ZEITGEIST Jim's ZEITGEIST Campaign (SPOILERTASTIC)

After months of planning, my group and I finally got together for our first ZEITGEIST session.

Taking Colmarr's suggestion, this was a Q&A based heavily on DMSamuel's Cooperative Party Building Technique.

The heavy embellished results of that Q&A are here: Session 0 - Rollcall!

The cast in brief:

• Raynor Archaelus, human inquisitor of Sarenrae, spirit medium
• Dr. Rafael Kincaid, human vivisectionist, martial scientist
• Severus Coil, gearman gunslinger/kensai, gunsmith
• Ironwrought, human oracle of metal, technologist
• Jeremiah "Sticks" Kynosoura, elan wilder, skyseer

A few things to keep in mind should you read:

1. We play Pathfinder using the Dreamscarred Press psionics rules. I allowed the guys a 15 point buy.

2. I intend to run a series of adventures woven in between those comprising ZEITGEIST's official path. These are a combination of older published adventures and my own ideas sewn together into a massive sub-plot that I thought would play out perfectly in Lanjyr (and be fun). As the community here and the authors are likely only interested in how the adventure path plays out, I'll omit the extra stuff as I update here.

3. I'm a meddlesome DM. I expanded heavily on some aspects of the setting and altered others. Probably the biggest is the inclusion of a race known as the gearmen. As a fan of both Stephen Hunt's "Jackelian" series and the Eberron campaign setting, I wanted to include a construct-like race as a PC option and as a major fixture of the world.

4. I see some DMs have chosen to assume their PCs have been working together for some time and part of the RHC for awhile. As these guys are still first level, I decided I couldn't really justify them having worked together too long. They have extensive backgrounds, but have only been with the RHC and training in their current classes for a few months.

I had gamed previously with 3 of the 4 gentlemen who showed up. Archaelus's player was new to me, and relatively new to tabletop gaming. He was recommended by the others and I was happy to not only have made his acquaintance, but he didn't show any hesitation at all when the questions were posed to him.

Sticks's player was not present.

A few of the guys were nervous about having to turn up the creative dials on their thinky-boxes on short notice, but ALL rose to the challenge beyond my expectations. Some interesting results:

• Severus Coil's and Dr. Kincaid's players had already worked out a shared background prior to the session. We fleshed out the details--unfortunately I had to put the kebosh on their idea for a spectacular mano-a-mano aboard a crashing zeppelin (no airships; but I disregard the "no flying monsters" thing).
• Dr. Kincaid's player picked out Archaelus as team leader. We already decided that both were war vets, Kincaid was an army medic and Archaelus held a command rank--Archaelus's player had mentioned leading troops in bloody campaigns he was not proud of.
• Archaelus was therefor reluctant to lead, but the RHC recognized that his training made command reflexive to him. As an inquisitor, the ability to apply teamwork feat benefits even when the other PCs don't have the feats back up the idea mechanically.
• Archaelus's player was asked to whom he owed his life, and Dr. Kincaid was the obvious choice, having treated his critical injuries during the war. But Kincaid does not remember, as Archaelus was just one among many thousands he treated.
• Ironwrought is a sort of gearman wannabe, thus opportunities existed to tie him closely to Severus Coil. Ironwrought's player decided to name Sticks as the teammate he trusted most, though his player was absent. I thought it nice for IW's player to include him in the proceedings. Ironwrought trusts the Doctor the least out of a distaste for flesh-and-blood medicine.
• Severus Coil's biggest regret was his own failure to bring his master villainous plan to fruition before he was stopped and forced into a new, unfamiliar body. While too proud to admit it, this failure has forced Coil to rethink his role in society. He now has a fresh start and a chance to be a hero.

Everyone thought the Cooperative Party Building session was brilliant and a hell of a good way to kick off a campaign. We are all looking forward to playing our first session in two weeks. However, my fist planned scenario is a short investigation of my own design. We'll probably get to "Island at the Axis" in about a month and a half. Thanks everyone here, authors and fellow players, for laying the groundwork for what I think just might be my finest hour as a DM!

Excellent. Great to hear the first session went well.

And don't assume we only care about the actual adventure path. I'm at least curious to hear about what other adventures you place between the path ones.

Good luck on the campaign.

Sounds like a great party. I looks forward to seeing how things go!

