illequidam
2016-04-25, 02:33 PM
Hi!
I'm DMing (for the first time) an extremely casual one-sitting game of Dnd3.5 in a few weeks. We're many (~6-8) and not very experienced (with the exception of one guy, who's committed to minmaxing and tanking for everyone) and I'm essentially relying more heavily on roleplaying than mechanics for a lot of it (see below, tree spirit and NPC stuff). I was comforted by our resident RP veteran with the words "Just roll a D20 if something has a chance of failing, and you'll be fine". I used to write stories a lot, so I'm having a fun time making up everything.
I have a specific question and a request for general advice. BEHOLD THE PLOT!
I plan to start the (~lvl5) players off showing up at a dispute between two NPCs, who have killed each other's spouses. Specifically, I'll introduce each NPC separately and players will run into one or the other NPC, with a chance to introduce themselves and banter for a little bit, before the two parties will bump into each other and the two NPCs will start shouting at each other and fill in their backstories.
The NPCs and the players will be attacked by a demon, and fight it off in a fairly easy battle. The two NPCs will then declare their intentions to go to the source of the demons, which they suspect to be the cave in the middle of the forest. One NPC will go the longer, safer path and along the way buy potions at a nearby trading post. The other will go straight through the woods, more dangerously, and pass by a magical tree spirit that can buff their weapons. The players can choose who to go with and I'm assuming this will divide the party in two more manageable parties. Team Danger will have ~2 encounters, plus the forest spirit, whereas Team Safety gets to buy potions and have one encounter. [Edit: eh, 1 or 2 between the two of them.] If they all go the same way, I would increase the number of encounters, I guess. In any case, along the way the guide NPC will fill in more backstory somewhat cryptically about how they feel justified in having killed the other's spouse, and describe having felt a superhuman anger.
Once the reach the small town in the center of the town they will have the chance to buy some stuff and sleep for the night, (and possibly regroup if the party split). The townspeople will talk about how they're protected from the demons by a character called The Architect, who expanded the local mines but found something called the Energy Nexus deep inside of it. If they inquire enough they'll get hints that The Architect is an evil and powerful sorcerer, and the allegedly dead spouse of one of the NPCs.
In the mine dungeon they'll fight some stuff, and I'll start splitting the NPCs away from the party (any maybe dividing the players) with metal walls that shut off passageways while the party is walking through them. After stripping away the NPCs there will be an unsolvable trap [edit: diffucult but solveable trap, help is useful but not absolutely needed] where the players are eventually saved by a tall barbarian woman, who is the other allegedly dead spouse, secretly a Succubus (quite a damsel in distress). After using traps to get the Succubus alone with one of the players (I have someone in mind who would try to get laid in-game) she will try to seduce him and thus weaken or kill him before teleporting away. Depending on time I might have The Architect appear and try to rush them to the Nexus. There should be maybe 2-4 encounters total in there [maybe keep that at 2]. We're casuals so they should be fairly easy.
Once everyone reaches the Nexus (at the same time! conveniently!) there will be the big reveal where the Succubus and the Architect explain their backstory (fell in love, cursed their spouses to anger, faked their deaths in battle against the other NPC). They decided to begin their world conquest or whatever by creating a portal to the abyss in a powerful site of magical energy namely The Energy Nexus.
Some tough demons appear and we have the main boss fight. Maybe we could have a final sacrifice of one of the NPCs pushing his spouse into the portal or something similarly Hollywood.
Naively, I said this should take about 3hrs if everyone is focused, 5hrs with the usual banter and not-doing-what-the-DM-wants-them-to-do. I forsee this as a fairly linear (or, whatever, bilinear) plot, because as this is a one-session adventure I've really created a world where one thing is going on and it's this.
General thoughts
Oh man, are there going to be unexpected pitfalls in this. I can feel it. What would you, the expert DMs, recommend I change or look out for? How should I be thinking about this, and how do you include players' backstories in a one-session campaign?
Specific mechanics question
So, succubi. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, am I right?
"A succubus drains energy from a mortal it lures into some act of passion, or by simply planting a kiss on the victim. If the target is not willing to be kissed, the succubus must start a grapple..."
Lured into an act of passion, eh? What does that even mean? How am I supposed to do that? Like, am I supposed to just role-play this? I imagine myself saying "She leans in for a kiss" and then, even if the victim is alone, the rest of the players being like "bruh you're about to die." Having an NPC kiss one of the players in a dungeon doesn't seem like something I can do casually. It's going to raise suspicion and alarm immediately. How do I play that off? A superficial Google search wasn't terribly helpful here.
I was thinking maybe having the succubus and the victim attacked by a bebelith and entangle them with web, so they're close to and facing each other. Otherwise we could just have him save her from the web and the thankful succubus seems a little thirsty and tries to kiss him. Or she can just grapple him - she's pretty strong. (inb4: But succubi can't turn into large humanoids! To that I say, house rules, or greater succubus from the DnD sex manual. The point is, I figure being saved by a tall barbarian is probably the best way to have them not suspect a succubus.)
Anyway, I've been thinking about this campaign in almost every spare moment since I agreed to DM and I'm really excited. We've got about 2 weeks before we finish our current campaign and start on mine, so I'm happy to take suggestions.
