Flying, Robot Pirates, robbing trains - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Flying, Robot Pirates, robbing trains

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
happyzappydude
Feb 21, 2010 6:29:59 All I'm really looking for is a general critique from some fellow DM's on things I could have done better.

The Setting: Ebberon

The Scenario: Side trek train journey

The Players: A wizard, A fighter, a barbarian, a rogue, a ranger and a cleric

The Bad guys: 3 Warforged Soldiers, A tiefling heretic, 4 Human minions and a jelly cube Approx difficulty level 5 -6

The basic idea: The players have been tasked by a minor noble in Sharn (Mr Gently Benevolent) with acquiring a number of ancient artifacts. Having already acquired one in the sewers below sharn they take the Lightning rail out towards the Mournlands with the intention of getting as close to the mournlands as possible and then travelling to an old ruin close to the edge of the mournlands. (I used the ruined tower from the scenario in the back of the Ebberon book)

The players have a few altercations with some arrogant nobles on the train and make friends with an outgoing and friendly individual (Whose name I cant remember but was used for comedy value and died pretty quickly anyway) . Everything is going as well as could be expected until...

DM: You get up the next morning and proceed to the breakfast cart...

Cleric: I'm already there before anyone else eating.

DM: You sit down and your friend joins you for a filling breakfast of eggs bacon, sausage and toast. The nobles are sittinga few tables down and ignore you.

Cleric: Somethings about to happen...

DM: All seems fine and you chat away with your friend for a while when suddenly... Make a perception roll.

(All the players roll and a few make terrible results)

DM: Ok a couple of you notice out the window, keeping pace with the train, is a warforged hanging from a rope. You can't quite make out what the rope is attached to just yet. The warforged then climbs the rope and sinking into your vision an airship appears. Several warforged and a few humans are milling about on the deck and pointing at the cart.

Wizard: Oookay

DM: A couple of the warforged wave at you (DM makes a frantic waving motion)

(The players wave back)

DM: Then one of the warforged picks up something off the deck of the boat and hefts it onto his shoulder. Its a long cylindrical tube with something pointed in the end facing you. He takes aim.

Cleric: Crap... DUCK.

The fight then takes place. The warforged each have a cannon which they fire from the shoulder which has a large bolt with a chain attached. The bolts went straight through the window, shatteering the glass and killing instantly most of the other passengers ( I did this specifically because I didn't wan to clutter the already tight space with unnecessary fighters, more ambitious DM's might feel they could but i'm still new at this.) The warforged then slid down the chains and landed inside the Train while the humans landed at each end on the roof and tried to force their way through the doors. The tiefling heretic set fire to the chains with magic then proceeds to blast visible enemies with fireballs.

During the fight the wizard used icy hand to hold one door at the end of the carriage shut while the two minions tried in vain to force the door. The barbarian, rogue, cleric and fighter go toe to toe with the warforged while the ranger shoots at the Heretic. The two human minions on the other side break in and unleash from a magic bag a Gelatinous cube. (The gelatinous cube is used to eat corpses and all the valuables and then the pirates coax the cube into expelling the valuables)

The two humans on the other side eventually break through and fight the wizard and ranger (Who killed the tiefling, shooting her she lost her footing and fell over the side and was torn to shreds by the moving train) The Jelly ate the cleric then the rogue and as they were already near death died inside it ( well one was alright but the barbarian thought the best thing to do was to simply do a massive damage attack against the jelly cube and free his friend. Unfortunately I ruled that as he was using a sword, he would cut throught the cube like suet and do half damage to his friend, he rolled over 80 damage, so 40 took his friend from above bloody to dead in one go.)

The air ship was now free moving and starting to drift and was pulling the carriage sideways, not a good thing. All the characters start sliding sideways, eventually the train dislodges off the magic track and crashes spectacularly turning one of the heores corpses to paste. Before the heroes can escape, the airship, which is quite large, starts to drag the now disconnected carriage. One of the heroes manages to poke his head out a window and sees that they're being dragged towards a deep ravine and must now escape before the carriage is pulled over the side. Deciding that it would be cool. The players decide that rather than jumping off the carriage in the middle of nowhere, they will climb the now extinguished chains and get the ship.

Making a medium climb check they eventually all get onto the boat, then realise they are still attached to the carriage, send the rogue over the side to climb down and detach the chains. A hard climb check and a medium thievery check (The locks weren't complicated but the rogue was upside down in a stressful situation forty or so feet above the ground) The heroes then spend a few minutes trying to learn how to pilot the ship.

Rogue: Turn left... The other left.... THE OTHER LEFT.

Eventually getting the hang of it the heroes make their way towards a town they can see in the distance...

So that was a basic outline of the session, it took approximately 2 hours. Sorry if I bored anyone but if you made this far you obviously found something interesting. Comments, critique and general help with how to make this encounter more interesting next time is welcome.
#2
papusman
Feb 25, 2010 10:04:44 Man, no one's responded yet but it sounds like it was pretty rad to me! Totally had a Firefly kinda vibe to it.
#3
lokust
Feb 25, 2010 12:09:47 I thought it was awesome but since i didn't have anything to add i didn't reply.
#4
jimsteele
Feb 28, 2010 12:56:05
Wow. Just wow. Reading this and imagining it, it has such an action movie vibe to it.

Something I think you coulnd've done though is give the guy inside the gelatinous cube a chance for a saving throw to dodge the barbarians sword. But all in all, a real cool bit.
#5
thecapn
Feb 28, 2010 16:51:35 This sounds like a very cool encounter, however I would have handled the killing of the jelly cube/recovery of the other characters a little differently.

First, did you tell the player that attacking the cube in such a way would harm his friend before he made the attack? You should always point things out like that before they roll their attacks unless it is obvious they wouldn't know in the first place.

If you did inform the player and they still chose to attack, I personally would have had him roll separate attacks for the jelly and the still living player like you would with any power that hits multiple targets, which would at least give a possibility of the attack missing the helpless player. The attack vs the player could also be vs reflex to account for them shifting around inside the jelly to avoid getting hurt.

Alternatively instead of attacks, you could have done a skill check or a strength check to have one or more of the players reach in to the cube and physically pull the others out, sacrificing some of their own hitpoints (due to the jelly's acid) to avoid slicing up the others.

The second point is; did you want the players to gain control of their own airship? Was it planned and assumed that they would take it for themselves? If not, it would have been more plausible that the ship would still have had some crew on it to dislodge the chains and fly away. If the players had climbed up the chains before that could happen, you could then have another small fight where they overthrow the crew to take control of it, while it spins out of control itself. If the players were really lucky they could recover and land the ship. If not, it could also crash and they'd be left on the originally planned path.

Having said all that, I still think you did a great job on designing the encounter. I'm a big fan of encounters taking place on moving vehicles.
#6
happyzappydude
Mar 25, 2010 5:26:59 I didn't realise anyone had replied. Thanks for the feedback...

@TheCapn I didn't tell them that, I'm still relatively new to DM'ing and dungeons and dragons in general so still learning a few of the more subtle aspects of play. In hindsight, yes telling the barbarian that he COULD kill his freinds would have made sense but no one cried foul at the time, if they had I might of reversed the decision. Thanks for the thoughts on that, when I rework that for another game I'll put it in.

Secondly, no, the original plan was for the players to make their way off the train and flee to a nearby town. But I like to reward players for realistic and logical thinking (Plus getting there was a cool image) Having the airship hasn't really overpowered them, (They've already plowed the airship through a village and nearly through a building just trying to land) and as they're going to have to travel great distances to get to the other locations I don't mind. I can always destroy it at a later date but I kinda like it. A bit final fintasy.

A fight on the airship would have been really cool though... Great idea.
#7
happyzappydude
Mar 25, 2010 5:28:16 Oh and Papusman, firefly was the inspiration for the encounter, I like that show.
#8
Ogiwan
Mar 27, 2010 19:59:58 Firefly is, indeed, teh win.

That said, I've run several train fights myself, and yours does have some promising elements to ste- *ahem* incorporate. I especially like the waving warforged with the arm grappler cannon dealie.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 happyzappydude Feb 21, 2010 6:29:59	All I'm really looking for is a general critique from some fellow DM's on things I could have done better. The Setting: Ebberon The Scenario: Side trek train journey The Players: A wizard, A fighter, a barbarian, a rogue, a ranger and a cleric The Bad guys: 3 Warforged Soldiers, A tiefling heretic, 4 Human minions and a jelly cube Approx difficulty level 5 -6 The basic idea: The players have been tasked by a minor noble in Sharn (Mr Gently Benevolent) with acquiring a number of ancient artifacts. Having already acquired one in the sewers below sharn they take the Lightning rail out towards the Mournlands with the intention of getting as close to the mournlands as possible and then travelling to an old ruin close to the edge of the mournlands. (I used the ruined tower from the scenario in the back of the Ebberon book) The players have a few altercations with some arrogant nobles on the train and make friends with an outgoing and friendly individual (Whose name I cant remember but was used for comedy value and died pretty quickly anyway) . Everything is going as well as could be expected until... DM: You get up the next morning and proceed to the breakfast cart... Cleric: I'm already there before anyone else eating. DM: You sit down and your friend joins you for a filling breakfast of eggs bacon, sausage and toast. The nobles are sittinga few tables down and ignore you. Cleric: Somethings about to happen... DM: All seems fine and you chat away with your friend for a while when suddenly... Make a perception roll. (All the players roll and a few make terrible results) DM: Ok a couple of you notice out the window, keeping pace with the train, is a warforged hanging from a rope. You can't quite make out what the rope is attached to just yet. The warforged then climbs the rope and sinking into your vision an airship appears. Several warforged and a few humans are milling about on the deck and pointing at the cart. Wizard: Oookay DM: A couple of the warforged wave at you (DM makes a frantic waving motion) (The players wave back) DM: Then one of the warforged picks up something off the deck of the boat and hefts it onto his shoulder. Its a long cylindrical tube with something pointed in the end facing you. He takes aim. Cleric: Crap... DUCK. The fight then takes place. The warforged each have a cannon which they fire from the shoulder which has a large bolt with a chain attached. The bolts went straight through the window, shatteering the glass and killing instantly most of the other passengers ( I did this specifically because I didn't wan to clutter the already tight space with unnecessary fighters, more ambitious DM's might feel they could but i'm still new at this.) The warforged then slid down the chains and landed inside the Train while the humans landed at each end on the roof and tried to force their way through the doors. The tiefling heretic set fire to the chains with magic then proceeds to blast visible enemies with fireballs. During the fight the wizard used icy hand to hold one door at the end of the carriage shut while the two minions tried in vain to force the door. The barbarian, rogue, cleric and fighter go toe to toe with the warforged while the ranger shoots at the Heretic. The two human minions on the other side break in and unleash from a magic bag a Gelatinous cube. (The gelatinous cube is used to eat corpses and all the valuables and then the pirates coax the cube into expelling the valuables) The two humans on the other side eventually break through and fight the wizard and ranger (Who killed the tiefling, shooting her she lost her footing and fell over the side and was torn to shreds by the moving train) The Jelly ate the cleric then the rogue and as they were already near death died inside it ( well one was alright but the barbarian thought the best thing to do was to simply do a massive damage attack against the jelly cube and free his friend. Unfortunately I ruled that as he was using a sword, he would cut throught the cube like suet and do half damage to his friend, he rolled over 80 damage, so 40 took his friend from above bloody to dead in one go.) The air ship was now free moving and starting to drift and was pulling the carriage sideways, not a good thing. All the characters start sliding sideways, eventually the train dislodges off the magic track and crashes spectacularly turning one of the heores corpses to paste. Before the heroes can escape, the airship, which is quite large, starts to drag the now disconnected carriage. One of the heroes manages to poke his head out a window and sees that they're being dragged towards a deep ravine and must now escape before the carriage is pulled over the side. Deciding that it would