Campaign Building Advice for a First-Time DM [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign Building Advice for a First-Time DM [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Tyraxus
10-12-06, 01:39 AM The title says it, I've never DM'd before, but due to stresses in our gaming group (some may remember my question about how to get the DM's gf to quit picking fights at the table), I've apparantly been nominated to run the next adventure.

So I know what I want to do: I want to run a war campaign. Evil comes to the lands, destroys two kingdoms, the refugees and the armies of the two remaining kingdoms team up to defeat the big evil guy, huzzah. PCs start as conscripts in the army, as they level up the Commander realizes they have great potential and send them on more and more daring and dangerous missions like reconning the enemy perimeter, attacking supply chains, taking strategic ground, assaulting the enemy HQ during an offensive, etc. So my question is...

How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline?

Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so.

EDIT: As of now, I have the PCs ambushed by Lemures as they are en route to the army from basic training. They fight twelve Lemures in groups of 3. Is that too tough for four to five lvl 1 PCs? How should I change that so they don't die right off the bat?

Any advice at all would be wonderful. Thanks.
dizfactor
10-12-06, 05:46 AM How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline?

Well, any game in which the PCs start off as conscripts at the bottom of a military hierarchy, and as they advance they never leave the hierarchy but instead move up in rank while still following orders is not going to allow for a lot of free decision-making on the part of the PCs, so you need to either make your peace with that fact or you need to rethink your campaign ideas.

I think it's a perfectly valid campaign-building strategy if your players are cool with that. Railroading is primarily a concern where players feel like they should have freedom of choice, but the DM keeps throwing increasingly implausible obstacles in their way if they go in any direction but the one he wants them to. If they don't expect anything but to follow orders, they'll probably deal with it better, but to be sure they get that, I would ask them outright if this is the kind of game they want to play.

That said, I think the key to this sort of thing is to give them a very clear mission objective, and then give them total leeway to figure out how to tackle the problem tactically. Don't tell them "you have to circle around here, and knock out the guard, etc," tell them "Here are fresh horses, supplies, and a map. You have to take this outpost marked with an X. May the gods be with you." Make the scenario tough, but fair, and without a single obvious solution, and give them plenty of time to scout it out and make plans before they hit it. Take away their liberty in terms of setting goals, but give them total leeway in terms of how to achieve them, and make the game as much about the planning and the anticipation and the strategizing as it is about the actual combat.

Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so.

Ditch the NPCs. It's always lame. Let them do it on their own, and scale the difficulty accordingly. Much, much, much better to have weaker opponents they beat on their own than cooler ones they need help with.

My suggestion: replace the lemures with conscripts from the conquered kingdoms. Say the demons have been using slave battalions of the conquered peoples and hurling them forward as cannon fodder, with little equipment or supplies. Have them encounter a raggedy mob of scruffy, half-starved humans and demi-humans with fear-crazed eyes, cheap armor, and simple weapons. Start with them cut off from support, backed into a corner, and having to hack their way through these poor wretches to get back to their own troops. Make them totally horrified at what these conscripts have gone through, and at the same time totally horrified at what they themselves are going to have to do to them to survive, and they will instantly be sucked into a world at war with a monstrous enemy.
BlueBlazer
10-12-06, 11:20 AM Tyraxus,

First, I want to recommend Heroes of Battle, which has decent advice for military campaigns, a fair number of suggested encounters, and, most importantly, mechanics on war (squads of archers attacking squares in volleys, artillery, troop movements on the mini-map, etc.). I've done a few warlike scenarios (no full campaign, but adventures), and the mechanics work great.

Second, I'm going to agree with Dizfactor, but suggest you start with NPCs AND IMMEDIATELY KILL THEM. Have the PCs in a larger squad and then thrust that squad into some hellish scenario wherein the NPCs all die and the PCs survive. Maybe they're marching and get ambushed, bombarded with artillery (trebuchets, ballistae, etc) and hit with arrow volleys. Maybe they're in camp and get blasted by enemy wizards as they sleep. Maybe it's a normal Grunts v. Grunts battlefield face-off and a demon flies out of nowhere decimating their side. Kill the NPCs and MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU'RE ROLLING (or actually roll). Whether you actually do or not is irrelevant, but if you act like you're rolling attacks to hit the NPCs it will be much more impressive. Your PCs are going to need to survive...maybe they're sneaky enough to hide and sneak away, or maybe they'll hold their own until reinforcements show. If they're attacked by a demon, have some enemy wizard drop a wand (with one or two charges left, assuming someone can use it) or an enemy Sgt. drop a decent weapon...somehow give the PCs a little firepower so they have a chance to survive and/or get away.
The point is, it's better for the PCs to be 'special' (deserving of special assignments and autonomy within the command structure) if they've earned it (even if they 'earn' it by surviving an encounter you scripted them to survive)... much better than just telling them they're 'special.'

On command structure, send them out on an assignment with orders to do 'x', but when they get there they have an obvious opportunity to do 'y' for much better effect (cutting a supply line, stealing plans, etc.)...thereby earning the right to make their own field decisions (the cool Go Out And Get It Done, I Don't Care How, Use That Famous Intuition Of Yours assignments). Have NPCs on their side who are ****** off at their autonomy (the Sergeant/Lieutenant/whatever who has no direct authority over them but who gives them a hard time because (s)he resents their 'elite' status. Have NPCs on their side (grunts) who are jealous of them, and some who are in awe of them (when in camp the grunts should trade rumors about what your PCs are up to, and feel free to make the rumors unrealistic ("I heard they killt a dragon and captured four squads...").

Remember to give them 'the best' the army has to offer re: equipment (keep it appropriate for their level by having the army have crap equipment at the beginning...MW armour and weapons should be good). Better gear can be shipped up to the front expressly for them (when they're high enough level to have better gear), or can be picked up from the enemy (or even found, say an ancient sword in a long-abandoned fortress that the enemy took over, hidden away and covered in dust and cobwebs).

One last bit of advice (since you've never DMed before): your PCs will do something you NEVER expected. Be prepared to roll with it and improvise. There's nothing more discouraging to players than to have a clever and creative idea fail for no better reason than that the DM didn't plan for it. And if you need to punish them (for grossly disobeying orders, going AWOL, etc), do it with a dressing down from their superior officer and by giving them a few horribly boring assignments (guard duty with no attack, escort duty for an annoying duke...); nothing gets PCs to shape up better than a lack of adventure resulting from their decisions (and the punishment is realistic...).

Good luck
Tyraxus
10-12-06, 01:49 PM Thanks guys. I like the idea of them having to hack their way through poor, tortured souls in order to get to the army. I'd have to rewrite half the backstory, though, since part of the hook is that the Orcish and Dwarven kingdoms have been massacred, with only precious few refugees left to fight for freedom. Any ideas how to get around this without spending all weekend re-writing what I already have (first session is Tuesday morning since we'll be on Fall break). Anything I can use to bring dead creatures back under the evil guy's control without making them undead?

Oh, and I already figured on killing off NPCs left and right to add to the "OMGWTF We're all gonna die" factor. I think that edge of danger makes it fun, since the best time I ever had was jumping in front of the raging, charging lvl 2 orc barbarian as a lvl 1 swashbuckler. Man, what a rush (and thank God for mad dodging skills!).

I've already talked to three of our five players, they said they like the idea of an army campaign, but the two I haven't talked to are the D&D veterans (the rest of us are still kinda new), so they're gonna be where the "trouble" comes from.
GenghisUber
10-13-06, 01:53 PM I've seen a lot of people here on this site and in my own gaming experience confuse the idea of an adventure with a campaign. An adventure has like 1 really good idea that it's centered around (PCs assault a mind flayer enclave hidden in the bowels of a volcano or PCs raid the Lost Tomb of Maltar to read the glyphs inscribed on his sarcophagus that tell the story of his death). A campaign is a series of adventures with 1-3 unifying threads, each of which has many ideas that make it up (PCs attempt to disrupt the plan of the evil necromancer to sacrifice the capital city as part of a ritual to attain godhood ... this is something that it takes many adventures to accomplish ... they'll need to find out about the plot, learn more about the necromancer, defeat some critical underlings who manage part of the plan, find the weakness in the uberweapon, etc).

As cool as 1 idea is, it's really tough to build a campaign around it. Players tend to get bored and stressed after a few levels of the same thing. Be ready to have the PCs leave the army after a few levels. Maybe they start to suspect that the army has been influenced by demons (ie, bring demons into the campaign later rather then rubbing their faces in it for 20 levels in a row) and leave because the demons find out that the PCs are poking into their business.

Those are just some thoughts, and you know your group better than the rest of us do. You know what they like and what kind of campaign will be fun for everyone.
jhosmer
10-13-06, 02:31 PM How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline?

A linear campaign does not mean that the players don't have any say in the course of the campaign. Just because the characters don't have any say in their missions doesn't mean that the PLAYERs can't.

What I like to do is poll my players (we have a yahoo group for our campaign and it allows polls) about what they'd like to do next. I offer some vague plot ideas ("Explore the mysterious forest," "Stay a night in the supposedly Haunted House," or "Investigate the strange new preacher in town." Whatever the majority of the players want, I make an adventure around that. The Characters might not have a choice in what happens, but the players have their input. It can help give the players a sense of involvement.

Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so.

My level 2 players recently fought a lemure. While they couldn't hurt it much, neither could it hurt them much. (Of course, that was just one lemure vs. 6 PCs.) It made for a very frustrating battle.

I'd take something else from the MM, like orcs, skeletons, or zombies, change the description into something suitably demonic ("You see a shambling humanoid figure with glowing red eyes, tar-black skin, and long claws." for a zombie, for instance.) Don't change the mechnics, just the look of the critter, and you have perfect demonic cannon fodder. You'll also have your rule lawyers scratching their heads over these strange demons. :D
CharlieRock
10-13-06, 03:16 PM Gobbos looked kinda demonic to me. Or recreate them as rat people that feed on corpses but have the same stats. Thats pretty diabolic. A dretch demon is the weakest in MM1, and one group should be able to maul them in smaller numbers. :)
Tyraxus
10-13-06, 11:51 PM I picked up Heroes of Horror today, and it seems to have some decent templates and such for enemies, so I think I'm gonna take commoner bases, add the tainted minion template, and do the initial ambush that way.

I'm gonna kill off all but one NPC, which will be their squad leader for the initial mission, and member of their company and semi-close friend for the time they're with the army. Then I'll have the enemy capture him during a mission (mission 3 maybe) and turn him evil after the PCs escape, and then have him and his minions capture them while they're trying to fill a seperate objective. They then must fight and slay their former comrade. Plot twist: he's the last one standing, and a patrol from the friendly army shows up in time to watch them kill him. They're arrested when the get back to camp, have to fight their way free so they're not executed for treason, and then they probably will go hunting for the chief evil dude.

Sound like something any of y'all would have fun playing?

