puzzler7
2019-11-14, 04:12 PM
I've been running Hoard of the Dragon Queen for some of my friends. We finished up last session with them finishing up Episode 3; they took the black dragon eggs out of the cultist camp, and are currently trying to decide whether to head North to meet with Leosin or to follow the raiding party west to Beregost (going North is detailed in the book, the raid to the West is not). I believe that they will try to follow the cultists, and I had a few ideas for how to handle that.
I could say that the town was currently under raid, and they have to help protect it.
The party could make it to the town a couple hours in advance of the raiders, and would have to mount defenses/survive through the night.
I could say that the raiders came and went, and sacked the town.
Personally, I like (2) best and (1) least, as the campaign essentially opened with scenario (1). The issue with (2) is that I don't want it to be (or feel like) just a punishment for picking the wrong path. (3) doesn't make much logical sense, as the cultists have roughly a day lead on the party, but I feel like the party would have the most fun with it.
My question is, which of these (if any) should I run, and how I can I make it interesting for the players (e.g. what obstacles or goals can I present)?
For some info on the party, we have a dragon sorc 7, a berserker barb 6/wizard 1, life cleric 7, and valor bard 7. They're all essentially completely new to D&D and tabletop RPGs, and I have minimal DM experience from games on these forums, so we're playing generally fast and loose with the rules. The reason that they're overlevelled (they should be about level 3 according to the book) is because I ran a one-shot before starting HotDQ to see if we wanted to do D&D as a recurring thing, I handed out levels too liberally, and they wanted to keep the same characters going into this. What I've been doing to compensate is upscaling encounters on the fly - adjusting HP/armor/dmg and fudging numbers to keep encounters from being curbstomps. The end goal is to transition into Tyranny of Dragons with the party being even with or slightly higher than the intended level.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I could say that the town was currently under raid, and they have to help protect it.
The party could make it to the town a couple hours in advance of the raiders, and would have to mount defenses/survive through the night.
I could say that the raiders came and went, and sacked the town.
Personally, I like (2) best and (1) least, as the campaign essentially opened with scenario (1). The issue with (2) is that I don't want it to be (or feel like) just a punishment for picking the wrong path. (3) doesn't make much logical sense, as the cultists have roughly a day lead on the party, but I feel like the party would have the most fun with it.
My question is, which of these (if any) should I run, and how I can I make it interesting for the players (e.g. what obstacles or goals can I present)?
For some info on the party, we have a dragon sorc 7, a berserker barb 6/wizard 1, life cleric 7, and valor bard 7. They're all essentially completely new to D&D and tabletop RPGs, and I have minimal DM experience from games on these forums, so we're playing generally fast and loose with the rules. The reason that they're overlevelled (they should be about level 3 according to the book) is because I ran a one-shot before starting HotDQ to see if we wanted to do D&D as a recurring thing, I handed out levels too liberally, and they wanted to keep the same characters going into this. What I've been doing to compensate is upscaling encounters on the fly - adjusting HP/armor/dmg and fudging numbers to keep encounters from being curbstomps. The end goal is to transition into Tyranny of Dragons with the party being even with or slightly higher than the intended level.
Thanks in advance for any advice!