Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Twisted lil'girl 07-26-07, 12:52 PM	Okay, so I've been elected as the DM for the next campagin, and I'm a little intimidated. I mean I've DMed before, but our group just got a new player who is brand new to D&D, never played before. Anyway, I have developed a story for the campagin where a pair of lich lovers attempt to resurrect the terrible Demon Rex (A fiendish T-Rex) as an undead under their controle. However I don't plan to have the storyline begin until the characters are at least 6th level. What I would like to do is have one big dungeon crawl to level the characters up. My problem is I can't think of a good adventure. I had an idea for some underground ruins, but I can't think of a purpose for the ruins or why the characters would want to explore them. By the way the group consists of three players, a human fighter, a human druid, and a kobold monk.
Anomen 07-26-07, 01:03 PM	You know, you can start the characters off at a level above first. Just have them level their characters up the the appropriate level and start palying.
Twisted lil'girl 07-26-07, 01:36 PM	Yeah but I don't want to do that. I want them to earn every level so they grow attached to their characters. Whats the fun in starting out with alot of power? :rolleyes:
058 07-26-07, 01:41 PM	Maybe the giant-get-the-players-to-level-six-dungeon is a heavily trapped and guarded tomb that contains the remains of an ancestor of one of the characters, and perhaps there's a rumor that these remains hold a magic sword or somesuch.
Nathan_Talisien 07-26-07, 02:04 PM	Have your PC's stumble upon it by accident. They could be walking through the woods and the ground collapses underneath them. They fall far enough that they can't get out that way, so they have to fight their way through the dungeon. Although I'm sure you are aware of it already, I would still remind you to use caution in regards to the strength of the monsters you throw at them. Unless they happen to find a big stash of healing potions, the Druid is the party's only source of healing, and low-level Druids don't get many spells per day. A few minor skirmishes and that first level Druid could be out of healing, leaving the party in need of a rest break really early into the session. You might want to focus mostly on traps and puzzles until your PC's get to second or third level. Give some thought to letting the PC's find monsters they can talk their way around. You said that you have a Kobold PC, so put a colony of Kobolds in your ruins. Allow the PC's the option of making friends with the Kobolds, and then using the Kobold community as a base camp for their explorations. Maybe the Kobolds are fighting with another underground race, perhaps Dwarves of some kind, and the PC's can negotiate a settlement between the two races for some non-combat XP.
dankster1221 07-26-07, 02:16 PM	Yeah but I don't want to do that. I want them to earn every level so they grow attached to their characters. Whats the fun in starting out with alot of power? :rolleyes: I start my PC's off at 3rd level, it gives them some power but not a lot and it does make them appreciate what they have. I have found that anyways, plus it gives me as a DM more flexibility to plan adventures that won't kill the PC's outright in one fight.
LCD2YOU 07-26-07, 02:22 PM	Why not take your time? There is no reason that the two liches need to work on their new toy this week is there? Another thing, beware of NPC and outcome based plots. You may feel the need to railroad you players into doing what you want. One issue is that if you have them struggle for a while at the low levels, they will grow more attached to their characters. As for the liches, start weaving in a storyline about one of their lower ranking lackeys who was tasked with getting something her bosses need. Even hiring the party to help them get it would be great! Then they can see what going on, and what they started :schemes:
Zarron 07-26-07, 03:34 PM	One big dungeon crawl, eh? I say you invent a third lich/underling whose plans the PC's foil from 1-6, netting them a reason/involvement in the main plotline you want them to follow.
Blackened_Blade 07-26-07, 04:23 PM	So, this is what I would do: Introduction to Play: Begin with a small, two to three room adventure. Small to medium sized rooms will do, because in a dungeon crawl, most everything is not going to be that big. Make sure that you limit them tactically, so as to not overwhelm them by giving them too many options. Play their humanoid opponents (probably goblins or orcs) individually at first. Then as they proceed into other rooms, play the enemies more intelligently. Reward them appropriately for completing their training scenario. Transition to Crawl: Once the characters start heading back towards town, have some sort of agent capture their attention. This agent could be anything, from the mysterious Dark Wanderer to a goblin raiding party to a ambushed caravan. The goal is to lead them to some sort of cave entrance or mine entrance. The Crawl: Once the characters are inside the actual crawl, the fun begins. I would first confront them with natural opponents, things like wild boars or an small cave in. What I would do for the more advanced play (3-6) is create a sort of war inside the dungeon. There would be three warring factions, say kobolds, goblins and undead. The party has a kobold monk, so they will naturally gravitate toward the kobold faction. This creates a safe haven for rest, dumping treasure and RP quests. The goblins could act as the regional power that had been encroaching on the kobolds for years. The undead are invaders under the command of a lesser necromancer in the service of your liches. This necromancer has been targeting both goblins and kobolds alike. This allows for more RP opportunities. As payment for services rendered, the kobolds offer the players a way out of the dungeon. They return to town after about three weeks (enough time for 6 levels?) to find that it was razed to the ground. There you have it, a campaign in a bottle.
Twisted lil'girl 07-27-07, 07:49 AM	Some interesting ideas. I'm still not sure what purpose the ruins once served though. Obviously just about anything could be living in them now, but I need to come up with their original purpose because that will influence room structure and treasure.
The Eye of Kyi 07-27-07, 08:47 AM	You might want to look into Shattered Gates of Slaughtergaurd. Its a WoTC mini-campaign for first level characters and goes to end of 6th beginning of 7th level characters. It has a nice little players guide, can fit easily into any game world and overall looks like a fun adventure. It is primarily 3 linked dungeon crawls, but there are some opportunities for wilderness encounters too.
Potato Weasel 07-27-07, 08:50 AM	Scourge of the howling horde is actually pretty good, so long as you flesh out the npc's in town a bit more. It's also good for npc stats and encounter ideas. It'll get players through to second level easily, possibly more if they take their time (which is probably better)
vonklaude 07-27-07, 09:07 AM	Okay, so I've been elected as the DM for the next campagin, and I'm a little intimidated. I mean I've DMed before, but our group just got a new player who is brand new to D&D, never played before. Anyway, I have developed a story for the campagin where a pair of lich lovers attempt to resurrect the terrible Demon Rex (A fiendish T-Rex) as an undead under their controle. However I don't plan to have the storyline begin until the characters are at least 6th level. What I would like to do is have one big dungeon crawl to level the characters up. My problem is I can't think of a good adventure. I had an idea for some underground ruins, but I can't think of a purpose for the ruins or why the characters would want to explore them. By the way the group consists of three players, a human fighter, a human druid, and a kobold monk. If you've never DM'd make your life easy and download or buy a pre-written module. That's where most people started, and there's no shame in it. We had tons of fun with Keep in the Borderlands when we started out...
Nathan_Talisien 07-27-07, 12:05 PM	Twisted L'il Girl Some interesting ideas. I'm still not sure what purpose the ruins once served though. Obviously just about anything could be living in them now, but I need to come up with their original purpose because that will influence room structure and treasure. They could be an ancient castle that was covered by a landslide. Or possibly the basement levels and catacombs of an ancient cathedral. Maybe it could be an entire keep that was swallowed whole during a massive earthquake. The tunnels and rooms could have been a secret military base, built as a place for high ranking poeple to hide in the event of a major war or disaster. Possibly Halaster made a trail version before creating the real Undermountain. Or maybe some farmer just wanted a REALLY big root cellar:P Just let your imagination go wild. Decide what kind of loot you want the PC's to find and what you want the rooms to look like, and then find a way for it to work. You don't even necessarily need a reason for the ruins. Maybe they are so time-worn that it is impossible to tell what they were originally used for. Just remember that the PC's will only see what you tell them they see, and everything should be fine anyway.
Morka 07-27-07, 03:53 PM	Dungeon Generator. (http://www.aarg.net/~minam/dungeon.cgi) You can create any kind of dungeon, of any level. Create a few for 1st level, a few for 2nd level, and so on. Adjust the dungeon to have on end being a "stair up" from where they come, and the other end being a "stair down" to move deeper in the dungeon... However, the ranger and druid will find this extremely long!
Gottwick 07-27-07, 04:43 PM	Yeah but I don't want to do that. I want them to earn every level so they grow attached to their characters. Whats the fun in starting out with alot of power? :rolleyes: Take your idea to the next level ... what's the point of starting at 1st level? Why not play their whole childhood? Players grow attached to their characters from playing them, not because they started playing at a certain level.
Zarron 07-27-07, 05:36 PM	I saw "new player brand new to D&D." This alone strikes me as a good reason to start at Level 1.
Marcus Majarra 07-27-07, 06:18 PM	Well, a good approach would be to set up the storyline during the low-level adventures. Obviously, the resurrection of the demon rex is no simple feat to accomplish, even for a pair of lich lovers. They're going to need lots of things: maybe manpower, ancient artifacts, material resources, and so on. The first adventures could seem like a series of unrelated events that could be connected to the lich pair's gathering of what they need to get the resurrection under way; you could start giving some clues to your players, starting at 6th level, that what they thought were unrelated events might not be so unrelated at all. This is a good opportunity to get your players to face opponents with a lower profile than the liches that might become recurring ones at a later point in the campaign. Such opponents can include mercenaries, more unscrupulous rival adventuring parties, corrupt nobles, lesser fiends, and so on.
MSW 07-30-07, 02:17 PM	What I would like to do is have one big dungeon crawl to level the characters up. My problem is I can't think of a good adventure. I had an idea for some underground ruins, but I can't think of a purpose for the ruins or why the characters would want to explore them. By the way the group consists of three players, a human fighter, a human druid, and a kobold monk. I would not plan for a large dungeon crawl with those characters. You'd be better off having them hire on as escort to a supply wagon train or something and going cross country. That way the encounters are all in the open, outside and the combat oriented charactes can shine. Along the way they might come across some small crypts (10-12 rooms max) that need to be explored, or a wrecked castle, or maybe even track down some bandits to their rocky mountain lair, but all of these should be small 'dungeons' of just a few rooms that you and the players can explore/game in a session or two. Also if you take the traveling outdoors tact, don't forget about natural obsticles (traps) like getting across that river with the wagon train, rock slides, flash floods, roaming animals, etc. And don't forget the PCs are not the only people in the universe, so have them interact with and pass others along the trail. That might also lead to side adventures or make for a nice opportunity to do some barter trading of goods like magic items and Bard stories.