Rusty DM would appreciate input

[Henry]

Jeff, i lvoe the plot, but I have a strong suggestion:

You have a lot of places in your story where you say, "I'm guessing the PC's will do this," or "Assuming the PC's do this, then THIS happens."

Read it back over, and at every juncture, ask yourself this: What happens if the PC's DON'T do "X"? In my experience, no group of players does what you expect, which means you must prepare for each eventuality.

In my most recent session, I had planned several events that could happen in the area they recently traveled to. I had fortunately planned enough, and they took one of my several leads. However, they made a decision in that session that would take them out of the area they were in. They took great pains to travel there to explore something, they explored it for an hour or two, scratched their heads, said, "oh, well," and DECIDED TO MOVE NORTH!

So what do I do? For my next session, I plan some NEW encounters for their trip and destination, and then I shelve my carefully constructed scenarios, and will recycle them later.

So my advice is not to plan more than a couple sessions ahead, because your PC's can and will take tactics to alter things greatly.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Re: Re: Rusty DM would appreciate input

Since other have given very good advice on the story line, I am going to comment on your party mix.

For a group of 7 to have only one arcane and one divine caster means they will have a tough choice on character types. Unless you mean only one cleric and one wizard/sorcerer with this statement.

Arcane casters include not only the traditional wizard and the new sorcerer variant but also bards. A bard while being extremely useful for your purpose (bardic knowledge little back ground hints), also can support your cleric. In a party this large and because of the higher average hit points at most levels you will probably need more healing then a single cleric can give.

For your divine casters: A druid or ranger both have outdoor skills the are important for this type of out door adventure. The druid also has a limited amount of healing to support the cleric on as need bases. While a paladin might be hard to justify, and complicate the game plot. They provide a excellent source of extra healing and give you source of control/hints for the players.

Thanks, I was not clear enough in my original description. I should have said one pue divine spellcaster (cleric) and one pure arcane spellcaster (wizard or sorcerer). Since it will be low level, a ranger will not be casting spells yet, and we usually have guys falling over themselves to play rangers, unlike most groups it seems. And, while bards and paladins also cast spells, I don't consider them to be pure spellcasters.

I know the group pretty well - my guess is that nobody will take druid or cleric, and one guy will choose between bard or monk;another guy may go for wizard or sorcerer and the remaining 4 or 5 guys will be a mix of fighters, rangers & rogues. Possibly one barbarian or one paladin. I'd love a paladin in the group.. it would be a good roleplaying opportunity if the paladin found out the Duke he is following is really evil.

 

[NewJeffCT]

does anyone else see a little of the 1ed Dragonlance modules when they read this? the war railroading i mean.


as a short campaign. let the players know up front it is a short campaign.

otherwise they will dog everything to try and flesh out their characters. which is at least a session unto itself.

Well, the guys will know it is a short-term “campaign” when the usual DM is not in the chair. They know I would be doing this for only a few sessions.

That is part of the reason there may be a bit of railroading.

If the PCs turn down the offer from the representative of the Duke, they will have to suffer the consequences – meaning that their home town may suffer from increased humanoid attacks when the orcs and goblins realize that the Dodera borders in this region are much less heavily guarded than the Tharggian border. The goblins that the Duke’s rep has bribed will know this just from meeting with him… but, they are more interested in the money right now. But, if the rep gets frustrated and decides on another angle, those goblins are cut off from their money supply and, in anger, will turn their spewings towards Dodera instead of Tharggy.

The PCs could be long gone across the world if they want, fighting pirates 1,000 miles away. If it comes to that… but, if they decide to come back into their hometown, they will have found that it has been destroyed after the orcs overran it. If Joe Schmoe had decided to leave Hiroshima for a sudden vacation the day before the A-Bomb got dropped, the bomb still would have fallen.

The PCs could also decide to turn the evil dwarves in to the rep of the Duke. In that case, the Duke’s plan moves forward and the orc army marches as well....only towards Tharggy.