I started running my first tabletop game of 3.x in 7 years or so yesterday for a co-worker, her husband and their son. They both played 1e back in the day (indeed J [husband] started with the White Box!), and N (the son) has never played but is a Final Fantasy and Oblivion fan so knows the whole shebang of rp'ing from that.
They had bought the 3.5 books and loved them, so I walked them through character creation (28pt buy), for which they already had characters in mind. Thus we had:
"Captain" Fustan - CN Male Human Ranger
Sharee - LN Female Human Cleric of Wee Jas
Nibelung - LN Male Human Monk
Fustan was christened Captain by me during one fight as he a) owns a ship and b) I couldn't remember his name. It stuck. Sharee has a wild talent (psychic healing) from Green Ronin's The Psychic's Handbook. This is maxed out and was a great help to the small band.
I now have a bundle of Freeport stuff from the sale here, so I also purchased the pdf of Dungeon 107 with the adventure "Dead Man's Quest". The party was small and unusual, as well as not all that familiar with the rules so I gave them hints about their powers (not the plot as they're smart cookies) and advised them on combat stuff. They forgot stuff and I forgot stuff so any help I gave them evened out in the end.
Session 1
Our little group started their adventure on Slingshot, Fustan's small sloop (as he became found of exclaiming "This is MY ship!"), Sharee ("you, er, priest bird" - Fustan again) having been given passage on it to get her out of her family's hair, and the mostly silent Nibelung ("monkey-man" as Fustan usually refers to him) along as a paying passenger.
They were on their way to Freeport to seek fame, adventure and wealth. Mostly wealth for Fustan and Sharee; Nibelung proclaimed "I care not for such things" (this has become his catchphrase) and instead seeks knowledge (as a worshipper of Delleb, god of such). Towards dusk, they spied a seemingly abandoned boat a few hundred feet away, obscured by mist. They moved closer to take a look, whereupon as the ships touched, a gang of crazed, emaciated pirates tried to leap on board from the damaged vessel!
It took some of them a while (failed Balance checks and all that), and indeed one soul, more starved than the rest never made it to the ship at all, dispatched at the last minute by Cap'n Fustan's crossbow. Sharee peppered everything but pirate with her shots, and Nibelung took out not 1, not 2, but 4 out of 5 pirates with his unarmed attacks as they attacked him and moved through his threat zone (damn Combat Reflexes!).
Victorious with a gang of unconscious crazies on board, discussion turned to what to do with them. Fustan remarked (jokingly?) "Let's use them for bait" but he grudgingly conceded to tie them up and keep them captive. Before they could do anything a ghostly figure appeared onboard and introduced himself (in a booming Irish accent) as Ned Fletcher.
Tasking our crew with fetching the Sea Dragon's Eye (a ruby of great size) from a band of sahuagin and returning it to the Temple of the Pirate God in Freeport, so that his spirit could rest, he gave them directions to the wreck of his ship "The Stingray"
The next day the ship was located and Fustan swam down and easily procured some water-breathing potions from Ned's old cabin. Thus the gang could safely breath for 10 hours underwater! Investigating the wreck yielded the discovery of Ned's body crushed under a cannon, as well as 2 lacedons feasting on the remains of his crew. Poor initiative rolls on the part of the party led to the 2 undead taking Fustan down to -2 and paralyzing him. Sharee was quick to rebuke them both "Naughty ghouls!" and they cowered from the power of the goddess. Using her psychic skill she was able to heal the sailor and the gang fled to their own ship and rested briefly.
(I should say at this point that we're using the reserve points and action points from Unearthed Arcana)
Going back down they avoided the hold, and the ghouls were no longer to be seen, perhaps having been scared off by Sharee's power. With some stout rope they lifted the cannon and took up Ned's corpse in an old hammock. Nice.
Fustan spotted a trail on the sea-bed to the nearby island (Fustan is the skill-monkey of the group) and the gang had a poke around in this trail of dropped loot for anything valuable. The greedy beggars found nought.