Oh, and since this is my first time DMing, and everyone knows that, d'you think it'd help hide the plot twist if I rolled up the sergeant and played him myself as a PC for the first two missions? That way I figure it's more like losing a felow adventurer than some random NPC. Plus then I'm able to help the story follow its path more. Or would having the DM play a character too be a bad thing? If so, how else can I forge an attachment between the group and the sergeant?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tyraxus 10-12-06, 01:39 AM	The title says it, I've never DM'd before, but due to stresses in our gaming group (some may remember my question about how to get the DM's gf to quit picking fights at the table), I've apparantly been nominated to run the next adventure. So I know what I want to do: I want to run a war campaign. Evil comes to the lands, destroys two kingdoms, the refugees and the armies of the two remaining kingdoms team up to defeat the big evil guy, huzzah. PCs start as conscripts in the army, as they level up the Commander realizes they have great potential and send them on more and more daring and dangerous missions like reconning the enemy perimeter, attacking supply chains, taking strategic ground, assaulting the enemy HQ during an offensive, etc. So my question is... How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline? Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so. EDIT: As of now, I have the PCs ambushed by Lemures as they are en route to the army from basic training. They fight twelve Lemures in groups of 3. Is that too tough for four to five lvl 1 PCs? How should I change that so they don't die right off the bat? Any advice at all would be wonderful. Thanks.
dizfactor 10-12-06, 05:46 AM	How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline? Well, any game in which the PCs start off as conscripts at the bottom of a military hierarchy, and as they advance they never leave the hierarchy but instead move up in rank while still following orders is not going to allow for a lot of free decision-making on the part of the PCs, so you need to either make your peace with that fact or you need to rethink your campaign ideas. I think it's a perfectly valid campaign-building strategy if your players are cool with that. Railroading is primarily a concern where players feel like they should have freedom of choice, but the DM keeps throwing increasingly implausible obstacles in their way if they go in any direction but the one he wants them to. If they don't expect anything but to follow orders, they'll probably deal with it better, but to be sure they get that, I would ask them outright if this is the kind of game they want to play. That said, I think the key to this sort of thing is to give them a very clear mission objective, and then give them total leeway to figure out how to tackle the problem tactically. Don't tell them "you have to circle around here, and knock out the guard, etc," tell them "Here are fresh horses, supplies, and a map. You have to take this outpost marked with an X. May the gods be with you." Make the scenario tough, but fair, and without a single obvious solution, and give them plenty of time to scout it out and make plans before they hit it. Take away their liberty in terms of setting goals, but give them total leeway in terms of how to achieve them, and make the game as much about the planning and the anticipation and the strategizing as it is about the actual combat. Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so. Ditch the NPCs. It's always lame. Let them do it on their own, and scale the difficulty accordingly. Much, much, much better to have weaker opponents they beat on their own than cooler ones they need help with. My suggestion: replace the lemures with conscripts from the conquered kingdoms. Say the demons have been using slave battalions of the conquered peoples and hurling them forward as cannon fodder, with little equipment or supplies. Have them encounter a raggedy mob of scruffy, half-starved humans and demi-humans with fear-crazed eyes, cheap armor, and simple weapons. Start with them cut off from support, backed into a corner, and having to hack their way through these poor wretches to get back to their own troops. Make them totally horrified at what these conscripts have gone through, and at the same time totally horrified at what they themselves are going to have to do to them to survive, and they will instantly be sucked into a world at war with a monstrous enemy.
BlueBlazer 10-12-06, 11:20 AM	Tyraxus, First, I want to recommend Heroes of Battle, which has decent advice for military campaigns, a fair number of suggested encounters, and, most importantly, mechanics on war (squads of archers attacking squares in volleys, artillery, troop movements on the mini-map, etc.). I've done a few warlike scenarios (no full campaign, but adventures), and the mechanics work great. Second, I'm going to agree with Dizfactor, but suggest you start with NPCs AND IMMEDIATELY KILL THEM. Have the PCs in a larger squad and then thrust that squad into some hellish scenario wherein the NPCs all die and the PCs survive. Maybe they're marching and get ambushed, bombarded with artillery (trebuchets, ballistae, etc) and hit with arrow volleys. Maybe they're in camp and get blasted by enemy wizards as they sleep. Maybe it's a normal Grunts v. Grunts battlefield face-off and a demon flies out of nowhere decimating their side. Kill the NPCs and MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU'RE ROLLING (or actually roll). Whether you actually do or not is irrelevant, but if you act like you're rolling attacks to hit the NPCs it will be much more impressive. Your PCs are going to need to survive...maybe they're sneaky enough to hide and sneak away, or maybe they'll hold their own until reinforcements show. If they're attacked by a demon, have some enemy wizard drop a wand (with one or two charges left, assuming someone can use it) or an enemy Sgt. drop a decent weapon...somehow give the PCs a little firepower so they have a chance to survive and/or get away. The point is, it's better for the PCs to be 'special' (deserving of special assignments and autonomy within the command structure) if they've earned it (even if they 'earn' it by surviving an encounter you scripted them to survive)... much better than just telling them they're 'special.' On command structure, send them out on an assignment with orders to do 'x', but when they get there they have an obvious opportunity to do 'y' for much better effect (cutting a supply line, stealing plans, etc.)...thereby earning the right to make their own field decisions (the cool Go Out And Get It Done, I Don't Care How, Use That Famous Intuition Of Yours assignments). Have NPCs on their side who are ****** off at their autonomy (the Sergeant/Lieutenant/whatever who has no direct authority over them but who gives them a hard time because (s)he resents their 'elite' status. Have NPCs on their side (grunts) who are jealous of them, and some who are in awe of them (when in camp the grunts should trade rumors about what your PCs are up to, and feel free to make the rumors unrealistic ("I heard they killt a dragon and captured four squads..."). Remember to give them 'the best' the army has to offer re: equipment (keep it appropriate for their level by having the army have crap equipment at the beginning...MW armour and weapons should be good). Better gear can be shipped up to the front expressly for them (when they're high enough level to have better gear), or can be picked up from the enemy (or even found, say an ancient sword in a long-abandoned fortress that the enemy took over, hidden away and covered in dust and cobwebs). One last bit of advice (since you've never DMed before): your PCs will do something you NEVER expected. Be prepared to roll with it and improvise. There's nothing more discouraging to players than to have a clever and creative idea fail for no better reason than that the DM didn't plan for it. And if you need to punish them (for grossly disobeying orders, going AWOL, etc), do it with a dressing down from their superior officer and by giving them a few horribly boring assignments (guard duty with no attack, escort duty for an annoying duke...); nothing gets PCs to shape up better than a lack of adventure resulting from their decisions (and the punishment is realistic...). Good luck
Tyraxus 10-12-06, 01:49 PM	Thanks guys. I like the idea of them having to hack their way through poor, tortured souls in order to get to the army. I'd have to rewrite half the backstory, though, since part of the hook is that the Orcish and Dwarven kingdoms have been massacred, with only precious few refugees left to fight for freedom. Any ideas how to get around this without spending all weekend re-writing what I already have (first session is Tuesday morning since we'll be on Fall break). Anything I can use to bring dead creatures back under the evil guy's control without making them undead? Oh, and I already figured on killing off NPCs left and right to add to the "OMGWTF We're all gonna die" factor. I think that edge of danger makes it fun, since the best time I ever had was jumping in front of the raging, charging lvl 2 orc barbarian as a lvl 1 swashbuckler. Man, what a rush (and thank God for mad dodging skills!). I've already talked to three of our five players, they said they like the idea of an army campaign, but the two I haven't talked to are the D&D veterans (the rest of us are still kinda new), so they're gonna be where the "trouble" comes from.
