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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rstivers1989" data-source="post: 9563307" data-attributes="member: 7049572">IF YOU ARE MY PLAYERS DO NOT READ THIS, YOU WILL GET SPOILED!So I spent a ton of time researching a new non-WoTC campaign and ended up landing on WoTBS. I read quite a lot of posts in this forum before hosting the first session and I am making a few changes to the overall story. I'm going to note here what works well and what did not work well.Pre - Campaign:What Worked Well:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Required everyone to choose a Gate Pass Connection - this premise of requiring this resulted in some really entrenched backstories. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I made a deliberate effort as a DM to ground something in each of the character's backstories based on my understanding of the entire campaign, I co-wrote custom vignettes to make the characters in the story feel "lived in." A few samples here I wrote in collaboration with two PC's:</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Buffed Subclasses with Homebrew if individuals were interested (for example, Oath of Healing is quite weak mechanically, so I gave it the Peace Domain Cleric Channel Divinity in addition to its stated abilities). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The campaign guide/players guide/Scouring text is very ambiguous about the timeline of the Council's decisions, when City Guards are rounding up Mages, and why the City is fighting Ragesia if it's already "surrendered" to let the Inquisitors in, also why the Ragesian's are firebombing the city if they've already made it clear they will give over their mages. It felt too "cackling maniacally" evil and the settings grey/political nature seemed more interesting. I made an executive decision that the Council voted prior to the attack to surrender and that the Resistance and City Guard were largely acting against the council's orders. Effectively implying a civil war within a war. This to me better aligned with the ultimate outcomes for Gate Pass. </li> </ul>Our PartyMagnus [ATTACH=full]394006[/ATTACH]A 52 year old Human Oath of Healing Paladin and a Councilman of Gate Pass, Magnus resigned his station as Councilman a day before the invasion based on the Council's decision to give up the Cities mages to Ragesia and is joining the resistance. Magnus is also notably a victim of the first invasion of Ragesia when he was a child (10ish)Vaelira, The Radiant Blade - [ATTACH=full]394007[/ATTACH]A Aasimir Fighter and Traveling Troubadour, Vaelira is a "entertainer" first and foremost and just happened to find herself in Gate Pass, completely unaware of the situation, upon seeing the circumstances of the common folk, Vaelira offered her blade to the resistance.Journey - [ATTACH=full]394008[/ATTACH]A Tiefling Trickster Cleric of Tymora, Journey has been given a divine mandate from Tymora to help the resistance. Journey hails from Ostalin and unlike the rest of her tiefling people is a fierce opponent of the Khagan. Journey has a close personal relationship (borderline Romantic) with one of the Khagan's half-brothers and is actively interested in helping this half-brother overthrow the Khagan. I will likely make some shifts to key NPCs in the Monastery of Two Winds scenario to make this conflict front and center as that appears to be the universally agreed weakest segment.Luther[ATTACH=full]394009[/ATTACH]Luther is a Dwarf Mastermind Rogue, 352 years old, Luther is a local folk hero in Gate Pass and was a key resistance fighter in the first war. He is actively still a member of the resistance and is a senior member (Torrent Fangirls over him in their first encounter). The only reason he is on this mission is because it is the first mission of Magnus (above) who happens to be his adoptive son. Up until recently, Magnus has believed that politics is the way to protect the city - but Luther's wisdom and experience has finally won out and Magnus is now in on the action.Fenwick[ATTACH=full]394010[/ATTACH]A Gnome Warlock and Head Librarian at the Gate Pass Library. Fenwick lived a very normal and humble life until about a year ago when Fenwicks dear friend Corwin allegedly died in Ragos. When Corwin "died" Fenwick was Endowed by him. Corwin is now actively Fenwick's Warlock Patron, is a Trillith, and will be a storytelling resource through the end of the campaign. The player has no idea that Corwin is a Trillith. Breadcrumbs will start to be dropped at the end of Act 1 when Corwin specifically instructs Fenwick to assist Crystin. Corwin instructed Fenwick to join the Resistance to help him "get revenge" on the Ragosian's who killed him.Session 1 SynopsisOur party of would-be (and actual) resistance fighters met outside the Poison Apple Pub, there they met a resistance member called Torrent, a dark-skinned woman with white hair who appeared to be a cleric of some type.Torrent informed the party that they had an essential mission - secure a case from Rivereye Badgerface and get the case to the city of Seaquen where the Lyceum school of magic is.The resistance believe this is a priority because Lyceum and Seaquen are near Dassen and Dassen is one of the few independent nations on the Continent. The commitment of the Lyceum school to aid Gate Pass is a potential significant political and military ally in the efforts to secure Gate Pass from Ragesian agression.To simplify torrents ask is -> Get Case -> Go to Seaquen -> Deliver Case -> Enlist Aid -> Return to Gate Pass.Torrent informed the party that they are likely to run in to a few issues in this process.1) The city has closed the gates, so traditional exits are limited. Once the time to depart the city arrives, Magnus and Luther have some ideas about how they can exit, including: seeking out Councilmen Erdan Menash,  Guard Captain Herreman (Friend of Menash as well), or Rantle (alleged thieves guild connection)2) Even