More great stuff! I think the whole thing with the multi-sided fight and the various story parts embedded in it is pretty excellent. 4e combat CAN get fairly sloggy if it is approached like "4 orcs in a room." I think you won't run into that problem. I mean, with more than 5 PCs I would say it is a pretty good success to just have things move fast enough to make it fun.
Since the party will be leaving the Living Dungeon in tonight's session and heading into the wider setting in pursuit of their various Quests and plotlines, any advice on handling Story Now narrativist gameplay and staying creative on my toes? Feeling nervous but excited.
Since the party is strongly oriented around the concept of "fight the power", I would probably frame an external antagonist outside of the dungeon-scape to make sure the players are aware the "power" has some teeth.
With 6 characters, I'd probably look at the various themes and see if there's a way to frame challenge in a way that hooks 2-3 PCs at once. Maybe Kellen's family is tied to the Cinderfell Conglomerate, for example.
Ibz's theme seems both important AND the least obviously connected to everyone else, I would consider framing something dragon-related relatively early. (Maybe a ritualistic necromancer cult turning a dragon into a dracolich over a livestream?)
Blows off dust. It's been a while! Like many gaming groups, we usually end up taking a bit of a hiatus around the holiday season, which was a little longer this year thanks to life events aplenty. However, we finally finished up session 3 last night and I'm here with another session report.
Since the party is strongly oriented around the concept of "fight the power", I would probably frame an external antagonist outside of the dungeon-scape to make sure the players are aware the "power" has some teeth.
With 6 characters, I'd probably look at the various themes and see if there's a way to frame challenge in a way that hooks 2-3 PCs at once. Maybe Kellen's family is tied to the Cinderfell Conglomerate, for example.
Ibz's theme seems both important AND the least obviously connected to everyone else, I would consider framing something dragon-related relatively early. (Maybe a ritualistic necromancer cult turning a dragon into a dracolich over a livestream?)
Great ideas, all! We actually got to execute on this a little bit during play, but it really helped to have somebody else frame this in a way that let me ruminate on it for a while. Thank you very much @TwoSix!
Session 03
The session begins with the continuation of last session's cliffhanger: a big ol' boss battle against the dungeon's Core Guardian, Orthos the Devourer (alongside some Dwarven Shade minions)! Orthos was a homebrew Level 1 Solo Controller with phase changes, multiple standard actions, and an at-will slide attack that lets him knock PCs into the battlemap's hazards.
The party absolutely trounced this encounter, however! The Pixie Ranger plinked away the Minions while the rest of the party focused the boss. The Dwarf Barbarian, in particular, made a huge impact with a crit on his daily rage power (resulting in a free attack), followed by a solid hit his encounter power. followed by the Kobold Warlord granting him a Commander's Strike on the next turn, dealing something like 80 damage to the boss. The Human Sowrdmage, by contrast, got hit pretty bad and knocked into an acid pit, then got downed by the boss' aura. Some clever use of movement powers & healing let him get back to the fight quickly though.
A larger party (five PCs this time, since the Orc Vampire's player couldn't make it) seems to disrupt the intended XP balance for encounters a little bit. I think I will pump things a bit above the suggested in the future, within reason, and probably made greater use of minion reinforcements/waves of enemies to keep the battle from stagnating.
Also, the large battlemap was fun, since it resulted in tactical positioning, jumping over acid pits, darting through trap auras, etc, but it was definitely a little frustrating for the 3/5 PCs who rely on closing to melee to do their jobs. I will keep that in-mind moving forward and maybe place some movement-enabling items in future treasure parcels.
In the aftermath, they looted the Core, obtaining a bounty of raw residuum (which we just converted to coin, but in-universe is the reason people go after Living Dungeons), some healing potions, and two magic items (a new sword for the Swordmage and Gloves of Second Chance for the Barbarian).
We then cut ahead to a day or two later, with the party hanging out at the local "affordable" tavern, the Dusty Gullet, most notable for having integrated the metal feathers of the local cybernetic zombie-roc into its architecture. Over sharp citrus ales and spicy chicken skewers, the PCs got some decompression and RP time in, letting them do some character development. Some highlights:
The Barbarian stealing food from other tables and getting extremely angry when he didn't understand what a Wyrdstreamer "app" was
The Swordmage specifically changing the color of his new sword's fire to match his turquoise hair
The Halfling Druid accidentally saying something offensive about goblins in front of the Warlord, whose wife is a goblin (and a princess, at that!)
My players had specifically requested more time for unstructured character development and RP, which is something I struggle with a little with story-now gameplay. My instinct is to keep my put all the way down on the narrative gas pedal, jumping from high-octane action to higher-octane action and so-on, but clearly there needs to be room for more relaxed interaction as well.
I do wish 4e had a mechanical structure in place to help create guardrails around these sorts of scenes and encourage them with mechanical heft, perhaps through XP generation or similar. Something I could perhaps see about homebrewing. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions there?
After their meal, the party decided it was time to track down Druz, the member of the Pixie's former shooting team who had been Mr. Beef's bodyguard. This was structured as a Skill Challenge with two goals (find Druz, then interrogate him), each requiring 3 successes to reach the 6-success total). During the search, we had a chance for some RP with a dwarven shopkeeper whose grandfather had been chained to a pickaxe like the Barbarian, so he offered to help him get it detached later (opening the door for his Quest). There were some great moments here, such as the Druid closing his eyes and letting the desert winds guide his tracking pattern, and the Barbarian picking up a giant cybernetic wing and banging it against an old train-car to spook their quarry out of hiding at a junkyard.
The interrogation was handled through a combination of me "revealing" information (ad-libbing answers to questions that made sense, trying to 'yes and' wherever possible) and asking directly for Pc input whenever I felt I needed more brainpower. Altogether, this resulted in some connections to other plot threads:
Mr. Beef had ties to the Circle of Inner Light and the Astrenov Family, the antagonists from the Swordmage's background who want to destroy all Living Dungeons for some unknown reason. It turns out that his 'Epic Dungeon Challenge' was specifically intended to create a PR nightmare in exchange for a hefty payment.
The Cinderfell Conglomerate, the company that annihilated the Druid's home village and captured the dragon from the Warlord's backstory, was using Mr. Beef as a smokescreen to cover up their illegal residuum mining operation in the dungeon.
Druz was involved with the match-fixing scandal, having been paid off to handle the cleanup & logistics, which he accepted thanks to his massive gambling debts.
A failed roll from the Pixie to try and get even more info resulted in her spotting the glint of a sniper rifle in the distance, which I used as an excuse to deploy a Hard DC as the final roll of the skill challenge. The Swordmage shoved Druz to the ground and successfully deflected the bullet with his sword as the very last check, resulting in a successful skill challenge by the skin of their teeth! The sniper, barely visible in the distance, turned out to be Whisper-of-Moonlit-Blades, the tabaxi sniper of The Bolts and Celeste's biggest rival, likely attempting to silence Druz before he could squeal.
As a reward, we decided we'd stat up Druz as a companion character and have him show up in the party's hour of need, Mysterious Stranger-style, basically a one-time-use companion they can leverage when they need it.
Finally, the group was really enamored with the idea of Mr. Beef as a recurring antagonist, so we did a brief vignette where the primal spirit centipede eggs from Venomcoil hatched in his body, absorbing his persona and turning him into a swarm-that-walks spirit monster with a vendetta. So cool!
As always, would love to hear feedback, suggestions, and similar from all you great people. Thanks for reading!
My players had specifically requested more time for unstructured character development and RP, which is something I struggle with a little with story-now gameplay. My instinct is to keep my put all the way down on the narrative gas pedal, jumping from high-octane action to higher-octane action and so-on, but clearly there needs to be room for more relaxed interaction as well.
I do wish 4e had a mechanical structure in place to help create guardrails around these sorts of scenes and encourage them with mechanical heft, perhaps through XP generation or similar. Something I could perhaps see about homebrewing. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions there?
