So... Who here has the hardcover version? I do. I actually own most of the Dungeon magazines that had the original story, but sad to say, I never REALLY read them. Just flipped through going "Oh, that might be cool." It was at a time when I didn't actively play the game, just got the magazines for ideas/adventures when I actually WOULD get to play. And guess what? Well, apparently the time is upon me to run a game, and I for sure want to do the SCAP. I think...
What I've read and heard of it so far has been nothing but awesome goodness. But my question is, who here has actually read the ENTIRE campaign? I mean, since it came out in adventure "parts" anyway, in the magazines, should I only look forward and read for that adventure, or should I be trying to rush rush read through the whole thing? I know I've read a few places that people think you should read the whole thing outright and get everything together and make the city come alive. But honestly that's a lot of work for someone unless you have an overabundant amount of time. It'd be awesome if I could do that, but that's a LOT of work/time I don't have, to be honest. I have a liberal sprinkling of time, of course, but not so much that I think I would be able to do that.
I'm slowly reading through it, getting a feel for the city and everything, but how prepared do you think I would need to be? I'll probably get more into it after we start, sure, but what I'm really asking is what exactly, hard in stone, do I need to flesh out and think about to be prepared in the long run? Any hints, tips, tricks, whatever anyone has can be useful. I've been checking out theRPGgenius.com, and it's got some good stuff on there. But anything else anyone has to add, or things they've tried and failed/succeeded in would be helpful.
So really, anything you got pertaining to the entire SCAP, specific or general, would be fantastic. I would like more focus on the city, and the starting adventures, but if you feel something's important (like foreshadowing certain people more or something), please, share.
I have the hardcover, and have just started my campaign (session 2 was on Tuesday that just past). I had a number of the same questions when I looked at this campaign a while back.
For the most part, the hardcover puts a lot of the background information about the city at the front. Things I have found I needed to get together before I got started:
1) Create the priests of Kord. My group has people that worship Kord, and so this became very important quite early on. The book doesn't handle it. It just provides names, no stats.
2) Clarify the tribes. My group is quite interested in "which humans" as opposed to just "human". Each tribe has specific practices and beliefs. In our campaign, this is taking place in the World of Greyhawk, though is separate from the rest of Flan due to the distance (in the Amedio Jungle). For us, the nobles are descended from the Suel that escaped before the destruction of their empire. They speak Amedi. Most of the others in the city speak Amedi too, as they deal with the nobility. At the same time, the influence of the Sea Princes during their 100 years of occupation has caused a lot of Keoish to be spoken. This is the tongue of the "poorer" classes in the land, though it is a tongue mostly spoken in Sasserine, where the Sea Princes focused.
3) Decide if you are going to use the "templates" in the Appendix, and read up on the classes that work best. There is a nice section at the back about running the campaign that details the types of characters that work best. It also has some great templates for local characters. These add flavour and create a more integrated feel for the game. I also used some of the Feats from the Savage Tide players guide (at http://paizo.com/store/paizoExclusives/v5748btpy7t7i ) to add additional flavour as some of the characters are from Sasserine or their histories worked well (like Merchant's Tongue).
4) Price lists for the taverns. I have seen some great articles on this forum for these. The group will ask how much a room, dinner, or drink is, and having this ready is a good idea.
5) Make a list of all of the Noble families, and where their income comes from. Some of this information is hidden in the starting section under the different local towns. It shows where their interests lie. (One of the characters took Nobility as a feat, and I had to integrate him closely into the noble houses)
6) Read up on the offspring of the noble families that appear as the Stormblades in Chapter 3, and have them appear earlier as a foreshadowing event. Possibly have one of them get angry at the attention the group is garnering.
7) Understanding how you will do experience. One of the topics I have seen here is that the adventure is expecting 6 adventurers, which creates lots of extra xp if you have less people. Consider this as you form the group.
8) Clarifying how the Vanishing works. This is the only inconsistency I have found in the first adventure. Permanent vs temporary Charisma damage, able to fight off the disease or not. These are decisions you need to make before anyone gets infected.
I have seen that there has been re-editing of the adventures in the hardcover to include information that was created ad-hoc as they produced the adventures in Dungeon magazine. Things like the Cagewights and Skie's Treasury are pretty obvious from the start in the hardcover. The added Flood Festival events at the start of Chapter 3 are great.
I'll admit I have not read EVERYTHING in the hardcover yet. I am trying to read in depth 2-3 chapters ahead of where the group is, so I know where they are going and working out problems before they get there. The Flood Festival is the only "timed" event I've seen in my quick perusing, with the focus on having it in the winter (rainy season). Overall, the hardcover provides an excellent skeleton/basic muscle to begin with.
Section8
The most important thing to remember when running SCAP is that the campaign is really about the city of Cauldron and nothing else. You have to make your players care about the city for the campaign to be really successful. There are different ways to achieve this depending on the gaming style of your group and you can find many ideas if you search these forums. One simple way, however, is to make sure that all the characters are from the Cauldron region. This way Cauldron is not just another adventuring location to give up when everything blows up, but their birthplace, the citizens aren't just ordinary commoners but their families and friend.
Good questions. I actually have and have read the SCAP hardcover. I've just started up a campaign (we finished 2nd session this week).
The book is quite long, and there's a lot of information in it, so I can understand your reluctance to read the whole thing. That being said, I would highly recommend that you read at least the introduction from each chapter. That will give you a general idea of the campaign flow, and what is important from each chapter. As you get time, scan through the later sections while keeping some specific information in mind, such as the details from your current adventure or your player backgrounds. You're not trying to memorize everything, just looking for ways you could tie current events and players into later events in the path.
As you become more familiar with the overall flow of the campaign, think about parts of the campaign that don't feel "connected" to you, and that will give you a good idea of what you want to add to the earlier parts of the campaign. One of the criticisms of the SCAP is that the Cagewrights, the Tree of Shackled Souls, and Adimarchus especially are not well foreshadowed. This makes some of the later adventures, such as Strike on Shatterhorn, much less compelling than they could otherwise be. There are some good foreshadowing ideas on theRPGenius site, but they make some pretty big modifications to the Cagewrights and will require a lot of work to modify some of the later adventures. Still, they provide a lot of great possibilities that you can build off of.
As far as making the city come alive, you can really do as much or as little preparation on this as you want. Just become familiar with the info at the beginning of the book. To be honest, I think you can do more to make the city come alive by incorporating player backgrounds than by studying minutiae from later adventures.
My players are right now running through Zenith's Trajectory. I have both the magazines and hardcover, and I occasionally use some ideas from the RPGenius website. Having had some experience with the first few modules, here are a few suggestions to enhance your group's enjoyment.
*** Minor Spoilers Below ***
1) Get a poster frame (with plexiglass or glass cover, if possible) to encase and display the poster-size map of Cauldron. You'll refer to that map often. I added little post-it markers (cut into arrows) on the map to highlight key locations such as Ghelve's Key Shop, Jenya's Church, and Skie's Treasury. I also printed off the excellent, additional details of Cauldron from RPGenius's website that describe the various sections of town, and I marked off those sections on the map. This really helps your players to become familiar with Cauldron as their home.
2) Definitely have your players iteract with Jil during the streetfight encounter at the start of Life's Bazaar. My players didn't notice her on the rooftop (it was an optional encounter if they noticed her) and it would have been nice to introduce them as a foreshadowing of later encounters.
3) Early in Life's Bazaar, add an encounter to have your players meet Alek Tercival (perhaps as a mentor for a paladin in your player's group?) and have your players interact with him whenever they return to Cauldron. It would be natural for Alek to be found occasionally meeting with Jenya when the players go to see her. This sets up some later events.
4) During Life's Bazaar or Flood Season, add a couple of nuisance encounters with one or two of the Stormblades. Perhaps they run into them in Skie's Treasury? This will generate some fun competition and animosity early in the campaign that later boils to a head.
