Post/Author/DateTime	Post
darksyngr 12-24-06, 04:10 AM	I trust my players to be honest and not read this as this would ruin the game for more for you than it would me. :D So read at your own risk. I am pulling a gestalt campaign together consisting of 4 players and a DMPC (not my choice they want me to have a character... yell at them not me). Each character representing ourselves transported to the land of make believe... ahem... Toril that is. Each of us is transformed into a race I created called Etherians (believe me this was necessary). I chose the gestalt classes because most in Toril begin adventuring at fairly young and... well... are accoustomed to life on Toril. We will call the gestalt leveling a little 'blessing' from the gods and part of being Etherian. Party as it stands: 4 males, 1 female Etherian. In training to become: wizard/fighter-william, cleric/paladin-steve, rogue/wizard-me, fighter/psion-shmoo, sorcerer/ranger-mike They start in a keep, and because of their very unique appearance in a prison cell. The keep is situated in a strategic location high within a mountain pass that is charted as unclaimed territory by the surrounding kingdoms. It is one of the few points that the kingdoms from the east can get to the kingdoms that flourish in the west by way of army. Both kingdoms have fair rulers and are allies but should war break out the pass would be a highly desired location to march troops through. The keep is led by a Lord and Lady neither who owe any allegiances but have agreed to hold the keep defenses against any army that would seek to pass. Keep in mind even though the keep is not the only defense point it is one of the few key points should a war break out. Hint hint. A shadow organization seeking wealth and power have tried to gain a foothold in two of the more powerful nations but have failed. To weaken the noble houses the shaow organization seeks to turn the nations against each other. As their agents work the royal courts spreading their deceit another faction of the organization is quietly taking out the outer defenses of both kindoms leaving no survivors. Enter nerds from another dimension. The Etherians are a +3 lvl adjustment and for the next 3 lvls my players will be learning about where they are, finding clothes/equipment, and trying to discover why they are in the keep surrounded by a lot of dead people. Clues that will be left behind is a hand cut off from a shadow organization member that was conviently hidden beneath the body of the knight who did the cutting. During the scavenger hunt around the keep the players hear something outside the walls... sounds BIG... sounds mean... not going that way. The keep will eventually become the property of our heroes, but better yet they are stuck there for some time and will need to get rid of the dead to avoid possible heath risks. How does one get rid of a lot of dead people without bonfires attracting all sorts of the wrong attention? Sounds big, sounds mean... where did you see that catapult Steve? More later... don't want to write longer than one's attention span. If any ideas, thoughts, questions, or suggestions please do?
kelvinaw273 12-24-06, 04:59 AM	Looks interesting. How to get rid of dead bodies 101: 1) Bury them. Always an old favourite, although it does involve some of that 'hard work' stuff. 2) Entome them (put them in the dungeons). 3) Burial at Sea (aka throw them in the river). 4) Use an oven or hearth to cremate them (should be less smokey). Now something that they should really bare in mind when in a strange realm: Gods. Gods have a thing about burial rites and prayers for the dead. Kudos should be awarded to any player that tries to 'lay the dead to rest' with an appropriate prayer or blessing. This may literally come back and haunt them later ...:D
darksyngr 12-24-06, 05:01 AM	Thank you, that was a good suggestion :) Now I have an idea to place some religious icons about to see if they'll pick up on it.
Regular_K 12-24-06, 04:22 PM	5) Put all the dead bodies into a section of the keep where nobody is allowed to go. 6) Throw the bodies at the big mean thing, I'm sure it'll eat it. 7) You know what else would eat the bodies? The PC's!
darksyngr 12-24-06, 11:04 PM	The next phase is that the party will discover a 'training' dungeon used as a method to train people to become adventurers (to obtain the PHB classes). It will be a series of 0 level combat and puzzles. Those wanting to become spellcasters will be given the oportunity to learn how to obtain a familiar/companion as part of their training. I think make it a challenge to obtain animal 'friends' will encourage the players to make their companion more part of their character rather than an object to be used and forgotten until needed. Anyway, they'll be required to swim, jump, spelunk, climb, and just about everything else. Combat and puzzles will be fairly easy but will require teamwork to achieve. I have a few puzzles planned as well as a few encounters but as always I am open to any ideas to help this be more enjoyable for my players. As for gestalt it is something of power leveling. I am not even entirely certain that is the way I want to go, but if I do I definitely want my players to earn it. Anything given too easy the novelty will wear off quickly. As a side note: as suggested per kelvinaw273 is to provide an option for the characters to perform the funeral rites for the dead. I will include that path in my game and hope to utilize another thread pertaining to funeral rites. However, I don't know if or how it is possible as there are around 300 dead bodies in the keep. One option is to feed the bodies to the monster and although the gods may not be happy with this it is something they will understand considering there is only 5 of us and so many dead. If they do feed the monster they will learn later it has become a loyal guardian of the keep. It will require a bit more than that but this will be a first and very potent step in that direction. If they instead decide to do the funeral rites the god who favored the residents of the keep will later reward the adventurers when most needed. So I leave with this question... if you were a player in my game what would you hope to see or achieve?
darksyngr 12-25-06, 01:42 AM	does my campaign suck that much?
