Raven Crowking
First Post
fusangite said:
Really?
What part of the city, and how often do you play?
(Perhaps you should email me at ravencrowking at hotmail dot com)
RC
Am I a cruel DM?
- Thread starter Ambrus
- Start date
Really?
What part of the city, and how often do you play?
(Perhaps you should email me at ravencrowking at hotmail dot com)
RC
Raven Crowking
First Post
Oh, and on a more related note, did anyone here get the most recent issue of Dungeon? In it, there's an article on DMing style (Mastering the Game, pp. 82-84) that made me think of this thread. The author (Mr. Monte Cook) suggests that one should not try to be a moderate between a "referee" or "guide" style DM. Clearly much of the polarization on Ambrus' question is dependent upon how one leans between these two styles.
Personally, I do moderate between the two. I believe that I do so successfully, and that it's not nearly as hard as Mr. Cook suggests.
RC
Personally, I do moderate between the two. I believe that I do so successfully, and that it's not nearly as hard as Mr. Cook suggests.
RC
Ambrus
Explorer
The latest session
For those who are interested, I thought I'd update the thread with the events from our latest session, which ended just a little while ago.
The game started with the party regrouping after busting out of their crates in the warehouse off of the docks. They kicked around some possible courses of action when the gnome PC (Jebeddo) received a mysterious telepathic vision. I should mention that he's received these visions on a handful of previous occasions, each time getting a few clues which have helped the party during their quest, even if the party remains ignorant of the visions' source. The vision led him to understand that the source was grateful for the party's help in acquiring the artifact, it was sorry for what it felt it had to do and revealed to him where a small stash of magic items belonging to a dead elven wizard was located in thanks.
After the vision ended, the party discussed it's meaning until a lone whistling gnome transporting another crate arrived at their warehouse (the PCs jokingly asked if it happened to be the crate containing their missing artifact). The gnome was one of the lower ranking members of the guild that the gnome faction uses as a front for its operation. He also happened to be one of the gnomes who happened to have helped nail their crates' shut. He was perplexed to see the PCs out of their crates and the ship gone. After expressing his shock and confusion to the PCs, he explained that the guild hadn't finished loading the ship yet, that they were still transporting cargo to the docks (which is what he was doing), that he had been told by other guild members to load the PCs' crates last and that the ship wasn't supposed to leave for another hour and a half. According to him, the ship should still have been docked, a half dozen crew members should have been around doing the loading along with a few imperial soldiers keeping watch nearby. He had no explanation for what had gone wrong with the gnome/PC's plan.
The PCs decided to contact their allies in the church within the city. They ended up at a small temple overseen by a sympathetic Abbess (a friend and ally of the cardinal). Together they spoke about some possible options while the Abbes helped heal the party. Finally they settled on casting a variety of spells which they didn't have prepared (since they intended to be on the ship when they prepared their spells). They used their social skills, found what they needed fairly quickly and bought a scroll of Divination, two scrolls of Scry as well as a scroll of Teleport. The Divination was cast by Noelani first with the goal of discovering the best way to find the artifact. As a reply she received the cryptic response "Know best when to parley and when to stand defiant, but make haste for your quarry may soon disappear down a winding path". The two Scry scrolls (one divine the other arcane) were to be used concurrently by both the sorcerer and the cleric (Esmé and Noelani) so each could try to scry the gnomes they suspected to be on the ship, and if successful, teleport to them directly. Both targets were in fact on the ship, but Noelani's happened to be within the anti-magic field projected by the artifact while Esmé's target made his saving throw.
Deciding to give up on their scrying tactic, they instead dipped into their slush fund (they still have a large sum of gold and gems they found while in the dungeon), applied their considerable social abilities to finding even more powerful magics and succeeded in purchasing scrolls of Discern Location and Greater Teleport. In case anyone is wondering why such powerful scrolls are available for purchase at a moment's notice, please keep in mind that the party happens to be in the capital city of a large thriving empire founded millennia ago by a mageocratic society. The campaign is high-fantasy, most nobles are wizards and magic is a readily available commodity.
After regrouping at the abbey and discussing some points of strategy, Esmé read the Discern Location scroll, pinpointed the ship's location and then read the Greater Teleport scroll as everyone joined hands. Within moments the party materialized on the bow of the ship, lost their footing (a balance check was in order since the ship was moving at high speed) and ended up in a heap on the deck (except for the halfling who made her check). We ended the session with some members of the gnomish crew taking notice of the surprise arrivals (at first they thought they'd hit something in mid air) while the party regained it's footing. We're to pick up the action at the beginning of next session with the PCs choosing whether they want to parley or fight with the gnomes.
The mood was considerably more upbeat at the end of this session.
For those who are interested, I thought I'd update the thread with the events from our latest session, which ended just a little while ago.
The game started with the party regrouping after busting out of their crates in the warehouse off of the docks. They kicked around some possible courses of action when the gnome PC (Jebeddo) received a mysterious telepathic vision. I should mention that he's received these visions on a handful of previous occasions, each time getting a few clues which have helped the party during their quest, even if the party remains ignorant of the visions' source. The vision led him to understand that the source was grateful for the party's help in acquiring the artifact, it was sorry for what it felt it had to do and revealed to him where a small stash of magic items belonging to a dead elven wizard was located in thanks.
After the vision ended, the party discussed it's meaning until a lone whistling gnome transporting another crate arrived at their warehouse (the PCs jokingly asked if it happened to be the crate containing their missing artifact). The gnome was one of the lower ranking members of the guild that the gnome faction uses as a front for its operation. He also happened to be one of the gnomes who happened to have helped nail their crates' shut. He was perplexed to see the PCs out of their crates and the ship gone. After expressing his shock and confusion to the PCs, he explained that the guild hadn't finished loading the ship yet, that they were still transporting cargo to the docks (which is what he was doing), that he had been told by other guild members to load the PCs' crates last and that the ship wasn't supposed to leave for another hour and a half. According to him, the ship should still have been docked, a half dozen crew members should have been around doing the loading along with a few imperial soldiers keeping watch nearby. He had no explanation for what had gone wrong with the gnome/PC's plan.
The PCs decided to contact their allies in the church within the city. They ended up at a small temple overseen by a sympathetic Abbess (a friend and ally of the cardinal). Together they spoke about some possible options while the Abbes helped heal the party. Finally they settled on casting a variety of spells which they didn't have prepared (since they intended to be on the ship when they prepared their spells). They used their social skills, found what they needed fairly quickly and bought a scroll of Divination, two scrolls of Scry as well as a scroll of Teleport. The Divination was cast by Noelani first with the goal of discovering the best way to find the artifact. As a reply she received the cryptic response "Know best when to parley and when to stand defiant, but make haste for your quarry may soon disappear down a winding path". The two Scry scrolls (one divine the other arcane) were to be used concurrently by both the sorcerer and the cleric (Esmé and Noelani) so each could try to scry the gnomes they suspected to be on the ship, and if successful, teleport to them directly. Both targets were in fact on the ship, but Noelani's happened to be within the anti-magic field projected by the artifact while Esmé's target made his saving throw.
Deciding to give up on their scrying tactic, they instead dipped into their slush fund (they still have a large sum of gold and gems they found while in the dungeon), applied their considerable social abilities to finding even more powerful magics and succeeded in purchasing scrolls of Discern Location and Greater Teleport. In case anyone is wondering why such powerful scrolls are available for purchase at a moment's notice, please keep in mind that the party happens to be in the capital city of a large thriving empire founded millennia ago by a mageocratic society. The campaign is high-fantasy, most nobles are wizards and magic is a readily available commodity.
After regrouping at the abbey and discussing some points of strategy, Esmé read the Discern Location scroll, pinpointed the ship's location and then read the Greater Teleport scroll as everyone joined hands. Within moments the party materialized on the bow of the ship, lost their footing (a balance check was in order since the ship was moving at high speed) and ended up in a heap on the deck (except for the halfling who made her check). We ended the session with some members of the gnomish crew taking notice of the surprise arrivals (at first they thought they'd hit something in mid air) while the party regained it's footing. We're to pick up the action at the beginning of next session with the PCs choosing whether they want to parley or fight with the gnomes.
The mood was considerably more upbeat at the end of this session.
tonym
First Post
Ambrus said:...We're to pick up the action at the beginning of next session with the PCs choosing whether they want to parley or fight with the gnomes.
I hope the PCs kill all the gnomes!! Then crash the ship into the anchoress' temple!! Ka-BLAM!!
Haha, just kidding.
Thanks for updating the thread, Ambrus. Skillful solution.
Tony M
Last edited:
Good work Ambrus. It looks as though you incorporate a lot of the constructive input on the thread and made excellent use of the online community here. Very different from the thread where I did this where I was eventually convinced by the lameness of the arguments against my hanling of the game that I'd done a good job and then proceeded to heap verbal abuse on the people I'd asked for advice.
Raven Crowking
First Post
Bravo.
RC
RC
It seems to me that you are a very good DM. My advice is to bring closure to the campaign as soon as possible, and it looks like you are gearing up for that. As for the Gnomes stealing the MacGuffin and the Lawful Good Faction, may I suggest an ending where the Gnomes, the Party, and the Lawful Good faction wins.
Take a page from Daggerfall, where the heroes can give the MacGuffin to various factions. In Daggerfall, if you give it to the King of Worms, he becomes a God. If you give it to any other faction, then the Underking finally dies and the MacGuffin goes inert.
Something like that. So, maybe the Dwarven Queen wants it so that she can finally die; give it to her and she dies and the Gods take it and reward the players.
Take a page from Daggerfall, where the heroes can give the MacGuffin to various factions. In Daggerfall, if you give it to the King of Worms, he becomes a God. If you give it to any other faction, then the Underking finally dies and the MacGuffin goes inert.
Something like that. So, maybe the Dwarven Queen wants it so that she can finally die; give it to her and she dies and the Gods take it and reward the players.
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