I'll be honest, IMX most players will eventually burn out from high-intensity story-now play (although I do play with a high amount of players oriented towards thespianism).
I wuld probably just uses these scenes as seeds to frame something a few sessions down the road, and just track names/story hooks that get entered into the narrative.
Well you can let them pick up their own small quests / motivations. And give the Party XP for fulfilling them. That is even in the DMG in 4E having small and big quests. And small quests are perfectly useable for something like this.
Well you can let them pick up their own small quests / motivations. And give the Party XP for fulfilling them. That is even in the DMG in 4E having small and big quests. And small quests are perfectly useable for something like this.
Yes, I've been trying that! They seem to enjoy it, although it does require a fair amount of back-and-forth between sessions to make sure I know what to prep. It's a little difficult to create the sort of high-complexity setpiece combat encounters 4e is known for on the fly (at least for me, and especially on Roll20), so having a list of PC quests so I can narrow what they're going to do in the upcoming session goes a long way.
Blows off dust It's been a while! I totally fell behind on updating this, and now the campaign is on Session 19, so plenty to catch up on. Hopefully some folks are still interested in reading.
Celeste (Pixie Ranger): Cold-blooded sniper with a chip on her shoulder
Ibz (Kobold Warlord): Streamer and ex-military searching for a purpose
Kellen (Human Swordmage): Dungeon delver on the run from his former employers
Nimble (Halfling Druid): Eco-terrorist and freedom fighter
Thorgrim (Dwarf Barbarian): Former prison-miner, current angry idiot
Ursaline (Half-Orc Vampire): Lounge-singer with a cat companion (player often absent)
Session 04
Returning to Dahaska's commercial district, the party sought out Mhorvin Shelf-Stocker, a local surface dwarf and shopkeep whose grandfather knew a thing or two about "Punishment Picks" (the pickaxe magically chained to the party dwarf's wrist). Unfortunately, his grandfather died earlier that day, thanks to a combination of old age and alcohol deficiency. In traditional dwarven fashion, he was immediately and efficiently buried as deep as the family could dig stripped of all his belongings.
Consequently, the party decided they'd try communicating with the dead dwarf's ghost to get the information they needed.
As the sky darkened, the intensifying of the Shadow Aurora presented a unique opportunity for the party: the Rite of Thursday's Call. In the Dashaskan Cemetery, they prepared themselves to call upon the dead dwarf's shade to answer their questions. Ibz captured the process on his Wyrdstreamer, highlighting the differences between dwarven and goblin burial practices (goblins dig up their dead and display the bones in their homes).
Eventually, thanks to a combination of Nimble's nimbleness, Kellen's arcane knowledge, and Ibz's patented Dwarf-Call, Thorgrim was finally able to ask the shade how to remove a Punishment Pick: say something no sane dwarf would ever utter aloud. The words passed his lips, leaving a foul taste in their wake: "All is forgiven."
With the pick removed and a brand-new maul in-hand, Thorgrim and the rest of the party prepared for their next goal--assaulting and destroying the local Cinderfell Conglomerate residuum pipeline and processing center. Nimble shared his motivation for the task: the grisly murder of his family, friends, and community by the same organization. After some discussion and planning, the group set out to accomplish their various heist-prep tasks.
This was a longer skill challenge (C4, I believe), where the party got to complete various tasks according to their strengths. Some highlights:
Nimble scouted the plant's guard rotations and learned about their recent problems with Residuum Oozes.
Celeste and Kellen worked together to copy the blueprints for the facility from the local record office
Ibz and Thorgrim bamboozled Peng, a local alchemist, so they could steal a metric ton of explosives
In the desert wastes, Thorgrim somehow managed to scare off some local security, who believed him to be an inspector sent from Corporate Central, then helped the party dig into the facility
Kellen led the way into the plant itself, using his Dungeon-knowledge to guide everybody
Soon after, the party began their true assault, attacking the remnant guards, who themselves were being attacked by out-of-control Residuum Oozes. The ensuing melee was tricky, with caustic magical goop making traversal dangerous and the guards' arcane tasers slowing movement. However, the party rallied, defeating most of the enemies and preparing for the final destabilization of the plant.