Silais 12-25-06, 04:05 AM	Why would you think your campaign sucks? Sounds like a fine idea for one to me. Generaly speaking, both my players and myself hate any 'puzzle' that can't be solved with less then three skill checks. The only 'puzzle' that should be in the game is the over-all plot itself. That said, I'm told that players that like puzzles do exist, so if it works for them, great. But telling you what I think is Wrong is not useful, so I will tell you what I think is right (or at least would be right with my players) I find it helpful to weave some kind of romantic intrest into the campaign for at least one of the players, this can give you no end of adventure hooks. Though many players (myself included) find this irritating, I have two who thrive on it. If the characters have any kind of loyalties (say to a kingdom, person, ideal, ect) you should base some hooks of those. Failing that theres always my personal favorite: <i>The thinly vailed excuse for a boat trip, followed up by a shipwreck and survival adventure.</i> If your players can't think up motivations by the end of one those...
darksyngr 12-25-06, 04:43 AM	My players love puzzles and sadly I can't come up with ones tricky enough that they can't crack within five minutes. I, unfortunately, have players way smarter than me. Romantic interest is not something I am willing to do being as I'm the only girl in the group with two players that have real life interest in me. Bad juju. However, I agree I love romantic plotlines in game. They certainly create a lot of amusing moments. Like the boat trip and will work it into my game somehow. Woe to my players but it might have a bit of PotC flavor to it Sometimes a DM must torment her players if for no other reason than for sadistic amusement. :P
kelvinaw273 12-25-06, 08:50 AM	Your idea is good ... I would suggest a possibility may be an experimental 'metamorphiser' that can change a characters race/gender/appearence - just to give your players those options. Meh, you could even try using tests from these 'you are a {alignment}, {class} and {race}' to decide such details. Players could enter a 'tunnel of destiny' as themselves and wal;k out as ... something else!
danielinthewolvesden 12-25-06, 03:50 PM	I 4 players and a DMPC (not my choice they want me to have a character... yell at them not me). Perhaps they are used to the DMPC as a crutch, and maybe it's time for you to wean them from it? Esp a DMPC rogue, seems hard to do with traps. Or perhaps your male players just like flirting too much with your female PC's? As you said "as I'm the only girl in the group with two players that have real life interest in me." Or is it that you like the flirting attention? ( I assume here that the female PC is you). Getting rid of the dead is easy- castles have privie holes down which the feces, ect is put, and the bdies can just be chopped up and put down them. Or fed to the moat monsters. Or buried in the crypt? I ran a dungeon like this, once. It was fun to start out with very little stuff, and learn to make do and solve a puzzle of where to get everyday items the normal adventurer would just go buy.
darksyngr 12-25-06, 06:36 PM	Your idea is good ... I would suggest a possibility may be an experimental 'metamorphiser' that can change a characters race/gender/appearence - just to give your players those options. Meh, you could even try using tests from these 'you are a {alignment}, {class} and {race}' to decide such details. Players could enter a 'tunnel of destiny' as themselves and wal;k out as ... something else! check out the first link in my signature :D I just put it down there in case anyone had questions concerning the race I am using.