5) Enjoy the adventures in Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress! For a little spice, orchestrate a few ambushes by the skulks, dark stalker, and goblins/hobgoblins. My players had a great time in these early adventures.
That should get you off to a great start!
Hurm.
You should definitely read ahead, so you have an understanding of the whole campaign. This will allow you to 'foreshadow' some of the events or NPCs that feature in the camapaign later on. This board and the RPGenius site (http://therpgenius.com/) offer some great ideas for doing that, so browse through them if you have the time.
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Well, apparently the time is upon me to run a game, and I for sure want to do the SCAP. I think...
What I've read and heard of it so far has been nothing but awesome goodness. But my question is, who here has actually read the ENTIRE campaign? I mean, since it came out in adventure "parts" anyway, in the magazines, should I only look forward and read for that adventure, or should I be trying to rush rush read through the whole thing?
Good for you, I hope it works out! I just started my SCAP last weekend, game two planned for this Saturday, the PCs left off last game finding out about the locks and we'll start this weekend with them going to investigate Ghelve.
I read the first five chapters in depth, I then read the intro to the other seven. I suggest reading at least that much - those are the main chapters that happen in the city before the PCs do a lot of extraplanar stuff; but nonethess, read the intros to each chapter as it will help figure out where everyone is at the time.
My suggestions also include forshadowing. There have been some great articles written on this forum and RPGenius to illustrate who and how. In the first game I introduced Celeste, Artus, Maavu, Lord Vhalantru, a secretive and mysterious encounter with the Jester, and wanted posters of Triel. The PCs do not know the importance of any of these characters, but they did meet them and have an idea as to their general character and flavor for when they do become inportant.
Also, I bought and read Cityscape which has been invaluable for providing ideas for fleshing out the city. Finally look through some of your old dungeon mags, theres all sorts of story-line arcs, plots etc that can be borrowed, and although you wont want large side treks, they can at least provide some other things occuring around the city the player may want to investigate a bit at some point (just abbreviate the adventures a bit).
Robert
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3) Early in Life's Bazaar, add an encounter to have your players meet Alek Tercival (perhaps as a mentor for a paladin in your player's group?) and have your players interact with him whenever they return to Cauldron. It would be natural for Alek to be found occasionally meeting with Jenya when the players go to see her. This sets up some later events.
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I am wanting to do this, but I cant come up with a good way to do so. What do you suggest or what did you do to introduce him? I dont have any paladin or paladinish characters in my group (closes is a dwarf cleric of moradin).
Thanks for any insight,
Robert
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Alek Tercival should not be present during Life's Bazaar. He would be compelled to accompany the group. He should appear a few days after the group has returned with the rescued children and slaves. He will seek out the group and thank them for a job well done.
Next will be a preparation of the trial of Keygan Ghelve... Here the group may contradict the strong beliefs in the word of the Law of Alek Tercival.... and so on... During "Flood Season" Alek is away on his exploration to the Demonskar... afterwards he starts acting weirder and weirder...
The first time I started running this campaign I had the PC from out of town run into Alek Tercival and the High Priest of St. Cuthbert at the Lucky Monkey on the way into town.
Sean Mahoney
I am wanting to do this, but I cant come up with a good way to do so. What do you suggest or what did you do to introduce him? I dont have any paladin or paladinish characters in my group (closes is a dwarf cleric of moradin).
Thanks for any insight,
Robert
I arranged for my team to meet him on their second visit to Jenya. Alek had been meeting with Jenya to discuss church business, so he greeted everyone and said that "Jenya had been saying good things about them." My group of players were 7 strong, so they did not need Alek to join their cause, but as mentioned, it is important to keep Alek separate (since he has some personal issues to work out in later chapters).
I could envision Alek showing interest as the players progress in Jzadirune or the Malachite Fortress. Perhaps he meets them as they emerge from one of their battles? Or maybe he hears from Skie or Ghelve that the team has discovered or sold some interesting loot and goes out of his way to ask the players some questions about what they've found?
As Oliver suggested, it may also be excellent to introduce Alek to your group by having him approach them to congratulate them on some good deed such as the rescue of the children.
Sean Mahoney's idea is very cool! I wish that I had thought of it. :)
Hurm.
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The first time I started running this campaign I had the PC from out of town run into Alek Tercival and the High Priest of St. Cuthbert at the Lucky Monkey on the way into town.
Sean Mahoney
I did this too in last weeks game opener. The one character not from Cauldron (a wood elf cleric of Corellon-equivalent god of my world) met Sarcem at the Lucky Monkey before journeying up the mountain to Cauldrons front gate.
I forshadowed many persons in game one, though the players have no idea just how important any of them will prove to be.
Robert
Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback! As it turns out, I'm starting... MONDAY. That's right, in just a few days. It's a lot sooner than I thought it would be, for sure. But I think I'm fairly ready for the first meeting. Oh, and I'm not running a pure Greyhawk Campaign. Honestly I don't really notice a huge difference between campaign settings besides different flavors, and because this is its entire own campaign, I won't really have to worry about trying to work a certain flavor in. I could, sure, but it's easier (and I like it more that way), to just run a purely general fantasy setting. In fact, I can't stick with just Greyhawk Gods because one of my players is dead set on playing a Cleric of Tymora, and I'm really not that bothered by it.
SectionB, what Tribes are you talking about? And you're right, Price lists for Taverns and the Nobility is on my list of things to do.
As for the Vanishing, the way I read it is: You get one Fort Save when you first touch an infected item. You succeed, everything is fine. You fail, and then you hit a 1 day incubation period. After that day is up, you're hit with the first 1d6 CHA damage and start fading away. Each day at the same time you're hit with another 1d6 CHA damage until your CHA reaches 0, at which point you die (Fade away). This can only be removed with a successful Break Enchantment, Remove Disease, or Remove Curse spell. So it turns out to be a race against the dice and time. I believe once the curse is removed, the CHA damage is removed as well. Otherwise, this would be far too deadly a 1st level disease/curse against Sorcs and Bards (What do you mean my Charisma went from an 16 to a 10!? My character is useless now!). That's how I'm going to deal with The Vanishing.
As for XP, it really depends on how many people end up playing. There's... 3, for sure (one's wife is against him participating in ANOTHER all-day event/game on his 3 days off, but for the most part he'll be there). Then there's two others that will BE there, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the game or not. And another person might join, I'm not sure yet. So it could be 6, it could end up being 3. If it's 3, which I hope it isn't, it could be bad, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll just end up changing a few things and lowering encounters and such. Yes, I would rather cut out entire encounters and downgrade bosses before not running the SCAP. I've been wanting to run the SCAP for quite a while now.
Jil will be interacted with whether they notice her or not. I'm assuming she and the Last Laugh Guild play a big part in an adventure later down the road (which one is it?). As for Alek Tercival, he'll be interacted with as soon as they return to Jenya for their reward (unless he's not supposed to be there at the time?) I'm sorry I haven't read far enough ahead to see where it's all going, but the seeds must be sown! And the Stormblades will be there when they first want to "visit a shop". Sarcem will possibly be met on the road to Cauldron as well. Lots of things going on, for sure.
And Robert Brambley, you're foreshadowing people I don't know about at the moment, sadly. I would say that I could possibly read a lot more by the time they leave the Malachite Fortress, but the way I understand it, we're starting our "meeting" at around 3pm, and finishing... Between 11pm and 3am. (We all work the night shift). So I have absolutely no clue how far we'll get. And you're right, I've been flipping through Cityscape and Dungeonscape (Cityscape more though, lately), and taking bits and pieces.
Oh, and one last question for all you guys who are running/have run the SCAP: Did you read the flavor text as it's written, did you just use the gist of it and do a mix of your own and it, or did you just say "So that's what's in that room..." and describe it your own way? I'm trying to decide which way to do it. Just wondering your thoughts on that.
