Yeah, I think it would work once, long as you make clear it's an illusion. If your players prefer the rail tracks I think your approach is ok, and the image of the crumbling princess is certainly striking.
[Spoilers] Help with a campaign arc idea.
Yeah, I think it would work once, long as you make clear it's an illusion. If your players prefer the rail tracks I think your approach is ok, and the image of the crumbling princess is certainly striking.
That's a great idea! It wraps it up nicely because they have made the world a lot safer, even if only for a few centuries. It also allows me to stop the campaign at 20 (which is what I'd like, reading the complaints about lack of Epic support here on Enworld and my lack of imagination filling it in myself).
It's also reasonably doable, given that it's only 6 more levels, which if I up the loot for more damage could be done in say 25 sessions.
I'm going to rewrite it for that. So, probably finish P2, which should have them end up at 17, and then have Terza send them on a quest to do this or that, have her abducted, do some encounters and skill challenges so they can be level 20 for the big fight.
Yeah, I think it would work once, long as you make clear it's an illusion. If your players prefer the rail tracks I think your approach is ok, and the image of the crumbling princess is certainly striking.
Every time I said to them: "What do you want to do?" when they currently have no quest they have the hardest time deciding on what to do or where to go. The biggest plan they had while they were still low level was "Own a warship". So I arranged for them to procure one after quite a few hardships (heh), and then they were like "Ok, now what." I did the obligatory pirate encounters and ship to ship battles (I find it pretty fun figuring out rules for that). But after a while, they just didn't care anymore.
I'll probably let them use Arcana/Religion to figure out that it was a fake. The Invoker should be OK at that. Maybe the magic mouth can announce it.
Just a tip for the future/next campaign (and maybe you already do this, in which case, you may just have players that want to simply kill things and take their loot):
I find that if I simply ask my players "What do you want to do?" I get a bunch of blank stares.
If, on the other hand, I do something like "Make a streetwise check. Okay, with a 17 you learn that a) the guards are looking for somebody to take of a problem with some bandits to the North, b) The blacksmith Piers Aybarra is looking for somebody to help find his missing daughter and c) the captain of a merchant vessel is looking for a few strong arms to help protect her ship on its next run as they've run into several pirates. What would you like to do?" I get a lot more excitement and conversation. You need to give your players a little bit of information from which to make an informed decision. Otherwise, its just attacking the darkness.
One of the nice things about the above method is that even with those three hooks, which seem very different, I could tie them all into the same adventure, just with different starting points.
I've tried the hooks, but I haven't tried multiple at the same time. Not that directly at least. I've once had them get one quest somewhere, then while still in town get another, but then they've already decided to go on #1 and won't even weigh pros and cons. I should put them all in the same mouth, so to speak. Thanks for the tip.
And yes, they're very much kill stuff and look for loot. I'd like it to be a little more memorable and one of my players agrees.
When we started playing in 2008, we were all new to the game, none of us had ever played any D&D ever. So I offered to DM and basically had to learn as I went, never having someone to copy, except for people in podcasts.
Heh, pretty much how I started. Only they didn't have podcasts back then.
I've actually been DM'ing since 2000 and I still feel like a newbie at times. The good news is that all of it gets better with time. Don't be afraid to try new things and I'm glad to see that at least a couple of you are interested in trying to explore the story side of the game more. There's nothing wrong with simply wanting to kill stuff and take their loot but a lot of times you don't know what you're missing until you get a taste of it.
Good luck with everything, it should hopefully be a wonderful ride all around.
I've actually been DM'ing since 2000 and I still feel like a newbie at times. The good news is that all of it gets better with time. Don't be afraid to try new things and I'm glad to see that at least a couple of you are interested in trying to explore the story side of the game more. There's nothing wrong with simply wanting to kill stuff and take their loot but a lot of times you don't know what you're missing until you get a taste of it.
Good luck with everything, it should hopefully be a wonderful ride all around.
