D&D 4E JamesonCourage's First 4e Session

[JamesonCourage]

I have a very biased opinion about social skills (skills in general, actually) in RPGs, so take this with a grain of salt. My bias is that good ideas should always be weighted more heavily than numbers.

First of all the DM's best friend (the +2 modifier) is only a 10% adjustment. When a player comes up with a really good idea, my first instinct is not to say "Ok, you are 10% more likely to succeed now." As an extension of that logic, I want to encourage good ideas, so why even bother with a chance for it to fail? Particularly in PC-NPC interaction this works very well for players who prefer to method-act rather than roll dice, and let's both types of players (method-actors & rollers) play side by side.

Now, D&D Next would say about a +30% on average (what advantage works out to) is right. My thinking is why even bother with risk of failure? It's a good idea. Don't let it go to waste. I don't know how many times I've been in games where a player has a really great idea and then they flub their roll, only to get this dejected look on their face. It seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me And that should be reserved for dungeon design!

In regard to your other idea, if I make the roleplaying required to access a skill check, that's a change that affects both player types. IOW now the player who is not so good at method-acting or the role-playing side of things (who I'm calling the "roller") is now requires to roleplay their interaction in order to make a skill check at all. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it definitely is an imposition on the players that the DM should make sure they are cool with before implementing.

I get where you're coming from. I force my players to tell me what they're doing before they can roll a skill, what they're saying (I allow them to sum up what they're saying), etc. So, I don't mind pushing my players that way. I get what you're saying about how you prefer to not waste good ideas, and depending on the roll, I think I'd go with that method a lot of the time.

Personally, I think I just want a roll most of the time during a Skill Challenge. What they say might not need a roll (and thus won't contribute or take away from any success), but it'll change the fiction, which will affect the game, still. Maybe showing proof of loyalty doesn't add an automatic success (in my game), but now the mayor (or whoever) is firmly on your side. Why isn't the Skill Challenge over? Well, I'll have to come up with a reason, now, won't I? Maybe he's committed resources elsewhere, and would like to help, but is hesitant; maybe he's possessed; maybe he's made a promise to someone else. Who knows?

Again, though, that's just at my table. I get where you're coming from, and I can see how +2 can be too small for what you want. It's definitely given me something to think about.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I have a very biased opinion about social skills (skills in general, actually) in RPGs, so take this with a grain of salt. My bias is that good ideas should always be weighted more heavily than numbers.

First of all the DM's best friend (the +2 modifier) is only a 10% adjustment. When a player comes up with a really good idea, my first instinct is not to say "Ok, you are 10% more likely to succeed now." As an extension of that logic, I want to encourage good ideas, so why even bother with a chance for it to fail? Particularly in PC-NPC interaction this works very well for players who prefer to method-act rather than roll dice, and let's both types of players (method-actors & rollers) play side by side.

Now, D&D Next would say about a +30% on average (what advantage works out to) is right. My thinking is why even bother with risk of failure? It's a good idea. Don't let it go to waste. I don't know how many times I've been in games where a player has a really great idea and then they flub their roll, only to get this dejected look on their face. It seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me And that should be reserved for dungeon design!

In regard to your other idea, if I make the roleplaying required to access a skill check, that's a change that affects both player types. IOW now the player who is not so good at method-acting or the role-playing side of things (who I'm calling the "roller") is now requires to roleplay their interaction in order to make a skill check at all. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it definitely is an imposition on the players that the DM should make sure they are cool with before implementing.

I have to think about the Gumshoe approach to investigative skills (which includes social skills). You don't roll for investigative skills, you come up with your idea how you use the skill and it works. Sometimes you may need to make a "spend" to succeed, but this is also no risk/chance involved, you just can't do that anymore if you're out of spends.
There is the concept of "Core Clues". You only need to have he skill at all to discover them, and unless it's entirely obvious, you will generally as a player also have to suggest the course of action and skill involved that would help you get an information. If you need a "spend", you will get something extra that will help you in some way, but wouldn't be needed to advance the story.


But back to D&D 4 and skill challenges:
1) If the idea is great and should work for a single check, let the player make the roll to gain one additional success on top of an automatic success.
2) If the idea is so great that it seems unlikely the whole challenge would fail, use the skill challenge to determine not success/failure of whatever it represents, but stuff like time needed, resources needed, conditions that are acceptable but still cost a bit.
Some challenges might be deliberately only be about this - finding out what it costs you, not whether you succeed.

