| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 11 Jun 2010 : 04:22:20
Human Illuskan Barbarian 1 /Human Paragon 1
str 18 dex 12 con 14 int 12 wis 9 cha 13
Two-handed Sword & Great Battle Axe (also has improved unarm strike & uses it) Lether Armor
Human Calishite Swashbuckler/Beguiler worshipper of Waukeem
str 9 dex 16 con 9 int 16 wis 10 cha 13
Jambiya (he has two of them, one is master work) he has two-weapon fighting & leather armor
Shield Dwarf Illusionist 1 /Rogue 1
str 9 dex 14 con 12 int 15 wis 12 cha 12
Shield Dwarf Cleric of Grumbar/Dwarven Paragon
str 12 dex 10 con 12 int 11 wis 14 cha 14
heavy mace, small steel shield & banded mail
Githzeria Monk 1
adimantite quarter staff, master work & ring of protection +2, that contains something like a curse
this character was created about 4 months ago & I cannot remember her stats off hand.
Lightfoot Halfling Rogue/???
short sword
the last player I just added a few days ago & he's not finished with it yet.
I'm starting the game tomorrow. This past sat we finished my last FR game, which ran 11 months & covered the DRs 1371 to 1377. This current game will be sat in the swordcoast as well as some in the Underdark. All the characters (except the gith which already has a +2 ecl) have to have two character classes, that don't stack perfectly [example no fighter/ranger], for their first 6 levels. Which means at 6th level, each of the above would be 3/3 in those two classes. I did this to make all the characters more interesting & different from standard characters. If the above have levels beside their class it means they are those levels (3 of the characters had preludes), 2 of them are 2nd level. |
| 19 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 27 Jun 2010 : 20:51:13
1 |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 27 Jun 2010 : 20:45:04
Human Illuskan Barbarian 2 /Human Paragon 1
str 18 dex 13 con 14 int 12 wis 7 cha 13
Two-handed Sword + 1 & Great Battle Axe (also has improved unarm strike & grapple) Lether Armor
Alignment CG
Human Calishite Swashbuckler 2 /Beguiler 1 worshipper of Waukeem
str 10 dex 16 con 9 int 16 wis 10 cha 14
Elven Light Blade, Jambiya (he has two of them, one is master work) he has two-weapon fighting, combat reflexes & improved feint & leather armor a lot of social skills
alignment N
Shield Dwarf Illusionist 2 /Rogue 1 worshipper of Selune
str 8 dex 15 con 14 int 17 wis 12 cha 10
alignment CG
weapons short sword + 1, light hammer & hand crossbow
feat spell focus Illusion, craft magic item tattoo
Shield Dwarf Cleric of Grumbar 1/Dwarven Paragon 1
str 13 dex 8 con 13 int 12 wis 14 cha 14
heavy mace, small steel shield & banded mail alignment LN
Domains: Time, Earth
Githzeria Monk 1
str 12 dex 18 con 13 int 11 wis 14 cha 12
adimantite dagger, & ring of protection +2, that contains something like a curse
alignment LN
Ranger/Rogue
this player hasn't started yet but created the character at my house yesterday
str 11 dex 12 con 13 int 12 wis 12 cha 13
alignment NG
race Half-elf (wood elf/tethyrian)
long sword, short sword, light wood shield, chain shirt
feat stealthy
racial enemy Drow
This is what the group currently looks like. It has had 2 full sessions, 2 side games (each with 2 players, run as bonus sessions) and 4 prelude games (which were run for at least 5 hours each). So I've already run 8 sessions out of this. |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 27 Jun 2010 : 20:42:33
Human Illuskan Barbarian 2 /Human Paragon 1
str 18 dex 13 con 14 int 12 wis 7 cha 13
Two-handed Sword + 1 & Great Battle Axe (also has improved unarm strike & grapple) Lether Armor
Alignment CG
Human Calishite Swashbuckler 2 /Beguiler 1 worshipper of Waukeem
str 10 dex 16 con 9 int 16 wis 10 cha 14
Elven Light Blade, Jambiya (he has two of them, one is master work) he has two-weapon fighting, combat reflexes & improved feint & leather armor a lot of social skills
alignment N
Shield Dwarf Illusionist 2 /Rogue 1
str 8 dex 15 con 14 int 17 wis 12 cha 10
alignment CG
weapons short sword + 1, light hammer & hand crossbow
feat spell focus Illusion, craft magic item tattoo
Shield Dwarf Cleric of Grumbar 1/Dwarven Paragon 1
str 13 dex 8 con 13 int 12 wis 14 cha 14
heavy mace, small steel shield & banded mail alignment LN
Githzeria Monk 1
str 12 dex 18 con 13 int 11 wis 14 cha 12
adimantite dagger, & ring of protection +2, that contains something like a curse
alignment LN
Ranger/Rogue
this player hasn't started yet but created the character at my house yesterday
str 11 dex 12 con 13 int 12 wis 12 cha 13
alignment NG
race Half-elf (wood elf/tethyrian)
long sword, short sword, light wood shield, chain shirt
feat stealthy
This is what the group currently looks like. It has had 2 full sessions, 2 side games (each with 2 players, run as bonus sessions) and 4 prelude games (which were run for at least 5 hours each). So I've already run 8 sessions out of this. |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 15 Jun 2010 : 23:48:41
quote:
Originally posted by Amarel_Derakanor
Obviously, you have taken your time developing your 'campaign' eh?  It seems well thought-through. And, as noted earlier, very interesting!
Getting the players together by force of necessity is a fine technique, that works well for most, if not all PC's.
I really enjoy reading about how other GM's do their thing, so to speak. Myself, I've been game-mastering for over a decade, now, but there's always more to learn.
As a last note, I'll be starting up a new thread about this subject in order to keep this one free of interference.
I wish you good luck with your game, Woodwwad.
Edited to add a link to the Game-Master Technique Scroll:
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13753
Thank you very much, I do appreciate it
Yes, I think it is really necessary to do a lot of work in the planning stages of a game. I really have no interest in DMs who just slop a few notes together at the start of a game & go, or worse 'run it on the fly,' I've learned to totally avoid those 'styles.' I feel you need to educate yourself on your setting, build a large number of interesting npcs, & build a lot of plots both big & campaign arching before you start. What I've mentioned above is actually only a small portion of the work I've put into the game.
I'll probley put a few more details here at a later point as to the pcs. |
| Amarel Derakanor |
Posted - 15 Jun 2010 : 08:24:00
Obviously, you have taken your time developing your 'campaign' eh? It seems well thought-through. And, as noted earlier, very interesting!
Getting the players together by force of necessity is a fine technique, that works well for most, if not all PC's.
I really enjoy reading about how other GM's do their thing, so to speak. Myself, I've been game-mastering for over a decade, now, but there's always more to learn.
As a last note, I'll be starting up a new thread about this subject in order to keep this one free of interference.
I wish you good luck with your game, Woodwwad.
Edited to add a link to the Game-Master Technique Scroll:
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13753 |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 18:35:22
quote:
Originally posted by Amarel_Derakanor
Hmmm... A thought just struck me. As the players have characters from very diverse backgrounds, I'm wondering about your technique for keeping them together, meaning that, in-character-wise, they may not naturally be inclined to work / travel as a tightly knit group. When I was new to roleplaying, my player's characters just "met up" so to speak, and off they went, toghether, for out-of-character reasons. Not very realistic, so nowadays, should I run a game, I'd work things so that they would know each other from before. In order to make them stick with each other.
So, how do you do it?
If any other GM reads this; feel free to chime in as well! (Hope I'm not disrupting your thread by asking this, Woodwwad.)
Thank you for the compliment. But I would perfer other dms not respond to that inside my threat as it could end up becoming really convoluted. It is a topic well worth starting another thread for. The bringing the pcs together part is the most important part of the whole game, if it doesn't work, then you can have a lot of problems. Also, you have to make it different for each game, so it takes a lot of thought. What I did for this game is had the players end up on a island. Two of them were directed there by their mentors, from the use of astrology to encounter events there & report back. The barbarian ended up being washed ashore in a block of magical ice, the illionist had a scroll of dispel magic which he used on the nearly submerged block of magic ice. This freed the barbarian, saving him, so right off the bat there is a bond there. The Illionist & the swashbuckler were both shipwrecked on the island, along with 2 npcs. The Gith shows up with a wirling magic vortex on the other end of the stone portal that was in the center of the island, the other pcs go to investigate. The gith's monistery was just attacked & she's given a ring by her father one of the temple's senibites. The ring, looks like a silver poison ring which inside contains a small sliver of strange looking murky black glass, & contains 1/8th of the Herald. The Herald is a creature the Mind Flayers need to reassemble to begin their plan of awakening & returning their god to the matterial world & ending light. The herald has already been fortold to one of the other pcs the dwarven illusionist by strange star inspired dreams. I worked a star pattern into some of his magic. & his mentor who is a dop in disguise is a huge followers of the stars. Several names for the herald have already been used The bee keeper, the herald, the shadow king, the black king, the god king & a few more. The herald wears a thousand masks & is of course also know as The Crawling Chaos, Y'chak or Nyarlathotep. Well, when the Gith awakens on the stone slab the first thing she sees is a pic I put up on the tv of a man who begins to speak to her. The last thing her father says is don't listen to him, don't trust him before he puts the ring on her, passing the family obligation & pushing her through the