Dr paradox
2021-03-23, 04:22 AM
Hey, folks, I'm four rounds into a grapple on this problem, and I'm getting frustrated.
In about two weeks I'm going to be starting a new 5e D&D pocket-campaign - due to be 10-20 sessions in a setting I've been using for a lot of similar games, an oversized Black Sea analogue. This one is due to be a swashbuckling campaign against a pirate fleet that formed after a nasty naval war about four years earlier. Recently the pirate fleet stormed a town and took enough captives to crew their rowing decks, turning clunky sailboats into dangerous warships. They'll be eighth level, all new characters, and the structure of the campaign will have them with a small ship tracking down targets of opportunity looking for a way to get at the pirate queen.
The Opening is giving me trouble, for a few reasons. My instincts as a DM point me toward Realism or Horror, but I want this to be swashbuckling fun - I'm trying to set the tone for that by having things flare up without time to get bogged down in preparation, but then be easy and cool enough that they come through it without NEEDING to prepare much.
My players have expressed interest in two points that are key for this. First, they want to be self-motivated rather than recruited to the fight by another person or organization. Second, they want to form the party in the first session rather than already knowing each other, though some of them might already be traveling together by the time their groups link up.
I'm having a devil of a time piecing all this together. Possibly I'll need to wait until they get back to me with more of their motivation and backstory before I can lay brick conclusively, but there's a tension between the momentum called for from swashbuckling and the context called for from party-building.
My closest idea now is this...
The Carrack "Peacock," captained by the Half-Orc "Wide-Heel" Rinat, has come to the island port of Izen to deliver terms of tribute, in exchange for which the Crimson Fleet won't destroy them. We open on his ship as he's disembarking, trading a few barbs with a scumbag ranger they kicked out of the fleet and now have in cage hanging off the aftcastle (This is a PC).
With Wide-Heel gone along with a sizeable portion of his fighters, the rest of the party springs forth to take the ship - a short and easy fight ensues, they save the ranger, alliances are made (A risky move in the abstract, but my players are good at navigating that kind of thing). The ship seized, they set off into the town to track down Wide-Heel before he can extort the Beylik, giving a little space for party chatter and navigation challenges.
BUT! A fight right at the top skips the "getting to know you" phase for four out of five players, leaving their first meeting off screen, and combat in D&D is generally a poor way to work out character dynamics. BUT, if I open it sooner, say, the four of them all notice the Peacock coming in, start approaching, and bump into each other, they're likely to WAY overthink the fight on the boat (I may have inadvertently trained them to seek out chokepoints, defensive advantages, and killboxes. Smart for a realistic and dangerous tone, bad for swashbuckling).
Finally, because I'm way overthinking this, I'm trying to work out a greater justification for five eighth level characters to show up here at the same time. That's my pettiest and most pointless discipline.
If anyone has thoughts on how they'd open this campaign, I'm open to suggestions. Maybe I'm just posting this to exorcise the problem from my brain.
In about two weeks I'm going to be starting a new 5e D&D pocket-campaign - due to be 10-20 sessions in a setting I've been using for a lot of similar games, an oversized Black Sea analogue. This one is due to be a swashbuckling campaign against a pirate fleet that formed after a nasty naval war about four years earlier. Recently the pirate fleet stormed a town and took enough captives to crew their rowing decks, turning clunky sailboats into dangerous warships. They'll be eighth level, all new characters, and the structure of the campaign will have them with a small ship tracking down targets of opportunity looking for a way to get at the pirate queen.
The Opening is giving me trouble, for a few reasons. My instincts as a DM point me toward Realism or Horror, but I want this to be swashbuckling fun - I'm trying to set the tone for that by having things flare up without time to get bogged down in preparation, but then be easy and cool enough that they come through it without NEEDING to prepare much.
My players have expressed interest in two points that are key for this. First, they want to be self-motivated rather than recruited to the fight by another person or organization. Second, they want to form the party in the first session rather than already knowing each other, though some of them might already be traveling together by the time their groups link up.
I'm having a devil of a time piecing all this together. Possibly I'll need to wait until they get back to me with more of their motivation and backstory before I can lay brick conclusively, but there's a tension between the momentum called for from swashbuckling and the context called for from party-building.
My closest idea now is this...
The Carrack "Peacock," captained by the Half-Orc "Wide-Heel" Rinat, has come to the island port of Izen to deliver terms of tribute, in exchange for which the Crimson Fleet won't destroy them. We open on his ship as he's disembarking, trading a few barbs with a scumbag ranger they kicked out of the fleet and now have in cage hanging off the aftcastle (This is a PC).
With Wide-Heel gone along with a sizeable portion of his fighters, the rest of the party springs forth to take the ship - a short and easy fight ensues, they save the ranger, alliances are made (A risky move in the abstract, but my players are good at navigating that kind of thing). The ship seized, they set off into the town to track down Wide-Heel before he can extort the Beylik, giving a little space for party chatter and navigation challenges.
BUT! A fight right at the top skips the "getting to know you" phase for four out of five players, leaving their first meeting off screen, and combat in D&D is generally a poor way to work out character dynamics. BUT, if I open it sooner, say, the four of them all notice the Peacock coming in, start approaching, and bump into each other, they're likely to WAY overthink the fight on the boat (I may have inadvertently trained them to seek out chokepoints, defensive advantages, and killboxes. Smart for a realistic and dangerous tone, bad for swashbuckling).
Finally, because I'm way overthinking this, I'm trying to work out a greater justification for five eighth level characters to show up here at the same time. That's my pettiest and most pointless discipline.
If anyone has thoughts on how they'd open this campaign, I'm open to suggestions. Maybe I'm just posting this to exorcise the problem from my brain.