 

[JamesonCourage]

So, another Saturday night passed, and another 4e session. This one only lasted 4 hours, which is our shortest session so far. Still, we got some fun in before calling it a night. On to the session:
[sblock]So, we started with the PCs having made it through the Warwood, the blessing from Sisten Naenia warding off any undead along the way. They continued on their way to Hampstead, a city of a few thousand people, where they hoped to hire a ship to take them (and the remains of the dwarven prince) across the sea.

The PCs made it to within a day of Hampstead without event. Upon getting close to the city, they spotted a campsite, including a dead guy in a pool of blood. They were all on edge, and checked it out. A Heal check determined that he died due to a bite on his back, and that it happened less than an hour ago. While checking the site, the Wilden Scout noticed two trails where people had been dragged off *that direction*... and as soon as he pointed it out, ghouls jumped out from tall grass, attacking them.

The fight was pretty straightforward, but it was moderately tense. The ghouls had a melee basic that allowed them to attack and grab a target (which made deciding whether or not to provoke OAs from them a hard call),
and a move action that allowed them to drag a grabbed target up to half their speed. The ghouls would grab targets and begin to pull them away, isolating them and splitting the party. The Warpriest had to use both of his Healing Words on the Scout, and he used his healing mace's daily power on their new party member, the Sorceress. (They were also extremely impressed with her; 1d12+17 damage + slide all targets adjacent as a basic attack that gave one ally +5 THP made all three players think she was higher level than she is; jokes of her being a dragon in disguise popped up a couple of times. They also liked that she could slide to break grabs from the ghouls.) On round 3, the dead man also rose as a ghoul, throwing a bit more unpredictability into the fight, which I felt was a nice touch.

After defeating all four ghouls, they searched the area (and commented that the blessing from Sister Naenia must've worn off). The PCs didn't find anything other than the partially broken tents, which made them suspicious; there were no money pouches, no documents, no personal effects, or anything else that people generally carried with them. They burned the remains of the ghouls, continuing on, hoping to get behind safe walls in Hampstead.

As they approached the farmland surrounding the city, they noticed a light fog settling around the city. This put the Warpriest on edge. When they entered the fog, the party identified it as finely ground bone. A Hard Religion check from the Warpriest also informed them of the realm of Doresain, the Exarch of Orcus and King of Ghouls, who rules over the White Kingdom that is perpetually covered in a fog of bone. The party now theorized that Doresain might reside within the city, and that made them not want to get closer.

At this point, the Scout noticed a bit of movement from a farm 100 feet away, where something was waving a flag through a doorway. The dwarven Knight decided to check it out, while the other PCs waited 50 feet away (within range of the Scout's bow, the Sorceress' magic, and a move action from the Warpriest's undead horse [which he had acquired from the Sleeper's cult]). The Knight talked to a man who identified himself as Byron (who was wearing a leather breastplate and had a sword), and he claimed to be guarding his son's family (his daughter-in-law, his grandson, and his granddaughter). He started to ask who they were, but recognized them as "the ones having dealt with the dragon", and asked excitedly if they were here to help. The dwarf went to retrieve the others when Byron urged them inside, out of sight of other ghouls. The PCs placed the mule/wagon with the coffin in the stable, and placed the Sleeper's horse there as well.

Inside, Byron told them what he knew. He was guarding his son's family, and his son had left a couple of days ago to look for help or a way out, and had not returned. Byron assumed the worst (this made the wife react, but she seemed to be holding up well). The undead problem (he didn't know they were ghouls until the PCs told him) started about three weeks ago, but he didn't know how. He'd heard the occasional howl or wail from the city, followed by dozens more, then screams, so he speculated that were survivors inside that we being hunted. He said that there were two places he thought might be safe in the city: Cristoph's mansion (who the Sorceress identified as a Wizard colleague of hers), which might have magical protections, and St. Lucian's (the Warpriest identified it as a temple of Pelor, which made him grimace). Once the PCs told him that ghouls might devour or turn others, Byron speculated that there might be hundreds if not thousands of ghouls, then, since Hampstead held 3,000 people in it.

