Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kuronue 09-20-05, 01:44 PM	Preface: you'll be seeing a lot of me in the nbext while. WARNING: at school, keyboard sticks like heck, this spacebar is half busted, expect a few typos For those who don't know me, I'm primarily an online-DM. I joined this place when it became clear thatI was going to be starting a DnD club at school. Well, the club is running now and tomorrow is the first actual playing session. We have a char who worships reheated tacos. Hey, I told them the could make up deities if they wanted.............. Then there'sMihawk, the Elven Rogue. Alignment: Chaotic Neutral. Personality/Behavior: "Likes to steal and kill. good at lying and cheating. good gettingout of trouble." We have a human fighter, a halfelf druid, another human fighter, and my teacher/club advisor who "wants to play Conan the Barbarian" and rolledd10s instead of d6s (we adjusted his stats down later and gave him an 8 in Int). Then there's those who haven't handed int heir sheets for character approval (a requirement because 80% of them have never handled dice in any setting stronger than Yatzee and almost every single sheet I've reviewed has errorswhich I fixed. I'm handing them back tomorrow after putting htme in my computerin case they getlost) ((DAMN YOU SPACEBAR)) Anyway, the campaign involves them comingto a colony. I have a big plot, but I could use advice on a few small in-town missions to run so they can level up a bit and get some gold under their belts before tackling the BBEG. We're meeting once a week till June, school holidays excepted, and hopefully thus can finish one campaign by then LOL this.... is gonna be a longyear XD :D
Murrdox 09-20-05, 01:59 PM	Umm... give the player who wants to worship tacos a good kick in the face. Unless you're playing a comedy campaign, that player isn't going to add anything useful to your campaign besides wise-ass remarks. He sounds like the kind of player that after killing a group of kobolds, will spend 10 minutes describing how he cuts off the kobold's head, and fashions it into an impromptu helment, and removes its entrails and weaves himself a sweater with it, and then prances around town and kills anyone who doesn't pledge obedience to Tacos. In essence, someone who wants to goof off full time and not really play the game. Just because they're playing for the first time doesn't mean you need to accept stupid character concepts. Unless, as I said before, this is the kind of campaign you want to run.
MidnightLightning 09-20-05, 02:12 PM	In-town missions? Depends on the town, but here's some ideas. The trick for any low-level town mission (which you will need to address and make clear in the descriptions and storyline setup you give the encounter) is that there are lots of other people around who are either helping the PCs, or not. The trick is to figure out why the PCs are being helped or not being helped by the available NPCs in the town, if some of them are higher level than the party is. Water (port) town: Non-combat Boat repair (not fighting, but craft skills if they have them) Have a larger boat get run aground on a reef, or run aground nearby due to some monster intervention, and have the party go assist in the mop-up Water has come up and destroyed the foundation of a house, the party must explore the crawlspace and basement to see if it will still hold Smugglers have been sighted in the area; the party must find where their secret stash is at (cave) Combat: Aquatic monster is terrorizing the harbor Escort a dignitary onboard boat to another port (may not be any combat at all) A colony of aquatic monsters or oozes have started making a home in someone's basement Any type of town: Non-combat Two opposing noble houses need to be invited to the same dinner party; the PCs must Diplomacy the two into both coming, knowing the other is too Two opposing trade guilds are at each other's throats and the party needs to smooth some things out The water pipeline into the city has been disrupted; the party must find out what caused it The local sheriff needs a prisoner transported to another town for jailing Combat: Find the local thieves guild and flush it out Children have been kidnapped on the way home from school; find out whodunit and apprehend them Deliver an eviction notice to a tempestuous monstrous humanoid Extermination job to clear out someone's basement of some vermin How's that to get you started?
