...and if someone does, you've already got a flushed out personality to join in. You can even have said NPCs advance a few levels behind the PCs if they actually do take LEadership eventually.
Thank you again. I think that I'll have a healing flasks in the map office. They need to sneak in and out. HE HE and they have no rogue to help them. This really gointo be a tough adventure. :P They are broke. Do you think that Allustan should give them 20-50 gold? For getting him the WC map? How do you subdue B.Mould? Doesn't cold or heat kill it? BTW We meet every thursday.
I'm afraid to suggest making back up Pc's. I don't think it will be well recieved and I and they have put so much time and effort in making brand new Pc after 10+ years. I've been a player on and off since 98'-99' and a GM in 2005 Now I'm getting into it hard core I think.
But I do like the idea that they know some people for the back up Pc. ^_^
As far as asking your players to make a backup PC goes...
I think that you need to decide what kind of DM you're going to be with this campaign. If you play by the modules and only fudge dice occasionally, PC's are going to die. Well, probably. However, if you're more interested in keeping them alive because that's more fun for you and your group - you can do that (you'll be continually doing things like leaving healing potions in the mine office though). It's still a pretty rough and tumble campaign, requiring a pretty heads up party. Either way, you might sit your players down and explain that this is going to be tons of fun, but is also a brutal time and that they should expect to keep their wits about them and not just go in swinging all the time. After that chat, you might be able to suggest backup PC's more easily.
I would highly recommend backup characters myself. They expedite gameplay when, and if, a character dies. And, especially at lower levels, they can go at any time. Sometimes you'll see it coming, but most times, you get to hear a player say, "well, that puts me at -14hp...guess I'm dead."
Backup characters mean that a player can still participate in the evening's events, try out a new character concept, and you reduce the chance of your players becoming TOO attached to their characters. (I've found that several pages of backstory make it nigh impossible to get away with killing a player's character, and not have them feel some resentment.)
I try not to fudge dice if I can help it, because it cuts both ways. If the players felt they could get away with beating up a creature with less trouble than they otherwise should have had, they may become sloppy in their tactics in the future. The challenge helps to build group cohesion and tactics. Even early on, our party wizard was lobbing ghetto alchemists fires made from lamp oil, because his spells ran out. But he became more resourceful as a result, and is a fully fledged wizard, who manages his spell set like nobody's business.
Very nice food for thought ya'all. I just got off the phone with one of my players. The Elven monk through his visits to restock the monastery has made a dwarven fighter as a friend some how. Back-up PC made YAY!!! he asked me if he could. My jaw dropped and I said casually yeah sure but inside I was ecstatic.
Now I would like to include the mine office after tomorrow when they get the map. Any suggestions?
So the group up north has barely survived so far. I think that is they don’t you there heads this next session. There all going to die!
Question: what would you do if a player in the fight with the water elemental just stands there and watches for over 5 rounds and does nothing and while he watched 2 of his mate drown and the squishy sorcerer swims and saves there lives.
I’ve decided to not give him as much XP as the others. Instead of Killing his PC. Which they all would have died if the divine hadn’t stepped in and helped with ulavant. This player said that he didn’t do anything cause of his alignment.(C-N) which I think was a total cop out. This guys is going to be really difficult to work with. He tried to swim and failed and gave up. Even if you had chain mail. And packing others stuff, how hard is it to drop the stuff and try to swim.
I know that he is cheating on his AC; he is counting his dodge bonus right at the beginning when you have to specific the opponent that you are dodging.
What would you do if you knew or found out the you player is consistently cheating?
Sorry to vent on you guys thanks fore checking in.^_^
The northern group has survived the main entrance and defeated the wolves and checked out gallery and thought it was cool. I described it like if you stood in the exact center the images became 3D and you could see them as if you were really there back in the day. Anyway the turned the sarcophagus and stopped on the green one and guess what......LOL the swarm cam and almost killed the cleric. They used ray of frost and trapped them selves in with some oil on the ground. But did enough damage. To help. the monk climbed the blue chain and almost died do to the wind face trap. LOL They set up camp and rested and ventured forth.
Then they decided to go down the green and encountered the resting room and stature with the Bomb beetle. Very interesting. They tried to sneak back and fought the giant beetle and then the swarm cam after them guess were they ran......to the flooded showers UGH! This posed a great ordeal. Should I let them die or not? Hrm if I could find a reasonable or cool way to help them survive. I would have let them die then and there. But on of the PC’s had a family heirloom that was a dagger of second life. One use only. And the divine interjected with the idiot cleric. (Might have been a mistake.) But you live and learn.
They spent the time and drained the showers and found the loot. Went back up and lite the lanterns. And that my friend is where we left off. Until tomorrow.
Any suggestions or questions would help incredibly.
As a side note I’ve really enjoyed becoming a DM and the players have had a lot of fun. I’m still winging most stuff. I’d like to get better at knowing the rules instead of winging it for the sake of time and focus.
The LOCAL group went through the little “Office option” and it was great. Then they set up camp and then went to the whispering cairn. They fought the wolves and survived. They got to the main chamber and same thing got attacked by the mad slasher and ran from the swarm.
They are currently back at the town getting alchemist fire and various items. The group is now 5 with a new player are keeping record of what they see for Allustan.
How much info should Allustan give them about the history of the place?
How do I get them not so interested in the hole that they found in the walls making the whispering sounds?
This player said that he didn’t do anything cause of his alignment.(C-N) which I think was a total cop out.
Let the players react before you as a DM do anything. Hopefully they will refuse to give him any treasure, and possibly start looking for another ceric to help them. See how it goes...
What would you do if you knew or found out the you player is consistently cheating?
Maybe, just maybe, he doesn't realise. Speak with him about it - "Did you realise that..."
I had a player who was a total coward. And he was a Paladin. At first I tried publicly humiliating him in the middle of the game and in a restuarant with some friends. Ok, so that wasnt the right approach. Then I had the npc's do my talking for me, and reacting to his behavior from their point of view instead of my own. That worked much better.