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UserClone
2008-08-28, 07:05 PM
So I am DMing my group's first foray into 4E gaming (beyond a couple of sessions of KotS to get our feet wet). I allowed them to choose pretty much whatever class/race combinations they wanted, and they went nuts, which I am rather happy with. We have:

A Swashbuckling Doppelganger Rogue.
A Githyanki Wizard.
A Longtooth Shifter Cleric of Sehanine.
A Goblin Warlord. Wait, what?
An Eladrin Paladin of Correlon.
A Dragonborn Warlock.

Yuppers, not a human among 'em! So I figured with a group this eclectic, why not make the backstory simpler and start them off adventuring in Sigil?
So what I'm looking for from you kind folks is any or all of the following:

Ideas for a few starting adventures for 1st-level characters in Sigil.
Backstory elements for any or all of the characters, to help tie them into the setting and each other.
General advice for adventuring/DMing in Sigil.
Homebrew and/or substituted monster suggestions for popular planar beings not yet included in 4E.

So let 'er rip and thank you in advance!

The Glyphstone
2008-08-28, 07:47 PM
Well, at least it'll be easy to convert the Lady of Pain into 4.0. :)

In serious, you will probably want to invent a new ritual to create permanent portals, if there isn't one in 4.0 already. Kinda hard to have the City of Doors without any doors.

TheThan
2008-08-28, 07:52 PM
You could start them out in a maze.

They wake up in a maze, with no memories. They have to figure out how to escape. Then from there they go to Sigil with the lady of pain on their bacon. Fortunately for them, she’s a little busy and doesn’t have the time to focus on killing them out right.

Their goal is to recover their memories, or at least figure out why the lady of pain is gunning for them. Then from there you're pretty much open.

UserClone
2008-08-28, 08:57 PM
Ooo, thanks, that's a good one. Keep 'em coming!

Breaw
2008-08-29, 12:49 AM
With all due respect, I tend to prefer campaigns that don't start with 'The Lady of Pain is pissed off at you'. I know it's iconic, but it's sort of like starting a Starwars campaign with 'The Emperor has summoned you to his chambers'. It's all a bit too heroic right off the bat for my taste.

I've started a few campaigns in the lower ward, working for the dustmen. If these adventurers are new to sigil, or simply down on their luck then they will undoubtedly end up in the lower ward (everyone does really). From there they will be more than capable of helping out either the locals or the dustmen. Not because they are super powerful, but because no one else really gives a damn about the lower ward. Any number of guild confrontations with a conflicting guild (I'm thinking the Chaos-men or the Sensates here) would be easily solvable by a low level party. No one is really out for blood just yet, so it probably won't be guaranteed lethal in such a high powered setting.

Another thought, you could also have some of the undead in the lower ward acting up (the Dustmen use them as workers), they could have been tampered with by pretty much anyone who doesn't like the Dustmen (which is everyone really). This could provide some early Undead face bashing with a plot twist to track down a slightly bigger plot.

I would, however, recommend you leave Sigil unless you have some really serious plans for the city. I've always found that unless you are playing a very high level and high power game, it's hard for the players to feel significant among the titanic powers in play in Sigil. After a few useful quests for the pitiful denizens of the lower ward the party could attract the attention of a group with a bit more sway who want you to go on a mission. At that point they could send the party through a portal to just about anywhere to do just about any mission that can last as long as you and your players are interested in it.

Enough my rambling, those are my three cents.

Armoury99
2008-08-29, 06:36 AM
Faction is probably the easiest way to bring disparate groups together - if all the players are carry roughly the same beliefs or complimentory ones, their faction(s) might well assign them together for a specific job.

The Planewalker.com (http://www.planewalker.com/index.php) website has a ton of general advice and information in its its (3e based but rule-less) Campaign Setting update (http://www.planewalker.com/editorial-section/pscs). They're slowly coming round to the idea of 4e, and there's always a ton of PS-specific advice available if you ask: the depth of knowledge over there is scary.

Their free pdf introductory adventure (http://www.planewalker.com/desire-and-dead) specifically includes ways to get both planars and primers together for the first time - it might help too.

The Rose Dragon
2008-08-29, 06:41 AM
Sigil Prep, anyone?

That's for 3.5, but I believe it can be adapted to 4th with little effort.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-08-29, 09:54 AM
Sigil Prep, anyone?

That's for 3.5, but I believe it can be adapted to 4th with little effort.Captain Swift is, in fact, in the process of updating the setting fluff to 4e. Mostly changing around the school structure a bit to work with the new classes and writing all-new class/race flavor, rather than major story changes (SP's fairly metaplot-lite by nature anyway). The site (http://www.sigilprep.com/)'s a little confusing right now as it's being done piecemeal, though. The top half of this page (http://www.sigilprep.com/StudentsHandbook.htm) has most of the 4e-relevant stuff done, however.

Also, I played a Sigil Prep 4e game at GenCon. Great times were had by all.


Demigod: This semester, Sigil Prep is introducing a Demigod program. As soon as we figure out how to keep the students from being banished from Sigil as soon as they start the course.

Burley
2008-08-29, 10:28 AM
I've always been a fan of the Entertainment Biz beginning. When the party just don't make much sense, I like to make the first session a gladitorial arena thing. Good way to get everybody fighting early, and gives the a good reason to move once they get to be free/flee.