Macrovore
2011-10-02, 08:11 PM
Hey, guys. It's been a while since I've posted, but I just started a new campaign and it would be helpful for me to write everything down, because it's good to have a record of my players' hilarious downfall, and I might ask for some adventure advice.
I'm playing with some friends from Uni, and they're all new players to 3.5, having been well-trained in the ways of 4e by another friend of ours. He tends to use official adventures for 4e, and my style is the opposite: I Dm on the fly, and put the players in charge of most decisions. It seems to work alright, the players have fun, and it complements my consummate lack of planning skills.
So, since I have new players, I'm starting them at 3rd level in a fairly vanilla setting, with few houserules. The players all get 18, 16, 16, 14, 12, 10, because I like high ability scores, and no psionics or binders. Some weak classes get some small buffs or tweaks, and some classes are replaced by PF versions, but it's mostly regular 3.5, with a feat every odd level
So far, we've done one session, with an intro encounter, to allow the players a chance to get a feel for their characters, the 3.5 combat system, and the world they live in. I let them choose their classes and basic builds, then I helped each player tweak and optimize their characters.
The characters are:
Can Thistelwool: human Swordsage, weilding a Falchion and focusing on Desert Wind. Can is the only melee guy in the group, and he's got a few good maneuvers he can use. He has adaptive style, power attack, and desert fire focusing on Dex, Wis, and Con
Talan: human Dragonfire Adept. Talan is a Basic low level DFA, with Entangling Exhalation, ability focus, and Power Surge, for later metabreath feats. He took Beguiling Influence, to do more social stuff, and the endure elements invocation. Lots of aoe and cc abilities.
Fibraccio halfling PF bard, focusing on slinging stuff and enchantments. Has point blank shot and precocious apprentice. Also has social skills, and grease, like any good bard.
Setting:
The characters all live in the city of Del-Taras, city of Spires, one of the last two city-states that have not fallen under the banner of the Kerovingian Emperor, the other being Elora. Del-taras is known for its arcane magic, and many of the guards and townsfolk have magical talents. Elora is the spiritual capital of the world, worshipping the god Elohiram. There has been an armistice between the Kerovingian Empire and the two great cities for a generation, but both sides are always wary of each other. The Elorans and Del-tarans have a tenuous alliance, but if they weren't both equally threatened by the Empire, they would likely be enemies, or at least rivals. Arcane casters are mistrusted in Elora, just as divine casters are held in suspicion in Del-Taras.
This is the basic setup I gave the characters, and I told them to figure out what they each were doing in Del-Taras. Fibraccio said he was the crier for a general store which he lived above. He would stand outside the store and promote the business with his bardsongs. Can had just arrived in the city, as he had been exiled from his home in the desert. Talan was a scholar, studying all he could about dragons, and did some freelance merc work for the town guard.
Then, the campaign begun:
Me: "This is chapter 1: The Fall of Del-Taras"
Players: well, s**t. This is bad.
Just before the campaign begun, the Kerovingian empire has, predictably, invaded and sacked Del-Taras. The PCs fought valiantly to defend their city (or loot it, or whatever) offscreen, but there were too many soldiers, and they were eventually subdued. The PCs woke up without most of their equipment (they still had worn items such as light armor and cloaks of resistance) on a prisoner transport wagon, on the way to the mines.
"What do you do?" The classic dnd opener. I know my roots.
The players look at their surroundings. I tell them that there are several poor townsfolk in the car with them. They look scared and helpless. There are no windows besides a small barred window on the wagon door, at the rear of the carriage. Their gear is probably on the roof of the carriage, and Can's masterwork ancestral Falchion, the sword of his forefathers, which he's had since he started training with it as a boy, was taken by a soldier, who is currently hanging off the back of the cart, the sword on his back.
The characters whisper to each other about a plan. The bard decides on misdirection and distraction, and proposes that he uses Prestidigitation to discolor his and his companions' skin to make it look like they were sick and very contagious. They instruct the NPC townsfolk to make noise and act like the PCs were sick and dangerous. I ok the plan as-is, and the bard spends a few minutes making himself and his new party members look extremely sick, covered in boils and sores, and they all played dead. The townspeople in the cart started yelling and banging on the sides. After a little bit of this, the caravan stopped and the guard with Can's Falchion opened the door. He asked what the he'll was going on. One of the other prisoners said we just sprouted sores and collapsed. Rolled a 4 Bluff, guard rolled 17. "Those sores look fake..."
