With my Omega World game ended last weekend with the proverbial whimper as opposed to the expected bang. Not wanting to whip anything else up, we are going to take a stab at STAP.
I am looking for some advice on starting the campaign. We are a very experienced group and I have a rep as being a little heavy handed.
Six players. So far we have a human Conjurer (excellent, haven't DM'd a wizzy in ages), human Barbarian (yawn), human Ranger (double yawn) and human Fighter (I would yawn but the player has a decent backstory and is already talking of adding cleric of Kord levels).
I've seen the other advice threads but was looking for something specific to this group.
We finally just started and it seemed to go well so I will pass on some of the stuff I did. 1. bonus feat for a backstory, this feat was one from the STAP players guide (academy graduate, waterrat, etc.) 2. I encouraged affiliations. 3. the adventure 'assumes PCs have attracted the reputation for an adventurer'.
Like most adventure films I think it is fun to start in the middle of the action. So I started with "everyone ready? OK roll initiative" before even giving them a setting. I then had a little mini adventure based on 1 and 2 for each character. This was the nugget to start 3 (the 'reputation').
For example the cleric joined the Whirling Fury and had the academy graduate feat. He stopped to visit a professor one day and found him unconscious with a small outsider trying to escape from a magic item. After a few knowledge checks, a cure spell and some opposed checks he managed to close the gate and 'defeat' the outsider (=1/2 affiliation point). Later a halfling in green approaches him and asks if he is the student that rescued professor Billmort, then hands him the note from the Livinia. (I also played the Bond theme to set the action mood, but that did not go over as well :)
I am looking for some advice on starting the campaign. We are a very experienced group and I have a rep as being a little heavy handed.
Six players. So far we have a human Conjurer (excellent, haven't DM'd a wizzy in ages), human Barbarian (yawn), human Ranger (double yawn) and human Fighter (I would yawn but the player has a decent backstory and is already talking of adding cleric of Kord levels).
I've seen the other advice threads but was looking for something specific to this group.
First, download the Savage Tide Player's Guide so that the players can come up with better backstories. If they are Sasserine natives, they may already have an interest in the machinations of the Lotus Dragons. Also, it allows you to use the affiliations immediately: The conjurer can be a member of the Witchwardens, the barbarian a member of the Church of the Whirling Fury (possibly a Whirling Frenzy variant with Two-Weapon Fighting), the ranger a member of Zelkarune's Horns, and the fighter a member of the Dawn Council with close ties to Kord's church.
Second, you may want to run a quick introductory "side-trek" adventure or have the players come up with backgrounds that already tie them together as a group. The set-up for TINH assumes that the party has already come together and achieved some small amount of fame. Also, the adventure paths require smart play and teamwork for success.
Third, tailor the adventures to the party's backgrounds and interests. If one or more characters have a contact or nemesis in their history, substitute them for some of the named NPCs in the adventure(s) where appropriate; you can keep the stats, just change the names. If they like or dislike certain adventure themes or styles, flesh out or pare down the corresponding parts of the adventures.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
We started tonight. I had one character, who lived in Sasserine and worked in an exotic pet store, have some bad men visit the shop and ask for money to avoid any of the animals catching fire or whatever. He quickly found some adventurers drinking beer with ice in it on a terrace and hired them.
I rolled out a battlemap of the area, and asked them where they were. Strangely they all elected to be in the back of the shop, around the table, having a drink and swapping stories. Several failed listen checks later they smelled smoke.
Once they'd rushed out, into the waiting saps of the arsonists, they made short work of them (except for the wizard who was on the receiving end of a sea urchin poisin dart and puked his way through the combat.
The captured thug led to a half-orc called Irontusk, who they found in Shadowshore. Cue the chase scene from Mad Dog's Key (dungeon 114). Hilarious!
Lavinia heard about them after this and the rest is history.