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Malfunctioned
2009-09-14, 02:43 PM
I've just recently started up at my college (The English kind not the American Uni-things :smalltongue:) and a me and a couple of friends were interested in starting up a small D&D group there to play in our free periods and any other free time. We started just making characters in a large corridor-like area and a few other friends and random people looked over to it and showed some interest. Long story short, I know have about 10 players at last count, 2 of whom have played the basic game, two of whom have played with me in previous campaigns and 6 who have never even glanced at one of the books before.

Now I'm not a particularly good DM, but I've managed to come up with a couple of ideas. The idea of the campaign is to essentially halt the plans of an as-yet-unamed BBEG who plans to create what is basically a giant space-borne magic laser that channels positive energy directly from the Postive Energy plane (The Fast Healing ability given by the plane would be enough to cause most people to explode at the touch of the laser)

I haven't really come up with more than this and I hope that people on here can give me some pointers or ideas on either how to fill out the campaign or how to handle the large group size, any help given would be awesome. :smallbiggrin:

Kol Korran
2009-09-14, 03:02 PM
first of all- good luck with your gaming group, i hope you have fun!

secondly- we realy need more than you have given us in order to help you with your campaign. i suggest you look at Rich's guide for villain buiilding for your BBEG, it might be a good start. if you throw us anymore of your ideas, then that might be awesome.

thirdly- i do believe you are too many people. 10 people is a lot to handle. i've DMed for years and i find that 6 start to get excessive, if managable. i suggest you guys split into 2 groups, with one of the experienced people managing one group, and you the other. how you divide it is up to you, the importent thing is that people's personalities fit together well enough to play.

if later some people quit, then maybe you can merge the groups.

that's all i can say, and again- good luck.
Kol.

The J Pizzel
2009-09-14, 03:09 PM
My advice, two 5 man groups. I've found 6 people too much, and I've DMed a long time.

If you don't have time for that, here's some little helpful hints.

-ban out of turn talking, it will help keep things smooth
-during combat, write the initiative order on a surface that everyone can see, that way, players always know when their turn is coming up.
-during combat, always verbally say who then next person is. For example "Hey Josh, it's your turn. And Adam, you're next". Makes a big difference in my games
-have everyone do their "between mission buying and selling of goods" inbetween sessions. Coordiante all of it through emails. Nothing bogs down a gaming session like taking 2 hours to buy and sell all your gear.

That's all I got for now.

ninja'd by the same general advice, lol

TheThan
2009-09-14, 04:14 PM
First off, good luck with the gaming.

Now you said you’re not a particularly experienced Dm. So I would suggest cutting your gaming group in two. I would also talk to your two friends who have played the game and try to convince them to help you in teaching the game to your new players. See if you can get them to agree to play in different groups so both of them can help the new guys.

Now for when to play, I strongly suggest you designate a day and time. Talk with your players and decide when is a good time and day for everyone. Usually there will be at least one day out of the week where everyone in a gaming group can get together. Spontaneous gaming doesn’t usually work out well.

Now I would also suggest you alternate weeks with each group. It gives you time to prepare for each group in between gaming sessions.

The main thing is to remember that these people are new. They will get confused and frustrated, the main thing is to be patient and try to explain things the best you can.

Malfunctioned
2009-09-14, 04:41 PM
Well so far for the BBEG I've come up with a small bit of backstory.

His parents were part of a travelling caravan of merchants and migrants making a journey through a forest in southern Kaderish (I'll post a map of the campaign world in a spoiler) when they were ambushed by a group of fey bandits who stole most of the goods that were carried by the caravan along with a small human child.

The child was raised as a slave by his fey masters and lived a life of pain and humiliation, in order to stop him running away his was often shown scrying pools and illusions which featured his parents either being tortured or beaten and told that this is what would happen if he escaped.

He grew to nurse a strong hatred of all fey but one, a blinded saytr who in his adventuring years had mastered both the physical arts and the arcane, much to ire of his community. The satyr, who went by the name of Tiyaron (Swanlord) took the child under his wing and in the space of 10 years taught him all that he knew.

When he no longer considered the man his apprentice he handed him a large white-feathered cloak and whispered a few words into his ear "Set yourself free and never let another be held like you have." With the new title of the Swanlord passed onto him Swanlord felt the courage to do what he had always wanted, he went through the Fey village and slaughtered all he could find, freeing every slave who could walk and putting any who couldn't to death.

After escaping back to mortal civilization he used his skills to place the image of himself as a hero and champion into the citizens of the villages and towns he passed until he finally had enough followers to make a journey to the island of Faalenstearr (Actually a meteor around the size of Ireland that introduced magic into the world when it impacted and yes I am incredibly bad at thinking up names.) where he then established his new kingdom.

He has taken the message his mentor gave him to heart and he now is looking for a way to make sure no person will every have to face any kind of suffering again. Unfortunatly being raised around fey has altered his mind and body to the point where he does not really consider other peoples free will as something that really matters while his body is now like that of a fey and he will never die from old age and he appears to be stuck at around 25 years old even though at the time of the campaign he is around 70.

Is that better?

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff228/koroan/worldmap.png

Malfunctioned
2009-09-14, 04:43 PM
Thanks for the advice so far guys, I think I will be splitting the groups up possibly going after the same objective and meeting up once of twice and hopefully it should go well. :smallsmile:

Strawman
2009-09-14, 05:11 PM
If the campaign allows for it, remember that nothing is quite as epic as two parties of players having to engage in a widescale battle with each other. Of course, no one should die. Maybe a colliseum battle.

If they all come together for the final battle with the main bad guy, make sure to have supplies for a celebratory party to be held afterwards.

Ellisande
2009-09-14, 06:55 PM
I think the two parties idea is a good one, so I'm glad you're going with it. However, since it sounds like the players are new, I might expect some attrition. Can you write a plot that would let you merge the two groups if you lose a lot of players? (But could keep going straight on with the two parties if you get lucky, of course.)

Malfunctioned
2009-09-15, 12:33 PM
Well so far I've managed to get the players to split into two groups, some in Faalenstearr who are working for the Swanlord, who I've tried to write so that he didn't seem too evil and so that players could see his point of view, and some starting in an arena as recently captured slaves in Jaesid which will be one of the first places the GFHESL (Giant Flying Head Exploding Space Laser) will hit, most probably as a test run to see if it actually works.