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Post by treadiculous on Jul 7, 2015 6:13:59 GMT -5
I think the orc ambush could work well.. there's not many orcs so it'll be quite brief. (unless they bait the party to follow them back to the orc army)... my only issue is that the orcs wouldn't want to go into a fight they know they'd loose.
I like the idea of the werewolf, maybe he lets to the party that "I smelt them coming", add a few chest wounds (from the arrow hits), give him a medal or trophy or comment from joe public bystander that he's amazing at acrobatics and the fact he has REALLY bad teeth will probably define him well enough.
(appalling grammar but hey)
I like the idea of the wolf being a bar keep.. not sure why.. I think its because the trophy can be on display, the bad teeth can be blamed on cider and he's in a position where the party are likely to meet him. (and you could call the pub The Red Hood, The Sheeps Clothing, The Three Pigs etc...)
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Post by jenburdoo on Jul 9, 2015 5:11:15 GMT -5
Second session:
We've got around eight people playing, watching or sitting in for others who can't make it, including one who I let play an NPC orc archer who is trailing the party. So this week --
The party returned to town from the tower, getting shot at for their trouble as they recrossed the creek, then found the grave of the guard they found had been disturbed. They did not track the (wolf) footprints, however, but continued on to the town where they reported the events of last week and then accepted a mission to travel to the capital and report the town's needs to the new queen of the realm (news on the road is that the king has mysteriously died). They went up the Royal Road to the next town, passing a blind beggar on the way and both giving him coins and stealing them. Finally, they stayed the night in Moonlight Hollow, where they fought a brief bar brawl before going to sleep. Early in the morning they awoke to hear something at the door, and ended up chasing a wolvish shape into the woods and tracking it to a cave which turned out to be near the grave clearing (they smacked themselves at this point).
They had encountered a spider in the cave (which appeared to be the wolvish guy's hideout) and it went back out the door they came in and bit the orc archer, who had just set up an arrow trap for the party and was unconscious by the time they came out. So, after the trap went off and stuck in the half-orc warrior, they now have the orc prisoner and are (incompetently) interrogating him. We'll see what happens next week!
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Post by jenburdoo on Jul 9, 2015 20:13:20 GMT -5
Would you believe the game is so popular that a second group is forming? They're playing at one of the teens' houses tonight. I can't wait to see how it goes.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jul 16, 2015 21:07:54 GMT -5
Third session had some really unexpected events, caused mostly by the presence of a player to run the NPC orc they captured last week. Three of them went to hunt a werewolf, leaving the other three behind, but the latter group decided to follow the first group and left the tied-up orc behind in the town's temple. He escaped and, instead of disappearing, decided to burn down the temple with its priestess inside. By the time the group returned from purging the werewolf, the town was on fire and the townspeople were pissed. Despite the party's rather incompetent help (civilians screamed and panicked instead of accepting the aid of the half-orc warrior and the guy with a lion's head), everyone except the priestess survived, but the temple was totally destroyed and the frustrated mayor simply demanded the party leave. They did, and spent the rest of the session discussing the need for intraparty communication and leadership. I am so looking forward to next session...
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Post by jenburdoo on Aug 4, 2015 23:00:18 GMT -5
Running a short session tomorrow. The theory is that the party will reach the capital city and deliver their message (of orcs and wolves on the border, and a destroyed border tower) to the Queen. In the process she will learn that they are responsible for burning down one of her towns and will (ahem) maneuver them into "volunteering" to clean out the royal tomb. This is because it is only entered twice a generation, to A. bury the last monarch, B. collect the regalia for the next monarch's coronation, and C. put it back. In between, it is locked, trapped, and guarded, and the volunteer guards or disposable convicts assigned to open it up again get to have lots of fun.
This time around, they will discover that it is infested with aquatic goblins who got in from the sewers, which are equally dangerous and will be the NEXT dungeon for the party to clear out once they deal with this one. In the meantime, they'll have to bypass traps, magical constructs, and a couple royal ghosts whose slumber has been disturbed.