The PCs said that they didn't think they could kill that many ghouls, and were debating what to do. It was at this point that I gave them a major quest to solve the ghoul crisis in Hampstead, producing groans. I told them that major quests weren't binding, just bonus XP if they did it, and that they could ignore it if they wanted to. The players quickly assured me they planned to do it. As they began to plan, they heard a wail from outside. The Scout was keeping an eye through some shutters, and saw three ghouls approaching. He heard two more howls, but none came from the ghouls, indicating that more were on their way. He warned the others, and they braced as ghouls attacked the farm.

This combat was interesting. It was basically all inside the house, meaning walls, doors, and house layout played a large part. They were attacked by three standard ghouls and nine minions, and also had to deal with the family inside the house. The Warpriest made no attempt to protect the family (they weren't marked for life or death by the Raven Queen, but his allies were marked to live, making his choice easy), but the Scout specifically went after ghouls attacking them. The Knight and the Elementalist were concerned with fighting off the most dangerous ghouls first, then saving the family if possible. The grandson, granddaughter, and Byron were all hurt (Byron was front-line fighting and even killed a minion and damaged another ghoul until the Sorceress slid him back and the Knight took his square), and the granddaughter was only saved when the Scout snatched her out of the grab of a ghoul and stepped into her place (natural 20 on his Acrobatics check).

Eventually, the ghouls fell, and everyone had survived. Byron said that the family had to leave now, as their farm had finally been found, and the PCs agreed. The Warpriest told the family to travel through the Warwood, following the signs to the temple of the Raven Queen. He wrote a quick note explaining what was happening, and told him to get it to Sister Naenia as quickly as possible. Byron swore he'd see it done. The Warpriest wasn't sure that the NPCs would make it with the undead-infested woods, so he gave his spare holy symbol to Byron, and made a Hard Religion check, renewing Sister Naenia's blessing through the Warwood for the family. Byron said that the Raven Queen had a new follower this day, and the Warpriest saw a mark of life on him come into being. The PCs decided to make a distraction while the family escaped, and then sneak into the city. They grabbed their mule and mount (leaving the coffin for now), and went outside.

This was a skill challenge (Distract The Ghouls / Enter The City), 10/3. I told them that at 4 successes, the family would escape successfully, and at 10 they'd make it into the city to one of their destinations (they chose to check out the Wizard's house first). Due to some very early bad rolls, the party ended up at 2 successes and 2 failures early on (everyone lost 1 or 3 healing surge, and the PCs were split). A third success and a use of one advantage (of three) put them at 4 successes, meaning the family escaped. Two more natural 1s, and the PCs had wasted the last of their advantages trying to erase failures (which would've united the party and restored their healing surges). Then the good rolls came. The PCs made their way closer to the city through various checks. The Warpriest used Religion at one point to predict the movement of the ghouls, which was actually quite informative; they were working under some sort of command, but while it was similar to Doresain's, they weren't acting like they were under his rule. The Warpriest assumed this meant it was a general of Doresain and not the big guy himself, which was comforting. At any rate, a natural 20 (for two successes) and a couple of good rolls later, and they rallied to beat the skill challenge (10 successes and 2 failures). The player of the Warpriest called it the second-most-tense skill challenge yet (in a good way), right after the "close the portal" skill challenge from the first session. All three players really enjoyed it (once it was over, that is!).

The PCs arrived outside of Cristoph's mansion, having stealthily moved through the city. They passed a lot of ghouls along the way, mostly loners, sifting through the rubble of the devastated town. The mansion had the upstairs windows broken out, and the front door was partially kicked in, the arcane protection rune having been broken. They went in cautiously to an obliterated house; the walls were mostly torn down, and the upstairs had mostly collapsed to the ground floor. The closed and barricaded the door, exploring. They identified arcane marks from attacks in the house, and found a blood pool upstairs near a window (not tainted by undeath like other blood in the house, and enough to be fatal to a humanoid). They found a magical block box upstairs, but didn't know what it did (but figured out how to activate it). They also found two rituals (the Portal ritual and the Transfer Enchantment ritual, which the Sorceress is planning on learning; the Scout wants the Sorceress to transfer his Battle Harness enchantment over to the hide armor he made of the white dragon), a flameburst bow (the Scout took it), and a pair of gauntlets (dwarven throwers, letting the Knight throw his hammer if he needs to).

After a short rest (they hadn't had one since the ghouls had attacked the family), they activated the magical box. It was a recording device, and it played (extremely loudly) a recording of Cristoph: "Monsen brought a case to me today. It seems a young man named Dorian, Darien, or something like that, has been suffering from terrible nightmares that Monsen believes to be prophetic. I don't know how he reached that conclusion, but the boy will be stopping by tomorrow, so I'll have a chat with him... Clearly these nightmares are growing in both their intensity and horror. The boy never stops going on about meat, and blood, and bones. I don't blame the boy for falling apart. I hope the protections at the temple continue to keep him safe from whatever this is... My auguries detected some form of extraplanar emanations. I'd have to say it's from the Chaos, most like the Abyss, what with those oily edgings. Gods, I hope Monsen is wrong about these nightmares."

The PCs recognized the name Darien: when they killed Volkanth (the leader of the Sleeper cult), they found a crumpled note from him from someone named Darien who claimed to be having terrible visions, and who pleaded for help from the cult. The recording also made the PCs want to check out the temple of Pelor, as it was referenced.

Predictably, of course, ghouls howled from outside, and the PCs spotted them climbing up the walls towards the broken windows. We called it here, and will pick up with a combat next session.[/sblock]

We didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped, but the PCs got just enough experience to hit level 7. So, we have a couple weeks to deal with that, and then we'll pick up next session on the 19th. Looking forward to it, as I plan to see how far I can press them without an extended rest.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Alright, another session, this time lasting 6 hours.
[sblock]So, we pick up with the wizard's mansion being attacked by ghouls (2 standards and 10 minions, I think). This was an interesting fight in that it was over two stories (with a collapsed floor and a beam across for walking upstairs), and there was danger of falling out the window. The players handled it pretty well, but a few more healing surges were shaved off.

With the threat taken care of, they could hear more howling ghouls closing in from elsewhere in the city, and so decided to make a hasty retreat from the building. They decided to go to St. Lucian's, as the magical box had mentioned something about it. I ran this as a skill challenge (8/3), and the players made it there with no real penalties (after using some advantages to reverse failures).

The courtyard of the temple (a temple of Pelor) had a minor blessing, helping push ghouls away. The players stopped for a short rest, checking out the outside of the pristine temple, but finding nothing out of the ordinary (other than it being in great shape in a mostly rubble city). The doors were locked, windows closed from inside, etc. After a the short rest, the players went back to the door, but it was now cracked open. They entered cautiously, only to find the inside in terrible condition; flesh was literally hanging from rafters, there was a multitude of dead men, women, and children partially devoured and draped over pews, and an altar boy mounted over the podium.

A few skill checks later, and they were able to determine that the dead humans were killed by being eaten and put up no resistance (they had been restrained), all the locks were secured and none had been disturbed, and the temple was desecrated on the inside and had a lingering Evil presence. They also found some catacombs under the temple, and the Warpriest of The Raven Queen moved the bodies there before performing a ceremony to cleanse the temple (successful Religion). They also found some notes from Brellec Monsen, the high priest of Pelor at the temple. He mentioned the boy named Darien who was having visions that were getting worse, and how he'd sent him to his home to rest, along with his younger sister and Brellec's assistant. Another note detailed how the city had come under attack by ghouls, and how they had ambushed the refugees on their way to the temple (it also questioned what gods would allow this).

The players thought about taking an extended rest in the refreshed sanctuary-like temple, but were afraid that the ghouls would track them to the temple and wait for them outside, so they left. They PCs set out to Darien's farm outside the city, which was a 6/3 skill challenge (to avoid the ghouls). They made it no problem, and arrived at the house, which was pretty devastated. Walls were knocked in, and the inside was covered in writing (ink, blood, engravings, etc.), going on and on about insatiable hunger and visions. As they searched the house, they heard the laughter of a little girl, and a ghost appeared.

