Hi everyone,
A brand new DM and basically a brand new player. I have read lots of the advice and links people have recommended, you guys are awesome at this. This might be a bit of a long read.
Decided to run a small game for my brother and his friend. So there are two PC’s, one Fighter-EK and a Druid. Both are mercenary types, who play toward the neutral/evil side with selfish motivations. (They might be having a change of heart) We started at level 3. I will try to recap some of the events and plot. Feel free to read or you can just skip down to my questions at the bottom!
I have ran two sessions so far. Both I feel went pretty well. It is a home brewed world that I have just started to flesh out. I am borrowing very heavily from WWI/II and the hundred year’s war as an inspiration. Basically the continent has been in war for hundreds of years as nations have been dragged into this never ending conflict due to alliances and such. Essentially the kingdoms are all war worn. Resources and manpower heavily depleted from the years of on and off conflict. However, a greater threat is now rising as an ancient and forgotten lich and his lieutenants have broken out (with help from a cult) of their dimensional prisons to bring destruction and enslave everyone. (oh fun!)
The first session was essentially a linear/railroad run as I had them transverse a long forgotten mountain path to a city they had a contact at to get a job. Mostly I just used it to try different encounters and game mechanics out. Combat against wild creatures, skill checks, some light RPG (ominoius signs and meeting of a fae from the winter court) and so forth.
Of course they just happened (oh the coincidence!) to stumble upon very strange happenings along their exploration. As one of the dimensional prison gates for a lieutenant is located in the heart of the mountain and has been weakened by secret followers of the lich. Evil power starts to flow out, tarnishing and corrupting some of the animals and land. The end scene was them escaping a large group of undead (which is a big no no as necromancy is both illegal and not seen in many years.) They destroyed the path leading to the city, stopping the undead for now.
The second session I opened up to them and what they wanted to do. Mostly very RP heavy. They met their contact and other various city figures to open possible plot points. Also had some personal character development based on their background stories. They decided to try and help the city as it is not prepared for an incoming undead army. On the recommendation of the City Guard Captain (mostly made up of old men and young boys), they have now traveled to a large encampment of bandits/highway men who have been plaguing the roads. Either to attempt to convince them to help defend the city (as they are in desperate need of people who can really fight) or to destroy them to allow for an easy escape route out of the city if it falls.
Essentially that is where they left off. I am kinda going by the seams of my pants. We have another session next Friday. I will do some planning this week to have an assortment of encounters and plot points they might encounter. Any cool ideas or advice I would welcome!
Now that I got that out of the way. Here are my questions:
Question 1: Toughest thing for me as a DM so far (beside keeping track of so many things.) is creating balanced combat situations. I use the recommended DMG experience thresholds and an online combat calculator to see if the combats are an appropriate level. Since there is only 2 of them, I don’t want to accidently wipe them. However, they have both pretty easily handled the combat I have thrown at them so far, even when the encounters should have been in the hard or deadly range.
I have a friend who will be joining us for our next session for only a single session. They don’t know this. I want to make his character double cross them (my friend has agreed) and be the end combat of the session. Still have to work out the plot reasons of why but I have some solid ideas.
If I make my friends character the same level (level 4), I don’t know how much experience and a challenge rating that would equate to for creating an encounter. I want to give him some low CR minions but I don’t want to over/under power the encounter. Anyone have any ideas? A few skeletons? Should I just scrap the idea and not use a PC to double cross?
Second question: If anyone just has any general advice or critiques on anything I have written, please feel free to let me know. I have a lot to learn and want to try to make it an enjoyable game.
Thanks for any advice or help!
Question 1: PvP isn't balanced in 5e because that is not the way the game is designed to be played. I've done the whole double cross thing before and it just didn't work well. Basically the double cross player ended up in a situation where he had almost full hp and was relatively fresh while the rest of the party was very low hp and had used up almost all of their abilities. It was just a moment where we both realized: well he could kill them all right now by hitting each of them once... I would recommend finding another session boss instead that players can work together to defeat.
