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View Full Version : New campaign - thoughts, suggestions and ideas are welcomed



Leshy
2012-06-30, 02:05 PM
So, I was reading through the "most memorable campaign" thread and Lost Demiurge's post really got me interested. I really liked the concept of sandbox-styled campaign with a bunch of subplots and one big plot with BBEG to defeat at the end of the campaign. I'm about to DM a group in a few days, so this is a rough sketch of what I have built around that idea:

Back story/prologue:

There is this huge continent, with three kingdoms. Two of those three kingdoms are in war. The third kingdom has been invaded by orcs. Apparently, one of the orc's leaders has got his hands onto the ancient orcish artefact that granted him great power, ability to organize huge army and bla bla bla you know the rest... Kingdom tried to defend their teritory but apparently, some important-for-kingdome's welfare, powerful political people have been bribed by orcs to do the inside job and weaken kingdom's ability to defend itself.

Now, when the capital has been conquered, everyone started migrating to south (orcs attacked from north) and after a few more battles, only one city remained free. The most powerful wizards kingdom has have taken refugee in the city, and they are considering the options these people, and entire kingdom have. They came to conclusion that they can combine their magic knowledge to create gates/walls all around the city that orcs won't be able to go through (think Morrowind and that wall around Red Mountain), but they need more time, and the orcs are coming, regrouped and ready to conquer the city.

Generals agree that the only option is the suicide mission - they will lead whatever is left of the army against the orcs, they know they will die because of overhelming numbers against them, but they will try to keep them busy as long as it is possible, to give time for wizards to create the barrier.

So, soldiers died but succeeded in their mission, wizards successfully created the barrier and now the city is safe for the time being. That's where the main story starts.

(Now, the back story of the back story is much more complicated and PCs won't be familiar with it in the beginning, in short, evil lich/dragon/insert your favourite BBEG here caused the war between two kingdoms, so this third kingdom can't get help from the other two during orc invasion, and he also gave this artefact to the orc leader, and now he is waiting for the war between those two kingdoms to end and then he will raise a huge army and attack weakened kingdoms and destroy everything in his wake...)

Main story: PCs are basically trained skilled soldiers, and their task will be to leave the city, and to try to do something about the orcs. They will go around, exploring wilds, ruins, killing orcs and not only orcs, getting their hands onto the powerful swords, armors, rings, basically cleaning the kingdom. In the meantime, orcs being orcs, some tribes went on their own, some of the orcs decided THEY should be in charge, some smaller battles occured (which PCs find evidences of), and now basically it's a complete mess and chaos. So, PCs go further and further, becoming more powerful both their level and equipment wise, until finally they reach the capital and defeat the orc's leader. They of course think that he is the BBEG but no he is not. If they decide to interrogate him he eventually tells them about the real BBEG, if they doesn't they find some evidence about his existence anyway. They are now after him, but I haven't really worked out that part yet.

Thoughts?

Rallicus
2012-06-30, 04:24 PM
Sounds pretty generic. It's the age old formula: kill minions, get stronger, kill the bad guy, pull the curtain and find out he's a minion of an even badder guy.

Not saying it's bad, and you could probably make it into something interesting if you really play the "fish out of water" element with the characters venturing into a hostile, unsafe land, but I don't think I'd be impressed by a campaign like this. No offense.

Leshy
2012-06-30, 04:42 PM
Sounds pretty generic. It's the age old formula: kill minions, get stronger, kill the bad guy, pull the curtain and find out he's a minion of an even badder guy.

Not saying it's bad, and you could probably make it into something interesting if you really play the "fish out of water" element with the characters venturing into a hostile, unsafe land, but I don't think I'd be impressed by a campaign like this. No offense.

No problem, and thank you for your reply. I really wanted to do it this way because this kind of campaign will actually be real refreshment, considering that generally, campaigns this group play are typically scripted and truly generic with taverns, bartenders giving quests, corrupted politicians, stealing from those politicians, exploring dungeons and stuff... I really want to try this wilderness exploring, messed up teritory, sandbox style campaign, where players choose where are they going, when they are going. I'm aware that main plot is generic and weak, but the plan is to have a bunch of mini plots during explorations that should keep the players both busy and interested.

Once again, thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it :)

Vitruviansquid
2012-06-30, 06:10 PM
The address the problem of genericity (that's probably not a word... >_>) think up a couple of themes you want the campaign to explore and feelings you want the players to have while playing it, and then incorporate fluff and mechanical elements to suit.

Think, do you want your players to feel like Big Damn Heroes all the time? If so, give them adventures where they kill huge numbers of truly dastardly villains and save people in distress.

Do you want to make the horrors of war a theme in your campaign? If so, show scenes of battlefields littered with corpses, burnt settlements, and starving refugees.

Do you want to emphasize wilderness explorations? Make locations in the wilderness to explore and make up mechanics for lugging around supplies on the open road or trying to navigate in thick, dark woods.

Man on Fire
2012-06-30, 08:35 PM
Two suggestions

First, make the orcs a race of Proud Warriors, for whom fight is a manner of honor and has almost religious weigth. this will be more interesting than standard orcs doing WAAAGH!.

Second, make orc leader a pretty nice and reasonable guy who isn't conquering the world because he is evil, but because he belives that true king must be greater than his followers, to inspire them to greatness. And who's greater than the conqueror of the world? You may show him as guy inspiring loyality through respect, not fear. The tribes that rebelled did this because of jealousy, their leaders couldn't stand that king is greater than them.

kieza
2012-07-01, 05:37 PM
You could give the orcs a more complicated motivation for invading, such as having a longstanding animosity with this nation, or having recently been provoked. This doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't scary, though:

In my setting, the main reason that orcs and humans don't get along is that their brains literally work differently: while humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings have similar neurochemistry, orcs aren't remotely like them. Their adrenaline-analogue is much more potent, and it doesn't produce a "fight-or-flight" response--just a fight response. Essentially, if you tick off an orc--any orc--they fly into a berserker rage, no matter how much they consciously want to remain calm or avoid a fight. This means that orc culture is actually more restrained than human culture, because offending or accidentally injuring a fellow orc almost always leads to bloodshed. Among orcs, "he provoked me" is actually a valid defense against a murder charge. Most humans don't get this. When humans treat an orc like a fellow human, things like a punch on the shoulder, an ill-timed practical joke, or an unthinking insult at the wrong time can be enough to send an orc over the edge, and so human interactions with orcs almost always reinforce the idea that orcs are murderous savages. In turn, orcs, view humans as dangeously unrestrained invaders.

This is made worse because of the difference between orc and human styles of war: humans (and elves and dwarves and halflings), of course, embrace wars of attrition and subjugation, because humans are persistent; the only way to get a human to give up is to beat them down. Orcs, on the other hand, avoid prolonged conflicts, because they escalate very quickly between orcs. Orc warfare basically amounts to one massive engagement, after which the loser accedes to the victor. On the rare occasions when orcs get into lengthy conflicts, they usually end with one or both sides wiped out. Naturally, when orcs and humans fight, the humans see an orcish retreat as cowardice or an attempt to regroup for another attack, and they press the advantage. Orcs don't get this. To them, it looks like humans are merciless invaders who won't settle for just beating them, but want to wipe them out.

If you want to run with this, here's an idea: your ultimate villain has carefully "explained" the human viewpoint, subtly skewing it to give the orcs the impression that the only way to survive is to wipe out the humans, and he has given one chief who is less restrained than the others an artifact that attracts other orcs with similar attitudes. This chief then goes to war in the human fashion, intending to wipe out the humans once and for all. This panics the humans (after all, the orcs have never been this aggressive before), and the backlash draws other orcs into the fight. The prolonged nature of the war leads to a lot of ill-feeling on both sides, and among the orcs, this makes it very hard to consider a peace: every orc that has lost a loved one is now on a hair trigger whenever they encounter a human.

You can add in some aspects to your campaign, such as diplomatically eroding support for the aggressive warchief, convincing humans that orcs are as peaceful as they are, but with a radically different culture, and trying to end the conflict without wiping out the orcs.

Anxe
2012-07-01, 07:38 PM
I like Kieza's ideas. Never seen something like that before.

The original idea also seems very similar to Kingdoms of Kalamar's Kruk-Ma-Kali. Kruk-Ma-Kali is a hobgoblin king who conquered a good portion of the campaign setting using a magical artifact sword. The writers of the setting drew many parallels between Kruk-Ma-Kali and Alexander the Great. You may want to do that as well. Or perhaps a different real conqueror such as Genghis Khan.

I don't think you've fleshed out the war between the two other kingdoms enough yet. Why haven't they broken off to confront the encroaching orc problem? Why didn't the third kingdom get involved when their war started (Perhaps the orcs invaded at exactly the same time)? What separates the three kingdoms culturally? A few broad descriptions would be helpful.

That said, this campaign does sound cool. It could be fun or boring depending on how the DM does it. Considering that you're putting a lot of thought into it and asking for extra outside help, this will probably be a good setting for your group.

Leshy
2012-07-02, 05:27 AM
Yes, many great suggestions and ideas here. Thank you everyone. It seems that I'll have extra time to work on this campaign since I just found out that I'll be GMing two groups, and they want it to be in the same world. So I decided to not use this campaign for that, I find it too precious to use it for this because this thing with two groups will probably fail spectacularly after few weeks of playing. I don't want to waste this good idea on that :smallcool:

Man on Fire
2012-07-02, 06:18 AM
I think you actually should DM in this setting for two groups - nothing helps flesh out the idea as good game and you may use it to make it even better for next groups to come.

Leshy
2012-07-02, 06:40 AM
I think you actually should DM in this setting for two groups - nothing helps flesh out the idea as good game and you may use it to make it even better for next groups to come.

I agree, but there are no other or next groups to DM - everyone I have ever played with and I'll ever play with is in these two groups. I mean who knows, it is always possible that I move somewhere, but for the time being, this is the situation.

Also, groups want to compete against each other, and this campaign is more of an epic one where everyone should work toward the greater good.

Rallicus
2012-07-02, 09:14 AM
First, make the orcs a race of Proud Warriors, for whom fight is a manner of honor and has almost religious weigth. this will be more interesting than standard orcs doing WAAAGH!.


I don't think so, personally.

Orcs as proud warriors has been done nearly as much as orcs as savage beasts, if not more. Of course in the generic D&D world replace orc with "half-orc," but otherwise they're often considered proud and noble. Warcraft and Elder Scrolls comes to mind, and that's just off the top of my head.

Grail
2012-07-02, 09:26 AM
Get rid of the orc concept altogether. Proud warrior, brutal savage. Orc hordes are cliched out the wazoo. Make it Elves or Dwarves instead. Segregate the races completely, make them all paranoid xenophobic nutjobs. Seriously, all these sentient races competing for land and resources, they aren't going to get on.

Really want to make it memorable. The rampaging Halfling army of King Bibilbob who has finally had enough of the being forced to live on halfling reservations. He has finally done what no halfling chieftain has ever done before, and declared war, and not just any war, a war of global domination. :smallcool:

But in all seriousness, yeah - do away with the evil monstrous humanoid race and replace it with something more familiar. It'll work even better when you tell the players why they can't play Elves or Dwarves.

Leshy
2012-07-03, 10:22 AM
This thing is back on. There will still be two groups but they won't be in the same world. Well, they will play the same campaign but they won't be able to meet each other. It will be about "who gets further".

About orcs, I talked about it with the players, and they just love good old waagh orcs, dirty savages and they really enjoy to kick their asses.

Megasaber4000
2012-07-03, 11:16 AM
Well I like this idea is fine but it can be better.
suggestion or idea whatever
the party has to kill a slaver camp of gnolls
also maybe
Two teams
Team one (Half the party) has to lead a team of warforged or golems to destroy a long ship full of supplies.
Team two (Half of the party) has to take destroy the dock that ship was supposed to land.
Another idea is a mud hut village ha dug up a ruin with a possible counter artifact to the orc one.

Man on Fire
2012-07-03, 04:54 PM
You know, speaking of savage vs noble orcs - how about having both? Again, tying to my idea of orc leader, why not have him make Orc civilized and more disciplined - he learned from somebody (BBEG you mentioned) military strategy and tactics and now uses them, his Orcs marches like a soldiers, use clever tactics, never charge blindly and sometimes manage to defeat the enemy without fighting, by getting on superior position or using psychological warfare, hell, even use diplomacy. They also don't enslave conquered nations and races, but try to assimilate them on cultural level, leading to situation where many people living in conquered lands ends up in ther army, accepting new king and fighting among Orcs.

However there is large orc rebelion lead by Prophet proclaiming King to be heretic, apostate who tries to abbandon the old ways and will bring the rage of the gods on them all and the only way to save their souls is to kill heretics and bathe the land in non-orc blood. He is supported by several warlords who either belive him, are jealous of King's greatness, thinks that this whole "discipline" and "strategy" business is a waste of time or just wants to slaughter, burn, rape and eat their enemies without some smartass sending them to death for it.

If you play it well you may end up with party trapped in the middle of Orc Civil war, where they have to choose who back up - devil they know, savage orcs, or much more dangerous but not that bad in comparision proud warrior orcs. Former will unleash the greatest WAAGH! in history on civilized lands the moment king is dead, the latter will unite them into military force step by step conquering the lands. Considering your players preffer Savage Orcs, be prepared they side with prophet, which is why it's good king is backed by BBEG.

We should also focus on kingdoms - what can you tell us about them? What do you already have?

Leshy
2012-07-03, 05:44 PM
You know, speaking of savage vs noble orcs - how about having both? Again, tying to my idea of orc leader, why not have him make Orc civilized and more disciplined - he learned from somebody (BBEG you mentioned) military strategy and tactics and now uses them, his Orcs marches like a soldiers, use clever tactics, never charge blindly and sometimes manage to defeat the enemy without fighting, by getting on superior position or using psychological warfare, hell, even use diplomacy. They also don't enslave conquered nations and races, but try to assimilate them on cultural level, leading to situation where many people living in conquered lands ends up in ther army, accepting new king and fighting among Orcs.

However there is large orc rebelion lead by Prophet proclaiming King to be heretic, apostate who tries to abbandon the old ways and will bring the rage of the gods on them all and the only way to save their souls is to kill heretics and bathe the land in non-orc blood. He is supported by several warlords who either belive him, are jealous of King's greatness, thinks that this whole "discipline" and "strategy" business is a waste of time or just wants to slaughter, burn, rape and eat their enemies without some smartass sending them to death for it.

If you play it well you may end up with party trapped in the middle of Orc Civil war, where they have to choose who back up - devil they know, savage orcs, or much more dangerous but not that bad in comparision proud warrior orcs. Former will unleash the greatest WAAGH! in history on civilized lands the moment king is dead, the latter will unite them into military force step by step conquering the lands. Considering your players preffer Savage Orcs, be prepared they side with prophet, which is why it's good king is backed by BBEG.

I love this.


We should also focus on kingdoms - what can you tell us about them? What do you already have?

Well, I don't know how familiar you are with the real world politics, but these two kingdoms that are in war - imagine cold war part two, USA vs Russia. This third country that got invaded is a ally of one of the two kingdoms, say North Korea, and their aliies are focusing all their resources in war and can't help against invading. Like I already mentioned, war was provoked by BBEG by assassinating some important government people and making it look like the other kingdom did it.

Man on Fire
2012-07-03, 09:30 PM
I love this.

Happy to hear that.


Well, I don't know how familiar you are with the real world politics, but these two kingdoms that are in war - imagine cold war part two, USA vs Russia. This third country that got invaded is a ally of one of the two kingdoms, say North Korea, and their aliies are focusing all their resources in war and can't help against invading. Like I already mentioned, war was provoked by BBEG by assassinating some important government people and making it look like the other kingdom did it.

Hmmm, I would work on rivarly between two kingdoms in first place. I have some character ideas that you may find useful, let me do some base plotting together - grab anything from below you feel appriorate.

In both kingdoms BBEG killed the ruler her/himself, letting the crowns fall in the hands of daughter in first and son in second kingdom. Or the opposite, genders doesn't matter but I need way to reffer to them a Queen and King are simple.

New Queen is a kind and carying person. She sees her position as a duty, not privilege and cares deeply about her people. That way makes her suffer greetly - she is writing down names of every soldier killed, along their age and hometown and commits them to memory, no matter how much more painful it becomes with every day. She tried to avoid the war and is losing it, because BBEG quickly found a way to eliminate most military leaders and generals, so now three that are most important are:

- Female knight, who also serves as queens right hand and bodyguard, I will reffer to her as Gray Knight. She is extremely loyal to the queen and belives in honor and chilvary above everything else and is willing to sacrifice herself for the kingdom.

- Young and briliant man who had suprisingly quickly risen in the ranks during previous ruler's days, he may be in his twienties at best but is already general. I will call him White Knight. Known for his brilliant mind but also complete lack of mercy for the enemies, he strikes to deal them the biggest damage possible, no mater how many may die for it.

- Mysterious leader of mecenary company that has offered his services during the war. He is always wearing a maks, because of having his face horribly scarred. I will call him Red Knight. He is also brilliant strategist, but not as much as White Knight, but is known for using the most deffensive tactic, accomplishing the obiectives quickly and with as small loss on both sides as possible.

Those three are known for conflicting and clashing between each other. Gray Knight despises tactics deployed by White and Red Knight all the time and both of them consider her idealism outdated and out of place. However, neither of them trust each other. In fact, no one trusts Red Knight, everybody treats him as necessary evil they have to tolerate because they're short on competent leaders. White Knight is in better position, because he had become closer to the Queen, serving her as moral support and friend she needs in those hard times.

Now, the second kingdom. Previous ruler has been seen being murdered by BBEG, who had taken the form of Gray Knight, knowing that many among the withnesses knew her personally. It was soon after oldest son and rightful heir to the throne has been killed in huge explosion of kingdom alchemist's lab, which is also blamed on other kingdom as asassination attempt. New King is young man who never really wanted to rule but wanted to live saint's life and has no idea how to be a king because he never would - it was always his brother's destiny. He is lost and easy to manipulate. Which makes him targt for the Leader of kingdom's elite fraction of Magical Knights (I think of them asl Eldritch Knights and similiar guys), cruel and powerul man, who managed to get into position of kings right hand man and uses his lack of experience to manipulate him into letting his fraction gain more power over others and get away with all abuses of power. He is slowly trying to estabilish a dictatorship ruled by iron fist, where people's lives are controlled to tiniest bit and military machine if marching foward. He is constantly fighting with other generals to gain more control over army and start his plan of total war.

Other important man is king's personal Guardian, knight who ha been known for his undying loyalty and devotion to the king, high values of honor of the knight as well as long-running rivarly with Gray Knight, full of mutual respect and admiration. Of course until he saw "her" murdering the king and had sworn revenge on her.

There is also Baroness (I'm runningo ut of nicknames), young and idealistic woman who had become head of most powerful noble house in the kingdom after BBEG had offed her father. BBEG though of her being timid and easy to intimidate and manipulate, but he was wrong - she is very resoruceful and clever and is probably now the only person keeping king from succumbing to Leader's manipulations.

This should give you enough to make a lot of plot hooks once the party starts interacting with political powers and considering you want high fantasy type story, it will happen sooner than later.

Some bonus ideas for "big reveals":
White Knight or Leader or both are really BBEG in disguise trying to push both kingdoms more into total war.
Red Knight is really pressumed dead rightful heir of second kingdom's throne, he survived attempt at killing him and forged himself secret idientity and is trying to discover BBEG's plot. this one would work well with "White Knight is BBEG", with party trapped in their game of "who will get who".


It became larger than I expected, I had a lot more ideas for game characters I haven't what to do with, sorry if I went overboard.

Leshy
2012-07-04, 04:48 AM
Hmmm, I would work on rivarly between two kingdoms in first place. I have some character ideas that you may find useful, let me do some base plotting together - grab anything from below you feel appriorate.

In both kingdoms BBEG killed the ruler her/himself, letting the crowns fall in the hands of daughter in first and son in second kingdom. Or the opposite, genders doesn't matter but I need way to reffer to them a Queen and King are simple.

New Queen is a kind and carying person. She sees her position as a duty, not privilege and cares deeply about her people. That way makes her suffer greetly - she is writing down names of every soldier killed, along their age and hometown and commits them to memory, no matter how much more painful it becomes with every day. She tried to avoid the war and is losing it, because BBEG quickly found a way to eliminate most military leaders and generals, so now three that are most important are:

- Female knight, who also serves as queens right hand and bodyguard, I will reffer to her as Gray Knight. She is extremely loyal to the queen and belives in honor and chilvary above everything else and is willing to sacrifice herself for the kingdom.

- Young and briliant man who had suprisingly quickly risen in the ranks during previous ruler's days, he may be in his twienties at best but is already general. I will call him White Knight. Known for his brilliant mind but also complete lack of mercy for the enemies, he strikes to deal them the biggest damage possible, no mater how many may die for it.

- Mysterious leader of mecenary company that has offered his services during the war. He is always wearing a maks, because of having his face horribly scarred. I will call him Red Knight. He is also brilliant strategist, but not as much as White Knight, but is known for using the most deffensive tactic, accomplishing the obiectives quickly and with as small loss on both sides as possible.

Those three are known for conflicting and clashing between each other. Gray Knight despises tactics deployed by White and Red Knight all the time and both of them consider her idealism outdated and out of place. However, neither of them trust each other. In fact, no one trusts Red Knight, everybody treats him as necessary evil they have to tolerate because they're short on competent leaders. White Knight is in better position, because he had become closer to the Queen, serving her as moral support and friend she needs in those hard times.

Now, the second kingdom. Previous ruler has been seen being murdered by BBEG, who had taken the form of Gray Knight, knowing that many among the withnesses knew her personally. It was soon after oldest son and rightful heir to the throne has been killed in huge explosion of kingdom alchemist's lab, which is also blamed on other kingdom as asassination attempt. New King is young man who never really wanted to rule but wanted to live saint's life and has no idea how to be a king because he never would - it was always his brother's destiny. He is lost and easy to manipulate. Which makes him targt for the Leader of kingdom's elite fraction of Magical Knights (I think of them asl Eldritch Knights and similiar guys), cruel and powerul man, who managed to get into position of kings right hand man and uses his lack of experience to manipulate him into letting his fraction gain more power over others and get away with all abuses of power. He is slowly trying to estabilish a dictatorship ruled by iron fist, where people's lives are controlled to tiniest bit and military machine if marching foward. He is constantly fighting with other generals to gain more control over army and start his plan of total war.

Other important man is king's personal Guardian, knight who ha been known for his undying loyalty and devotion to the king, high values of honor of the knight as well as long-running rivarly with Gray Knight, full of mutual respect and admiration. Of course until he saw "her" murdering the king and had sworn revenge on her.

There is also Baroness (I'm runningo ut of nicknames), young and idealistic woman who had become head of most powerful noble house in the kingdom after BBEG had offed her father. BBEG though of her being timid and easy to intimidate and manipulate, but he was wrong - she is very resoruceful and clever and is probably now the only person keeping king from succumbing to Leader's manipulations.

This should give you enough to make a lot of plot hooks once the party starts interacting with political powers and considering you want high fantasy type story, it will happen sooner than later.

Some bonus ideas for "big reveals":
White Knight or Leader or both are really BBEG in disguise trying to push both kingdoms more into total war.
Red Knight is really pressumed dead rightful heir of second kingdom's throne, he survived attempt at killing him and forged himself secret idientity and is trying to discover BBEG's plot. this one would work well with "White Knight is BBEG", with party trapped in their game of "who will get who".


Sounds like something from 24 and I like 24 :smallbiggrin: Seriously, I almost feel guilty about using this, you did a great job working this out man. Thanks.

Man on Fire
2012-07-04, 06:37 AM
Don't worry, chance I will ever DM anything are very low and this way at least those ideas won't go to waste.

Leshy
2012-07-09, 11:28 AM
Update:

Group A had one session so far, they also played first. They started from down south, started exploring, they found evidence of both humans vs orcs and orcs vs orcs battles, killed a few hobgoblins, even two orcs, got through their first dungeon, successfully killed dungeon boss (giant black widow spider) and ended their session there.

Group B had two sessions. In the first session they did literally everything same except they didn't kill those two orcs. Ok, now the interesting part begins.

In the second session, they stumbled across old cabin deep in the wood with two humans in front of it. It turned out they are kind of resistance, they have like 30 members and they basically kill every orc they stumble upon in that forest and forest west of it. Players are like, ok, later, and while exploring aforementioned west forest, they spot orc dragging human body. They kill him, they find 4 more human bodies (obviously resistance men) ,and they find tracks of four more orcs. They start going after them and after a while they spot two orcs, kill one of them and interrogate other. He says them about orcish base near by with around 10 members in it.

They return the bodies to the cabin, and let the resistance men know about the base. Boss agrees to go with PCs to win the orcish base (basically a farm with three buildings). So, it's 4 PCs, and five NPCs (three swordsmen and two archers).

Once they reached the base, they waited for five orcs to leave the base, so they can kill 5 remaining inside, and once these other 5 come back they kill them too. Long story short, They killed 5 orcs in the base but two NPC swordsmen died in the battle.

5 orcs returning noticed something is wrong and they decided to split, three with greataxes entered farm from east and two with great crossbows entered farm from west. They notice players, players and NPCs notice them. In that moment, ranger in the party and resistance men boss start arguing about tactics and start a fight, everyone around gets involved and players successfully kill both boss and two archers without getting a hit. But now it's 5 orcs vs 4 PCs and long story short, they all died :smallbiggrin:

Tomorrow, group A have their second session. I wonder if they will die too :smallcool: