Help my campaign [Dragon Mountain]

[GoldenEagle]

I have been a player for over 20 years and now I am making my first forray into a major campaign. I played in a Dragon Mountain campaign when it first came out and now I am adapting it to a high level 3E game (not a straight conversion).

I am looking for any advice you might have about a couple of things

1. Starting a new campaign world at a high level

2. Any advice you have about this particular module (cool things you/ your dm did)

Thanks

GE

 

[rpgHQ]

I find introducing high level characters to a new campaign isnt a very good thing to do. You tend to need to flesh the thing out in great detail ahead of time sot here is good continuity for the players.

Starting a new campaign is always best with a low-level group as you can flesh the setting out bit by bit and only deal with things that the group can handle getting into. High Level Campaigns the player groups tend to go all over the place. Unless you plan on keeping a hard rein on the group and dictating exactly where they can and cant go your going to have a rough go of it unless you are able to flesh it all out ahead of time.

Anyhow just my two cents worth. Creating a campaign and first using a player group with low level chars gives you plenty of room to develope things on the side as you progress. The players actions or certain things you use in an adventure might give you ideas for higher level play down the road in the same are that the current low level play is in or maybe somewhere nearby. NPC's you intro might come from areas the players have not been to yet and you can develope those areas for later high level play while the group continues on with its normal adventuring. I just think thats all the harder to do if the player group is already high level. Once you have established your campaign and ran a player group or two from low-level up to mid-level or higher then its easier to actually start new player groups in it at high-level.

Anybody else have thoughts on this?

 

[BOZ]

look out for the kobolds.

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, I've never read or played too much of DM so I can't offer much in the way of specifics.

I do recall kobolds being outrageously annoying, deadly and frustrating via tactics, tricks and traps, however. I recommend inserting a few higher-level kobolds here and there amongst the hordes, and using their sorcerers to include lots of magical traps.

As for starting a high-level party off- I also have found that most campaigns that start with low-level characters tend to both last longer and build more memorable characters, just because the lower levels seem so much harder to get through. One alternative I tried while teaching some friends 3e was to run a single session with them at 1st level, another with them at around 3rd, another around 6th, etc- just to give them the sense of playing somewhat 'developed' characters at higher levels.

Also, when building high-level pcs from scratch, I recommend the dm give out about 20-50% of their wealth in usable magic items and let them choose the rest- after all, no pc gets to choose all their items if they've been played from 1st level on up!

Good luck!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I've played Dragon Mountain (we lost ) so I reckon I can offer some decent advice here...

1) Re: high level characters. Don't let them have the full wealth available for players of their level, or at the least, pick some of their items for them. Players that can choose that level of money often end up with overpowered, maxed out characters, simply because it makes sense! So be careful.

2) Maybe run them through a preliminary adventure so they can get the hang of their tactics before venturing on to the meat of the campaign. Nothing worse than seeing 2 hours of character generation go down the pan.

3) Re: DM itself. I didn't like the preliminary stuff, all the finding of the Amulet. I would suggest doing something else to get it into their hands, or failing that losing it entirely. Although the hordes-of-kobolds-attacking-a-small-village section sounds like fun.

4) Inside the mountain: DO NOT let the characters rest unless they find a very secure area. DM should be a nightmare for them. Hassle them with kobolds in the night. Stop the spellcasters from resting. Have them giggling in the walls ALL THE TIME. Your players will hate you, but they'll remember the session.

5) Your worst nightmare is if the players realise that the kobolds are nothing but a distraction and simply run through and on to the Dragon. Keep them occupied. Make them hate the kobolds, and want to kill them. That way the Dragon has plenty of time to learn about them and ready itself. Bwahahahahaha!

6) Don't be afraid to pull kobold tactics. Overbearing, mass grappling, hit and run into tiny tunnels, the works. Make them annoying.

7) As mentioned, depending on what level the characters are, make sure some kobolds are higher level to give the party a 1 on 1 threat.

8) Mass spellcasting. 30 kobold adepts casting silence and hold person is more of a nightmare than you can possibly imagine.

9) Make the dragon sneaky. We had a kobold polymorphed into a dragon first. I blew it away with a lightning bolt, thus blowing our cover entirely...

10) Enjoy it! It's a great module!

 

[GoldenEagle]

Tallarn

WOW...thanks. that was really helpful from everyone.

Please keep the advice coming.

GE

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I played in a campaign that got from first level to Dragon Mountain. We played very rarely, but for whole weekends at a time. I loved every minute of it.

Dragon Mountain was the personal quest of several of the characters, and when we died in the battle vs. the dragon, it was the best session of gaming ever.

 

[Mark]

Level two, Purple section, room 12, 10 kobolds...

Please, name one Kram, have him tied up in the corner as a traitor/prisoner, and give him five levels of Bard. If the party ever frees him (or gets even near him), drop me an Email and I'll jot down some verses you can use to roleplay him.

Any specific questions about areas, places, conversion needs? Add them to this thread and I'll/we'll see if I/we can help with them.

 

[GoldenEagle]

Level two, Purple section, room 12, 10 kobolds...

Please, name one Kram, have him tied up in the corner as a traitor/prisoner, and give him five levels of Bard. If the party ever frees him (or gets even near him), drop me an Email and I'll jot down some verses you can use to roleplay him.

Any specific questions about areas, places, conversion needs? Add them to this thread and I'll/we'll see if I/we can help with them.

I'd love to see the verse if you have it. I am not any master of conversion, in fact I'm not using any specific guidelines, I am just going by what feels right to challenge the party that our group has assembled.

I admit, I am a bit concerned about starting at high levels as many people have mentioned, but our group has gamed together for 3 years and we have a combined 100+ years of experience. It should be interesting!

I am interested to know how other DMs have handled (or would handle) the mass combat in town before going up the mountain. It says to put 10-15 kobolds per town defender including npc commoners which would put the total at over 900 kobolds

 

[Mark]

Oh, I'd have to write the verse, but that's not that big of a deal to do.

There was a short thread not that long ago on kobolds attacking a town that might be of some use to you-

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51382