Keep on the Shadowfell - Bringing the characters together?

[Melkor]

Hi folks,

I am about to start running Keep on the Shadowfell for my group, and I want to start them on the road to Winterhaven a bit before the module starts, to give them a chance to have their character's interact.

That said, I am trying to figure out a way to set up a background where all of the character's know each other, and have a reason for traveling together...possibly with most of them having been friends for a while (save maybe one, or two...who still have a reason for being there).

I'm not really fond of the suggestions given in the module for bringing the character's into the story, so I put it to you, good folks of ENWorld, to help me figure out a backstory.

Some important tidbits of info that might help:

• The players will probably be using 5 of the 6 pre-gens from Shadowfell, but I am not certain which ones as of now, so I might need a scenario where a Tiefling and/or Dragonborn are in the mix.
  
• I will be setting the campaign in the Nentir Vale area from the DMG, so any locale on that map that could tie into the character's meeting/growing up together would be great.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rechan]

My preferred method of getting people to have a reason is this:

Ask the PCs to 'write a novel' for their character. A novel consists of 3 sentences where the character had to do something in their background. Overcome a circumstance. (Basically, a 0 level adventure).

Then the player passes their novel to the person beside them. That person has to write a single sentence where their PC helped the first PC in some small fashion to accomplish their goal.

Then, pass it to the next person and repeat.

Here the intention is for the PCs to have previously met one another, on good terms, and have been aided by at least two people at the table. So it establishes some comradery.

Of course, the problem I ran into with this is players not following directions. Writing a page-long story, or doing a Scene instead of a summary. Or not writing a single sentence on the other guy's summary.

 

[vagabundo]

Definately get the players involved in their own back story, asjk them why they are on the road to winter haven and Rechan's idea is good. You need connections between the players.

This gets them involved with each others characters.

 

[fba827]

* They each received a message/dream/bird that told them to go to fallcrest and look for (some symbolic thing) and wait for further information. On the road, they realize they are all going to fallcrest for the exact same reason (or maybe the note told them to all go to harkenwold, from there they met and received their instructions to go to fallscrest, etc)
* maybe they each have a different relationship to a common npc. such as the wizard, one of them is an apprentice, one of them is a nephew, one of them was told by his own teacher to find him, etc.
* maybe they all already know each other from a mercenary guild, and they are just traveling through on the way from their last assignment (or their initiation assignment in to said guild -- or maybe going to fallscrest is part of their initiation assignment)
* if they all start with a magic item, maybe all their magic items are "themed" together (they all once were found in the treasure hoard of the mad dragon) and they have felt this calling to go there and meet the others
* ask the players what they think

(it's late but that's what i came up with off the top of my head.. not terribly original ideas i know, but it might spark a better idea from someone else).


edit: i said fallscrest but whatever the town is is what i meant to say

 

[segrada]

A couple of ideas that I've used, or seen used:

1) A crowded tavern on the roadside to Winterhaven at which the PCs independently stop for the evening; coincidentally, only one table of 4 (or 6 or whatever) chairs is available and they are forced to sit together if they desire a hot meal and a flagon of ale, or not at all. If some of the PCs are from the area and tavern regulars, it could be their table that has a few empty chairs for the newcomers when they arrive.

Optionally, after the PCs make their introductions you can have something crazy happen outside the tavern (zombie attack, bandits, kobold marauders, what have you) that engages them in combat to defend the tavern/innocents/etc. This serves two purposes - it starts the campaign with a flashy encounter, and perhaps makes them decide that it would be safer to finish the journey to Winterhaven traveling together.

2) Some of the PCs grew up in the same orphanage under the tutelage of a priest of SoAndSo, and were lifelong childhood friends. Non-orphan PCs could have grown up in the hamlet as well. Either they could be leaving to respond to the call of aid from Winterhaven, or their village could have been the first victim of kobold raiders and their beloved priest and father/mother figure was slain trying to defend the town. This raid could actually be a pretty interesting first encounter for the campaign; Irontooth could play a prominent role, showing up and being a jerk before laughing derisively and escaping. This helps you account for various races and backgrounds, and can leave you with potential fun "Your Long-Lost Real Parents Are Back And They're In Trouble" plot hooks later on.

 

[jbear]

Maybe Douven Staul is not their mentor, maybe he owes them all money for different reasons, and they all converged upon his dwellings in Fallcrest to ask him not so nicely to give it back.

Let them find the reasons he owes them money and figure out who is connected to who.

Maybe they are the brightest young students of two competing adventurer's guilds. Their final examiner, Douven Staul is a week late for the final examination. The pc's have grown impatient. Some even suspect it is part of the test. They know he was meant to making his way back from dragonhunting near Winterhaven.

Some of them are friends, others are competitors. But in the name of adventure, and determined to get their adventuring liscence they unite under one flag forging a previously unheard of bond between the two schools. Douven then sends then on their final exam into the Shadowkeep.

