Is anyone doing anything before Burnt Offerings to "bring the party together" before the events of the adventure start?
Interested in your thoughts.
My PCs are all related.
Is anyone doing anything before Burnt Offerings to "bring the party together" before the events of the adventure start?
Interested in your thoughts.
My current team for RotRL is made up of the children and in one case the grand child of epic level characters from my game world. I've been playing in my setting for 20+ years and run epic level games alot, so with my wife, she has characters in one family that span four generations.It makes for some outstanding roleplay.
Nice, I wish my players were more team oriented. I think I'm gonna run ROTL with 4 rogues!
I used Burnt Offerings and the starting excitement itself to bring them together: They all had their reasons to be there, and they all reacted when the fun began. After that, they were regarded as the heroes and started working together to keep on heroing.
It's nice that my players are team-oriented and don't have to be forced at swordpoint to work together (well, there are several swords in my gaming room, so maybe that always suffices. Implied threats are so very useful ;-))
Only one of my PCs is actually from Sandpoint (the daughter of Briskalberd the dwarven locksmith), so I had to do some work to bring the rest together:
The only other 'locals' are from the Twilight Academy in Galduria and Magnimar respectively (a pair of half-siblings);
One player is a goliath exile from the Mindspin Mountains, who wound up in Sandpoint to study at the House of Blue Stone;
The final player is a primitive from the Cinderlands, with no grasp of civilized customs and only a piecemeal understanding of language.
The locals and the daughter were there to get ready for the Swallowtail Festival, while the goliath got some time off from his training to enjoy it as well (as long as he left his earthbreaker in his room!). The primitive was guided to Sandpoint by dream visions from Desna, and was being educated in the cathedral.
They all met while checking out the markets the day of the Swallowtail Festival. The locals met the primitive while she was trying to 'buy' a brooch with Desna's symbol. The goliath was checking out a dwarven weaponsmith to see about commissioning a large dagger, and the dwarf was sampling all the free spirits. Much hilarity ensued with the primitive's still-limited grasp of the Common tongue and the unusual shopping experiences spawned therein :P
We then started the first encounter at sundown, and they are currently investigating the goblin attack now that things have calmed down. They all want to help out the community, and are meshing relatively well as a result.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
Nice, I wish my players were more team oriented. I think I'm gonna run ROTL with 4 rogues!
The PCs of my game were sent to Sandpoint in order to bring gifts from various adventuring friends of E. Tobius in honor of the rebuilding of the Cathedral.
I started my RotRL PbP game three days before the Swallowtail Festival, with each of my players either being locals or people who came to Sandpoint for the festival (for the most part).
The locals pretty much took over introductions to each other from there. We're at the tail end of the goblin raid of the festival, and there's been great character and story already. Stuff that allowed for nice little touches throughout the fight.
Also, they've met a whole host of local NPCs and explored the town quite a bit, so I really feel like Sandpoint has been firmly established for the players, and I think they're falling for the place.
Only one of my PCs hasn't met everybody else in the party yet, but that will change as soon as the fight is over.
One player is a goliath exile from the Mindspin Mountains, who wound up in Sandpoint to study at the House of Blue Stone;
What's a goliath?
A race from the races of stone book. Think mini stone giant.
Ooh! Does it have the giant type? The giantkin subtype? My PCs all have this, and I fear that they're going to see a rune giant in volume 6 and just be immediately dominated. My plan is to seed this kind of information into the path and let them realize that they need to take precautions, but I haven't decided yet how blatant to be about it.
How are you dealing with it?
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A race from the races of stone book. Think mini stone giant.Ooh! Does it have the giant type? The giantkin subtype? My PCs all have this, and I fear that they're going to see a rune giant in volume 6 and just be immediately dominated. My plan is to seed this kind of information into the path and let them realize that they need to take precautions, but I haven't decided yet how blatant to be about it.
How are you dealing with it?
Goliaths are actually monstrous humanoids rather than giants, and I'm pretty sure the giantkin subtype is a Green Ronin thing, and thus wouldn't be in a WotC book. (shrug)
A race from the races of stone book. Think mini stone giant.Ooh! Does it have the giant type? The giantkin subtype? My PCs all have this, and I fear that they're going to see a rune giant in volume 6 and just be immediately dominated. My plan is to seed this kind of information into the path and let them realize that they need to take precautions, but I haven't decided yet how blatant to be about it.
How are you dealing with it?
Hi tbug,
If I remember correctly (not near Races of Stone right now), goliaths do not have the giant or giantkin type/subtype, though they are rumored to be of giant descent. They should not be vulnerable to a rune giant's Domination ability as a result. However, they do not get along well with most giants at all, since they are regularly enslaved and put to work as laborers by them. This fact will get my PC invested in making sure the giants (and anyone associated with them) don't take over the region. It should be some fun roleplaying! :)
Hope that helps!
(EDIT: Thanks for the confirmation on type, Shisumo!)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
Right-ho. Thanks for the information, both of you.
Unfortunately my group consists of one strong willed chaotic player, whose every character turns roguish and impulsive and three "followers" So basically the rogue player drives the action.
In this campaign, we are using Gestalt and I have:
Barbarian/Mystic (modified class)
Ranger/Sorcerer
Ranger/Rogue
Halfling Rogue/Wizard played by Mr. Rogue.
I would love to have party unity!
Our party met at Sandpoint. Each person had a reason to be there.
3 party deaths cuased an infusion of new blood, also from outside of Sandpoint.
Druid, network of Druid spies talked about a growing evil in the west, character was sent to investigate.
Cleric, vision from his god brought him to Sandpoint to do great things.
Mage, was sent by the mages academy in Golarion for the opening of the new Chapel.
Fighter, was sent by his church on a mission to Sandpoint for the festival.
Met really during the initial goblin raid, a lot of roleplayng to get the group to slowly band together in a common cause to help the town. Most felt they were destined to be here...
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I've had problems with party unity in the past, so I required that everyone in my game have a vested interest in Sandpoint, and we spent a few weeks discussing possible characters and ideas.
The party now consists of the eldest son of Titus Scarnetti, the granddaughter of Ilsoari Gandethus, the son of Daviren Hosk, and the son of Vernah Povalli; the fifth character, the only non-local, is from Riddleport, and has spent the past year trying to start a new life as a dishwasher at the Rusty Dragon. Plot hooks abound, especially after factoring in their elaborate web of non-family relationships.
I'm so proud of my players. ^.^
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My players are:
- Gnome caretaker of the Sandpoint Boneyard;
- Raptoran(1) Wizard, follower of Desna;
- Raptoran(2) Druid of the Storval Plateau;
- Tibbit (race from Dragon Compendium);
The Gnome was helping Father Zantus with preparations for the coming Swallowtail Festival, the concecreation cremony for the rebuilt Sandpoint Cathedral.
Raptorans (winged elves from Races of the Wild) are rare in Varisia, but not unheard of, and are considered the "children of Desna" or "favoured of Desna".
Raptoran(1) was invited as a special guest to deliver a speech at the Festival. The Gnome was to arrange her accommodation needs, and meet her upon arrival.
Raptorans embark on a coming of age journey called the Walk of the Four Winds to experience the world, and prove themselves worthy of the gift of flight bestowed at 5th level by their Godess Desna. Both were on this journey when their paths crossed by chance, and they decided to journey to Sandpoint together.
The Tibbit was, until very recently, the feline familiar of Xanesha, who I replaced as the Diva performing "The Harpy's Curse" at the Sandpoint Theatre.
Familiars are sometimes "awakened" by the magical energies that flow between them and their masters, suddenly becoming feline/halfling shapechangers (Tibbits).
The other characters stumbled upon a confrontation one evening as the theatre patrons were dispersing, between Xanesha accusing a "halfling" of "kidnapping" her familiar.
Xanesha is completely unaware of Tibbits, and the Tibbit has only a vague memory of his life as a familiar, that of abuse at the hands of his master.
And then, of course, the goblin raid ...
These are the circumstances that brought my party together.
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Two of my players connected their characters before the start of BO. Mestrard (shoanti, cleric(Pharasma) ) came to Sandpoint shortly after the Latest Unpleasantness and took Father Tobyns position for a short time. Later on, he became friend and teacher of Ancrym (shoanti, barbarian) who was expelled from his tribe 'cause of his father's treason and now serves as a constabler under Sheriff Hemlock.
Two of my PCs spent some time at the Tunderok Academy as children as orphans. The other is an alcolyte of Desna who came for the Swallowtail Festival. On his way to Sandpoint, he met one of the orphans who was doing guardwork for a caravan also traveling to Sandpoint. From there the local offered to show the young priest around.
I'm probably never going to DM this AP, but if I was, I would make a sort of prequel adventure in which the PCs were still kids and experienced some of the latest unpleasantness firsthand. I would also find a way to introduce Nualia into this equasion and maybe even do something with Foxglove manor or Aldern Foxglove.