Cheezmo Miner said:

4. I see some DMs have chosen to assume their PCs have been working together for some time and part of the RHC for awhile. As these guys are still first level, I decided I couldn't really justify them having worked together too long. They have extensive backgrounds, but have only been with the RHC and training in their current classes for a few months.

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I used to have that same issue with previous editions. 1st level PCs are very much novices, and it doesn't make much sense for them to have extensive back stories or experience.

Most of the DMs (including myself) who encouraged the party to view themselves as part of an existing team were probably using 4E, where it makes more sense. 1st level characters are already assumed to be the heroes of the story, not heroes in the making. (NB: I'm not making any judgement on the relative merits of either approach, just making an observation.)

One thing I will say is that the events of Adventure #1 would be hard to explain away for a group of ingenues.

Anyway, I like the sound of yoru group and look foward to reading more of their adventures.

Welcome to Zeitgeist!

gideonpepys said:

One thing I will say is that the events of Adventure #1 would be hard to explain away for a group of ingenues.

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I'm not sure I see what you mean. In any case Ravissant Wolf (their cell name--I decided all RHC cells were named for heraldic symbols) will have been training together for at least 4 weeks, but before that, they've been aiding senior agents and doing less than crucial missions--such as giving dignitaries headquarters tours. They'll also have 1 mission as junior deputies under their belt before IatAotW and their boss believes in their potential, which casts them as the stars. Too much more though and I'm pushing suspension of disbelief as to why they haven't broken through to level 2.

gideonpepys said:

Anyway, I like the sound of yoru group and look foward to reading more of their adventures.

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Thanks, yeah, I liked the way they turned out. The guys seem to really "get" the genre and made characters appropriately.

The results of last Sunday's game, Session 1: Steampunch is on-line.

The plot is shamelessly derivative of a chapter in Stephen Hunt's wonderful novel Kingdom of the Waves. The scenario is designed to ease us all into the world and the path, especially its investigative tenor and their role as royal police.

Thoughts:

• The player that was absent from the Rollcall session is having some personal problems and will not be able to join us for the time being.

• I set the potter's field combat up to get the guys used to difficult environments and versatile enemies. They are veteran players, but I'm afraid they've been a little coddled in tactical situations recently. They were completely stymied by the terrain and the grig's various abilities. After 8 rounds, and one player simply giving up, I finally had to say the grig's second entangle simply failed.

• I warned them that ZEITGEIST didn't have them fighting 4 identical goblins in flat 20 x 20 rooms. They needed to be prepared, and ready to fight smarter. They agreed that they needed to work on their teamwork and some of their starting money should have been spent on protective scrolls.

• This was as much a warning to myself, and I admitted as such. I consider myself a pretty good DM, but I haven't been behind the screen in about a year and it was not easy keeping track of the effects in play. We forgot one of the players failed his save against the pyrotechnics blinding effect.

• Even with the option to finish their foes with non-lethal damage, two of the players insisted on killing anyway. I had them face the consequences, somewhat, but I didn't want to get too heavy handed and drive them out of the RHC. Frankly, this is going to be a difficult enough path to run without them being free agents.

• Once they got in the groove of not being "typical adventurers" they really enjoyed the investigative aspects, questioning the gang members and the old artificer. They all displayed protective concern for the senile gearman, and I was worried that they'd say "hell with him."

• Major Archaelus's player, newbie that he is, truly owned the role of a reluctant but competent leader. A very interesting dynamic is developing between the four, as they have very different ethical outlooks. Ironwrought has neutral on his sheet but I see him leaning toward Lawful Good. I'm concerned that he as a player is put off by Coil's and Kincaid's morally questionable actions. I hope I'm wrong.

In any case, all 4 of the guys are looking forward to the next game. I'm glad we're doing this prelim adventure to wet our feet. I'm positive I'd have killed them all on the Coaltongue!

Dude you're making me jealous. Nice intro. And I sympathize with having to handle overzealous PCs.

RangerWickett said:

Dude you're making me jealous. Nice intro. And I sympathize with having to handle overzealous PCs.

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Coming from a writer I admire, that's quite a compliment! Thanks.

I've had some time to review your Obsidian Portal; and I have to hand it to you; that's a very impressive page, I'm envious of the job you've done. Mine's spartan in comparison.

Why thank you very much! I have to admit a lot of it was cut and paste--both from the ZEITGEIST player's guide and an old Eberron campaign of mine. Some of the yet-to-be fleshed out stuff in Lanjyr that I open up might seem awful familiar to Eberron players.