Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 coyote_skyheart Nov 11, 2003 8:25:14	Hey, I thought I'd share this with those here. Last friday night I returned from a trip to discover my roleplay group had unaminously decided I would start a dragonlance campaign - on sunday. So I had one day to prepare Most of them know very little or nothing about dragonlance, so their choice of party composition is unusual in the extreme. I'm hoping, desperately hoping, to give the game a dragonlance feel, but they're going to challenge me in that aspect. Characters created include... A centaur ranger seeking a 'lost' dragonlance in the plains of dust A kender (who wants to be a halfling) and hasn't even tried to 'handle' anything yet A silvanesti elven rogue, no background (late arrival) A nomad cleric of mishakal, rescued by the rest of the party A nomad ranger from the Khalkist mountains, escaping the troubles there by fleeing into the plains of dust An ogre, secretly a former titan who seeks vengeance against ogres, and harbors plans to use the party to achieve this. Sadly, he also has an intelligence and charisma of 4. A red wizard, who, when I asked him what color robes he had made for his wizard character said 'huh?', who also began describing a new powerful item (imagine a wand machine gun) asking if he could have it - reasoning gnomes could have made it. He was very surprised when I and another player said "Sure! Its a GNOMISH invention!" ..."Huh?" ..."You can have it - it was made by GNOMES"... and the other player begins to explain how it might not 'work' all the time. "groan... nevermind" was his response. Darn! By the end of the day I had everyone united in the plains of dust, out in the middle of nowhere, investigating an old battle sight with ghosts, some dwarven tunnels under the sands, and discovering some cryptic information about directions to a lost dwarven city. This was all spur of the moment. I'm planning on having the ogre titans be a major focus of the campaign plot, and also Sable's swamp. None of the group has any interest in being affiliated with any organization - possibly even the wizard, who's clueless. I'm going to give him the test of wizardry next time :D New players to dragonlance must definitely experience that! Comments? Suggestions? Its going to be a crazy ride through Krynn!
#2 kalanth Nov 11, 2003 10:48:00	Your part will be a trouble spot, but I would be nice as a DM. First, explain to the player of the Kender how the kender is actually supposed to be played. This will allow him to become a bit more accurate. Then, with the mage, it is somewhat unfair to not explain about the test and the difference between orders. If he still does not want to do it then he can be a renegade. And show him a few Gnomish inventions, maybe he will learn to appreaciate the depth of such inventions, and why no one wants to use them. With the Ogre, that kind of intelligence barely keeps him above that of an animal. I wouldn't allow him to have the revenge bit, because he barely has the Intelligence to support the Short Term and Long Term memory. Maybe tell him to bring it up to an 8, then he would be better off. I would not put it past the character to slay the others in the night because he forgot who they were.
#3 rath_the_ranger Nov 12, 2003 13:38:57	Originally posted by Kalanth Maybe tell him to bring it up to an 8, then he would be better off. I would not put it past the character to slay the others in the night because he forgot who they were. HAHAHA, that part cracked me up... Grog, who's turn it was to stand watch, wakes suddenly and says, "Urrgh, who this sleepin' in me camp place? You no belong here, now you die." Just as Grog is bringing his club around to crush the last party member's skull, a red robed mage who doesn't even know he's supposed to take a test to become a mage, the ogre realizes these people were his friends and they were supposed to avenge his downfall to stupidness. By the time he decides to not kill the mage, it's too late; brains and blood are slathered on his club head. In a fit of rage, Grog beats his head repeatedly against the cliff face they had camped near and loosens a boulder from up above. It falls and squashes the former titan flat. There, Coyote, that's how you end your game. HAHAHAHAHA Just kidding.
#4 zombiegleemax Nov 12, 2003 21:46:02	Actually, I would suggest, before you begin the next game, sitting down with your players and giving them a crash course in the world. Explain to your mage the significance to the Orders; explain to your kender the differences between halflings and kender (if absolutely nothing else, feed this player an obscene amount of sugar before the game). Ask the player of the ogre if he truly understands that someone with an Intelligence and Charisma of 4 is pretty much clinically retarded and that he has absolutely no social graces. That if he plans on using the party, that such a character's full extent of using anyone for a point of revenge, would be as a club. That things such as the subtle nuances to "use" a group is simple beyond the capabilities of his character. As for the rest of the party, I don't think that with just the baseline description that they sound too bad. I would want the reason for the Centaur's search, if there wasn't one already. The two nomads - they don't sound that bad. And as for as the elven rogue, you might want to warn the character that Krynn can be particularly harsh to thieves, if the character is into thievery. Personally, I tend to be a nightmare for my players when it comes to character creation. I don't accept a character until I am satisfied that the player has thought about things like past, personality, family - friends, goals, ambitions, fears, etc. I think 'Okay, but why?' is one of my players' most hated phrases. I also generally require the characters to be fully flushed out for a few days before I am ever ready to begin, as I try to custom my games to the individual characters instead of just writing a story that has open slots for just any character. Now granted, that generally means that I put in probably more effort than necessary, but hey, I'm a masocist. Correlanthias
#5 kalanth Nov 13, 2003 9:59:13	Originally posted by Correlanthias Personally, I tend to be a nightmare for my players when it comes to character creation. I don't accept a character until I am satisfied that the player has thought about things like past, personality, family - friends, goals, ambitions, fears, etc. I think 'Okay, but why?' is one of my players' most hated phrases. I also generally require the characters to be fully flushed out for a few days before I am ever ready to begin, as I try to custom my games to the individual characters instead of just writing a story that has open slots for just any character. Now granted, that generally means that I put in probably more effort than necessary, but hey, I'm a masocist. I pretty much do the same thing with my games. The only difference is that I don't wait until the characters are fully prepared before I start. Mostly I get them to tell me something about the character, and then I tell them to write a description about their physical appearence and their history. This usually helps out a ton. Right now, I only have that info from one character, so they have been doing a lot of missions that are directly affecting that one particular character.