We rolled initiative. The combat involved the little girl (Darien's younger sister), Echoes of Madness (abberants that were basically physical forms of insanity), and a 10/3 in-combat skill challenge. The ghost was defeated several times (as were the Echoes), but she would reform one round later, and often summon more Echoes. When they eventually completed the skill challenge (to fight the dark presence off of the house), she revealed her true form (a half-eaten physical body), and was very quickly put down. When she was, psychic energy washed over the party, informing them of what had happened to Hampstead.

Three months ago, a young famer named Darien found a broken human bone in a field. He picked it up, carrying it around while he worked. The bone had come from an adventurer that had fallen to Doresain, the Ghoul King, Lord of the White Kingdom, and Exarch of Orcus. The fact that Darien had it slipped his mind, but he began to have terribly violent images and visions. It didn't take long for the hunger to kick in. In desperation, Darien contacted Volkanth and the cult of the Sleeper in an attempt to cure his visions, but the cult arrived too late; one night later, the hunger proved too much, and he began a terrible killing spree. Many of those that he killed rose again as ghouls, a vicious yet pale imitation of what Darien has become. Now, Darien calls himself the Chosen Maw of Doresain.

They also knew that Darien knew they were there, and that he was on his way. They thought about running, but the fact that they were all dealing radiant damage (the result of a check from the skill challenge) and the major quest experience for freeing Hampstead of the ghouls was enough to get them to stay, even though they probably had 10 healing surges between all four PCs. Darien arrived along with a living man who was wearing Pelor robes but was covered in human flesh. He called for them to show themselves, and the parties tried to Bluff him into better position. Their Bluff worked, but the Fighter's Athletic check to burst through a weakened wooden wall failed (he didn't even hit a Moderate DC), and the fight was on, yet without the better positioning.

It was an interesting fight, but the party didn't hold back, dropping a lot of dailies that they'd been saving. They whittled Darien down (a solo) before his companion (a higher level standard controller), killing him, though he was pretty vicious (he almost killed the Sorceress, continuing to grapple with her after she was down so that the PCs couldn't pull her away). His companion went down fast enough when he was the only target left, and the dwarf spared him so they could question him (he was marked for death by The Raven Queen). (The dwarf kept getting that feeling of elation again all throughout the fight). The bone mist slowly formed into a huge white ghoul, staring at them with more hatred than they'd ever seen, but then it dissipated.

While taking a short rest after the fight, they could hear the ghouls dispersing in all directions, broken by the loss of Darien, who was holding them all together. When the man awoke, he was Intimidated into answering some questions by the dwarf. He was Brellec Monsen, and he had finally given into the "urges" and eaten those in the temple. He wasn't undead himself, but he was twisted, now. He said that Darien had kept control of the ghouls, and that he was planning on raiding Ashenport (a port city to the north). He also said that Dagon had a cult there (run by the town leadership) that was sacrificing souls to Dagon, but that Darien hated Dagon and planned to destroy it. He then shut up.

After a quick discussion, the Warpriest surprised everyone by saying he wanted to take the priest to the temple instead of outright killing him (as the priest was marked to die by The Raven Queen). They did, but he obviously felt pain as they took him through the blessed courtyard, and was injured when they brought him inside. The Warpriest placed him on the podium and then broke his neck. When he did, the dried blood in the room evaporated, the walls new and pristine. Brellec Monsen's dead face was one of pain, but it changed to one of a slight smile. When the Warpriest turned to take the priest into the catacombs, he noticed gold left behind where his foot was, as if he had been standing on it. The coins were all minted with the symbol of Pelor, and this continued until they recovered 800 gold.

The Warpriest left a note in the temple, and the Scout used his druidic magic (Whispers in the Wind Alternative Reward) to let Sister Naenia (the leader of the temple of The Raven Queen in the Warwood) know the ghouls had been taken care of, and asking her to come help with the survivors. With that, the players recovered the dwarven prince's body (it was at the first farm they had come across), took a well-deserved extended rest, and left for Ashenport (knowing they had to take care of Dagon's cult).

The trip was uneventful. They were greeted merrily by many people (a huge festival was taking place), but the PCs were on edge. They pretty quickly took to finding out what was going on in town with a Streetwise, and were pleasantly surprised to find out that adventurers had taken care of the cult about a week ago. (Ashenport had let out a call for the festival, inviting merchants, adventurers, nobles, and other rich people to attend. More adventurers than expected showed up, they teamed up, took out the cult, and split a reward.)

They went to the docks to find a ship to the dwarves, and found one exactly where they needed to go in two days. After waiting, they discovered that it had been hired by Varult Hammerheart, the dwarven priest of Kord that had hired them in their first session. The dwarves in the party (the Warpriest and the Fighter) drank with him the entire two-month trip there, and the dwarven Fighter, an exile, asked how he should act upon returning the dwarven prince. Varult advised him not to wear the armor (dwarven plate, inscribed with depictions of dwarven ancestors). He also advised the Fighter to offer the armor and hammer to the dwarves if it had belonged to the prince, and the Fighter agreed (he knew they might offer it to him as a reward for good service).

They arrived, walking into the dwarven mountain (Cloudforge clan) with Varult Hammerheart. He announced that he was here to see the prince, and said that this bunch wanted to speak to the king. Their names were taken, and not long after they were announced in the great hall (which was huge, with the king on a throne at the back). They approached, and the Warpriest reluctantly gave proper respect (he decided at this moment that he had been royalty before he had died, and that he wasn't used to bowing or kneeling to others), though the others had no problem with it.

The king waited for the Fighter. The Fighter explained about returning the prince, and the king's mood seemed to soften. He walked up to inspect the inside of the coffin, then confirmed that the armor was his son's (when he touched it, the armor turned from plate into chainmail, surprising everyone), as was the Fighter's hammer. He returned to the throne, and offered full hospitality to his guests. There was a boom of thunder in the halls, and a dwarf near Varult apologized, saying that his god (Kord) disagreed about the armor belonging to the Cloudforge clan. The dwarven king humored Gortha (the female dwarf and follower of Kord), and she approached the Fighter. She arm-wrestled him (a series of surprisingly tense opposed rolls that went back and forth, getting quite an enthusiastic reaction from all the players), but eventually lost.

Gortha was angry (in a good-natured way), saying the armor was his. The Fighter was confused, but she told him to put it on. The king gave permission, saying this would be something he "hadn't seen since his son" had done it. When the Fighter touched it, it turned back into plate armor. When he put it on, he knew what it was: The Invulnerable Coat of Arnd, an artifact originally worn by a follower of Kord. I gave the players a sheet with all the information, and the players were floored by the artifact. The Fighter was very happy, and finally understood the feelings of elation or sadness (at victory or defeat), since the armor only communicates with its mood (and wants to achieve victory).

As happy as the Fighter was, it only grew. Gortha identified herself as Gortha of Kord clan (from one of the dragon magazines, I think... http://www.wizards.com/dnd/downloads/dragon/395/395_CD_Kord.pdf), a clan of dwarves originally created by exiles. Now a recognized clan in its own right, it boasted some of the most powerful warriors among dwarves today. Gortha was an ambassador of the clan, and said that as a dwarf apparently worthy of that armor, he was more than happy to join their clan. The Fighter accepted immediately, finally having worked himself back into a dwarven clan after his exile.

The king smiled, and said that if they were interested, he had a mission for such great warriors. Apparently, a small group of mind flayers nearby were mind-controlling creatures and causing a problem, and he was looking for adventurers...[/sblock]
With that, we called session. The Fighter really got to shine tonight, but the Warpriest had some nice moments (the temple, in particular, and also reversing failures in skill challenges with advantages, or letting everyone deal radiant damage at one point). The Scout got some attention (the Echoes of Madness caught his eye, and he was super excited for the mind flayers at the end), but I'm sure he'll get more next session.

Overall, a very, very good session. Very packed and substantial, with a lot of fun pretty much the entire time through.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

As always, great stuff. I love how the ghoul adventure played out and the little touches like the Pelor-gold.

 

[JamesonCourage]

As always, great stuff. I love how the ghoul adventure played out and the little touches like the Pelor-gold.

Thanks! I like to pepper those things in, as I often draw on them later. The bone fog coalescing into a menacing form will play a part later (if the game goes on long enough), as will the farmer being marked to live by The Raven Queen (upon giving an oath to serve her), etc.

I'm not sure if certain things will pop up again (the gold), but it's still a sign of appreciation from Pelor. The Warpriest didn't like Pelor before this session, but decided he was okay on one issue (disliking undead), and the goodwill on both sides might turn out to be important later. Who knows? That's what more sessions are for

 

[Manbearcat]

Good stuff [MENTION=6668292]JamesonCourage[/MENTION]. I think what I mostly enjoy in reading these write-ups from various folks is noting the diversity of genre tropes and level of severity/harshness to the tone of the game that people employ. Then I like seeing how folks use the system in question to best accomplish the visceral experience of those things.

Its interesting that you have Dagon in your game as a prospective antagonist. My 4e game (that was just finished) featured Dagon as the primary antagonist. He was simultaneously the ruler of the Abyssal Sea - the endless ocean at the bottom of The Abyss - and a greater power of the Far Realm.

Demogorgon wanted to eternally possess the creatures of the prime world, torment them by simultaneously driving them insane but enforcing enough remnants of their cognition to be self-aware, assuring that they would suffer the miserable entrapment inherent to such a terminally dual state. Dagon's goal was to relish in the terror-stricken anticipation of impending annihilation of all the material world, and then nuke from orbit. He wanted all to lose hope, to fully understand the depth of meaningless of their meager existence, to know that everything that they associated with "me", "us", and "this world" was about to be expunged as a tidal wave wipes away a civilization, betraying the ultimate futility behind these illusory notions...and then end it all once that was accomplished.

The two agendas were incompatible with one another and the PCs didn't believe they could defeat both. They courted one and defeated the other, leaving the world free from both for another age when the remaining demon lord would inevitably set upon them again.

 

[D'karr]

Always a pleasure to read your campaign notes/reports. Very entertaining. I liked a lot how the combat with the ghost hinged on "deciphering" the skill challenge. I used a similar technique when I converted I6:Ravenloft for 4e. The characters would accumulate special tokens each time they discovered a "secret" of Strahd throughout their investigation of the castle. In the final confrontation with the vampire they could use this knowledge to defeat him permanently, if they had not figured out enough the vampire could escape.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Good stuff @JamesonCourage. I think what I mostly enjoy in reading these write-ups from various folks is noting the diversity of genre tropes and level of severity/harshness to the tone of the game that people employ. Then I like seeing how folks use the system in question to best accomplish the visceral experience of those things.

Yeah, hearing about how people use the system is interesting. I've heard a lot of different suggestions in this thread alone when people have kicked in advice, and it's always fun.

Its interesting that you have Dagon in your game as a prospective antagonist. My 4e game (that was just finished) featured Dagon as the primary antagonist. He was simultaneously the ruler of the Abyssal Sea - the endless ocean at the bottom of The Abyss - and a greater power of the Far Realm.

[SNIP]

Cool stuff! I do plan to use Dagon as an antagonist later on, and I've hinted he's around a few times so far (the dream of the dead eyes watching the Warpriest, the eel in the jar full of dreamstone dust watching them, the Sleeper's goal including raising the waters high enough that it enveloped everything while a great Evil presence watched from inside, mention of the Deep Obyrith, etc.), with the cult in Ashenport just the latest example. I think I'll hold off until a few more levels before I push too hard with it, though; the PCs are only level 8.

You did make me want to throw in another opposing side, though. Dagon's cult was defeated off-screen by other adventurers, so it might be interesting to make him being opposed a sort of theme. Put Demigorgon against him, maybe some Celestial forces, maybe The Raven Queen, etc. It'd certainly give him an epic feel. Something to consider

 

[JamesonCourage]

Always a pleasure to read your campaign notes/reports. Very entertaining.

Whew! After nobody replied to the last update, and then a delay for this update, I was starting to wonder. I'll keep updating if people like seeing it, which seems to be the case

I liked a lot how the combat with the ghost hinged on "deciphering" the skill challenge. I used a similar technique when I converted I6:Ravenloft for 4e. The characters would accumulate special tokens each time they discovered a "secret" of Strahd throughout their investigation of the castle. In the final confrontation with the vampire they could use this knowledge to defeat him permanently, if they had not figured out enough the vampire could escape.

Thanks, I like working SCs into combat. I do think you have an interesting idea here. I'm getting the idea to give them tokens for something (have no idea what yet) as they figure stuff out, and then letting them cash the tokens in during combat to do something. Maybe see through an illusion, or break out of a compelled state, or something. Very interesting. Hmm...