Slavelords of Cydonia -- Character Suggestions

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Well, the last of the Christmas presents have trickled in, and neither Santa nor anyone else saw fit to bring me a copy of Slavelords, so I ordered it myself this morning. (And Claus -- I'll deal with you later. I warned you after the GI Joe debacle of '78)

Ever since I heard the title, I'd been tumbling ideas over in my head about a Barsoom-esque campaign. I still want to incorporate some of them (we'll see how many after I've read the book), but I really want to have the players make characters that are 'real' people, rather than adventurers. I want a really 'fish out of water' aspect to the game in the beginning.

I'd thought of setting the prologue in Paris, 1900, at the World's Fair. This gives me a rationale for why people of all different backgrounds might be in the same spot, and it lets me set the flavor in terms of technology level and such.

I'd like to present the players with suggestions that will cover the basics, but give them enough variety that they won't feel railroaded. And, of course, they'll be welcome to do stuff on their own. I'll stat some of these out later when I've got the book in front of me, but here's some possibilities:

- A New York Times reporter sent to cover the fair
- A famous London stage actress who wants to see something called 'moving pictures' that will be shown in public for the first time
- An Olympic athlete, participating in the Games which were being held in Paris at the same time (lots of possibilities -- fencer, boxer, etc)
- A German scientist attending a symposium on 'The Canals of Mars' presented by Percival Lowell
- A big-game hunter, displaying a collection of trophies from around the world
- A French pick-pocket and petty thief, working the crowds
- An underrated stage magician whose tricks may be more than just sleight-of-hand

Any other ideas?

This will be the groups first experience with Grim Tales (and we've not used D20 Modern, either), so I'm hoping to get them started thinking about something different than 'fighter/mage/rogue' etc.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Is this your order sitting in my inbox? Did you order it from me or elsewhere?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I really want to have the players make characters that are 'real' people, rather than adventurers. I want a really 'fish out of water' aspect to the game in the beginning.

Good insincts. But, you'll have a little more work to do, since the hooks provided sort of assume that the characters are an "Action" bunch.

I'd thought of setting the prologue in Paris, 1900, at the World's Fair. This gives me a rationale for why people of all different backgrounds might be in the same spot, and it lets me set the flavor in terms of technology level and such.

- A New York Times reporter sent to cover the fair
- A famous London stage actress who wants to see something called 'moving pictures' that will be shown in public for the first time
- An Olympic athlete, participating in the Games which were being held in Paris at the same time (lots of possibilities -- fencer, boxer, etc)
- A German scientist attending a symposium on 'The Canals of Mars' presented by Percival Lowell
- A big-game hunter, displaying a collection of trophies from around the world
- A French pick-pocket and petty thief, working the crowds
- An underrated stage magician whose tricks may be more than just sleight-of-hand

The first adventure takes place in a "lost valley" so getting such disparate characters together in that location will be your first challenge. You could have them all travel (by ocean liner?) together and, surprise-- shipwrecked onto an island.

Or a zeppelin, which might work better, as they held fewer people, are easily blown off course, and can actually end up, you know, in a valley, instead of on an island.

What I would do is prepare them with maybe even a whole session of "red herring" adventure, just enough time to get together, meta-game themselves into some sort of working relationship the way players always do (my actress just loves this scientist! "You're so quirky, Hans! Let's adventure!"), think that they have "their adventure/goal" all buttoned up, and then just throw them completely into the SL adventure. ("But I thought we were supposed to prevent the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand? What's up with crashing us in this valley?")

On the other hand, you could throw them together as the sole survivors of the wreck, with no advance knowledge of each other at all. But then you sort of excise all that World's Fair stuff (besides, maybe, "You're all on your way to the World's Fair...")

A line of smoke from the Sutu encampment is probably all you'd need to get them headed in the right direction.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

From your website.

And I hope it's the one sitting in your inbox. Otherwise I don't have a clue where it went

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Good insincts. But, you'll have a little more work to do, since the hooks provided sort of assume that the characters are an "Action" bunch.

Not a problem. Most of my crew are pretty good about going with the flow early on. They understand that if they don't, the adventures tend to end real quick.

