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I recently began the RotRL AP and decided I wanted to introduce the town and town backstory to the party in a different way rather than by way of a barkeep or a background narrative. Since three of my 8 player party would not be able to make the very first session, I decided to run the rest of the party as children growing up in the town, with the players who couldn't make it being outsiders at the start of the AP. I am posting the basic ideas I used in case anyone else wants to try.
I let all the player's roll up their characters, then told them to put them away, since they won't be needing them. I let them keep their highest stat where it was, to help define their child's personality, and made them take all 8s for everything else. They got 6 hps, mostly in case they did something stupid and fell off a roof or cliff. They had nothing, no money, items, etc. The premise was they all knew each other from attending school at the Tundarock Academy, and I gave them the choice of being either an orphan or a student there with parents in town. The rogue opted to have a father in town, but he was a truant and hung out in the streets waiting for them after school. The elven monk, whom it wasn't feasible to make into a child character due to age, I made the guy who was responsible for teaching the children about the different gods (he had religion ranks) and taking them on field trips around and slightly outside town. The only things they had to use were a knife one of them had stolen, the gnome race illusionist spells, and their wits.
The bard character in the party had parents in town, and she roamed around town talking with everyone and always asking questions, which will eventually feed into her performing and charisma based skills as well as her bardic knowledge. I fed all the town rumors to the group through her, except for the ones from the shady side of town, which I fed the rogue. I let them roam around town some and talk to people, meeting different ones, including some I mention in this thread here, like Marina, Jorgie Quinn's young wife.
I was able to introduce them to a lot of side information this way as well, as the rogue on a moonless night saw smugglers in a smuggling skiff get eaten by something big (the bunyip) and then he starting searching for it whenever there is a new moon. He is now obsessed with finding out what it is, and also recovering whatever was on the smuggler's boat, now at the deepest part of the harbor. While the party was sneaking around the town at night (they drugged the old lady who watched them in the orphanage), they ran across the goblins in the trashpiles, saw the little cottage on the island (Jervis Stoot's house), and ran across the first of his victims accidently in their wanderings, initially finding a bag of coins, then following the blood trail from it. All of the children freaked out except the rogue (failed fort saves after seeing the horror), who grabbed the young bard (a girl) and ran to the garrison to notify the guards. The orphans got scared and ran back to the orphanage, going along the beach and coming up near the Hagfish to return home. They ditched the bloody coinpurse and the stolen knife along the way, but got back in safely. Because the orphans were a half orc and two gnomes, the trackers in town found small footprints and initially thought goblins did the first few killings. Because of this, a lot of townsfolk STIL think goblins had something to do with Chopper's rampage, even though Jervis Stoot was discovered. The rogue in the party got arrested because even though they believed him that he didn't do it, they knew he was from the streets and had a decent merchants little daughter (she was 12, he was 16) out late at night "exploring" as the rogue put it.
The children also slightly knew of Tsuto, Ameiko, and Nualia, who were all older students who were only at the school about a year or so before they moved on, and the children were still real young then (around 6-7).
In the end, the following happened:
- rogue innocently got arrested like three times, for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and now has a reputation and several bad nick-names. One of the deputies at the time (Sheriff Avertin was still alive then), took a dislike to him, by the name of Balor Hemlock.
- Bard lost a lot of people she knew and liked in the wave of deaths, and was moved by the tragedy of Jervis. I had the children stop and talk with him several times and watch him carve his birds, so they liked him. When the townsfolk started chopping up his carvings, she took one and kept it secretly, for its beauty and tragic history.
- Half orc druid orphan was keeping watch at night, and actually saw Chopper the very last time he went out, and yelled from his window to alert the sheriff, leading up to the chase that got him killed and Chopper wounded. Even though he is a half-orc, he is seen favorably because of this, especially by the town guard.
- Both gnomes (two sorcerers!) orphans are now totally obsessed with finding out about whats inside the glassworks, because I told them they couldn't see through the stain glassed windows and the way I described it almost like a castle intrigued them.