Anyway, again, thanks a lot for your input guys, if you have anything else to add, share. I appreciate the tips and help immensely.
Jil will be interacted with whether they notice her or not. I'm assuming she and the Last Laugh Guild play a big part in an adventure later down the road (which one is it?). As for Alek Tercival, he'll be interacted with as soon as they return to Jenya for their reward (unless he's not supposed to be there at the time?) I'm sorry I haven't read far enough ahead to see where it's all going, but the seeds must be sown! And the Stormblades will be there when they first want to "visit a shop". Sarcem will possibly be met on the road to Cauldron as well. Lots of things going on, for sure.
Akounite, it appears that you're well on your way now.
To answer your question about Jil, she is actually not met in the storyline again until the party invades the thieve's guild many modules later. But here's what I'm doing with her: the rogue in my party was "recruited" by the Last Laugh (join us or die since you're a thief and this is our territory) and is now just starting to have second thoughts about the nature of the guild. It's an interesting moral dilemma that my rogue player is struggling with since the player is occasionally sent on errands that are more evil than neutral. My player's rogue has been interacting with Jil and other guild members so later, when the party invades the guild hall, it'll be quite interesting. This is a tricky setup, and not every DM would want to do this (some have introduced a second neutral-aligned thieve's guild for their players), but so far it's added some fun dynamics to my game.
I have one last tip for you regarding Shackled City; it's more of a general DM tip, but one that is extremely important for this campaign. Start making NPC sheets for your players that they can keep in a binder. I scan/print the image and name of the NPC at the top of the sheet, leaving the rest of the page blank for player notes. There are so many important NPC's in this campaign that I recommend taking this extra step to help your players get organized. It's worked very well for my group. As my players have occasionally come across these NPC's, they've pulled out the sheets and remembered exactly who's who in the city, when they've met in the past, and what their interactions have been like. My players' NPC notes are no longer scattered across months (real-time) of pages within a notebook, but consolidated according to NPC, and it makes it easy for them to associate the face with the name.
Occasionally I've read the flavor text, but most of the time I try to put it into my own words. I've found that my group of players tends to lose interest whenever I read scripted text, no matter how enthusiastically I read it, and they pay much better attention when I speak in my own voice/words. Your mileage may vary.
Hurm.
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In addition to reading the intro for each chapter, read the sidebar at the end of each chapter. They usually do a pretty good job of explaining what should have been accomplished or discovered during that chapter. They also cover events that might have happened offscene with important npcs or locales.
As for Jil, I believe it mentions that she might take an interest either romantically or mischieviously in a PC that made an impression in that first encounter. Even if they don't see her, it doesn't mean she's not paying attention to them.
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Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback! As it turns out, I'm starting... MONDAY. That's right, in just a few days. It's a lot sooner than I thought it would be, for sure. But I think I'm fairly ready for the first meeting. Oh, and I'm not running a pure Greyhawk Campaign. Honestly I don't really notice a huge difference between campaign settings besides different flavors, and because this is its entire own campaign, I won't really have to worry about trying to work a certain flavor in. I could, sure, but it's easier (and I like it more that way), to just run a purely general fantasy setting. In fact, I can't stick with just Greyhawk Gods because one of my players is dead set on playing a Cleric of Tymora, and I'm really not that bothered by it.
Great - good luck! Game two for my game is later today - I cant wait. It is such a wonderful campaign adventure. I run mine in my own homebrew world called World of Mydian with my own pantheon - most of which I created. So it doesnt have to be in Greyhawk.
As for the Vanishing, the way I read it is: You get one Fort Save when you first touch an infected item. You succeed, everything is fine. You fail, and then you hit a 1 day incubation period. After that day is up, you're hit with the first 1d6 CHA damage and start fading away. Each day at the same time you're hit with another 1d6 CHA damage until your CHA reaches 0, at which point you die (Fade away). This can only be removed with a successful Break Enchantment, Remove Disease, or Remove Curse spell. So it turns out to be a race against the dice and time. I believe once the curse is removed, the CHA damage is removed as well. Otherwise, this would be far too deadly a 1st level disease/curse against Sorcs and Bards (What do you mean my Charisma went from an 16 to a 10!? My character is useless now!). That's how I'm going to deal with The Vanishing.
Thats pretty much the way I understand it, except that the charisma doesnt all automatically come back after you cure it. Its either "temporary" damage and comes back 1 point per night of resting (or with Lesser Restore spell) or it's "Permanent" and requires the 4th level Restoration spell. I think I'm going with the latter, which means the PC would need to seek the help of Embril at Church of Wee Jas (or Church of Zert in my game) since she is the only cleric in town of sufficient level to help.
As for XP, it really depends on how many people end up playing. There's... 3, for sure (one's wife is against him participating in ANOTHER all-day event/game on his 3 days off, but for the most part he'll be there). Then there's two others that will BE there, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the game or not. And another person might join, I'm not sure yet. So it could be 6, it could end up being 3. If it's 3, which I hope it isn't, it could be bad, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll just end up changing a few things and lowering encounters and such. Yes, I would rather cut out entire encounters and downgrade bosses before not running the SCAP. I've been wanting to run the SCAP for quite a while now.
I haven't played with the normal XP rules for years now. I award XP on story and goal completion. I have a set amount of XP a particular quest is worth. Killing monsters and overcoming traps are not awarded on individual basis. At the end of a part of an adventure I post the amount of XP that was earned based on what was possible. Killing the monsters is usually like 20% of that, but also there may be other XP awarded if certain NPCs are captured etc in order to learn info from them. Such as the thugs in the alley that beat up rufus. The PCs can learn so much more from them alive than they could if they just kill them. Or Ghelve for instance, or the leader of the Stalkers etc. Ultimately, this allows the PCs to advance at the pace that an adventure needs them too, without worrying about adventuring too fast if they go off a different way for a time or spend a lot of time sleeping in the wilds encountering random creatures.
Jil will be interacted with whether they notice her or not. I'm assuming she and the Last Laugh Guild play a big part in an adventure later down the road (which one is it?). As for Alek Tercival, he'll be interacted with as soon as they return to Jenya for their reward (unless he's not supposed to be there at the time?) I'm sorry I haven't read far enough ahead to see where it's all going, but the seeds must be sown! And the Stormblades will be there when they first want to "visit a shop". Sarcem will possibly be met on the road to Cauldron as well. Lots of things going on, for sure.
I'm having Jil working at the local brothel as a server (not a prostitute) for the purpose of it being a great cover and locale for learning all sorts of gossip and info. I intend to have her interact with a PC (someone she recognizes from the group) and begin to perhaps develop a bit of social interest - perhaps even romantic. Of course for the main reason of finding info. Whether or not she become conflicted with her loyalties and truly begins to develop feelings is not known to me....perhaps this depends on the PCs actions and interactions and his character of self that she sees in him. For some reason I see this whole Miss Tessmacher from Superman who truly cares for Superman but is destined to be one of the bad-guys. I love that scene when she rescues his from the swimming pool and says, "How come I can never be one of the good guys?" is priceless. Perhaps Jil will have similar thoughts....
And Robert Brambley, you're foreshadowing people I don't know about at the moment, sadly. I would say that I could possibly read a lot more by the time they leave the Malachite Fortress, but the way I understand it, we're starting our "meeting" at around 3pm, and finishing... Between 11pm and 3am. (We all work the night shift). So I have absolutely no clue how far we'll get. And you're right, I've been flipping through Cityscape and Dungeonscape (Cityscape more though, lately), and taking bits and pieces.
Okay heres a quick rundown of what I did.
Woodelf cleric played by my wife is an outsider from Cauldron (eveyone else is from the city). She stayed a night at Lucky Monkey. She met and interacted with Sarcem who is on a "mission of official church bussiness." Later she meets at the game the two thugs who later attack Rufus. They give her a hard time at the gates, trump up all sorts of bogus taxes because she cannot speak the common tongue. Finally Sergeant Krewis comes along and overhears some of the rubbish so he scolds the two and tells them to take up a different post. He "rescues" her so-to-speak. Immediately he is ingratiated to the PC and his good-guy characters is seen while the two thugs are seen as scoundrels.