Have you checked out the LFR version of the story where the band of thugs bust into the Tavern where the adventurer's are drinking and start picking on a scrawny guy in the corner. They attempt to murder him. If the pc's save him he tells that he is the acolyte of the Priestess in Winterhaven. She is convinced there is a dark cult operating in Winterhaven and she has sent him to look for help to unmask them.

Bairwin is the cult's inside man and supplier, he has a dark temple beneath his store.

How I am running it has the Mayor being bribed/extorted by the cult to turn a blind eye. Ninaran has his dearest possession, a purebred racehorse, hidden at her cabin in the woods. (yes, he's a selfish twit who cares more about his horse than his townsfolk, although he uses the money he is given to try and repair the damage the cult causes)

I swapped out lots of hobgoblins for darkservants to make the keep more flavoursome and had an encounter with Bugbear slaver's from the next H-module at the footsteps of the keep. the pc's interrupt their dealings for the latest batch of slaves.

I also threw in a paladin from the order of the undead knight in the tower as an ally if the pcs succeeded in a skill test. He was there with intentions to clear the smear from his knightly orders honour. he died in the encounter with Irontooth however, and when the triumphant heroes brought his body back to Winterhaven the mayor's men took the body off their hands. Bairwin took it off the mayor's hands and when the pcs challenged Bairwin in his dark temple refusing to swear on the altar of Shar that they would stay out of Kalarel's affairs in exchange for a hefty sum he came back as an undead villain to fight against them. It was great!

As for more hooks into the story you can link to their past, maybe they could be from the order of the fallen knight, going there themselves to restore their knightly orders former glory. Douven Staul, their captain was under strict orders to return with information of the current state of the keep by a certain date. He's 3 days late, which is very unlike him. They have been sent to find out what has happened to him.
He gives them orders once rescued that they must take the mirror and delay kalarel's plans as much as possible. He returns to X place to warn the order of what is going on in the kept and to send reinforcements. He is not heard from again til the heroes return home after the adventure to discover the fate of the rest of their order...

I also have the PCs throw a ST vs fear at each short or extended rest. Those that fail roll a 1d100 which chooses some strange spooky effect that they see, smell or feel. The scaryness of the vision corresponds with th DC of the insight check they have to make. If they fail this too they lose a H-Surge and the next ST vs Fear has a cumulative penalty. If they succeed on 3 consecutive ST they are no longer affected. I did this to add to the maddening atmosphere inside the Keep.

Anyway bed time for me. I hope some of this maybe useful to spark off some of your own ideas.

 

[Rechan]

Off topic, but here is the hooks I used when I ran this adventure.
[sblock]Two PCs were linked to Douval. One was his adopted son, and one was an adventuring buddy from way back. Douval was supposed to have returned from his dig in Winterhaven a month ago to meet them, but never arrived. Finally the pair decided to go looking for him.

One PC was a feypact warlock. So I had his patron order him to rescue one of her powerful servants trapped in a room in the Keep.

Two other PCs were bodyguards escorting a noblewoman NPC from Fallcrest. She was a relative of Lord Padrag, and had sent her daughter to visit Padrag's daughter. The Noblewoman's daughter had went missing, and so she went to Winterhaven looking for her. When the Noblewoman discovered her daughter had joined a cult (Kalarel's), she asked the PCs to rescue her daughter.[/sblock]

 

[Skallgrim]

You may notice that some of the posters have shared games where different characters were connected in different ways. I personally like this a lot, as it feels more 'real' to me. Rather than having all the characters connected to the same quest in the same way, I think that is a lot more 'fun' to thread them into the plot into different ways.

When we started with Fallcrest, two of the characters were natives. One was a member of the Swiftwater clan of Halflings, and another was the son of the Naerumar merchants. A third was a travelling priest staying at the local temple. The fourth was a dwarf guard for the caravans which had just been robbed by Kobolds (we played the DMG introductory mini-adventure first). The last was a wandering ranger passing through town and eating at the inn.

The tiefling was aware of the local kobold brigands and the reward. He was aware of the Swiftwater halfling, and knew that, although not heroic, she would be interested in the possiblity of a reward and loot. She had met the dwarf (as the wagon caravan was bringing goods to Fallcrest for the Swiftwaters to transport by boat downstream), and knew that he was newly out of work, out of money, and looking for revenge on the kobolds. The priest and the ranger met in the tavern, and completely coincidentally, this was the place where the three others were meeting to scout out the bandit menace. Being a priest of Avandra, the priest viewed this coincidence as highly auspicious. The ranger, on the other hand, did not, but was secretly eager for personal contact after a long time alone in the wilds.

Thus, my group was brought together by a variety of goals and causes, each of which tied their own backstory to the plot. This also allowed for a character to have a plausible reason to leave the adventure, if the player wanted to switch out characters (especially since this was our first time with 4e). Having a common background and motivation for all of the characters can certainly work, but it requires, to me, more planning for each player during character creation, and gives you a little less flexibilty to add and drop characters during the game.