Well my SCAP campaign kicks off next week. I've been doing a fair bit of reading on these boards and on the RPGenius site to get ideas of what other people have done with the campaign. I think I'm ready but I thought I might throw my plans up here to see if anyone thinks I have missed something.
At the moment I plan on using the material that DelvesDeep and others have come up with regarding Adimarchus and the Cagewrights (with the alternate ending) as well as the Demonskar ball. As suggested I'll be getting rid of a lot of the extra Cagewrights and replacing with the 13 main villains (I always thought Vhalantru should have been a Cagewright anyway). I'm also making the changes regarding Skylar and Triel being previously engaged.
In regards to foreshadowing, what people or events need to be foreshadowed in the first chapter that are currently missing? Here is how I plan to begin the campaign, making a few changes so things are a little more forshadowed.
The party are all friends and/or relatives from a village near Cauldron (I plan to make this village lie on the road that connects Cauldron with Sasserine, probably 1 or 2 days travel from the Lucky Monkey). The group has been hired on as caravan guards for a merchant that is taking goods to Cauldron.
By starting this way the PC's already know each other well and we can just jump straight into the campaign. I also plan on a couple of the PC's having relatives in Cauldron (maybe one of them has been kidnapped?) to give them a stronger link to the city.
Along the road to the Lucky Monkey the caravan the party is guarding is attacked by Hill Baboons and/or Apes (foreshadowing the attack on the Lucky Monkey).
The party stays overnight at the Lucky Monkey. I'll be using Findas's write-up of the Lucky Monkey (from these messageboards) for this part. By getting them to meet and interact with the people that own and work at the Lucky Monkey it will make things a little more personal when they go there again and find most of them dead. I might even make one of the staff someone that used to live in the PC's village. Along with other travellers the group will meet Sarcem who is on his way to Sasserine to get the Wands of Control Water (not that the PC's know that).
Getting back on the road, the rest of the trip is pretty uneventful until they are close to Cauldron. There the party comes across some Kobolds who are fleeing the Stormblades. They might fight the Kobolds or just let them flee. Either way the Stormblades will be rude to the PC's for stealing "their" kills or for letting the Kobolds escape, hopefully setting up some animosity between the 2 parties. I'm also going to have one of the PC's "think" they catch a glipse of a large spherical creature during the Kobold fight (although it was hard for them to be certain with rain and fog making visibility poor).
Not long after the fight Skylar Krewis and some guards come down to see about the Kobolds (the Stormblades sent one of their lackeys back to town to fetch the guards so they could show off their efforts to them). I'm hoping to work Skylar into the AP a bit more.
When they finally get into Cauldron the caravan will check their goods in, pay the PC's and then send them on their way. The caravan is staying in town for a few days so they have a while to check out the town before they head off again. They let the PC's know of an inn where they can stay at a cheap rate. On the way to the inn the Ruphus scene occurs.
Throught this all I plan to have it raining a lot. Rain seems to be a central theme in the early chapters of the SCAP so I think it sets the scene rather well if the party are trudging through the rain right from the start.
That's what I've done so far. I imagine that once we spend time creating characters the group will be lucky to even get to Cauldron by the first session. Even still I want to make sure I'm ready for them if things move along quickly.
The only thing I'm a little unsure of at the moment the motivation the PC's might have to leave their village, go to Cauldron and want to stay there. I'm thinking that the village might be suffering from hard times so the PC's have to go out in the world and earn their own keep.
Another idea I had was that one of the families in the village owns a business in Cauldron and is looking for some extra help i.e. the PC's. (In this situation the PC's aren't caravan guards, they are just travelling to Cauldron). However, unbeknown to the PC's, the business owner has been kidnapped by the skulks. The PC's get there, go to find him and someone lets them know he's missing, possibly kidnapped. This gives the PC's a bit of motivation to solve the kidnapping.
The only thing is if I combine it with one of the PC's family who lives in Cauldron getting kidnapped it sounds a little too contrived. I could ditch the other family or another alternative I thought of is that the PC's get to Cauldron and find out that there isn't work for them at all. The business where they thought they were going to work is actually going poorly and is about to go under. The owner didn't want to tell the PC's not to come because he was embarrassed about it and didn't want the village to think he was a failure.
I'm basically trying to get them to Cauldron, and make it feel homely enough for them to want to stay. I could just have them be from Cauldron in the first place, but I think it works better if they are from a nearby village but know a few people in town that can show them around the place.
So what does everyone think? Is there anything I should change? Am I missing or overlooking something? Is there anything else I need to prepare?
