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Soliciting some advice

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Apr 20, 2007 22:41:57 I am about to start my first DS Campaign as the DM, I played as a charactor in 2 others back during my middle school and high school days playing 2nd Edition. I am having a bit of writers block atm however, never a good thing for a DM.

I intend to start the campaign in Tyr, and over the next few sessions move out to towards Draj were the PC's become entangled with a certin fleeing wizard in Blue Robes. (Thank you Athas.org for the great adventure :D ) I have quite a bit of material prepared to cover the trek, including encounters with Raiders, stumbling upon on old ruins, and an encounter with a peeved off druid. However, threw out all of this, the most important thing has stopped me cold every time I sit down to try and figure it out. WHY do the PC's leave Tyr to go to Draj....

Ideas I had, but seemed to cliche (for me atleast as a former DS player) amounting to the "We have a problem with rats" starting adventure that many campaign settings end up seeing from first time DM's of those settings that just arn't sure how else to keep low level PC's alive (took me years to learn how to with out sending hordes of rats and kobolds to the slaughter).

Anywho, the ideas I had that I felt was cliche were

1. PC's are hired by one of the Trading houses to accompany a caravan and act as guards.

2. PC's are approached by a member of the vieled alliance who needs to send some urgant message to Draj with out using magic. (Kinda went out the window when my player who was going to play a Preserver went and decided to change his mind when we finally set down to roll up the charactors last week and ended up making a Barbarian).

3. The PC's aquirre a strange map from a merchant that indicates there may be an unexplored ruin near Draj and might hold treasure. (My players are a bit greedy).

However, these just seemed to tacky and over done at the basic level. So, anyone have a quick hook they could toss a desperate DM who has planned out everything else but is now stuck?

If it helps, the party, 3 strong, consists of a Barbarian, Psychic Warrior, and a Cleric of Fire. Mul, Aarakokra, and Human respectively.
#2
j0lt
Apr 21, 2007 8:04:47 Well, you could play to the Barbarian's love for combat and have someone mention something about the Flowery Wars in Draj. That way the party asks the trading house if they can work as caravan guards going to Draj (instead of the trading house asking them).
#3
zombiegleemax
Apr 21, 2007 8:38:41
Well, you could play to the Barbarian's love for combat and have someone mention something about the Flowery Wars in Draj. That way the party asks the trading house if they can work as caravan guards going to Draj (instead of the trading house asking them).

Bless the elements! Thank you! I hate writers block!
#4
j0lt
Apr 21, 2007 23:55:24 It also ties right into the adventure by Athas.org (which basically starts with the PCs witnessing/participating in the Flowery Wars)

I'm doing a similar campaign, and I'm stuck too.
The PCs have been captured by slavers, and sold to a minor noble in the village of Shazlim. They're supposed to be gladiators (Elf Ranger & Human Rogue), and I know I want them to escape, but I can't get my head around that. I've got 3 ways they could get to Draj:
1. A House Inika caravan is staying in town en route to Draj through Cromlin (Rogue's home city)
2. The PCs could just march into the desert on their own (should be okay - the Ranger is the GMPC)
3. They could stay in Shazlim and become famous enough to be sent to the Flowery Wars.

I'm also going to try to introduce another GMPC just to round the group out.
Unfortunately, I'm not so good at fleshing ideas out. (or making quick NPCs.)
Any suggestions?
#5
gilliard_derosan
Apr 22, 2007 10:51:53 the NPC could help them excape, and coule have been following them for a while, and decided that they could use the services of the group. So in exchange for freeing them, he/she wants some favor in return.

When I started my campaign a few years ago, the group awakened to find themselves in a wagon cage travelling as part of a caravan. They had no idea who they were, they had no memories from before that point. All they had was outside stimulus. Guards taunting them, one other slave in the wagon informing them that were going to fight for their master, etc.

They stopped at Shazlim for some minor gladiatorial combat, and during the few nights spent rotating in and out at the arena, they caught the eye of a local pair of VA operatives. VA Operatives that had been given instructions to keep an eye out for several people fitting the description of the group.

