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View Full Version : [3.5][FR]DM help- A game with my family



paladin_carvin
2008-10-17, 06:39 PM
So, I did something that I've always wanted to do. I got my whole family together to play D&D. It was a lot of work since I decided to make their characters for them with their input (they all liked what they got).

I got them together and they showed me that they were perfect candidates for D&D. They spent most of the time distracted by dice and their character sheets, making wise-ass comments and asking pointless questions out of turn :smallbiggrin:. Well, that was only in the beginning. It got better once the game got underway. They actually were quite impressive in their choices. For reference, these are the players and characters.

Characters are lvl 1, gave them equipment as I saw fit (no magic items, but the total values are well over standard), Abilities stat set:16,14,14,12,10,8

Player:Aaron- Older brother, very close to me. Loves sword fighting (went to states in fencing) and a huge Star Wars fan (at least, as huge as you can be with out actually liking sci-fi in general). Video Game nerd, but also very much a 'guy'; sports and such. Said he wanted to use a sword and shoot lightning bolts.

Character:Jonas- Battle Sorcerer (unearthed arcana), Human: Since he only knows one first level spell, gave him shocking grasp (he was happy with that). He has his sword as well, and should be able to use it.

Issues: Is interested in changing to half-elf. Have no problem editing this early, but he already is fudging to have the skills he needs (k:arcana, spellcraft, con) with an 8 int (his dump stat). Need to give him an organization to belong to. Had him NG, but changing to N given his play style.

Player:Jessica- Little sister, somewhat 'posh', still not above some video game playing. In real life, she is pretty good at getting away with stuff. Didn't have too certain of an idea of what she wanted.

Character: 'Raven the Rockin' Rogue' (I'm not kidding... though, I think I might be wrong on it being 'Raven'... still, it's on her character sheet)- Rogue, Halfling: Worships Hoar, thus LN and lives by the creed of never doing anything if 'they didn't deserve it'. If she finds a person to be criminal or unethical, she is fine with taking their stuff (she loved the entire concept). 16 Int and a 14 Cha lets her be very effective at getting away with things. Uses throwing knives and a crossbow.

Issues: Need an appropriate org to be part of. The church of Hoar is too small to justify that she is an agent for them. Lawful friendly thieves guild in Forgotten Realms? Non-evil group that supports retribution? While mostly okay with being a halfling, she was bothered by being short. So a non-human race is ok if it is tall. While elves could easily make good rogues, does it fit the character? Should I just go for a human?

Player: Mom- Care giver, positive attitude, mentioned wanting to 'be a queen' (somewhat joking).

Character: 'Lady Sophia Alexia'- Cleric of Lathander, Human: This was the easiest choice. When I described Lathander to her, she loved it. And she was all for being the healer. I made her have some royal blood; it makes sense given the deity and something she could enjoy.

Issues: None.

Player: Dad- Loves cowboy movies; finds the cowboy hero to be his ideal hero. Very much the idealist that is expressed in the Lawful Good concept.

Character: 'Kane'- Ranger, Human: I couldn't believe how perfect this was when I figured it out. Rangers are fantasy cowboys in so many ways. It's first level, but he'll be a bow ranger and have a horse animal companion (he has it now, but it doesn't have any animal companion features). Aspirations to join the Harpers.

Issues: How to best bring the concept of him joining the harpers (eventually) into the campaign.


Uh... so, any comments or help with this stuff would be great. I have a few other things buggin' me, but this is a good start :smallredface:

AslanCross
2008-10-17, 07:09 PM
Wow, I wish I could get my family together like that.

Anyway, regarding Jonas, he might want to try out the Duskblade instead. They get more spells at level 1, can channel their touch attacks into their weapons, and get better armor.

I don't really recommend Half-Elf in 3.5, but if that's what he really wants to play, then let him. I'd stick with Human. (He might need to switch ability scores around, though, since Duskblade is Int-dependent)

Not sure what we can do about the rogue. There are very few truly meaningful FR deities who would support a Rogue order.
-Helm: Definitely not. The Watcher is more on guardianship than retribution.
-Kelemvor: As a god of death, it's likely he could have an order of stealthy assassins who could take out people "who deserve it": necromancers, undead cultists, liches, etc. After all, there are Lawful outsiders who deal with such people: Maruts.