darksyngr 12-25-06, 06:48 PM	Perhaps they are used to the DMPC as a crutch, and maybe it's time for you to wean them from it? Esp a DMPC rogue, seems hard to do with traps. Or perhaps your male players just like flirting too much with your female PC's? As you said "as I'm the only girl in the group with two players that have real life interest in me." Or is it that you like the flirting attention? ( I assume here that the female PC is you). Getting rid of the dead is easy- castles have privie holes down which the feces, ect is put, and the bdies can just be chopped up and put down them. Or fed to the moat monsters. Or buried in the crypt? I ran a dungeon like this, once. It was fun to start out with very little stuff, and learn to make do and solve a puzzle of where to get everyday items the normal adventurer would just go buy. No, normally they are not keen on the DMPC thing anymore than the rest of us. It is because we are going in as ourselves they want ME there too. As they all just said ... without me there it'll be boring. Guess I'm the life of the party (no pun intended, hehe). I picked my classes based off of what they pick. They've never played the rogue since well usually that's me, lol. No, I don't like the flirting attention which is why I have a tendency to play preteen characters normally. However, the party are all very good friends I've known for years and we have gamed together before many times. They know that I am capable of playing a DMPC without unbalancing the game. As I've said before I generally forget about my characters until they remind me. Hope that makes you feel a little better about me including a DMPC :D
taradusis 12-25-06, 09:52 PM	Your campaign sounds fine,consider what sort of town the pcs are going to get supplies from and who'll be helping them.Work on detailing the shadow organization,you need to understand this group well in order to write consistent adventures around it.I might suggest a dragon -run conspiracy where 1/2 dragons and sorcerers all descended from one dragon are trying to rule the world.This would allow you to send in agents of an opposing dragon to help the party?RANDOM THOUGHTS.:)
darksyngr 12-25-06, 10:12 PM	I'm going to avoid the half dragon on the grounds we all read "War of the Spider Queen" and the intelligent turds will figure it out too quick. I am thinking the organization will be of several races and will be something of a theives/assassin guild that has grown to such proportions that it has become something of a society on its own. They are ready to conquer. Think like a pasha of calimshan wanting to extend his power to other regions. I plan to detail the organization and will post things as I figure it out. First, I have to figure out the geography since it takes place in Faerun and the kingdoms in question are not part of the known realm. Yes, it is possible because I noticed in the lower portion of the map is labelled as uncharted. Anyone familiar with the southern most regions (the great rift and halruaa) and have suggestions regarding geography would be helpful. EDIT: looking in the FR handbook I see a plot within Halruaa concerning "The rise of shadow" on p. 195 that fits my idea... a secret peril gathering at the edges of Halruaa, a cloister of shadow adepts allied with the hidden faith of Shar.
taradusis 12-25-06, 10:23 PM	LA SHIV-I used a conspiracy of women who were advancing their husbands and sons thru murder and other crimes,LA SHIV ended up being a sort of female mafia,they all carried masterwork crossbows because they were members of a shooters club,always at a party when their sons rival was murdered etc.A logical explanation for everything they were doing,and hard to track because of a covert war between a demon-worshipping cult and a theives guild.
Silais 12-26-06, 04:54 AM	If your going to use the shadow organization as a main BBEO (Big bad evil organization?). You probably should hold off till about level 11-14 to introduce it directly, I find the PCs get scared and run off when confronted by that kind of thing at the lower levels. Have the PCs go out in several otherwise un-releated adventures. Catch a band of thieves, stop goblin raids, get medicine for a wealthy merchants daughter. All the while droping hints that these are somehow related (somehow meet the needs of the shadow organization). Don't be too heavy handed, no mysterious figures watching them, no signet rings at each site. Just subtle things. Now because saying 'just subtle things' doesn't mean much unless I give some examples. Heres how I would do it: The PCs catch/kill a gang of thieves who have been harrasing the merchant caravans that keep the town in supply of food in exchange for something (raw materials, herbs, gold, weapons, ect). They find that all the weapons of the thieves have a strange symbol branded on them. Now if the PCs do some research (or gather info) they'll find that this symbol is the insignia of a clan of gobliniods that lives outside of town. A couple of days latter (regardless of if they found out about the goblinoids) the goblinoids start attacking and ransacking the trade district of the town. So the PCs are sent to go take out the clan's leader (and as many of the tribe as possible). One of the first things they'll notice is that all the weapons of the gobliniods bear the same symbol of that the thieves weapons did. When they get to the chamber of the clan leader, they find him holding audience with a messenger from another clan (different symbol). Once they kill both the leader and messenger they find a letter writen in (what ever is approprate for the shadow organization). If they can read it, the letter is a request to for the leader to send part of his tribe to aid the messengers tribe in destroying a small coven (I like women protagenists, so sue me) of druids that have been causing both tribes problems. When the PCs get back to town they are summoned by the wealthiest merchant in town (the one who runs all the carvan routes for the town). Apparently his daughter has fallen deathly ill (If it we're me, this'd be a potential romantic intrest for one of my characters) now he's had the research done, and has found out where and what is need to cure her. All he needs is someone to go and get it. He needs a specail herb (say, conviencebloom) the nearest place the grows it is in the druids grove deep within goblin territory. So this is a fairly simple WoW style 'fetch me that' quest. The PCs get attacked by the vengeful goblin tribe a couple of times on the way there. Once they get to the druid's grove, the head druid infoms them that the entire crop of that herb was destroyed in a recent, oddly well planned goblin attack. She has an emergency reserve of the powdered (and equaly effective) herb hidden in a near-by cave, which unfortunatly the goblin's are using as an observation post. So the PCs go and wipe out the goblins get the herb, and save the daughter. So, you may be asking, how is all this conncected? Well the shadow organization is trying to weaken a nearby fortification of one of the kingdom's (or of the keep the PCs are going to get). Now the keep is to well guarded and has a famous hero on staff, so the shadow organizations normal method is out. Instead they seek to cut it's food supply off. They seek to do this by making it to dangerous for the merchants who bring the food in to go this way. This will either starve out the keep or force the keeps commander to send out many troops to secure the caravan's. Either way, this greatly weakens the keep, allowing the shadow organizations normal methods to be used. First the shadow council started by breaking into and realeasing several convited theives into the area, once this showed to be insufficant, they also started prompting one of the goblin tribes to attack the local trade quarter (to scare the merchants). Having this fail, one of the shadow organizations assassin's poisioned the merchant's daughter, in hopes to use her to extort the merchant aid (the PCs got the medicine before the merchant was contacted however). The goblin raid of the druid's grove: totaly incedental. So basicaly all that the PCs (if they are as smart as you claim) can tell is that the goblin's and thieves are somehow connected, that presumably the goblin's and the merchant's daughter are connected via the raid on the grove. (A red herring).
darksyngr 12-26-06, 04:16 PM	Silais, I like your suggestion a lot. And will take above advice as far as levels go. I think tonight after work I will design my organization and post it tomorrow.
darksyngr 12-28-06, 06:35 PM	Okay I have a rough draft of the main villains in this campaign. Whether they remain the main villains or not depends on my players. I have not created stats for them as of yet since I have no idea what level my players will be by the time they reach them. The NPC's below head the shadow organization. Yes, cheesy names. I know... nothing you can do about it :evillaugh Guild Leader: Lady Nightshade (real name unknown) High Preistess of Shar (gestalt character) Classes: Cleric/shadow adept, rogue/nightcloak Alignment: LE A moon elf about 5'1 with long blond white hair that reaches almost to the floor. She wears heavy black silk robes with silver embroidery (magic symbols) that glow with a potent magical aura when detect magic is used. She wears a solid black obsidian mask and a single brooch in the shape of Shar's symbol. Those who have seen her say she is so badly scarred that it has disfigured what was once a beautiful elf. At a young age Nightshade's village was attacked by Drow. The Drow killed just about everyone forcing the young elf to watch as her family and friends were savagely murdered... some tortured. They then decided to take the few remaining survivors as slaves. Nightshade was brought to the underdark where she endured a great many abuses/torture. By the time Nightshade discovered a secret sect of Shar priestess a century later, Nightshade was as scarred mentally as she was physically. The Drow high priestess of Shar purchased Nightshade after she expressed her desire to serve Shar. Thus began her initiation and her rise to power. Nightshade can no longer distinguish between good and evil. Despises the weak and any fool enough to show fear in her presence runs the risk of a violent ending. She admires a quick wit and power. Any male or female she finds promising, or a challenge to her own power, she will seek to subdue and break them in attempts to bring them into the service of Shar. Nightshade allows no mirrors or any other reflective surface in her stronghold.
Silais 12-29-06, 03:35 AM	I usualy try to aim for levels 16-26 for the final confrontation. I do this simply because it's hard to believe that a BBEG of lesser levels could be that big of a threat. So when are you planning the BBEG to first notice the PCs, and activly try to stop them? Remeber, most evil villians wouldn't relisticaly know who's there biggest threat right away. Even after a couple of random hero's foil some of their minor plans, they probably won't even know thats what happened. All they'll hear from their minion is: "Mam, the plan to X failed, apparently some of the towns folk succeded in stoping the Y." It's not until the bigger plans start to get foiled that BBEGs should take note. Once the PC's foil plans that the BBEG's officer's had a direct hand in, then the BBEG should notice. Just some thoughts. Let us know how the campaign turns out. Edit: like the new avatar by the way.
Dracon_Ian 12-29-06, 10:38 PM	I know this isn't helping but, if you don't want a DMPC, just have him get killed off, have him heroicly charge a big evil dragon to give time for the others to excape.
darksyngr 12-30-06, 09:57 AM	I know this isn't helping but, if you don't want a DMPC, just have him get killed off, have him heroicly charge a big evil dragon to give time for the others to excape. I don't want to kill myself!! :bigeyes: That would be suicide. Besides, there is no way I'm charging a dragon... I don't mistake myself for some hero. No, it is not that I don't want a DMPC, I just find it difficult with all the NPC's and storytelling to remember that I have one. This game is an exception to my general rule of no DMPC's because of the nature of our characters.
taradusis 12-30-06, 10:22 AM	If your character is pregnant she could retire from adventuring,call it a pregnant pause:)