Besides D&D, what are you playing?
I'm continuing to run a weekly game using the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (powered by GURPS). I set the campaign in the faux Viking setting ("Norðlond") created by Douglas Cole in the Citadel at Nordvorn and a set of adventures. The Citadel at Nordvorn is a setting book rather than an adventure, but it's packed with the seeds of numerous conflicts. I've been supporting Doug's kickstarters for the past couple of years but hadn't run more than a one-shot in any of the books. I decided to start this campaign with Nordvorn because I wasn't sure what the players would be most interested in; this allowed us to launch the campaign in a sandbox where they could pick up whatever threads struck their fancy.
Wow, was their fancy struck. We launched with a madcap quest to find out what had happened to a failed frontier settlement. The party returned as heroes, which antagonized a number of political factions. We then ran a series of sessions with lots of roleplaying and almost no combat. These featured the best sort of roleplaying, brimming with tension and innuendo. Finally, they decided to head off into the wilderness for some more traditional adventure. This was partly to avoid getting sucked even more deeply into the web of inter-jarl politicking. As they were about to depart down the river, however, the daughter of a particularly wealthy jarl asked if she could accompany them. (They had had many run-ins with the father, Orm, who seemed bizarrely overprotective of his 17-year-old daughter.) The players unanimously agreed that this would be a terrible idea, but then decided that their characters would probably say yes. So, to my surprise, they welcomed her aboard and hightailed it out of town.
Little did they know that the jarl in question was so overprotective because he had made a pact with a fae prince in his youth and that his daughter, Ylsa, was the collateral (that's the gist of it anyway). It's brilliantly fun because Orm's goons are pursuing the party on the water, but angry fae attack the party whenever they set foot on shore after dark. (The fae abhor running water and sunlight.) So they're safer from Orm on land and from the fae on the water. At last week's game, the full measure of the heat became clear as they barely escaped from a party of Orm's sworn thegns only to be ambushed by shadowy fae goblins. They had another opportunity to part ways with Ylsa, but doubled down instead, swearing to her that they would protect her with their very lives. We ended the session with the party locked in a debate over the relative merits of attempting to make it down the river or trying to reach their destination on foot (requiring them to cross Audreyn's Wall into the Dragongrounds, a dangerous wilderness, with unknown numbers of tricky fae hunting them). Tomorrow night, whatever they choose, is likely to be a nailbiter.
The fun of all of this is that none of this was preordained (or even considered, really). I simply read through the backstory in the book, seasoned it to taste (and mangled some of it accidentally, which I'm pretending was intentional), brought the NPCs to life at the table, and let the players have free rein.
Wow, was their fancy struck. We launched with a madcap quest to find out what had happened to a failed frontier settlement. The party returned as heroes, which antagonized a number of political factions. We then ran a series of sessions with lots of roleplaying and almost no combat. These featured the best sort of roleplaying, brimming with tension and innuendo. Finally, they decided to head off into the wilderness for some more traditional adventure. This was partly to avoid getting sucked even more deeply into the web of inter-jarl politicking. As they were about to depart down the river, however, the daughter of a particularly wealthy jarl asked if she could accompany them. (They had had many run-ins with the father, Orm, who seemed bizarrely overprotective of his 17-year-old daughter.) The players unanimously agreed that this would be a terrible idea, but then decided that their characters would probably say yes. So, to my surprise, they welcomed her aboard and hightailed it out of town.
Little did they know that the jarl in question was so overprotective because he had made a pact with a fae prince in his youth and that his daughter, Ylsa, was the collateral (that's the gist of it anyway). It's brilliantly fun because Orm's goons are pursuing the party on the water, but angry fae attack the party whenever they set foot on shore after dark. (The fae abhor running water and sunlight.) So they're safer from Orm on land and from the fae on the water. At last week's game, the full measure of the heat became clear as they barely escaped from a party of Orm's sworn thegns only to be ambushed by shadowy fae goblins. They had another opportunity to part ways with Ylsa, but doubled down instead, swearing to her that they would protect her with their very lives. We ended the session with the party locked in a debate over the relative merits of attempting to make it down the river or trying to reach their destination on foot (requiring them to cross Audreyn's Wall into the Dragongrounds, a dangerous wilderness, with unknown numbers of tricky fae hunting them). Tomorrow night, whatever they choose, is likely to be a nailbiter.
The fun of all of this is that none of this was preordained (or even considered, really). I simply read through the backstory in the book, seasoned it to taste (and mangled some of it accidentally, which I'm pretending was intentional), brought the NPCs to life at the table, and let the players have free rein.
Tun Kai Poh
Hero
Nice to see they've managed to get into a nail-biter. Once the players have enough pressure on them, it will be interesting if one of the NPCs tells them about the arrangement with the fae prince - see what they do then!
Indeed, it will help their survival chances if they catch on to the fae connection sooner rather than later, although they are moving in the right direction (away from the region that the prince has direct control over). I have to do some hard thinking about the nature of the pact between Orm (the dad) and the prince to consider if there is any reasonable way to get out of it. The prince has had a couple thousand years to weave his webs, so it will need to be fairly epic.
Tun Kai Poh
Hero
There's always the enemy-of-my-enemy approach, where another fae noble with a grudge against the prince offers a way to get the daughter free...which leaves the party owing a big favour
Tun Kai Poh
Hero
Last night in CTHULHU DEEP GREEN, my four agents investigated the invisible horrors preying on a veteran's support group on the edge of the Florida Everglades.
I started them off with the ground rules of the Conspiracy from CDG.
The players found Alvin's Alligator Park, site of the first supernatural killing, quite charming.
They were new to the Delta Green setting, and were unfamiliar with the euphemism of "retired" agents...
Oh, my sweet summer children.
Eventually the case led them to a trailer park where a hippie chemist who had brought some very dangerous frozen remains with him from his cultist days. And the generator for his freezer was failing...
Things escalated.
They escalated some more.
OPERATION THORNY PATH ended in a spectacular explosion as a cluster of a dozen propane tanks detonated, sending the creaky old RV rocketing into the air, debris flying everywhere, drug canisters spewing smoke, flaming porn mags fluttering down...
Just another day on the job for DELTA GREEN
I started them off with the ground rules of the Conspiracy from CDG.
The players found Alvin's Alligator Park, site of the first supernatural killing, quite charming.
They were new to the Delta Green setting, and were unfamiliar with the euphemism of "retired" agents...
Oh, my sweet summer children.
Eventually the case led them to a trailer park where a hippie chemist who had brought some very dangerous frozen remains with him from his cultist days. And the generator for his freezer was failing...
Things escalated.
They escalated some more.
OPERATION THORNY PATH ended in a spectacular explosion as a cluster of a dozen propane tanks detonated, sending the creaky old RV rocketing into the air, debris flying everywhere, drug canisters spewing smoke, flaming porn mags fluttering down...
Just another day on the job for DELTA GREEN
the Jester
Legend
Other than all the 5e I run, I'm playing a Dungeon Crawl Classics game right now. I'm in a Call of Cthulhu game too, but it has been on quarantine hiatus so far. The GM is probably going to start running it online before too long, though.
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