I just read today's blog entry and I am so enthused about this next adventure campaign. Rise of the Runelords was good (I'm not entirely sure I would call it great, but I haven't cancelled my subscription or asked for my money back) but I really look forward to this one. The fact that you're giving everyone the possibility for a concrete reason to be together from the very beginning (revenge, the best way to make new friends) seems to inject a slightly more character driven angle in the path which is better than the old "errand boys/girls to the weird old sages".
The character himself seems pretty cool, too. The PCs will remember an old man that exploits orphans for profit and keeps an alligator for a pet. I've always liked (for villains) this idea of Fagan or similar characters (or, if you've played Bioshock, a certain character there) that uses the castoffs of society to eke out a profit.
I also like the idea of a more localized campaign. RotRL stayed in Varisia and Sandpoint was cool and all, but more time was spent out in the wilderness and in huge giant dungeons or mountaineering than actually hanging with the locals. Saving the area from a risen archmage is great, but it's a bit abstract; only a few people are really going to know how close they came to being enslaved by a megalomaniac. But if you're deposing a brutal queen and ending her reign of terror, everybody's going to want to be your buddy when it's over, or they'll at least know who you are. And that's a bigger reward than being able to write a huge number of gold pieces onto your character sheet.
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Well, rise of the runelords was extremely good halfway through, and then became merely on the high end of very Okay. Likely, it's just due to the nature of time constraints and high-level adventures.
But this...Oh, hells yeah, I'm so looking foreward to this. Karzoug, Mokmurian, the Grauls and Kreegs, the Ghouls, the Goblins...these were good, memorable villians, but nothing is going to ever, ever top the creepy old man with the alligator, fought likely at 2nd-3rd level. Oh, ye gods, do I love Low-level play. villains dont have to be archmages, overwhelming numbers, or a strength score of 30- they just need a bad hat and a 'gator
Is anyone else thinking Frank Costello from the Departed?
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Oh, ye gods, do I love Low-level play.
Me too. PCs aren't decked out in umpteen magical items and don't have adventure breaking powers/spells/abilities, etc. They are forced to rely on their wits, not their equipment or latest splatbook superpower. Life is cheap and death is always just a good dice roll away. PCs are just as likely to kill their opponents as they are to go down in a heap. I heart low level play.
villains dont have to be archmages, overwhelming numbers, or a strength score of 30- they just need a bad hat and a 'gator
I totally agree.
Really looking forward to seeing this guy in action.
I wonder if he talks with a cajun accent? Or has a wad of "chaw" in his mouth, and he spits black goop frequently? He just looks dirty, and it's awesome.
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Wow, genre mish-mash ahoy, and I love it. Korvosa is a london-esque city, with a river, stifling social order, and hordes of inexplicable orphans being exploited by pointlessly cruel old men. this is pretty much the last setting you would expect for heroic fantasy. I suddenly find myself laughing my ass off at a mental picture of charles dickens clad in chainmail and weilding a morningstar with grim determination.
plus, the city is just across from the mushfens. which means gators, and lots of them. stands selling gator meat. gator-leather handbags, and evil old men with pet gators. now the mental image is of charles dickens, clad in studded gator leather armor, weilding a mace in one hand and holding a grilled gator kebab in the other.
Yeah, I'm exaggerating, but this is still going to be AWESOME!
So, perhaps the upper-class people speak in a h-filled braying yawn, while the middle-classes talk like that guy from the Waterboy?
Oh, ye gods, do I love Low-level play.Me too. PCs aren't decked out in umpteen magical items and don't have adventure breaking powers/spells/abilities, etc. They are forced to rely on their wits, not their equipment or latest splatbook superpower. Life is cheap and death is always just a good dice roll away. PCs are just as likely to kill their opponents as they are to go down in a heap. I heart low level play.
villains dont have to be archmages, overwhelming numbers, or a strength score of 30- they just need a bad hat and a 'gatorI totally agree.
Really looking forward to seeing this guy in action.
I wonder if he talks with a cajun accent? Or has a wad of "chaw" in his mouth, and he spits black goop frequently? He just looks dirty, and it's awesome.
Low level is THE way to go as far as I'm concerned. It's been years since me and me lads have played anything over 10th
Wow, genre mish-mash ahoy, and I love it. Korvosa is a london-esque city, with a river, stifling social order, and hordes of inexplicable orphans being exploited by pointlessly cruel old men.
Makes you want to break out singing "We don't need no education!"
Seriously though I have always loved beginning and low level play hits that for me.
I still would love to see an initial adventure start with the players as kids who go through some experience together that will lead them into the adventure later (ala Sleepers or It).
Sean Mahoney
I still would love to see an initial adventure start with the players as kids who go through some experience together that will lead them into the adventure later (ala Sleepers or It).
Sounds like someone is begging for a preview adventure. Nicolas? Please?
Kid adventures rule!
I wish I had the time to whip one up for you all...but the 5,000 words a day pace is keeping little Nicky crushed under deadline heart disease. Someday, I'll be free!
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Contributor
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Someday, I'll be free!
