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View Full Version : Up for review: my first d&d campaign plot.



BenShums
2013-06-14, 11:09 PM
So in about a week I'm going to try my hand DM-ing for the very first time with a bunch of strangers on Roll20.net.

What do you guys think of my plot so far?
1. There's an add posted in The Jolly Fatman Tavern, "Now hiring: City Militias. Tryouts are this Tuesday, high noon." The players (who don't know each other yet) arrive there and meet a lovely enchantress Desdimona who, despite her looks, has a gruff and battle-worn personality. She's also taken aback anytime someone underestimates her for being a woman. She's skeptical of the party's combat skills, but then an enormously fat and disgusting orc bursts into the Tavern exclaiming "Ale! I want Ale!" Eyeing the crates of ale behind Desdimona, the orc rushes straight toward her, throwing an unfortunate peasant across the room on his way. Roll initiative. After the battle, Desdimona is impressed. She tells you there's a rumor going around that a group of bandits are plotting to attack the aristocracy. She needs spies to find their hideout, infiltrate their ranks, and discover their plans and weaknesses.

2. Upon discovering the bandits hideout, the party learns that the only way to join their league is to pass a test. <insert gaming session here where the party fights a ton of badguys in a dungeon>. After surviving the test, the bandits tell the party about the evil back-dealings of the ruling aristocracy (I don't know exactly what these will be yet). The bandits ask the main characters to spy on desdimona for them, making our heroes caught between whether they should trust these bandits and help them out, or retain their allegiance to Desdimona. Meanwhile people have been turning up dead randomly across the city....




I don't know where to go from there, but I figure I'll wait until my players make it that far to get a sense of what kind of plot will ensue.

Do you guys have any thoughts on how I can make the plot better, perhaps a catchier hook? Also, any advice on improvising should the party go off course? Any ideas on how I can enhance the player's roleplaying possibilities? Any quirky details I could throw in?

The Fury
2013-06-14, 11:32 PM
So far it's at least serviceable. Though with 2.) Any time you want the players to feel like they need to make a hard choice, (in this case siding with either Desdemona or the bandits,) You should take care to make both sides seem reasonable. Without some additional characterization it would be easy for the party to side with Desdemona because, after all, "They're just bandits right?"
Though if some of the bandits came off as more like Robin Hood and add hints that at least some of the Nobility are not as honorable as they seem the choice becomes a lot harder.
Also, does Desdemona have a title herself? If she does I'd have that mentioned to the PCs just as something that informs the character and her connection to the aristocracy.

Edit: Also, do you have some ideas about the people showing up dead? Like what kinds of people, how they were killed and whatnot? Generally PCs will try to look for patterns when something like this comes up, so it's a good idea to start thinking of one.

Kol Korran
2013-06-15, 12:05 AM
So in about a week I'm going to try my hand DM-ing for the very first time with a bunch of strangers on Roll20.net. Welcome to DMing! the role can be tricky, but if you're into it and willing to learn and improve you'll do fine.


What do you guys think of my plot so far?
1. There's an add posted in The Jolly Fatman Tavern, "Now hiring: City Militias. Tryouts are this Tuesday, high noon." Hmmm, are you sure the players will bite this? There is usually an unspoken agreement between players and DM (especially new DMs) to try and follow the initial hook the DM gives, but not all players do that. And besides, it may not fit well with the personalities and background of the characters, and thus feel somewhat forced. My suggestions:
1) Tell the players that they will be joining the militia at the start of the game, and ask THEM to make their characters in a way that they might seek to do so, at least to start with. That will bring them more prepared and ready.
2) Try to learn what the players are interested in, and if at all possible, their characters as well, and try and insert odd bits that appeal to them. A guy likes killing stuff? "Join the Militia, we need hardy men for the job can include violence, lots of it!" Some one wants to join the nobility? "The unit will be headed by the illustrious Sir Jeremiah stuffs-his-nose" Someone particularily believes in a specific god? "The efforts of the militia are sopnsored by the church of the holy potatoes, may they guide our paths always" and so on...
3) Make it more exciting! this is an adventure game! currently you're describing going to a job interview, and job interviews can be... boring... So what if they are hiring to the local militia? What's the urgency? Where is the fire? There should Always be a fire!" How about the following:
"Hard times have befallen the kingodm of X. Due to (political tension, monsters, a raiding horde, whatever) Most defensive forces have been called out from the outer regions, and small towns were left to defend for themselves for the time being. In (your settlement here) even more trouble have struck- bandits, some marauding monsters in the woods, and what seems like rising local unrest, made the town's Sheriff (or that lady) put a call for strong people, capable people, competent people to join the local militia, help calm down the spirits, and prevent the settlement going into Chaos. But there may be darker things afoot, just starting to emerge... Where will you stand?"


The players (who don't know each other yet)
Any particular reasons forthem not knowing each other? If you can, have them know each other before hand- saves a whole deal of trouble.


The Jolly Fatman Tavern I know that tavern are a staple of gaming, but I'd suggest trying something different, something that will look more serious, that might give the party a feeling that this is more important than just a tavern meeting.


then an enormously fat and disgusting orc bursts into the Tavern exclaiming "Ale! I want Ale!" Eyeing the crates of ale behind Desdimona, the orc rushes straight toward her, throwing an unfortunate peasant across the room on his way. Roll initiative. This is the first battle! it should be more exciting than a poor orc, drunk to boot, who just wants a drink! Also, if I was an employer I wouldn't be that impressed. What if you instead put a rival group of would-be-militia-people, and Desdimona decides to let them duke it out, non lethally of course (she could have a healer present). This feels much more impressive.
Plus- a single drunk orc might easily fall to a single spell, making it far less convincing that she was impressed. a small party might take a bit more to deal with. Also- this group might end up as a returning NPC group (or at least a part of it), who might oppose or ally with the PCs later on.


After the battle, Desdimona is impressed. She tells you there's a rumor going around that a group of bandits are plotting to attack the aristocracy. She needs spies to find their hideout, infiltrate their ranks, and discover their plans and weaknesses. This is good, just remember that many people's approach would be to just get and kill all the bandits. Some players don't get the subtelty of "ask first, fight later" :smalltongue:


2. Upon discovering the bandits hideout, the party learns that the only way to join their league is to pass a test. <insert gaming session here where the party fights a ton of badguys in a dungeon>. Who are these bad guys? Why should the party try and kill them? And why shouldn't the party just head back once they have discovered the hide out and inform the aristocracy? Or try and kill them themselves? From what you wrote I assume that is a possibility, so what stops them doing that from the get go?

The bandits ask the main characters to spy on desdimona for them, making our heroes caught between whether they should trust these bandits and help them out, or retain their allegiance to Desdimona.
This is a nice twist indeed! Nicely planned!


I don't know where to go from there, but I figure I'll wait until my players make it that far to get a sense of what kind of plot will ensue. I think you got enough to start with, more Ideas will pop up as you play along. Try to tie up ideas to the characters and players preferences, and you'll do well. The people disappearing could mean a lot of stuff, so I'll leave that up to you- from the aristocrats? From a monsters who can look humanoid? Some other threat?


Also, any advice on improvising should the party go off course? This is always tricky. My advice is to design situations, not adventures- design a situation with some conflicts, some locals, and the pieces that are important to this. Know them well, but then just react to the PC's actions. If you know the general layout of the situation well enough, than you can improvise with in it. I usually try to think of 2-3 common ways the party can approach things, and 2-3 ways they can seriously mess things up, and think what would happen, if possibly- what could ENTERTAININGLY happen... But I won't lie to you- my players still manage to surprise me! (And I've been DMing for quite a long time!) It's quite ok to smile, clap your hands, and say "Well, I'll hand it to you guys, that was masterfully done! I never expected this to happen! Now that will make things quite more interesting! Give me 15 minutes to think up something. I could just put something up, but then it would be poorly done and not that fun, give me a few more minutes" And then take 2-3 minutes to think of an interesting twist this could have made, sketch down some mechanics, some stats and so on (Don't be afraid to take your plot in TOTALLY different directions), and roll with it!

Another way is to prepare fall backs- some sort of encounters/ adventures you prepare before hand but which can be inserted in most places. The important thing is to invest in this fall backs, make them entertaining and engaging, and not just "ok, so you fight CR appropriate monster X"- it may feel like a filler, but make it a fun and interesting filler. I usually throw in the odd balls and strange stuff here (A strange merchant that can graft a beast's part, including some minor powers, to the PCs bodies, in exchange for... something? Or an encounter with elusive fey that play trick after trick with the PCs, requiring a playful game/ counter trick to get rid off? Or the attack of a flying more powerful monsters upon town, which the PCs can't directly fight due to it's power, but sudden clues lead to it looking for it's egg, that was snatched? (Chimera, Yrthrak, Roc and so on?)

Anyway, I hope you don't get my comments as harmful criticism, it's not. I still ask questions, and I still get lots of comments. This is how we (You and I, and many others) Learn and share our creativity here. You seem to have a plan, enthusiasm, and desire to make a good fun game. Those are the most important things, so go forth! :smallsmile: