Valtu
2014-04-19, 10:22 AM
If you look down in my sig, you'll see a link to our group's current
setup (The Rotating DM thread).
Sorry if this post will be a bit verbose. I'm going to use spoiler tags to try mitigate the excessive length.
Anyway, with the pace we've agreed to concerning our party's leveling, we will all be 4th level by the time it's my turn to DM. I had an idea for something, but I'd like some feedback, both on the idea
itself, and also what level it may be appropriate for. Oh, just one more detail, each DM will have 3 or less sessions to work with (less is fine, but we've agreed to not stretch any of our mini-campaigns over 3 of them if we can help it).
General Setting Details:
The loose story element holding our mini-campaigns together is that we're part of an elite group that various kingdoms on the continent hire to solve their problems (or we may just respond to the problems as we find out about them, regardless of money). Basically we're kind of a special forces team, or like a nomadic X-Men. :smalltongue:
Balancing Isses:
Our group is not big on optimization, and 2 of our members are first time players, but. . . the way we rolled up ability scores may make this more of a problem to deal with. We used the matrix-method, where you roll like normal, but you roll 6 scores 6 times, so you end up with a square, then you choose the best combo of scores within a straight line.
The part that makes things a little crazy, is that it was decided (not by myself) that we would re-roll 1's and 2's both, every time (not just once), so the minimum score possible was 9, and if you rolled an 18 on the first roll (3 6's), then you rolled the 4th d6 again and added whatever came up to it (for a max score of 24!). It's like a critical with ability scores. So the few things we agreed to in order to have more balance with this campaign than our previous one, (like actually paying attention to appropriate amounts of gold per encounter, whereas before we were so wealthy it was insane), are a bit undermined by 3 (at least) of our 6 person party having an ability score of 20+
We don't have any magic items yet, but we will be able to obtain them, so this will be more inflated as things go on. Half of our party will always hit, with a primary stat at +20 range, but the other half of the party, while having very good scores (all 12's or above, probably median 15 across the entire group), will at least be closer to normal.
I may be over-estimating the effect of this, and I'm sure at higher levels this will taper off quite a lot, but these earlier levels may be tough to plan for, especially with all of us DM'ing for the first time.
If you actually read all of this, many thanks for simply enduring all of it hahaha.
So my idea is this (just a rough outline):
1. We find out that a string of abductions has taken place in a particular area recently.
2. We arrive and investigate by talking to various townspeople and that kind of thing (our party did almost no real role-play last campaign, so trying to remedy that a bit).
3. Ideally, the party will come to the conclusion that a cult is behind the disappearances, and the party will learn that those kidnapped were all extraordinary in one way or another, basically they were chosen for having a very high ability score (I'll find a more RP-appropriate way to say this in the actual campaign, of course).
4. Using this knowledge and the process of elimination based on what extraordinary attribute the victims each possessed, the party should, through interacting with enough of the local residents, be able to locate someone with whatever ability is missing, and then attempt to intervene in their abduction.
5. Whether it is a failure or success, the party will either tail the kidnappers back to their lair, or question one who is injured or captured during the fight, if they are able to intervene in time. When they arrive, they'll fight their way through some cavernous sort of area and discover that the cult abducted these people in order to ritually sacrifice them and bring about the resurrection of some sort of evil so-and-so.
6. The idea is that the evil whoever-it-is desired to be resurrected into a state of perfection, drawing all of its attributes from the individual victims during the sacrifice (if the party can somehow prevent the ritual from taking place completely, he may appear malformed and at a disadvantage).
So. . .what do you think of the idea in general? Obviously this is far from finished, very much at the brainstorm phase, and just as importantly. . . .if this idea is decent, (if), then is it something I could viably do well with a level 4 party, considering that half of our party is pretty extraordinary to begin with? It may be easier to save for a higher level, but I like that this would involve a lot of role-play and information gathering, which is something that as a group we've all wanted to do more of (our last campaign was almost solely combat).
setup (The Rotating DM thread).