*wears an obviously fake beard and some bed sheets that are supposed to look like robes and walks up to WotC's main office with a staff in one hand and a large piece of styrofoam with the words "Ten Mild Requests" upon it in the other*
"Let my Nicky go!"
*WotC refuses*
"I will rain down a plague on you... of... um... wet hubcaps!"
*kicks water onto a nearby car's hubcaps*
"Let my Nicky go!"
*security escorts him off the premises*
Kid adventures rule!
You shouldn't be let near kids adventures. ;-)
Kid adventures rule!
I wish I had the time to whip one up for you all...but the 5,000 words a day pace is keeping little Nicky crushed under deadline heart disease. Someday, I'll be free!
As much as I would love you to make adventures at my whim (and I DO like that idea), I would be just as happy if this was the start of an upcoming AP.
Sean Mahoney
Someday, I'll be free!*wears an obviously fake beard and some bed sheets that are supposed to look like robes and walks up to WotC's main office with a staff in one hand and a large piece of styrofoam with the words "Ten Mild Requests" upon it in the other*
"Let my Nicky go!"
*WotC refuses*
"I will rain down a plague on you... of... um... wet hubcaps!"
*kicks water onto a nearby car's hubcaps*
"Let my Nicky go!"
*security escorts him off the premises*
Awesome!
Rain those hubcaps down!
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Am i the only one who read through the discussion of Gaedran Lamm and thought of Dr. Lucky?
"Perhaps he murdered your father. Maybe he kidnapped your cousin. Or perhaps you grew up as one of his orphan pickpockets, and experienced a childhood of physical abuse and pain. Whatever your choice, you'll have a reason at the start of the campaign to side up with the other PCs—all of you will share a hatred for this despicable old villain."
"Maybe he destroyed your dry cleaning business; maybe you think he's the leader of the vampires. Perhaps he's the only person standing between you and the family fortune. Or maybe his cat just keeps peeing in your shrubs. Whatever your reason, its good enough to push you over the edge, and now you absolutely can't wait to take the lying old bastard down!"
I wonder if we'll be able to attack him when another PC is watching...
EDIT: And I'm also amused that the filter will let "bastard" go through, but not "Fagin".
EDIT: And I'm also amused that the filter will let "bastard" go through, but not "f@#in".
Well, for the swords, obviously.
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Alright...
Has anyone run into this situation?
The PCs assaulted the Old Fishery like a good novice adventure group but have gone out of their way to not kill anyone...
They have even knocked Lamm out. The only dead foes have been spiders and Gobblegut {Nice timely crit by sword-wielding fighter!}.
So...I'm sure they will want to turn Lamm over to the authorities...What happens after that? Any ideas? Does Lamm get executed? Does he escape with his cronies to Old Korvosa to plague the PCs in "Escape"?
How would this logically happen.
Thanks in advance!
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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So...I'm sure they will want to turn Lamm over to the authorities...What happens after that? Any ideas? Does Lamm get executed? Does he escape with his cronies to Old Korvosa to plague the PCs in "Escape"?
How would this logically happen.
Lamm is too greasy to just be arrested. Have him get off with a slap on the wrists, and with a little investigation work, the PCs find that he paid off the right people.
I would definitely have Lamm come back to haunt them, but I would make it even sooner than "Escape", I'd do it in "Seven Days."
Some people just need killin'.
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my parties rogue snuck in sneak attacked to unconcious and coup de graced him like it was nothing
not that it was unexpected after doing the same thing to everyone else but giggles who they haven't fought
ill get him later with the undead
*laughs maniacly*
how'd he get past the 'gator and the shark(s)?
Creative Director
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Alright...
Has anyone run into this situation?
The PCs assaulted the Old Fishery like a good novice adventure group but have gone out of their way to not kill anyone...
They have even knocked Lamm out. The only dead foes have been spiders and Gobblegut {Nice timely crit by sword-wielding fighter!}.
So...I'm sure they will want to turn Lamm over to the authorities...What happens after that? Any ideas? Does Lamm get executed? Does he escape with his cronies to Old Korvosa to plague the PCs in "Escape"?
How would this logically happen.
Thanks in advance!
Honestly... you might have the opportunity here to do something really cool. If the PCs turn Lamm over to the guard, they'll arrest him and he'll go to jail... but as you see, things get crazy and out of hand pretty quickly in Korvosa. Lamm is a weasel and it should be relatively easy for him to escape. He can go into hiding in Old Korvosa, and then it could be with his knowledge of crime and all that that...
He can go into hiding in Old Korvosa, and then it could be with his knowledge of crime and all that that...
** spoiler omitted **
or even just level up Lamm a bit. After all, while the PCs have been running around adventuring to save Korvosa, Lamm has been adventuring himself (escaping from Jail, fleeing into Old Korvosa while avoiding the city guard and other things going on, "fighting" for his new position, etc).
It's not unreasonable that in the same time the PCs have gained a few levels, Lamm has as well. After all, he wouldn't have been able to sit around letting his Lambs do everything for him over the last few months like he had been doing before the start of the AP...
I really like this twist. I'll have to try and encourage my players not to just kill him.
:)