It led them to an undersea cave guarded by a shark. With some DM prompting, the ranger was able to (with a very good roll considering he has Cha 8!) make the shark indifferent rather than unfriendly. Our band thus swam past gingerly into the cave system...
Session 1 contd.
The first turn they made in the tunnel system brought them face to face with a strange looking woman, sort of elfy and fishy with black eyes and shark-like teeth. She didn't seem friendly at all.
The party all beat her dismal initiative (yes, I am bad with dice) and surrounded her, whilst Ned distracted the shark.
Appalling luck on my part followed as every time she tried to cast a spell she failed a Concentration roll or I forgot to even make one. But she did slash Sharee and fire acid at Nibelung. eventually she was battered by the monk and stabbed up by the ranger who then faced off against the shark.
Even with half damage from the water resistance, monkey-man bashed the shark's nose in, and it fled in pain. The sahuagin's dogfish familiar was irritating Fustan but it too fled upon the death of its mistress.
They recovered plenty of loot and Ned's rapier, as well as the gem they sought. Wisely deciding to leave it at that, they explored no further.
Two days later they arrived in Freeport, dumped the mad pirates with the authorities and went to the Temple of the Pirate God. My colleague A (playing Sharee) got a fit of giggles upon being told that the temple had a Jolly Roger flying over it. As well as the fact that the high priest had a peg-leg.
The eye was returned but goodbyes to Ned were interrupted by a huge crash as the idol of the Sea Dragon collapsed! Rushing back they saw a hole in the wall suddenly vanish. No secret door was found, and Father Peligro received a vision from the god of a warehouse (home to a chaotic cult). The PCs toyed with visiting the market (!) but it was made clear that they had to go NOW.
Arriving at the warehouse, they tried to find another entrance other than front but found none. Fustan blundered in and opened the door blithely. Hehehe. A sack of sea urchins flew into his face and injured him. Hehehe.
Entering the warehouse, crossbows ready they found themselves under attack from men hiding behind barrels in a rather unsporting manner. Aided by an adept, they put up a stiff fight (depsite being rather puny, the PCs had terrible melee and missile rolls). Bad guys and er... neutral guys exchanged cause fear spells both of which were saved against. Badly wounded, psychic healing and reserve points came into play again.
The session ended there as it was time for Nibelung's player to go to bed (he was happy, having been the melee powerhouse of the group, and never getting close to unconsciousness). Play will continue this Wednesday...
I have been informed by player of cleric that I have mis-spelt some names :D
It's Shareigh and Furstan.
Session 2!
We catch up with the group standing over the bleeding bodies of three cultists in a warehouse in Freeport.
After a brief search and deciding to leave the crims to their fate, they pressed on to search for a way down amongst the crates. Some failed Search rolls yielded frustration briefly until Shareigh declared that she was moving the nearest crate.
Success! It was a false crate which moved to reveal a ladder down. Bravely, Nibelung pressed ahead, making his way down cautiously. Through the use of grimaces and charades, he indicates the coast is clear, Shareigh also goes down to join him, leaving Furstan to be attacked by a quasit, which had been perching on said crate! It missed hopelessly, and flew off, as Furstan pelted down the ladder and failed crossbow fire from his comrades flew through the air.
They proceeded cautiously to search some more boxes and some living quarters in the natural caverns they found themselves in, uncovering a strange scroll and robes (these were donned as disguise)
J: (Playing Furstan) "Do they have hoods?"
Both of us: "Of course they have hoods!"
All cultists wear hooded robes. It's kind of like a rule. These must be spare ones, as right down the corridor comes some very loud chanting indeed...
Moving cautiously, crossbows at the ready, they find 10 (count them, 10!) cultists and their high priest (?) conducting some ritual or other. Failed their Hide checks and their Disguise checks.... biting of nails and groans of despair ensue as they realise how grossly outnumbered they are.
Nibelung attempted to nail the leader with a bolt but missed, and the cultists took it upon themselves to draw swords and charge. How unsporting. The three fellows made short work of the ruffians and the rest retreated to shield their leader, who was still hellbent on the ceremony. Nibelung ran ahead, suffering an AOO but managing to take out several cultists on his way to the chief. Not in time to stop a tentacled beast being summoned!
It was to no avail as critical hits with flurries of blows made short work of both the creature and the head of the cult. One of his minions tried to stabilise him but failed. In grief and rage he ran towards Shareigh bellowing "You killed the master!". Our pretty cleric got stabbed up something vicious, and went down to -2.
Only one cultist got away but the friends neglected to follow him, instead intent on looking after Wee Jas' gal.
"You know, I think I might have to start calling you Nibelung after this." mused Furstan
"Rather than monkey-man."
So much has happened since then but yesterday saw Shareigh grabbed by a tendriculous, bitten, taken to -2 hp and then proceed to be digested. She would have been a goner, if I hadn't rolled 2 on 2d6 for the acid damage...
Fursten and Nibelung whaled on the compost heap and finally killed it in time to save her. There was much rejoicing.
And a very grateful cleric of Wee Jas who now has no clothes worthy of the name, a strong aversion to acid attacks and great difficulty in thinking about what she's going to say in her next letter home to mother.
"Dear Mummy,
You'll be glad to know that the temple architecture is really interesting. If you get the chance to send some of that wonderful face cream to Freeport for me to pick up when we get back there, I'd be really grateful. I've been in the wars a bit!
It's jolly lucky that Uncle Fersty and Niebelung are as good as they are or I'd have been digested by a huge plant thing ..."
Hmmm. Can see that going down well.
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I was going to create a seperate thread for this (and may end up having to anyway), but I'm getting ready to start a freeport campaign, or at least, use the freeport trilogy with some smaller side adventures, and I was wondering what advice you could give. like if any of the encounters are too hard, too easy, where it gets boring, where i need to be careful of what i describe so i don't give anything away. stuff like that. any help is appreciated. I was also thinking of setting it up using Logue's "Mysteries of the Razor Coast".
how attached to the city are the adventures if I wanted to take the adventures and put it in a differant port city?
Thank you for your time and any answers you can give. And I'm not just talking to you, it'd be nice if anyone who ran this could help.
Well, some of the encounters could fit into any city, but the adventures are very tightly plotted and tie into the background of Freeport a great deal.
I didn't find any of the encounters were too hard for the party; a couple they found frustrating due to their weaponry and spell choices; that and having no wizard.
There are a lot of human opponents, so be prepared to give them very vivid descriptions etc so they don't get samey.
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Thanks for the advice. I'm going to have to go back to see just how possible it will be to use a differant city, especially given your warning, but i think i might attempt it anyway. if it breaks down, i'll just try something else. my players hate prewritten settings, is all, but maybe if i try i can slip this one past them.
Your advice about the human descriptions is pretty helpful though. I got three months to go through it and create as many descriptions as possible.
You have given me much to think about.
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I was going to create a seperate thread for this (and may end up having to anyway), but I'm getting ready to start a freeport campaign, or at least, use the freeport trilogy with some smaller side adventures, and I was wondering what advice you could give.
There are a few threads on Freeport games here;
Green Ronin forumsMy own thoughts on Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport (including re-writes of all of the NPCs that were faced in combat, since my party was a bit tougher than the adventure expected, I think) are here;
Freeport in Greyhawk
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Thanks for the links! they are bound to prove helpful.
I ramble all over the place in my Freeport in Greyhawk thread, but I do eventually end up discussing what I did for pretty much every encounter in Death and Terror (and where I messed up, by boosting ACs too high in an early battle, or where the party ended up in an almost TPK because of the rock-crusher trap). My gaming group broke up because of RL disruptions to peoples schedules just as we were about to start Madness, which is terribly frustrating to me, since I had such a good time mapping stuff out in my head. :)
That rock-crusher trap is ridiculous as written. I really regret using it, as it makes no sense at all. The most dramatic fight was the party vs. N'tal and his serpent-men bodyguards in the lighthouse. N'tal leads off by blasting the party cleric to -2hp with a fireball, jumps off the staircase and featherfalls down, shields himself, only to be killed in one hit by said revived cleric using death touch on him!
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OMFG, Post Monstered again. KHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!
That rock-crusher trap is ridiculous as written. I really regret using it, as it makes no sense at all.
Had the building been designed to be further out of town (and not near the rich quarter!) and the rock-crusher been at a higher level (and not had a secret door from the sewer), so that the crushed rock would be more easily carted out for use as street gravel or whatever, then it might have made sense to exist as written.
But it still would have been overly deadly and had too few ways out of it, IMO. (My group ended up shoving their arms through the window and hanging there, with one party member stuck via Tanglefoot Bag to the wall, while the Wizards Familiar and a Summoned Badger tore up the guy who was controlling the machine.)
The most dramatic fight was the party vs. N'tal and his serpent-men bodyguards in the lighthouse. N'tal leads off by blasting the party cleric to -2hp with a fireball, jumps off the staircase and featherfalls down, shields himself, only to be killed in one hit by said revived cleric using death touch on him!
I was really looking forward to that last fight, too. I was going to make it a little less anticlimactic by having the final spoiler not actually kill the bad-guys, but just blind them, requiring the PCs to fight some pretty badass dudes (who are fortunately unable to see them to target spells or 50% of their melee attacks...).
My overarching plotline started with Lucius and his possession, since that introductory bit was dropped too soon, IMO. Eventually, the party would meet his possessor (or, at least, her latest possessee, since she's kinda out of reach...), in a nod to the Lovecraft story that inspired it;
Thaellis – Valossan Diviner (general mage, actually) from well over a 1000 years ago (and long dead) who developed a spell that allowed her to project her consciousness forward through time to see the future, by possessing the body of a person in the future. Both she and the possessee had to be near-death from Snakeweed exposure, and Lucien, somewhat ironically, was taking his first ever dose of the drug (he naively intended to research into the visions it was said to cause, of ancient civilizations, he wasn’t intending to be a druggie, but would have turned into one, had his first experience not ended as it did). The visions were in fact sending from the long-dead Wizard, as it probes into the minds of addicts, attempting to find someone who is both weak enough and yet in a useful enough position to possess for research. Lucien was perfect, near-death, desperate for anything that could save him, and connected to the Temple of the Gods of Knowledge (tons of Snakeweed addicts were weak enough for her to possess, but lacked the disposable income or access to tomes and research that the Valossan sought). Thaeliss had to keep Lucien’s body doped up with extreme levels of Snakeweed to retain control of him for their years-long journey, and Lucien was a hopeless addict by the time he escaped control!
Lucien – his weakened physical state and his degenerating mental / psychological condition were the results of years of being pumped full of Snakeweed by his Valossan possessor, who used a spell of her own devising to transform other plants into snakeweed, to keep her supply up.
If the game had continued into ridiculous levels (Epic-ish), the party, through the actions of Thaeliss, would end up having an effect on the ancient Valossan empire, and being responsible for it's collapse, as the Diviner's meddling ends up creating the impending catastrophe she's trying to escape!
The Freeport adventures were fantastic fun. We haven't played that set of pcs for a while (a whole new group evolved at the same time as 4E arrived), but I'd recommend them wholeheartedly as a player.
Poor Shareigh. She wrote letters home to her mother detailing their adventures, usually including a sentence along the lines of "I wasn't unconscious for very long, so please don't worry."
Martial Power will have rules for animal companions, so Furstey and co could ride again! And there are a couple of 3rd party monk equivalents out there.
Martial Power will have rules for animal companions, so Furstey and co could ride again! And there are a couple of 3rd party monk equivalents out there.
Niebelung would be ecstatic to hear that. He's missing Freeport. Although translating Shareigh "I can heal you with my brain and lift weapons out of your hands" might be more of a challenge to translate.
... oh yeah.
She is the hardest one to convert. Damn negative energy, death touch, undead commanding, psychic weirdo that she is.
Excuse me. Shareigh is the world saving ditz to end them all. It's true if I met her I'd want to hit her, but she has saved the world. Well, the bit with Freeport in it anyway. And been unconscious a lot, almost eaten by a compost heap and has saved her whole party lots of times. "Now, just ... go away and dance into the lake you bad skellies."