Campaign Overhaul?

[meomwt]

I've been following and enjoying the Sandbox thread on this Forum. I was looking at it last night, and it prompted me to ask Mrs meomwt (a player in our group) how she had been enjoying the game I'd been running before Christmas (currently on hiatus and replaced by some heavy-duty RuneQuest 3).

The game had been set in the Necromancer 'Lost City of Barakus' campaign, with some add-ons from me and a couple of extra adventures. It had been run sandbox fashion, they had been given free choice of where and when to go, and had completed several adventures in the Home Base City prior to heading out to the main mega-dungeon. We'd completed 17 sessions, and had got to Level 3 (Barakus recommends 50% XP Awards).

Her comments were that:

• the rate of progression was too slow;
• the story focus was missing;
• the reason for the group being together was too weak;
• the game had been fragmented by missing sessions due to illness/ holidays/ work.

Obviously, the last one we couldn't do much about, but the others could be addressed. Her comment about story focus was interesting, as there were multiple plot hooks lurking around, it was up to the players to sort them out (they'd not taken on one possible mission in the city, for example, but two of the players had become involved in disrupting an arms smuggling racket which was getting weapons to a fledgling Thieve's Guild operating in a shanty-town outside the city walls).

Obviously, I need to discuss with the other players how they were perceiving the game. Can anyone offer advice on whether the situation is retrievable or when I come to DM again, would it be better to start again?

(And starting again at Level 1 is something Mrs meomwt threw her hands up in horror at, complaining she'd spent ages getting to Level 3 and would have to start all over again! )

 

[S'mon]

At 1/2 XP a competent low level group should be levelling about every 6 sessions, ca end of sess 6, 12 and 18 - are they close to 4th level? Levelling every 8 sessions in low level 3e could be quite painful.

Story focus - more pro-active NPCs, more plots!

Group cohesion - players should establish reasons for being together in initial character creation, or else the campaign should accommodate weakly linked PCs; which also allows for missing PCs. Eg the focus can be on a tavern where random PCs meet up to go dungeon-delving.

 

[meomwt]

They levelled after Session 6 and Session 14 (possibly Session 15) IIRC. But I remember that a couple of those sessions at Level 2 were heavy on role-playing and low on combat encounters, which may have been part of the problem.

Our sessions tend to be quite short, as well, which may also be contributory. We started out running for around 3 hours per week, but towards the end of last year seemed to reduce this to two-and-a-half hours (player consensus, not DM approval) and this also might affect the XP awards.

 

[Gilladian]

I wouldn't start over, but what you might do is try offering them the opportunity to go to work for someone. Possibly somebody is impressed with their work breaking up the smuggling and offers them a job as investigators of some sort. Or as escorts to an important function, or to go on a retrieval mission.

You pick the scenario, and offer it to the PC's; it'll give them a stronger motive to stay together - the reward and the clear cut mission goal - and it allows recurring jobs so as to create a thread of plot.

At the same time, if they don't like a mission, they're still able to decline it.

I'm also very fond of the "timeline" idea mentioned in the sandbox thread. Create a world calendar. Load it with holidays, political events, adventure seeds (that falling asteroid?) and character background hooks (did someone run away from home? When will the searchers from home arrive to find them?). This helps tie things together.

 

[Blue]

I hear what you are saying. My last campaign climaxed after several years, adn the players wanted to play in the same world (a homebrew). I advanced time 80 years and started again. My campaigns are very player fdriven on where they go, but int he first campaign in this world there was more structure to what they had to do - I had introduced some strong-flavored NPCs in it that had recurring roles. This tiem we've spent a lot of time but in a much wider place that they aren't seeing the same NPCs and places again and it feel less cohesive.

BTW, I run a heavy RP game much like it sounds you do. I don't want to encourage players to RP (often to no combat in sessions), btui then mechanically penalize them for giving the most XP for combat encounters. I give heavy RP XP every session, and even have a way for a players to reward good RP by giving out good-RP chips. Heck, we often have characters earning chips when the player isn't there because it's really encouraged creating memorable characters, and when the group is like "yeah, they do that cool thing because they would", it's chip time.

Good luck,
=Blue(23)

 

[Raven Crowking]

First off, I second those who have said to get the NPCs more involved. NPCs have motives -- decide what they are, decide what they might want to use the PCs for to gain those goals, and go to town. Make one or two real rat-bastard NPCs that the PCs can't finish off right away (for whatever reason). Think Rene Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Give the players someone to hate.

Create a calendar. Events happen whether the PCs are in on them or not. Make sure that weather happens, and that good things happen (births, marriages, holidays) as well as ill.

Finally, about the 1/2 XP and slow leveling: In 3e, you make your own magic items, you choose what spells you will learn, and you expect wealth by level. In a real way, leveling is the reward system. WotC has stripped the rewards of previous editions away.

I advocate slower leveling myself, but to be successful with this it is important to put some non-leveling rewards back into the game. Let the players see how their PCs impact the local area. If level 3 is a big deal in your world, make sure the players see it is a big deal because the NPCs treat it as such. Include some special abilities that act as rewards -- secrets that the PCs can learn without gaining levels. For example, if one NPC likes a particular spell, let there be a reward that allows that PC to produce potions or scrolls of that spell at a significantly reduced cost. Give PCs the chance to gain bonus skill points, skill bonuses, or even bonus feats. Break the cycle of "character growth = leveling" and you may see this problem go away.


RC

 

[S'mon]

Make one or two real rat-bastard NPCs that the PCs can't finish off right away (for whatever reason). Think Rene Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Give the players someone to hate.

Barakus has the Evil Adventuring Party, potentially ideal for this role. They do need to be played smart to keep them alive.

I agree with Raven re the rewards. If you limit buying and selling of magic items, magic items can again become a reward, allowing you to exceed the PCs' wealth-by-level (the synergy between the WBL table and free buy/sell of MI has some profoundly damaging effects, IMO). It doesn't break the game for a 3rd level PC to have a +3 sword or a folding boat IF they can't turn that sword into a big pile of cash and that cash into a pile of optimised magic items.

 

[meomwt]

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions. I am encouraged that so many people have taken time out to comment, and that there haven't been any "start from scratch" comments.

I'll be talking to the other players on Thursday and asking them for their opinions.