Sorry if this post will be a bit verbose. I'm going to use spoiler tags to try mitigate the excessive length.
Anyway, with the pace we've agreed to concerning our party's leveling, we will all be 4th level by the time it's my turn to DM. I had an idea for something, but I'd like some feedback, both on the idea
itself, and also what level it may be appropriate for. Oh, just one more detail, each DM will have 3 or less sessions to work with (less is fine, but we've agreed to not stretch any of our mini-campaigns over 3 of them if we can help it).
General Setting Details:
The loose story element holding our mini-campaigns together is that we're part of an elite group that various kingdoms on the continent hire to solve their problems (or we may just respond to the problems as we find out about them, regardless of money). Basically we're kind of a special forces team, or like a nomadic X-Men. :smalltongue:
Balancing Isses:
Our group is not big on optimization, and 2 of our members are first time players, but. . . the way we rolled up ability scores may make this more of a problem to deal with. We used the matrix-method, where you roll like normal, but you roll 6 scores 6 times, so you end up with a square, then you choose the best combo of scores within a straight line.
The part that makes things a little crazy, is that it was decided (not by myself) that we would re-roll 1's and 2's both, every time (not just once), so the minimum score possible was 9, and if you rolled an 18 on the first roll (3 6's), then you rolled the 4th d6 again and added whatever came up to it (for a max score of 24!). It's like a critical with ability scores. So the few things we agreed to in order to have more balance with this campaign than our previous one, (like actually paying attention to appropriate amounts of gold per encounter, whereas before we were so wealthy it was insane), are a bit undermined by 3 (at least) of our 6 person party having an ability score of 20+
We don't have any magic items yet, but we will be able to obtain them, so this will be more inflated as things go on. Half of our party will always hit, with a primary stat at +20 range, but the other half of the party, while having very good scores (all 12's or above, probably median 15 across the entire group), will at least be closer to normal.
I may be over-estimating the effect of this, and I'm sure at higher levels this will taper off quite a lot, but these earlier levels may be tough to plan for, especially with all of us DM'ing for the first time.
If you actually read all of this, many thanks for simply enduring all of it hahaha.
So my idea is this (just a rough outline):
1. We find out that a string of abductions has taken place in a particular area recently.
2. We arrive and investigate by talking to various townspeople and that kind of thing (our party did almost no real role-play last campaign, so trying to remedy that a bit).
3. Ideally, the party will come to the conclusion that a cult is behind the disappearances, and the party will learn that those kidnapped were all extraordinary in one way or another, basically they were chosen for having a very high ability score (I'll find a more RP-appropriate way to say this in the actual campaign, of course).
4. Using this knowledge and the process of elimination based on what extraordinary attribute the victims each possessed, the party should, through interacting with enough of the local residents, be able to locate someone with whatever ability is missing, and then attempt to intervene in their abduction.
5. Whether it is a failure or success, the party will either tail the kidnappers back to their lair, or question one who is injured or captured during the fight, if they are able to intervene in time. When they arrive, they'll fight their way through some cavernous sort of area and discover that the cult abducted these people in order to ritually sacrifice them and bring about the resurrection of some sort of evil so-and-so.
6. The idea is that the evil whoever-it-is desired to be resurrected into a state of perfection, drawing all of its attributes from the individual victims during the sacrifice (if the party can somehow prevent the ritual from taking place completely, he may appear malformed and at a disadvantage).
So. . .what do you think of the idea in general? Obviously this is far from finished, very much at the brainstorm phase, and just as importantly. . . .if this idea is decent, (if), then is it something I could viably do well with a level 4 party, considering that half of our party is pretty extraordinary to begin with? It may be easier to save for a higher level, but I like that this would involve a lot of role-play and information gathering, which is something that as a group we've all wanted to do more of (our last campaign was almost solely combat).