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Amazon warrior
2010-08-05, 03:41 PM
Hi all, and thanks for reading - I'm afraid that it's a bit of a long one. :) I wasn't sure if this is the right section - I hope it is!

I'm looking for some concrit for a scenario I'm hoping to run as the start of a campaign. I have four players to start with - one has a lot of gaming experience (not D&D, but he's a clever guy so I'm not worried), one with some gaming experience and two utter, utter newbies. We all work at the same company and we frequently hang out socially, which should help. My problem is running an exciting campaign starter that will entertain the old hands without freaking out the newcomers. The preferred result is that they all want to come back for more next session. I think I've come up with such a scenario during a bout of insomnia last night, but I'd love some second opinions!

ETA: They've chosen their characters - Barbarian, Sorceror, Rogue and Cleric. Woo!

The basic idea is this:
Step 1: The players (probably 3rd or 4th level) are all currently located in a small agricultural town. Yesterday, a party of foresters vanished without trace. Last night, a several herders and their charges were violently attacked - some were left mutilated in the field, some appear to be missing. Tonight, everyone and their pig is taking shelter in the town and the more able-bodied citizens (including the players and warriors from the Big House) are manning the town gates. After a brief but hopefully atmospheric description of the situation, play starts when darkness falls and the creatures attack - Roll for initiative!

The creatures themselves are a nomadic band of big-a$$ (well, Large) bipedal wolves on a religious outing (ritual sacrifices make moon come back), simply because I have lots of those lovely Rackham wolfen (the metal ones) who don't get nearly enough table-time! Plus I want to see if the players will prevaricate over whether or not they're fighting were-wolves. :D There may or may not also be a handful of actual wolves for variety's sake. As for the stats of the wolfen themselves, I can't decide whether to use the orc or gnoll stats for them or jury-rig something new.

The goal of the wolfen is pretty simple - one group will attack the entrances to the town and attempt to draw away or kill the defenders so that a second group can enter the town and grab more sacrifices. Once this is done, their aim will be to GTFO and back to their temporary lair. If they're thwarted in this goal, they will do as much damage as they can before scarpering with the intent of trying again the following night.

Regarding the players, I may or may not split them up between the different town gates depending on what classes people want to play, but I will back them up with a handful each of warrior mooks that I can kill off, and let the players decide how to control these warriors in the fight. I'm kind of hoping that this will give them the opportunity to experience how things like flanking, charging and AOOs work without them falling over each other in the process.

Step 2: The next morning, a crisis meeting is held by the ruling Lord, who's definitely too old for this kind of nonsense. He decrees that the creatures must be rooted out (and the fate of the lost citizens determined, if applicable), and selects the players and maybe a support crew of warriors to go do this. And off they go. (Requires someone to have Track, but the Lord will provide if the players don't! ;) )

The idea for this is to have a bit of a wilderness moment followed by a smallish dungeon with a big surprise. The wolfen have chosen some old caves deep in the forest as their lair, driving out or killing the usual animal inhabitants. Some of the captives have already provided dinner, others are being kept for the main event in two days' time and could be rescued. What no one yet knows about the caves is that they were once home to a noteable wizard who dabbled in Planeshifting. Time has long ago destroyed anything of value, but I really like the idea of people falling through a rotten wooden floor and straight into a still-active portal! This, of course, is precisely where I want them to end up - knowing my luck they'll head in a completely different direction and I'll have to plan an entirely different world! :smalltongue: But in theory, the whole idea is to get them to the place I really want them to be while giving them a taste of what D&D can be like.

Step 3: ????

Step 4: Profit!

Ok so, I know I've made quite a lot of assumptions here (particularly in regard to having characters who can somehow get involved in a fight, though I do already have the promise of a "retired" Barbarian). Is this likely to be too ambitious for the new players, do you think? I'm not at all sure that going through the portal won't confuse and/or frustrate the players, either, but I thought it would be a good way to highlight the contrast between their world and the other world.

The session will probably be about 2-3 hours long and I'm happy to split it up if it looks like we'll only cover part of it in that time. And although the above is an outline of what I'd like to happen in an ideal session, I'll be happy so long as everyone is having a good time - they're nice people and my friends so I want them to enjoy themselves!

Any thoughts or suggestions would be very gratefully received! :)

mangosta71
2010-08-05, 03:58 PM
Planar shifting might be a little difficult for a party of low-level adventurers, depending on where you plan for them to appear. You'll also have to beware of the group splitting up (which they may feel comfortable doing, especially if they have NPC support) unless all of the live portals go to the same place.

You shouldn't have to worry about characters being completely incapable of combat. You should probably encourage them to play diverse classes just so that you don't have to depend on NPCs to create a balanced group.

The adventure itself sounds like fun. However, in a typical fantasy setting, a "small town" usually wouldn't have walls or gates. You could switch that to a small city, maybe 10000 inhabitants or so, that's getting flooded with refugees from small agricultural communities that are fleeing the wolfen attacks. The mayor-type then has to deal not only with taking care of all these refugees, but needs to do it quickly so that the city's stores aren't exhausted (lending even more of a sense of urgency to the quest to clean out the nest).

Amazon warrior
2010-08-05, 04:37 PM
Planar shifting might be a little difficult for a party of low-level adventurers, depending on where you plan for them to appear. You'll also have to beware of the group splitting up (which they may feel comfortable doing, especially if they have NPC support) unless all of the live portals go to the same place.

You shouldn't have to worry about characters being completely incapable of combat. You should probably encourage them to play diverse classes just so that you don't have to depend on NPCs to create a balanced group.

The adventure itself sounds like fun. However, in a typical fantasy setting, a "small town" usually wouldn't have walls or gates. You could switch that to a small city, maybe 10000 inhabitants or so, that's getting flooded with refugees from small agricultural communities that are fleeing the wolfen attacks. The mayor-type then has to deal not only with taking care of all these refugees, but needs to do it quickly so that the city's stores aren't exhausted (lending even more of a sense of urgency to the quest to clean out the nest).
Hi, and thanks for taking the time to respond! :)

I wasn't planning on dropping them somewhere instantly hazardous if they do go through the portal. The "other place" is my desert world setting and they'd most likely end up in some ruins there just in time to be discovered by a small scouting party of Ahn-Kiz (social insect race, usually N, not usually overtly hostile). If I find I need to use more than one portal to try and get everyone to join up again, maybe one way would be to have the portals exit in different places in the ruins. Encounters with the locals will probably be cautiously friendly depending on whether the players have been preceeded by an angry wolfen or not.

I'm seriously hoping that I won't have to do much, or indeed any, "filling in" with NPCs after the first fight, which will mostly be intended to show people how the combat rules work. My more experienced friend can be relied on to assist with hand-holding, too. Hopefully, people will get back to me with character concepts in the next week or so - I've already suggested that they have a think about what they'd like to play - and hopefully I can gently steer them towards constructive options.

RE town walls/gates: I dunno if it helps, but they're not particularly *good* walls! :smalltongue: I'd pictured earth+stake palisades to a height of between 8 and 10', with pull-to gates and maybe a small shack for a guard. The refugees idea is really cool though - perhaps the refugees could be smallholders from the outlying farms and homesteads that were caught in the first wave of attacks...