Post/Author/DateTime	Post
OneEye589 07-16-07, 11:29 AM	Sorry for the length ahead of time. Okay, as a technically first-time DM (I have run one adventure previously for several people, and 4 solo sessions for another), I have an idea to kick off my first campaign. First I would like your input on one thing, should I start with a pre-made adventure first and then create my own, create and run my own first, or does it not really matter either way? Okay, now my group is not a group to be into the several adventure spanning campaign idea, and usually does one adventure per session, not linking sessions together except through characters. This does not open up roleplaying windows, and I would really like that to be a part of the game, too. If my players don't like that, okay, we're friends, we can just go back to the other way of playing, but I think they would have fun doing this. So I wanted to have some suggestions made on my planned plot and some help fleshing it out. I would like this plotline to stretch over two or three sessions of unknown length. Maybe there could be an approximate length for the entire adventure, and I could split it between a number of sessions. The preparations for the players' characters are kind of strange. I want them to be level one characters, and there will be probably three or four of them. I will have them each create a backstory of preferably a page to two pages in length. This backstory can take place in any realm or world that the players want, even present times, but their characters need to be correctly statted out. Then they players will give me the backstories and I will add to them. I will add something to each backstory to each character having something happen to them in which they are transported to the new world the players will be on. And the adventure begins. (As I proceed through the adventure, I will mark parts that need help with {*} after the sentence, but feel free to comment on any part of the adventure.) The characters wind up on a fishing boat in the Syndian Waters (an ocean). The fisherman explain that they were found floating in the water in a strange, metal boat that had sprung a leak. It was too heavy to lift on board, and eventually sank. So the PCs are brought back to the fishing Villa of Dosatuno (which is actually a hamlet of eighty-six people) and learn that it is a heavily religious community and theocracy. The town has a mayor, but he backs the church through and through. Now, the villa worships the neutral god of nature, who is yet to be named. There are other gods as well, but societies in the world favor worshipping one god over the others. The villa is heavily fishing and farming oriented, as they worship nature's father himself, and as it's location is good weather year-round (think of a south-eastern United States area minus the hurricanes and the deadly heat summers). The town's alignment is neutral good. As the characters land and their presence is seen, they are greeted and blessed by the town's Master cleric and his apprentice, Charmadine, a halfling adept. Something strange can be noticed about Charmadine on sight, as she appears sickly and skittish. The PCs, as the remainder of the town greets them at dinner that night realize that Charmadine is the only halfling present from the entire town. At a party and dinner held by the town at giant tables outside, the mayor, Lowell Manning, quickly greets them. Lowell bestows a blessing on the adventurers, listening to the story of the adventurers if they choose to share. He happily reminds them that they are lucky to be in the community that the god himself created at the beginning of time, creating the earth and the sea and the elves, which were the first beings to be birthed from the fertility goddess, Dosenna, and the nature god. After this little speech, the Master cleric motions to Lowell, and he hastily runs away. As the party progresses, Lowell makes a speech welcoming the characters and the Master cleric makes a "speech" as well, bringing up issues of non-believers in the faith, and pointing an eye on the characters warily. Lowell rolls his eyes, the commoners do not notice, or do not realize what the Master is doing, and the other priests of the church, or Qestians, look disgustedly at them until the Master stares at them, obviously sending a message through his gaze. As the Master finishes, one of the other Qestians nudges Charmadine noticeably to make a speech as well. She refuses shyly, and excuses herself from the table. One of the elves close to the adventurers can be heard talking of the poor dear, and her never being the same since her brother's death. If asked, the elf is wary about giving out information to newcomers, but if hassled enough, or diplomacized will give out the information. If not, a bard by the name of Ampers will easily give out the information if even spotted by the adventurers. The story is, the halfling siblings, or the Hillock (their last name) siblings, as they preferred to be called (being in a town full of elves can get to a halfling), were found in the same manner as the adventurers were, drifting on the ocean. They were found just a year ago, to the day. Apparently, thirty moons or so after arriving, some druids outside of the village took the young boys life. Charmadine became a Qestian, and the church put the whole ordeal in the past. It just became another reason to hate the druids. At the end of the talk from whoever it is that tells them the information, the party is over with and the PCs are sent to bed, along with everyone else. They sleep at the inn and wake up the next morning, going into the tavern below the inn. Sitting, waiting for them, is a human man, not present at the party, as far as the PCs can remember, named Alront. Alront has heard that the players had asked around about the Hillocks, and informs them if they don't already know. {*} {I want Alront to have some special significance to the story, but not that he goes and beats the crap out of everything. He’s a level 10 human fighter. I think having him be a big roleplaying point would be a good thing to have.