Thereddic
2015-04-19, 11:02 PM
So my university friends and I are all graduating right about now. Because we're all moving away from each other now, I proposed that we use an online D&D campaign to try and stay in contact and we all agreed it was good plan. The problem starts with the fact that only two of us really have any experience with D&D, myself and the other, much more experience player. We've tried to do campaigns before with the experienced player as DM, but scheduling was always an issue and we never got a campaign beyond 2 sessions. To rectify that, I'm the DM this time. The good news is that I'm good at molding my schedule, so I can generally always be around to run things. The bad news is I have no idea what I'm doing. For the record, you can skip to the paragraph that will have the first sentence bolded here if you don't want to read through my campaign lore. I tend to wall of text a lot, a bad habit I have trouble shaking.
I currently have a campaign base set up, although it only goes for one town so far as I didn't want to over plan, since my friends are all writers and I don't want to play the game of constraining them to my path. As it happens, the basic outline so far is thus: In the setting I'm developing, the dead have their souls sent to the domain of whichever god has the biggest claim to them. A patron of a certain civilization would likely get all the souls of the people who die there for example. One such civilization objected to this, leading a campaign that ended with the death of their god. Normally when a god dies or otherwise loses influence, the other gods step in and take over their domain. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to deal with team deicide, and so with no god to claim them the civilization was left with no future beyond the void.
Afraid of their fate, they turned themselves undead to put off the inevitable, but this was only a temporary solution, as the soul was not meant to be sustained for so long and they are decaying (hollowing, if it wasn't painfully obvious that I based them off of Dark Souls). They came up with a solution though, gods gain their power from the souls of the departed. Therefore, a high enough density of souls can theoretically be forged into a new god, one they can enslave and ensure a future for themselves without bound by the whims of the divine. To do this, they have set up powerful machines around the world that absorb the souls of anyone who dies nearby. The consequences of this aside, the PCs are tasked with finding out about the fact that any of this is happening (they undead civ began in ancient times, nobody knows they're still a thing, most don't know they ever existed.) and stopping them. Of course, 1st level characters aren't going to start on this immediately, they'll figure out something is going on in the sidelins as they do other quests in the world, which brings me to the start of the adventure.
The PCs will begin in city of adventure number 387, where a number of quests are available. The first is a merchant who is missing a shipment from a nearby village. The PCs are sent to investigate. When they arrive at the village, they find it deserted. If they look around, they can find the youngest of 3 sons of the lord of city 387 hiding in a building. He was returning home from college to visit only to find the village deserted, aside from several Hobgoblin bandits. At this point (or if the PCs wait long enough) a patrol of said hobs will show up. The PCs can either engage them in dialogue or confront them. If they confront, they can track down the lair of the hobs and bring them to justice. If they converse, they will find out that the hobgoblins are not responsible for the missing people, as they are a mercenary band that often buys supplies from them and were curious where they all went. Either way, they find the Hob's boss and either confront or discuss they situation with him. If the leader is killed, they can find a note detailing the hob's own investigation of the matter, leading them to a dungeon where the townsfolk are being held. If they converse with the leader, then the leader will tell them what he knows and they can join forces to investigate. The dungeon holds several mindless undead, the townsfolk all slaughtered in a strange ritual and a strange undead knight being confronted by a masked man (the BBEG). The BBEG flees the scene, leaving the PCs to deal with the knight.
The second plot hook (the one I'm more worried about) is that a nobleman from the rival family of another city is seeking mercenaries. The two cities in question are trying to repair their relations by sending teams of mixed forces to clear the countryside of bandits. Unfortunately, one of these bands has been reported to be in terrible danger, and are in need of assistance. The main issue is that the force is lead by the much beloved eldest son of city 387's nobility and his death will likely ruin any chance of alliance. The PCs are sent in to investigate wherein they will find monsters and the eldest son fighting for his life. The PCs will try and save him. Upon either saving him or failing to do so, the PCs will elave the dungeon, only to find the noble who hired them with a group of soldiers form city 387, with his own outfit matching them. The noble reveals he is the middle son trying to frame his brother's death on the other nobles to turn the rest of the kingdom against the family, as well as increase his own prestige. He has been convinced that this is a wise course of action by the BBEG, who will be accompanying him. The noble and BBEG leave again, sending the guards after the PCs and possibly the surviving eldest son. After the fight, the PCs will try and bring the middle son to justice, a task that may be easier if they have the friendship of either of the other sons. Alternatively, they might choose to flee, in which case I'll restructure the campaign to be more about their run from the law, or whatever other quests they find along the way. Either way, they then are likely suspicious of the BBEG, and will be contracted by whichever nobles remain to hunt him down. I haven't decided how this will go yet, but I feel that two campaigns with dungeons is already quite a substantial start.
Now I have a plan and I know what I need. The main problem is that I don't actually know how to set this up. How should I stat my enemies? Should I just use the mook stat array for all the non-elites? Should I be building them as if they were actual characters? What about the dungeons? I know I can use a generator for the basic map, but what about traps and the like? How many is too many? One of the players really wants puzzles to be implemented, but I'm not sure how to do that effectively. A lot of this is also made a bit difficult by the fact that one of the characters is a houseruled sprite (he was experienced and known to care more for story than gameplay, so I trust him not to be cheesy) which has a fly speed, so pitfalls and gaps are already broken. What about the undead and monster dungeons. Is there a good way to establish that? I know that CR is borked and the players are all mostly new to the system so I don't want to overwhelm them. How do I act when the PCs do something that I don't expect and I have nothing planned for what they've chosen? Yes I know I'm worrying too much, but I don't like learning through a bunch of failures. I'd rather have some basic knowledge to go off of and develop from there.