The human swashbuckler - ex-orphan of the Lantern Street Orphanage and now step-son of the Vanderborens (Todds younger step-brother) was in the house and is introduced to a lawyer the family is working with. He is representing some prospective client who is buying a warehouse. As the character is leaving he overhears the clients name is Drathkar. (I am changing Drathkar's Way a bit - instead of smuggling half-orcs, they're smuggling supplies to create the soul-cages, and they need a warehouse to store it all in. They are using Orak's Bathhouse only as a means to have egress to and from the city and then must move the supplies through the city to the warehouse). Later the swashbuckler is asked by his father to check out that warehouse that is being bought to make sure its not overrun with rats. On his way, he meets Maavu who is working at his own warehouse.
The elf wizard (grad of the academy) has Thearyn Luvell as his mentor of conjuration. Thearyn is busy working for the cagewrights and workign on plans for the cages. he needs to be left alone so he sends the wizard to look for the missing gnome mathmetician (Jasper Drundlesprut). The elf visits Capt Skllerang and gets info as to the specifics of the "crime scene" at Jaspers House. He visits the one bar that the gnome was known to frequent and met Artus there who sold information to the wizard about others who are missing and others who are looking for them. Later Thearyn will be discovered to be part of the cagewrights and will beg the PC to join them. Artus is now known as a source of info for coin.
The Human Fighter who worships the Farlanghn god equivalent (Kendrick in my world) headed down to the bar where the shrine to him is at. There he met two wayward travelers (Felian and Fario) and talked about hitting the road and adventure. After an evening of tales he was walking home and he saw a gorgeous lady standing on the street looking up at street signs somewhat confused. He introduced himself and learned her name was Celeste (see Zenith Trajectory chapter) who was new in town and needing to find the Cusp of the Sunrise. He escorted her and she thanked him. He hasnt stopped thinking about her since.
Finally when the group went to the Capt and then to the Lord-Mayor with info about the corrupt guards that a) verbally assaulted the wood elf, and b) physically assaulted Ruphus, Lord Vhalantru was there and offered to translate for the wood elf. He ingratiated himself from helping her, and he was a great sympathetic ear who sided with the PCs and made a strong stance that something needs to be done about these ruffian guards and their ties to the thieves guild. They think they have a great ally.
All of the above NPCs become very important as the game goes on....
Oh, and one last question for all you guys who are running/have run the SCAP: Did you read the flavor text as it's written, did you just use the gist of it and do a mix of your own and it, or did you just say "So that's what's in that room..." and describe it your own way? I'm trying to decide which way to do it. Just wondering your thoughts on that.
Anyway, again, thanks a lot for your input guys, if you have anything else to add, share. I appreciate the tips and help immensely.
I read the text for the most part on most mundane enounters etc. But I elaborate and rewrite very important areas to add more flavor to certain encounters. I dont want to have to do a bunch of needless work, so I allow the book to do its job and provide most of the info; as I said, there are just certain events that need a little more flavor and personal spice - those I rewrite (such as when the beholder appears).
Happy Gaming - let us know how it all turned out.
Robert
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If you are playing out the journey to Cauldron, you should also let them meet Shensen Tesseril in the Lucky Monkey. Her good looks and her gratitude may make her a love interest for one of the characters later on. She can also help to introduce the characters to the Striders later on.
Jill came down upon the PC's after the first fight, knocked one of them subconscious (Sneak Attack with a sap) to show those guys her danger level and told Ruphus off clearly. Then she climbed up the wall and disappeared over the roofs...
Fario and Fellian are tailing the PC's after they visited the orphanage. The group managed to spot them and they gave their little speech. Later they compared notes with the group and were asked to accompany them down into the Gnome enclave and deeper. (I adjusted the amounts of enemies accordingly, use the sidebar from Dungeon 97 for that, it is very specific about how to acommodate larger groups) This led to further romantic entanglements with our female player. After the first adventure they had to "leave" Cauldron for some other agenda. They will return after or during "Flood Season"...
For some reason the group went to the town hall, to get the prisoners free in exchange of the location of the elevator and the last key from the leader of the Dark Creepers. They were led to Lord Vhalantru, who offered them any help they'd need to get those children back. He gave them the necessary papers to release the captured creepers.
If the group comes to Cauldron from out of town for the first time, they are stopped by the watch at the city gates (first appearance of Skylar Krewis, btw) and led to the guard barracks. There they will be led to Captain Terseon Skellerang, who gives them "The Speech" ("If you make trouble, there will be trouble..."). I picture him as someone like Arnie with the temper of JJJ...
The first appearance of the Stormblades was in the Drunken Morkoth. The group was there to meet Fario and Fellian (they were staying somewhere else, as they did not have enough money to spend for such a luxurious inn), as they witnessed the forming of the group, sitting together, bringing up a toast "To the Stormblades"... Afterwards Todd "made friends" with the PCs telling some disparaging racial remarks... *evil Dm grin*, a dwarf (Meerthan of the Striders in his disguise as dwarven trader, can't remember his alias though at the moment) from another table stopped them, before the situation got too bad...
Another idea is to require the party to register as an "adventuring company" with the City of Cauldron. This can provide certain rights, similar to deputizing the party while they retain their adventuring charter. I had the party meet the Stormblades, who had registered just prior to them and were leaving as the party was arriving. They made a few snide comments ("Oh, look at the cute little adventurers come to save Cauldron." "Do you see the way he slings his sword? I wonder if he's ever used it?"), then laughed and left.
Registering also provides some impetus for the group to come up with a party name. If the registrar asks them for a name, it gets them to at least start thinking about it.
You could take this further, and initially stonewall the party's attempt to register (perhaps only one charter can be provided per day, according to some obscure law), only to have Vhalantru intervene on their behalf. This would help to get Vhalantru into the party's good graces.
Robert Brambley and Oliver von Spreckelsen: Those are some great ideas that really started me brainstorming on things to make the city more alive. Hope you don't mind if I yoink a few!
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Another idea is to require the party to register as an "adventuring company" with the City of Cauldron. This can provide certain rights, similar to deputizing the party while they retain their adventuring charter. I had the party meet the Stormblades, who had registered just prior to them and were leaving as the party was arriving. They made a few snide comments ("Oh, look at the cute little adventurers come to save Cauldron." "Do you see the way he slings his sword? I wonder if he's ever used it?"), then laughed and left.
Registering also provides some impetus for the group to come up with a party name. If the registrar asks them for a name, it gets them to at least start thinking about it.
Robert Brambley and Oliver von Spreckelsen: Those are some great ideas that really started me brainstorming on things to make the city more alive. Hope you don't mind if I yoink a few!
I am doing this already with the registration. Currently they opted to work without a registration due to the extensive beauracracy that is involved. Skellerang was willing to overlook this fact since it was imperative to get someone looking into the dissappearances right away and everyone agreed that they would do the paperwork once they've solved the problem.
This of course will come back to haunt them during the court case of Keygan Ghelve. The PCs currently dont see Ghelve as completely guilty of anything considering his actions were under duress. Some of the nobles see it differently as they see just how much they stood to lose by Keygan's irresponsibility. So during the PCs testimony at the trial, Lord Taskerhill (tipped off by Todd - a PCs older brother who resents the PC) will demand to see the official documents of the PCs adventuring party. When these are unavailable he will demand that the witnessess (PCs) are discreditted and their testimony is inadmissable. (Todd will have previously buddied up with his younger brother and asked of him "what all happened in Jzadirune" so he will have info as if he himself did the work) Then Lord Taskerhill will suggest that Todd may be a good witness. Todd boasts that the Strormblades were responsible for the safe return and give detailed accounts that was given to him by his brother earlier. This of course further embarrasses the PCs, further makes the Stormblades a pesky group to the PCs, and also admonishes the party for not doing things by the book, which will hopefully entice them to do things correctly and lawfully in the future.
Schmoe - you can yoink all you want. Consider me "yoinked" :-) Thats what this forum is for.
Robert
---=== UPDATE (Long, sorry)===---
Oh, the Love! The Love! The Hate! The Hate! To be honest, I did NOT have the prep time that I really thought I would have. Second of all, I spent all the time I DID have trying to look up this NPC and how to tie them in at that time and meet the characters, and yaddah yaddah yaddah. Basically a bunch of extraneous stuff that actually seriously hindered the "adventure", but was still intriguing nonetheless. I spent more time trying to add flair without focusing on the adventure itself.
I think I need to stop worrying about what will happen DOWN THE LINE in the adventure, and focus on what's going on right then and there. Especially since I don't have an abundant amount of time to prep in depth beyond reading the book and checking some stuff out here and there. Another thing is falsely guessing how much time things will take. I threw in an encounter with two guards where all the PCs meet in the line, essentially to get them together, and to give them a little bit of a hassle. Honestly, it was to gauge some roleplaying out of them to see why they came to the city of Cauldron, and what they wanted to do and whatnot. It didn't last long. The first two were alright with it, got some stuff out of them, but as they just basically made their characters, there wasn't as much as I thought I'd get from them. The last one just saw the others in front of him pay a Silver Piece to get in, when asked what he wanted in the city, could only answer "treasure", tossed the guard his SP and moved on. (STARTED as 3 players.) Part of the problem, as well, is that in the other game I PLAY in that we're all there for, we play with min/maxxing overbearing semi-powergamers. They're not used to so much roleplaying. They're more used to DM manipulation and constantly moving onto the next thing; instead of taking the time to get into what's going on in depth with the people and the city.
The first encounter was pretty fun, though... Until they got to Jil. She looked down, and told them to pretty much back off, and move on. They shrugged it off, but decided to become ENAMORED with the Last Laugh. They kept trying to think of ways to get in touch with the guild, and I kept telling them that they were very well hidden within the city. In fact they're STILL obsessed with finding out what that guild is all about. The St. Cuthbert temple went pretty by the book, until the cleric of our party goes "I want to stay here." "What?" "I'm staying at the temple." "But they don't have enough room for you." "Then I sleep in the pew. They have to let me at least do that, we just saved one of their Clerics." So I had to throw in my Tavern and say that she knew the owner and let them stay a few days for their brave deed. This was only the beginning of unscripted, what-the-hell-do-I-do? (as the DM) moments.
They got to the orphanage, and even with the divination, after inspecting the locks, and talking to everyone, they got to Patch. He got intimidated into spilling his beans about Terrem, the Last Laugh Guild (or what little he knew), and the man he met. All this time, they keep thinking that The Last Laugh is completely responsible for everything, so they just keep trying to find out all about the guild, which I had absolutely NO information on since I haven't read that far yet. I had to play DM prod to get them anywhere near Ghelve's Locks. They did pretty much everything I didn't think they would do, and then some. All these curveball not-anything-near-what's-in-the-adventure things. They got to Jzadirune and already realized the deadliness of the gear doors within 2... 3 hours. First one was for character creation, too. Jzadirune was HORRIBLE. Warmage, Cleric, Fighter. No rogue. It was retarded. Luckily, the Fighter's Girlfriend was there listening the whole time, is actually into the stuff. I called a "DM Break", made a rogue character sheet, and said "Here, you're a rogue."
Jzadirune is HORRIBLE and BORING as anything (No offense to who wrote it), without a rogue. It's just... Half the time it's useless. Even knowing they had to beware the doors with teeth, and figured that out, it was a completely useless dungeon to them without a rogue. In fact, they made the WORSE possible line through the city EVER. And, again, WITH the rogue it seemed like one of the most annoying dungeons I've ever SEEN. 9/10 of the rooms were "You find nothing of value." I know the Skulks picked it clean, and it's probably the path they took, but even as the DM I was like "This dungeon has no gratification whatsoever. They've only fought 4 skulks and are already near the elevator down and found... Nothing." Two interesting things though... I misread that throne room, and gave them a rod that has permanent illusion (sleeping gnome king). And secondly, the Warmage found two scrolls with The Vanishing. This is, of course, after angering the gnome face in the throne room and losing 6 dex. I'm saying that the Vanishing comes into play when you "use" items. So when he casts, HE has to make a Fort save. And most likely at the most innoportune time, too. Hasn't happened yet. Should be fun.
Malachite Fortress, fought the statue and such... Bypassed the Otyugh/Ogre room. Boarded up the Forge room to rest, moved out, and went straight to the final battle. They were getting slaughtered. The warmage dropped THREE times. I rolled two crits on the fighter with his urgosh... And comepletely ignored them, saying they missed. I even had to take the hobgoblins out of that room. It was... It wasn't good. I think I need to give out XP for each ROOM or something. I don't know if they'd be level 2 since they bypassed so much, but still, they might have been. It doesn't say "Hey, they should be such and such level when they fight this final boss." Just says what they should be at the beginning of each adventure. If I didn't fudge 90% of my rolls, every one of them would have died. It WAS, however, fun seeing how fast they could rip off Kazmojen's armor to light him on fire.
So in the end, there was... Pfew... 100+ curveballs... Problems, etc. But the funnest 11 hours straight ever, LOL. I think i'll like Mondays. Not to mention that... They left the door to the Underdark OPEN and couldn't catch up to Pyllrak and had to let him get away. And they're going back because they didn't find the head skulk with the keys. They did, however, find keys on Kazmojen they're trying to figure out what they did. PLUS they didn't rescue Keygan's familiar. It'll be fun to see how they deal with the underdark coming up, AND the skulks ganging up in Jzadirune. Oh, and the slaves in the Forge... They say absolutely NOTHING about what happens to them. And since the Dwarf Chick said her husband was taken... They think they have to delve into the Underdark to save him. Instead, I'm going to make the Underdark come to THEM and be done with it. Unplanned stuff, for sure, but fun times are ahead.
Wow, Ank - that's quite the story! Gratz on surviving your first session.
Only half of my Age of Worms group could meet this weekend so the four of us decided to start SCAP. The problem was that none of us owned the hardback or any of the mags. I ran down to the local hobby store and bought it. I spent about four hours reading the introduction just before the players arrived with brand new characters in hand.
We spent four hours in Life's Bazaar and had a blast.
Sometimes its nice to have a ton of extra material at hand before you start running an adventure, but things often work just fine without it - and it sounds like your group had a great time even though you felt unprepared for every possibility. Besides, doesn't it suck when you do all that prep time and then your players head left instead of right and miss it all?
To make up for a lack of prepared extra material (and the great advice you can always count on from these boards!) I just kept a notebook behind my screens and took note of what the players did - I let them paint the world and didn't worry if they went off-track.
If one of your players wanted to crash at St. Cuthbert's, why not let him? Have one of the acolyte's wrap him up in warm blankets and put him up for the night on one of the pews - bring him hot tea and biscuits, but let him know he'll have to wash dishes all morning in the cathedral kitchens!
One of my 3 players was playing a priest of Moradin and he wanted to try to convert the young Cuthbertian acolytes. I let him proselytize to his little dwarven heart's content. I even asked him to make some Diplomacy rolls. The priests patted him on his head and told him they enjoyed his very nice stories - but as DM the last thing I wanted to do was to try to dissuade him from his course of actions because it wasn't covered in the storyline. Just for the record, he eventually gave up on them and the party got back on track following up the divination concerning the lost orphans.
If they want to join the Last Laugh, why not let them try (not that they would succeed)? Instead of pulling those crits, let the dice fall, man! =) Have the slavers nab them and put 'em up for sale! Have them try to escape or roll of new characters to go back in and rescue them. Don't get straight-jacketed by the story.