I'd originally planned on an alternate-history Percival Lowell working with a mad scientist type to develop a 'distance viewer' to look at Mars, and that goes horribly awry, sucking members of the viewing audience through and dumping them on Mars.

Perhaps a archeological artifact, recovered from some lost valley, that does the same thing?

What I would do is prepare them with maybe even a whole session of "red herring" adventure, just enough time to get together, meta-game themselves into some sort of working relationship the way players always do (my actress just loves this scientist! "You're so quirky, Hans! Let's adventure!"), think that they have "their adventure/goal" all buttoned up, and then just throw them completely into the SL adventure. ("But I thought we were supposed to prevent the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand? What's up with crashing us in this valley?")

Good idea. Would it present too much of a problem if the party began 'Slavelords' proper at 2nd level? I'd originally thought about giving them their choice of a dozen or so pre-made characters to start with, then running a prelude that took them to second level to give them a chance to start fleshing out their characters.

 

[Von Ether]

Well, the last of the Christmas presents have trickled in, and neither Santa nor anyone else saw fit to bring me a copy of Slavelords, so I ordered it myself this morning. (And Claus -- I'll deal with you later. I warned you after the GI Joe debacle of '78)

Ever since I heard the title, I'd been tumbling ideas over in my head about a Barsoom-esque campaign. I still want to incorporate some of them (we'll see how many after I've read the book), but I really want to have the players make characters that are 'real' people, rather than adventurers. I want a really 'fish out of water' aspect to the game in the beginning.

I'd thought of setting the prologue in Paris, 1900, at the World's Fair. This gives me a rationale for why people of all different backgrounds might be in the same spot, and it lets me set the flavor in terms of technology level and such.

I'd like to present the players with suggestions that will cover the basics, but give them enough variety that they won't feel railroaded. And, of course, they'll be welcome to do stuff on their own. I'll stat some of these out later when I've got the book in front of me, but here's some possibilities:

- A New York Times reporter sent to cover the fair
- A famous London stage actress who wants to see something called 'moving pictures' that will be shown in public for the first time
- An Olympic athlete, participating in the Games which were being held in Paris at the same time (lots of possibilities -- fencer, boxer, etc)
- A German scientist attending a symposium on 'The Canals of Mars' presented by Percival Lowell
- A big-game hunter, displaying a collection of trophies from around the world
- A French pick-pocket and petty thief, working the crowds
- An underrated stage magician whose tricks may be more than just sleight-of-hand

Any other ideas?

This will be the groups first experience with Grim Tales (and we've not used D20 Modern, either), so I'm hoping to get them started thinking about something different than 'fighter/mage/rogue' etc.

Funny enough, I sort of think of your cast as typical adventures, 1900 style. When you said "real people" I thought you meant mundane. Like people with no real talents or odd-ball professions at all.

If you throw in one cowboy, you should be fine.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Good idea. Would it present too much of a problem if the party began 'Slavelords' proper at 2nd level?

Not at all. It's not an adventure overly concerned with ELs and XPs.


Wulf

 

[ragboy]

Not at all. It's not an adventure overly concerned with ELs and XPs.

But is it out yet? I just ordered GT and Slavelords from Amazon, but they're saying 1-2 months for Slavelords? Is that accurate?

I really like the take on this from a character perspective, Rodrigo. I like both yours and Wulf's ideas for getting the characters into it.

I have (or had) a passel of resources for the 1900 World's Fair for an old Ravenloft Masque of the Red Death campaign I ran. If you're interested I can zip them up and send them your way (all web pages, images, maps, and whatnot).

 

[Von Ether]

But is it out yet? I just ordered GT and Slavelords from Amazon, but they're saying 1-2 months for Slavelords? Is that accurate?

I really like the take on this from a character perspective, Rodrigo. I like both yours and Wulf's ideas for getting the characters into it.

I have (or had) a passel of resources for the 1900 World's Fair for an old Ravenloft Masque of the Red Death campaign I ran. If you're interested I can zip them up and send them your way (all web pages, images, maps, and whatnot).

I perused it at the FGLS, it's out.