To be honest, among the lawful, non-evil deities, the most likely to have an order of rogues is Tyr's church. Though LG, his portfolio is Justice, and he could have a more-justice-no-mercy LN order. You might have to invent one, though.

As for her race: Whisper Gnome is still small, but it may be much more worth it for a rogue.


I also award you an Awesome for getting your parents to play. As for the Harpers, that's inevitably going to get the party into trouble with the Zhentarim. You might want to hook them with a Zhentarim attack. (My current campaign involves the PCs attempting to defend Cormyr from a particularly radical Zhentarim cabal that intends to take the kingdom as an additional base of operations to face the growing Netherese threat. )

What adventure are you running?

paladin_carvin
2008-10-17, 08:13 PM
Wow, I wish I could get my family together like that.

Anyway, regarding Jonas, he might want to try out the Duskblade instead. They get more spells at level 1, can channel their touch attacks into their weapons, and get better armor.

I don't really recommend Half-Elf in 3.5, but if that's what he really wants to play, then let him. I'd stick with Human. (He might need to switch ability scores around, though, since Duskblade is Int-dependent)

Not sure what we can do about the rogue. There are very few truly meaningful FR deities who would support a Rogue order.
-Helm: Definitely not. The Watcher is more on guardianship than retribution.
-Kelemvor: As a god of death, it's likely he could have an order of stealthy assassins who could take out people "who deserve it": necromancers, undead cultists, liches, etc. After all, there are Lawful outsiders who deal with such people: Maruts.

To be honest, among the lawful, non-evil deities, the most likely to have an order of rogues is Tyr's church. Though LG, his portfolio is Justice, and he could have a more-justice-no-mercy LN order. You might have to invent one, though.

As for her race: Whisper Gnome is still small, but it may be much more worth it for a rogue.


I also award you an Awesome for getting your parents to play. As for the Harpers, that's inevitably going to get the party into trouble with the Zhentarim. You might want to hook them with a Zhentarim attack. (My current campaign involves the PCs attempting to defend Cormyr from a particularly radical Zhentarim cabal that intends to take the kingdom as an additional base of operations to face the growing Netherese threat. )

What adventure are you running?

Frontier! I was inspired by the fact that the person who would be hardest to connect with was my Dad. Connect it with a cowboy story and bam, it all makes sense. And what better frontier than the North? All characters are from the Silver Marches. They are going to help settlers going out from Silvery Moon to make a new town. I saw in a web supplement that Zhent refugees came into the Marches... I was considering making them the new inhabitants... but I really know nothing about them. Apparently they are generally neutral, but it seems there is a spy among them. Their leader will do... well, very not nice things when any spies are found.

Also, I want to avoid classes from outside the PHB... alterations I don't mind, but I don't like them in general and they are also confusing to new comers.

Prometheus
2008-10-17, 08:28 PM
Wow...I never had any player in any of my games ever belong to any organization, except a paladin, who really wasn't in the habit of taking orders from her church even as she served it. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with having characters all affiliated with organizations, but I have to say I am honestly curious. Why should they be a part of organizations?

Keld Denar
2008-10-17, 08:37 PM
When you first started talking about your sister's character, my first instinct was actually the Harpers. After you discussed your dad's character, and you mentioned that you were interested in seeing him persue attention from the Harpers, I dunno if that's a really good thing to have them both be recruited by the Harpers. I guess if they don't mind sharing a schtick, then its fine.

Alternately, you could make up an organization. Maybe some kind of vigilanty bounty-hunter style organization, which she loosely affiliates with for the benefits, but tends to distance herself from due to their seriousness vs her happy-go-luckyness.

paladin_carvin
2008-10-18, 11:10 AM
Having them be parts of organizations helps me make sure they are motivated. As long as they know that their actions will help them improve their status in their organization, they will be motivated. It also helps them understand a motivation for their character. They are very new to all of these concepts, and if they have an organization that they can fall back on and understand their motivations, they can understand their own character. For example: as long as my mother knows that she is furthering the will of Lathander, she is quite happy. That one works well, since she isn't motivated by promotion, she doing what is good. I know my father would be much happier knowing that he had some form of juristiction as well... and while Harpers aren't law men, they are responsible to certain goals, which justify the actions beyond his own interpretation.