The combat had a few different monsters (Some minion artillery guards, the brute oozes that created hindering terrain) and a large battlemap with a nested skill challenge, requiring the party to navigate the dangerous machinery to activate/sabotage/destroy various devices.
Session 05
The party fought through some last reinforcements at the Cinderfell Conglomerate Residuum Processing Plant, outmaneuvering them and rigging the place to blow. In cool Action Hero style, they emerged into the Southern Wastes just as the plant was utterly destroyed, sending scraps of metal flying amidst a cloud of blue-and-black smoke.
(This was the culmination of the previous sessions Combat/SC. I added a few more Residuum Ooze monsters and a round-driven countdown timer for extra danger)
On the sands a ways outside of the area, a massive Sandstorm Wyrm approached, a Primal Spirit of the Wastes. It thanked the party for cleansing the region of the pollution and effluence from the plant, and gave Nimble the Desert's Blessing (A homebrewed Primal Boon with a daily power that creates difficult terrain & boosts defenses). It then burrowed into a nearby dune, revealing a forgotten cache of gold and enchanted armor (I owed the party a hefty treasure parcel!)
Hours later, the party managed to slip back into the city of Dahaska amidst the chaos and confusion following the explosion. However, the authorities and private security were out in droves looking for the miscreants who exploded the pipeline/processing center. Deciding to book a train to the far-off city of Divinigrad, they paid for their tickets (except Thorgrim, who jumped the turnstile) and began the journey west toward the open ocean.
(This Journey was a long train ride--over 24 hours, with a stretch of rail crossing the open ocean in a bubble of glass & magic. The entire thing was played as a skill challenge, with various problems arising over the course of their travels)
While onboard the train, a teenage Orc approached the party, having recognized Nimble & Ibz from their streams and, more importantly, from their recent act of terrorism. However, the group convinced him that it was all AI (Arcane Intelligence) and that they were big phonies. They also called him stupid. Dejected and heartbroken, the boy went back to his parents, tears glistening on his cheeks. (This bullied teen actually became a recurring character in the campaign, kinda similar to Syndrome from the Incredibles, which has been a riot)
This led to a party conversation about their status as fugitives, something that was true for Kellen (due to the Astrenov Family) and Thorgrim (due to being a former political prisoner according to several dwarf-rights groups) even before this most recent act of eco-terrorism. However, this conversation was interrupted by Thorgrim's Wyrdstreamer (basically a magical smartphone), which revealed even more strange messages, then attempted to send an electric tentacle into Ibz's device, which he rebuffed. (Thorgrim's player came up with a plot point about a virus-infected phone, which escalated into a psionic cyber-demon inhabiting it, obsessed with him)
A few hours later, while the train was atop the Hydrotrack on the open ocean, several large tentacles latched onto the train and attempted to pull off the window near the party. Kellen managed to send a shock of lightning through the train, dislodging the sea monster. However, this same blast of arcane energy was the catalyst for the train's awakening as a Spirit. Nimble tried to calm the newborn Train Spirit, but his efforts seemed to be in vain.
(The above was pretty bonkers! We had established in Session 0 that trains were controversial partially because they tended to accumulated spiritual energy and become Primal Spirits themselves, thanks to their deep connection to so much land)
When the train arrived at its first station back on land, it was immediately assaulted by Locomotive Animist activists, the most aggressive of whom summoned spirit-infused monsters to attack the hapless passengers. (The fight was a tough one, with a few lightning-spirit creatures and a few wolves that knocked enemies prone)
During the ensuing conflict, Ibz was almost killed, leading to a series of visions where he remembered his harsh training, his loss of purpose, and his subsequent creation of a new purpose (Some flavoring of his death saves). This seemed to inspire something in the train's spirit, which sparked him back to wakefulness just as the grueling battle concluded. Once the party re-boarded the train, their fellow passengers grateful but frightened, it began to resume its journey, now guided by newfound spiritual awareness.
