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Has anyone expanded the city of Heldren with some Pre-AP mini quests or beefed out the NPC personalities?. I'm going to start running this is a few weeks and would like to give the PC's more of a sense of where they came from prior to diving into the AP.
A few ideas I've been working with is the Players grew up with the town cutey Xanthippe and don't understand why all the older boys gaga over her. Finally one of them decides he needs to prove his manhood in front of her and challenged whichever PC who has shown the most interest in her to a knife fight.
The PC's are hired by Old mother Theodora to go into the woods and find some rare flowers and while out they they are accosted by a band of goblins.
While the PC's are away cutting down some lumber a group of brigands go into town and scare the villagers so they all whole up in the Armory. but the brigands fooled the townsfolk into making believer there were a few dozen but in reality by just running in and out of the forest there were really on 8. While 6 of them run around the armory making it look like there are a bunch of extra's 2 of them start robbing the town, and that's where the party stumbles back into town.
Nothing really complex just a few mini-encounters.
Did anyone do anything like this? and would like to share their ideas.
One complaint about Reign of Winter is the fact there's no real incentive to save Helgren. Some people suggested that having a few pre-adventures in Helgren to establish the town and the players in it may be handy. And to be honest, I personally think the Lodge is too high a level threat for 1st level characters; having them be 2nd level just prior to hitting it improves survivability. (Of course, random encounters can help with that as well.)
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Did anyone do anything like this? and would like to share their ideas.
Rather than trying to build their connections to the town as a whole, which can be rather daunting, I'd try to establish connections between the PCs and the specific NPCs that are harmed by the appearance of Teb Knotten's forces. These include Old Man Dansby, Dryden Kepp, and Lady Argentea. Dansby, Kepp and Argentea's guards all turn up dead later in the adventure, but the players have no reason to care; to them, these are just random townsfolk. Start the players off two weeks before the adventure says. Let them prepare the town to host Argentea's procession. Let them guard Dansby's fields from whatever's blighting his crop...and maybe drop some hints that all might not be natural.
And to be honest, I personally think the Lodge is too high a level threat for 1st level characters; having them be 2nd level just prior to hitting it improves survivability.
Bah. It's barely a full adventuring day. Granted, a party that fights its way all the way from to the Lodge and then kicks in the door will have a tough time clearing it out, but such a party will have had something like eight scripted encounters and maybe one or two random ones before even getting to the Lodge. Of course that's going to be taxing. A party that rests after, say, crossing Wishbone Creek, however, should have a much easier time of it, especially if they recruit Ten-Penny.
And if the party trips the trap that alerts the bandits and causes the bandits to attack in one large group? Then they haven't had a chance to recruit Ten-Penny. And it's very easy to trip that trap as these are 1st level PCs and aren't likely checking traps every step of the route, especially right when going over the hill and seeing the lodge.
And if the rogue blows her Perception roll to find traps? Mind you, the FIRST time my party sprung the trap at almost midnight, they used the druid's fox as a distraction (it nipped one of the bandits quite good too, who was razzed by his buddy). And then decided to head off, rest up, and attack fresh. The second time (as they were over 1st level) the Rogue's auto-detect failed to pick up the reset trap. Just short of the trap (ie, just before I was going to say "you trigger a trap") the rogue player said "I'm checking for traps!" and AGAIN failed to detect the trap.
And let's face it. After triggering a trap TWICE in 10 hours, there is no realistic way the bandits would let down their guard for at least 24 hours. The only two reasons my group wasn't swarmed was the use of an illusion of a fallen tree and an Entangle spell. (Snowfall and being 40+ feet away completely destroyed any chance of a wholesale detection of the illusion. You don't want to know how many blown saving throws I rolled.)
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I started the players in Heldren on the summer solstice. I made it a festival of summer complete with games, beer and a party. I introduced them to the towns folk via that...then near the end of the night mother Theodora has an episode...scream about cold, death and darkness. Suddenly a freezing gust of wind rushes through...Mother Theodora falls. Ionnia and the father ( I can remember his name) quickly usher Mother Theodora to the town hall and try to get the festival going again. Kale starts handing out Three devil ale and things get going but with a lot of mutter about what Mother Theodora said..after about an hour so...a few more games and beers with towns people then Yuln rides to into town.I had the half elf( with the drug store) and the dwarf barber deal with Yuln. They fetch Innoia who now is concerned, she takes the party to the town hall up into the clock tower and shows them the storm raging over the border woods. Explains that Lady Argentea has been taken and she fears the town will be next. She asked them to brave the storm to reach the nearest allies "The High Sentniels" while they send riders to the closest military base in Zima (not sure if that was the town).