As for Jzadarine, that's a great dungeon - its not boring! Without a rogue it should become incredibly dangerous but not impossible. They only need find the mimic guarding Ghelve's familiar and the elevator shaft down to proceed with the adventure. They don't need to explore every room and should be able to use the automaton tunnels to reach those goals.
If things get boring like that in the future, try concentrating on the sounds and the smells of the dungeon, bring it and its many dangers to life. As a DM you can do a lot of things to make a bare and empty room really really really creepy! When you give the description of the room, lower your voice or even whisper it. Add to the given text and describe a foul odor in the air or a low moaning coming from...somewhere. Add some cobwebs - that always gets players tense, especially if you tell them the cobwebs look especially thick-stranded or especially fresh. Pause a lot and then describe that odd pile of .....something...in the corner (even though its not listed in the room description - wince when the first player says they will enter the room - make a fake roll and then make her roll a spot check and then wince again after she tells you the result. It may be an empty room but you just made it one hell of a scary empty room.
Good luck with the rest. I'll be curious to see how your crew progresses! =)
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If things get boring like that in the future, try concentrating on the sounds and the smells of the dungeon, bring it and its many dangers to life. As a DM you can do a lot of things to make a bare and empty room really really really creepy! When you give the description of the room, lower your voice or even whisper it. Add to the given text and describe a foul odor in the air or a low moaning coming from...somewhere. Add some cobwebs - that always gets players tense, especially if you tell them the cobwebs look especially thick-stranded or especially fresh. Pause a lot and then describe that odd pile of .....something...in the corner (even though its not listed in the room description - wince when the first player says they will enter the room - make a fake roll and then make her roll a spot check and then wince again after she tells you the result. It may be an empty room but you just made it one hell of a scary empty room.
I just want to go on record and second everything that Ted just mentioned in his entire post.
I use all the above tactics and more to add anxiety and tension to even the most mundane encounters - where nervousness should be found especially. It works wonderfully and the players will thank you for sucking them into the game and the story and not be bored by just "another empty room"
FYI - another thing you can do is remove some of the rooms and encounters altogether that you feel are superfluous. I got rid of one of the skulk encounters, the centipedes and one of the raggomoffyns. It just seemed too much hacking and slashing for one small dungeon.
But the important encounters and the importance of the encounters I left were still left intact and still felt by the party as important.
Robert
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Robert
I am glad you had a good time with the story. I am however, surprised by some of the issues that you had. I have some advice on what you might want to try to get the back or keep it on track.
The biggest thing moving forward is that you have decide if you want the PCs to go back in Jzadirune. The story itself moves on... so that is certainly a possibility. On the other hand, you mention that the PCs are a bit low level... if that is the case then letting them go back in can be a good thing... xp booster.
So really that is your first call, and I can't make the answer for you. So lets look at both options then. Either way you do want to use the time and changes in the story to move forward with the overarching story and the goals at this part in the story (right now that is just to introduce the city, the main players in the city-either people or groups, and give the players a good feel for each). So lets keep that in mind...
Lets look at going back in first. It sounds like there are quite a few loose ends that you can tie up still and that is a real good thing. However, you also mention that yourself and the players were not overly impressed with Jzadirune as written. The adventure has some very good, memorable encounters, but they don't necessarily HAVE to take place in the locations where written (although the Grell certainly makes the most sense where it is at). My players, for example, will never forget the fight with the raggomopphyn (spelled horribly I am sure). I would suggest reading over the encounters in a Jzadirune and make up a list of the ones that you would like to have them encounter. Keep in mind that approximately 4 encounters on their average level should be about 1/4 a level. Make sure you include the encounters that have the item or reason they are going back in (i.e Keygan's familiar). Then go ahead and populate what ever portion of the map they happen to go into with the hand picked encounters. They don't know what was supposed to be in each room, so you should be fine. Skip or gloss over boring parts and emphasize the parts they find fun.
Now to move the story along. After returning the children, they should have gotten a promise from Jenya to recommend that they meet with the Lord Mayor and perhaps get more work. Maybe you can start the beginning of Drakthar's Way during this same time. Drag out some of the investigation parts though... if they players are more interested in the investigation than the dungeon, then you know what they like... and vice versa. I also see this as a great place to start up the rivalry with the Stormblades (rival adventure party). Perhaps word gets out that there is this new dungeon in town... that is a sure draw for other adventurers. So then they are down there exploring at the same time as the PCs (conveniently those areas you are not using since you yoinked the encounters as described above). An encounter down there can really set the mood. Remember, you want rivalry, not fighting though (at least not yet). Have the Stormblades clear up some of the loose ends that you don't think the PCs will but might take things away from the path you would like. For instance... they seal off the entrance into the underdark-Permenantly! The PCs will remember this and curse them for it in later chapters when they find out they have to go the long way around to get to a future adventure site in the underdark. It keeps things on track AND it helps the rivalry... good stuff.
Anyway... at the end of this, the goal is to move the campaign into Drakthar's Way... so make sure that at the very least you start mentioning the goblin attacks and graphitti. That will go a long way toward making things seem like a real city.
Lets look at the other option then... you decide you don't want to go back in. Well, the same principles apply as above. You can still use the Stormblades to move things forward. They go down and finish up the loose ends and get some noteriety for it (for instance Keygan is more than willing to say they are great heroes... they saved his rat!). This plays right back into that rivalry theme. Alternativly... maybe the PCs leaving the underdark open puts the whole town in danger and the heroic moves of the Stormblades (collapsing Keygan's home to seal the entrance or something) actually DOES save the city. The Stormblades can paint the PCs as irresponsible and themselves as heroes.
In this case you need to realize that Drakthar's way is ok to start at a little lower level than the end of Life's Bazaar. That being the case this is a perfectly acceptable way to go. Additionally, the note from Capt. Skellerang should pull them right into the new mystery.
Finally, the last laugh. They are very interested and that shouldn't necessarily be dissuaded. You know have you permenant, recurring partial redherring (they are a little involved after all). Have Jil pay one of them a visit when he thinks he is alone and safe (maybe one you want to play up some romantic tension with her). The PC is about to sleep for the night and turns around to find her already in his quarters (or whatever). She then warns them that their line of inquiry is not appreciated and it is very dangerous for them should they actually find out the answers that they are looking for. Keep this kind of thing up through out the campaign. You can even throw them some bones... for instance maybe she gives them some information as described in Drakthar's Way at the same time... later, when they meet with Artus Shemwick, give them the feeling it is FINALLY their big break... only to have him excommunicated (so to speak) as a result of working with them.
Ideally though, you are just teasing them with the Last Laugh stuff. Don't just have them meet stone walls, but get a little reaction... but not really enough to do anything with... just keep them interested. At the same time if they focus too much on this, have events of whatever chapter they are in start having consequences. Perhaps they don't want to investigate the goblins... escalate the goblins level of violence. Have them kill someone (perhaps one of the people they saved, even one of the orphans). Whatever it takes to get them interested with out railroading them into the investigation. Have Captain Skellerang make comments that maybe he should hire the Stormblades... whatever it takes. In later chapters you can do the same thing... flood waters rising higher (maybe even evacuations and someone didn't make it out), worsening condition of Zenith's "father", etc.
Anyway... hope this all helps... it actually helps me to think about it since I am starting this campaign again in a few months and know the players will likely do things I didn't expect... its the way DMing is.
Sean Mahoney
I'm not going to lie, I had a BLAST. The downside, of course, is that I've only DMed bits and pieces here and there for friends and whatnot, and not in any long-term setting (The highest character I've DMed for is the level 5 dwarf fighter my older brother has, and that was all dungeon crawl). I thought it'd be easier to start off with something like the SCAP, a complete published campaign. But when you're pressed with time, you really can't go as in depth as you want to. And I've found my players don't like me straight reading the text off the pages. I keep fearing breaking something within the SCAP, and having to do even MORE work to fix it later down the road.