} As the PCs leave the inn, they are confronted by several Qestians who escort them to the church on business with the Master cleric. He has something for the adventurers to do that will help the church and in turn gain the towns trust. {*} {This is most likely something to do with the druids, but I am not sure.} If questioned about the druids, anyone will tell the adventurers that they are horrible beings, living a few miles out of the town. They worship nature itself, and not the creator of its beauty, which is unfair to the god. They also attack the town many times during the year. Now the druids are actually a small community that is very peaceful, and understands Dosatuno’s view. So the day carries on, the PCs accomplish their task. As night comes, something happens and a dire rat is seen fleeing from the scene. {*} {I don’t know what will happen, but it needs to be caused by the dire were-rat, and it needs to be an action against the town.} The PCs are called to follow the dire rat back to the druid’s encampment, because that’s obviously what it is to the town. As the PCs follow the rat, they realize that it’s not heading towards the druid’s camp, but another direction. It eventually leads them to a small stone ruin with a wooden door, slammed shut as the PCs come up to it. It’s locked, so it will have to be broken into one way or another. When the PCs enter, they see a long corridor with several traps that have been sprung and the were-rat skipping over the floor in certain places (jumping over the triggers for traps). {*} {This is a major part that I need help with. This passage leads to the basements, which are catacombs and shrines, underneath the church. What sort of challenges could I have for the PCs down here?} As the PCs follow the rat, they eventually come to a stairwell. After hearing footsteps, Charmadine comes running down the steps with a javelin in hand. She tells them to leave and that there is nothing down in the catacombs to see, as they haven’t been visited in ages. If the PCs try to fight Charmadine, she will fight back, but if they question her about the were-rat, she hesitantly tells them that it is her brother. Shortly after arriving at Dosatuno, Josiph Hillock walked in on something that the Master cleric was doing. {*} {What was it that the Master cleric was doing. It had to be something against the town, and it has to end up with the Master cleric somehow inflicting the disease on Josiph.} Charmadine and Josiph, after running away for a short time, found the secret entrance, and knowing the church catacombs were not used often, gave Josiph residence down in the cellar. Now, this is where I’m stumped, how should I go on from here? How did Josiph get out of the church cellar? He took action against the town because of it’s corrupt church, but what did they do, what did he do, and what happens when the PCs meet him? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
OneEye589 07-20-07, 12:15 PM	Bump? :bump:
Thanuir 07-21-07, 03:26 AM	Looks a bit railroadish. What if the PCs simply don't care about the problems in the city? Are you going to run this for a particular group of players that you know? Have the characters been created?
Heros_Backpack 07-21-07, 09:19 AM	Minor thoughts: Alront could be the man that everyone in the area trusts and uses as a go-between, including druids/clerics etc. The dire rat could be chewing holes in one or more of the fishing boats for some reason.
OneEye589 07-21-07, 09:42 AM	To Thanuir: The players are all my friends, and I'm not sure what is going to be played yet. This is just a main plothook for the first adventure, the characters don't have to follow it, and I will have some other things planned. These events will happen nonetheless, and will most likely hear about them. If they do, they will probably return to the town to set things right. And for the record, I'm making sure the players are all either neutral or good aligned. I just hate the idea of an evil PC adventuring with good-aligned PCs, and it usually turns out bad in my group. To Heros_Backpack: The idea about Alront is a good one, thanks for that. He'll seem kind of aloof, saying that the druids are good people, but there's no use telling the town that. As long as they don't attack the druids there will be no problems. There have been minor skirmishes, but as long as they're left alone. And attacking the boats would definatly be a large action against the town. Josiph could set one or two on fire, maybe sabotage another. ~ Thank you for the ideas!
