Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Metaldays 04-02-07, 12:34 PM	Hi everyone, so we are having our first dnd session EVER and I'm the DM. :) So I've been advised here not to host complicated campaigns, nor anything large. I'll start with a small village, make a couple of NPC's and use the advnetures WotC site hosts for lvl 1s, a bit attuned for my land. I've created my own land with it's own culture just to add my little special feel I really want to give to the players. Here's where the problem comes in. For further mystery, the map has a note written to it : " My dear friends, stay away from the Fjellar rune stones, for the treasure is..." and where the '...', it's burned off. ( I nearly ruined my map burning it :D ). Anyways, the map is signed as 'made by Anaga Icajle, the dwarven defender of Skalar' . However the bard of the group knows 2 things. First of all, it's an elven name, second, he has heard of Anaga Icajle before in some myths before, however he won't be sure of more precise facts or where he heard the name. Anyway, the truth to the story is: There is a small island couple of hundred miles from the continent where the characters start. It's actually the land where the most excellent wizards study and have their town wizard fort. Since my land is set in a viking-type society with lot's of raiders and barbarians, educated wizards had often been rejected from society and were not allowed to high places, such as the warlord's advisors etc. when they asked for it. Seeing this, the wizards council decided to cause havoc and even raze some major cities and slain some Warrior Kings with their magic on this barbarian land . Anaga Icajle was indeed a Dark Elf and a very succesful wizard, respected even by elder wizards. However he did not like the council's decision how to regain the wizard's respect in the 'Cold Lands'. He decided to summon a dwarf he would control and thus warn the correct authorities to create the proper defenses against the upcoming apocalypse from his colleagues. He did summon the Dwarf (he gave him his own name). During 2 years, Anaga (the summoned Dwarf) had managed to gain enough fame to be heard by the many warlords and kings. They summoned their witches and sorceres and succesfully managed to put their part of a continent under a magic shield, protecting them against the wizards' magic. Thus was the continent save. The wizards' naturally found out the one responsible for this. Before slaying Anaga ( the drow, who was controlling the dwarf) managed to summon 8 magic runestones in the heart of a mountain. Each contained a very old sorcery written on it. When all 8 were read at the same time, the magic shield would be disperced and the land would be unprotected. Hopefully by the time the chars do this, we will be experienced players for a new campaign. :) I just want to ask, does this story sound fine to the more experienced DMs ? What's missing ? What should I work on in more detail ? And when I mentioned some spells (for example Agana summoning and controlling the dwarf), do I have to know exactly which spell he used or can I assume such one existed long time ago ?
Imatash 04-02-07, 02:34 PM	And when I mentioned some spells (for example Agana summoning and controlling the dwarf), do I have to know exactly which spell he used or can I assume such one existed long time ago ? You have a good basic start to the good overall plot. I would say you don't really have to get specific about the spell. It could be lost Art, from some artifact or you will get more specific later on when they are of a higher level. One question, to you have some ideas on the PC's backgrounds for them? They don't have to be complete but you should have some rough notes for them or do you let them write part of their backgrounds? Imatash
Metaldays 04-02-07, 03:22 PM	You have a good basic start to the good overall plot. I would say you don't really have to get specific about the spell. It could be lost Art, from some artifact or you will get more specific later on when they are of a higher level. One question, to you have some ideas on the PC's backgrounds for them? They don't have to be complete but you should have some rough notes for them or do you let them write part of their backgrounds? Imatash nope...ive asked most of them to make some backstory but none have yet. I just want to ask them if they could not come from the given land, in another words be new to the area. is that allowed ?
Imatash 04-02-07, 03:31 PM	nope...ive asked most of them to make some backstory but none have yet. I just want to ask them if they could not come from the given land, in another words be new to the area. is that allowed ? Absolutely. Eventually you may want to flesh it out....maybe they were hired on as caravan guards over the previous months and have all arrived here only to be discharged. Imatash
Morits 04-02-07, 03:52 PM	The background story is perfectly reasonable. The trick is cutting it into small chunks and making the PCs want to know it. PCs are all Foreigners? In my campaign, 2 PCs are locals with max rank in Local Knowledge. For the first few weeks, I was writing them tons of background details. My brain was melting and seeping out of my ears.When all else fails, read the instructions. Local Know, DM waits until PC asks a question.