#6 zombiegleemax Nov 13, 2003 10:53:01	You're both much nicer than me. If the character doesn't fit my game, the character dies! Actually, I'm usually more merciful than that. But there is this one guy that sometimes plays with my group, and he loves to be the one evil character, or the one good character (if everyone's evil), or the elf in an elf-hating party, etc, etc. And while this is half-cool, he's just not smart about it, so he winds up dying. Usually when the other party members kill him. But that's how it goes sometimes, right? As for these troublesome characters - please. Explain to them some of the Dragonlance themes, and make them understand that if they're voting for you to GM, you're going to GM, and they're going to deal with it. As for the Kender-that-wants-to-be-a-halfling... Are you in an era where you can do Afflicted? That might help.
#7 zombiegleemax Nov 14, 2003 17:44:50	Originally posted by The Udjat You're both much nicer than me. If the character doesn't fit my game, the character dies! Well, if the character doesn't fit my game, I won't approve it for play. At the beginning of character generation I set parameters, other than that, they have to fairly free range. However, pending game, those parameters are fairly detailed. Even with that, they still must make DM approval before play. Correlanthias
#8 zombiegleemax Nov 14, 2003 23:28:25	Oh yeah? Well, when my players make bad characters I wrap them up in tinfoil and tie them to a spit over a barbecue, then I threaten to light the wood below unless they promise to sing "I'm a little teapot" while wearing dresses and "I'm with stupid" shirts in the middle of Sunday morning mass at the Catholic church. Beat that, sucka. I'm very layed back as a DM. I let em create whatever they want so long as they can play it properly. The only time I make a stand in is when there are evil characters and a paladin. I either tell the paladin to pick a different class, or tell th others to pick different alignments. Why? I hate inner party fighting (unless it's a storyhook). Now, just because I let them play whatever doesn't mean they can do just anything. The guy who plays a paladin but teams up with evil characters and performs and evil act "for the common good" is subject to an alignment change. As far as your players go, keep them. Work around them. You've got enough interesting things there to really have some great adventures. Definately give a history of Krynn to them. Not all of it, but the basics. What happened in the Age of dreams? What exactly is a cataclysm? Why are there rivalries between sorceres and wizards or clerics and mystics? Tell them, "Hey, the gods just returned, along with old magic, but while it was gone, a new magic sprung up in it's place." I need a drink. White Russian sounds good...
#9 coyote_skyheart Nov 17, 2003 13:24:28	The hilarity continues. I've explained some things to them, and about half of them decided to rewrite their characters. Someone completely new to roleplaying showed up on Sunday, and I introduced her to the world of being a rogue. Guess what she did when she found her first magical trap? She retreated to a corner of the room, said the door was fine, and waited for the kender... Notable party accomplishments so far: In a daring attack on a palisade manned by minotaurs, the (ogre = now a human barbarian) jumped from his horse, caught the ledge, hung there when the wizard's sleep spell impacted those around him (he made his save), pulled himself up, and was subsequently bull-rushed off the edge. Thump The kender and the barbarian get drunk on their first night of watch, go chasing after a bunny rabbit, get lost. "Heere bunny rabbbittt" The knight wakes up, wakes the new rogue. The knight lights up a BONFIRE. Then they see something fly overhead in the night sky, and a *landing* sound. They put the bonfire out. She goes to investigate Gets knocked unconsious, carried off. The drunken lost pair see the bonfire, think the camp's on fire, and goes running back, when the light goes out. Ehh... Summarize to say they tracked the rogue's captor into Sable's swamp. Fortunately, they found the rogue who had managed to escape... without a bit of equipment left to her name. To be continued... Thanks for all your advice!
#10 kalanth Nov 17, 2003 13:43:02	Your game sounds a bit comical, and most definetly fun to be in. I definetly like the way it sounds after they made a few modifications. And the reaction of the Thief was priceless.