It seems that members of the VA were out investigating strange rumors round Giustenal when they came up missing. So, the Operatives made contact, arranged to help them escape, and then sent them off towards Raam to get in contact with the VA for debriefing

This was the start of my City by the Silt Sea adventure. My adventure that followed a skewed timeline.

It turns out that the higher-up they found, Lucean, was Dregoth in disguise. He discovered the group poking around his city, captured them and wiped their memories. He then sold them, ordered their owner ti kill them, but purposely picked a greedy/sneaky person to sell them to, someone who couldn't resist putting the group, which included a half giant, to fight in the arena.

The group escaped, made their way to Raam, found Lucean, found out that they were originally sent to investigate rumors of an army amassing, and were charged with going back to find out what they found out the first time that was grounds to have their memory wiped (also, it was the best chance to get their memories restored)

So they did, eventually "discovering" Dregoths plan to release an army of demons from his planar gate to help him become a God. After a while, the group destroyed the "holy relic" (which was the supposed focus of his godhood spell - and also responsible for creating skeletons and zombies out of recently deceased to help him along his goal of slaughtering enough life to power the spell).

In all of this, Abalach-Re was still alive, Kalak, Borys, etc.. Like I said, I alternated my timeline a bit.

Dregoths ultimate plan was to find a group, and give them a purpose.. in defeating his goal to become a God, they grew powerful. Powerful enough to destroy Borys, so that when he unleased his real Godhood agenda (from Dregoth Ascending) Borys wouldn't be able to step in and stop him. And since Dregoth also played the part of ancient defender of other-worldy artifacts, that he planted rumors of, let the PCs quest to find these weapons to slay The Dragon - Borys - then they had to return them because of some ancient curse would destroy them if they tried to keep them - the group lacks the gear they had that helped them kill Borys..

So now they have to get the artifacts presented in DA...

It all worked out nicely and blended right in together, with a little bit of creative story manipulation..

Considering this campaigns has been going on for at least 2 years, playing every other week, I am sure I missed a few minor details, but that is the gist of it. After some side-tracking and other adventures, we are currently in DA 2 - the quest.

If you are starting a new campaign, feel free to borrow the story to suit your diabolical needs! hehehe
#6
aggilus
Apr 22, 2007 12:51:13 Well... you can have some raiders to throw the PC out of their homes after a fight. knock them out and they awake they find out that whatever attached them to Tyr was destroyed o gone... they are left alone so they could decide that to move to Draj with the caravan that is about to leave for the city is as good as anything else
#7
pringles
Apr 23, 2007 0:08:08 Hire them to capture an important NPC from a Noble/Merchant/Elfe House/Tribe and bring it alive to Draj for "Insert reason here". The relative of the kidnapped NPC will chase the PC in the desert to free him. Also, a rival or the one who hired the PC also want the kidnapped NPC, so he will try to steal it from the PC. Add random desert danger, marauding raider, thri-kreen hunter, hungry monster, desert storm, and you have a perfect plot device. Dont forgot the poor captured NPC who will propably try to escape.

You could also hide the fact why NPC X want kidnapped NPC Y in Draj and make the PC discover the horrible truth.
#8
zombiegleemax
Apr 23, 2007 8:39:08
It also ties right into the adventure by Athas.org (which basically starts with the PCs witnessing/participating in the Flowery Wars)

I'm doing a similar campaign, and I'm stuck too.
The PCs have been captured by slavers, and sold to a minor noble in the village of Shazlim. They're supposed to be gladiators (Elf Ranger & Human Rogue), and I know I want them to escape, but I can't get my head around that. I've got 3 ways they could get to Draj:
1. A House Inika caravan is staying in town en route to Draj through Cromlin (Rogue's home city)
2. The PCs could just march into the desert on their own (should be okay - the Ranger is the GMPC)
3. They could stay in Shazlim and become famous enough to be sent to the Flowery Wars.

I'm also going to try to introduce another GMPC just to round the group out.
Unfortunately, I'm not so good at fleshing ideas out. (or making quick NPCs.)
Any suggestions?