Also, the puzzle-loving PC is playing a ranger, but since he's coming from the tech area of the setting, I suggested he use a gun instead which he seems cool with. Rangers don't really have a gun fighting style though, does anyone have any advice for house ruling one?
Can anyone help me with the above problems? Sorry for the massive walls of text. It is my specialty. Beyond that, this is my first post so... Hello, one and all! Hopefully threads full of panic and excessive amounts of Times New Roman won't be my thing around here.
I currently have a campaign base set up, although it only goes for one town so far as I didn't want to over plan, since my friends are all writers and I don't want to play the game of constraining them to my path. As it happens, the basic outline so far is thus: In the setting I'm developing, the dead have their souls sent to the domain of whichever god has the biggest claim to them. A patron of a certain civilization would likely get all the souls of the people who die there for example. One such civilization objected to this, leading a campaign that ended with the death of their god. Normally when a god dies or otherwise loses influence, the other gods step in and take over their domain. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to deal with team deicide, and so with no god to claim them the civilization was left with no future beyond the void.
Afraid of their fate, they turned themselves undead to put off the inevitable, but this was only a temporary solution, as the soul was not meant to be sustained for so long and they are decaying (hollowing, if it wasn't painfully obvious that I based them off of Dark Souls). They came up with a solution though, gods gain their power from the souls of the departed. Therefore, a high enough density of souls can theoretically be forged into a new god, one they can enslave and ensure a future for themselves without bound by the whims of the divine. To do this, they have set up powerful machines around the world that absorb the souls of anyone who dies nearby. The consequences of this aside, the PCs are tasked with finding out about the fact that any of this is happening (they undead civ began in ancient times, nobody knows they're still a thing, most don't know they ever existed.) and stopping them. Of course, 1st level characters aren't going to start on this immediately, they'll figure out something is going on in the sidelins as they do other quests in the world, which brings me to the start of the adventure.
The PCs will begin in city of adventure number 387, where a number of quests are available. The first is a merchant who is missing a shipment from a nearby village. The PCs are sent to investigate. When they arrive at the village, they find it deserted. If they look around, they can find the youngest of 3 sons of the lord of city 387 hiding in a building. He was returning home from college to visit only to find the village deserted, aside from several Hobgoblin bandits. At this point (or if the PCs wait long enough) a patrol of said hobs will show up. The PCs can either engage them in dialogue or confront them. If they confront, they can track down the lair of the hobs and bring them to justice. If they converse, they will find out that the hobgoblins are not responsible for the missing people, as they are a mercenary band that often buys supplies from them and were curious where they all went. Either way, they find the Hob's boss and either confront or discuss they situation with him. If the leader is killed, they can find a note detailing the hob's own investigation of the matter, leading them to a dungeon where the townsfolk are being held. If they converse with the leader, then the leader will tell them what he knows and they can join forces to investigate. The dungeon holds several mindless undead, the townsfolk all slaughtered in a strange ritual and a strange undead knight being confronted by a masked man (the BBEG). The BBEG flees the scene, leaving the PCs to deal with the knight.
The second plot hook (the one I'm more worried about) is that a nobleman from the rival family of another city is seeking mercenaries. The two cities in question are trying to repair their relations by sending teams of mixed forces to clear the countryside of bandits. Unfortunately, one of these bands has been reported to be in terrible danger, and are in need of assistance. The main issue is that the force is lead by the much beloved eldest son of city 387's nobility and his death will likely ruin any chance of alliance. The PCs are sent in to investigate wherein they will find monsters and the eldest son fighting for his life. The PCs will try and save him. Upon either saving him or failing to do so, the PCs will elave the dungeon, only to find the noble who hired them with a group of soldiers form city 387, with his own outfit matching them. The noble reveals he is the middle son trying to frame his brother's death on the other nobles to turn the rest of the kingdom against the family, as well as increase his own prestige. He has been convinced that this is a wise course of action by the BBEG, who will be accompanying him. The noble and BBEG leave again, sending the guards after the PCs and possibly the surviving eldest son. After the fight, the PCs will try and bring the middle son to justice, a task that may be easier if they have the friendship of either of the other sons. Alternatively, they might choose to flee, in which case I'll restructure the campaign to be more about their run from the law, or whatever other quests they find along the way. Either way, they then are likely suspicious of the BBEG, and will be contracted by whichever nobles remain to hunt him down. I haven't decided how this will go yet, but I feel that two campaigns with dungeons is already quite a substantial start.
Now I have a plan and I know what I need. The main problem is that I don't actually know how to set this up. How should I stat my enemies? Should I just use the mook stat array for all the non-elites? Should I be building them as if they were actual characters? What about the dungeons? I know I can use a generator for the basic map, but what about traps and the like? How many is too many? One of the players really wants puzzles to be implemented, but I'm not sure how to do that effectively. A lot of this is also made a bit difficult by the fact that one of the characters is a houseruled sprite (he was experienced and known to care more for story than gameplay, so I trust him not to be cheesy) which has a fly speed, so pitfalls and gaps are already broken. What about the undead and monster dungeons. Is there a good way to establish that? I know that CR is borked and the players are all mostly new to the system so I don't want to overwhelm them. How do I act when the PCs do something that I don't expect and I have nothing planned for what they've chosen? Yes I know I'm worrying too much, but I don't like learning through a bunch of failures. I'd rather have some basic knowledge to go off of and develop from there.
Also, the puzzle-loving PC is playing a ranger, but since he's coming from the tech area of the setting, I suggested he use a gun instead which he seems cool with. Rangers don't really have a gun fighting style though, does anyone have any advice for house ruling one?
Can anyone help me with the above problems? Sorry for the massive walls of text. It is my specialty. Beyond that, this is my first post so... Hello, one and all! Hopefully threads full of panic and excessive amounts of Times New Roman won't be my thing around here.