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Seravin's Tales of the Night Below (Two Updates this Week - 07/24/07)
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<blockquote data-quote="Seravin" data-source="post: 2814160" data-attributes="member: 6783"><p>A few random thoughts...</p><p></p><p>This was spurred from the earlier conversation with the players. I decided to advance the take-over schedule just a bit. As the next post will show it was perhaps a little fast - but it forced the players to make some choices. Their choice wasn't what I expected but it turned out okay.</p><p></p><p>The in-game reason was pretty easy to come up with. The arrest of Col. Megara would have some obvious repercussions - and though the players didn't know it quite yet, Capt. Ladea had also been arrested. It was a short step to have the highest ranking (and level) priestess to investigate - with some obvious consequences. She was next on the list anyway - it just happened faster.</p><p></p><p>One of the big things I pulled from the Speaker in Dreams was the alliance between the illithid, the devils, and the the thieves guild. The illithid connection was just too good to pass up. Additionally two of the players had gone through that module and I had a reference for Night Below in the captured notes. The module itself was silent on why the illithid and devils were working together, but given my changes that probably didn't matter much.</p><p></p><p>As it is, the reasoning of why and how the illithid were working with the Treshans was never found out by the players. Not that it really mattered. The player's thinking at this point was that illithid = bad and "dead illithid" = good, and that illithid allies deserved the same treatment.</p><p></p><p>The one thing I didn't do very well was giving the players feedback on when their actions were having a positive effect. All the ever saw was the bad guys either hiding or getting agressive - and no reasoning behind it. I was thinking the players might try their hand at infiltration so they would get that information, but we changed tracks before they got enough data to act on.</p><p></p><p>If there's ever a similar situation I'll try and make sure that they have some cowardly contact who can let them know when the bad guys are getting nervous.</p><p></p><p>Part of this ties back to my weakness in dm'ing characters of these levels and part of it was the player's own unfamiliarity of their new levels. This was pretty new territory for all of us, and the terrain was completely different from the underdark. I was trying to be conscious of letting the players use their abilities - was trying to force them to use their abilities in some cases. Despite all of this I had fun running this arc, and I think the players had fun too.</p><p></p><p>The only other thing I'm a little disappointed about is the illithid charm monster abilities. This is another case of hand waving - or at least the illithid running a massive bluff on all their charmed victims. As written the illithid are really only capable of making everyone treat them as trust allies - friendly or helpful on the chart, but not 'masters'. For example the Duke in this case would have treated them as good friends and treated them as near equals, dismissing his grand rank while with them (and I can just see how an illithid would deal with that).</p><p></p><p>My view of illithid is that their charm power is somewhat stronger - making the victim subservient as well as trusting; so that's how I ran it. PC's, being made of sterner stuff, wouldn't necessarily be as subservient at first.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Seravin, post: 2814160, member: 6783"] A few random thoughts... This was spurred from the earlier conversation with the players. I decided to advance the take-over schedule just a bit. As the next post will show it was perhaps a little fast - but it forced the players to make some choices. Their choice wasn't what I expected but it turned out okay. The in-game reason was pretty easy to come up with. The arrest of Col. Megara would have some obvious repercussions - and though the players didn't know it quite yet, Capt. Ladea had also been arrested. It was a short step to have the highest ranking (and level) priestess to investigate - with some obvious consequences. She was next on the list anyway - it just happened faster. One of the big things I pulled from the Speaker in Dreams was the alliance between the illithid, the devils, and the the thieves guild. The illithid connection was just too good to pass up. Additionally two of the players had gone through that module and I had a reference for Night Below in the captured notes. The module itself was silent on why the illithid and devils were working together, but given my changes that probably didn't matter much. As it is, the reasoning of why and how the illithid were working with the Treshans was never found out by the players. Not that it really mattered. The player's thinking at this point was that illithid = bad and "dead illithid" = good, and that illithid allies deserved the same treatment. The one thing I didn't do very well was giving the players feedback on when their actions were having a positive effect. All the ever saw was the bad guys either hiding or getting agressive - and no reasoning behind it. I was thinking the players might try their hand at infiltration so they would get that information, but we changed tracks before they got enough data to act on. If there's ever a similar situation I'll try and make sure that they have some cowardly contact who can let them know when the bad guys are getting nervous. Part of this ties back to my weakness in dm'ing characters of these levels and part of it was the player's own unfamiliarity of their new levels. This was pretty new territory for all of us, and the terrain was completely different from the underdark. I was trying to be conscious of letting the players use their abilities - was trying to force them to use their abilities in some cases. Despite all of this I had fun running this arc, and I think the players had fun too. The only other thing I'm a little disappointed about is the illithid charm monster abilities. This is another case of hand waving - or at least the illithid running a massive bluff on all their charmed victims. As written the illithid are really only capable of making everyone treat them as trust allies - friendly or helpful on the chart, but not 'masters'. For example the Duke in this case would have treated them as good friends and treated them as near equals, dismissing his grand rank while with them (and I can just see how an illithid would deal with that). My view of illithid is that their charm power is somewhat stronger - making the victim subservient as well as trusting; so that's how I ran it. PC's, being made of sterner stuff, wouldn't necessarily be as subservient at first. [/QUOTE]
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Seravin's Tales of the Night Below (Two Updates this Week - 07/24/07)
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