Bother. Since the message boards ate this post, I'll repost it:
Last night I had a TPK during "Here There Be Monsters." It's a three person gestalt party, and they got wiped out by the Terror Birds after losing a party member to a T-Rex's appetite. Unfortunately, this adventure feels really difficult to work new PCs into. How could I incorporate an all new party into the game from this point? Should I skip ahead to "Tides of Dread" and then just go back to Olangru's lair? I'd like t try to run this session, I just dunno how I can manage it while maintaining some credibility for the story. Anyone out there happen to have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate any help I ca get.
~ Bryon ~
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Bother. Since the message boards ate this post, I'll repost it:
Last night I had a TPK during "Here There Be Monsters." It's a three person gestalt party, and they got wiped out by the Terror Birds after losing a party member to a T-Rex's appetite. Unfortunately, this adventure feels really difficult to work new PCs into. How could I incorporate an all new party into the game from this point? Should I skip ahead to "Tides of Dread" and then just go back to Olangru's lair? I'd like t try to run this session, I just dunno how I can manage it while maintaining some credibility for the story. Anyone out there happen to have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate any help I ca get.
~ Bryon ~
Check the other threads my man, this has been covered.
Briefly, Farshore could have people in it that serve as new PCs, they could choose a member of an Olman tribe to play, they could choose one of the crew members on their ship to develop and play, etc.
I'd skip to Tides of Dread. If you've had a TPK, the Isle has clearly been established as a dangerous place, and that's what Here There Be Monsters was trying to establish anyway. Instead of picking off the shipwreck survivors, Olangru can terrorize the new PCs as they are trying to find allies, and perhaps they get stranded in Olangru's lair during one of these side-treks.
Check the other threads my man, this has been covered.
Briefly, Farshore could have people in it that serve as new PCs, they could choose a member of an Olman tribe to play, they could choose one of the crew members on their ship to develop and play, etc.
I'm terribly sorry to ask an already asked question. I'd brought up the idea to my PCs of playing an Olman but everyone was very disinterested. I hadn't thought to mention surviving crew members and will ask. Thank you for the input.
I will confer with them and see if I can cover any further ground on the issue.
Edit: Also they are very averse to playing characters they didn't build themselves, and so don't particularly want to play the NPCs from "Here There Be Monsters."
~ Bryon ~
Check the other threads my man, this has been covered.
Briefly, Farshore could have people in it that serve as new PCs, they could choose a member of an Olman tribe to play, they could choose one of the crew members on their ship to develop and play, etc.
I'm terribly sorry to ask an already asked question. I'd brought up the idea to my PCs of playing an Olman but everyone was very disinterested. I hadn't thought to mention surviving crew members and will ask. Thank you for the input.
I will confer with them and see if I can cover any further ground on the issue.
Edit: Also they are very averse to playing characters they didn't build themselves, and so don't particularly want to play the NPCs from "Here There Be Monsters."
~ Bryon ~
Hey, Bryon. James Jacobs had mentioned in another thread that a good idea for this type of thing is to simply cut to Tides of Dread and incorporate Olangru's lair in that adventure as part of the mini-adventures leading up to the end battle. Your players never got there, so it will be new to them and they really won't know any better that it wasn't part of that adventure.
An idea is to have one of the NPCs make it to Farshore weeks later. One of very few survivors of the horrors of the Isle. A few others (named NPCs) that made it could be too injured and weakened from their journey to have made it the rest of the way to Farshore. They could be recovering in one of the Olman villages.
The NPC brings news of the wreck of the Sea Wyvern and that there are still some supplies on the ship that could be salvaged. Lavinia will definitely want to get the ship and its cargo back. You can run Tides of Dread as written from that point. The adventurers could be members of the original colonists that came over with Lord Manthalay and others. As part of their backstory, you could give them a bit of background in exploring the Isle and Temute. Award them each with a bonus +2 to Survival and Knowledge (nature) with checks made on the Isle of Dread (and surroundings). It gives them a little incentive to play up on this type of backstory and softens the blow of a TPK. If you can think of some other small bonuses to add, by all means go for it. It ties them to the campaign that much more. And that's always a good thing.
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If you go with a new characters from Farshore, be sure to have a noticeable reaction from Lavinia upon news of the original PC's death. Even if they never really worked on developing closer ties with her, it doesn't mean Lavinia didn't care for them or worry about their fates after the ships were separated. Also try to work up an existing relation with the new pc's and either Lavinia or Merivanchi. Even if they aren't the original PC's the characters should have some kind of reputation in Farshore because of how high their levels are compared to rest of the populace.
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If you go with a new characters from Farshore, be sure to have a noticeable reaction from Lavinia upon news of the original PC's death. Even if they never really worked on developing closer ties with her, it doesn't mean Lavinia didn't care for them or worry about their fates after the ships were separated. Also try to work up an existing relation with the new pc's and either Lavinia or Merivanchi. Even if they aren't the original PC's the characters should have some kind of reputation in Farshore because of how high their levels are compared to rest of the populace.
Indeed! Your player's might actually a appreciate a memorial service held in their honor. Lavinia can recount their exploits. The Jade Ravens may even have a kind word or two.