Olaf the Stout
I'm also going to have one of the PC's "think" they catch a glipse of a large spherical creature during the Kobold fight
Not sure I understand what the Big O would be doing out there. I'd leave that. There aren't too many spherical-shaped monsters in DND, so I think you'd get more impact from having the beholder appear when he's supposed to (Malachite Fortress). I know when I plopped the Beholder model on the map my players had heart-attacks. If they knew there was one "out there, somewhere" I feel the moment would be lessoned from a "Oh my God!" to a "there it is!" feel.
Just my 2c
Shade
The only thing is if I combine it with one of the PC's family who lives in Cauldron getting kidnapped it sounds a little too contrived.
Personally, I'd suggest the characters plan on dropping in to visit an old friend, who moved to Cauldron some time ago. When they knock on the door, it doesn't get answered. He's missing. There can be signs of a scuffle inside, some looting perhaps, but no sign of entry... That'd be reason enough to hang around and get to the bottom of the mystery.
Shade
The party are all friends and/or relatives from a village near Cauldron (I plan to make this village lie on the road that connects Cauldron with Sasserine, probably 1 or 2 days travel from the Lucky Monkey). The group has been hired on as caravan guards for a merchant that is taking goods to Cauldron.
Have your players made their characters yet? It sounds like you've pre-planned things before you know who the characters are. What if the party don't do "caravan guard runs" because they are too high class? In my group, one of them wanted to be a noble who's family owns a tavern. He grew up in Cauldron but then left. He is now returning. So the first session was about returning friends coming together, along with a couple new people. I agree that the PCs should know each other in their backgrounds so they have a reason to stick together when things get tough. Having a plan is good, but be flexible when they choose different plans.
I also plan on a couple of the PC's having relatives in Cauldron (maybe one of them has been kidnapped?) to give them a stronger link to the city.
This is good. You might even skip the Rufus encounter because they are already motivated and will poke into who has already been kidnapped.
Along the road to the Lucky Monkey the caravan the party is guarding is attacked by Hill Baboons and/or Apes (foreshadowing the attack on the Lucky Monkey).
Personally, I think this is a little much, as the Lucky Monkey attack and the Flood Festival is 3-5 weeks away (mattering on how you are timetabling the adventures).
Not long after the fight Skylar Krewis and some guards come down to see about the Kobolds (the Stormblades sent one of their lackeys back to town to fetch the guards so they could show off their efforts to them). I'm hoping to work Skylar into the AP a bit more.
I had Skylar being the arresting officer for Keygan. At the same time, one of my group worked with the guards as a bounty hunter, and knew Skylar from before. I would suggest having him appear at the start or the arresting officer, not necessarily both as he is a major player (and will join the party for a bit) during Chapter 3. Overusing an NPC can be just as bad as making them non-existent.
Throught this all I plan to have it raining a lot. Rain seems to be a central theme in the early chapters of the SCAP so I think it sets the scene rather well if the party are trudging through the rain right from the start.
I would express caution on this, as the Flood Festival is supposed to be marking the "start" of the rainy season. I scheduled it as the first day in Sunsebb (Greyhawk calendar) which had more than 2 hours of consecutive rain. This created a sense of excitement and crazy activity once the time arrived. Of course, this year the festival was early in the month rather than later. The key is consistency (why would the Flood Festival be later if it is raining so much now?).
The only thing I'm a little unsure of at the moment the motivation the PC's might have to leave their village, go to Cauldron and want to stay there.
The best way to motivate characters and players is to have them choose ideas and incorporate them into their backgrounds. Then it becomes intrinsic to the character from the start. It might be the group I have as I tend to listen to what they would like to have, and then I guide them with names and weave their background narrative with the story. The player gets the background they want that would create the character they have and I get to pick the names that fit into their narrative.
As mentioned earlier, the cleric in the party wanted to be from a family with a tavern. This is why he chose to follow the God of Travel as he had enjoyed the stories of far-away places. I gave him the name Aslaxin . He said he wanted to be the eldest boy, but had turned down the family legacy for his religion, knowing that it would upset his father. I wove in that he had a brother that was always trying to get his father's attention and was jealous of the PC. I am sure you can see how we were able to create the animosity between the PCs and the Stormblades. The other characters were similar, in that most of them were from Cauldron and had been childhood friends of the cleric.
This is how I did it. I must admit I have a strong role-playing group who actually look to their backgrounds for their motivations, rather than just looking for the next monster to kill. This is why my rogue decided to leave an imposter at the Demonskar Ball pretending to be him while he broke the Alleybashers out of the prison. Your mileage may vary.
