First Time Help - The Bard Troupe

[RazberryV2]

Here's the deal: First time Dungeon Master here, wanting to be a little more on the role-playing side, and trying to get a bead on how my players are going to handle the switch from their regular play style so I'm having them play a quick homemade one shot. They're playing as an entertainment troupe of two bards, a Wild Sorcerer, an Arcane Trickster role-playing a Wizard, and a single bodyguard rogue. They are traveling to perform for a king but they get robbed along the way. I've setup the plot twists, bare-bone battle enemies, the basest clues, and the overall outline of it, but can't quite get down the details. I've seen all the new DM guides that say your first game will always be crap, but I want to at least give them a taste of what I could be in the future.

Overall things I'm struggling with:


Introducing Spell Components (Past DM never used and they get them stolen at the beginning, forced to use at least some strategy to fight through their lack of spells)
Not Connecting the Clues or making it too obvious (Leaving some things unconnected and having to blatantly come out and say it)
Not Being Prepared (Not in the sense of knowing what they'll do, but the confidence to pull through when they do)
Not having it last long enough or flow well (My past DM's notes are completely insane and not my style, he is much better at the whole improve thing)


Story Tidbits:


First performance, use spell slots to perform
Need to move to next town, not enough time to rest
Their manager betrays them, not having gotten enough credit for the show
Manager uses automatons to rob the cart under cover of night
Automatons kidnap manager to 'help open a safe'
(Automatons will intentionally sound robotic/awkward, having only been programmed with a few dialogue lines)
Automatons take cart, leaving the party stranded in the middle of a snowy forest
Survival situation: Find shelter, food, water, etc.
Wolf Fight, use surroundings to trap, trip up, and defend
Find the town, find some more components
Question the town, meddle a bit
Get attacked by thugs the manager hired to throw suspicion off
Town reveals that they've never seen them, traces of oil on gloves, lit by a Molotov that was thrown
Estate agent helps find warehouse
Find/buy more components with thug money
Enter hideout, with robots protecting stash of party's items
Boss Fight at full strength
Performance for the king, just a last thing to be creative with spells and just hammer in the role-play


Appreciate any and all help!

[tKUUNK]

You have a lot going on there. A lot of ideas. Makes me guess you'll be better at the improv component than you think!

So most importantly, probably, is just relax. Relax, Relax. Remember your players will bring a lot of fun to the game, and you're only responsible for a small part of the overall experience.

Along those lines, just have a general idea of where you'd like the story to go, but don't get glued to the details. The players will provide their own twists and turns. The manager may not even survive the show, because I'm pretty sure they're gonna start an inn fire. Yes. Don't get too attached to your inn.

If you truly want to keep it role-play centered, allow them a chance to pick up on the manager's discontent (insight check) and RP their way to a solution.

It's really hard to balance "too many clues" with "the players have no freaking idea what's going on". Depends a lot on the specific group, so you'll need to adjust as you go.

There's no such thing as a perfect session, but there is such thing as a fun session (which is a perfect session).

dang, that was the grammar-equivalent of dropping a bag of holding into a portable hole, wasn't it? Well, shoot.

*tKUUNK is sucked into alternate dimension*

Have Fun!!!

[dragoeniex]

So! First observation: you probably have enough content there to fill out at least two sessions, depending on how fast your players are and how long the meet-ups last. Mystery elements add even more variables to timing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I would try to keep a flexible mentality. If your group is clipping along, great! If they want to take their time to figure things out or have fun hamming it up? Also great! Nothing wrong with Part Two or Three if need be.

Having components and items stolen tend to be a sore spot for players, but a one shot means they may not be as attached to their stuff yet. If you're trying to get a feel for how they like to play in normal conditions, I'd make sure they've got at least a good percentage of the adventure with their resources.

Past that? It sounds like you've got a fun start. Try to think of a few extra clues you can put in different locations or NPCs ahead of time in case they wind up in unexpected areas or aren't seeing things line up the way you do, try to keep an open mind to the possibility your antagonist may die early and turn the adventure into how to get to the king's show, and you should be good to go! Best of luck on the opening performance to you and your troupe.

Bonus: If you're nervous or not too keen on the first story off-railing hard, it's okay to let the players know you'd appreciate them not setting inn fires during your debut.

[Keravath]

Just a couple of comments ..

