Ultimate2099
First Post
The Party: Squad 13 or the Bad Pennies
I thought I would try my hand at one of these Campaign notes threads. if nothing else it'll give me a place to store notes from the Campaign, since I can sometimes lose the thread of a campaign after its been going for several months.
Right now I only have 3 players. Two of our group decided at the last minute that they didn't want to play in a steampunk version of DnD but I suspect that it has more to do with the fact they have never done 4E and have a negative opinion of the system despite that fact. The sixth player of our group can only come every other week, we meet on saturdays but run 2 seperate campaigns every other week to give each gm plenty of prep time.
So right now it's just me and my 3 core players, who along with myself have been the backbone of this group for 6 years as other players have come in and out for various reasons.
But enough of that...
I decided that the party would be Squad 13 of the RHC and that the rest of the RHC has taken to calling them the Bad Pennies. I took it upon myself to name the party because generally I'm the only player ever interested in having a "team name" in our groups.
The Party consists of:
William Talken, a Human Ardent. This player like to recycle old characters and this one is based off his Jedi from our long running Star Wars game, who in turn was based off young Obi-Wan Kenobi. In our previous 4E Campaign run by a different GM, this player was a Warlord and when it came time to build characters for this campaign he only looked at leader classes. I suggested either an Artificer or a Shaman, as both would fit Zeitgeist well but he threw a monkey-wrench into the works and created an Ardent. I hadn't planned on doing much with Psionics in this game, as it doesn't seem to have much of a place but I don't like to tell players no, so I just asked for more background and am still waiting for that. Oh and he's a Spirit Medium. Any advice on Ardents in the Zeitgeist world?
Automaton "Auto", a Warforged Fighter. This player created a warforged as soon as I sent the players a copy of the Zeitgeist player's guide. Much like the previous player he stuck with a role he seemed to love in our previous campaign, in fact he was even a Fighter in that game too. We've come up with the backstory that he is the first Warforged ever, and is more accurately a "living" golem. He is powered/controlled by the soul of a dead Yarasol veteran, placed inside the golem by a guilt ridden mad scientist type after some equipment Risuri was using malfunctioned at the end of the Fourth War. Specifically he was once the son of the King and a general in the army. His existance is part of what has turned the Duchess so against technology. The party benefits from his former status, but the RHC as a whole doesn't really know what to make of him.
Locke, a Changeling Rogue. This player, like both the others stuck with her favorite role, she'd played a Controller once but ultimately became a Striker in our last campaign and wanted to do so again. She has been wanting to play a Changeling for some time and I couldn't tell her no, even though I am worried about the consequences this could have on the campaign. She is a Docker and new to the RHC, trying to affect change from within. I haven't gotten a clear sense on whether she regularly looks like a Changeling or has another guise she sticks to. I've warned her that the anti-Fey types will assume that she is Fey. We've decided that she doesn't really know where she's from, having grown up an orphan on Flint's streets. I plan to have her turn out to indeed be a Fey of some sort.
Finally I have given the Party two companion characters, who will be controlled by PCs in combat and are designed to be more in the background so that the PCs are left to deal with non-combat situation mostly on their own. I decided to add in these companions to help balance combat encounters, so that I am not constantly tweaking thing, but it is important they don't in any way outshine the PCs.
The Red Widow. A human ghost Musketeer. She served as a musketeer in the navy until she recieved news that her husband had been killed, at which point she threw herself into the sea. For reasons I haven't decided yet, she has been recruited into the RHC and uses a "ghost" musket in combat. She can be summoned from the Bleak Gate for short periods by speaking her true name. Control of her has been given over to William, the Spirit Medium. Her defining characteristics are her constant state of grief and her gray, transparent body, which stands starkly against her bright red hair.
Torq, the Machinist. A human technologist. Torq is the assistant of the man who created Automaton and is a little like Igor, but without the lisp or the hunchback. He is a chubby, red cheeked man who carries a pistol but is terrified in battle and tries to either have cover or be hidden if at all possible. I wanted him with the group so that the Warforged would have a minder who modifies magic items to integrate them into his body and could affect repairs.
Alright, so that's the group. We begin play on Saturday. I expect we'll get thru the Coaltongue portion of the first adventure. But I'll find out for sure than and let you all know how it goes.
