[Age of Worms] - Getting the Party Together

[Insight]

For those of you who have played in or run the Age of Worms adventure path...

How did the party get together? What issues did you run into coming up with reasons for the party members to adventure together?

Also, did you start the characters at 1st level, and if so, did you run another adventure first to get the characters ready for the end of the first adventure (since it's kinda tough)?

 

[Huw]

I've gone for the AP's suggested approach of having all the characters having just grown up there. Diamond Lake attracts a sufficiently motely bunch to justify just about race/class combo.

I'm starting the party at 1st level, but I'm aiming for 6 players.

 

[DwarvenDog]

getting them together

Took a lot of cues from the Diamond Lake backdrop. There are good suggestions in there.

I got them all together in a huge bar brawl at the Spinning Giant bar. Many of them were either employed by, or on good terms with, the garrison. On this particular night, Deputy Jamis stormed in with his flunkies and demanded the arrest of Cmdr. Tolliver Trask's shady little brother.

What ensued was a wickedly entertaining night of tables and chairs flying, sleep spells being used with reckless abandon, and good old non-lethal damage.

The PC's got to interact with each other while trying to save their hides, or protect their friends. In the end, the deputies got their man, and the PC's once again met at the hanging one day later. It was a really fun take on the "you meet in a bar" scenario.

I have a website that details the campaign so far... here's a direct link to the gritty details:

http://sevenrealms.home.comcast.net/calendar/chrono052306.html

 

[Beckett]

I talked with the players to find out who was native and who was passing through. A little more discussion with two of them who I set at the center of the plot, and then I wrote up a little background for each giving them some info on the town and how they got brought in.

So, we have the dwarven exile carpenter who meets the Catfolk semi-waitress. They hang out at the same bar that the thief of the NPC group does. She mentions why her group is there, which gets them thinking that maybe there are more cairns with treasure, maybe enough to get out of this dirtpit of a town. The dwarf has been in town long enough to know a bit about the Whispering Cairn, and the catfolk has the skills to get a map with the exact location. The dwarf then hires a few more people in town with useful skills, while the catfolk gets her traveling companion, a healer who had been staying at the temple of Heironeous. And the healer brings along the paladin, who had been asigned as her bodyguard during her stay.

I had a group of seven, starting at level 1, although a pretty tough group. I doubled most of the encounters, or increased the hit dice, to keep the experience about the same as a group of four. Be sure to give the characters a chance to level up when they have enough XP; the adventure path modules are set up with the idea that characters will gain a level about midway (there was a thread a week or two ago about this for Shackled City). 1st level characters are going to be hard-pressed with the later encounters, but 2nd level should do fine.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

My group started before I joined. I came in at 3rd level, they at 1st.

Two of the characters are cousins, dwarves, who had dreams of bigger things than mining. The other was a freespirited cleric of Heironeous.

My character joined the group because he was a little too religiously dogmatic for the local church of St. Cuthbert (and, if you've read, they're fanatics ... ). They sent him out to investigate the party on suspicions of "grave robbing" and then joyously gave him an open-ended "mission" to keep him out from underfoot.

My wife's character (now retired) was an elf who didn't get along with the other elves there ... a bit of a socio-political outcaste who'd been sent to Diamond Lake to keep from embarassing her family by being seen in civilized lands. Became an apprentice to Allustan and joined the group as his eyes and ears for the investigations.

So, all pretty local stuff. There's loads of places to fit hooks.

--fje

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Here's the short version:

Wizard: apprentice to Allustan

Paladin (RIP): relative of a member of the temple of Heironeous

Goliath (RIP): got into a fight with Kullen and co. while passing through, indentured into service at the Feral Dog as punishment

Cleric: lunatic dwarf, who thinks he's a priest of Moradin, actually a National Socialist-style dwarven supremacist, discovered that Diamond Lake is about the only place he's been where the real followers of Moradin don't try to hang him for blasphemy.

Erudite (RIP): came to Diamond Lake following rumours of an undisturbed crypt having been discovered (actually, it was Stirgenest Cairn, a rumour passed along thanks to Auric's big mouth)

Ranger: bronzewood lodge regular

Marshal (RIP): member of the militia

Paladin of Freedom: infiltrating the

Spoiler

Hextorites

with the intention of destroying them from within. Party beat him to it.

Duskblade: happened to be staying at the Able Carter Coaching Inn, trailed the group to the whispering cairn and joined them

Beguiler: prisoner of the

Spoiler

Vecna cultists

. Was supposed to have been a sacrifice. It didn't work out for them.

 

[Nightfall]

I think like any campaign it depends entirely on both the DM making the appearance of the PCs believeable, as well as the PCs finding a hook for them joining up to.

In the beginning, I think being natives of Diamond lake or some similiar motive makes for easy introduction for the first 4-5 levels. Perhaps afterward either Blackwall Keep or even the Free City of "insert city name", are also good ways. Having the PCs (or PC) having an affilitation helps too.