I've come to the conclusion that yes, published adventures are fantastic, but unlike taking a map and winging it with a general outline of what's going on, they take a good amount of time to prepare for. As a noob DM, they're a massive help, but trying to run them straight out of the book isn't going to happen. It's good and bad that way. I think the best example is the Dwarf chick who says her husband was missing. That's some flavor text that made the entire party think they had to immediately delve down and take on the Underdark... As level 1 characters. Now I had to come up with a way for him to mystically show up from the underdark just to appease the players. It's good they care, but oh so annoying as well. I ended up having her be next to Gurnezan's Smithy... Her and her missing husband are smithies. She reoutfitted the full plate from Kazmojen for the Dwarf, and got a hold of some masterwork Banded mail for the cleric. We'll see how that turns out.
You know, that takes me to another point... Do you all give out XP at the end of each "encounter" aka battle/room, do you wait till they've done like 1/4 or 1/2 the dungeon, or do you just do it at the end of the "session"? I think another downfall is that we played for 11 hours straight, and without me giving out XP, they REALLY weren't prepared for Kazmojen.
I'm having fun, and with more focus on what's at hand then what's down the line, I'll do much better this coming Monday. Also, I found my players are too used to rollplay than roleplay. I'm trying to get them back into that roleplay, because they ALWAYS just rush in and start swinging no matter what's going on. Especially in the last encounters... Kazmojen: "What do ye want down here!? Ye're interrupting me sale!" *Magic Missle. Vhalantru/Orbius: "We have come for the Child called Terrem! Release him to us!" *Dwarf Runs off with the kid (gets tripped by Thifrane), while the Cleric proceeds to swing his mace at the beholder's closed eye (sleep ray).* I'm trying to get them into roleplaying more, but yeah... It'll be a bit more. Part of the reason is that I AM a noobish DM, and I don't think as fast on my feet as I should because I always come off with "That's not what I read in the book..." And then I get flustered, can't think of what I should and go "They say no."
Anyway, any tips on ways to help me think on my feet and prepare for the unexpected would be helpful, as I have a feeling I'll be coming into that problem more and more. Alright, back to working on the campaign...
Oh, and another thing... Can someone link me to the Crime and Punishment file on theRPGenius.com? I've been through the SCAP Archive stuff several times now and still can't find it.
Not sure if you need to be logged in to get to that though.
I think the key to winging it in this (or really any) campaign is having some idea where things are headed. The intro chapters to this campaign are really what give that to you. You also want to have read ahead of time the adventure you are running through (and if you can swing it, the next one as well... but more attention on the current one).
Lets looke at an example. The PCs think they need to run into the underdark at level 1 to save a dwarven husband (we'll talk about the level in a sec). So first off, you know that the adventure as written does not take things this direction. That doesn't make this bad in and of itself, just that if you go down this path you are somewhat on your own. If your PCs need an XP boost before the next adventure than you want to be looking for opportunities like this to design little side-treks that allow for that XP boost. On the other hand, if they don't need the extra XP, then you may not want them to go in this direction.
If you want them to go in, you are making your own little adventure (or adapting another published one that has an underdark adventure for 2-3 lvl characters--presumably this is what level they are at this time). So I won't go too much into that option.
On the other hand if you don't want them to go chasing after this you have a couple of steps you want to work with. The first is that you need to get them back in the city before they go chasing after the things in the underdark. Do NOT simply tell them that is not what they should be doing... you don't want to railroad them. So if they get ready to head off immediately have the current NPC slaves start asking "what about us?!?! We'll never make it back up by ourselves!" another could say, "And you'll be more prepared if you have time to equip and rest a little!" Throw the players a bone though, have the dwarven wife agreeing with them and ready to go, "He's down there and I, for one, don't want to leave him a minute longer than I have to!"
Once the PC's are back up top and equiped you have to decide if you wanted them to explore the dungeon more or just move on to the next adventure (see my previous post). Either way, we decided for this example we don't want them headed into the underdark. As I stated in my previous example, having the Stormblade's collapse the entrance into the underdark and be exploring down here at the same time is a great way to throw in some adversarial tensions between them and the group. It also effectively cuts them off from the underdark. "I'm so sorry Ma'm. The Stormblades collapsed the entrance, we can no longer get to your husband. But don't give up hope... perhaps someday another opportunity will present itself."
Now this is also a very good thing to throw in later as something to tie in later adventures. For now the PCs have their attention drawn away by the urgency of the goblin attacks, but later, when the PCs are in Zenith Trajectory perhaps they find this dwarf and a couple other of the missing slave down in that dungeon. Now they can pridefully march back up to Mrs. Dwarf with her husband that it felt the world had given up on.
To remind your self of this I would keep a sheet (might turn into several) that is of unfinished business. These are basically adventure hooks and loose ends. If you can resolve them logically in later adventures with very little change to the adventure (or at least some of them), then you want to do so. This helps tie the world together and make this a campaign instead of just a series of adventures. If you already know where you might put the resolution in (such as the dwarf going into Zenith Trajectory), then write it on a sticky and place that sticky at the beginning of that adventure to remind yourself when you get there.
Alright... other topic. XP.
The book recommends that you give out experience as you go. The PCs should be level 2 or so when they get to the Malachite Fortress and should be level 3 when confronting the final battle. Obviously you can't play a marathon session and have this work out with out giving out XP during the process. I would recommend either awarding XP at the end of each encounter or forgoing XP altogether and simply level them at appropriate places in the story (heading down the elevator to the Malachite Fortress? Ding!)
The size of these adventures do not lend themselves well to training rules or other mechanics that don't let the PCs just level as they go. That would make these adventures much harder and there is already a good enough chance of TPK.
Sean Mahoney
I think the key to winging it in this (or really any) campaign is having some idea where things are headed. The intro chapters to this campaign are really what give that to you. You also want to have read ahead of time the adventure you are running through (<snip>
Right on , Sean!
Ank, if you are 11 fun-filled hours into your first major campaign then you don't need to call yerself a 'noob DM' anymore. =)
I had to think about this for a sec, I've been DMing for 27 years now (geesh) and I remember struggling with the same things, Ank, like wanting to be perfectly prepared for every eventuality and keeping the players on track all of the time.
But, here's my advice (and I kinda said it in my previous post so pardon if I sound like I'm reapeatin' myself). First thing, as Sean also says above, don't get into that railroading mentality where you are over handedly manipulating where your players go. It really helped me when I finally got the players to quit calling it "my game" whenever we played. You know, when the players say, "Hey, let's all meet on Saturday and play Ted's campaign." Rather, I got them to say lets play "our campaign" or just call it by its name, like the SCAP or AoW, etc. Because the reality is that its their game just as much as it is yours. Keeping this in mind helped take the pressure off me.
Then, when you're in the game, think of yourself more as a referee than the omnipotent Dungeon Master. Don't think of yourself as the one thats controlling the strings, but more as the person who is interpreting the world for your players. If I get flustered, sometimes I just remember that all I really need to do is paint the scene for them and then sit back and let them decide what to do. If the game turns out to be a bust - the players are equally accountable for its failure - its not on your shoulders anymore than on theirs!
If the players go off course, most of the time its ok. When my players get together to talk about their most memorable adventures, generally its the ones where they departed from the written script most severely. I had one player buy the adventure "Merchant House of Am'Ketch" after we finished it because it was the most incredible D&D game he had ever played (in his mind) and he wanted to run it with some other folks. He called me up after he read it and said, "What!!?? This isn't the same adventure we ran! Where did you get all the material you ran us through?" I had to smile and tell him that he and the other players had provided all of that great content by not sticking to the script!
The second bit of advice I have is when the players DO go so badly off-track (like storming off into the Underdark) that the campaign will basically fizzle if you don't do something to save it. At that point you need to make the decision: 1) let 'em go and suffer the consequences (i.e. captured/killed by the first drow patrol they run across) or 2) give them something to change their mind. I would just let them travel a ways down the tunnel (you could let them travel for days or weeks without a single roll - boredom, starvation and thirst are all great motivators to change course.) Or, you could describe an impassible obstacle (Sean's cave in by the Stormbringers or a natural one) or a 200 foot dropoff that they can TRY to get past if they want to risk the fatal consequences. But, one of the best deterrents I've ever used when the players are actually moving in the wrong direction is to simply make up an horrific encounter that scares them good!
In your case it could be something like: "Ok, you've been walking down this mysterious subterranean passage for hours now. The tunnel had narrowed for awhile, but for the past few minutes it has been widening and the ceiling stretching further and further above your head. Up ahead, at the edge of your torchlight, you see another even larger tunnel intersecting the one you are hiking on." Have the players make spot checks - it doesn't matter what they roll because the checks are going to succeed, regardless. "You see something dark and low to the ground moving in the middle of the intersection before you." After they take a closer look you tell them, "It looks to be a person in dark clothes and its bent close to the ground craddling another person in its arms. Just then it jerks its head up to look at you and its snarling. From the dark skin and elven features it appears to be a drow! Only its eyes glow a deep red in the faint torchlight and you can clearly see long gleaming white fangs protruding from its mouth. Blood drips down its chin. In its arms you see it hold another dark elf! This one appears to have been a warrior of some type judging by its armor - but that was when it was alive - it now appears to be partially devoured!" Hopefully at this point your first level players will gulp and say something like, "Crap. We're dead." But, if they are as hack-n-slash oriented as you say they are they may draw weapons and charge (if this happens I'd consider playing out the encounter with the vampire-drow that you just made up - it doesn't matter if you don't have any stats prepared for this monstrosity, the party will be toast in as many rounds as you have players anyway.) However, if you're like me, you'll give them one more "out" and describe the scene something like this: "The fiendish, undead drow elf can't believe its good fortune for it will be feasting well today! It leaps up with its long, sharpened, black fingernails extended toward you and begins to slowly walk your direction. As you look upon this creature of never-life, you feel nearly paralyzed with fear." Make them roll Will save - again it doesnt matter what they roll because they all will fail miserably, then proceed, "You discover you cannot move! You trapped within the dreadfull gaze as Death itself approaches. YOu wonder how long it will take to die once those fangs rip into your throat. The vampire takes one more step in your direction and suddenly there is a blinding-fast movement from the intersecting tunnel to your left! Something huge, dark and scaly lets out a deafening roar. You can't tell what it is because its moving so fast and its scales are as black as night but it nearly fills the entire tunnel with its bulk! There is a flash of white as teeth nearly as long as you are tall seem to emerge out of the beast and it bites down hard on the vampire-drow that was approaching you. Even from 20 feet away you feel the wind across your face as the force of its jaws clamp shut on its prey. The life of any mortal would have instantly winked out in the moment those jaws clamped down around it, but not the drow. You can hear its gurgling screams as the huge beast devours its prey. What do you do?"
If your party doesn't turn around and run as fast as they can back to the surface at this point, then you know your players are completely hopeless. This is a good way to deal with re-routing your party because in all the excitement of nearly getting eaten, most or all of them won't realize you were just helping to steer them in the right direction. You have, afterall, given them the choice of what to do.
Good luck!
I still call myself a "noob" DM because of all the glaring mistakes I made the first time around. Until I learn from them, I can't really call myself anything but. I know it's a constantly growing/changing thing where everytime you sit down, and really every 10 minutes there's something new, but some of the mistakes I made were just... Retardation on my part.
First of all, I've run 2 other published adventures that were in dungeon magazine, but in the group there were 3 people (myself included), and it was much, much easier to wing and change things on the fly. With 4 people, your time is much, much more limited at the game table to just BS and make stuff up. Lesson 1.
The second thing is to READ THE ADVENTURE IN DEPTH. This ties into the first one, because all I did was skim the adventure. It was more like "I read the description... Okay they have tactics (Didn't read them), and there's some treasure. Cool." I spent a lot more time going over the RP encounters, and those went by faster than I wanted them to. Which lead into combat/rooms that I really didn't know well enough to describe without straight reading from the text (find my players disfavor this) or even think about what would happen on the fly because I didn't read through them enough.
Actually that's probably the only real problem I had. Besides thinking on my feet a little quicker (which will improve over time), the only mistake was that I skimmed the adventure, but I didn't really know it well enough to run it. At least run it as well as I should have been able to. Like giving them a wand with the illusion of a sleeping gnome? Stupid. I need to write treasure down and it's worth... I couldn't find certain things again when they asked how much it was and I was trying to flip back through all the rooms to find that one serpent ring. Made me seem completely unprepared, honestly.
As for the game being a team effort to make it great -- I agree! I love the fact that we're all making this happen. But on the other side, in a published adventure, it's almost like you have to take the control out of their hands to get them where you want/need them for the adventure to work. I don't like doing that because it's almost like I had to go outside the game and go "Look. Go to Ghelve's Locks already."
I'm going to reward them for caring though. Ted -- Awesome story, and awesome idea. I don't want my players down in the Underdark, but I don't want to punish them for caring about the dwarf chicks husband. Besides, they're all Forgotten Realms freaks and think the Underdark is what the world's all about. Instead, I'm going to make the Underdark come to them. Parts of it, anyway. The skulks are actually grouped up more because of their minor skirmishes with some hobgoblins who didn't know how to get out besides braving the underdark. Jzadirune is ALMOST the same. I'm just going to completely ignore some doors at this point because they're moot now that they've gone down and done their deed. Some are still a threat, but a bunch of "You open the door to find nothing." No matter how "creepy" I make them, are even getting on MY nerves.
I'm actually going to up the number of encounters because my group likes combat. They're not RP heavy, but I'm trying to mold them into that direction. Hobgobs/skulks, plus the ragomoffyn they missed, and the skulks by the automatons, the centipedes. (They fought 5 skulks. That's it.) As for the Malachite Fortress... I'm actually looking to redo that. They just know of what they passed, and I can actually use the rooms as written to help out the missing dwarf. But Pyllrak (I REALLY hope he's not important...) apparently is "scared" of the PCs (What kind of Cleric attacks a creature that doesn't want to fight back!? -- Mine.), but still thinks he can get the skulks to join his side and do what they did for Kazmojen, for him. He hires 2 forsaken Drow (so no wrath of the households stuff, and I can end it right there). And between the drow, and I'm thinking a hook horror (since the umber hulk is used in a later chapter). I think he might be overpowered though, even if I do "lessen" him, since the Drow beat him into submission to join them. Unless you all have a better idea for something nasty from the underdark (Besides the two level 3 drow). And a bunch of slaves to forge him stuff and start getting his own slaves (including those four children he missed out on...). So yeah, I'm looking into doing that. I like it, it just completely cuts off that end of the story so it can move on, while letting them get the taste of their underdark, feel like they did something about it, and saved the dwarf chicks husband.
As for XP... I realized now that I need to give it out after every fight/RP/Trap encounter. Well not every trap, but at certain points tack it on. My characters were still level 1 when they fought Kazmojen (noob DM mistake). Him and his dog really would have killed all four of them. In fact he should have, several times, but I fudged the dice because of my unpreparedness. And my lack of foresight (I really didn't think they'd even GET to Jzadirune, but they got all the way down to the end of the adventure. Missing QUITE a bit, true, but still.) I knew they should have XP, but I didn't think we'd just keep going... And going... And going. So I didn't give out XP thinking "Eh, I'll figure it out over the weekend." But they didn't want to stop, and honestly, neither did I. I know what to do now though... XP and Treasure -- all the time, write it down as I go.
Anyway, thanks for your input guys, it's helpful with all this thinking process.