Overall, it looks like you have put a lot of thought and effort into this. I hope it goes well and that your players appreciate and enjoy the adventure. I look forward to hearing more about how things have gone for you.
Ok, I'll leave the Beholder out of it until the Malachite Fortress.
I'm not forcing the players to do everything that has been set out. That is just the general idea that I have. As a DM you quickly learn that nothing you plan survives contact with the players. You just have to learn to adapt what you have to the situation. I think that you have to have at least a little bit of direction at the start of the campaign to get things going though.
If I just said, "Ok, you are all living in a small village, what do you want to do?" we would be spending a whole session (or more) with the players figuring out what the heck to do next. Some players might like the total freedom to do anything the wanted. However, I have been in games like that. Some of the players didn't like it and just seemed lost as to what to do next. In my experience players definitely want choices, they don't want to be forced down the one and only path. However most of them still like some boundaries to those choices.
I have given my players a rough idea what the SCAP is about, without giving any specific information away. They all were interested in it so I don't see any point in wasting time getting them headed in the direction they want to go in anyway.
As for introducing too many NPC's, they might not necessarily remember them by name, but I can just remind them that the Stormblades "is group you met outside of Cauldron" or when they find Sarcem's body "you remember seeing him when you were in the inn last time". If they don't remember, no biggie.
Giving them time to get a feel of the city might be good. At this stage I'm thinking that they'll be headed to Cauldron to work or to visit someone. I'll play it by ear when I play out the Ruphus scene, depending on how the players are reacting. If they're interested in exploring the city I'll let it go for a bit. If they're sitting waiting for an adventure hook I'll introduce it earlier.
Olaf the Stout
Let Alek Tercival accompany the caravan of Sarcem Delasharn => the Paladin is not available for the search for missing children. He should return earlier than Sarcem for the trial of Keygan Ghelve... and be gone in search for his visons when the flood festival hits.
Yep, that's what I'm planning on doing.
Olaf the Stout
The party are all friends and/or relatives from a village near Cauldron (I plan to make this village lie on the road that connects Cauldron with Sasserine, probably 1 or 2 days travel from the Lucky Monkey). The group has been hired on as caravan guards for a merchant that is taking goods to Cauldron.Have your players made their characters yet? It sounds like you've pre-planned things before you know who the characters are. What if the party don't do "caravan guard runs" because they are too high class? In my group, one of them wanted to be a noble who's family owns a tavern. He grew up in Cauldron but then left. He is now returning. So the first session was about returning friends coming together, along with a couple new people. I agree that the PCs should know each other in their backgrounds so they have a reason to stick together when things get tough. Having a plan is good, but be flexible when they choose different plans.
I also plan on a couple of the PC's having relatives in Cauldron (maybe one of them has been kidnapped?) to give them a stronger link to the city.This is good. You might even skip the Rufus encounter because they are already motivated and will poke into who has already been kidnapped.
Along the road to the Lucky Monkey the caravan the party is guarding is attacked by Hill Baboons and/or Apes (foreshadowing the attack on the Lucky Monkey).Personally, I think this is a little much, as the Lucky Monkey attack and the Flood Festival is 3-5 weeks away (mattering on how you are timetabling the adventures).
Not long after the fight Skylar Krewis and some guards come down to see about the Kobolds (the Stormblades sent one of their lackeys back to town to fetch the guards so they could show off their efforts to them). I'm hoping to work Skylar into the AP a bit more.I had Skylar being the arresting officer for Keygan. At the same time,...
If the players want to come up with something different for their characters I can work with that. If they are happy to go along with whatever I want to come up with I at least have something prepared.
I think the Hill Baboons are fine. I'm not going to be using Tongue-eater or anything like that! :-) I'll just let them know that this is jungle terrain and those types of creatures are around. It will only be 1 or 2 of them.
As for the rain, it rains a lot in jungle environments (there tends to be only 2 seasons, a wets season and a dry season). I'm not talking about bucketing heavy rain, which is what I see the Flood Season as. I just mean some rain to set the theme.
As for players coming up with backgrounds. My players can be pretty slack with it. If they don't come up with something I've got something prepared. If they do have a background I'll weave it in somehow.
Olaf the Stout
Anyone else have any suggestions or comments?
Olaf the Stout
There's a good section in the hardcover for backgrounds for Cauldron natives. There are a lot of NPCs in the campaign - a flowchart with their names and connections to each other couldn't hurt.
Anyone else have any suggestions or comments?
