Post/Author/DateTime	Post
james bierly 11-25-04, 12:43 AM	O.k. Awhile back I posted about this great new Eberron rpg group I've put together. They're heavy on the character interaction and character development. Characters: Torlorn: Wizard/warrior from the Demon Wastes. Tracked a demon that had wiped out his villaige into Sharn, and recruited some other adventurers to help him deal with it. Raised to be a leader of his people. A bit obsessive. Haven: She's a kalashtar druid with some major mental problems. See, when she was like 10 she had a lover who was like 21. He died. She was devastated. She sees 'signs' from him everywhere, and worships him like a diety. She thinks Torlorn looks like her dead lover 'Kelleth'. Gellust: Half-orc/half-elf ranger. Hates goblins with a vengeance, because they killed his girlfriend back in the day. Of course, goblinoids in Eberron are not intrinsically evil, in fact many of them are neutral and a few are good. Ivan: Warforged monk. Player came up with the idea recently that he should be powered by Kelleth's soul. Gives me a good plot hook (where do warforged souls come from?) and increases intra-party drama. Akasha: Daughter of a great Kalashtar adventurer, who was killed by his closest gnome friend. Therefore, she hates all gnomes. The gnome who did the killing (Jade) will serve as a sort of ambiguous character throughout the campaign. Sometimes he'll be helpful, sometimes not, but always mysterious. ? (name not known because first character is dead)- Druid. Don't know much else about him yet. The player is a good roleplayer, and he has an interesting way of playing the character, it's just a very new char since the player's first character commited suicide. New character is old character's father. I ran the first session, which was mainly just that, with a warforged ambush at the end. Next session, they're contacted by Lady Elaydren to hunt down a schema. They do so, in one of the best published Dungeon Crawls I've found... but it was still a dungeon crawl. They had a great time, but as they sat joyously and fastidiously counting their profits off the venture, I couldn't help but feel I had done something wrong, despite the fact that they had fun. Third session. The demon Torlorn (the party wizard) had been tracking shows up. I decided it should be a dusk hag, because the idea of a monster that attacks with nightmares appealed to me. The demon wanted to kill Akasha to prove itself worthy of a meeting with the leader of the Dreaming Dark (a group of shadowy baddies that want to take over the world. The demons want to do so too, so they wanted to make an alliance with the Dreaming Dark) I sort of railroaded the players into the battle, but I couldn't really find a better way to do it (although I got to put Jade into this adventure... he showed up to warn Akasha about the demon...) Anyhow, the dreams they had were the real meat of this adventure. Haven had a dream where her dead lover told her to stab the 'pretender' to death, so she attacked Torlorn. They played out dealing with Haven live-action style after the demon was killed. At the end, Ivan comes in and sits by her as she cries on her bed. Nice ending. Nice adventure, but I couldn't help but wonder if there was some way I could have done it all in a more atmospheric way, with less combat. As it was, they fought the demon DnD style, and when it touched them they lapsed into nightmare. Fourth session. I was sick, so I was happy to even get them through a session. Started the "Shadows of The Last War" adventure. They were debating out of character what nasty stuff I would throw at them if they went by land or sea to find the McGuffin. (another piece of the schema from adventures one and two) Sure enough, they got ambushed by skelatons. I was tempted to ditch the skelatons... but skelatons on a boat are so cool, and I had the pirates of the carribean soundtrack handy... So now they are at a refugee camp getting directions to the dungeon where the Mcguffin is. It's pure dungeon crawl for awhile here, with perhaps a bit more roleplaying when Ivan goes off to talk to the Lord Of Blades. Anyhow, here's my dilemma. I feel like I'm breaking them. I need to run an adventure with no combat, that focuses on character development yet still advances a plot, but I'm having a hard time coming up with anything. I feel like I'm turning them into hack and slashers (even though they are enjoying it... I run fairly creative and cinematic combats) when they started out as immersionalist role-players. Advice please?
JabBond 11-25-04, 01:12 AM	City adventures are usually good for that. They can't do too much flashy stuff or it would draw too much attn, kill innocents, damage building that ppl actually care about, etc. Have a villain that they can actually interact with. The ambiguous gnome might be good, LoB might even... or if any of them are interested in charming an intelligent monster or humanoid adversary, they might be able to roleplay some dialogue rather than just waiting to let their "friend" take a fall in combat. (I'm in a party that had a salamander following us around for quite a while. Charmed by one character, healed by another, and spoken to in Ignan by everyone) Since you've got that druid, maybe a wilderness adventure where it's clear they're NOT supposed to kill everything (upsetting the balance in a natural system). Even if a party's just sneaking around, avoiding encounters and still trying to keep safe, you can get a lot of inter-character dialogue going in the planning of such an expedition.
Korhal IV 11-25-04, 01:20 AM	If they're enjoying it, you're not doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite - you're doing very well. I wouldn't substantially alter anything you're planning to do, although after that, you might want to pick up Sharn: City of Towers and jot down a few names. Give credit where credit is due - that book is full of ideas for intrigue-laced and RP-strong adventures as well as ye olde hacke'n'slash. Maybe too many adventure seeds, since many feel underdeveloped.
Gurv 11-25-04, 02:17 AM	Remember to run fast paced, life-or-death encounters in place of "carefully balanced encounters". It sounds like these players can handle character death as long as it is dramatic and allows them to deepen their characters. Run a city game. Invite them to an event such as a masquarade ball or a noble's wedding, with the goal of learning some piece of information. Create a number of interesting NPCs who can aid them, hinder them, ask them for dates, etc. Let them interact with them.
