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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fluffybunbunkittens" data-source="post: 9396481" data-attributes="member: 7037492">Now, random notes after 8 months of Drakkenheim (random playtimes based on people's work loads, we've had 14 sessions so far, 2 weeks in game time, they just hit lv5 and I need to push them to go into the city and ramp up the faction hostilities, things have advanced at a slower pace than I originally expected).GM WORK<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">it's such omg amounts of work for the GM because it's a sandbox (though this is admittedly also because we run on a VTT and I try to have battlemaps ready, and the official packages weren't available until recently)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there's a whole bunch of NPCs even at bare minimum. Do not go overboard on introducing new ones.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">personal quests are not a good driver, because they are all something that you need to be high level for</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">rumors are great (don't be stingy with them!), but there's way too few of them, you should have more of them and add in ones about someone's personal quest, or directly offer a sidequest through them.</li> </ul>TOWN<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">my players have remarked how hostile everyone seems to be, but, it's like, the environment, where a small town is invaded by these gold rush prospectors that are ready to murder stuff for coin, and the people most likely to interact with them are the ones that are trying to profit from them, and the factions are all just waiting for someone to do something stupid so they will start warring between themselves</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">my players also have never tried to actually talk to the townspeople and make themselves more known</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">this may be fine, because the game intends for the village to just be a safe base, but it also feels a bit hollow if that is all it is</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there's no need for there to be 4(?) inns/bars in the town, just combine them into The Fancy One (I made this one give out a random buff after rest) vs The Cheap One (this one may give a random debuff)</li> </ul>ITEMS<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there are very few magic items in the campaign as written, you need to figure out your own approach to sprinkling them (I created my own random magic item Google Sheet that I slowly keep working on)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there are multiple special potions (removes contamination, protects from contamination, counts as a short rest, recovers spell slots, etc)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there's two distinct artifact chases in the game, the religious (scepter of st vitruvio etc) and the politicals (seals), player attention will get too split if they try to go for both, because there's half a dozen of each</li> </ul>TRAVEL<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">overland travel is a bit whatever. I created my own system for that (choose from fast/normal/stealthy pace) and split it into types of city zones (industrial, harbor, entertainment, residential) on a grid, but made it function like a 'move from point of interest to point of interest with one encounter roll' once they had been through a zone a few times (the encounter die went from d6 to d8 to d10 to d12 to d20). I just wanted things to be a bit more nervous the first time they are in a visually distinct new zone, but also more lucrative (more likely to roll the max for good things) if they went where others weren't likely to have been yet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I also made night-time default the encounter die everywhere to d6, so it's more dangerous</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">my players do try to go into Drakkenheim, fool around for the day, then return to the town by the time it gets dark, which is the intended gameplay loop</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there are locations to rest within/near the city, so from the start, be ready for the players to look for those (the mill would easily become the ideal place, so I made it have a 25% chance of winds lifting Haze up to where it is, just to not have them live there). And also make an excuse that the few standing buildings outside of the city are already occupied (you'd have to fight a faction like Queen's Men or Lanterns just to rest there for the night) and camping in the woods is not encouraged (chance of contamination, mutated tentacle bears)</li> </ul>DANGERS<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">contamination is meant to be a built-in element that limits excess dungeon crawling in one go and forces a downtime week to happen occasionally, not a constant threat beyond the low levels. It mainly acts as a scare tactic for zones of Deep Haze (and to prevent swimming), it's fine if players can get rid of it easily. But, I made the executive decision to NOT have Remove Contamination the spell be known at the start of the campaign, but I've dropped hints about it, but the players haven't picked up on them or cared enough... so the Barbarian has been at lv3 Contamination for a long time now (and grew mutated spikes)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">you should communicate visually when a monster is able to contaminate the players with their attacks - glowing fists, delerium crystals for teeth, something</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">you should let people know ahead of time that a lot of the monsters do split damage types (like bludgeoning + necrotic), which can make the barbarian feel really fragile, but then when there are critters that only do physical damage, they can shine in those situations. It's just not great for dummy Barbarian play.</li> </ul>FACTIONS<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">rival prospectors should be made a more common element come lv4-5, if the players are trying to hang around in the outskirts (but so is everyone new to the town!). The rivals should be used to try to force them to go into the city proper, as now befits their level</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Academy has a very good chance of being the default go-to faction, because they have the resources, the political presence and the magical knowledge that you'd assume you'd need in Drakkenheim. So you should figure out ways to make them less appealing, IMO. My approach was to make them a profit-driven corporation who just wasted many of their younger mages on trying to retake their Tower the moment the city opened up (because it'd look really good for the upper management, who are personally too afraid to go into an unknown area like Drakkenheim), and now they're kind of more focused on keeping other departments within Academy out of Drakkenheim, they can still make this work and get their annual bonuses.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Silver Order are really boring if they're super-zealots or LG Paladins that are there to help everyone. So I leaned on them being there to further Elyrian interests, who have no interest in seeing the capital of Westemär being rebuilt.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Falling Fire should not be made evil or have nefarious background plots, because they are already obviously a death cult, and anything Lucretia says should also make that clear - they don't need more things against them. My players seemed taken by how alright they seemed to be, while also seeing that they are a personality cult that will kill themselves for their glorious leader's plan.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Queen's Men, as written, are just another monster faction. Best I can tell, they are there so you have an excuse to kill human enemies. I instead made them a collection of gangs and artisans and servants and all kinds of lower class people, all of them originally from Drakkenheim, so they are trying to take Drakkenheim back for the real people, not for some noble's sake like Lanterns. This also gave me the excuse to make them the faction who know who everyone is, who could call in favors from the townspeople (like the smith), some of their people were sewer workers so they had the sewer maps, etc.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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