Olaf the Stout
There are a lot of good ideas in your plan Olaf. But perhaps it is a little bit too quick. It is important to create some crescendo all along the numerous game sessions of this story arc. You may need a lot of ammunitions, and if possible crafted by the PCs themselves, to keep your players stuck in Cauldron. I will try to explain by an actual example:
One of my parties had a first adventure before Life Bazar so that the PCs were tied together. However they had no link with Cauldron and basically no Background. To improve the PCs' involvement I applied the following on the fly:
- The cleric was quickly informed he is a member of the Cauldron church of St Cuthbert (should work with another cult). Just a little bit after, he took the highlights when meeting for the first time the Last Laugh in a dark alley of the town. Since he has been a strong and heavy connection with Jenya, Sarcem and Alek Tercival. Such character make a perfect fit with the chapter 1, 3 and 5 of the SCAP.
- One of the PC was a dwarf paladin of Moradin. He was briefed that he was from Sasserine. The Council of the Elders gave him a big challenge: restore the dwarfs’ power in Cauldron in finding what occurred during the fate of that place and in trying to restoring it if possible. This idea was honestly my best move with that group. The dwarf paladin has been a great leader and gave me plenty of good hints to personalize this long campaign. Malachite has been recovered after difficult discussions with the Cauldron Council and a big amount of gold (10.000!). This money was brought by a group of dwarfs sent by the Council of the Elders to rule the new settlement. The High Priest in that group quickly put a lot of pressure on the paladin and "stole" him the Malachite leadership. It will be very interesting when this guy will reveal his true CW identity... (I'm sure you guess who he is).
- The other PCs’ backgrounds had less impact on the story - even if one of the remaining PCs is a rogue who grew as an orphan in Cauldron...
So, with this very draft start, the four first chapters went smoothly. I added all along more foreshadowing. The Keygan Ghelve trial - each player had to take the role of one of the Noble of the Town Council during one of our game session - was a good step. The hints about a cage of the CW found in the Drakthar's lair was another step... and also the DD's Demonskar Ball (again many thanks to DD for his GREAT idea)... and a lot of other things which happened in response of the players’ actions and role play. I also used a lot of the ideas of this forum as the nightmares, the Last Laugh and more.
The events you prepare before arriving in Cauldron are good but take care of the three following traps:
- Cauldron must stay - IMHO - the star of the game. Don't make other places (like a village, the LM inn, the jungle etc... too shiny - even under the rain ;-)
- If some of the tasteful NPCs like Sarcem are out of the town - at the very beginning and for a long time - you will not be in a position to play with them. For instance I used Sarcem as a member of the court during the Keygan Ghelve trial.
- A too quick pace with the foreshadowing and with your sequences can create a frustration from the players who will feel having no effects on the events.
But as usual you are certainly the best judge in what will enjoy your players.
Just my thoughts
If french is not a problem for you you can have a look at this
La Cie des Explorateurs
and this
L'Anneau de Clefs
There are the stories of my two parties in the SCAP (so far)
Be Creative.
Most of the campaign journals I've read have had an introductory bit of adventure. Personally, I'll be using the Burning Plague adventure found on wizards.com and setting it in Redgorge. The party will begin as natives of the town to add impact later during the battle.
I like the idea of a monkey or ape attack. I think I'll borrow that and have a 'random encounter' on the party's way from Redgorge to Cauldron (which I totally redesigned and called Caldera).
We had our first session a couple of weeks ago. Character creation took up over half of the session so we didn't get a whole lot done but we did manage to get through a couple of days road travel, a night's stay at the Lucky Monkey and an encounter with the Stormblades. The party started in the village of Donnington (the players came up with the name), about 3 days travel from Cauldron, having come there from a number of different places.
There are 5 PC's.
Human Favoured Soul of Pelor
Human Hexblade
Dwarf Ranger
Half-Elf Cleric of Heironeous
Human Conjurer
At one stage the Dwarf Ranger was going to be a Dwarf Cleric. That would have made for an interesting party. Healing would have definitely been covered! Even now, with just the Favoured Soul and the Cleric, I think that the party is well covered for healing.
The game started off with the party on the road to Cauldron. After a few hours travel they were attacked by 3 Baboons, which they dealt with them pretty easily (I rolled a 2 three times in a row for the Baboon attacks). The party worked together well to deal with the threat, with the casters buffing the Ranger and Hexblade as they fought the Baboons.
The Ranger and Wizard made some Knowledge: Nature checks and discovered that while Baboons can be strongly territorial, these ones seemed even more agressive than normal (the party doesn't know it yet but it is due to Adimarchus' madness affecting them).