Thanuir 07-21-07, 11:13 AM	What if one of the PCs is a druid (or someone sympathetic to them)? It might change things a bit. As the PCs leave the inn, they are confronted by several Qestians who escort them to the church on business with the Master cleric. He has something for the adventurers to do that will help the church and in turn gain the towns trust. {*} {This is most likely something to do with the druids, but I am not sure.}Capture a druidic spy. Stop a druidic ritual that at least looks like harmful to the city, like some stormcalling thingy. Help slay a beast that plagues the city. Now the druids are actually a small community that is very peaceful, and understands Dosatuno’s view.So, only misunderstood? Wouldn't it be more interesting if the druids really worked for the nature's best, sometimes hurting, sometimes helping civilisation? Leave it up to the PCs to judge them. So the day carries on, the PCs accomplish their task. As night comes, something happens and a dire rat is seen fleeing from the scene. {*} {I don’t know what will happen, but it needs to be caused by the dire were-rat, and it needs to be an action against the town.}Steal a [valuable or rare item] that is necessary component of a [druidic ritual]. The PCs are called to follow the dire rat back to the druid’s encampment, because that’s obviously what it is to the town. As the PCs follow the rat, they realize that it’s not heading towards the druid’s camp, but another direction. It eventually leads them to a small stone ruin with a wooden door, slammed shut as the PCs come up to it. It’s locked, so it will have to be broken into one way or another. When the PCs enter, they see a long corridor with several traps that have been sprung and the were-rat skipping over the floor in certain places (jumping over the triggers for traps). {*} {This is a major part that I need help with. This passage leads to the basements, which are catacombs and shrines, underneath the church. What sort of challenges could I have for the PCs down here?}Dire rats can climb and swim, IIRC. Not all PCs necessarily can. Also, traps that attack human-sized targets. If you want to get stereotypic, fiends and undead always work. Shortly after arriving at Dosatuno, Josiph Hillock walked in on something that the Master cleric was doing. {*} {What was it that the Master cleric was doing. It had to be something against the town, and it has to end up with the Master cleric somehow inflicting the disease on Josiph.} Charmadine and Josiph, after running away for a short time, found the secret entrance, and knowing the church catacombs were not used often, gave Josiph residence down in the cellar.Some nasty thing (fiend, vampire, not-very-nice bard with good skills, mage with charm) has convinved the master cleric that druids are evil. Master cleric unfortunately took this belief to heart and getting him rid of it is very difficult. Rational arguments probably won't work. The nasty thing, if powerful enough, might have infected the now-wererat. Or perhaps the head of priesthood is to be blamed for that, too.
Forfeit 07-21-07, 03:05 PM	This plot is way too complicated for a first adventure. And I agree: there is a lot of railroad there. There arent enough hooks, and that means that if the characters get bored with all the speaches, all the troubles and characters, they may decide they just want to get the hell out of there and dont bother with anything. They will probabily desire to do stuff on their first adventure, not be railroaded like that and get into a conflict with the local population. You need a much simpler plot, a way to get more hooks, and a diferent way for the characters to end there (this steel boat in the middle of the ocean is a very bad/lame idea). Also, there seems to be an awfull lot of clerics for a 86 person village. Either increase the population or make the clerics/druids in smaller number. Also, a level 10 NPC is way too powerfull, make him something like level 4 or 5 (if the players are level 1).