Well, with you starting your PC's as slaves you could run them through "A little Knowledge" from the original boxed set if you wanted. I still have it but since my PC's are not slaves, it just don't work for me hehe. Just twink the adventure to drop the PC's closer to Draj so the odds of them finding thier way there is increased.

As for a GMPC, due to the low amount of players I usually have to DM for (2 to 3) I usually have to resort to playing the party's healer as well as my DM duties. One thing I always try to incorporate into any GMPC is a plausible reason for the PC's to not beable to solicite the GMPC for advice, tho the PC's don't always have to realize whats going on.

Some things I have done to this end in other campaigns (non-DS campaigns) was have the GMPC be infintile minded (The GMPC had an intel of 5, but a high wisdom, thus he had suggestions, but couldn't articulate them, nor realized he should.), had the PC speak in cryptic rymes (was great for a monk GMPC who was all cryptic and mysterious. Kind of a mix between Yoda and Splinter), and in one I actually had a PC that through means unknown to the PC's (or myself really) the GMPC was actually from Darksun but had some how ended up in thier Prime Material Plane. They did not share a language so they couldn't talk to one another. However, she was a Telepath so when I did want to give hints or advice through her she would do so via mental images. In retrospect, she was perhaps the most flawed in concept (Coming from Darksun to another plane) but was the funnest GMPC I had played in a long time.

My current GMPC is going to be a Mul Templar, who is pretending to be a cleric (haven't figured this out entirely yet). Her mission is to keep an eye on the PC's after thier first encounter with a mage, hoping to be led to the Vieled alliance in time. The templarate doesn't feel assigning a low templar to this mission to be a big deal as they feel the chance of success is low, and mortality high. Eventually she will have a crisis of faith and will employ the "Renegade Templar" PrC I came across in the archives. May not be the most sound PrC when it comes to the fluff and such on how it works, but the PC's don't know most of the behind the scenes stuff so I can twink my own campaign as needed for things to work. In the end tho, being a Templar who is spying on them, she will give advice, but the PC's will probley quickly realize that it's not such a good idea to take her advice.
#9
j0lt
Apr 23, 2007 12:09:15
Well, with you starting your PC's as slaves you could run them through "A little Knowledge" from the original boxed set if you wanted. I still have it but since my PC's are not slaves, it just don't work for me hehe. Just twink the adventure to drop the PC's closer to Draj so the odds of them finding thier way there is increased.

I was thinking of doing that. Is there a 3.5 conversion available anywhere, or would I have to convert all the NPCs myself?
As for a GMPC, due to the low amount of players I usually have to DM for (2 to 3) I usually have to resort to playing the party's healer as well as my DM duties. One thing I always try to incorporate into any GMPC is a plausible reason for the PC's to not beable to solicite the GMPC for advice, tho the PC's don't always have to realize whats going on.

I'm running a solo campaign with the possibility of adding another player or two at a later time. The first GMPC I'm using is going to be a mentor figure for the PC as it's a really new player. He's a level higher, and knows the world. His current motivation is to help the PC until she's strong enough to take care of herself afterwhich he'll probably take his leave.
#10
zombiegleemax
Apr 24, 2007 7:26:47
I was thinking of doing that. Is there a 3.5 conversion available anywhere, or would I have to convert all the NPCs myself?

I'm running a solo campaign with the possibility of adding another player or two at a later time. The first GMPC I'm using is going to be a mentor figure for the PC as it's a really new player. He's a level higher, and knows the world. His current motivation is to help the PC until she's strong enough to take care of herself afterwhich he'll probably take his leave.

Don't know if there is a full conversion of it around or not. I tend to just calculate little things on the fly after a read thru and if I happen to see something that needs some serious work I do it ahead of time.

And you know, that whole mentor thing may work well for me this time as well since all my players are new to Darksun and they are not used to dealing with a world as harsh as Athas (I started this group off learning how to play in FR).