I thought I would try my hand at one of these Campaign notes threads. if nothing else it'll give me a place to store notes from the Campaign, since I can sometimes lose the thread of a campaign after its been going for several months.
Right now I only have 3 players. Two of our group decided at the last minute that they didn't want to play in a steampunk version of DnD but I suspect that it has more to do with the fact they have never done 4E and have a negative opinion of the system despite that fact. The sixth player of our group can only come every other week, we meet on saturdays but run 2 seperate campaigns every other week to give each gm plenty of prep time.
So right now it's just me and my 3 core players, who along with myself have been the backbone of this group for 6 years as other players have come in and out for various reasons.
But enough of that...
I decided that the party would be Squad 13 of the RHC and that the rest of the RHC has taken to calling them the Bad Pennies. I took it upon myself to name the party because generally I'm the only player ever interested in having a "team name" in our groups.
The Party consists of:
William Talken, a Human Ardent. This player like to recycle old characters and this one is based off his Jedi from our long running Star Wars game, who in turn was based off young Obi-Wan Kenobi. In our previous 4E Campaign run by a different GM, this player was a Warlord and when it came time to build characters for this campaign he only looked at leader classes. I suggested either an Artificer or a Shaman, as both would fit Zeitgeist well but he threw a monkey-wrench into the works and created an Ardent. I hadn't planned on doing much with Psionics in this game, as it doesn't seem to have much of a place but I don't like to tell players no, so I just asked for more background and am still waiting for that. Oh and he's a Spirit Medium. Any advice on Ardents in the Zeitgeist world?
Automaton "Auto", a Warforged Fighter. This player created a warforged as soon as I sent the players a copy of the Zeitgeist player's guide. Much like the previous player he stuck with a role he seemed to love in our previous campaign, in fact he was even a Fighter in that game too. We've come up with the backstory that he is the first Warforged ever, and is more accurately a "living" golem. He is powered/controlled by the soul of a dead Yarasol veteran, placed inside the golem by a guilt ridden mad scientist type after some equipment Risuri was using malfunctioned at the end of the Fourth War. Specifically he was once the son of the King and a general in the army. His existance is part of what has turned the Duchess so against technology. The party benefits from his former status, but the RHC as a whole doesn't really know what to make of him.
Locke, a Changeling Rogue. This player, like both the others stuck with her favorite role, she'd played a Controller once but ultimately became a Striker in our last campaign and wanted to do so again. She has been wanting to play a Changeling for some time and I couldn't tell her no, even though I am worried about the consequences this could have on the campaign. She is a Docker and new to the RHC, trying to affect change from within. I haven't gotten a clear sense on whether she regularly looks like a Changeling or has another guise she sticks to. I've warned her that the anti-Fey types will assume that she is Fey. We've decided that she doesn't really know where she's from, having grown up an orphan on Flint's streets. I plan to have her turn out to indeed be a Fey of some sort.
Finally I have given the Party two companion characters, who will be controlled by PCs in combat and are designed to be more in the background so that the PCs are left to deal with non-combat situation mostly on their own. I decided to add in these companions to help balance combat encounters, so that I am not constantly tweaking thing, but it is important they don't in any way outshine the PCs.
The Red Widow. A human ghost Musketeer. She served as a musketeer in the navy until she recieved news that her husband had been killed, at which point she threw herself into the sea. For reasons I haven't decided yet, she has been recruited into the RHC and uses a "ghost" musket in combat. She can be summoned from the Bleak Gate for short periods by speaking her true name. Control of her has been given over to William, the Spirit Medium. Her defining characteristics are her constant state of grief and her gray, transparent body, which stands starkly against her bright red hair.
Torq, the Machinist. A human technologist. Torq is the assistant of the man who created Automaton and is a little like Igor, but without the lisp or the hunchback. He is a chubby, red cheeked man who carries a pistol but is terrified in battle and tries to either have cover or be hidden if at all possible. I wanted him with the group so that the Warforged would have a minder who modifies magic items to integrate them into his body and could affect repairs.
Alright, so that's the group. We begin play on Saturday. I expect we'll get thru the Coaltongue portion of the first adventure. But I'll find out for sure than and let you all know how it goes.