Question 2: What you've described seems like a good start for a new DM and group. You're giving them freedom but also have some key events and locations that you want them to check out. It's a good mix for now. You've allowed for their input of how to resolve the problems you put forth. Good job so far.
I'll echo the caution on the double cross. There are RPGs where that works and is even the norm, but D&D isn't one of them. It can work with NPCs, but it only works once. Once a player has been betrayed by an NPC, they'll never fully trust another NPC.
As for not killing off your characters, you can control a lot of the encounter. I always roll behind a screen so I can control how many times the monsters hit and how much damage they do. To be honest, I always roll, but 70% of the time, I know before I roll what the "result" will be. With experience you learn when to force a miss or a hit. When to fudge damage. If the party is low on HPs, suddenly the monsters are also low on HPs. If I know the party is going to rest after the encounter, I may make the encounter go a little longer if I feel it will add to the excitement.
That said, you don't want to remove all the danger. Sometimes characters die and you shouldn't try to always prevent it. If a player felt he couldn't die, they'd just get reckless and trust the DM to keep them alive. But you can also control how they die. Make it spectacular!
It sounds like you have a really good approach on how to ease into DMing, and a decent idea of plots etc.
If you decide to go with the double-cross.... when it comes time, it should be obvious. Like he declares them stupid for helping him, declares he wil destroy them when he returns with his minons, then leaves to get them.
Basically, make it an unsuspected twist, not an unsuspected attack.
But be careful, it may 'teach' them to never trust any of your NPCs....
Thanks for all the advice!
I figured the PC vs PC might be a bit broken. I have decided to scrap the double cross. I never really thought of the implications that it would basically cause them not to trust NPCs anymore. Makes perfect sense. If I do ever do a double cross, I would want it to mean something then. A NPC they truly befriended along the campaign. I might plant a seed for that now I think about it 
Since my friend is still only doing a one off and I know he will be fantastic at bringing his character to life (He’s an improve actor for fun) maybe if the story allows I will have him die a terrible shocking death of some manner with some consequence to the plot. It would have to fit naturally into the story as they progress but maybe it would be doable. Any ideas how to work that in smoothly?
Also it makes sense with the manipulation of numbers and rolls sometimes. I would like to try to keep it by the book, but you have to adapt and try to keep it both exciting and fun for the characters. Thanks for the advice. And as you said, if they make dumb choices, sometimes the penalty is death.
Ok another question then. One idea I have with the plot, if they take it, is that they are trying to prepare this city for the eventual assault of the undead. I have a few rumors or pieces of advice I have thrown their way, such as get the highway men for help, get us better equipment, find the hidden cult within the city and whatever else they can think of on their own to protect this city. When that eventual battle happens I have no idea how to randomize the results of it. Should I ultimately just see how much they have done and just make a decision? What would you guys do?
For your recent question, WOTC just released an optional rule for handling large scale attacks. I have never used it, but they released it for people to try out. Here is a link to the webpage and the link to download the specific rules are at the bottom of the page:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/unearthed-arcana-when-armies-clash
My only advice on the PvP stuff is that I don't handle it ever. D&D is not designed for that, so outside of antagonistic roleplay, my players don't fight each others PCs.
One of the groups I DM is only two people. Right now they are playing a sorcerer and druid. Essentially they look around for mercenaries to hire and I randomly decide who happens to be available in the local town, etc. You can use some of the templates from the back of the Monster Manual for guards and berserkers or mages and so on. When they hire them, they get a share of the loot, and sometimes I tweak their stats and gear. For example, sometimes the hired hands get a new sword or armor or something and equip it, which affects their stats. In a previous campaign I ran some DM NPCs, using full PC character sheets for both of them. However this was not ideal, and having hired minion/mercenary types with smaller stat blocks has been a lot easier for me and them.
Did you consider not balancing combat situations? The game is also loads of fun when there's a mix of easy fights, hard fights, and fights that you can't win without some kind of ruse.