OneEye589 07-22-07, 11:36 AM	Thanks for the other ideas Thanuir, they're pretty good. I don't think it's that abd of railroading. My group is really only used to railroading, anyway. Usually the "adventures" that other people come up with have no reason for anything. You just follow a path and fight everything. I thought maybe this would have a little better roleplaying chance than our usual hack-n'-slash. It's not that my group dislikes roleplaying, I just believe that no-one in the group knows how to put a good chance in. Having the plot for a first adventure doesn't seem to be important. You can have complicated plots later on, so why not firstly? It's not complicated in the sense that the PCs are involved directly, but just that this little town has some big problems for being so pure and church-oriented. Maybe more hooks would be a better way to introduce it, but the actions are pretty believeable. If some characters are found drifting in the ocean on the one-year anniversary of another's same experience, the town would probably have a group dinner or something and they would want to know why someone is acting weird. They would probably want to stay at the inn if it was free and if some guy had information, I would definatly listen to it. Guilt tripping may be the way to have the adventurers do something for the town. "Well, we saved you, so do this for us." They may not chase after the were-rat, but there are other ways to incorporate that later if needed. And the PCs don't need to follow this, other things can be done, they can leave if they want, no one would stop them. As for the steel boat, I could just have the characters transported somewhere where the people of the town find them. A main idea of this "thing" though is that all the adventurers are from somewhere and they were transported here together. It has something to do with the nature of the world and stuff, it's complicated. And there are actually only three clerics in this hamlet. I rolled up the town on the tables in the DM guide. For the church there is the Master cleric (level 3 cleric), two cleric Qestians (level 1 clerics), Charmadine (level 1 adept), and several level 1 commoner Qestians. Alront is just a fighter who wanders around the area (he was transported to the area, too, as the PCs may find out at a later time), so he likes to hang around, but he doesn't actually live in the area. If any of you have ideas on how to incorporate more hooks or make it less railroadish, it would be very much appreciated if you shared them. Thanks!
Thanuir 07-22-07, 12:48 PM	Make the situation morally ambiguous and let PCs do as they will. Maybe the faith helps the villagerss, but the farmers, woodcutters, etc. face increased tolls for their goods, say. Maybe the druids have no trouble with the rural folk, but fear that the town will need to expand if it continues growing, and want to avoid that. So, rural people grumble loudly and the faith tries to silence them. PCs who witness this may or may not act (prepare one encounter like this and throw it at the PCs if the game gets slow). The druids lecture/send pamphlets/whatever about the dangers of large cities and for birth control. This all is, of course, opposed to the faith's goals and thus illegal. Let the PCs happen upon a relevant scene about to get violent. Maybe they'll get involved in that. If the situations above escalate to violence, the druids will start taking heavier action, like spoiling foodstuff, infesting cellars with vermin, etc. Escalate until the players take sides.
queenfange 07-24-07, 09:44 AM	If there's a lot of clerics, just make sure there's a rationale why (don't change it; there's no "right way" to run a world as long as you have good reasons for what you do). You don't need to share it with the PCs unless they ask for it, but you have it if they want it. Try to think of a few places to give the PCs important decisions. For example, arriving at the druid settlement, give an indication that they are not hostile, giving the adventurers a chance to consider their mission. Thanuir also has some good ideas. Watch for what the PLAYERS like, not what forum people like or even what you like. If they get bored of long speeches, summarize the main points or simply cut them out. If the players are into roleplaying and setting exploration, by all means, use long speeches and lots of dialogue! I don't know your players, nor does Forfeit or anyone else, so we can only suggest things, not give you directives. Only you are interacting with them, so it is dependent on your judgement. Don't be afraid to ask them at the end of the first session what their favorite and least favorite bits were; this can give you valuable feedback.
Talros 07-25-07, 05:50 PM	First I would like your input on one thing, should I start with a pre-made adventure first and then create my own, create and run my own first, or does it not really matter either way? Lots of people start with premades, including me. Sunless Citadel was a great learning experience. When I created my very first adventure (which was terrible, by the way), I used the Sunless Citadel booklet as a guideline. Without it, the adventure I made would've been a LOT worse. Using a premade as a general guideline might help you organize better, inspire more ideas, or flesh out areas of your adventure better. I was going to mention railroading but I guess it's been adequately covered. All I can add is this; keep in mind that a hamlet of eighty-some people probably does not have guards that are 6th level fighters, or 8th level warriors, or what have you. Even a 10th-level human fighter is fairly rare, but nothing's impossible. Attempting to railroad the PCs can be a good thing, but as long as you aren't constantly creating impossible situations that force the players down a single path, everything should go smoothly.