Maelflux 11-25-04, 03:46 AM	How about having someone use their backgrounds and personality traits against them? Since they all have such crucial background hooks, they are very easy to play into (and for an enemy to learn) Here are a few ideas that could promote some deep interaction with the players, and could last a while. Especially if you somehow manage to involve other personas they are close to. Btw I dont think all of these ideas should be put into play in the same scenario, that might be over the top. But a few of them could make it quite interesting imo.. Akasha: What if her father did not actually die? What if he was the one who killed Jade, but in fact he orchestrated his own death. This could be due to many reasons. Maybe he was possessed by a Quori(?), or just actually a really bad person, who had always managed to come out a hero by stabbing the real heroes in the back. And maybe Jade had had enough of this, and Akasha's father came up with the idea to go underground for a while, and assuming Jade's form. Imagine Akasha's horror when she learns that a) her father is still alive, and b) he was *never* a good person, quite the opposite. Ivan: What if this guy is just way oversensitive on a subconcious level? He could also be a "freak" conduit for dead souls, and especially good at picking those up, that has close relations to people he care for. So either he could be imagining that he was the incarnation of Kelleth (without realizing it is just his imagination), or it could be true. But if true, then why not have him suddenly conduit some of the other dead persons the party is close to? (Gelluth's girlfriend, Torlorns family members, Akasha's "father"). Maybe even someone close to an npc they know as well, so that the word might spread. This will make him coveted by all sorts of folk who wants to speak to their dead relatives, but dont have the means of clerics and so forth. Slowly the "blessing" could be turning to a curse. Later on, after they have defeated some real baddies - what if he suddenly starts to conduit those persons they *really* hated, and defeated, like fx the Dusk Hag. Now he will contain both someone they love, but also people they really hate... He might want to get rid of it asap, but the "public" might be furious if he was to throw away such a great gift, and maybe even want to keep him locked up as their personal link to their dead relatives. Lots of ideas here, depending on what direction you want to take it.. Gellust: I dont know the circumstances in which his girlfriend was killed, so some of these things might not apply. But one (really nasty) idea could be that he had in a lycantropic rage killed her himself. He does not know that he has been infected with lycantrophy during his rangering around in the woods, and his mind have created a firm illusion that goblins killed her, of which he is 100% sure. This could be introduced somehow by letting other such things happen near him, where people are killed by whatever he "sees". But when the party starts to investigate it, it doesnt make sense, but the trail instead leads to some sort of animal or lycantrope... which might slowly make him think "Well, if I am sure that whatever killed these guys, and I saw it with my own eyes, but it turned out to be a lycantrope... could the same have happened to my girlfriend?.. .. And who is that lycantrope?..." Again, lotsa personal horror when he discovers that he himself is the killer.. Haven: She's pretty messed up as it is ;) But how was he killed? Maybe you could somehow make some links to the Inspired, since she's a Kalashtar. Maybe get them involved with a ambassador from there. I am not sure if he was a Kalashtar as well..? Or he could have been an Inspired?.. Maybe I can think of more things when I know more about the incident and him.. Torlorn: If you use the hook under Ivan, there will be lots of interaction here, with one of his good friends (Ivan), suddenly having part of his enemy within him. Or how about bringing him back to his ruined village, to a city of semi-intelligent zombies? If some force (like a freak living spell from the Mournland, or the classical mad wizard, or some plan of the Hag yet to be revealed), have somehow animated these villagers and his family as zombies, BUT they have retained quite some of the memory and intelligence. Now he will have to deal with all these once close people of him, trying to rebuild their city, farming and so forth, while they are slowly decomposing and are very dead. He will probably be disgusted and want to raze the city, but that might be hard with a loving mother, wanting to hug him, that clearly remember his childhood, and are not actually evil. Just dead and decomposing... The last hook should involve no combat at all, and plenty of opportunities for roleplaying. Anyways, this was just a few ideas. Hope some of it might be useful, or at least serve as a bit of inspiration :)
Endless_Helix 11-26-04, 08:52 AM	What about the dead party member? What if his death wasn't such a suicide? I don't know the circumstances of his death, but if it happened before the campaign, then it would have a direct hook into the party, particularly the father. Also what if Ivan began channeling the old PC?
james bierly 11-26-04, 10:31 PM	What about the dead party member? What if his death wasn't such a suicide? I don't know the circumstances of his death, but if it happened before the campaign, then it would have a direct hook into the party, particularly the father. Also what if Ivan began channeling the old PC? No, it was definately a suicide. He had one of the other PCs kill him honorably... but I like the idea of Ivan channeling his spirit. Thanks for all the work you put into your post, Maelflux! Any more ideas, anyone?
Gurv 11-26-04, 11:28 PM	I really like Maelflux's ideas for Akasha and Gellust. I may use them in my own campaigns, when such things come up. It sounds like you have a godsend of a party here. You have to pull out all the stops. Be dramatic. Use their backgrounds, use their personalities, and most of all don't let them lose interest. You seem to have a group that is truely into their characters. Make the plot about them first, and use those plots to tie into your adventure. Have Jade lure them into whatever schemes the gnomes are up to. Have 'Kelleth' show up from time to time. Dress up in character, bring props, do whatever it takes to make the game as cool from your side as the players are making it from their side.
Maelflux 11-27-04, 05:50 AM	Thanks for all the work you put into your post, Maelflux! Np - I was bored at work, and after re-reading what I posted, I really *hope* that I some day get a party with such interesting backgrounds, that I can use some of those ideas in my own campaigns :)