Prometheus
2008-10-18, 08:07 PM
Okay, that makes sense. Someone you can in-game say "What do I do?"

My concern was always that players would feel compelled to do any mission from these organizations and therefore if I tried to have more than one mission at a time I was certain to have conflict. However, a DM can arrange things so that all the organizations agree or that organizations exist just for filling in gaps.

I second making up an organization and/or combining organizations

paladin_carvin
2008-10-19, 08:08 PM
With a bit of a heavy hand on the orgs from the DM you can do quite nicely.

Weezer
2008-10-19, 08:34 PM
I dont really have aay advice but kudos to you for getting your parents involved in DND, i've been trying forever but it hasn't worked. good luck hope you work out your problems

paladin_carvin
2008-10-20, 02:47 PM
I dont really have aay advice but kudos to you for getting your parents involved in DND, i've been trying forever but it hasn't worked. good luck hope you work out your problems

Here are the things that I did to make it work.

1) Made it a whole family thing. My parents overlooked the alien concept of role playing because it was for getting the whole family together. Considering the youngest of the kids turned 19 this year and my brother is not only married but has a kid, a good excuse to get the whole fam damily together was quite compelling.

2) Work hard to make their character something they can understand. Getting your family together means making their characters almost certainly. My big success with this was making my Dad's character- a Ranger that is in many ways a 'cowboy', a frontier hero.

3) Make the story something they can empathize with. Frontier worked nicely for me, but think about what movies and tv shows they like, and then try and let them live out their heroes lives. I mean, that is generally the way we make characters. Something we want to be but can't.

paladin_carvin
2008-10-23, 06:19 PM
So, we played another round. It went pretty smoothly this time, once everyone sat down at the table. They had their first battle (which my mom, the cleric, missed- fortunately, no one took damage. It was just three orcs from the MM vs three lvl 1 PCs; easy work). They seem to be getting the idea. They also negotiated very successfully with the goblins, and there is going to be a trading post made from goblin carpentry and human masonry. I was able to turn my brother's character into a half-elf without too much problem (I moved around a few ability scores).

only1doug
2008-10-24, 05:18 AM
<snip>
Player:Aaron- Older brother, very close to me. Loves sword fighting (went to states in fencing) and a huge Star Wars fan (at least, as huge as you can be with out actually liking sci-fi in general). Video Game nerd, but also very much a 'guy'; sports and such. Said he wanted to use a sword and shoot lightning bolts.

Character:Jonas- Battle Sorcerer (unearthed arcana), Human: Since he only knows one first level spell, gave him shocking grasp (he was happy with that). He has his sword as well, and should be able to use it.

Issues: Is interested in changing to half-elf. Have no problem editing this early, but he already is fudging to have the skills he needs (k:arcana, spellcraft, con) with an 8 int (his dump stat). Need to give him an organization to belong to. Had him NG, but changing to N given his play style.


I have to agree with AslanCross, Duskblade may well be a better choice. Int based will also solve those skill shortages. May need to reflavour the duskblade specific spells to give the lightning.


Player:Jessica- Little sister, somewhat 'posh', still not above some video game playing. In real life, she is pretty good at getting away with stuff. Didn't have too certain of an idea of what she wanted.

Character: 'Raven the Rockin' Rogue' (I'm not kidding... though, I think I might be wrong on it being 'Raven'... still, it's on her character sheet)- Rogue, Halfling: Worships Hoar, thus LN and lives by the creed of never doing anything if 'they didn't deserve it'. If she finds a person to be criminal or unethical, she is fine with taking their stuff (she loved the entire concept). 16 Int and a 14 Cha lets her be very effective at getting away with things. Uses throwing knives and a crossbow.