once you exit the city there will be some challenges as the road path to Dassen will be inaccessible due to the armies presence. Torrent however has assured you that she has a plan for this and that really what she needs help with is getting you out of the city.Unfortunately, the ease of this mission was immediately compromised as the party was ambushed by Mercenaries wearing armbands with a Black Horse armbands with some writing in Ignan. The party fled after killing one or two of the thugs and were not pursued. The party discovered in combat that the Mercenaries were seeking to capture mages for Ransom. The Mercenaries were led by a Ragesian who appears of noble origin but was uninterested in pursuing the party.The party headed toward the Depository and assisted a series of citizens including healing a burned family, saving a woman from a burning building, and rescuing a giant Weasel (to Torrents displeasure). Arriving at the Depository, the party met Rivereye - who the party (#Luther) quickly clocked actually wasn't Rivereye, but was an Elf spy called Larion Prevarierth. A prolonged chase occurred which ended with Larion jumping off the tower roof and floating to safety. Thanks in large part to having an Aasimir in the Party and a Command: Halt spell, the party was able to convince the Lantern Archon (Celestial) to stay and chat with them for a bit - during this conversation the party learned that Rivereye was incapacitated by several elves. Rivereye told the elves that Peppin was needed to "unlock" the case which was why Larion and the Lantern Archon had stayed behind. Rivereye also recounted a woman in Red Robes being present. Originally thinking that Shaelis was an inquisitor, the party was able to cleverly ask the Lantern Archon information which resulted in them discovering that the woman's name was Shaelis and that the Lantern Archon served her as well as the fact that Shaelis was a current student at Gabal's School of Magical Warfare - though the lantern did confirm that they were not sure where the case was (whether it was with Shaelis, or the other agents who were present but not Larion). Our session ended here.First Session Reflections:What Worked Well:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I created a lot of urgency with the first session, I constantly reminded the party that "time" would factor in to branching (which it does, but I made it more so). I really wanted them to feel the frantic chaos of a city under siege. For example, when we got to the woman in the Burning Building, I set a timer for 60 seconds and said they needed to give me a solid action plan before the timer or she was dead. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I spent a lot of time prepping the Tavern Explosion with sound effects and player prep. I gave the PC's Luther and Magnus notes that the sound was triggering for them (from a PTSD perspective) given they had been exposed to this type of attack in the last war. Players really loved the gritty realism of the first session. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players (particularly Magnus, Luther, and Fenwick) spent a lot of time getting "attached" to Gate Pass even before the first session. The firebombing of the city caught them out of left field both IG and OOG and it made for spectacular RP. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The "Civil War" + Resistance nature of the situation I had set-up made the players much more distrustful of NPCs. They were absolutely convinced that Larion and Shaelis was a Ragesian spy until they spoke with the Lantern. They also absolutely believed that the Depository guards must be on the Payroll of the Ragesian's if they were not abandoning their posts due to the Firebombing.</li> </ul>What Did Not Work Well:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Depository with Larion is pretty unfair to PCs unless they have multiple rogues. Essentially, due to the map design and Line of Sight on the stairs, it was just four rounds of the PC's chasing Larion and never being able to catch up due to 3 Dashes or Disengage-Dash-Dash as a Rogue. If I could do this scene over again, I would have narrated the escape or I would have deliberately made sure the PCs could capture Larion. I'd highly recommend that other DM's running this either handwave Larion away or be captured to keep the plot moving. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This campaign seems obsessed with MacGuffin NPC's, which is really surprising given the overall quality of the plot and story. Torrent staying with the PCs and then eventually Crystin and Haddin joining for the first scenario is just a bridge too far for me. After the first combat I told the Party that Torrent is not present mechanically for combat. I plan to effectively write her out of the story next session by having her go to the Safehouse with Rivereye and I intend to ditch her at the first possible opportunity. I'm trying to do as much reading as possible to find out what I will need to change if I just remove all these NPC anchors. I'd rather give them a sending stone walkie talkie between that NPC and them then have a 24/7 MacGuffin walking with them. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Unless the party loots a locker in the depository or kills all the thugs (which they didn't) the party gets no loot despite multiple combats, and given that it is milestone leveling there is no tangible reward for the "Gamer" type players. Thankfully my table is light on that, but I could see a world where the party avoids combat or flees from combats until essentially the Gauntlet (likely session 3/4) which is a long time to go with zero loot. It also doesn't make a ton of sense because the Councilman is supposed to be a merchant. Even if Shaelis successfully flees, I will probably leave the party a stash of gold and some items in the School saying she left it behind. </li> </ul></blockquote>

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