This introduced them to the town, the town folk and gave them a reason to plung into the snow looking for help. It worked out good and was fun....hope that helps. I think the mod is expecting you to handle that part as it makes sense for your party
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My pre-game quests were going to be one or two of the following:
-Travel to Zimar for supplies (get attacked by bandits or goblins)
-Go into the woods to gather supplies for the Apothecary (before the winter portal spread that far)
-Go hunting for the giant weasel (unsuccessfully)
Depending on what my players characters fit into.
Unfortunately not a single one of my players decided to be from Heldren, they were all just passing through, going different ways. I had them meet in the Tavern at night and meet some of the locals. But their characters were all ready to just go their separate ways and never see each other again, so I had the main plot hook come in sooner than normal (since they were literally just sitting around waiting for it), they then rushed off into the forest after visiting the general store in town, and never once visited a single other shop or villager.
If things go poorly for them in the Cabin, then it's their own fault.
It ends up I did 3 per-adventures.
I set all the Players as living in Heldren, 2 were born there and I placed them in the town with some of them town parents.
The big dumb barbarian was taken in by old man Danzby and hired him a a day laborer, this sets up the later encounter of him being found dead.
30 days prior to start of the AP, the party came upon a attack by bandits on a caravan, the high sentential Rangers were taking care of the mess but the party spotted a group of escaping bandits. By stopping this group the party was hailed as local heroes.
14 days prior the party is hired by the town as extra security for Lady Arentea coming through town. I made the noblewomen very likeable to the party so they would want to save her later. One of the hand maidens made a pass at one of the PC's and one of the guards challenged the local heroes to a friendly game of sword tap. (first non-lethal hit wins). each PC that beat the guard I gave XP as defeating the guard. The players took a liking to his guard so we he later is found dead, they seek revenge.
I then pretty much followed Slamy's idea above.
And off to the AP, with some back story as to why they would want to help the town and other motivation to dislike the bad guys.
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I've just started running a new Reign of Winter campaign, and I did two things to change things up.
First, I had the group show up in time for Heldren's Midsummer's festival. There were various contests like an archery thing, a three-card Monte stand, pie eating, and so forth, and the barbarian showed up to wrestle the local blacksmith but didn't fare too well seeing he was only 1st level and the blacksmith not only had several levels of Expert but a higher Strength (the Barbarian went with a 16 Strength rather than min-max things).
When things were winding down the Druid noticed a thunderstorm starting up over the middle of the Border Wood - the Portal had opened and a storm was forming as a result. (I figure the weather itself is natural - you have a mass of cold air that hits hot humid air, you get thunder and lightning - and snow from the intense cold, but that's localized.)
That night I gave the group's oracle a nightmare - the fire was giving no heat from the hearth, everyone was frozen mid-motion, and the only motion was from a rocking chair where an old crone was sitting and she rasped "Find me!" before the oracle woke. The group then traveled two days out of town (fighting a mother boar and her young-templated offspring - and boars are a decidedly nasty fight! No one died, but it was a close fight) to speak to a hermit oracle who deciphered dreams and omens.
When they reached "Old Nana" (a half-elven Oracle who wasn't that old but had been there for over 20 years so people just assumed she was old) she sent them off to find Mugwort, Dream Root, and psychedelic mushrooms for a tea, and the entire group went on a Dream Vision - including the Barbarian who didn't drink it but failed his Will Save and was dragged into the vision.
They encountered frost slowly moving toward them and freezing the forest in the dream, crows that threatened them, a creepy doll who was in their path and said they could not pass (they picked up the doll and carried it in front of them to bypass that), and finally a hut that no matter how they tried kept its back to them until finally someone stood on each side while the oracle walked to the fourth side to find the door leading in.
Within they found rooms with small windows that crows outside threatened to crack, and a central chamber with a snowglobe showing the Winter Portal (though they don't know that yet) and a fireplace. The doll wiggled loose and touched the snowglobe, breaking it and letting winter into the room, at which point they threw the doll in the fire. When it vanished upon touching the fire they realized that was their way out and each person touched the fire to escape the dream.
The last thing they heard was "Return to Heldren."
That way the group was introduced to Heldren, had several days away from town, and incentive (the vision) to return. They even got a couple hints of things to come.