Post/Author/DateTime	Post
reveal 09-14-04, 12:01 PM	I've seen a lot of posts on here from people starting a campaign using the Forgotten Forge in the book. While that's all well and good (I plan on using the adventure myself) how are the rest of you starting your campaigns? What are you using to suck the players in and make them want more? :D
Saurenda 09-14-04, 01:47 PM	Well I started my new Rl Eberron in Karnath, only there was one problem. The players hated it. They told me that I had done such a job dming that I stole the show away from the characters and that I had madean NPC warforged with Adamantine Body feat Cleric level 1 that they believed was better than the whole group combined. **RANT** I thought I was being generious giving them a hirling for free, but complaining ensued that they were the heroes, and YES I understand that Eberron puts the Pcs as heroes. I told them that, and I told them of my time on the boards. They didn't seem to care. They are used to roleplaying a certain way. I have to change my entire style and energy to match them, and become a boring, energiless Dm who is always asking the players "What do you do now?" rather than "Make a decision, or else...etc". ***END OF RANT** Frankly I loved starting in Karnath as opposed to the forgotten forge. FF, seems to me more better suited for players who have been in Eberron, and after having ran it for newbes who loved it I decided to save it for my more advanced groups. For starters Karrnath is an interesting country. Secondly one PC is a Royal Corpse Collector in Training (RCCT) Third, one of the PCs is a Rouge with the investigate feat who wants to be a high inquisitor. ^Karrnath needs an inquisitor to rivial those in Thrane, so I thought it would be spectacular. I even gave her a secretary who was one level divinator to help her find cases and assist her searches. Again I thought I was being generous. But Karrnath from what I have put together and a primer specfically for Eberron and the country of Karrnath I'm tring to finish was to be a very good start for these unique characters. ###DO NOT READ RANTING GM*** I acted out the parts brilliantly if I do say so myself and while we were playing the players kept hitting walls. They didn't want to get together. I told them ahead of time to think of all the reasons thier characters would travel and in extreme cases even fight, since this is a heavy RP session. Then I come and give my all to a game of people who are literally deader than the soldiers of Karrnath. They didn't want to do anything. They stood there. So I gave Rouge PC a chance to help the RCCT, thus saving him time and trouble. I even put the quarry for the rouge investigator conviently held by renegade undead created by an unkown source, thus giving them reason to fight together. They didn't move an inch. So I sent the familiar of the Divinator out to the Rouge with two notes. This sent the part into action and finally a climatic scene happened. The Warforged Cleric healed the rouge and kept her alive. Afterwards I was told the warforged was too powerful (he cast cure light wounds) and that the party didn't need little owls telling them what to do. they were apprently happy, not doing thier mission they were being paid for, and I as the DM moving them along to get a session done in an hour and a half after being told I'd have four was wrong. Something perhaps for what is a DM to do? But more an issuse for those who play Eberron I assure. Some dieheard gamers who try to do nothing in Eberron astound me. call of Cuthlu, White Wolf, and countless other games they have played in. I decided to start a riviting game in Karrnath, and it is blown back at me as if I had insulted thier gaming style. The question of style and adaptation. :mad: **END RANTING GM** Sigh. I wanted to give my players a sense of the cenimatic world. They told me the play was so cenematic they felt like they were watching a movie or a play rather than being the main characters themselves. I tried to make them act, gave them action points, and told them Eberron is a world of action. Honestly 4 newbies did better than these Seasoned Gamers who just sit around. Again some people are picky, Choose the country you start in wisely. Sharn is the best in Breland. Thrane I also considered, but the law heavy structure of Karrnath would give the PCs a false sense of order as they started to travel elsewhere. I wanted to them to truly think Karrnath was the greatest kingdom in all of Galifar. Now they think I'm in bad need of refinement as a GM. Sigh. worst part is they still haven't stoped complaining. AH well, life is tough and we all got problems? Right King Kauis III? "MMhmmm hmm, let me out of DREADHOLD!" We're gonna need another seditive.
A Chosen of Mystra 09-14-04, 02:16 PM	If i was going to start a campaign... Give them some hints, family/friends involved or just say "If you do this you will get a BIG GASH OF GOLD AND MAGIC ITEMS"
Edymnion 09-14-04, 02:39 PM	I plan on starting my Eberron campaign (when I get around to actually starting it) in Sharn. Yes, I know, everybody else starts there as well, but its the best place I can find in the setting to get all sorts of weird PC ideas in the same place at the same time without jumping through a lot of hoops. Thing is, they won't stay in Sharn, not for long anyway. They will essentially only be in Sharn long enough to meet up, and get hired by a member of House Cannith. The task will be to find a lost schema. You see, a Warforged messanger was to have delivered an important schema to Cyre during the war. Unfortunately, only days after the messanger was to have arrived, Cyre was destroyed in the Mourning. House Cannith had thought the schema lost, but a recent delve into the Mournlands has uncovered reports that the messanger never arrived. That precious schema was not destroyed along with the rest of Cyre. Its up to the PCs to trace the route the messanger was to take, and see if they can discover what happened to that all-important schema. Little do they know that the reason the messanger never arrived was because his route intersected with the marching path of a small squad of the enemy passing through. They attacked, thought him destroyed, and moved on. Now, many years later, the party will eventually find him laying in the woods, propped up against a tree. He will be covered by vines, moss growing upon his legs and shoulders, covered in the dirt of decayed leaves. The surprise will be that he is not dead, he has simply lain innert at -X hitpoints all these years, and will reactivate once repaired. Does this ancient Warforged have the schema on his person after all this time? Why were there never any reports of an enemy squadron so far inside friendly territory? And perhaps most shocking of all, what is it a schema for? A weapon? A defense? Or maybe even the secret of the Creation Forges themselves?
Dauntless 09-14-04, 02:39 PM	Saurenda, I think you need a hug.
MarkB 09-14-04, 03:06 PM	I'm sorry your experience was so negative, Saurenda. I think sometimes players set themselves up to dislike a particular product, and once they've done so, there's likely little you can do to bring them around - I hope that wasn't the case here. I know there are one or two people at my local D&D club who I wouldn't even attempt to get interested in a new setting, especially one which dared to try and do things a little differently. That said, I did start a new Eberron campaign with a few friends on Sunday, and it went a lot better than I expected. I won't go into details as I'm running the same campaign on the boards here soon, but I started it off with a little travelogue that just introduced them to a couple of Khorvaire's more picturesque spots and a little of its politics and economics, broken up with a bit of impromptu combat, then put them down in an urban location where they could do some shopping and get into a bit of trouble. A good first session, they progressed further than I expected, and they all said they were really enjoying the new setting (even the one playing the Sorcerer, whose ability to fall down unconscious in the first round of both the combats that occurred earned him the nickname "glass-jaw").
Chrys 09-14-04, 03:41 PM	both me and another Dm run two games at the same time (I have Pc in his and he in mine) and have done this for 2 campaigns; this new Eberron one being our third. Well in the 1st one we both try to keep our campaign separate but that didn’t work. So in the second one we decided to try to have intertwining campaign (In FR his was a ‘good’ surface story; mine a was underdark n drow story), in this we found we had good antagonist and fun role-playing (I swear I killed my PC in his game 4 times) So knowing this I’ll now tell how our stories start (or will start; my underdark is not yet finished,) The other DM start: We began in Fairhaven, With a Female Khoravar Artificer who is the younger pretty cousin of the Queen (this how she describes he character); a Male Personality Warforged Paladin his purpose in to guard the Royal Khoravar; a Khoravar cleric of the Sliver Flame and child of the mark of detection( who is buddies with the Royal Khoravar ). A Khoravar Necromancer who worships Vol (oh yea our group functions great). And me a Half elf (I have a reason for putting this way) psychic warrior. It all stared in a crowded plaza (well there was some back story about Fairhaven) with the Artificer, Paladin and cleric being attacked by an inspired (unknown level) and his two Forged flunkies (2 fighters 1st lvl) Well all was going well for the three attackers until the Inspired manifested Energy ray at the Artificer… it missed and hit the Necromancer’s new spell book; which brings her in to the fight. Well later the Necromancer cast Summon Undead I… which gets turned by the Cleric; they start arguing and are pretty much out of the fight. Meanwhile the Paladin kills one of the Forged fighters and starts on the next when he see the Artificer being attacked by the Inspired; goes to help but is pinned by the other flunkie. Well about this time my Pc decides maybe he should help (until this point he was trying not to be seen by the inspired.) so he stabs the inspired in the back; Next round I act I take a step back manifest Call Weapon to get a Long bow; the Inspired starts to manifest on me and I get a attack of opportunity and plug him with my new bow… then he (the inspired) runs away. We go to the Artificer’s house and she (the DM as her) tells a story about how she found out the Queen’s brother is trying to over throw her and restart the great war with the help of the inspired ambassador. And that’s where the 1st adventure ended. My campaign will be start with a night time raid along a trade road. On the outskirts of the Blade desert; the Elves think it’s the Halflings; the Halflings think it the elves so they both send people to investigate (the PC; two Elfs, a Changing, a human and a Warforged have yet to roll or pick classes just race) When the two sides meet they are attacked by the raiders who turns out to be a Giant, when the sun comes out the giant disappears. Bum Bum BAAAAA
