Today is the day that Shackled City gets underway.
The group consists of three characters, all gestalt. The party is a dwarven barbarian/monk, elven paladin/druid, and a drow rogue/sorcerer. The two elves became close as orphans and developed into thunder twins, the good twin and the evil twin.
This group, obviously, breaks the rules a little. I removed the racial restriction on the thunder twin feat and allowed the girls to take it because I thought it would be cool even though they are not biological sisters. The barbarian/monk and paladin/druid bend the alignment restrictions but both are close as neutral good, the drow is lawful evil. I have another player joining us next week, hopefully, but I don't know what he will be playing, probably some big, mean warrior type.
I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I got my group all juiced up for it and they are rearing to go. We just finished our last campaign, last night. It ended on a high note and everyone wanted to get started right away on the new game.
I have prepared extensively with a big player's guide and lots of prep work on the low level part of the campaign, the beginning. I hope I'm ready.
The characters were made and the game got underway. We played for about five or six hours and everyone had lots of fun. The three players made the following gestalt characters, Brynna (NG elven paladin/druid), Zilanya (LE drow rogue/sorcerer), and Ragnarök (NG dwarf barbarian/monk).
The party began in Redgorge amid the chaos of The Burning Plague, a free wizards.com adventure and was sent to Caldera (my reimagined Cauldron) to request aid from Sarcem Delasharn in the healing of Redgorge. On the road I used Olaf the Stout's travel encounters of a rabid ape and a standoff with the Stormblades. The party spent the Stormblades encounter hurling insults back and forth, a contest that the drow won easily.
Once inside the gates of Caldera the party was accosted by the Last Laugh thugs on their way to the temple. The thugs targeted the paladin instead of attacking a cleric on the street, I felt this made the encounter more personal. At the temple they met Sir Alek and the elf was quite smitten by him, kindred spirits that they are. He made fast friends and excused himself when they met with Jenya. She told them Sarcem was gone but she would send aid to Redgorge. She allowed them to stay in the temple and the following morning they saw Tervical and some clerics leaving. Jenya told them of the kidnappings and harassment by the Last Laugh and the party, except for the drow who spent the encounter scowling and muttering under her breath, promised to investigate.
It was a good time and I look forward to the rest of the campaign.
Sounds like a rocking good time. FYI, Dragon 310 had paladins of alternate alignments. The NG Sentinel would be an excellent fit, getting Resist Fiendish Lure instead of Lay On Hands, and Celestial Fortitude (Mettle vs. evil outsiders) instead of Divine Health.
The player is a newbie so I wanted to keep it simple. I fudged alignment for her a little, but she follows a NG goddess, so it works out. If I started pulling in other sources outside the PHB she'd get confused. The only non-core (my world core that is) material I allowed was the single drow.
Unearthed Arcana has alternate alignment paladins too but I didn't use them. The drow almost made a paladin of Lloth/sorcerer but chose to go rogue at the last minute.
I have prepared extensively with a big player's guide and lots of prep work on the low level part of the campaign, the beginning. I hope I'm ready.
I'd like to see this players guide. I have one that I've looked over and I've ran the campaign before, but I'm also interested in what other DMs do as to enrich the experience of my players.
Congrats EotD. We've had 4 sessions in my campaign so far (5th one is this Wednesday night). Everyone, including myself, is having fun but the going has been a little slow. The last 2 1/2 sessions have been in Jzadirune itself but the party still hasn't found their way down to the Malachite Fortress! :-)
Overall I think the Mimic guarding Starbrow has been the biggest hit so far. The players were thrown for a bit of a loop when this "monster" started up a conversation with them. Eventually he handed over Starbrow in exchange for a week's worth of rations. The party liked him so much that they got him a job working for Keygan Ghelve (he is currently guarding the door down to Jzadirune, disguised as the door frame). Be sure to "play up" the Mimic as much as you can. My group certainly seemed to enjoy it.
Olaf the Stout
I'd like to see this players guide. I have one that I've looked over and I've ran the campaign before, but I'm also interested in what other DMs do as to enrich the experience of my players.
Sure, not a problem. I changed quite a bit and my scanner is busted so my maps can't be uploaded but I'd be more than happy to share it with you, minus the maps. I also have some extensive conversion notes I'm using if you'd be interested in them as well.
However, it's too big to upload to an email server. If you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.
Olaf:
I used your suggestions for early encounters of a rabid ape and a meeting with the Stormblades on the party's way to the city. It was a great hit, especially after the ape left the paladin lying face down in the mud for three rounds. We played out second session the other day and they just found their way down to Jzadirune.
I'd like to see this players guide. I have one that I've looked over and I've ran the campaign before, but I'm also interested in what other DMs do as to enrich the experience of my players.Sure, not a problem. I changed quite a bit and my scanner is busted so my maps can't be uploaded but I'd be more than happy to share it with you, minus the maps. I also have some extensive conversion notes I'm using if you'd be interested in them as well.
However, it's too big to upload to an email server. If you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.
Olaf:
I used your suggestions for early encounters of a rabid ape and a meeting with the Stormblades on the party's way to the city. It was a great hit, especially after the ape left the paladin lying face down in the mud for three rounds. We played out second session the other day and they just found their way down to Jzadirune.
I'm glad the encounters worked out well for you. I would hesitate to claim those encounters as my own though. I'm sure I've probably stolen them from someone else here on the boards. This place really is a great resource (along with the RPGenius site) for someone running a SCAP campaign.
It's funny that your combat turned out the way it did. In my first session the party layed the smack down on 3 Hill Baboons without taking a single hit in return! Ah the joys of random dice rolls! :-)
Hopefully your group can move throught Jzadirune a little quicker than mine. They've managed to investigate almost all of Jzadirune and they still haven't found the elevator down to the Malachite Fortress. My group has no Rogue (or similar class) in it so the Tilt-a-Pit traps have probably been the biggest difficulty for them so far.
Olaf the Stout
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The tilt-a-pit was hilarious for my group too. The bard managed to fall in and get shaken, not stirred.
The tilt-a-pit was hilarious for my group too. The bard managed to fall in and get shaken, not stirred. ** spoiler omitted **
My group spent nearly half of last session dealing with the Tilt-a-Pit traps.
The best bit was when a couple of PC's tried to fill the trap up by throwing some Gnome beds in there. All they succeeded in doing was breaking up the wood that made up the cots, effectively making the trap more dangerous!
Even better, a little later in the session one of the PC's failed a DC5 Balance check (he rolled a 1) while trying to creep around the edge of the trapped floor. He overbalanced and stepped on the trap (and failed his Reflex save). I ruled that the bits of wood from the cot (that he had thrown in there himself!) did an extra 1d6 damage as they were thrown about in the trap.
He survived but everyone at the table was cracking up with laughter (including the player whose PC fell in). On top of that he realised just after that he could have simply taken 10 on the roll. :-)
They are considering taking the name "Trapmasters" as the party name. So far traps have KO'd PC's on 3 occasions and they have probably taken more damage from traps than they have from combat. That's what you get for not having a Rogue (or similar) in a 5 person party!
Olaf the Stout
I jostled stuff around some so the Malachite Hold is not under Jzadirune. I turned it into a dockside warehouse complex. I didn't like the big dungeon idea, something about the design didn't sit well with me so I separated them. I also removed Jzadirune from Ghelve's basement and made access to it available from the sewers but Ghelve knew where to find it. The party descended into Jzadirune after the skulks, who they learned were responsible for the kidnappings. The skulks as well as some of Kazmojen's thugs can tell the party where to find the Malachite Hold. If the party slaughters everyone they can find directions in the lad skulk's notes.
I opted not to use the tilt-a-pit traps to help speed things along. I have a couple OCD types that will obsess about little things like that until they understand it completely. If it's a simple spiked pit they can understand and move on.
I opted not to use the tilt-a-pit traps to help speed things along. I have a couple OCD types that will obsess about little things like that until they understand it completely. If it's a simple spiked pit they can understand and move on.
But the Tilt-a-Pit traps are so much fun! :-)
Olaf the Stout
But the Tilt-a-Pit traps are so much fun! :-)
They certainly look fun but at the same time it is not fun for me to sit there for hours while my OCD players deconstruct everything to learn the tiniest details.
They also have to know what is behind every single door...
However, it's too big to upload to an email server. If you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.
Maybe a geocities.com website? I think it can take 5M uploads. Easy to create (yahoo ID login - as they bought them some time back). Just find the File Manager to do uploads. Case sensitive files btw.
The player's guide is now up on theRPGenius.com here:
World of Brandes - The Shackled City Player's Guide
I'm not the happiest with the typeface a few things were converted to with the .pdf and the maps don't look very good but it's the best I could do. There is some setting specific material that might not make sense to people not familiar with my world.
World of Brandes
I'll likely post my individual chapter conversions also.
The player's guide is now up on theRPGenius.com here:
World of Brandes - The Shackled City Player's GuideI'm not the happiest with the typeface a few things were converted to with the .pdf and the maps don't look very good but it's the best I could do. There is some setting specific material that might not make sense to people not familiar with my world.
World of BrandesI'll likely post my individual chapter conversions also.
Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier.. but is that link to your guide you mentioned earlier in this thread?
Yes, that is the link to the player's guide mentioned earlier. I finally just converted it to a .pdf and uploaded it on theRPGenius.com