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Both the original Isle of Dread module and the adventure in Dungeon #114 describe expeditions traveling to the Isle on missions unrelated to Farshore. Your new party of PCs could be pursuing one of those objectives, or be survivors of such an expedition. There are enough hooks provided that you shouldn't have problems finding one that leads into the STAP as written. Given that the it'll be hard to make the new party as attached to Lavinia as the old one was, it might be better to step up the 'stop Demogorgon' aspect and reduce the 'rescue Lavinia' thread, perhaps just by kidnapping another NPC.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I'm terribly sorry to ask an already asked question. I'd brought up the idea to my PCs of playing an Olman but everyone was very disinterested. I hadn't thought to mention surviving crew members and will ask. Thank you for the input.
Oh, no problem! I was just saying to check other threads because they are far more in depth than my pithy answer. I was just trying to summarize a smidgeon of what you'd find in that other thread.
;)
The other ideas here are good too - I like the idea of either skipping this piece altogether, or having members of another exploratory team become new PCs.
Thank you all for the excellent advice. I'll start them off as the heroes of Farshore, and have maybe Urol or Amella stumble in begging for assistance for their wounded comrades.
Wow. Terror Birds were a threat? My party has been knocking them off like chicken dinners. Although my party does fluctuate between 4 to 6 PCs, the Terror Birds don't have enough of a hit bonus or damage range to be able to threaten the fighters, who always position themselves around the casters.
Remember, this party was down to two characters and the NPCs and they told the NPCs to flee at the first sign of danger. So it was just the two of them, 2:1 against the Nest Mother and three Terror Birds. Gestalt or no, two to one is never good odds unless they're in your favor!
~ Bryon ~
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Theres also the possibility that the dead are recovered and raised by a wayward phanaton scouting party,Olman hunters with their Zombie Master leader,perhaps even from the village of Mantru before it gets nerfed. Or an interesting idea might be to have Lithira, the aranea chick be a cleric and do the same. Of course the raise dead wouldnt be for free. Whichever group raises them will seek some sort of payment by the group defeating somthing or recovering a protected lost heirloom in some ruin, or whatever.
The terror birds are tough. That nest mother nearly killed 3 of the PCs in my group and we were a party of six! Even good tactics fail against good rolls.
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Yeah, I think I would have done something about there only being 2 PC's for the terror bird encounter. Either tone down the birds or have some NPC Olmans be involved in the combat too (Perhaps the birds were very near an Olman village or hunting party or something).
But now that you're in the place you are in, the advice of the others is good. Either roll with Farshore PC's or ship's crew. I intentionally have been very vague thus far about some of the nameless NPC's on the ship for that very reason. If a PC dies, I'll let THEM figure out who one of the "Average Joe" passengers was all along.
Yeah, I think I would have done something about there only being 2 PC's for the terror bird encounter. Either tone down the birds or have some NPC Olmans be involved in the combat too (Perhaps the birds were very near an Olman village or hunting party or something).
Part of the problem is it's very difficult to gauge what will challenge them and what won't. The gestalt doesn't seem to help matters either (for the gauging, not for the challenging). For instance they slew the Mother of All in a round and a half with three people. Yet the T-Rex, because of its immense grapple, wolfed one down in two swallows.
I hadn't thought of the Olman option, but I think at this point the PCs are all gung-ho about trying new characters.
~ Bryon ~
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Yeah, I've never really done the whole gestalt thing, I could see how that would throw off your DM "Spidey senses" as to what is scary and what isn't.
I think if I were running such a small group, in general I would have a "bail out" option planned for if you've thrown something at the PC's that turn out to be over their ability to manage.
It's the jungle.
Just replace the fallen PCs with a bunch of hadozees and phanatons. Go the gliders!
Okay, that's not helpful.
It's the jungle.
Just replace the fallen PCs with a bunch of hadozees and phanatons. Go the gliders!
Okay, that's not helpful.
I totally pushed both, but nobody would bite.
~ Bryon ~
neandertals from the caves too...
Oh and that islander affiliation is kinda nice too, I AM THE CHOSEN ONE.. lol
It's the jungle.
Just replace the fallen PCs with a bunch of hadozees and phanatons. Go the gliders!
Okay, that's not helpful.
I totally pushed both, but nobody would bite.
~ Bryon ~
hehe, know the feeling - nobody wants to play King Kongs kid brother...(they are still expecting aHumungous ape on the island... temptation !)... and as for the Phanatons, they are considered the local "Ewok"-equivalent and NOONE wants to be an Ewok.....
hehe, know the feeling - nobody wants to play King Kongs kid brother...(they are still expecting aHumungous ape on the island... temptation !)... and as for the Phanatons, they are considered the local "Ewok"-equivalent and NOONE wants to be an Ewok.....
You could always take a baboon and apply the kaiju and two headed templates to it ;)
Phanatons remind me of the Habiya(sp?) from the DND3.0 adventure with the paladin ghost and the awakened animal villagers... lovely little demonic lemurs with random attribute poision :)
Our group at the time made the mistake of teaching the little buggers that if they begged we'd give them food. which was fine til we ran out of food and they swarmed the ranger on watch because he wouldn't feed them.
Hell, I would jump at the chance to play a Phanaton Druid....
Hell, I would jump at the chance to play a Phanaton Druid....
and then you would glide...
I pushed it for my PCs as well, but no bites.