be cool. The players decide that rather than jumping off the carriage in the middle of nowhere, they will climb the now extinguished chains and get the ship. Making a medium climb check they eventually all get onto the boat, then realise they are still attached to the carriage, send the rogue over the side to climb down and detach the chains. A hard climb check and a medium thievery check (The locks weren't complicated but the rogue was upside down in a stressful situation forty or so feet above the ground) The heroes then spend a few minutes trying to learn how to pilot the ship. Rogue: Turn left... The other left.... THE OTHER LEFT. Eventually getting the hang of it the heroes make their way towards a town they can see in the distance... So that was a basic outline of the session, it took approximately 2 hours. Sorry if I bored anyone but if you made this far you obviously found something interesting. Comments, critique and general help with how to make this encounter more interesting next time is welcome.
#2 papusman Feb 25, 2010 10:04:44	Man, no one's responded yet but it sounds like it was pretty rad to me! Totally had a Firefly kinda vibe to it.
#3 lokust Feb 25, 2010 12:09:47	I thought it was awesome but since i didn't have anything to add i didn't reply.
#4 jimsteele Feb 28, 2010 12:56:05	Wow. Just wow. Reading this and imagining it, it has such an action movie vibe to it. Something I think you coulnd've done though is give the guy inside the gelatinous cube a chance for a saving throw to dodge the barbarians sword. But all in all, a real cool bit.
#5 thecapn Feb 28, 2010 16:51:35	This sounds like a very cool encounter, however I would have handled the killing of the jelly cube/recovery of the other characters a little differently. First, did you tell the player that attacking the cube in such a way would harm his friend before he made the attack? You should always point things out like that before they roll their attacks unless it is obvious they wouldn't know in the first place. If you did inform the player and they still chose to attack, I personally would have had him roll separate attacks for the jelly and the still living player like you would with any power that hits multiple targets, which would at least give a possibility of the attack missing the helpless player. The attack vs the player could also be vs reflex to account for them shifting around inside the jelly to avoid getting hurt. Alternatively instead of attacks, you could have done a skill check or a strength check to have one or more of the players reach in to the cube and physically pull the others out, sacrificing some of their own hitpoints (due to the jelly's acid) to avoid slicing up the others. The second point is; did you want the players to gain control of their own airship? Was it planned and assumed that they would take it for themselves? If not, it would have been more plausible that the ship would still have had some crew on it to dislodge the chains and fly away. If the players had climbed up the chains before that could happen, you could then have another small fight where they overthrow the crew to take control of it, while it spins out of control itself. If the players were really lucky they could recover and land the ship. If not, it could also crash and they'd be left on the originally planned path. Having said all that, I still think you did a great job on designing the encounter. I'm a big fan of encounters taking place on moving vehicles.
#6 happyzappydude Mar 25, 2010 5:26:59	I didn't realise anyone had replied. Thanks for the feedback... @TheCapn I didn't tell them that, I'm still relatively new to DM'ing and dungeons and dragons in general so still learning a few of the more subtle aspects of play. In hindsight, yes telling the barbarian that he COULD kill his freinds would have made sense but no one cried foul at the time, if they had I might of reversed the decision. Thanks for the thoughts on that, when I rework that for another game I'll put it in. Secondly, no, the original plan was for the players to make their way off the train and flee to a nearby town. But I like to reward players for realistic and logical thinking (Plus getting there was a cool image) Having the airship hasn't really overpowered them, (They've already plowed the airship through a village and nearly through a building just trying to land) and as they're going to have to travel great distances to get to the other locations I don't mind. I can always destroy it at a later date but I kinda like it. A bit final fintasy. A fight on the airship would have been really cool though... Great idea.
#7 happyzappydude Mar 25, 2010 5:28:16	Oh and Papusman, firefly was the inspiration for the encounter, I like that show.
#8 Ogiwan Mar 27, 2010 19:59:58	Firefly is, indeed, teh win. That said, I've run several train fights myself, and yours does have some promising elements to ste- ahem incorporate. I especially like the waving warforged with the arm grappler cannon dealie.