Oh and they are all still looking for the Sandpoint Devil too, hehe..
Fast forward to the beginning of the adventure:
The two gnomes now work at the glassworks, and one is a earth elemental bloodline sorcerer and one is a fire elemental bloodline sorcerer. The half-orc became a druid and spends a lot of time on Chopper's Island watching the wildlife and trying to figure out what made Jervis go crazy (the children all had the wrath dreams as well, but they have no clue what that means). He also works in the Rusty Dragon, as Ameiko remembered him from the Academy and gave him a job there. The bard perfoms at the theatre and the rogue hangs around Pixie's and is part of the czarni crew in town down by the docks, working for Jubrayl.
After this session, I felt they all deserved an initial rank in knowledge(local). I was also very happy because they were closely interwoven with the people and town of Sandpoint before the adventure even started.
Cool! good "grounding" almost always pays off later-
let us hear how it turns out...
GRU
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I ALWAYS love this type of roleplaying as a player. As a GM, it is more difficult for me to weave something like this together off-the-cuff. I seriously congratulate you on a job very well done!
I used to be able to GM like this, but that skill must have fallen to disuse. I'm trying to get back into GMing and stories like this make me really, REALLY happy.
My hat's off to you. *bow*
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Thanks to all for the nice comments! I thought I would toss in a slight continuation of events in town, in case anyone else wants ideas for filler either in between adventures or beforehand. I had several extra events take place before the Swallowtail Ceremony and goblin attack, to help better showcase main personalities in town and how they operate, and to prepare the players information wise for things to come later in AP#3 with Fort Rannick.
While Grok (half-orc druid) was working as a bouncer at the Rusty Dragon, a group of Black Arrows comes in from Fort Rannick, one of their very rare forays to Sandpoint for particular goods they need in their remote region. When they came into the bar, Ameiko told the player to give them anything they wanted on the house, and if for some reason anyone started trouble with them, to leave them alone and not interfere. This immediately got the party curious about the Black Arrows, what they did, why they acted so grim and quiet all the time, etc. So after much gathering of information, asking questions, etc, they now now the basic backstory of Fort Rannick and very generically that there are giants, ogres, orcs, and other beasts up north they have to defend against. The party still knows very little about any of these creatures, other than they are tough, plus obviously metagame knowledge. In the process they also got a little info about Turtleback Ferry, since this is the closest town to receive the umbrella of protection offered by the fort.
Another big incident that I had happen was a large warship pulled into the harbor flying the flags of Cheliax and the Order of the Nail. It barely fit through the mouth of the harbor, and took half a day to turn around and face outward in case they had to leave. The warship unlimbered its 9 heavy catapults, all of which faced broadside towards the Sandpoint Harbor. High Justicar Mandor of the Hellknight Order of the Nail came into town and met with the Sheriff and Mayor. The party (and half the town) witnessed him giving the town officials a huge stack of documents bearing the seal of the ruling Council of Magnimar, granting him authority to search the town and find a fugitive. The main purposes of this encounter were to give the players their first taste of what Cheliax and Hellknights were like, possibly setting up a side encounter in Magnimar or during AP2, and also to emphasize that Sandpoint's town charter is under the auspices of Magnimar and they are not completely autonomous. This encounter took about half the play session, as the players ran around trying to watch the Hellknights and figure out what they were like and how they operated, who they were after, and what the Sheriff was going to do. I had some of the party called to gather at the garrison as backup militia (the sheriff doesn't like or trust Hellknights), while the rest followed or watched of their own initiative. The rogue notified Jubrayl of the Hellknights when they first got there, and Jubrayl asked one of his lieutenants to tell "their visitor it was time to leave". While the leader of the Hellknights and the Sheriff questioned Jubrayl later at the Feedbag, the "visitor" escaped through side tunnels that came out near the lumber mill and led the Hellknights on a merry chase through town, casting a few fireballs, stinking clouds, summoning monsters, and in general causing lots of fun chaos for the party to track. The whole encounter went quite successfully, with some of the party assisting the refugee in escaping from town, supposedly because they wanted to spare the town the damage and danger, but I suspect they just like the underdog :)
The Hellknights stayed in town searching the outlying areas for another week before they left, making the party nervous before the ship left and headed towards Riddleport. When the party helped the stranger escape, he told them his name was Brandau, and when they later asked Madame Mvashti, she told them that they should not speak of such things, because the Hellknights had many listeners. Then she mentioned the fact that there is an ancient sect of Varisians who have sworn a sacred oath to protect their country and people against all dangers, and that name is common among that that particular tribe of Varisians. This setup either allows me to toss a red herring or two at the party in their travels, or I can have Brandau come back at a later time and give the party key information if they get really offtrack in later APs.
