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View Full Version : Planning a game - need a little help. (Party, keep out!)



Adumbration
2010-07-15, 08:48 AM
So, this Saturday, I'm trying my hand at DM'ing again, but I'm not very experienced: I've run the Tomb of Horrors once, as well as the Dark and Stormy Knight.

My plan is to use the Tolstoff family from Exemplars of Evil as the baseline, but with some twists. The premise is that the captain of the guard hires the party to investigate the death of a wealthy aristocrat, who was murdered recently in a disreputable tavern along with some of his guards. The widow apparently mistrusted the city guard on the matter and pulled some strings in high places - forcing the hand of the captain to hire the party.

This isn't the first time such a case has appeared. A few months back there was an almost identical murder: a male aristocrat, seedy tavern, everybody dead. Even the murder weapon appears to be the same: a long, thin and narrow piercing sword, probably a rapier.

The widow's butler fills in the detail for the party: the late aristocrat had an affair with Katarin Tolstoff - in both cases, unbeknownst to their wives. He does not know where to locate her, though.

Now here's what's really happening: Katarin Tolstoff did have an affair with them and tried to blackmail them. She failed on both occasions, and was forced to kill the first aristocrat... but she didn't kill the second one.

In truth, it was the widover herself who arranged for his death. She found out about the affair and hired an assassin, who did his research and masked the bloody murder to be identical... almost identical to the previous one.

Notable differences:
- Different murder weapons. If the party finds either one, they can take it to a specialist who has Gloves of Object reading to find out the truth. (Note: have the captain of the guard mention the specialist).
- Katarina Tolstoff used Charm Person to have one of the guards turn against his friends on the first occasion. This did not happen in the second scene.

This starts out as a murder mystery, but they'll probably end up fighting against Katarina and the wererat or the widover and the assassin, or both, and in the event of Katarina's escape or death, they'll have to deal with his brother at the Tolstoff Keep.

As a sideplot, Katarina has contacted local magic stores and wizards in search of something to use to open the family catacomb and release Edwin. She's a tricky one to find (Gather information check DC 25), and to arrange a meeting in person with her, they would have to have what she's looking for. DC 10 to find out what she's looking for, DC 15 to find out the location of the whisper gnome who serves her.

Now, the party is 5th level. I don't know what builds they've got yet, but one of them's a decent optimizer, others are average, and one is a trickster roleplayer. Are the encounters in Exemplars of Evil too strong for them? Should I up their level? Nerf the encounters?

Is this a good adventure? Any suggestions on changes, or where to take it afterwards?

Lord Loss
2010-07-15, 08:52 AM
I quite like it. I would have the PCs run into Katarin early on in the adventure.
Great red herring you've used.

Sophin87
2010-07-15, 09:20 AM
I have never used any of WOTC's encounters 'as is'. I find these encounters to be stock, but give a reasonable idea of the direction you could go in.

The best thing a DM can do (besides weave a cool and intriguing story) is to challenge the players and their characters. I always end up changing encounters in order to take 'advantage' of whatever weaknesses the player party may have.

At the same time, note their strengths and make sure you get a feel how they usually solve encounters. This helps you throw a curve ball every now and then.

That said, your concept is pretty cool and interesting. Your players should be delighted playing in it.

Also, if they can survive ToH, they can survive anything.

okpokalypse
2010-07-15, 09:23 AM
Might I suggest preventing a Seer (Psionic) from being a PC choice. They've got powers that can just pretty much solve the whole mystery with a casting or two.

Adumbration
2010-07-15, 04:52 PM
I quite like it. I would have the PCs run into Katarin early on in the adventure.
Great red herring you've used.

Thanks. I'm very interested to see what my players will come up.



Also, if they can survive ToH, they can survive anything.

Thanks for the advice. They actually beat ToH, by the way. It wasn't the first time they played it, and they had multiple lives, but I was quite impressed howthey beat the skull with a wall of ectoplasm, grabbed the loot and ran for it.


Might I suggest preventing a Seer (Psionic) from being a PC choice. They've got powers that can just pretty much solve the whole mystery with a casting or two.

Most of my players aren't into psionics, but I'll remember that.

Also, do people have any good NPC generators lying around, or perhaps some sort of base for building them? I'd hate to make a fullblown character sheet for every NPC I'm using.

Any other DM'ing tools would be appreciated also.

Lord Loss
2010-07-15, 07:51 PM
They seem quite crafty. My other advice is to have Katarin invite them to dinner, knowing about the investigation, with the whole thing prepared as a giant deathtrap.

NowhereMan583
2010-07-15, 08:05 PM
Also, do people have any good NPC generators lying around, or perhaps some sort of base for building them? I'd hate to make a fullblown character sheet for every NPC I'm using. Any other DM'ing tools would be appreciated also.

I use this (http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_npc.php?do=npcgen) to generate NPCs. (I assume you're playing 3.5.)

Adumbration
2010-07-16, 08:58 AM
This morning, I got a text message from one of the players that he couldn't make it. About three hours later, I got another text message from another player. He couldn't make it either.

I figured, maybe the three remaining players would like to play anyway, so I asked them. A third one bailed. Game cancelled.

At least one of the players - our usual DM actually, one of the few who didn't bail - will be unable to join a game for a whole summer, and I'm not sure about the others either. :smallannoyed: