Requesting Help from fellow DM

[Spikez]

Good day people, not sure exactly where to put this so ill post it here.

i have run into a kind of snag in the story i have created and a predicament as far as one of my players are concerned.

In the world i have created i currently have two campaigns running. My main campaign has 6 players and is currently on break as people have gone to vacations and such.
And during the summer im running a smaller campaign with two players from my Main campaign. One of the players from my main campaign also wants to be a DM on occasion so im using this small summer campaign to teach him how i go through making encounters, locations and generally dealing with the preparation work prior to each session.

i created the idea of a group of intelligent weapons forged many many years ago dedicated to slaying undead creatures, all with their own unique personalities and traits. The problem is that i have come to the conclusion that they would be a much better fitting component of my main campaign plot and would like them to be in the main campaign. But i have already told the guy i`m teaching about it, and since he is a player in the main campaign, he sits with some pretty major meta knowledge if i ever were to introduce it.

Anyone have any suggestions on how i could proceed?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I ask my players not to use meta-game knowledge. It works pretty well. If they start to "fall off the wagon" as it were then I raise an eyebrow and say"Are you metagaming here? Tsk, tsp tsk." That's usually enough to keep things honest.

If you really think your player can't do that then maybe let all the players know about them. In character. Then let the chaos begin.

 

[Spikez]

I think he is able to play without doing too much metagaming. but from my experience players tend to do it unconsiously over time. thats why i prefer to make the story so that they have a genuine reaction to the things that happen. I recon it might be possible to use it still. i would have to replace the blade i originally intended to be in my small campaign. Its a blade thrust into a seal (done a long time ago by a paladin or cleric originally intended to be the undeath slaying blade) to lock the Door into the crypts belonging to followers of Pazuzu (evil demon deity). Presently this dungeon is occupied by a sect of pyremius worshippers. essentially the seal acts as a puzzle to face a bit more difficult encounters for the opportunity to get a few juicy loot items.

Good ideas are welcome, and either way thanks for the advice Drunkonduty.

Could still use an intelligent blade, just cant be undead slaying. also i guess smart blades gets old quick, got one instance of it in the game already, and then the undead slaying weapons (both of which none of the players know yet)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Shared knowledge is always a risk, that is why I always try to keep something back. Think about the weapons and then limit them in some way with the other DM or how you can enhance them in your game.

Ideas that come to mind:

• What undead are effected by the weapons. This can be +3 vs Zombies but only +1 vs Vampires, or a limit to the level of the creature being fought.
• Component weapons - the weapons are missing parts. Each has to have all their parts to reach their full power.
• The Weapons are also undead - they feed off the negative energy of undead, somewhere down the line BOOM, something bad happens...gateway to the planes stuff.

 

[Spikez]

i was thinking some way along the line that the weapon doesnt make its presence known until it gauges the players way of doing things (good/bad etc) then it is relatively weak and along the way it gains respect and accepts the new wielder if they are doing the right things and it eventually can grow in power over time (the sword requires both a good connection along with the wielder and need to be frequently used to maintain its power) as to its origin im not certain, perhaps somewhere along the line of having been forged by a closed off group of clerics within the church of pelor perhaps to rid the land of a particularly malevolent and power hungry lich who raised hordes of undead and terrorized the lands. just preliminary thoughts though.

i think the whole getting to know the weapon deal is a pretty good roleplay motivator, which is a bit scarce in my campaigs as they dont like to readily explore the world or initiate in lengthy roleplay bouts without them being thrust upon them.

in retrospect telling the other guy everything was a stupid idea, same with running the campaigns within roughly the same timeframe. (will have to account for that in later campaigns) but i dont think its impossible to salvage if i make some changes and dont make it obvious when i introduce it that it is the undead killing smart blade which he knows about.

 

[was]

IME, weapons with powers which scale with the might of their wielders usually works well.
You might want to change some of the weapon types. Maybe throw in some maces, halberds, axes instead of just blades. I still like disrupting warhammers.
You could also imbue them with some abilities that focus their sweetest powers on certain types of undead. Maybe like a wraith-slaying sword that affects incorporeal undead or maybe just wraiths.
Aligned weapons can be useful..more than just good vs. undead.
Minor good clerical abilities/spells on holy weapons vs. undead might also build a more unique intelligent weapon.

 

[Spikez]

yeah that sounds good, i know for sure that i dont want their powers to be obvious or apparent from the beginning, that it becomes more as a gradual learning experience as the weapon tells more about it self, i would also have to make it impervious to identification spells. but that is as simple as making the outcome of it unclear (fuzzy).

Is there anywhere there is a chatroom or something similar where DMs can bounce campaign ideas of one another? i find it helps a great deal when trying to make the story make sense.

 

[Walter_J]

As others have suggested, you could always make knowledge of the weapons existence common to all the characters. You could make discovery of this knowledge part of the campaign. For example, increased encounters with undead, attacks by undead on towns, villagers, travelers, etc... could lead the players to wondering what is going on, so they set out to find an NPC who can tell them. Once the players locate the NPC, he informs them about the big bad force rising in the land and about the weapons designed to stop the undead. Then they have to go find the weapons. Just an example.

 

[Spikez]

Yeah, initially i had intended to the problem becoming so severe that the players set out to look for something to aid them in defeating the undead (one of the players is a paladin, (which he roleplays as a religious zealot set to aid the weak) so it shouldnt be too hard to get the party to engage the increased undead threat) like for example saying that similar situations have happened before through a lore check for either the cleric or a paladin, then they set out to figure out how it was dealt with the first times.

that way as you said i can give the information to all the characters simultaneously so the meta issue gets fixed. Guess ill have to rewrite some things to get it to work, but it feels like a solid solution.

 

[gamerprinter]

Well since he's just learning to be a GM, I probably would limit him to the actual rules and mechanics based on the rules. I wouldn't introduce a new type of magic item, previously unknown - that should be your introduction into the game, not the new GM's job. Relegate the new GM to material that is already published, and no home-brewed material. At least until he is competent GM, anyway.