portal to the prime as their monistary is attack by Mind Flayers. In traditionsl horror style she was only able to see the hands of the MFs. She gets to the island & speaks with the man who is polite & of course he makes some mentions of the other pcs. He's a terribly limited npc as he can only talk to her & has no power to force his will on her or anyone else, however, he is a god & has amazingly high int, wis & cha & 32 rank in each skill & speaks every lang (this is from the d20 COC book) so he has a lot of tools to use & can be usuful to her. However he'll try to build up trust from her, using different psychology & reverse psychology to get her to lower her guard at the wrong time. The Mindflayers are creatures from the end of time who hurled themselves back to an early age of creation, the event that cause this massive magic was the shattering of the Crawling chaos by the MFs enemies. The MFs have been working 10s of thousands of years to bring the gate, which brings the crawling chaos, back into their possession. This gate is the small mirror which had it's pieces taken by 8 different races that were previously mind flayer slaves including : githyanki, githzeria, & duergar. The barbarian is a clone created from the body of the great northern king in the last age the stars were right. A clone of a great hero. The player doesn't know much of his background. He awoke on a stoneslab with a bunch of sci-fi looking equipment around him & 8 Greys, aliens around him. They were actually doppelgangers who are severants, read as slaves, of the Mindflayers (they have a lot of strange slave races, things they brought from the future & then shipped from their planet to toril that did not revolt against them like the gith). So he wakes up, the first thing he sees is a reflection of himself in a glass tube, then sees beyond it & sees his own face. The sees the 8 dops. He suprises them by awakening & attacks them, fighting out & escaping, until they catch him at BG & trap him in ice for 30 years. The barbarian also aquired a friend before being imprisioned in ice, named Agathangelos Sorva who is a Maenad (although no one knows this) & of the wilder psionic class. The barbarian has slowly been getting memories of his past life back, this will help add to the epic feel I'm going for with this game.
So they all met up on the island that had no animals & they encountered the abominal horror of a Grell which further bonded them. The Gith really has no choice but to get with the othe pcs, as she doesn't know anyone. The barbarian, who was told about the darkness by Sorva, is happy to work with the dwarf who is already on the MF trail put there by his Dop teacher. He also finds out right aftering meeting the dwarf that the dwarf has met Sorva; however, the dwarf met Syger Sorva. Syger is Agathangelos's son.
The Swashbuckler is working for his older bastard half-brother who he just met at the start of the game. His brother is also investigating this profecy & the stars. So, I have NPCs positioned to deploy the pcs as their eyes & ears to investigate this terror. So the pcs working together should actually be a non issue in this game. Hope that wasn't too convoluted, as I was trying to get a lot of info out. Hope that my be of some help to you. |
| Amarel Derakanor |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 09:50:23
Hmmm... A thought just struck me. As the players have characters from very diverse backgrounds, I'm wondering about your technique for keeping them together, meaning that, in-character-wise, they may not naturally be inclined to work / travel as a tightly knit group. When I was new to roleplaying, my player's characters just "met up" so to speak, and off they went, toghether, for out-of-character reasons. Not very realistic, so nowadays, should I run a game, I'd work things so that they would know each other from before. In order to make them stick with each other.
So, how do you do it?
If any other GM reads this; feel free to chime in as well! (Hope I'm not disrupting your thread by asking this, Woodwwad.) |
| Amarel Derakanor |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 07:37:02
Very interesting to read! Keep it up! |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 04:21:40
I use a lot of pictures for my game. I find fantasy stuff from all over the net (I have about 2,000 pics for my game on my comp. At least one for every npc that means anything to the game) & I have a cable hook up to my tv, so I can show the pic on my tv when it's on my comp. So the players can see all the pics as if that npc was in the room, it works really well. The one pc ran into the group of dops, & they looked like dops, which is to say they weren't in disguise ( 8 of them) at the very start of his prelude. The pic I used for the dops was one of Greys, aliens. Which is pretty much what dops look like, but I made sure they weren't D&D style but sci-fi looking, to send the players thinking in the wrong direction. It worked out really well, added a lot of interest.
