Over leveling, Story Cohesion, and My own idiocy.

[Flicker Nicker]

Hey Guys and Gals, Its been a while. My party in a current game are causing me a bit of trouble. They are somewhat over leveled for the dungeon that they were assigned and heading into, as they decided to playing Russian Roulette with a Lesser Deck of Many Things. This leaves me in a light pickle. As they are currently all level 8 entering a dungeon for 4-6th characters. This is I admit my fault for not removing the item when I hand transferred an entire module from a different edition. So I am left with a very bad option of raising the level of all the dungeon encounters making it seem as if their superiors were sending their originally correctly leveled selves to their deaths. Now I don't entirely mind letting them curb stomp their way through the dungeon for fun.

The problem is that leaves me with a large amount of empty space to fill improve style as my previous plot...doesn't really work any longer. So I was hoping you all would be willing to help me brainstorm and maybe give me some advice on how to solve my plot derail? Also a few smaller questions, A) are Bolt Ace Gunslingers more or less balanced then normal Gunslingers? and B) How in the nine hells does one properly give the Lovecraftian spooky to a Villain without being overly hammy?
For reference my players are currently a Human Monk 4/Rouge 4 devotee of Bahmut, Damphir Witch Hunter 8 law man, a Wood Elf Barbarian 8 and angry Celt, and prospectively a Deep One Hybrid Bolt Ace 8..

I will refrain from a plot synopsis, till it becomes needed.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Hey Guys and Gals, Its been a while. My party in a current game are causing me a bit of trouble. They are somewhat over leveled for the dungeon that they were assigned and heading into,

This actually reminds me of the time my players put off the Tomb of Horrors (a dungeon for level 9 or so PCs) until they were level 15. :smallsmile:



as they decided to playing Russian Roulette with a Lesser Deck of Many Things.

:smalleek:

If the Lesser version is anything like the normal one, that could have ended... poorly.


This leaves me in a light pickle. As they are currently all level 8 entering a dungeon for 4-6th characters.

They're not that much higher level than they're supposed to be.


This is I admit my fault for not removing the item when I hand transferred an entire module from a different edition. So I am left with a very bad option of raising the level of all the dungeon encounters making it seem as if their superiors were sending their originally correctly leveled selves to their deaths. Now I don't entirely mind letting them curb stomp their way through the dungeon for fun.

If you don't mind letting them curb stomp the dungeon, just let them do that.


Lovecraftian spooky to a Villain without being overly hammy?

I guess you could try using multisyllabic adjectives? :smallwink: Either that or read some Cthulhu Mythos stories for inspiration.

The Colour Out of Space (http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cs.aspx) is considered by many to be one of the best stories Lovecraft wrote.


For reference my players are currently a Human Monk 4/Rouge 4 devotee of Bahmut, Damphir Witch Hunter 8 law man, a Wood Elf Barbarian 8 and angry Celt, and prospectively a Deep One Hybrid Bolt Ace 8.

So, no spellcasters?

[Flicker Nicker]

So, no spellcasters?

well the barbarian is taking the feats to craft magic items with shear skill, the Monk can make tattoo items and potions with Ki, Witchhunter is an inquistor archtype so 1-6th for buffs and heals, and the Bolt Ace has Advanced technologies for steam craft gear and gadgets that they can buff with grit...but no full spell casters no.

[ColorBlindNinja]

well the barbarian is taking the feats to craft magic items with shear skill, the Monk can make tattoo items and potions with Ki, Witchhunter is an inquistor archtype so 1-6th for buffs and heals, and the Bolt Ace has Advanced technologies for steam craft gear and gadgets that they can buff with grit...but no full spell casters no.

Than I would worry even less about them curb stomping the dungeon. If you're still worried, increase the number of monsters in the encounters by 2-3.

[zlefin]

Hey Guys and Gals, Its been a while. My party in a current game are causing me a bit of trouble. They are somewhat over leveled for the dungeon that they were assigned and heading into, as they decided to playing Russian Roulette with a Lesser Deck of Many Things. This leaves me in a light pickle. As they are currently all level 8 entering a dungeon for 4-6th characters. This is I admit my fault for not removing the item when I hand transferred an entire module from a different edition. So I am left with a very bad option of raising the level of all the dungeon encounters making it seem as if their superiors were sending their originally correctly leveled selves to their deaths. Now I don't entirely mind letting them curb stomp their way through the dungeon for fun.

The problem is that leaves me with a large amount of empty space to fill improve style as my previous plot...doesn't really work any longer. So I was hoping you all would be willing to help me brainstorm and maybe give me some advice on how to solve my plot derail? Also a few smaller questions, A) are Bolt Ace Gunslingers more or less balanced then normal Gunslingers? and B) How in the nine hells does one properly give the Lovecraftian spooky to a Villain without being overly hammy?
For reference my players are currently a Human Monk 4/Rouge 4 devotee of Bahmut, Damphir Witch Hunter 8 law man, a Wood Elf Barbarian 8 and angry Celt, and prospectively a Deep One Hybrid Bolt Ace 8..

I will refrain from a plot synopsis, till it becomes needed.

need more info on why your previous plot doesn't work anymore and what this "empty space" is. it sounds like you have an adventure planned, and if it's too easy cuz they got lucky with an artifact, then it's too easy.
I'm not seeing how it's a plot derail, so much as they took risk and got lucky.

also, as a default, just telling the players OOC that there's a campaign issue cuz of something you didn't expect and talking them to how to deal with it is always a good fallback.