Out of curiosity, is there any emperical evidence barring Mul's from being born as twins? Two of my players want to play Mul Twins (not identical) and I've been trying to find something conferming or denying this possibility since Mul childbirth tends to be something of a dangerous proposition.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Apr 20, 2007 22:41:57	I am about to start my first DS Campaign as the DM, I played as a charactor in 2 others back during my middle school and high school days playing 2nd Edition. I am having a bit of writers block atm however, never a good thing for a DM. I intend to start the campaign in Tyr, and over the next few sessions move out to towards Draj were the PC's become entangled with a certin fleeing wizard in Blue Robes. (Thank you Athas.org for the great adventure :D ) I have quite a bit of material prepared to cover the trek, including encounters with Raiders, stumbling upon on old ruins, and an encounter with a peeved off druid. However, threw out all of this, the most important thing has stopped me cold every time I sit down to try and figure it out. WHY do the PC's leave Tyr to go to Draj.... Ideas I had, but seemed to cliche (for me atleast as a former DS player) amounting to the "We have a problem with rats" starting adventure that many campaign settings end up seeing from first time DM's of those settings that just arn't sure how else to keep low level PC's alive (took me years to learn how to with out sending hordes of rats and kobolds to the slaughter). Anywho, the ideas I had that I felt was cliche were 1. PC's are hired by one of the Trading houses to accompany a caravan and act as guards. 2. PC's are approached by a member of the vieled alliance who needs to send some urgant message to Draj with out using magic. (Kinda went out the window when my player who was going to play a Preserver went and decided to change his mind when we finally set down to roll up the charactors last week and ended up making a Barbarian). 3. The PC's aquirre a strange map from a merchant that indicates there may be an unexplored ruin near Draj and might hold treasure. (My players are a bit greedy). However, these just seemed to tacky and over done at the basic level. So, anyone have a quick hook they could toss a desperate DM who has planned out everything else but is now stuck? If it helps, the party, 3 strong, consists of a Barbarian, Psychic Warrior, and a Cleric of Fire. Mul, Aarakokra, and Human respectively.
#2 j0lt Apr 21, 2007 8:04:47	Well, you could play to the Barbarian's love for combat and have someone mention something about the Flowery Wars in Draj. That way the party asks the trading house if they can work as caravan guards going to Draj (instead of the trading house asking them).
#3 zombiegleemax Apr 21, 2007 8:38:41	Well, you could play to the Barbarian's love for combat and have someone mention something about the Flowery Wars in Draj. That way the party asks the trading house if they can work as caravan guards going to Draj (instead of the trading house asking them). Bless the elements! Thank you! I hate writers block!
#4 j0lt Apr 21, 2007 23:55:24	It also ties right into the adventure by Athas.org (which basically starts with the PCs witnessing/participating in the Flowery Wars) I'm doing a similar campaign, and I'm stuck too. The PCs have been captured by slavers, and sold to a minor noble in the village of Shazlim. They're supposed to be gladiators (Elf Ranger & Human Rogue), and I know I want them to escape, but I can't get my head around that. I've got 3 ways they could get to Draj: 1. A House Inika caravan is staying in town en route to Draj through Cromlin (Rogue's home city) 2. The PCs could just march into the desert on their own (should be okay - the Ranger is the GMPC) 3. They could stay in Shazlim and become famous enough to be sent to the Flowery Wars. I'm also going to try to introduce another GMPC just to round the group out. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at fleshing ideas out. (or making quick NPCs.) Any suggestions?
#5 gilliard_derosan Apr 22, 2007 10:51:53	the NPC could help them excape, and coule have been following them for a while, and decided that they could use the services of the group. So in exchange for freeing them, he/she wants some favor in return. When I started my campaign a few years ago, the group awakened to find themselves in a wagon cage travelling as part of a caravan. They had no idea who they were, they had no memories from before that point. All they had was outside stimulus. Guards taunting them, one other slave in the wagon informing them that were going to fight for their master, etc. They stopped at Shazlim for some minor gladiatorial combat, and during the few nights spent rotating in and out at the arena, they caught the eye of a local pair of VA operatives. VA Operatives that had been given instructions to keep an eye out for several people fitting the description of the group. It seems that members of the VA were out investigating strange rumors round Giustenal when they came up missing. So, the Operatives made contact, arranged to help them escape, and then sent them off towards Raam to get in contact with the VA for debriefing This was the start of my City by the Silt Sea adventure. My adventure that followed a skewed timeline. It turns out that the higher-up they found, Lucean, was Dregoth in disguise. He discovered the group poking around his city, captured them and wiped their memories. He then sold them, ordered their owner ti kill them, but purposely picked a greedy/sneaky person to sell them to, someone who couldn't resist putting the group, which included a half giant, to fight in the arena. The group escaped, made their way to Raam, found Lucean, found out that they were originally sent to investigate rumors of an army amassing, and were charged with going back to find out what they found out the first time that was grounds to have their memory wiped (also, it was the best chance to get their memories restored) So they did, eventually "discovering" Dregoths plan to release an army of demons from his planar gate to help him become a God. After a while, the group destroyed the "holy relic" (which was the supposed focus of his godhood spell - and also responsible for creating skeletons and zombies out of recently deceased to help him along his goal of slaughtering enough life to power the spell). In all of this, Abalach-Re was still alive, Kalak, Borys, etc.. Like I said, I alternated my timeline a bit. Dregoths ultimate plan was to find a group, and give them a purpose.. in defeating his goal to become a God, they grew powerful. Powerful enough to destroy Borys, so that when he unleased his real Godhood agenda (from Dregoth Ascending) Borys wouldn't be able to step in and stop him. And since Dregoth also played the part of ancient defender of other-worldy artifacts, that he planted rumors of, let the PCs quest to find these weapons to slay The Dragon - Borys - then they had to return them because of some ancient curse would destroy them if they tried to keep them - the group lacks the gear they had that helped them kill Borys.. So now they have to get the artifacts presented in DA... It all worked out nicely and blended right in together, with a little bit of creative story manipulation.. Considering this campaigns has been going on for at least 2 years, playing every other week, I am sure I missed a few minor details, but that is the gist of it. After some side-tracking and other adventures, we are currently in DA 2 - the quest. If you are starting a new campaign, feel free to borrow the story to suit your diabolical needs! hehehe
#6 aggilus Apr 22, 2007 12:51:13	Well... you can have some raiders to throw the PC out of their homes after a fight. knock them out and they awake they find out that whatever attached them to Tyr was destroyed o gone... they are left alone so they could decide that to move to Draj with the caravan that is about to leave for the city is as good as anything else
#7 pringles Apr 23, 2007 0:08:08	Hire them to capture an important NPC from a Noble/Merchant/Elfe House/Tribe and bring it alive to Draj for "Insert reason here". The relative of the kidnapped NPC will chase the PC in the desert to free him. Also, a rival or the one who hired the PC also want the kidnapped NPC, so he will try to steal it from the PC. Add random desert danger, marauding raider, thri-kreen hunter, hungry monster, desert storm, and you have a perfect plot device. Dont forgot the poor captured NPC who will propably try to escape. You could also hide the fact why NPC X want kidnapped NPC Y in Draj and make the PC discover the horrible truth.
#8 zombiegleemax Apr 23, 2007 8:39:08	It also ties right into the adventure by Athas.org (which basically starts with the PCs witnessing/participating in the Flowery Wars) I'm doing a similar campaign, and I'm stuck too. The PCs have been captured by slavers, and sold to a minor noble in the village of Shazlim. They're supposed to be gladiators (Elf Ranger & Human Rogue), and I know I want them to escape, but I can't get my head around that. I've got 3 ways they could get to Draj: 1. A House Inika caravan is staying in town en route to Draj through Cromlin (Rogue's home city) 2. The PCs could just march into the desert on their own (should be okay - the Ranger is the GMPC) 3. They could stay in Shazlim and become famous enough to be sent to the Flowery Wars. I'm also going to try to introduce another GMPC just to round the group out. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at fleshing ideas out. (or making quick NPCs.) Any suggestions? Well, with you starting your PC's as slaves you could run them through "A little Knowledge" from the original boxed set if you wanted. I still have it but since my PC's are not slaves, it just don't work for me hehe. Just twink the adventure to drop the PC's closer to Draj so the odds of them finding thier way there is increased. As for a GMPC, due to the low amount of players I usually have to DM for (2 to 3) I usually have to resort to playing the party's healer as well as my DM duties. One thing I always try to incorporate into any GMPC is a plausible reason for the PC's to not beable to solicite the GMPC for advice, tho the PC's don't always have to realize whats going on. Some things I have done to this end in other campaigns (non-DS campaigns) was have the GMPC be infintile minded (The GMPC had an intel of 5, but a high wisdom, thus he had suggestions, but couldn't articulate them, nor realized he should.), had the PC speak in cryptic rymes (was great for a monk GMPC who was all cryptic and mysterious. Kind of a mix between Yoda and Splinter), and in one I actually had a PC that through means unknown to the PC's (or myself really) the GMPC was actually from Darksun but had some how ended up in thier Prime Material Plane. They did not share a language so they couldn't talk to one another. However, she was a Telepath so when I did want to give hints or advice through her she would do so via mental images. In retrospect, she was perhaps the most flawed in concept (Coming from Darksun to another plane) but was the funnest GMPC I had played in a long time. My current GMPC is going to be a Mul Templar, who is pretending to be a cleric (haven't figured this out entirely yet). Her mission is to keep an eye on the PC's after thier first encounter with a mage, hoping to be led to the Vieled alliance in time. The templarate doesn't feel assigning a low templar to this mission to be a big deal as they feel the chance of success is low, and mortality high. Eventually she will have a crisis of faith and will employ the "Renegade Templar" PrC I came across in the archives. May not be the most sound PrC when it comes to the fluff and such on how it works, but the PC's don't know most of the behind the scenes stuff so I can twink my own campaign as needed for things to work. In the end tho, being a Templar who is spying on them, she will give advice, but the PC's will probley quickly realize that it's not such a good idea to take her advice.
#9 j0lt Apr 23, 2007 12:09:15	Well, with you starting your PC's as slaves you could run them through "A little Knowledge" from the original boxed set if you wanted. I still have it but since my PC's are not slaves, it just don't work for me hehe. Just twink the adventure to drop the PC's closer to Draj so the odds of them finding thier way there is increased. I was thinking of doing that. Is there a 3.5 conversion available anywhere, or would I have to convert all the NPCs myself? As for a GMPC, due to the low amount of players I usually have to DM for (2 to 3) I usually have to resort to playing the party's healer as well as my DM duties. One thing I always try to incorporate into any GMPC is a plausible reason for the PC's to not beable to solicite the GMPC for advice, tho the PC's don't always have to realize whats going on. I'm running a solo campaign with the possibility of adding another player or two at a later time. The first GMPC I'm using is going to be a mentor figure for the PC as it's a really new player. He's a level higher, and knows the world. His current motivation is to help the PC until she's strong enough to take care of herself afterwhich he'll probably take his leave.
#10 zombiegleemax Apr 24, 2007 7:26:47	I was thinking of doing that. Is there a 3.5 conversion available anywhere, or would I have to convert all the NPCs myself? I'm running a solo campaign with the possibility of adding another player or two at a later time. The first GMPC I'm using is going to be a mentor figure for the PC as it's a really new player. He's a level higher, and knows the world. His current motivation is to help the PC until she's strong enough to take care of herself afterwhich he'll probably take his leave. Don't know if there is a full conversion of it around or not. I tend to just calculate little things on the fly after a read thru and if I happen to see something that needs some serious work I do it ahead of time. And you know, that whole mentor thing may work well for me this time as well since all my players are new to Darksun and they are not used to dealing with a world as harsh as Athas (I started this group off learning how to play in FR). Out of curiosity, is there any emperical evidence barring Mul's from being born as twins? Two of my players want to play Mul Twins (not identical) and I've been trying to find something conferming or denying this possibility since Mul childbirth tends to be something of a dangerous proposition.