Talan busted out with a sickening blast, sickening a few of the prisoners and causing them to vomit on the guard. The guard yelled for everyone to get out, and stepped in and raised the Falchion to kill them, thinking them unconscious. I ruled that Can could have a standard action (I readied an action for him. He's a beginner), and he tried to disarm. The guard rolled a natural 1 on the AoO, so I ruled he just dropped his weapon. Roll initiative. Fibraccio wins, starts singing inspire courage. Talan entangles him with dragonfire, and Can drops him to 0 on the next hit.
(I'm not going to narrate round for round, so I'll summarize the rest, with highlights)
6 more guards come out (lvl2 human fighters with sword/board +breastplates), fighting ensues. Can dazzles them all and does fire damage with Blistering Flourish + Desert Fire, Fibraccio casts Grease on several soldiers, who never manage to stand up again. Talan keeps at least half of them in Entangling DoT flames at all times. Inspire courage helps Can and noone else, and Fibraccio doesn't have his sling, so he's relegated to Dazing with PF cantrips.
By the end, Talan is at single-digit hp, and Can isn't too far from it. They find their gear atop the wagon, along with the horses used to pull it. The other prisoners had escaped during the fight. Looting of bodies commences, but all the light-armored guys take is some trail rations from their packs (and Talan had forgotten a bedroll, so he took one of those as well).
The PCs decide to steal away to Elora, to inform them of Del-Taras's collapse, and warn them of the impending siege by the Kerovingian war machine. Unfortunately, the road to Elora leads straight past Del-Taras.
Session End
We will probably meet next week or the week after, where we will meet a new PC, possibly a warblade. Lord know they could use more frontliners.
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions for cool plots within Elora? They might meet with suspicion because of the arcane casters, but it's not like they're lying or spying, right? I'll probably have them meet up with some advanced scout patrols from the Empire.
I'm trying to make a setting-based campaign, where the characters are free to explore a living world, and where their decisions have real effect in the world.
Apologies if there are any spelling mistakes, I'm typing this on my smarphone at work, elbow-deep in a computer case.
I'm playing with some friends from Uni, and they're all new players to 3.5, having been well-trained in the ways of 4e by another friend of ours. He tends to use official adventures for 4e, and my style is the opposite: I Dm on the fly, and put the players in charge of most decisions. It seems to work alright, the players have fun, and it complements my consummate lack of planning skills.
So, since I have new players, I'm starting them at 3rd level in a fairly vanilla setting, with few houserules. The players all get 18, 16, 16, 14, 12, 10, because I like high ability scores, and no psionics or binders. Some weak classes get some small buffs or tweaks, and some classes are replaced by PF versions, but it's mostly regular 3.5, with a feat every odd level
So far, we've done one session, with an intro encounter, to allow the players a chance to get a feel for their characters, the 3.5 combat system, and the world they live in. I let them choose their classes and basic builds, then I helped each player tweak and optimize their characters.
The characters are:
Can Thistelwool: human Swordsage, weilding a Falchion and focusing on Desert Wind. Can is the only melee guy in the group, and he's got a few good maneuvers he can use. He has adaptive style, power attack, and desert fire focusing on Dex, Wis, and Con
Talan: human Dragonfire Adept. Talan is a Basic low level DFA, with Entangling Exhalation, ability focus, and Power Surge, for later metabreath feats. He took Beguiling Influence, to do more social stuff, and the endure elements invocation. Lots of aoe and cc abilities.
Fibraccio halfling PF bard, focusing on slinging stuff and enchantments. Has point blank shot and precocious apprentice. Also has social skills, and grease, like any good bard.
Setting:
The characters all live in the city of Del-Taras, city of Spires, one of the last two city-states that have not fallen under the banner of the Kerovingian Emperor, the other being Elora. Del-taras is known for its arcane magic, and many of the guards and townsfolk have magical talents. Elora is the spiritual capital of the world, worshipping the god Elohiram. There has been an armistice between the Kerovingian Empire and the two great cities for a generation, but both sides are always wary of each other. The Elorans and Del-tarans have a tenuous alliance, but if they weren't both equally threatened by the Empire, they would likely be enemies, or at least rivals. Arcane casters are mistrusted in Elora, just as divine casters are held in suspicion in Del-Taras.
