Campaign help...

[CyberWyld]

So I'm going to DM my first campaign this friday. Little nervous about it, but excited too. My favorite part of D&D is the story aspect of it all. Along with character development. I feel that really gets neglected more often then not and alot of games quickly become hack and slash sessions. Like say...Bauldur's Gate for PS2 compaired to the great PC versions. Anyways, I have an idea for a campaign and wanted some feedback on whether or not it would work, and how hard it would be to make it run smoothly.


I want to have my entire party part of an orinization of sorts. They've all worked together in the past and this is not their first adventure. LvL for this campaign is looking like 10, or there abouts. Basically I see it going like this.


"Your party has just returned that very afternoon from a mission given
> to you by the order. (guild/whatever they belong to) You all retire to
> the tavern to relax and spin some tales of your latest journey. Some
> time on into the night the door burst open and in runs Galvrox, a
> traveling merchant you've had some dealings with in the past. A shady
> character at best, he's not very well accepted in town, but he never
> bothers anyone so his passing is left alone...or at least it has been.
> Galvrox stumbles in gasping for breath and notices you and your crew
> in the corner. He rushes over to you with a box. Fumbling over his
> words he yammers on about how they're going to kill him and you must help him.
> He hands you the box, which appears fairly ordinary except for
> markings that you've never seen and cannot identify. Before you can
> get any questions asked of the old nomad, the thud of an arrow meeting
> flesh fills your ears and the watch spill in and start rushing your table."
>
>
> "There's the (artifact name here), they're in league with the old man!
> DESTROY THEM AND RETRIEVE THE (artifact)!!!"
>
> *party is forced to rush out of the tavern to escape death. Outlaws
> they hide out in the forest and get the box open. It contains a *map
> (I dunno something) leading to a village you've never heard of. Your
> party decides if they're going to clear their names and get some
> answers...that's the best place to start.

I'm basically looking to get them to this town/village and have it be infested with, and actually ran by vampires. Just like Salem's Lot. Is this something that sounds fun? Or do you think it won't work very well? Thanks in advance.



hasta

[leperkhaun]

its a good idea.

If you can your hands on the Castle ravenloft adventures, thats basically what they are and you can scale them to 10th.

Undead are fun, if you plan to feature alot of undead during your entire campgain, suggest to your rogue that they get the gravestrike feat (lets them sneak attack undead).

[Iku Rex]

(There's no "gravestrike feat".)

[leperkhaun]

forgot it was a spell. Forgot what level spell it was.

[Skjaldbakka]

I once played a sorc 1/cleric 1/druid 1/rogue 17 with all of the X strike spells. Gotta love being able to sneak attack almost everything. Don't think I could justify the combination of classes in a serious game though.

[Jannex]

What happens if the PCs go, "We don't know him! Here, take it!" and shove the box into the watchmen's hands? That, and a little diplomacy/bluff fast-talk on the part of the party face could run your plot into some trouble.

[CyberWyld]

What happens if the PCs go, "We don't know him! Here, take it!" and shove the box into the watchmen's hands? That, and a little diplomacy/bluff fast-talk on the part of the party face could run your plot into some trouble.

Yeah I thought of that. Which is why I think I'll start the campaign where the little story ended there. The campaign starts with the group in the woods, box in their pocession and wondering what to do. You can't "puppet" your players, but you can certainly start them from the right spot I would think. :)



hasta

[Jannex]

Yeah I thought of that. Which is why I think I'll start the campaign where the little story ended there. The campaign starts with the group in the woods, box in their pocession and wondering what to do. You can't "puppet" your players, but you can certainly start them from the right spot I would think. :)



hasta

Hm. If I were a PC in that situation, I'd feel a bit railroaded, having my character dumped into a bad predicament without being given the opportunity to try to avoid it. But you know your players better than we do, and if you think they won't mind, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Icewalker]

Here's the thing: How well do you know your players. Close friends? Slight acquaintances? unknown people on the pbp section?

If you know them well enough to predict some measure of their intent, and you know that they will all respect your work and campaign and won't purposely wreck it at the beginning even though it is easy, let them go through it, but with a backup plan: here is one for you

The town guards are rather paranoid. Stuff can kill you quite quick in the dnd world.
One of the guards has an amulet with a sort of detect lies aura. If they say "we don't know him, it's not ours" it registers a lie, he yells so, and they attack. The PCs try to explain, but are already under attack and have little choice to flee.

The other problem though is that a 10th level party would...well...be able to slaughter the town guard. All of it, probably, unless it is a more reasonable game where wandering groups of adventurers don't have the power to destroy armies...at least not easily...

[daggaz]

I think the vast majority of players dont mind being railroaded into the beginning of a campaign...

DM: You are all new acquaintances, having been brought together by the captain of the guards recently, and briefed on a top-secret mission to seek out a sect of evil clerics who are bent on the destruction of the kingdom from within...

CG Dwarf Barb: Nah.... dinnae really sound like me thing, I go ta the bar an get drunk, mebee find meself a nice dwarven scamp. Then I'll look aroun' fer some heads ta bash more directly like.. There's always scum in them bars..

TN Druid: I immediately leave the city, and head into the wilderness, in order that I might protect my forest from these clerics..

CN Wizard: Huh...whatever.. I retire to my studies, in order that I might research a few spells to increase my vast power even further. If the kingdom goes to hell, what do I care, I'm powerful enough to stop the clerics alone, and it will be easier to do once they've shown themselves by seizing power....

CN Rogue: Meh... I sneak away from the group, but not before rifling through their bags for goodies. Then I head off into the city to find the clerics, I'm going to join their side and bring down this stinking kingdom...

DM: ....

(sure the DM should try to have a plot that fits the characters backgrounds/alignments somehow, but I think you get the picture. I would certaintly blame the players here...)

[CyberWyld]

I've been playing with my party for over 3 years now. I wouldn't think anyone would be pissed about starting where I've explained. I also don't think anyone would try to do anything silly in the situation either. If I did play through it, I'd send about 30 Town Watch into the bar? Make it an insane # that you'd just have to be suicidal to fight. Either way I control the flow of the story. I think alot of DM's loose sight of that. You have an idea for a story and you want your party to play through that. But that doesn't mean you have to lock them into a linear straight path. Open ended video game RPG's all have a MAIN plot hook that you'll play throughout. You'll get side tracked for hours, but that main objective is always looming in the distance. That's the kind of campaign I'd like to run. I think the hard part is "steering" your group in the direction you need them go...without it being obvious that that is what you're doing. Make sense?



Hasta

[Susil]

From a personal point of view (having had my DM do a similar thing to our party a while back) it would be preferable just to start with them on the run, rather than use the 'detect lies amulet' idea or anything like it - I think most people would rather start like that, with a more open adventure ahead of them, than to have the first big decision they make kinda swept away. It's fairer to the players to say "can we start this way, because I need it to lead into my story", than to apply some deus ex machina or something to get them there.

My 2cp, anyhow.

[Chaos Bringer]

I know that if it was me in the situation, and you did start us in the bar shortly, if not right after the dude got hit by the arrow, I would heal him up and drag him along with us to explain all this junk afterwards. Of course I am also the jerk cleric that healed a NPC paladin of his lycanthropy before the DM could use him against us