I don't think we'll have time to get to the dungeon tomorrow (short on staff). So I'm hoping to fill sixty or ninety minutes with:
- the rest of the trip to the capital - a quick tour of the city and then of the palace, guided by guards with southern accents and based loosely on Gomer Pyle ("Gee-whillikers, Sarge!") and Big Macintosh ("Eeyup.") - and an audience with the queen, who is being played by an eager coworker, and I really want it to go well. Have put together a flowchart for her to use in interviewing the party and hopefully make them sweat a little.
Wish me luck!
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Post by jenburdoo on Aug 17, 2015 0:01:46 GMT -5
Have lost momentum after first me, then someone else got sick and a third (the most enthusiastic player/authority figure) took a weeks vacation. Now seriously considering Only War (or a fantasy variant of it) so that a) the game can just be about killing things and b) players can easily drop in and out as their characters die.
- "Everyone build civilian characters." - "Awesome. Now the King's drill sergeant rounds you up, tells you you're drafted and sends you to the orc-front."
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Post by Adkenpachi on Aug 21, 2015 17:06:34 GMT -5
Our campaign was hillarious tonight! Im a monk, ran into a chimera attacking a halfling in his shop at night, i ran in roundhouse kicked it to all 3 heads causing the rams head to be severed and thrown through the shops door as half my party watched it fly out. There was an orc barbarian with me who frenzied and rather than talk to the halfling his bloodrage caused him to barge past the halfling (accidently throwing him through a window much to the amusement of the outside party) and stole some magic items from his shop. The halfling then ran for the townguard and the orc javellined him in the back, to cover up for him i took the halfling back in the shop and burried the dragon heads jaw in the javelin wound!
Later some handlers came to reclaim the chimera for the exotic animal show they were in and got a little annoyed at each other for letting it escape. We managed to convine the local rumour house that it was them who killed the halfling.
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Post by jenburdoo on Aug 28, 2015 15:21:17 GMT -5
Restarting the campaign Wednesday -- I kinda have to, since it'll be in the public events calendar. Right now looking at starting where we left off, but with new characters. They will be an impromptu Royal special-ops team (some volunteers, some conscripted prisoners) first assigned to clean up the royal tomb, then clean up the sewers, then I might try something seaborne since the session after that will be around Talk Like a Pirate Day. The theory this time is that the group will be easy to have characters drop out or get picked up, as that will probably be a huge factor in an ongoing program.
Reading a lot of old KODT issues -- never really looked at anything but the comic before, but now I'm finding some useful things in the articles.
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 5, 2015 4:43:18 GMT -5
So far so good; two sessions in and the party (seven different characters so far, only one of which has been seriously injured) has cleared the tomb and explored the sewers. Next up, figuring out why the sewers are filled with giant reptiles and undead. The theme is working -- as long as I can get everyone back to the palace at the end of each session I can find an excuse to switch out characters and players as needed.
Yesterday was actually pretty gratifying; I came into the teen area and found new players enthusiastically rolling up characters, so decided to run with the interest and ran a session there and then (luckily I was free for three hours). I've put up a display in the teen room of rules, suggestions on character building, DnD books, and a brief campaign journal as well.
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 24, 2015 0:11:12 GMT -5
Campaign is going remarkably well, despite my fumbling for descriptions and atmosphere. I have a regular six players and currently they're on a voyage to the "Orc Islands" and spent today's session fighting an orc pirate ship. The dragonborn warrior basically leapt onto the other ship and battled the crew singlehandedly, while the necromancer used Spectral Hand in a variety of creative ways, the clerics buffed, the mage rocked the boat (literally) and then burned the enemy ship to the waterline, and the elf stole the last kill from the dragonborn. They cheered at the nat-20s and groaned at the fumbles. Now I just have to figure out what happens when they reach their destination.
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Oct 16, 2015 19:05:39 GMT -5
Maybe you can adapt ideas from a game that's too old or obscure for them to have played. Being told to go find out why the sewers have monsters in them reminds me of Neverwinter Nights.
Orc Islands makes me want to adapt parts of Zelda Windwaker.
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Post by jenburdoo on Oct 16, 2015 20:09:41 GMT -5
Eight sessions in and going surprisingly well. Bump in the road coming up, as I'm going on vacation and the session after that may be pre-empted by another program. I REALLY hope it doesn't crash and burn again. I'm writing a campaign log, which you can find HERE.
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