Issues: Need an appropriate org to be part of. The church of Hoar is too small to justify that she is an agent for them. Lawful friendly thieves guild in Forgotten Realms? Non-evil group that supports retribution? While mostly okay with being a halfling, she was bothered by being short. So a non-human race is ok if it is tall. While elves could easily make good rogues, does it fit the character? Should I just go for a human?
<snip>

I don't think LN is the correct alignment, CG or NG would seem more appropriate to me. LN will follow the laws regardless, CG will break the law recklessly for the cause of good, NG will follow or break the law as suits the situation.
The more i think about it the More your description of her seems NG.

rogue friendly NG organisations are also easier to find. (lawful organisations tend to dislike stealing from people "because they deserved it").

Cheesegear
2008-10-24, 05:37 AM
2) Work hard to make their character something they can understand. Getting your family together means making their characters almost certainly. My big success with this was making my Dad's character- a Ranger that is in many ways a 'cowboy', a frontier hero.

Wow. What is it with Dads and Rangers? The few times I've got my Dad to play (with or without the rest of the family) he's played a Ranger/Scout (a character I made for him, and Swift Hunters are my favourite build), playing up the 'Huntsman' aspect, his Animal Companion was a dog. :smallwink:

He quite liked it. He didn't like the 'magic' aspect of D&D though. He was all for the party's enemies to use magic, but, he thought the idea of giving magic to the players would only lead to trouble (and how right he is!). He is a big Conan fan, by the way.

In fact, now that I remember, my whole reason for creating my low-magic world was to get my Dad to play. Now, I use my homebrew world for all my adventures.

paladin_carvin
2008-10-24, 02:06 PM
I have to agree with AslanCross, Duskblade may well be a better choice. Int based will also solve those skill shortages. May need to reflavour the duskblade specific spells to give the lightning.



I don't think LN is the correct alignment, CG or NG would seem more appropriate to me. LN will follow the laws regardless, CG will break the law recklessly for the cause of good, NG will follow or break the law as suits the situation.
The more i think about it the More your description of her seems NG.

rogue friendly NG organisations are also easier to find. (lawful organisations tend to dislike stealing from people "because they deserved it").

See, I disagree. First off, I hate duskblade, more and more each time I see it. No one should be able to have significant arcane power, decent armour AND best BAB. It's insane. Top it off with a tons of other bonuses... the class is too powerful to be a prestige class, let alone a base. Besides, I want to simplify this game, not complicate it. Most of the base classes past the core 11 are extremely complicated, sometimes with entire rule sets on to themselves (especially warlock, but also dusk, dragon shaman, spellthief...). Samurai, ninja, marshal(brings in new mechanic, but very simply), hexbalde, scout, swashbuckler are... well, decent. Secondly, stronger than anything about Lawful characters is a code of honour. Some view enemies not in the same light as allies as far as their rules go. After all, you would never kill an ally or fellow countryman, but a clear enemy you would: so there is a distinction with murder. For the record, she is much more enjoying sneak attacks than any thought of stealing.

paladin_carvin
2008-10-24, 02:08 PM
Wow. What is it with Dads and Rangers? The few times I've got my Dad to play (with or without the rest of the family) he's played a Ranger/Scout (a character I made for him, and Swift Hunters are my favourite build), playing up the 'Huntsman' aspect, his Animal Companion was a dog. :smallwink:

He quite liked it. He didn't like the 'magic' aspect of D&D though. He was all for the party's enemies to use magic, but, he thought the idea of giving magic to the players would only lead to trouble (and how right he is!). He is a big Conan fan, by the way.

In fact, now that I remember, my whole reason for creating my low-magic world was to get my Dad to play. Now, I use my homebrew world for all my adventures.

This makes sense, I'd say. It certainly limits the power of clerics, druids and wizards...

Cheesegear
2008-10-24, 06:05 PM
This makes sense, I'd say. It certainly limits the power of clerics, druids and wizards...

My homebrew world doesn't have Clerics, Druids or Wizards (or Archivists, Artificers and Sorcerers).

Favoured Souls, Spirit Shamans, Beguilers, Warmages and Duskblades are still okay though.

paladin_carvin
2008-10-24, 07:26 PM
Ick... I'm okay with Favored Soul... and War Mage is ok... but I can't stand the rest of those. Over complicated classes are bugger.