They made it the rest of the way to the Lucky Monkey without further incident, although several merchant caravans going the opposite direction mentioned to the party similar experiences with animals acting strangely recently.
The Lucky Monkey stay was good as the party met Shensen (although mostly from a distance). The players were all really intrigued as to why there was a normally evil Drow (or half-Drow at least) living there. They'll certainly remember her when the come back to the Lucky Monkey later on in the game.
The next day they continued to Cauldron, encountering the Stormblades as the Stormblades were hunting down some kobolds in the lava tubes. Todd was the first one to come into contact with the PC’s. The Dwarven Ranger had grabbed hold of one of the fleeing kobolds when Todd spotted him and came out of a lava tube, yelling at him for trying to “steal his kill”. Todd then proceeded to kill the kobold before the Dwarf could even do anything (Todd won initiative and killed the poor Kobold in one stab).
A bit of a stand-off ensured. One the PC’s asked Todd who he was, another asked Todd why they were hunting down the kobolds. The Hexblade drew his sword just in case things turned nasty. The PC’s not knowing who Todd was made him a little angrier and he blamed the party for getting in the way and letting the kobolds escape. The Wizard mocked Todd, saying he couldn’t have been doing too good a job of hunting them down, judging by all the kobolds they saw fleeing.
At this point Cora and Zachary finally figured out where Todd and the PC’s were and came out of the lava tubes to join in the conversation. Zachary was relatively quiet but Cora also belittled the PC’s, calling them commoners and talked down to them. I think the whole encounter came very close to combat at one point, until Annah called the 3 of them back into the lava tubes.
That encounter went as good as I could have hoped for. A couple of the players would really like to see something bad happen to the Stormblades now, especially Todd and Cora. The player of the Wizard even cursed the fact that his PC was good, otherwise he would have acted a little differently (read more violently!). That should set things up nicely for a strong rivalry as the campaign continues and the PC’s interact with the Stormblades more.
After that the PC’s continued on to the city gates, paid the entrance fee and went into the city. That’s where we left it for the night. Next session the PC’s will probably begin by looking for an inn to stay at for the night (it’s close to sunset). If that’s what they do I’ll probably work the Ruphus encounter in as they head towards as inn and we’ll go from there.
Olaf the Stout
The Lucky Monkey stay was good as the party met Shensen (although mostly from a distance). The players were all really intrigued as to why there was a normally evil Drow (or half-Drow at least) living there. They'll certainly remember her when the come back to the Lucky Monkey later on in the game.
I explained away Shensen's skin color to being half-elf, with the human half having been a dark-skinned human. They accepted that without question.
Sounds like a good start to your campaign.
The Lucky Monkey stay was good as the party met Shensen (although mostly from a distance). The players were all really intrigued as to why there was a normally evil Drow (or half-Drow at least) living there. They'll certainly remember her when the come back to the Lucky Monkey later on in the game.I explained away Shensen's skin color to being half-elf, with the human half having been a dark-skinned human. They accepted that without question.
Sounds like a good start to your campaign.
A couple of party members knew the Gnome barmaid that was working at the Lucky Monkey as she used to live in Donnington (the village where some of the PC's lived). They asked her about Shensen and she was able to fill them in a bit about her. From what they know she seems to be totally anti-typical for a Drow (or a half-Drow at least) but I think a couple of the players are still suspicious.
Olaf the Stout
I have decided to go the other way with Shensen. In my homebrew there are no halfbreeds so I made her a full Drow. The only thing I know about the party right now is that my wife will be playing a Drow, she's always wanted to so I finally caved and said she could. It will be interesting to see how the party deals with another Drow lurking around.
I also went and changed the kopru ruins to Drow ruins to keep that little Drow theme present for a little while. Now that i think about it, the party might get a little sidetracked and think the big bad is a Drow threat. I always love giving them the wrong idea about things but enough information that when the reveal comes they can look back and wonder why they didn't see it sooner.
I would suggest you add a few things in before the Ruphus encounter.
1st, Let them find their Inn and do any shopping they need to do. Parade them around town meeting innkeepers, barmaids and shopkeepers. Introduce them to the people and the layout of the town. After they are hot on the heals of the kidnappers they will care much less about any shopkeepers except maybe Sky.
2nd I may want to have the church of St. Cuthbert make a general announcement that they are looking into the kidnappings before you run the Ruphus event. Maybe not, you need to make the call based on how aggressive your players are. While one group may take this as foreshadowing, another may take it as a call to action.
Good Luck