Eberron, Sharn inquisitive campaign – session zero 5e

[enbee75]

Eberron, Sharn inquisitive campaign – session zero 5e

Wondered if I could get a bit of advice from someone who’s played the setting/done political intrigue kind of games before. My players have all expressed a desire to be in this kind of campaign - I figured Sharn would be the perfect place for this.

They also picked characters in that session and they’re quite a mismatched bunch. I’m not super knowledgeable about the setting yet (our first session will be in a month’s time) and I’m still to figure a campaign. The characters they’ve come up with are:
a Half-elf or Tiefling sorcerer, a Dwarven Bard, a Forest Gnome Druid (with a criminal spy background), a Changeling Warlock, and a Human or Warforged Artificer

The plan was to figure their characters which I can then use to write a campaign, but this approach may have backfired a little and I'm wishing I'd done a little more work before session zero to really flesh out what the campaign goals are. We mentioned possibly starting out as members of the city watch in Sharn, maybe having fought together in the last war, but I fail to see how such a bunch would have reasons to be together! In your opinion, is this a particular problem or are there ways to make this work? They're also all spellcasters, which may also be a problem. I also imagined an urban campaign would need rogues!

I’d like to not just tell them ‘no you can’t have that character’ if possible, but I realise that having a cohesive party is pretty important. Any help or advice would be most appreciated!

Tl:dr – players chose weird PCs for urban intrigue campaign – do I tell them to change them?

 

[amerigoV]

No advice on how to do it - but you might look at Stormreach on Xen'Drik. While it may not make much sense, Stormreach has representation from everyone (countries, houses) vs. it being mostly a Breland colony. You can have any plot there just because everyone is represented. Its like a "Little Khorvaire"

But Sharn is cool Or I should say dark and stormy when something is afoot.

 

[jimmifett]

Keep in mind that Sharn is in the nation of Breland, and they could all have been in the Brelish army during the war. Think Band of Brothers. They could be members of the Lanterns, an intelligence unit of Breland. An intelligence officer, the leader, and the specialists. After fighting in the war, they work together well and know each other well.

They could be tasked with A-team-esque missions in sharn for the Crown. Diplomat's aides or functionaries have slowly started disappearing. They get tasked in getting to the bottom before an international incident occurs. The culprit, a Mimic Tower (see 4e monsters of Nentir Vale) from Xoriat that has been hidden in Sharn for over a century, slowly replacing an existing structure. It's semi-independent mimic butler has replaced a functionary himself over the years, and chooses easy to miss prey for the tower to selectively digest. The tower is not greedy and selective meals have kept it hidden. Even if the players do discover the cause, the tower itself has allowed many connecting bridges and other structures to be attached, of which killing the tower would cause a major collapse in Sharn.

Lots of misdirection of the true nature of the disappearances, throw in other side quests and red herrings revolving around the other political groups, mix in a heist elsewhere, and you have yourself a fun campaign.

 

[enbee75]

Ah awesome, thank for the reply. Sounds like a great idea I'll have to do some more research in to. I'm a pretty new dm, so maybe I'm getting too hung up on having the tank/dps/healer in the party, with characters specifically build for urban investigation/intrigue. Would you say Sharn as a setting would make sense to have a party such as these ending up together, even if not as part of the lanterns? My initial thoguht was to have them working for the city watch, maybe having known each other through fighting together in the war. Would having a druid in the party in Sharn be a little unlikely, seeing as they're generally nature lovers and all...

 

[enbee75]

I'll definitely have a look into Stormreach, thanks

 

[jimmifett]

Sharn is a very large city that is very diverse. You can find bug bears working the docks, swift goblin messengers, all kinds of races in the slums near the city walls, such as tieflings and even a medusa or two with visor to block her sight. Under sharn is a nest of caverns and forges, deeper you go, closer to magma. full of old goblin empire ruins. Lots of farmland around sharn, and a druid could perhaps be tracking poachers to the docks or upper levels trying to sell exotic pilfered creatures.

Maybe not start out with the city watch, but do a job and get noticed and recruited by the watch.

Check out Sharn: City of Towers from 3rd edition.

For inspiration, watch The Shadow, or picture Indiana Jones in an urban setting. Or think like a fantasy version of Coruscant in Star Wars Ep II when they are chasing the shape shifter.

 

[enbee75]

Thinking of having the PCs play through a war flashback (like the adventure at the back of 4e campaign setting), then to get them to develop stories individuallyu of what they've been doing in the 2 years since and how they've ended up in Sharn (whether it might be working for the crown, selling exotic animals, working as a spy or for the city watch). Would you say I would need to restrict this somewhat? Ask them to say not only how they ended up in Sharn in this random tavern where they happen to see their old war buddy etc.., but something more specific, such as how they ended up working as a team in an 'elite' kind of unit for the city watch?

They're all very keen to develop their stories, but at the moment they don't have much in common with each other, and their stories don't interweave much as yet. Are there ways I could encourage more inter PC relations, or would you say it's pretty unnecessary?

 

[enbee75]

Not heard of The Shadow, but looks great - definitely checking it out

 

[Storminator]

There are so many great game opportunities in Sharn. Classically Eberron is for pulp games or noir games (tho you can do anything in it). Do you have a leaning one way or the other? I find noir is a little harder to maintain in a D&D game, just because it can get a bit over the top, and stray from that dark, hard edge that noir wants.

In your place I would do a Cyran refugee detective agency. Just being Cyran and having their nation destroyed is reason enough for any group of PCs to get together and stick together, and detective agency gives you endless hooks. It also satisfies the Inquisitives from the thread title. The agency could end up investigating all sorts of things that tie back to the Last War, and everyone's back story.

You should definitely get the Sharn book. It has a great breakdown of the different neighborhoods and groups in the city. The little boxed text blurb for each neighborhood is awesome, and if you can find a copy with the sound track it's pretty good for what it is.

I have a few Sharn-based resources I'll see if I can here when I get a minute.

PS

 

[enbee75]

My players have said they're up for something a bit dark, though we'll see how it plays out. That's what I'm going to shoot for anyway! I'm doing exactly what you suggest, and players are all cool with it, so thank you. I'll definitely check out the Sharn book. Just one more thing - I may get to this simply by doing some more reading, but I know one of my players wants to have spy as a background, do you have any suggestions for how this could manifest? Maybe some ulterior motive for being in Sharn?

Thanks for the offer of the resources. If you can spare them, would be much appreciated (and most likely save a relatively new DM a ton of time!).