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DarkExcalibur42
Acolyte
USA
12 Posts |
 Posted - 18 Sep 2017 : 17:07:18
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Inquiries related to 3.0/3.5 Forgotten Realms 1370s DR. Pre-Spellplague.
A friend decided to try his hand at GMing for my group for the first time. He picked an adventure module... and after his first session was so floored by how hard GMing is that he's taking several steps back.
Enter me! *sigh* It's been years since I GMed, but I agreed to run my own game every other week while he's learning the ropes. So I'm hoping to do a few things here:
1.) give him some good example GMing,
2.) reward him for wanting to GM by catering to the character he crafted.
I'm an experienced GM, and I've run a few games in Faerūn before, but there's a few problems I've run into that still confuse me.
Thultanthar / The City of Shade
There are some novels on my to-do list about this, which I haven't gotten to yet.
For now I'm having trouble understanding how they entered the political theater.
Here's what I know:
Some Shadovar mage came through to the prime material in an effort to bring the city back. He screwed up and died, but managed to trick an Evereskan Tomb Guardian to do it for him. They return, some group of adventurers screws up and releases the Phaerimm which attack Evereska (and are repelled I think). Meanwhile the Shadovar pressed the offensive that destroyed Tilverton, and the War Wizards of Cormyr made them regret it I guess.
Here are all the holes I need help with:
So Thultanthar pops into existence, apparently as part of the events of this trilogy about an Evereskan Tomb Guard, Phaerimm, and Sharn. Looks like Tilverton was destroyed 60ish days before Shieldmeet 1372, when the 3.0 campaign book starts.
- The 3.0 campaign book makes the destruction of Tilverton sound a bit mysterious. Is it still unknown who destroyed it (did those war wizards die?), or is Cormyr keeping it quiet so people don't panic?
- Somehow Thultanthar has now engaged in political contact with other nations. The campaign book has mentioned the Red Wizards of Thay have attempted negotiations with them.
How is this happening?
Are they sending diplomats? Are the receiving them?
How have nations become aware of their sudden appearance, and how are they reacting?
The Sea of Fallen Stars
Almost all of my experience running Forgotten Realms campaigns is around Cormyr or along the Sword Coast and Sword Coast North (Waterdeep). I've never really done any nautical story-telling in Faerūn or otherwise. This is relevant because my friend, the one who's GMing the other game, made a really cool swashbuckler character he'd like to play and I'm not sure what to do with this. This section is a much more open-ended inquiry. Let me pitch what's going on so far.
This is a 2nd level party, and I have three players:
Dave, who is playing Boris the Dwarven Lovehammer (*sigh*... let's just... let's skip Dave).
Mike, who is playing a spellfire wielder. I wrote him a revised prestige class for this.
Evan, who's original character pitch was "the Dread Pirate Xandos".
Evan said his goal is to become a Cormyrian privateer with a fearsome reputation.
He's playing a dust para-genasi swashbuckler from Cimbar in Chessenta. He's just stumbled off a boat mildly sober in Suzail.
I wrote up some Red Wizard NPCs to hunt Mike's character. Seems like getting on a ship would be a good way for him to evade the Thayans for a while. Additionally, the Sembians don't care much for the Red Wizards... so this feels like a good way to set up interesting interactions.
So here's where I'm at. I have a group of players in Suzail, where I had originally been thinking of giving them a couple levels of playing around before taking them through Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave & Shadowdale: The Scourging of the Land. But if I do that, I will throw out all of Evan's aspirations for his character.
So instead... I'm thinking of improvising something on the Sea of Fallen Stars. I'm not thrilled about spending a lot of time on a ship or doing naval combat as a regular focus of the campaign. So that makes the ship out to be more of a plot tool that gets them places.
At the start the party is 2nd level standing around Suzail without allegiances, jobs, or a ship. That leaves me considering the following:
- Do I get them on a ship right away? Give them one? Suggestions for how?
- What have been some successful stories people have told in the Sea of Fallen Stars?
- Honestly this is so far out of my wheelhouse I'm happy to hear all the advice and suggestions.
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"I excused myself by saying that I had set down nothing which was not strictly true, and he replied to the effect that therein lay my fault."
--Sir Henry Rider Haggard |
Edited by - DarkExcalibur42 on 18 Sep 2017 17:08:59
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Questions on City of Shade & Sea of Fallen Stars