I've done some slight forshadowing that the mentor of the dwarven illionist is actually a dop, or at least not a dwarf, but it's been very subtle & the pcs havn't picked up on it. It'll be very interesting to see if they ever figure out what he is. |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 03:32:03
quote:
Originally posted by woodwwad
I'm glad to hear it & thank you for your interest. I ran the first game on Friday, it went really well. The players ended up on a small northern island on the Nelanther chain. Two of the players ended up there on boats, 1 ended up there as it was the realms side of a gate from limbo (the gith), one ended up there after his prelude ended with a wizard, actually a doppelganger servant of the illithids who are the overarching villians of the game (I'm not going to go into explaing this right now as it would be a massive amount of text), freezing him in a block of ice, in the harbor of BG. Before this happened though, he had recieved a blessing from a priestess of Umberlee, the block of magical ice was pushed across the ocean floor & ended up on the island 30 years later. The other 2 pcs made it there on different boats, one actually on a pirate boat that was taken over by 2 more doppelgangers, that ended up attacking the other boat. Those 2 pcs & 2 more of the crew of the ship were the only ones to survive, as both boats were sunk (the two dops also survived). 1 of the pcs, the illusionist found the barbarian who was frozen in ice & removed the enchantment from him, freeing him. They findout that the island they are on is totally devoid of any life save the small amount of life on the shore line. Also, they find the island is infested with Grell & has been for the past 70 years. I actually only saw one of the grell which was discribed in all it's roppy, tendrillish horror, of course they ran from the beast, after it killed one of the npc pirates that was with them & eventually the 4 pcs & 1 npc made it off the island & back to the gate. The 2 pcs that were there on boats were acting as operatives for fairly powerful npcs, one of who is actually a Dop ( diviner 9/rogue 1 ) that has escaped the control of the illithids & is now of the NG alignment & has been possing as a shield dwarf in Bg for nearly 30 years.
One of the worries I always have with Doppelgangers is how will my PC's react once they know one is around. Usually, they never find out, but every once in a while...
Anyhoo, I'm glad to see what happened here, and, as I said before, keep us posted  |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 03:19:27
quote:
Originally posted by Nicolai Withander
I might be slow, but do you create the characters for the PCs? You seem very controling... Not to say has to be a bad thing, but saying that is situated arond the sword coast... well what then if the PC's wants to explore some Imaskacani ruins???
It just seems to me that you betting they like per difinition what you present... and well thats a dangeous thing to trust in.
IMO A DM should let players create their own characters, with guidens... And well one can never be sure that the players stay where you want them....
What level do you think they will end up as???
The places listed were for the reader, so you could have an idea. The pcs are from the Swordcoast BG area, Amn, ten towns, & limbo. There are a lot of npcs in Amn & BG that are already heavily tied to the pcs & plots they've already been wrapped up in, so there is no doubt the pcs will have a lot more of the game spent in the locations I mentioned. However, as you mentioned, they may well decide they want to go to other location which will nearly certainly happen & I have a lot of other locations planned for them.
The last FR game I ran lasted about 11 months, the players were between 9th & 12th level at the end of the campaign. This one should go a good bit longer & might go to 15-20th level, just a guess. |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 14 Jun 2010 : 02:53:45
quote:
Originally posted by Nicolai Withander
I might be slow, but do you create the characters for the PCs? You seem very controling... Not to say has to be a bad thing, but saying that is situated arond the sword coast... well what then if the PC's wants to explore some Imaskacani ruins???
It just seems to me that you betting they like per difinition what you present... and well thats a dangeous thing to trust in.
IMO A DM should let players create their own characters, with guidens... And well one can never be sure that the players stay where you want them....
What level do you think they will end up as???
No, I don't create the players characters. I sit down with them, usually at least 2 months before I start a game & they pitch me concept ideas. I tell them what I think will work & what I don't. I also pitch ideas back to them, some they like & use, others they don't. I run an indepth style of game, that is about telling stories, not the hack & slash styles (last game FR game I ran often went 3 game sessions in a row without a single combat, & my games last between 8-14 hours). So I like to have extremely well developed characters. So I'll know their personality strengths & weaknesses, & the character very well overall, this allows me to craft npcs that will foil their character, so they can use everything about their pc in different ways & the hundreds of different plots, both pc or npc specific or campaign overarching, I write can have many applicates to the players. The game I run has a lot to do with relationships, drama, intrigue, & politics, all of which are carefully created. I'm a maticulous planner & I have to make sure the pcs create character that will be easy for me to work with, give me a lot of energy to come up with ideas for, so I can do more for & with them. Also, the pcs are all created apart from each other, so no one knows anything about the others players, which means I have to make sure they don't step on each others toes too much, don't want 2 pcs that are too alike. The level thing I did, so the characters would be more unique, just thought it would be an interesting idea to try. It gives the character more tricks in his bag & more tricks makes a character more fun to play, as you have more options, which is a good thing. So, yes, I am "controling," but I do give the players a lot of room in which to build their characters. I really had some interesting ideas for a Gith in this game, mentioned I had a character type I would like to see. One of my players told me she'd be happy to play it. I spoke with her about it & she came up with a githzeria monk which I have some really interesting ideas for. & since Mind Flayers will be part of the game, a gith will really be a great addition. |
| Nicolai Withander |
Posted - 13 Jun 2010 : 12:44:39
I might be slow, but do you create the characters for the PCs? You seem very controling... Not to say has to be a bad thing, but saying that is situated arond the sword coast... well what then if the PC's wants to explore some Imaskacani ruins???