GenghisUber 10-13-06, 01:53 PM	I've seen a lot of people here on this site and in my own gaming experience confuse the idea of an adventure with a campaign. An adventure has like 1 really good idea that it's centered around (PCs assault a mind flayer enclave hidden in the bowels of a volcano or PCs raid the Lost Tomb of Maltar to read the glyphs inscribed on his sarcophagus that tell the story of his death). A campaign is a series of adventures with 1-3 unifying threads, each of which has many ideas that make it up (PCs attempt to disrupt the plan of the evil necromancer to sacrifice the capital city as part of a ritual to attain godhood ... this is something that it takes many adventures to accomplish ... they'll need to find out about the plot, learn more about the necromancer, defeat some critical underlings who manage part of the plan, find the weakness in the uberweapon, etc). As cool as 1 idea is, it's really tough to build a campaign around it. Players tend to get bored and stressed after a few levels of the same thing. Be ready to have the PCs leave the army after a few levels. Maybe they start to suspect that the army has been influenced by demons (ie, bring demons into the campaign later rather then rubbing their faces in it for 20 levels in a row) and leave because the demons find out that the PCs are poking into their business. Those are just some thoughts, and you know your group better than the rest of us do. You know what they like and what kind of campaign will be fun for everyone.
jhosmer 10-13-06, 02:31 PM	How do I pull all this off? And how do I run an (effectively) linear campaign (two endings: either they are decent and the kingdoms defeat the evil, or they suck and watch the main villain crush the life out of of last King as they bleed out) without having to bully the PCs through the storyline? A linear campaign does not mean that the players don't have any say in the course of the campaign. Just because the characters don't have any say in their missions doesn't mean that the PLAYERs can't. What I like to do is poll my players (we have a yahoo group for our campaign and it allows polls) about what they'd like to do next. I offer some vague plot ideas ("Explore the mysterious forest," "Stay a night in the supposedly Haunted House," or "Investigate the strange new preacher in town." Whatever the majority of the players want, I make an adventure around that. The Characters might not have a choice in what happens, but the players have their input. It can help give the players a sense of involvement. Oh, and since we're all WC3 fans, I want to make the enemies devils (or demons, but there aren't any CR1 demons in MM1), but how do I make a realistic fight between first level PCs and Lemures without having to worry that the Lemures will eat them for breakfast? Right now I have a Fighter/3 NPC with them and elven reinforcements a few rounds in, but I'm afraid the DR 5 will make it too tough for them even so. My level 2 players recently fought a lemure. While they couldn't hurt it much, neither could it hurt them much. (Of course, that was just one lemure vs. 6 PCs.) It made for a very frustrating battle. I'd take something else from the MM, like orcs, skeletons, or zombies, change the description into something suitably demonic ("You see a shambling humanoid figure with glowing red eyes, tar-black skin, and long claws." for a zombie, for instance.) Don't change the mechnics, just the look of the critter, and you have perfect demonic cannon fodder. You'll also have your rule lawyers scratching their heads over these strange demons. :D
CharlieRock 10-13-06, 03:16 PM	Gobbos looked kinda demonic to me. Or recreate them as rat people that feed on corpses but have the same stats. Thats pretty diabolic. A dretch demon is the weakest in MM1, and one group should be able to maul them in smaller numbers. :)
Tyraxus 10-13-06, 11:51 PM	I picked up Heroes of Horror today, and it seems to have some decent templates and such for enemies, so I think I'm gonna take commoner bases, add the tainted minion template, and do the initial ambush that way. I'm gonna kill off all but one NPC, which will be their squad leader for the initial mission, and member of their company and semi-close friend for the time they're with the army. Then I'll have the enemy capture him during a mission (mission 3 maybe) and turn him evil after the PCs escape, and then have him and his minions capture them while they're trying to fill a seperate objective. They then must fight and slay their former comrade. Plot twist: he's the last one standing, and a patrol from the friendly army shows up in time to watch them kill him. They're arrested when the get back to camp, have to fight their way free so they're not executed for treason, and then they probably will go hunting for the chief evil dude. Sound like something any of y'all would have fun playing? Oh, and since this is my first time DMing, and everyone knows that, d'you think it'd help hide the plot twist if I rolled up the sergeant and played him myself as a PC for the first two missions? That way I figure it's more like losing a felow adventurer than some random NPC. Plus then I'm able to help the story follow its path more. Or would having the DM play a character too be a bad thing? If so, how else can I forge an attachment between the group and the sergeant?