KJW 09-20-05, 02:17 PM	Murrdox is right. Unless you are running a comedy, drop Taco Boy. Its best if everyone at least make an effort to be serious, trust me roleplaying is fun and there are laughs, but a person like that is likely to be a problem. New players are a disaster with the rules, but don't sweat it. Though you are very wise to go over the character sheets beforehand, good call. At first let stuff slide (like AoOp and nitpicky stuff), keep things simple, and things will probably work out. OK here are some in-town ideas...(all fairly classic simple ideas) 1) clear out an old mansion/tower/mill etc. infested with monsters. 2) deliver a message to nearby town, with low-level baddies trying to get the message. 3) a farmer has found an tunnel underneath his farm...that leads to catacombs or something 4) a tournament is being held in town...though a little complex for a starting adventure 5) bandits in countryside need to routed and there is a big bounty. Hope that helps!
Missing Minds 09-20-05, 02:33 PM	To those who posted before me, thanks. Those ideas will be helping me as well. Here are a few others I have been coming up with. "I've lost my ring, find it for me." Problem is, its a ring of invisalbity with two command words. "hello" = on, "good bye" = off. Have a servent or some such wearing it for "safe keeping" not realizing at all what is going on with him/her. "Find my missing dog." plenty of spot checks, information gathering, knowledge checks, etc. in this one. "House on the cornor blew up a bit, find out why." Actual reason why it blew up as it were, "bag of holding in bag of holding = good bye". It blows up due to a sudden increase of mass in the basement. I figure between trying to keep looters away and solving what happened, it should be good for a shot. Bar Brawls are always good for learning combat. Hire them to be body guards. Go to a forgetful wizard to retrieve an object as part of a mission. However, let the forgetful wizard label *everything*. Label magic items just to see how much the players meta game with it. ;) extra XP to those that question what the heck that means. Like the "sword +3, flaming" that is what it would be to the players, to teh characters it should just be a very very sharp sword that goes all flamey on them. Teach them the difference between role playing and minor meta gaming. Of course I'd also lable mundane things, such as a bundle of four bolts with the label of "3 +1 bolts." And lastly, a haunted house. Well its not really, its just that the neighbor is really annoyed with the occupants of the house, and he just happens to be a pretty good illusionist.
DmMagnus 09-20-05, 03:40 PM	Preface: Then there'sMihawk, the Elven Rogue. Alignment: Chaotic Neutral. Personality/Behavior: "Likes to steal and kill. good at lying and cheating. good gettingout of trouble." What you just described was an evil character! Lots of great ideas! ps. smack tacoboy with a newspaper!
Lord_Soto 09-20-05, 08:06 PM	"Find my missing dog." plenty of spot checks, Heheh... My last two campaigns have started with an "in-town" adventure when the players accidently stumble upon something killing homeless people and dragging them into the sewers. Of course, the creature is holed up in the basement of a retired local wizard's home, where it escaped from a magical trap that he had used to hold it in temporal stasis, and found a ready supply of victims. Adjust creature and challenge to suit your players.
Kuronue 09-25-05, 01:22 PM	*grabs a giant cardboard taco and beats up tacoboy* our first session went ok, tacoboy stayed within the lines of RP. He's a freshman, and I'll keep an eye on him. If he becomes a problem distracting from RP then he's out, regardless; a little humor now and again might help since it's a group of mostly newbies and all high school students. and Mihawk's player didn't get the memo that our room was changed last minute, so havn't had a chance to tell him "dude? you're evil, not neutral, now deal." also had a player who missed every last char-building workshop but read the entire PHB, with the result that she wants to play but has no character. She said, "give me a character generally that'll fit in and I'll make a sheet at home tonight". me: can you play lawful good? her: I think so, yeah me: congratulations, you're the party's paladin her: sweet! Basically at the moment, the players have arrived in a colony town on an island, have met the local barkeep/inn owner, and have just started hearing the first important plot point: they get to see the trial of some NPC slaves and decide their reaction to it. This is deisgned to help them form their character's political views and possibly, if they like, a spinoff mission involving a jailbreak or a rebellion or something. After that, I really like the lost dog idea, and of course random kidnappings are always nice. The ring idea was genious but I think my 1 or 2 experienced players wuold end up doing everything.
Kuronue 09-25-05, 01:24 PM	What you just described was an evil character! Lots of great ideas! ps. smack tacoboy with a newspaper! lots of exclimation points! didn't know I inspired that much enthusiasm! hoorah! :w00t: :w00t: