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Someonelse
2013-08-19, 01:42 PM
Hello all
I'm going to be running DL1, Dragons of Despair soon and I was wondering how vital are the pregenerated characters? I know none of my players are going to want to play one. I also don't see them inviting Goldmoon to join them. Nor can I think of a good way to get them the staff. I was thinking of just gifting it to one PC, in the same way Goldmoon received it.

Will my players be at a disadvantage if they make all new characters?

Talakeal
2013-08-19, 01:57 PM
I ran the modules a few years back, and didn't have any problems with the players generating new characters. I just made sure that they were all from Solace and had many of the same background connections to NPCs that the pregen PCs had and it was no problem.

As for the staff, as healing is unavailable at the start of the game it is vital that any divine caster in the party start with the staff, both for narrative and gameplay reasons. I think I had the players witness the hobgoblins attacking Riverwind and Goldmoon and then intervening, the players killed the hobgoblins but it was too late to save the barbarians and the players then had to figure out what to do with the staff.

hamlet
2013-08-19, 02:26 PM
The module itself works fine without the pregens, though you will have to do some rejiggering of the story as it leans more and more heavily on the pregens as it goes on even to the point of character swapping as things move along.

Right up front, though, you just need to find a credible way to get the staff into the hands of the players along with some of the info that they'll need to actually pursue the rest of the adventure, i.e., that it came from Xak Tsaroth and that if they want to know more about it, they should probably go there.

Someonelse
2013-08-19, 07:38 PM
I am going to start with keep on the borderlands at first level (I'm using 3rd ed). The characters have spent 5 years seeking a sign of the true gods and have spent the winter in this keep. With the spring thaw comes adventure. I'm going to have the Cave of Mystery (which in the module is an open point to insert anything) be the lair of a red dragon of suitable size. They find the staff in his treasure hoard. After KotBL they finally return home and Dragon's of Despair begins

Another question, how does the XP scale in 3rd ed? I want to run DL1 through 15 but I want the PCs to not level up more than once per module. Right now I'm planning to just have a glass ceiling to levels and let them bank any excess XP for crafting purposes. (so during DL1 they can't hit 5th level until the module is complete, no matter how much XP they have)

JadedDM
2013-08-20, 11:22 AM
You might want to check out Dragons of Autumn, the 3E translation of the original DL modules 1-4. It suggests having the characters automatically level up once at the end of each module, basically ignoring XP altogether.

For magic item creation, it reads, "When using the advancement rules for Dragons of Autumn, the creation of magic items by heroes with Craft Item feats requires some adjustment. The heroes won’t have much time to make use of Craft Item feats; however, if the players want to create scrolls or potions, assume they have a “pool” of XP available to them based on their current character level. After each story arc is complete and the heroes advance a level, a new pool is made available. Unused XP from previous levels are carried over at a 5 to 1 ratio, so if 500 XP are left unused from a level once a character advances, only 100 XP are carried over."

The pools are given as follows:
Fifth level - 2,500 XP
Sixth level - 3,000 XP
Seventh level - 3,500 XP
Eight level - 4,000 XP
Ninth level - 4,500 XP
Tenth level - 5,000 XP