Need help with Character Hooks and the Age of Worms!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Need help with Character Hooks and the Age of Worms!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
letoatreidesofdune
05-23-06, 07:17 PM Here's my problem:

I'm planning on running the Age of Worms campaign in Eberron using the conversion Keith suggested. I also wanted to run through the 4 published adventures to give the characters a foundation and a connection to Cannith. I have a problem though. Wanted to throw this out there and get some advice from more seasoned DMs.

One player is a warforged artificer, and the other one hasn't finished creating his PC yet. Since I only have 2 players I've padded it out by creating a couple of supporting characters - a male dragonmarked Cannith sorcerer who dissapeared into Argonnessen and studied the Prophecy under Ssalastaarunet the (good) blue dragon sage [he becomes a Dragon Prophet], a mute female Cleric of the Silver Flame who doesn't need to speak to cast spells, and a female knight from Aerenal adventuring in Khorvaire who hopes to impress the Court enough to become an Undying.

My player has come up with a very ambitious backstory for his warforged artificer. His warforged is actually a "memory clone" of Aaren d'Cannith - meaning that he is a newly created warforged from Merrix's forge in Sharn who is slowly developing into Aaren's mind in a warforged body. He has a lot of goals concerning his character, which I think is absolutely brilliant.

He would like for his character to eventually challenge the fractured heads of Cannith (especially Merrix, who he despises) for leadership of the House, which he believes is his right as Aaren's "son". He also wants to confront the Lord of Blades and destroy him, to create a warforged nation that can live in peace with the other peoples of Khorvaire. He'd also like to try and find a creation pattern to make a new mobile fortress to protect the people of the new nation with, and eventually find out what exactly happened to his "father".

I want to run Worms because it's a great campaign with a lot of high-stakes action where the very fate of Eberron itself hangs in the balance. I want to explore his great backstory, but I don't want to ignore the other character's hooks (, and I don't want to make it seem like I'm catering to one character.

How do I best balance each character's story with my overall campaign arc? Give me your advice guys! It would be much appreciated!
Urko
05-23-06, 07:48 PM I'm also struggling with both adapting AoW to Eberron and to the goals/backstories of the PCs.

Knee-jerk bit of advice - drop the published adventures. They're OK, I suppose, but represent quite a diversion from the action in AoW. If you're looking for common cause, Diamond Lake and "The Whispering Cairn" have a lot of hooks for bringing new characters together.

General bit of advice - Identify NPCs that would be involved in the PC's stories and replace key figures with those NPCs or give them a connection to organizations that are important. For example, Cannith needs quite a bit of raw materials in their work. Perhaps Smenk or one of the other mine managers are supplying them with some vital component.
letoatreidesofdune
05-27-06, 01:47 PM *BUMP*

Thanks for the advice Urko. I'll probably end up doing just that. The only problem was that i wanted to set up the Cannith PC as a beloved cousin of Lady Elaydren, and have her duplicity of working for Merrix be a character hook for him. I guess there's still a way I could do that.

Any other advice?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
letoatreidesofdune 05-23-06, 07:17 PM	Here's my problem: I'm planning on running the Age of Worms campaign in Eberron using the conversion Keith suggested. I also wanted to run through the 4 published adventures to give the characters a foundation and a connection to Cannith. I have a problem though. Wanted to throw this out there and get some advice from more seasoned DMs. One player is a warforged artificer, and the other one hasn't finished creating his PC yet. Since I only have 2 players I've padded it out by creating a couple of supporting characters - a male dragonmarked Cannith sorcerer who dissapeared into Argonnessen and studied the Prophecy under Ssalastaarunet the (good) blue dragon sage [he becomes a Dragon Prophet], a mute female Cleric of the Silver Flame who doesn't need to speak to cast spells, and a female knight from Aerenal adventuring in Khorvaire who hopes to impress the Court enough to become an Undying. My player has come up with a very ambitious backstory for his warforged artificer. His warforged is actually a "memory clone" of Aaren d'Cannith - meaning that he is a newly created warforged from Merrix's forge in Sharn who is slowly developing into Aaren's mind in a warforged body. He has a lot of goals concerning his character, which I think is absolutely brilliant. He would like for his character to eventually challenge the fractured heads of Cannith (especially Merrix, who he despises) for leadership of the House, which he believes is his right as Aaren's "son". He also wants to confront the Lord of Blades and destroy him, to create a warforged nation that can live in peace with the other peoples of Khorvaire. He'd also like to try and find a creation pattern to make a new mobile fortress to protect the people of the new nation with, and eventually find out what exactly happened to his "father". I want to run Worms because it's a great campaign with a lot of high-stakes action where the very fate of Eberron itself hangs in the balance. I want to explore his great backstory, but I don't want to ignore the other character's hooks (, and I don't want to make it seem like I'm catering to one character. How do I best balance each character's story with my overall campaign arc? Give me your advice guys! It would be much appreciated!
Urko 05-23-06, 07:48 PM	I'm also struggling with both adapting AoW to Eberron and to the goals/backstories of the PCs. Knee-jerk bit of advice - drop the published adventures. They're OK, I suppose, but represent quite a diversion from the action in AoW. If you're looking for common cause, Diamond Lake and "The Whispering Cairn" have a lot of hooks for bringing new characters together. General bit of advice - Identify NPCs that would be involved in the PC's stories and replace key figures with those NPCs or give them a connection to organizations that are important. For example, Cannith needs quite a bit of raw materials in their work. Perhaps Smenk or one of the other mine managers are supplying them with some vital component.
letoatreidesofdune 05-27-06, 01:47 PM	BUMP Thanks for the advice Urko. I'll probably end up doing just that. The only problem was that i wanted to set up the Cannith PC as a beloved cousin of Lady Elaydren, and have her duplicity of working for Merrix be a character hook for him. I guess there's still a way I could do that. Any other advice?