Thanx in advans,
Ille Quidam
I'm DMing (for the first time) an extremely casual one-sitting game of Dnd3.5 in a few weeks. We're many (~6-8) and not very experienced (with the exception of one guy, who's committed to minmaxing and tanking for everyone) and I'm essentially relying more heavily on roleplaying than mechanics for a lot of it (see below, tree spirit and NPC stuff). I was comforted by our resident RP veteran with the words "Just roll a D20 if something has a chance of failing, and you'll be fine". I used to write stories a lot, so I'm having a fun time making up everything.
I have a specific question and a request for general advice. BEHOLD THE PLOT!
I plan to start the (~lvl5) players off showing up at a dispute between two NPCs, who have killed each other's spouses. Specifically, I'll introduce each NPC separately and players will run into one or the other NPC, with a chance to introduce themselves and banter for a little bit, before the two parties will bump into each other and the two NPCs will start shouting at each other and fill in their backstories.
The NPCs and the players will be attacked by a demon, and fight it off in a fairly easy battle. The two NPCs will then declare their intentions to go to the source of the demons, which they suspect to be the cave in the middle of the forest. One NPC will go the longer, safer path and along the way buy potions at a nearby trading post. The other will go straight through the woods, more dangerously, and pass by a magical tree spirit that can buff their weapons. The players can choose who to go with and I'm assuming this will divide the party in two more manageable parties. Team Danger will have ~2 encounters, plus the forest spirit, whereas Team Safety gets to buy potions and have one encounter. [Edit: eh, 1 or 2 between the two of them.] If they all go the same way, I would increase the number of encounters, I guess. In any case, along the way the guide NPC will fill in more backstory somewhat cryptically about how they feel justified in having killed the other's spouse, and describe having felt a superhuman anger.
Once the reach the small town in the center of the town they will have the chance to buy some stuff and sleep for the night, (and possibly regroup if the party split). The townspeople will talk about how they're protected from the demons by a character called The Architect, who expanded the local mines but found something called the Energy Nexus deep inside of it. If they inquire enough they'll get hints that The Architect is an evil and powerful sorcerer, and the allegedly dead spouse of one of the NPCs.
In the mine dungeon they'll fight some stuff, and I'll start splitting the NPCs away from the party (any maybe dividing the players) with metal walls that shut off passageways while the party is walking through them. After stripping away the NPCs there will be an unsolvable trap [edit: diffucult but solveable trap, help is useful but not absolutely needed] where the players are eventually saved by a tall barbarian woman, who is the other allegedly dead spouse, secretly a Succubus (quite a damsel in distress). After using traps to get the Succubus alone with one of the players (I have someone in mind who would try to get laid in-game) she will try to seduce him and thus weaken or kill him before teleporting away. Depending on time I might have The Architect appear and try to rush them to the Nexus. There should be maybe 2-4 encounters total in there [maybe keep that at 2]. We're casuals so they should be fairly easy.
Once everyone reaches the Nexus (at the same time! conveniently!) there will be the big reveal where the Succubus and the Architect explain their backstory (fell in love, cursed their spouses to anger, faked their deaths in battle against the other NPC). They decided to begin their world conquest or whatever by creating a portal to the abyss in a powerful site of magical energy namely The Energy Nexus.
Some tough demons appear and we have the main boss fight. Maybe we could have a final sacrifice of one of the NPCs pushing his spouse into the portal or something similarly Hollywood.
Naively, I said this should take about 3hrs if everyone is focused, 5hrs with the usual banter and not-doing-what-the-DM-wants-them-to-do. I forsee this as a fairly linear (or, whatever, bilinear) plot, because as this is a one-session adventure I've really created a world where one thing is going on and it's this.
General thoughts
Oh man, are there going to be unexpected pitfalls in this. I can feel it. What would you, the expert DMs, recommend I change or look out for? How should I be thinking about this, and how do you include players' backstories in a one-session campaign?
Specific mechanics question
So, succubi. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, am I right?
"A succubus drains energy from a mortal it lures into some act of passion, or by simply planting a kiss on the victim. If the target is not willing to be kissed, the succubus must start a grapple..."
Lured into an act of passion, eh? What does that even mean? How am I supposed to do that? Like, am I supposed to just role-play this? I imagine myself saying "She leans in for a kiss" and then, even if the victim is alone, the rest of the players being like "bruh you're about to die." Having an NPC kiss one of the players in a dungeon doesn't seem like something I can do casually. It's going to raise suspicion and alarm immediately. How do I play that off? A superficial Google search wasn't terribly helpful here.
I was thinking maybe having the succubus and the victim attacked by a bebelith and entangle them with web, so they're close to and facing each other. Otherwise we could just have him save her from the web and the thankful succubus seems a little thirsty and tries to kiss him. Or she can just grapple him - she's pretty strong. (inb4: But succubi can't turn into large humanoids! To that I say, house rules, or greater succubus from the DnD sex manual. The point is, I figure being saved by a tall barbarian is probably the best way to have them not suspect a succubus.)
Anyway, I've been thinking about this campaign in almost every spare moment since I agreed to DM and I'm really excited. We've got about 2 weeks before we finish our current campaign and start on mine, so I'm happy to take suggestions.
Thanx in advans,
Ille Quidam