|
Sandpoint is supposed to endear the PCs to its plight -possibly throughout the entire campaign- but some of the DMs don't seem to be as in love with the town as the flavor text wants them to be. I get the feeling PCs should be willing to die for this place, this beloved golden "home town". The hero worship after the goblin raid is a nice start, but perhaps there needs to be something deeper, more binding.
So, let this be a forum for brainstorming ways to make the PCs (and the players) fond of Sandpoint.
Any ideas?
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
NPCs that remember them, compliment them, and help in the little things. For example, Ameiko goes out of her way to provide minor things (making sure the elven noblewoman has clean sheets every day, supplying dwarven ale to the dwarf barbarian, telling the alchemist in the group that the ingredient he is looking for can be found in that store, etc.)
Now i haven't used any of the ones above but that is one way to get them to care about Ameiko.
When Shayliss Vinder made her move on the paladin in my group, he was able to extradite himself, but then he went to talk to Vin (Shayliss' father) to smooth things over. Vin now proclaims his virtues while Shayliss makes cow eyes and plots revenge for being rejected and for the paladin getting her in trouble with her father.
When Shalelu was introduced, she bought the PCs dinner and spent the evening telling them about the goblins in the area. Several of the PCs are worried now that she is out in the wilderness alone. I plan on having her be chased by some goblins and a bugbear when the group leaves town for the first time. Assuming the save her (safe bet that), she will tell them that most of the "bad boys" of the goblins are gathering around Thistletop and tell them about a "snitch" goblin that they could use to get inside information on the dungeon at Thistletop.
Little things are the key to getting players to care about the NPCs.
I even have a minor sculptor watching the PCs planning on making a statue of them for the town square. Right now they have no idea, but the aasimar is creeped out by this gnome who is apparently following them around and watching them.
Bobby
The Cat.Dragon
|
So, let this be a forum for brainstorming ways to make the PCs (and the players) fond of Sandpoint.
make the NPCs endearing - I plan to add a tavern owned by the player's old party (but they are rarely there). During inspecting these establishments the NPCs need to feel real. I think that the attack goes a long way towards showing this, by showing that they arn't just static people who don't do anything when the PCs arn't 'on screen' its easier to do this for someone the PCs will talk to, like the Blacksmith/store owner ect. By giving the PCs notoriety you make everyone want to be seen with them and to get advice from them. RP these encounters, especially if you can have them meet the man before the bedroom scene, this might endear some groups more toward the survivors... things to make the people more then just pictures, but make them memorable beings.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My left hand is injured, so I'll be brief:
10) Love interest (love interest will wait with their Sandpoint family and friends during PC excursions)
9) Growing up in Sandpoint, the PC's simply enjoy a quiet place to kick up their boots and relax
8) Hero worship and continual heroic deeds places PC's on par (if not supercede) with Shalelu: they become permanent "heroes" of Sandpoint/ official deputies, etc. with a ceremony, keys to the city, free room and board, shop discounts become permanent
7) Like #8, the PC's become elected into some other official post
6) Sandpoint Theater becomes a hit using the PC's as actors and keeps wanting them in new plays
5) They acquire a taste for hagfish water
4) Their exploits with Ameiko land them with a love affair or friendship with her (see item 10)
3) Ameiko gives them the Glassworks and/ or the manor
2) The unique weather cannot be found anywhere else
1) I hear thar be fresh, home-made, country-style muffins at the Pixie's Kitten, shiver me timbers.
Arrrr!!
"Fresh Muffins" A fine bit o' "Booty" indeed!
My left hand is injured, so I'll be brief:
Brief? Arrrr!
Ye keeping banging on the keep banging on the keyboard with a busted wing, and they'll be meauring ye for a hook!
Arrr!
But it be a beauty of a list all the same. I be liking #3. Nothing like real estate to give the bilge rats some motivation.
It may be too late, but another way to tie your players in an affectionate way to Sandpoint is to give them bonus feats for having grown up in the place or be related to one of the named notables. These would replace the Big Game / Country / City Born feats, and look a little like the ancestor feats from Oriental Adventures or Skill Bonus feats from the PHB.
Cheers
Sadly I have to wait until November/December to run my game (first time DMing too...man did Paizo ever make it easy for newbs with this path) as we're still in the middle of shackled city and we don't want to break stride until our DM needs a break.
I'm chomping at the bit to get this going though!
One of the best ways to have a town/peoples lodge themselves in a PC's heart is to give them something or someone to take care of. If there's a person there who needs to be looked out after occasionally (overdoing it could be more annoying than helpful) Like the now single mom who's husband got slaughtered, or a young orphan who now hero worships one of the PC's.
Have someone come up and ask the PC's to sponsor a new charity in their names to help with whatever (victim families of the goblin raid)
In one game we were given shares in the theater for helping out with something, which meant we were constantly going back to town to collect our money from it, and the theater owner was constantly writing plays of our exploits.
Nothing like real estate to give the bilge rats some motivation.O'course not! But do ye no recall the scallywags be granted their own fort in Pathfinder #3? If ye do it sooner, it'll be sailin' through the straits o' Hell to sort the thing out agin after!
I do recall, but the PC's can always use a summer cottage when they get tired of drilling cherries.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, let this be a forum for brainstorming ways to make the PCs (and the players) fond of Sandpoint.
Any ideas?
I plan to make the cleric Zanthus the nexus of NPCs/players interaction. After all, he is behind the reconstruction of the Cathedral (a monastery in my game), he is beloved, respected and dynamic, & in my game a "bon vivant". He will introduces the players the the various group, place of interest, make Sandpoint hospitable.
I plan also to expand the S. festival over several days. Day one, Desna's butterfly, as put in the module. Day two, Shalyn veil : Zanthus put a veil over the naked goddess statue (with Nulia feature, see the Nulia tread), day 3 : Gozreh fishing compet.: The youngsters of Sandpoint dive into the river to catch a fish barehanded . The winner brings the Gozreh's net (a relic) to the Cathedral. Day 4 : Bells of Adabar, everybody in Sandpoint can try to ring the Bells of Adabar, a set of four church bells imported from Janderhoff. Only the strongest can succeed, etc...
I’m praying that one of my PCs gets Shayliss pregnant. That’s years worth of RP hooks right there.
Along those same lines, though, I’d like to have each of my players give me a brief family tree so that I can really weave them into the townsfolk. Sure there might be some barbarians of the Cinderlands or big-city-burglar escaping to the countryside, but there’s bound to be some PCs with parents, siblings or others living in the town as well.
|
So far in my game...
have asked the cleric to become one of Zanthus' acolytes (so he can have six acolytes and be a 'general' cleric to the community)
one of the PCs (female) has struck up a friendship with Ameiko as they both have a passion for dancing and the last few days have been entertaining the locals with the Varisian Dance of the Veils
(of course the theater will start getting mad)
another PC, this one a dwarf has made friends with Ven Vinder, listening to his fatherly woes over fine orkish rotgut.
the shayliss thing hasn't worked quite yet as the target ran, and the dwarf above smoothed things over with Vinder.
Both the dwarf and the barbarian drank the Hagfish water!! so they are popular with the locals as 'men with strong stuff'..
trying to entice an PC towards a friendship with Shalelu, but so far, no dice.
*the love interest of Foxglove was thoroughly creeped out, btw....
I'm just opening up the game now (PbP), brining all the players together from outside the city to be at the central square during the festival. The best tie I've created so far is with a country-born ranger (Tal). He first looked up Hosk on coming to town, having known the old ranger's legendary reputation as a goblin-killer (the character's favored enemy). That one was a no-brainer connection, but what happened from that is sheer spontaneous RP goodness...
At the festival, Tal followed Hosk around sampling the various foods. As they stood listening to the speeches, Tal's eyes wandered the crowd (at the players request) looking for a lovely lass. I recalled Ryn being named as the prettiest girl in town, and so he saw the half-elf standing at the edge of the crowd, apart from everyone else and looking somber. Hosk explained the girl's history, as Hosk grew up with her mother (an immediate improv on my part). Tal decided to see what he could do to lift her spirits just as Father Zantus let the swallowtails loose. Noting that this caused the first smile from Ryn he'd seen, Tal proceeded to try and capture a butterfly to take to her. He ended up using a late-blooming flower to lure one in, then made some pretty impressive rolls to carefully walk over to Ryn. He is now approaching Ryn to present his gift--he'll be met with a smile and obvious delight from her, immediately followed by her erupting in a scream as she sees the first goblin kill a dog.
We'll see how it proceeds from there. Assuming he pursues an interest in Ryn, Tal will have to unravel the mystery of why she is so reluctant to take on any suitors, which will lead to a side-quest involving an attic whisperer...I think Tal's hooked. Now I've got to work on the other three players.
I’m praying that one of my PCs gets Shayliss pregnant. That’s years worth of RP hooks right there.
How are they going to find the time to get her pregnant if her dad is supposed to show up "not long" after she "makes her move"? "hurry up and fertilize me, I hear my dad on the stairs!" Yikes.
I suppose "not long" is flexible. If the PC decides to throw her down on the cot, you can let them finish their business before daddy shows up.
How are they going to find the time to get her pregnant if her dad is supposed to show up "not long" after she "makes her move"?
I'd totally be willing to delay Papa's entrance until the pillowtalk phase if it meant I could saddle one of my PCs with a baby.
During the Shayliss incident, my player rolled rather well on the diplomacy check, so I ruled that things were smoothed over with Vin, but not with Shayliss. Shayliss exited the encounter crying and cursing the PC's name.
What suprized me was that the player later went back to the general store to try and smooth things over with Shayliss. At this point, I figure that if my player wants to establish a lasting relationship, I'll let them. I don't have too many details on Pathfinder 3, but if the pc gets their own stronghold, then I think Shayliss might end up moving out of sandpoint and to the stronghold.
3 out of the 6 players in my group already have at least two kids a piece. One of the others is an uncle (brothers of one of the dads in the group) One guy has three kids, another has twins, and the DM (me)has two as well. We sometimes end up bringing the kids to watch the games (and play on the Wii). So giving the PCs kids too has sort of a "been there, done that" feeling to it. And then our real kids would want to play the imaginary kids, and suddenly we're out of room at the table. I suppose I could give one of the bachelors a pretend kid.
None of the wives play. So I might saddle all the PCs with girlfriends and boyfriends, drinking buddies, cub reporters, elderly aunts, whatever.
I thought it would be funny if the main party ever got in serious trouble, all the girlfriends could ride to the rescue.
Dude, how much would it suck to be a Power Gamer's son?
He'd be picking your class, and skills and feats for you.
"Daddy needs you to learn how to set up flanking for him..."
My players finished the Glassworks, then I sent them off on a sidequest to get them all to second level: They were a few Exp short.
I was curious about what roleplaying bits people had come up with in the aftermath of the Glassworks.
I thought it would be funny if the main party ever got in serious trouble, all the girlfriends could ride to the rescue.
That's actually a cool idea.
I ran a Vampire Dark Ages session where the players put their normal character sheets aside, and we played out a daytime raid on a very powerful vampire's crypt, with the players running their characters' retainers, servants, etc. With the sun shining, the little guys got a chance to shine as well.
5) They acquire a taste for hagfish water
2) The unique weather cannot be found anywhere else
1) I hear thar be fresh, home-made, country-style muffins at the Pixie's Kitten, shiver me timbers.
I am from New Orleans. When I briefly ran my homebrew, I based my central starting town on a town similiar to Sandpoint, and one thing I used was crawfish. I fixed it to where my town was on the shores of a large lake, but it was the only place in my campaign world that crawfish could be found and flourished. There was a reason for this that was secret to the players (and the game never lasted long enough to find out the reason the waters were perfect for the crawfish was because of a dormant red dragon who was under a spell that would expire in the PCs lifetime). But that was the unique detail that I used,a dn the players loved it.
All that was to say that it is up to the DM to find little things to make the PC's want to be in Sandpoint. Just look around your own town and see what endures you to the place. If there is nothing there, surf the net and see what people love about their towns. This will give you insight as to how to endure your PC's to Sandpoint. Crawfish may just find their way to Sandpoint in my campaign. I haven't decided yet.