Akrean wrote:
It sounds like your campaign is off and rolling. I like how you keep the threat of the undead invasion to build tension for the next sessions. Negotiations with the bandits can be very interesting and it gives the players alternate goals rather than just combat. Bravo.
Think about the undead invasion and decide how long they will need to get through the blocked pass. Will a lieutenant be able to help out? Maybe the PCs will get wind or see a smaller force of undead with a leader move towards the blocked pass. Maybe the group will get word that a newly found ruin may be the location of a powerful undead ward or magic item that can be used to repel invading undead. Then it will be a race against time. Can the party find the item before the undead reaches the town? Lots of cinematic possibilities.
Good luck.
I really like the concept of a magical item or ward to help defend the city from the undead. I had set up in the first session a character called the Watcher (An ancient druid whose duty was to watch over the dimensional gate) who had disappeared without warning. I could possibly have them search for that character who may have a solution. (I of course have no idea where he is right now 
) Also to let everyone know, I have given up on the PC vs PC double cross per everyones advice.
New Question: I am trying to wrap my head around the dimensions of the city they currently are in. How many people? How many soldiers/city watch?
The idea is that this huge war over the years has really drained these cities. So there are few professional soldiers in their prime defending this particular city. Especially this one, since it is so far away from any of the war. I have strongly implied the city guard is mostly made up of older men and younger boys. I had initially told them the city was about the third largest in this one nation. How many people would you guys equate this too? Maybe 10,000-15000? How many in the city watch would be an acceptable yet very weak force in terms of being able to provide for that amount?
This is important because I have to have an idea how many men they have right now to protect the city from this incoming force of the undead.
How long would you give them before I have the undead invade? To keep it in game without telling them directly you have X days, I would keep them abreast with scouting reports about undead movement. The idea is that until the lieutenant breaks free from this prison, the undead are kind of acting extremely unorganized, almost like a hive without a queen.
Any advice is welcomed. Or if anyone has any cool plot elements I might be able to add I would love that as well. I would love to give them one of those OOOOH plot twists.
Thanks!
Doomsday clock. Or the threat meter.
Essentially, you're going to write 3-4 "events" that foreshadow the undead invasion. Ex:
1.) Scouting parties fail to return. Those that do scream of the walking dead.
2.) Doomsayers in town increase in number and intensity, drawing crowds.
3.) Temple crowding as outlying people seek refuge within city walls and on holy ground.
4.) Ghouls (or whatever) rise from the closest cemetery within the town.
5.) The undead invade.
Each event should be a scripted affair/scene/vignette. Each event occurs where & when appropriate OR when the game appears to stall.
Each event has ties to the events immediately preceding and succeeding it. For instance, one of the returned scouts becomes a doomsayer. The unruly crowds overtake a temple. The cemetery at that temple is the one in which the dead rise. Or something like that.
This provides a natural, if linear, progression that snowballs toward a catastrophic event. Shouldn't take more than 20 min to write up. Make sure you name everyone and every place.
I like it. I will write up a few of those up and use the idea that things are slowly progressing down to the invasion.
I think it might be cool to say, ok, for the next 5 minutes you will be playing John the Scout and allow them to have some input and development in the scenes. Another example,they could play a town villager or a city guard as the doomsayer preaches. Maybe give them a character name, a motivation, and a single personality trait. Thoughts?
One of the groups I DM is only two people. Right now they are playing a sorcerer and druid. Essentially they look around for mercenaries to hire and I randomly decide who happens to be available in the local town, etc. You can use some of the templates from the back of the Monster Manual for guards and berserkers or mages and so on. When they hire them, they get a share of the loot, and sometimes I tweak their stats and gear. For example, sometimes the hired hands get a new sword or armor or something and equip it, which affects their stats. In a previous campaign I ran some DM NPCs, using full PC character sheets for both of them. However this was not ideal, and having hired minion/mercenary types with smaller stat blocks has been a lot easier for me and them.
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Lets say I have a bandit npc join their party for a session, would I be safe just adding that extra exp value into my monster budget for encounters?
Thanks!