You didn't mention what level the characters are. An arcane trickster can't pretend to be a wizard until at least level 3 when they get some cantrips and spell slots.

I think your ideas are good but I find that it is important that stories hang together logically. Why are the NPCs behaving the way they choose to do and what are the characters going to do in response to that situation.

So some questions ...

1) WHY is there no time to rest before moving to the next town? What is the rush? What makes it preferable to camp on the road rather than stay at a relatively cushy inn?

2) Why does the manager choose to betray them? Have they known him long? How is the manager going to profit from betraying them? Not getting enough credit for one show seems like a very flimsy reason to betray someone unless the manager is a border line psycho to start with ... and if he is, why don't the characters know that?

If the characters recently met the manager then perhaps he is a front man for a group of bandits. The "manager" encounters groups of travelers - merchants, performers, travelers - it doesn't matter. Offers appropriate services to the group depending on what they need and then steers them into an ambush that he has set up in the area with his bandit colleagues.

3) Automatons sound cool - but where does the manager get these? Are they expensive? If he has expensive automatons then why does he need coin from robbing the band members? If the manager has a bunch of automatons that obey him, why not everyone else if they are that common?

4) The encounter with the automatons is extremely likely to turn into a fight. Unless your players have never played D&D, they will know enough to never camp at night without setting watches. If the automatons are so powerful that the party doesn't have a chance, wouldn't the manager use them to rob someone worthwhile? If they aren't powerful then the party is in for a fight and it may or may not go as you wish. Either the automatons would use subdual damage to knock everyone out and take their stuff or they are defeated ... which won't tie in with taking the "manager" to open a safe.

5) Why would the automatons come into the middle of the woods looking for the "manager" to open a safe ... how do they know the manager, how do they know he can open a safe? Who is supposed to have sent the automatons? You might be able to get out of this with the automatons taking the manager but if they try to take the player's stuff it will be a fight. In addition, if the automatons kidnap the manager the players are likely to think they are supposed to rescue the manager.

6) The "take the stuff idea" is also cool but has problems.
- if you take their armor and weapons then the wolves will likely eat them all since improvised weapons and no armor make for a very vulnerable party.
- however, taking spell components doesn't actually do much. A lot of common spells have no components, vicious mockery, faerie fire, dissonant whispers, firebolt, there are still alot of things that a sorcerer, two bards and two rogues can do without spell components. In addition, some of the spell components could be commonly available even in a forest in winter. e.g. feather, ash and that sort of thing. Your narrative seems to assume that the lack of spell components might be a significant detriment to the party. Also, most spells can be cast with an arcane focus, they don't need a spell component pouch. Characters are VERY likely to fight to retain these items. If you try to dictate the outcome it could become a bit of a railroad.


Depending on what items the characters have (which would depend on level to some extent), losing them might not have any real impact or alternatively, if you strip them of weapons and armor and take away their coins then you will have some VERY unhappy players trying to deal with combat encounters while essentially crippled.

---------------

The following is your narrative with some adjustments.

- the band has been together for a few months and has acquired some local fame. They receive a letter from the king to attend a gala performance where the best performance will win a magnificent prize (the invitation has been sent to others, it is a bit of a contest, the prize is either quite a bit of gold or perhaps a magic item or maybe the kings favor and support for something else)
- however, other invited performers aren't as nice and want to win at any cost. Perhaps a Lord on the Kings council wants their nephew to win. The manager is hired to prevent the performers from reaching the performance.
- manager meets the bard troupe, ingratiates themselves, becomes their manager since they seem to be an up and coming group, says he can get them to the capital in time with some good paid performances along the way.

- Now your narrative starts: manager sends them into an ambush - you can use bandits or automatons if you like. If automatons they are owned by the Lord who wants their nephew to win. If bandits then they are hired.

- The encounter in the woods becomes a combat encounter. Perhaps during the fight, the bandits/automatons steal their wagon with all their supplies. Be sure to check where the characters packs are BEFORE the encounter starts. Are they sleeping in their armor? It is not comfortable usually except maybe light armor. Casters will usually have their arcane focus and material components on them so you will either have to have the opponents knock them out and steal most of their stuff or forego the loss of the material components (It can go either way but the loss of material components isn't usually that big a deal in many cases depending on what spells you cast. (On the other hand, others like the fireball spell require somewhat more difficult to find components ... however, my impression was that the PCs were more like 3rd rather than 5th level). The "manager" is "knocked out" by the automatons/bandits and kidnapped. The characters will not know whether he is just a victim or not. If you use automatons you might want to have them say "For the Master" every time they attack :) ... you will find the players start asking about "The Master" in every town they come to ... up to you what they do with this.

- Characters survive the encounter since the Lord just wants them not to show up, he doesn't want them dead, at least not yet and gave the "manager" instructions to stop them. "Manager" plans to let the forest creatures finish them so he succeeds with delaying them and killing them without doing it himself.

- Characters make it to the next town ... closer to the capital. Start asking questions and the "manager" has them waylaid by thugs to slow them down even more. He does NOT want them to make it to the capital in time for the performance. The performance time should be the time pressure element to keep the PCs moving (assuming the characters are sufficiently motivated to want to perform).

- Trace the thugs to a bar in the slum district of the capital. Maybe give the characters a chance to fake their deaths at the hands of the thugs or have them notice they are being watched and give them a chance to disappear. There should be another ambush on the road to the capital that they can avoid with even a little bit of ability. This is not a combat encounter, it is an encounter to avoid or perhaps engage socially to learn about who hired the "ambushers" to sit in the woods. Maybe they look like a caravan with a broken wagon waiting for repairs since there are other travelers on the road.

- Trail should lead back to the "manager" and his henchmen. Manager realizes that the party is in the capital in time for the performance so decides to finish them despite the request from his employer. Have a big fight against the manager and his henchmen in the bar. Afterward, there should be some notes indicating that the "Manager" was contracted to prevent the players from reaching the competition ... but no indication of exactly who hired the manager or why.

- Performance competition comes down to the band and the nephew of the Lord. Have the characters win a hard fought contest. Nephew congratulates them (he isn't in on the plan). Lord glares at them and sullenly awards the prize. Party has made an enemy at court and options are left open for another one shot or on going campaign if desired or at least a semi-useful NPC down the road.

- If you want to make it solely a one-shot, make it the manager's nephew and make it the "manager's" idea to waylay the characters which wraps everything up with the final battle and performance.

Anyway, this creates a narrative setting that fits your planned events more or less but gives more context as to why the NPCs take the actions that they take which in turn makes it MUCH easier for the DM to figure out what happens when the players decide to do something you didn't think of ...

[RazberryV2]

Thanks for the quick help!

Firstly, Keravath, they're actually 11th level characters, giving them a lot more leeway with the wolf fight in the beginning. We're all medium-high experienced players that have only played under the two set DM's for a while now.

Second, a little more backstory into the world I've created. When I said 'low magic', I meant very low magic. Magic is so rare that the party had to search far and wide for each other. Each talented and famed on their own before meeting their other members, together they combined their strengths to... become massively rich. None of their abilities are combat centered whatsoever. The manager, Lyrix, jumped aboard as they were gaining steam to help them relate to the common folk. They've known each other for quite a while and have grown quite rich, but Lyrix gets a very underwhelming cut of the profits, even though he's a genius on his own and has figured out how to automate parts of the show. Lyrix has plotted this for a while now, going out of his way to plot this entire tour, all the way up to getting a show with the king. All this intrigue is just to lure them into the isolated forest where he has setup his ambush against them. The schedule that they follow is all Lyrix, making sure that they wouldn't have their spells to defend themselves. Although, I do love your rendition of my poorly described plot and will most definitely use it for a future game, I did have most of the story planned out, but am horrible at describing things.

Last of all, I've looked at the spell components of the parties spells, which were sent to me in advance, to plan accordingly. I'm making it a large part of the session to retrieve these various items from the forest, town, etc. Each portion unlocks more components and their focuses. Speaking of the focuses, I plan on making them limited use, so they can still cast their spells with components that wouldn't make sense to find, but the component finding can still be an important part of the game.

[Keravath]

Sorry :) .. the “first time help” title had me fooled as well as the plot line since it should be easy for a level 11 party to deal with some “wolves” and the other encounters you mention even without a lot of their higher level spells.

Some of how easy or hard things will be may depend on what kind of bards they are and which magical secrets they picked. Also, I don’t really see a performance depleting all the spell slots of an entire party unless you force that on them as a plot device. (For example, if any of the bards chose Find Greater Steed/Find Steed then the wilderness part gets a lot easier)