Magagumo 09-14-04, 03:47 PM	MM, I must say that my initial experience with Ebrron has been a positive one- Last wekeend, my associate and I (a fellow GM) introduced the new setting to 8 bright-eyed (mostly) individuals, around 3 of whom had played D & D before (but have never heard of the setting) and 5 whom had never played at all. I was incredibly pleased at how easily they latched on to various aspects of the world- changeling bards, fierce halfling barbarians, Sharn information brokers, and more. As a whole, it seems we're going to have an excited group of 10 people (2 others joined over the week.. good thing my fellow and I are splitting them into 2 teams but keeping the same plot :P). We start with the Forgotten Forge, but deviate drastically from there: The House Cannith representative sends them to investigate a rare materials supplier who is overdue on hsi shipment- Daelkyr minions become introduced- then, the group is sent to Karrnath as an enclave of Warforged (perhaps linked to those who atatcked them in FF? ;)) seems to hold another piece of the recovered schema.... The party will finally meet the main antagonist, a clever warforged by the name of "Centric," who guides the secret efforts of this rebellious band of 'forged to subvert the research performed by the Karrnathians- in essence an eldrtich machine originally designed as a negative energy "bomb (effectively a Inflict Mass Wounds spell bound in a backpack carried a Karnatthian undead lieutenant). Instead, the device will produce positive enegry, and its demonstration is to occur at Fortb Bones... the warforged which will deliver the device are riding a lightning rail there, and were all originally created for Thrane- their plan to link Thrane to the sabotage, thus igniting a war between the two neighboring nations. Centirc, or "Tric" as he is truly named, uses the occassion to escape from the adventuring group... Eventually, they will discover that he is, in fact, a changeling rogue/artificer working for the Order of the Emerald Claw. A few sessions later, the real villains will be introduced... :). We plan to incorporate numerous red herrings, a double-cross or two, and subtly insert the myriads of fantastic cults, houses, and shadowy organizations that give Eberron such a vibrant feel. Here's to all of your respective adventures, gentlemen and ladies, may they go as swimingly as our own.
ToiletGecko 09-14-04, 05:20 PM	I started my campaign off with the PCs travelling across the Talenta plains by lightning rail. Then, of course, the train is hijacked, leading to plenty of adventure and the gratuitous fight scene atop a moving train. Now that they've managed to get the train safely to Karrnath, they ahve of course attracted the attention of House Orien, who just so happens to need such a group of extraordinary people for handling a rather...delicate situation. Won't say more, not sure who's reading...
Saurenda 09-14-04, 09:15 PM	Saurenda, I think you need a hug. Thank you, and MarkB too. =( I'm sorry, It just made me feel like I failed them. Perhaps next time will be better this up coming monday. I am so glad everyone had positive experiences, and I myself have had MANY positive experiences with Eberron. Just this one flopped. I understand what your saying MarkB. I just wish I could have pleased them. :confused:
Bubba333 09-14-04, 09:58 PM	Mine started in the Eldeen Reaches, then on to Sharn (where I ran the FF), and now they'll be going to Xen'drik. From there I might run SotLW and/or WotVB. The PCs are VERY interesting and have an incredible dynamic, so with the back-stories we've made I'm sure the game will run away with itself!
Save-vs-DM 09-14-04, 10:22 PM	My game started in sharn. However it had one strange twist: the characters didn't know each other. They all happened to be one the same lift when an errant lightening bolt from a magical squabble (which later ended up being the BBEG) damaged the lift when it was still 20 feet from the landing. They were the only ones in the elevator, but it was quickly pulling away from the wall. They had six rounds to get five people out of the lift before it fell to it's doom. It worked quite well, never seen people form a bond that quickly. Cheers, Save vs DM
ImmortalBlueMage 09-15-04, 12:20 AM	I didn't care much for The Forgotten Forge, so I'll likely come up with something on my own. Breland in general and Sharn in particular seems like the obvious place to start, since it's clearly been created for the purposes of being large enough and cosmopolitan enough that players can get a taste of all of Eberron without having to stray far. Be that as it may, I'm leaning more toward the Talenta Plains, and from there they'll travel to Breland. I figure the closer they get to civilization, the more and more of the world I can show them, and sort of gradually ease them into the new setting one little bit at a time. It helps that one of my PCs is a native of the Blade Desert (Shifter Rogue, descended from a Werejackal of all things).
Kordak 09-15-04, 01:14 AM	My opening scene will be from The Last War and I'm having my players (only two at the moment) create 5 characters each for the opening sequence. They will be part of an elite platoon that is fighting near the border of Breland and Cyre...I'm planning on having a particularly brutal battle (hence the idea of 5 characters per player) and the survivors of that battle will form the core of the adventuring group. Eventually they will retire from the army and form a company of adventurers based in Sharn. There will be a continual influx of characters available, if any should die during a particular adventure, as a new "old army buddy" could appear looking for work or as a member of the "B" team. I'm hoping we don't have the same issue with the characters not being the 'best' on the scene during the first battle as there will be a few sergeants and a lieutenant in charge of the battle. With 5 characters to try and keep alive, they should be too busy to worry about that but we'll see how it goes...maybe no one will survive as they'll be taking on the Valenar... :ayyyy!: Let me know what you think. Thanks, Kordak
Fivegears 09-15-04, 01:24 AM	(I'm going to cross-post this to another topic, because I'd like to get some opinions on it.) I'm still working on the details, but, I wanted to start mine in Q'barra - sort of. Thus far, the setting is set in a small town halfway up the river between Newthrone and Whitecliff, a thriving community that trades both in gems (a small but fertile mine filled with various precious gems was discovered here), game (hunters do well in the area, despite the occasional encounter with the local lizardfolk) and transportation (they ferry travellers between Newthrone and Whitecliff up and down the river). However, Something Happened (as they often do in these games). One evening (the evening that the PCs will be introduced to the game) a mist fell like a pall over the town, and spectres (not literal spectres as per the monster manual, but...) of some sort formed from the mist, assaulting the townsfolk in a barbaric and brutal fashion. Those that tried to defend themselves met with little success, and those that tried to flee the town became befuddled by the mists, and found themselves stumbling back into the town soon after they had left. Of course, it's left to the PCs to discover what's happening - which is something stranger than the immediately obvious. Due to some esoteric arcane experiment off somewhere (to be determined later), chunks of Eberron "flickered" into their own little dream-bubbles in Dal Quor - not psychic projections, but, literally in that realm for a millionth of a second. All of those chunks returned a millionth of a second later, save for one - the aforementioned town. A quori that was "squatting" in the dream of one of the inhabitants of the town inadvertantly stablized the bubble this chunk flickered into, and, in the process, forgot what it was... and is instead assuming the role of the person it was pretending to be in the dream; at the same time, the quori lost his bead on the central hub of Dal Quor, so, while he's considered MIA to his quori companions, they have no idea where to start. So the town sits bobbing in the aether that is Dal Quor, with a strange mix of reality and dreamstuff, and the inhabitants of the town are, thus far, none the wiser. The "spectres" are nightmares, the mist represents the edge of the "bubble" to an extent. Now I'm just thinking of the best solution to this problem.
maijstral2 09-15-04, 02:32 AM	Hi everybody I'm a longtime lurker and this is my first post so forgive me if the format is off. :) I've been gaming with a group for about 4 years now and have just started Dming the Eberron campaign. 3 of the others in the group didn't have the campaign book and heard the two of us who did raving about it and thought it might be a fun change so we decided to start a new game set in eberron. because 3 of the group didn't have ready access to the book at first I thought an interesting way to start would be like something from the bourne identity this way and lack of knowlege about some detail in the Eberron campaign setting could be explained as memory loss. The group comes to on a beach surrounded by wreckage and dead bodies with manacle marks on there wrists. They have no idea how they got there and in the course of the first adventure discover two years have passed since there last memories. so even though they don't know each other they decided to band together to discover what happened to them. I used the forgotten forge adventure as there 1st mission to get some starting capital (they only had what equipment they could get from the wreckage on the beach) and as a hook to other adventures in sharn. While they are adventureing over the course of the campaign they discover clues as to what has happened to them and and it become apparent that someone of power and resources is looking for them.
toxilious 09-15-04, 03:42 AM	My game started with a flashback of the Last War, to try and give the PCs an understanding of the new setting. Fast forward, the first PC wakes up from the flashback like it was a dream, but cannot remember who he is. He is playing an urban ranger, that he doesnt know how or why he can track and investigate, he just know he can do it. He was kinda mad the I told him that the name he picked out for himself wasnt his real name, but he got over it. He woke up in Passage where he ran into a gnome artificer from House Sivis. I ran a game of just roldplaying with only those two, trying to get an understanding of how they were going to play thier characters. Next game they ran into a PC that was a former captain of an airship that was shot down while carrying Eberron dragonshards. He was looking for work while his new ship is being built (yes, I am going to give him a ship later in the story line) and was happy to work with the PC. Especially since I gave the PCs a contract with House Sivis to be couriers. That alone opens wonderous plot hooks. Maybe its the wrong package, maybe its contraband, but I digress. The PCs were on a lightning rail Karrnath when 10 Emerald claw agents repelled through the windows and combat began. The train was filled with passengers, so the PCs had to figure out a way to fight in enclosed spaces without hurting any of the other people on the train. I gave bonus XP for creative ideas, such as the one PC bull rushed an agent out the window. The first PCs I mentioned, the one with memory loss, began getting bonuses to his attacks and damage against these foes. I explained later that these were his first favorite enemies. That got his brain churning and such. Hope this helps you out, I have 3 great PCs that play in 2 other games with me, and I have some more PCs joining next game.
Doctor X 09-15-04, 05:27 AM	I haven't started yet, but I'm helping my players prepare their characters. They don't know much about the feel of Eberron, so I'm trying to make sure their characters fit in without being too intrusive. So far I think I've done rather well... Nobody's gone on the whole indignant "I'm the player and I can make my own character!" tirade. So I've got high hopes... One of the biggest things I've been worrying about when it comes to characters is Organizations. I want most, if not all, of my NPC's to be entangled in a web of patrons and enemies before the game even starts. I've got one that's thinking of being a dragonmarked member of House Orien and a member of the Copper or Silver Concord of the Aurum... I still haven't decided which one I'll let him start in. He functions as a captain of the gaurds who protect cargo on Lighting Rails. As much as he likes being in a position of leadership, his recent manifestation of a dragonmark has been going to his head, and at times he thinks he should be doing something more important, and seeks to climb the social ladder. Naturally the Aurum would seem like a nice club to join to help him out. The Aurum won't mind having someone of his position around, either. He could help them sabotage the efforts of their rivals-- stopping important messages and stealing important cargo as it's being shipped. Another character is a kalashtar from Adar, caught up in a debt to Morgrave University and House Lyrandar for getting him from Sarlona to Khorvaire. He hitched a ride on the only surviving ship from a failed expedition to enter Adar and learn its secrets... They hid their landing magically and secretly searched Sarlona. When they finally found Adar, they were turned away. The PC was nearby, though, and talked with them before they set out to go back to their ships. He was interested in learning more about the world outside, so he went with them. Buti, nevitibly the Inspired of Riedra learned about all of this, and attacked the ships even as they were departing; the PC himself being one of the main reasons-- the Inspired didn't want him to escape. All the ships were burned except the one the PC escaped on. Naturally both Morgrave and Lyarandar are quite PO'd over this, and they take it out on the PC sometimes. So far, it seems like I could go anywhere with characters so deeply entangled. There's many potential hooks... and lots of potential enemies. I'm planning on fitting an expedition into Darguun in there somehow, though I haven't quite figured it out yet. For some reason Darguun really intrigues me.
xnrdcorex 09-15-04, 06:17 AM	i had my players thwart a robbery, which got the attention of the lost love of kasius the III(the non vampire.) she is going to send them into the kings forest to get something back for her that was stolen by bandits when she was on the southern road leading to sharn. this of course is just a test to see if they are capable men befor she sends them off to rescue her love form Dreadhold.
Broddr 09-15-04, 10:43 AM	Oddly enough, I wanted to go against the stereotypical, "So you are in a Bar" adventure... So I started my players out in a Bar. :) "The Spire" in Sharn, a Restaurant/Tavern in the middle levels of the city. I wanted to give it a similar atmosphere to "Cheers." It wasn't just a place where the players happened to be, it was their hang out. Two of the characters worked in there (and still do) while the others are long-term patrons. It is right at the corner from a House-run message station. My entire campaign started (and to some degree still runs) on mistrust and greed. Out of five people, only two are good aligned, the rest some form of neutral. Everyone is out for themselves and their coinpurses. Nearly every action they have taken puts them at odd with some group/house/individual...which gives me a TON of food for thought on upcoming plots and subplots. One character went through the first several sessions being in debt to one of the other players in order to pay reparations for damage done when starting a fight in the Spire. Long story short, the Spire is still a hang out. The group, after one adventure into some goblinoid ruins under the city, are only now beginning to trust one another, allbeit very loosely. The players have gained some notoriety as adventurers willing to work for someone willing to pay for their services. I have some long term plans for the group, and oddly enough, none of them will probably take the players out of the city of Sharn itself. Eberron is truly one of the best settings I've seen. It helps when "good" and "evil" are blurred and not so black and white. It is better when players have to figure out which is the greater good, or who will suffer least when making decisions. I love that stuff. Regards, Broddr