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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7526717" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION], you're welcome! I'm glad I finally got around to it. So far no one has chided me for posting in a three-year necro, so I guess I made it in on time. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>The betrayal by the jolly priest wasn't so much contentious as it was both surprising and disappointing for the player. This was a solo game, but I was running the adventure as-written, so he was encouraged, both by me as DM and by some of the NPCs he met, to surround himself with a party of NPCs. In hindsight, I think this was a little unfair. I played the priest as close to Gygax's description as I could, presenting him as a warrior against evil in all of its forms. The one red flag that seemed to give the player pause in accepting the priest into the party was that he didn't want any share of the treasure, claiming that thwarting evil was his only goal, whereas the hill dwarf fighter insisted on a full share and the mercenaries' fees weren't exactly cheap. The player ignored these misgivings, however, and not wanting to tip my hand, I didn't play up this detail as much as I now think I should have. Following Gygax's advice, I waited for a critical moment to spring the trap. With the party deep in the hobgoblins' lair, facing their warlord, there was no chance of victory once the priest and his acolytes switched sides, which made sense to me as to why the priest would choose that moment to strike. I rationalized the fact that the priest had helped to kill hobgoblin soldiers up until that point by making up some backstory to the effect that the hobgoblin warlord had rejected entering into an alliance with the priest in the past and that the priest meant to both weaken the warlord as punishment and offer the captives as an enticement to reconsider his offer. Another piece of backstory in my game is that the jolly priest, while associated with the cultists in the temple of evil chaos, is secretly attempting to set up his own locus of power within the caves in order to overthrow his master, and has made a pact with a pit fiend to this end as well. In any case, I think the player was right in feeling that a situation that seemed winnable to suddenly be revealed as unwinnable due to formerly hidden information was unfair game-play. </p><p></p><p>It has been a long time, but I think the attack on the kobolds was made in an attempt to raise the ransom funds to make good on the bargain with the hobgoblins, but when it didn't prove to be as easy as first thought, other tactics were resorted to including hostage-taking and negotiation. Unfortunately, CHA is this character's lowest score. Finally, the rogue decided to resort to his class's strength by using stealth instead of the frontal assaults that had been tried so far, which proved to be much more successful, so I think that was actually a good moment in the development of the character.</p><p></p><p>As far as weather, I was using the weather generation tables from the Greyhawk boxed set. I had decided to set the campaign in Greyhawk and liked the idea of there being weather tables particular to the setting. Having used them, they're a little cumbersome but do a good job of producing the sort of naturalistic result I was after.</p><p></p><p>I thought it was interesting that you also decided to use the Keep in a Greyhawk campaign. My plans for this campaign were to eventually work in as many of the classic Greyhawk modules as I could, but since KotB is an old favorite and also written by Gygax, that was my starting point. Really, it's a module that pretty much provides its own setting. I think if we ever do continue this campaign, I could see many levels of play revolving around the Keep's immediate area.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 7526717, member: 6787503"] [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION], you're welcome! I'm glad I finally got around to it. So far no one has chided me for posting in a three-year necro, so I guess I made it in on time. :) The betrayal by the jolly priest wasn't so much contentious as it was both surprising and disappointing for the player. This was a solo game, but I was running the adventure as-written, so he was encouraged, both by me as DM and by some of the NPCs he met, to surround himself with a party of NPCs. In hindsight, I think this was a little unfair. I played the priest as close to Gygax's description as I could, presenting him as a warrior against evil in all of its forms. The one red flag that seemed to give the player pause in accepting the priest into the party was that he didn't want any share of the treasure, claiming that thwarting evil was his only goal, whereas the hill dwarf fighter insisted on a full share and the mercenaries' fees weren't exactly cheap. The player ignored these misgivings, however, and not wanting to tip my hand, I didn't play up this detail as much as I now think I should have. Following Gygax's advice, I waited for a critical moment to spring the trap. With the party deep in the hobgoblins' lair, facing their warlord, there was no chance of victory once the priest and his acolytes switched sides, which made sense to me as to why the priest would choose that moment to strike. I rationalized the fact that the priest had helped to kill hobgoblin soldiers up until that point by making up some backstory to the effect that the hobgoblin warlord had rejected entering into an alliance with the priest in the past and that the priest meant to both weaken the warlord as punishment and offer the captives as an enticement to reconsider his offer. Another piece of backstory in my game is that the jolly priest, while associated with the cultists in the temple of evil chaos, is secretly attempting to set up his own locus of power within the caves in order to overthrow his master, and has made a pact with a pit fiend to this end as well. In any case, I think the player was right in feeling that a situation that seemed winnable to suddenly be revealed as unwinnable due to formerly hidden information was unfair game-play. It has been a long time, but I think the attack on the kobolds was made in an attempt to raise the ransom funds to make good on the bargain with the hobgoblins, but when it didn't prove to be as easy as first thought, other tactics were resorted to including hostage-taking and negotiation. Unfortunately, CHA is this character's lowest score. Finally, the rogue decided to resort to his class's strength by using stealth instead of the frontal assaults that had been tried so far, which proved to be much more successful, so I think that was actually a good moment in the development of the character. As far as weather, I was using the weather generation tables from the Greyhawk boxed set. I had decided to set the campaign in Greyhawk and liked the idea of there being weather tables particular to the setting. Having used them, they're a little cumbersome but do a good job of producing the sort of naturalistic result I was after. I thought it was interesting that you also decided to use the Keep in a Greyhawk campaign. My plans for this campaign were to eventually work in as many of the classic Greyhawk modules as I could, but since KotB is an old favorite and also written by Gygax, that was my starting point. Really, it's a module that pretty much provides its own setting. I think if we ever do continue this campaign, I could see many levels of play revolving around the Keep's immediate area. [/QUOTE]
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