Anyway, I highly recommend the Hellknights as a side event in town, and it would be even more fun if it happened when they party was higher level, say at the beginning of AP3 when they help stop the initial stone giant foray.
One major note in case you are running Burnt Offerings with a group that heavily emphasizes roleplaying- the Swallowtail Festival for the new temple is a friendly family type event. Only one of my players took his armor and weapons (he is a dwarf), and the rest had no armor and only light weapons due to the relaxed atmosphere. The bard in the group had nothing as she was there with her parents, and it was quite harrowing for her having to get her parents to safety and fend of goblins with only her song and wits! If your group is similar, you may not need to amp up this encounter for a larger party (mine is 7 ppl), or if you do, allow for more goblin antics. Two players attacked one of the goblins and after one fumbled and fell prone on a bad attack roll, the goblin stopped and laughed hysterically, allowing the other player an AoO. The bard fended off several attackers with strategically thrown meat pies and the ghost sound cantrip of the sound of horse hoofbeats bearing down on the goblins in question. All in all, it was great fun running these little guys, and I am looking forward to playing more of James Jacobs new goblins, cute psychotic little menaces that they are :)
Hope these ideas help others that may just now be trying out RotRL flesh out their beginning story.
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RedCelt32,
Bravo on your excellent intro to this AP. I am gearing up to run this myself and have been thinking of my own Level 0 introduction to this AP, basically involving the characters being teenagers in a second school on the Sandpoint map. My motivation was to involve my players in some of the planning of the story, so I'm going to have some of their backstories play out during this phase of the campaign. (For example, a future paladin player will start out as a simple Level 0 fighter, but after a family member of hers is killed she feels compelled to become a holy warrior.) It's also a way to establish the relationships between the player characters as well.
And then I stumbled upon your fine work - so many great ideas! I especially love how you interweave the Chopper events. Just wanted to know if you're still on the boards and, if you would be so kind, share with us some more of what happened on your campaign? :)
Cheers,
Ronald
I've been planning on running a 0th Level session and this gives me such excellent ideas.
If only you were around to brainstorm off of as I am starting my game in a week.
Thank you so much for this.
Giving the characters the Young Template is what I did to make it easy.
Being more concerned with the role-playins aspect and running through the "Late Unpleasantness" as primarily role=playing encounters with low amounts of actual physical danger IS WHY I just used the Young template. The player's got the sense that they were even less capable than 1st level characters, how much less was really not that important.
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I've been planning on running a 0th Level session and this gives me such excellent ideas.
If only you were around to brainstorm off of as I am starting my game in a week.
Thank you so much for this.
I troll the boards nearly every day, though mostly in the Kingmaker forums. We recently took a break from Kingmaker to go back to Runelords (we stopped after Book 2 and switched over to KM), so its sort of fresh in my mind. Shoot me a PM and I will be glad to assist in brainstorming if I can :)
On the topic of O-level stuff, I ran one for the beginning of my Kingmaker game and it went even better. Prequel adventures just seem to cement players so well in the characters and also build up connections between characters really well. Oh, and inside jokes start to pile up too :)
Thanks Redcelt...I sent you a private message.