Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Weezel Apr 15, 2015 23:02:21	I will soon be starting a campaign with the 5e rules for the first time, and am hoping to get some feedback and suggestions on potential problems i may have overlooked as well as stirring up extra cool ideas.   The game will be set in the Fall from Heaven setting, we are doing a character creation and background session this weekend as some of the players are new to the system or haven't had a chance to roleplay for a long time, what i know so far is we will have an elven druid, a treasure-hunter type rogue and a ranger character.  Regarding the setting there are a few major style changes for how arcane magic and interaction with the gods take place, but since nobody wanted to play a wizard or cleric that's going to end up being setting flavour.  The campaign starts around 100 years after the end of the Age of Ice (when a god took over the world and plunged it into endless winter), near the edge of the elven forests.   The elves were split in a big civil war as part of the previous age, but because of the winter a lot of them died and it became impossible to continue fighting, so in the beginning of the campaign one of the hooks is rumours of the elven queen (of the opposite faction of the elf druid character) has begun to send out agent to seek allies to renew the war.    I was planning to begin with an adaption of the Dark and Storm Night module where the PCs are travelling seperately but get stuck in a huge storm and the only available shelter is a cave which turns out to be a forgotten entrance to a tomb.  This is supposed to be a quick scenario to get the players used to the new rules system, there should be a couple of goblins sheltering in the tomb from the storm, some undead and a trap or two but nothing really overly threatening.    When morning comes around and the storms have passed, the group emerges to be confronted by a band of horsemen from a well known group of mercenary tribes who are were tracking a large group of goblins but lost the trail due to the storm.  They have been hired by a nearby trading settlement protecting an important trade route due to sightings of increasing numbers of goblins in the area.  The group is offered an escort back to the settlement.   The general idea is that agents of the enemy elven queen have been paying off the grievances between some of the local goblin tribes and forming them into a semi-organized army with the intent of attacking their elven enemies.  The mercenaries can give scouting information about how the goblins seem to be moving towards one of their forts and it seems like several of their tribes are meeting together there which is unusual.   Merchants at the trading settlement offer to hire the PCs to scout out the goblins, try to learn more, maybe try and capture one to interrogate.  The idea is that they have soldiers to help defend their settlement but lack experienced scouts (figuring that druid+rogue+ranger make a convincing stealth and wilderness type team).  How the players proceed about it is up to them so i have not planned this part in much detail, if they mess up too badly they would probably just have to fight off a few wolf riders to escape and it would alert the goblins.  Ideally they should spot one of the elven agents in the goblin camp (though with a hooded cape it wont be clear he's an elf) tipping them off that something unusual is up.    I was planning at this stage that while the goblins aren't very good at keeping watches and so on, the elves with them are extremely observant and will have noticed being spied on.  What happens next depends a bit on the players, because basically if the agents see an elf PC they will go into action so he cannot warn their enemies (i'm not sure if this will happen because the druid may be wildshaped here), if not they aren't too concerned because they dont actually plan to attack the human settlement.   I'm thinking most likely the agents will be onto them (i could easily have one enter the settlement disguised as a human pilgrim or merchant to make that happen) and will plan to sneak into the camp and assassinate the druid PC.  I was planning on having a main agent (arcane trickster style rogue with illusion/shadowy type magic) and a couple of rogue thugs with her, who could easily stealth into the settlement by scaling their pallisade at night.  Starting out the encounter with the players asleep (except the elf PC since he only has to trance), the thugs are approaching their room but have to kill some merchant who stumbles across them by chance, the noise alerting the druid (thud of a body hitting the ground).  But the main elven agent has already snuck in through a window under an invisibility spell, and takes the chance to shank him from behind.  This is supposed to be a nice "oh crap" moment for the players, but i know the druid will wildshape which is a chance for the assassin to have her own "oh crap" moment realizing this is no ordinary elf she is messing with.  I'm hoping for the agent to escape and come back later as a re-occuring minor villain but the party should overcome her thugs, revealing their identiies and giving a chance to learn their mission via interrogation.   This will then tie in with a religious pilgrim arriving who is looking for a lost holy place (to her faith anyway) that she needs to go through the elf forests to reach, and will have stories attached to it to attract the rogue (lost treasures type of thing).  Does this kind of tie-in to get all the party to travel back to the elf forests seem too forced?  I know the druid will want to go back and warn his people right away of the goblin army, but i want to provide a realistic incentive for the other PCs also aside from because they are nice guys and dont want goblins killing elves.   There will be a few RP type encounters and NPCs to interact with amoung the mercenaires and at the trading settlement as a means of getting the players used to the settings - a priest looking for converts to his faith, tension with hosemen following older gods over the new, that kind of setting-specific thing since religion plays a very big role in this game world.   So my main questions are - does the assassination attempt seem like it may be too scripted, is there a better way to tie the party together on a journey to the elven forests, and what good ideas for encounters while investigating the goblins did i miss?
#2 RasmusNord Apr 15, 2015 23:14:07	How do you motivate the group into exploring the tomb and sticking together afterwards?  I think it is ok that the attempt on their lives is somewhat scripted in the beginning, as long as it drags the group deeper into the plot.
#3 Weezel Apr 15, 2015 23:20:20	RasmusNord wrote:
#4 RasmusNord Apr 16, 2015 1:05:47	Could they also find something important in the tomb that is related to the struggle between the Queens? Something that propels them into the centre of the story?
#5 BRJN Apr 18, 2015 18:08:50	You are over-writing the scene in the goblin camp.  Think about different things the PCs might do, but don't write a script telling you (and them) what they WILL do.  Note the enemy's immediate reaction (and try to make a lot of these similar).   The small tomb / dungeon as an intro is a good idea.  Have something they will find useful - dead chief's best equipment / favorite things, a little rusty and very dust-covered - buried with him.  I recommend more enemies than PCs for one battle, perhaps the goblins, so everybody can get used to how attacking works and how you defend yourself.  Use 4e minions for some of these guys (1 HP, does minimal damage on attacks).  If the PCs have found the lightning-struck stones first, have the goblins rush in a little later, to get inside away from the now-arriving storm.  (They saw the PCs looking around the hilltop from a distance and got curious; the shelter cave they really want is known to be at the bottom of the hill and checking this will only take a minute.)  End the tomb with something that can take two rounds' worth of all-out attacks from your PCs - dead chief's frozen mummy? - to practice teamwork.
#6 Imaculata Apr 19, 2015 2:57:13	I'd definitely recommend handing the players a key item that is important to the plot. Maybe the goblins stole it, and its a clue to the plans of the villains. The players might have to keep it a secret that they are in possession of the object. It's purpose might not even be clear from the beginning.