Blind_Prophet
2012-06-23, 02:10 AM
The NEWish Campaign
Hey guys just finished up my little test campaign (well not so much finished as I did enough to get the feedback I wanted for my players) now this wasn't my first time DMIng but it WAS the first time I ever DMed my own campaign (with the help of my CO-DM) so I asked for my players patience and feedback and based on the feedback I'm starting over and adjusting to their preferences and some of my own personal feedback as well.
Anyways first off Ihave to say DMing is ALOT of work even for two people and having someone to bounc ideas off (ie. A Forum :P) of or having a more expereinced DM to run a different game (if you have games fairly regualrily) so you have more time to work on the campaign really helps out with making your campaign alot deeper and keep you a little more insane.
So as for the feedbacks here's the main points I got
- More Puzzles - Now this is one of the reasons I love having a CO-DM this is NOT my forte...she handles this kind of stuff
- More story based encounters - because I was trying to run a weekly-bi-weeklyish game I had alot of "side-quest" type encounters so sometimes we'd go weekends without any well story beyond the self-contained stories of said "side-quests"...now I'm not going to remove these entirely as they did seem to enjoy them but I'll keep em to a minimum and try to make em more relavent to the plot
- Setting was getting stale - Now this is actually an idea I had when I first started and was planning on having the "12 doors" of the puzzletorium (which used to be nown as the librabry and was in the swamp in Melonia) being dimensional rifts of some sort leading to puzzles...well lets just say iots not well thought out...but to keep things interesting (and to explain the ragtag group of homebrew class requests I was getting) I figured what-the-hell this is D&D there's multiple planes of existence...let's go plane hopping...now I'm pretty sure the planes I'm thinking of aren't canon but hey I think the DM will let me get away with it :P So far my ideas are, Steampunk Plane (this I'm actually going to using a friends campaign from 3.5 he didn't finish for some ideas), Puzzle Plane (see below), Obnoxiously good world, Evil World (like evil as in its fairly lawless but society is fairly standard, taverns, clothing stores,etc...sadly I don't really need to change much :P, Sci-Fi Plane and Western Plane but eventually I'll dream up more.
- They seem to enjoy my terrible, terrible acting and my bad impressions so guess I'll keep doing that than :P
Thats pretty much they main requests/feedback but I also learned alot not mentioned (also our group has almost doubled in size...my poor basement)
As for the players here's their custom class plans (with my input and approval of course):
Jedi: Thinking Swordmage/Psion with a little Paladin and Bladesinger - probably Defender w/ a side of controller (I invision a mobile fighter using stuff like force push, force jump,etc. to dominate the battlefield) not sure how marking would work though...could also make it more Leader focused but it's not the players style...likely Wisdom main with Int for the leader build (if made) than either Con as the main for the defender and Wis as the seondary
Time Lord (The Doctor) or Agent (Jack Harkness): Probably will take alot from Warlord with a little bard which is good since IMO the Leader role really suits Time Lords (well at least the doctor) whilst Time agents like Jack Harkness would be more of a Striker type. Either Charisma will likely be main, with either Wisdom or INt as the secondary for TL and Str or Dex as a secondary for TA.
Gunslinger (Western or Magitech): Either way it's definately striker...his guns I'll likely just have mimic X-Bows unless I can find or think of any cool ideas not sure on secondary stats...Main is Definately Dex
Gadgeteer: Trapsmith with "Other" as a type he's a little striker a little leader and a little controller with his "specialization" determining which role he ends up majoring in...I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with this guy but the general idea is gadgets, trapmaking, mech companion and giant cannon that takes either a standard or move action to reload (thinking either one shot per "cartridge" reload = move or 2 shots per "cartidge" but reload = standard) very similar to a homebrew from 3.5 of the same name...well "Ultimate Gadgeteer" but I can't find it anywhere...thinking main is Int with secondary being Str, Con or Wis (S, L, C respectiely)
The other four players are still thinking on it.
Anyways here's what I got storywise so far
Melonia
Our NEW (and completely unarmed) players awake in a prison to the sight of various creatures, very few of which they recognize (this will likely include each other)
Not long after the PCs wake a small troop of dark skinned creatures open a bunch of the cages dragging the PCs and a few other "creatures" out of the cages and after binding and gagging them they drag them down a pitch black hallway into a throne room where the troop of dark-skinned creatures is addresed by the commander
CO: The "Crystal Bearers" have been a thorn in my side for far too long and you pathetic excuses for Drow have done nothing to alleviate that thorn
Drow CO: We have noticed one weakness in the "Crystal Bearers", they can't help being the heroes, so let's help them "think" their rescuing some helpness prisoners than destroy them when their busy
The Drow Troop resumes dragging the PCs out of the Room back into the hall and out into a cave which is actually decently lit by the sun coming in from a few exits...the PCs get a decent veiw of a large army of drow preparing for going out into the light as well as various camps set-up (this is obviously far away from their home) but there shortly tossed into a caged cart and knocked out
The PCs slowly start to wake up and can hear the Drow talking for a bit about both their plan and who the crystal bearers are.
After running through the exposition dump the Drow will start arguing about something, than they drag the prisoners out of the cage and push them away from the cart into some boggy swamp water and start laughing as the "water" starts to move and take form
After that the Drow throw the battered and bruised PCs back in the cage and the PCs can see that this time only a few Drow are following along the with the cart and the large war party slinks of into the woods. Not long after this a battle cry can be heard as the "Crystal Bearers" charge in easily slaying the small band of drow and the kobold driver but as soon as they let their guard down to release the prisoners their charged from all sides by the Drow war party, our former heroes fight valiantly slaying most of the war party but sadly falling to the onslaught eventually.
After this laughably easy battle the players are welcome to loot the drow and the former party to prepare for the rest of the campaign the loot will include anything "confiscated" from the players, some general adventuring items (rope, healing potions, some gold, basic weapons/armor,etc.) a few magic items (mostly just the items the players gained if the previous campaign) and of course the crystals (which I'll have someone see after tghe basic looting) and the second someone touches it a "tear" forms and sucks the PCs into it.
Cordoba
The PCs get roughly thrown out of the "tear" which closes as they start to pick themselves back up , after regaining their senses the PCs can see that their just off a road (with a few sparce travelers) leading to a walled city is the distance and a nearby hut with a figure standing outside of it, other than that its pretty much a sprawkling hilly plains everyone where else.
Assuming the players head to the hut they'll be met by an elderly robed man trying to complete a puzzle and as the players approach the Man offers to trade them a pass into the city if they help him "Defeat" this puzzle....again assuming they agree the remaining puzzle pieces will come alive
Post-battle the players will have to assemble an actual puzzle (thinking like 50 - 100 pieces for time sake)
Than whther they talked to the old man or not I'll try to steer the players towards the city (if their hmmm...and hawing I'll likely have a merchant offer them a ride)
After arriving at the entrance to the city (which is closed) the PCs are approached by beggar-type character saying "Puzzles for the poor, puzzles for the poor" but he's quickly herded away by a city guard who turns to the PCs and exclaims "Welcome to El-Fishio, may I see your pass"
El-Fishio
Once the players gain access to El-Fishio they will be greeted by an entire society run by pzzules, basically any time a standard greeting is required (ie. Saying hello, knocking on a door, trading goods,etc.) it's replaced with a riddle, puzzle or similar with the outcome being postive if said "greeting" is resolved if not it can range from being not as good or to outright negative (ie. A person being slightly less friendly or getting thrown out of a shop)
We haven't discussed this bit enough but the gerneal idea is the party will spend time doinbg watever they want in town but will gain information about the "Puzzletorium" which is essentially sacred ground to these people and only the people deemed worthy/skilled enough to take on the puzzles within around allowed to enter, this will also be mixed in with a bunch of rumors of what the puzzletorium is protecting...most of it is bubcus as the puzzletorium has not been ever solved since its creation almost 500 years ago.
Also note that this society worships a god called Rubik and it's bellieved that while any good puzzler will be welcomed into his "kingdom" after they leave this stage of existence it's said that anyone who successfully makes it throught the puzzletorium will be greeted by Rubik himself and welcomed as one of his Prime-angels.
Puzzletorium Entrance
The PCs see 5 "Guards" One is the Mother "Gaia" the other 4 are her sons...when they approcach Gaia speaks...
...Gaia: I am Gaia and these are my four sons, Tell me what my Son's name's are and you may enter.
Here's a hint strange travelers, The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good.
Puzzletorium
As the player enter the hall they notice a plaque on the floor which basically lists of all the people thanked for their help in constucting the puzzletorium (All these names are minor gods among this societ), the plaque ends with something along the lines of "I shall be with you always, my friends" -Rubik-, anyways I plan for those names to be mostly funny with a few refernces thrown in.
When the PCs step further into the room (which is plain white with no windows or doors except the entrance) a white pedastool rises out of the floor and a "Sickly Green Gnomish like creature with large ears" appears before them and as they get closer they notice he is somewhat transparent (The puzzletorium has quite a few technologies that the society doesn't know how to use and believes that only the gods should so they are more of a mdeival type technology)
Anyways the hologram speaks (I'll be doing alot of actions and my co-DM as always will explaing in OOC terms what some of the stuff I'm saying is)
Hologram of Rubik: To the puzzletorium welcome. These 12 puzzles complete you must, gain access to the library you will.
Solve each puzzle you must, of the key obtain you will a single piece. All 12 pieces assemble you must. The key, place in the recess you will.
After this since the doors have appeared I pretty much assume the players will check out the pedastool (the hologram has since disapeared) and the doors. So if they approach the doors I'll show them a piece of paper with 12 symbols, one for each door..very simple pictures but are related to the puzzle inside...touching this symbol opens the door (i'll let them figure it out most likely but if their taking to long the hologram will tell them)
As for the puzzles themselves we've got about 4 of them figured out but the plan is to only have a few with combat (the combat being more of a distraction from the puzzle than an actual battle...ie. continued onslaught of mechanoid or golem minions) but this is mostly my Co-DMs area of expertise so I'm leaving it to her...after completing each puzzle the players and sweeped back to the central room (which is circular BTW) and the hologram presents a reward which is sitting on the pedastool (money, items, w/e)
After solving all twelve puzzles and assembling the key (which will be one of those actual brain teaser puzzles, so is solved IRL) the hologram will appear one last time saying somethng like "You have earned the right to meet Rubik" than implores the players to put the "key" on the pedastool (which actually has a small recess in it) and than somehow !Elavator! (were still discussing how to do this to suit the style so far)
When the players finish descedning in the elvator they come to a vast treasure room filled with gold, gems, and various magic items (our players have a gold cap cause they tend to be hoarders and refuse to spend money so this was implemented to encourage them to spend it and will make having piles of 100million bjillion gold fairly harmless) basically whatever or loot tables rustle up for them but there's also a very decrepit man sitting in the room who is slowly heading towards the PCs who can easily recognizze that he looks like the hologram from before but well...you know alive.
Assuming someone asks how old he is we'll have him say "Five"...get some odd reactions than say "oh right ummm...5 centuries i mean"..."Anyways I'd like to welcome you great puzzlers, feel free to take w/e you want this is your prize for completing the uncompletable...and I thank you because now I may rest" the players can talk to him for a bit but eventually Rubik just slumps over in his chiar and sleeps his final sleep (so yeah Rubik's not a god but luckily the puzzletorium resets itself so no shattring of societyies or anything :P)
Anyways after Rubik slumps over I'll ask for a perception roll and among all the riches there's a clearing with a single Crystal shard sitting on a Short Pillar in a metal um holder thing (yeah i'll find a name for it)...this will of course lead to the next world....which is as of yet undecided.
So...uh what do ya think?
It's 3am so I really gotta hit the hay...here's hoping I wake to some awesome feedback :D
Hey guys just finished up my little test campaign (well not so much finished as I did enough to get the feedback I wanted for my players) now this wasn't my first time DMIng but it WAS the first time I ever DMed my own campaign (with the help of my CO-DM) so I asked for my players patience and feedback and based on the feedback I'm starting over and adjusting to their preferences and some of my own personal feedback as well.
Anyways first off Ihave to say DMing is ALOT of work even for two people and having someone to bounc ideas off (ie. A Forum :P) of or having a more expereinced DM to run a different game (if you have games fairly regualrily) so you have more time to work on the campaign really helps out with making your campaign alot deeper and keep you a little more insane.
So as for the feedbacks here's the main points I got
- More Puzzles - Now this is one of the reasons I love having a CO-DM this is NOT my forte...she handles this kind of stuff
- More story based encounters - because I was trying to run a weekly-bi-weeklyish game I had alot of "side-quest" type encounters so sometimes we'd go weekends without any well story beyond the self-contained stories of said "side-quests"...now I'm not going to remove these entirely as they did seem to enjoy them but I'll keep em to a minimum and try to make em more relavent to the plot
- Setting was getting stale - Now this is actually an idea I had when I first started and was planning on having the "12 doors" of the puzzletorium (which used to be nown as the librabry and was in the swamp in Melonia) being dimensional rifts of some sort leading to puzzles...well lets just say iots not well thought out...but to keep things interesting (and to explain the ragtag group of homebrew class requests I was getting) I figured what-the-hell this is D&D there's multiple planes of existence...let's go plane hopping...now I'm pretty sure the planes I'm thinking of aren't canon but hey I think the DM will let me get away with it :P So far my ideas are, Steampunk Plane (this I'm actually going to using a friends campaign from 3.5 he didn't finish for some ideas), Puzzle Plane (see below), Obnoxiously good world, Evil World (like evil as in its fairly lawless but society is fairly standard, taverns, clothing stores,etc...sadly I don't really need to change much :P, Sci-Fi Plane and Western Plane but eventually I'll dream up more.
- They seem to enjoy my terrible, terrible acting and my bad impressions so guess I'll keep doing that than :P
Thats pretty much they main requests/feedback but I also learned alot not mentioned (also our group has almost doubled in size...my poor basement)
As for the players here's their custom class plans (with my input and approval of course):
Jedi: Thinking Swordmage/Psion with a little Paladin and Bladesinger - probably Defender w/ a side of controller (I invision a mobile fighter using stuff like force push, force jump,etc. to dominate the battlefield) not sure how marking would work though...could also make it more Leader focused but it's not the players style...likely Wisdom main with Int for the leader build (if made) than either Con as the main for the defender and Wis as the seondary
Time Lord (The Doctor) or Agent (Jack Harkness): Probably will take alot from Warlord with a little bard which is good since IMO the Leader role really suits Time Lords (well at least the doctor) whilst Time agents like Jack Harkness would be more of a Striker type. Either Charisma will likely be main, with either Wisdom or INt as the secondary for TL and Str or Dex as a secondary for TA.
Gunslinger (Western or Magitech): Either way it's definately striker...his guns I'll likely just have mimic X-Bows unless I can find or think of any cool ideas not sure on secondary stats...Main is Definately Dex
Gadgeteer: Trapsmith with "Other" as a type he's a little striker a little leader and a little controller with his "specialization" determining which role he ends up majoring in...I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with this guy but the general idea is gadgets, trapmaking, mech companion and giant cannon that takes either a standard or move action to reload (thinking either one shot per "cartridge" reload = move or 2 shots per "cartidge" but reload = standard) very similar to a homebrew from 3.5 of the same name...well "Ultimate Gadgeteer" but I can't find it anywhere...thinking main is Int with secondary being Str, Con or Wis (S, L, C respectiely)
The other four players are still thinking on it.
Anyways here's what I got storywise so far
Melonia
Our NEW (and completely unarmed) players awake in a prison to the sight of various creatures, very few of which they recognize (this will likely include each other)
Not long after the PCs wake a small troop of dark skinned creatures open a bunch of the cages dragging the PCs and a few other "creatures" out of the cages and after binding and gagging them they drag them down a pitch black hallway into a throne room where the troop of dark-skinned creatures is addresed by the commander
CO: The "Crystal Bearers" have been a thorn in my side for far too long and you pathetic excuses for Drow have done nothing to alleviate that thorn
Drow CO: We have noticed one weakness in the "Crystal Bearers", they can't help being the heroes, so let's help them "think" their rescuing some helpness prisoners than destroy them when their busy
The Drow Troop resumes dragging the PCs out of the Room back into the hall and out into a cave which is actually decently lit by the sun coming in from a few exits...the PCs get a decent veiw of a large army of drow preparing for going out into the light as well as various camps set-up (this is obviously far away from their home) but there shortly tossed into a caged cart and knocked out
The PCs slowly start to wake up and can hear the Drow talking for a bit about both their plan and who the crystal bearers are.
After running through the exposition dump the Drow will start arguing about something, than they drag the prisoners out of the cage and push them away from the cart into some boggy swamp water and start laughing as the "water" starts to move and take form
After that the Drow throw the battered and bruised PCs back in the cage and the PCs can see that this time only a few Drow are following along the with the cart and the large war party slinks of into the woods. Not long after this a battle cry can be heard as the "Crystal Bearers" charge in easily slaying the small band of drow and the kobold driver but as soon as they let their guard down to release the prisoners their charged from all sides by the Drow war party, our former heroes fight valiantly slaying most of the war party but sadly falling to the onslaught eventually.
After this laughably easy battle the players are welcome to loot the drow and the former party to prepare for the rest of the campaign the loot will include anything "confiscated" from the players, some general adventuring items (rope, healing potions, some gold, basic weapons/armor,etc.) a few magic items (mostly just the items the players gained if the previous campaign) and of course the crystals (which I'll have someone see after tghe basic looting) and the second someone touches it a "tear" forms and sucks the PCs into it.
Cordoba
The PCs get roughly thrown out of the "tear" which closes as they start to pick themselves back up , after regaining their senses the PCs can see that their just off a road (with a few sparce travelers) leading to a walled city is the distance and a nearby hut with a figure standing outside of it, other than that its pretty much a sprawkling hilly plains everyone where else.
Assuming the players head to the hut they'll be met by an elderly robed man trying to complete a puzzle and as the players approach the Man offers to trade them a pass into the city if they help him "Defeat" this puzzle....again assuming they agree the remaining puzzle pieces will come alive
Post-battle the players will have to assemble an actual puzzle (thinking like 50 - 100 pieces for time sake)
Than whther they talked to the old man or not I'll try to steer the players towards the city (if their hmmm...and hawing I'll likely have a merchant offer them a ride)
After arriving at the entrance to the city (which is closed) the PCs are approached by beggar-type character saying "Puzzles for the poor, puzzles for the poor" but he's quickly herded away by a city guard who turns to the PCs and exclaims "Welcome to El-Fishio, may I see your pass"
El-Fishio
Once the players gain access to El-Fishio they will be greeted by an entire society run by pzzules, basically any time a standard greeting is required (ie. Saying hello, knocking on a door, trading goods,etc.) it's replaced with a riddle, puzzle or similar with the outcome being postive if said "greeting" is resolved if not it can range from being not as good or to outright negative (ie. A person being slightly less friendly or getting thrown out of a shop)
We haven't discussed this bit enough but the gerneal idea is the party will spend time doinbg watever they want in town but will gain information about the "Puzzletorium" which is essentially sacred ground to these people and only the people deemed worthy/skilled enough to take on the puzzles within around allowed to enter, this will also be mixed in with a bunch of rumors of what the puzzletorium is protecting...most of it is bubcus as the puzzletorium has not been ever solved since its creation almost 500 years ago.
Also note that this society worships a god called Rubik and it's bellieved that while any good puzzler will be welcomed into his "kingdom" after they leave this stage of existence it's said that anyone who successfully makes it throught the puzzletorium will be greeted by Rubik himself and welcomed as one of his Prime-angels.
Puzzletorium Entrance
The PCs see 5 "Guards" One is the Mother "Gaia" the other 4 are her sons...when they approcach Gaia speaks...
...Gaia: I am Gaia and these are my four sons, Tell me what my Son's name's are and you may enter.
Here's a hint strange travelers, The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good.
Puzzletorium
As the player enter the hall they notice a plaque on the floor which basically lists of all the people thanked for their help in constucting the puzzletorium (All these names are minor gods among this societ), the plaque ends with something along the lines of "I shall be with you always, my friends" -Rubik-, anyways I plan for those names to be mostly funny with a few refernces thrown in.
When the PCs step further into the room (which is plain white with no windows or doors except the entrance) a white pedastool rises out of the floor and a "Sickly Green Gnomish like creature with large ears" appears before them and as they get closer they notice he is somewhat transparent (The puzzletorium has quite a few technologies that the society doesn't know how to use and believes that only the gods should so they are more of a mdeival type technology)
Anyways the hologram speaks (I'll be doing alot of actions and my co-DM as always will explaing in OOC terms what some of the stuff I'm saying is)
Hologram of Rubik: To the puzzletorium welcome. These 12 puzzles complete you must, gain access to the library you will.
Solve each puzzle you must, of the key obtain you will a single piece. All 12 pieces assemble you must. The key, place in the recess you will.
After this since the doors have appeared I pretty much assume the players will check out the pedastool (the hologram has since disapeared) and the doors. So if they approach the doors I'll show them a piece of paper with 12 symbols, one for each door..very simple pictures but are related to the puzzle inside...touching this symbol opens the door (i'll let them figure it out most likely but if their taking to long the hologram will tell them)
As for the puzzles themselves we've got about 4 of them figured out but the plan is to only have a few with combat (the combat being more of a distraction from the puzzle than an actual battle...ie. continued onslaught of mechanoid or golem minions) but this is mostly my Co-DMs area of expertise so I'm leaving it to her...after completing each puzzle the players and sweeped back to the central room (which is circular BTW) and the hologram presents a reward which is sitting on the pedastool (money, items, w/e)
After solving all twelve puzzles and assembling the key (which will be one of those actual brain teaser puzzles, so is solved IRL) the hologram will appear one last time saying somethng like "You have earned the right to meet Rubik" than implores the players to put the "key" on the pedastool (which actually has a small recess in it) and than somehow !Elavator! (were still discussing how to do this to suit the style so far)
When the players finish descedning in the elvator they come to a vast treasure room filled with gold, gems, and various magic items (our players have a gold cap cause they tend to be hoarders and refuse to spend money so this was implemented to encourage them to spend it and will make having piles of 100million bjillion gold fairly harmless) basically whatever or loot tables rustle up for them but there's also a very decrepit man sitting in the room who is slowly heading towards the PCs who can easily recognizze that he looks like the hologram from before but well...you know alive.
Assuming someone asks how old he is we'll have him say "Five"...get some odd reactions than say "oh right ummm...5 centuries i mean"..."Anyways I'd like to welcome you great puzzlers, feel free to take w/e you want this is your prize for completing the uncompletable...and I thank you because now I may rest" the players can talk to him for a bit but eventually Rubik just slumps over in his chiar and sleeps his final sleep (so yeah Rubik's not a god but luckily the puzzletorium resets itself so no shattring of societyies or anything :P)
Anyways after Rubik slumps over I'll ask for a perception roll and among all the riches there's a clearing with a single Crystal shard sitting on a Short Pillar in a metal um holder thing (yeah i'll find a name for it)...this will of course lead to the next world....which is as of yet undecided.
So...uh what do ya think?
It's 3am so I really gotta hit the hay...here's hoping I wake to some awesome feedback :D