It just seems to me that you betting they like per difinition what you present... and well thats a dangeous thing to trust in.
IMO A DM should let players create their own characters, with guidens... And well one can never be sure that the players stay where you want them....
What level do you think they will end up as??? |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 13 Jun 2010 : 05:20:15
more gremlins here at the 'keep again, I'm afraid, my friend. |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 13 Jun 2010 : 05:19:43
quote:
Originally posted by woodwwad
quote:
Originally posted by Darkmeer
Nice. Is this a continuation of your work with the Myrkul, or is this something completely different?
/d
I'm glad you remembered. The Myrkul stuff you mentioned would have been my last FR game, set in the dalelands & moonsea mainly, in dr 1371-1377---it lasted 11 months before I finished it. This game is being set on the Swordcoast/Amn/Underdark & set in 1369 onward (I'll looking to cover at least 10 years in this campaign, I'm thinking it should take about 2 years to finish the campaign), it is with the same timeline as the last game but from a different prespective. Which is to say everything that happened in the first game will happen during this game but they'll get a chance to see the story from another prespective & there is a lot that prespective will give them that the first didn't, so it'll have many new plots. The myrkul storyline will of course still be there. In my FR game there is a temple of on the top of a hill which overlooks the large old Baldur's Gate graveyard outside of the gate. The temple is as of 1369 a temple of Kelemvor, just taken over after an attack on a cult of cyric that was held up in it but followers of Helm (there is a large backstory but I'll try to keep it short). This temple before 1360 was a temple to Myrkul & the temple run by A-Ya Doon, the now chosen of Myrkul. One of the pcs cousin is a member of the tmeple of Kelemvor, & he's already been to the temple. So, yes, the myrkul storyline is continuing. Hope that wasn't too convoluted
Not at all convoluted, given the discussions we had about this Keep us posted here to see how it goes, I'd like to see how it pans out for you!
/d
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| Darkmeer |
Posted - 13 Jun 2010 : 05:16:59
quote:
Originally posted by woodwwad
quote:
Originally posted by Darkmeer
Nice. Is this a continuation of your work with the Myrkul, or is this something completely different?
/d
I'm glad you remembered. The Myrkul stuff you mentioned would have been my last FR game, set in the dalelands & moonsea mainly, in dr 1371-1377---it lasted 11 months before I finished it. This game is being set on the Swordcoast/Amn/Underdark & set in 1369 onward (I'll looking to cover at least 10 years in this campaign, I'm thinking it should take about 2 years to finish the campaign), it is with the same timeline as the last game but from a different prespective. Which is to say everything that happened in the first game will happen during this game but they'll get a chance to see the story from another prespective & there is a lot that prespective will give them that the first didn't, so it'll have many new plots. The myrkul storyline will of course still be there. In my FR game there is a temple of on the top of a hill which overlooks the large old Baldur's Gate graveyard outside of the gate. The temple is as of 1369 a temple of Kelemvor, just taken over after an attack on a cult of cyric that was held up in it but followers of Helm (there is a large backstory but I'll try to keep it short). This temple before 1360 was a temple to Myrkul & the temple run by A-Ya Doon, the now chosen of Myrkul. One of the pcs cousin is a member of the tmeple of Kelemvor, & he's already been to the temple. So, yes, the myrkul storyline is continuing. Hope that wasn't too convoluted
Not at all convoluted, given the discussions we had about this Keep us posted here to see how it goes, I'd like to see how it pans out for you!
/d
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| woodwwad |
Posted - 12 Jun 2010 : 23:38:16
1 |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 11 Jun 2010 : 17:06:33
Hoping that my reply shows now. |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 11 Jun 2010 : 05:39:21
Nice. Is this a continuation of your work with the Myrkul, or is this something completely different?
/d
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