This is the basic setup I gave the characters, and I told them to figure out what they each were doing in Del-Taras. Fibraccio said he was the crier for a general store which he lived above. He would stand outside the store and promote the business with his bardsongs. Can had just arrived in the city, as he had been exiled from his home in the desert. Talan was a scholar, studying all he could about dragons, and did some freelance merc work for the town guard.
Then, the campaign begun:
Me: "This is chapter 1: The Fall of Del-Taras"
Players: well, s**t. This is bad.
Just before the campaign begun, the Kerovingian empire has, predictably, invaded and sacked Del-Taras. The PCs fought valiantly to defend their city (or loot it, or whatever) offscreen, but there were too many soldiers, and they were eventually subdued. The PCs woke up without most of their equipment (they still had worn items such as light armor and cloaks of resistance) on a prisoner transport wagon, on the way to the mines.
"What do you do?" The classic dnd opener. I know my roots.
The players look at their surroundings. I tell them that there are several poor townsfolk in the car with them. They look scared and helpless. There are no windows besides a small barred window on the wagon door, at the rear of the carriage. Their gear is probably on the roof of the carriage, and Can's masterwork ancestral Falchion, the sword of his forefathers, which he's had since he started training with it as a boy, was taken by a soldier, who is currently hanging off the back of the cart, the sword on his back.
The characters whisper to each other about a plan. The bard decides on misdirection and distraction, and proposes that he uses Prestidigitation to discolor his and his companions' skin to make it look like they were sick and very contagious. They instruct the NPC townsfolk to make noise and act like the PCs were sick and dangerous. I ok the plan as-is, and the bard spends a few minutes making himself and his new party members look extremely sick, covered in boils and sores, and they all played dead. The townspeople in the cart started yelling and banging on the sides. After a little bit of this, the caravan stopped and the guard with Can's Falchion opened the door. He asked what the he'll was going on. One of the other prisoners said we just sprouted sores and collapsed. Rolled a 4 Bluff, guard rolled 17. "Those sores look fake..."
Talan busted out with a sickening blast, sickening a few of the prisoners and causing them to vomit on the guard. The guard yelled for everyone to get out, and stepped in and raised the Falchion to kill them, thinking them unconscious. I ruled that Can could have a standard action (I readied an action for him. He's a beginner), and he tried to disarm. The guard rolled a natural 1 on the AoO, so I ruled he just dropped his weapon. Roll initiative. Fibraccio wins, starts singing inspire courage. Talan entangles him with dragonfire, and Can drops him to 0 on the next hit.
(I'm not going to narrate round for round, so I'll summarize the rest, with highlights)
6 more guards come out (lvl2 human fighters with sword/board +breastplates), fighting ensues. Can dazzles them all and does fire damage with Blistering Flourish + Desert Fire, Fibraccio casts Grease on several soldiers, who never manage to stand up again. Talan keeps at least half of them in Entangling DoT flames at all times. Inspire courage helps Can and noone else, and Fibraccio doesn't have his sling, so he's relegated to Dazing with PF cantrips.
By the end, Talan is at single-digit hp, and Can isn't too far from it. They find their gear atop the wagon, along with the horses used to pull it. The other prisoners had escaped during the fight. Looting of bodies commences, but all the light-armored guys take is some trail rations from their packs (and Talan had forgotten a bedroll, so he took one of those as well).
The PCs decide to steal away to Elora, to inform them of Del-Taras's collapse, and warn them of the impending siege by the Kerovingian war machine. Unfortunately, the road to Elora leads straight past Del-Taras.
Session End
We will probably meet next week or the week after, where we will meet a new PC, possibly a warblade. Lord know they could use more frontliners.
So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions for cool plots within Elora? They might meet with suspicion because of the arcane casters, but it's not like they're lying or spying, right? I'll probably have them meet up with some advanced scout patrols from the Empire.
I'm trying to make a setting-based campaign, where the characters are free to explore a living world, and where their decisions have real effect in the world.
Apologies if there are any spelling mistakes, I'm typing this on my smarphone at work, elbow-deep in a computer case.