Okay, I start this adventure path tomorrow night, and getting the party together initially is easy enough. The issue is keeping them together. We have:
A dwarven cleric of Gorum, who lives in the city.
A half-orc barbarian who lives in the city, up in Old Korvosa.
A half-elf ranger who actually grew up in the city and still lives there, actually pretty much down the street from the cleric.
An elf rogue who's set up residence in the Thief Camp, doing this who hooded and cloaked figure in the night, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Probably mistaken for Blackjack on more than one occasion.
So that's all fine.
The two that will be somewhat difficult to keep around will be the Varisian gypsy wizard who doesn't live in the city and the half-Varisian druid who lives in a hovel out in the forest as a hermit.
The druid will be around to a certain extent, but won't really be that easy to get ahold of. The wizard is a bit trickier, because what's the keep him around once Edge of Anarchy is done?
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks!
You could give the Varisian Zellara's deck and have her tell him that she needs to a) stay with him and b) stay in Korvosa, at least for a little while.
Do you have buy-in from the player? Does he know you need him to stick around in order for the AP to work?
Well, he does know that he needs to stay there if he wants to participate. So he has a motivation to come up with a reason to stick around.
I just don't want another situation like the last campaign when character's were hanging around when they really had no reason to do so and it didn't make sense. Which was half the party. The Harrow deck is a good idea.
You could give the Varisian Zellara's deck and have her tell him that she needs to a) stay with him and b) stay in Korvosa, at least for a little while.
Do you have buy-in from the player? Does he know you need him to stick around in order for the AP to work?
This is a very good time to sit down with your players and go over your meta-game concerns. Let them know that the story that you would like to tell requires that they be willing to stay around the city and may, at some point, require they be willing to leave.
Lay the onus on the players to come up with a reason why their party would adventure together or at least stay together. You can let them know you can get them all together if they would like (traits from the Players Guide for example) but they have to have a good reason they will stick together before you will start.
The game is a cooperative one. They bear a responsibility to the story as much as you do. I think it is more than fair to lay this one on them and let them come to you with the answer. Participate in the discussion but make it clear it is up to them and they are the ones responsible for the outcome.
(a Party Template is a good thing for just this reason. I think that a very early episode of the podcast Fear the Boot, might have even been the first one, talks about the party template).
Sean Mahoney
This is kinda funny, since Tbug ran into similar trouble (see other thread).
However your problem is more easily identified.
For a city adventure, players should not be allowed to make characters that are say... hermits or someone that hates to be in the city. That is just silly.
That would be like you starting a Dark Sun campaign, and I say I would like to play some kind of frosty barbarian type.
Maybe you need to outline the campaign a bit more for them! That is, tell them that this is campaign where a lot of the action takes place in the city. Have them come up with reasons for them to be in the city!
When I read that you have a rogue stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, it sounds as if at least some of your players have gotten the idea :-)
I would nip this in bud and ask the two players to rethink their character concepts.
You could have a city-hating druid, if the player comes up with a powerfull enough reason why he would want to be in the city. It could make for fun roleplaying to hear him grumple as you move around the city (though it may get old).
There should be a way to link the gypsy with the whole gypsy theme in the campaign, giving him some kind of gypsy quest to help things along.
Hope this helps!
This issue bugs me. Why does this come up so many times? Haven't the players already agreed that they want to play this game? Then they need to make characters and create a common party so their characters actually fulfill their real reason for playing this game.
Yes, the GM needs to help. He should give them an idea of the campaign and what kind of characters are appropriate. He also needs to assist with hooks and such as needed.
But ultimately, this is a player responsibility. It is complete BS that the GM is the one who is responsible for keeping the party together.
Lazy selfish players have spread this lie too long.
The players need to figure this out - with the GM helping. It's their responsibility.
They should be telling you some reasons the party can stay together, and then you make the needed adjustments so it fits in with the campaign.
Players like to say, "But I'm roleplaying my character," when they torpedo their own game group. Maybe so, but their responsibility when entering the game was to create a character that would work together with the other characters so the party stays intact. When they don't, they haven't held up their end.
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Players like to say, "But I'm roleplaying my character," when they torpedo their own game group. Maybe so, but their responsibility when entering the game was to create a character that would work together with the other characters so the party stays intact. When they don't, they haven't held up their end.
Amen to that! Particularly when said players prepare bizarre min-maxed character builds bordering on the impossible, then tell you they are just roleplaying their PC's normal reactions!
Players like to say, "But I'm roleplaying my character," when they torpedo their own game group. Maybe so, but their responsibility when entering the game was to create a character that would work together with the other characters so the party stays intact. When they don't, they haven't held up their end.Amen to that! Particularly when said players prepare bizarre min-maxed character builds bordering on the impossible, then tell you they are just roleplaying their PC's normal reactions!
Bravo :) My mantra when creating a character, or aiding players in making characters for my game is "Why the heck are you with the party?" whenever the more bizarre raises its head. Yes, it would be interesting to play a cannabilistic half-orc that disdains pinkskins, but then why are you hanging around these humans and others instead of heading off to find a band of orcs to take over?
If your players choose to wander off and not take part in the adventure because of nebulous roleplaying reasons, hand 'em a good book and have fun with those that showed up to play :)
If on the other hand they are looking for good hooks to have their hermit and wanderer be hanging around and want GM approval and suggestions so they can have a nice list to go off of, then yeah, give one of 'em the Harrow Deck and Zellara can nag 'em into showing up :)
(a Party Template is a good thing for just this reason. I think that a very early episode of the podcast Fear the Boot, might have even been the first one, talks about the party template).
It was the second episode.
A party template is a great idea, and takes care a lot of these problems up front.
This is kinda funny, since Tbug ran into similar trouble (see other thread).
That's what happens when a player changes her mind about the template she agreed to use and just starts customizing her character to work against it.
I agree that this is largely a player problem. I'm just not sure what to do when players decide to be problems. There's the hard line answer of kicking them out of the game, but theoretically these are out friends and we don't want to be mean. I'm not sure that they're not being mean though, so somewhere there needs to be a line.
I agree that this is largely a player problem. I'm just not sure what to do when players decide to be problems. There's the hard line answer of kicking them out of the game, but theoretically these are out friends and we don't want to be mean. I'm not sure that they're not being mean though, so somewhere there needs to be a line.
For me, the first thing to do with a player is to ask them out individually to coffee or something and then talk to them about it. Start with asking them about the game, what do they enjoy, what is working, what isn't. If you are good with this type of thing you can get them to acknowledge that their character concept isn't working and then gently remind them that they agreed to something else.
If you aren't as good at subtly directing a conversation then you need to talk to them individualy and bring up the problem specifically.
If this doesn't work, then you need to have a discussion with the group as a whole and let them know that there are some things that you don't think are working. Don't say Bob's character isn't working but you can say that they are all not working together and it is frusterating. See if something can be solved as a group.
It would only be after all the above fails that I would move to the asking someone to leave option, and only pull that trigger if it is actually making your time unenjoyable. If you are still having fun and it just isn't optimal... well, you need to compromise too. But if you just can't have fun, then that is a valid option.
Sean Mahoney
[shameless self promotion]
A book I helped author has several ideas for starting parties and "why we're together."
[end shameless self promotion]
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[shameless self promotion]
A book I helped author has several ideas for starting parties and "why we're together."
[end shameless self promotion]
So beat the rush buy yours today