Orryn Emrys
Explorer
I'm examing the "grey areas" of victory and accomplishment in a campaign or story arc, and I could use a little... insight, if you will.
I recently launched a campaign with a new group in a new town, and I wanted to create adventure material that would have the potential to bind the party together with a sense of comraderie and purpose strong enough to compel the players to return enthusiastically for each gaming session despite my inexperience with their needs and interests. Consequentially, I kinda played it by ear, improvising plot twists and customizing my story to highlight the elements that they responded to with intensity. Interestingly enough, I got so caught up in the details that I hadn't taken the chance to step back and examine the feel of the game... until now. And I've noticed some relatively disturbing elements.
In my first adventure, which, because the group was newly formed and the characters undeveloped, spanned about nine or ten sessions, the heroes were confronted with an evil undead-spawning curse established by the consecration of some sort of vile artifact in a hidden underground temple near the village. These were atypical undead, in that they rose at nightfall and fell lifeless again with the rising of the sun. Even "slain" undead would rise again unless blessed by the cleric and/or hacked to pieces. And the effect began at the shrine and spread from this epicenter, reaching further every night.
While the heroes were dealing with the effects of the curse, they were forced to allow night after night to pass as they investigated the cause and healed between battles. They did eventually find the shrine and quench its unholy fires, thus putting an end to the wicked blight, but not in time to save the village. The effects of the curse had reached an old graveyard near the town, and the resultant wave of lifeless assailants had been too much for the villagers to withstand. The heroes' victory was tainted with the blood of innocents.
I hadn't actually planned it that way, and I naturally feared that it would provide a very anti-climactic finish to the adventure. But I stood behind the organic evolution of my plot and allowed it to play out... and it had an unanticipated effect. It bound them together.
The party consisted of a sort of hodgepodge of characters, a not entirely compatible bevy of personality archtypes. But the tragedy of this first adventure created a sort of bond between them that made them fiercely protective of one another and driven to catch the villain with the artifact that started the curse. And the characters were visibly shaken by the event; the more carefree personalities suffering a sort of grim reality check, the others strengthening their resolve.
So, in the second adventure, I kept myself open to the same sort of organic plot development. The heroes encountered another side-effect of the artifact's passage in the very next town. This time, a sort of infectious paranoia had gripped the locals. It had begun very subtly, then consumed the villagers with a need to protect themselves and what was theirs, while lashing out at everyone around them. By the time the party arrived in this little hamlet, many of the locals had been slain by their neighbors, and any strangers at the inn had been rounded up and locked away. Survivors had barricaded themselves in their homes, some of them grouping together with extended family, and the town militia was monitoring the streets for any suspicious activity.
This seemed a fairly straight-forward kinda scourge, requiring the characters to track down the source of the infection (if there was one) and try and reverse the effect. Of course, the lingering possibility that there would be no such cure created a sense of panic in the PCs, who realized that the villagers would eventually slaughter each other to the man. So, I gave them a source (what kind of self-respecting DM wouldn't, after all). But there was a twist.
It all started with a fifteen-year-old girl who had come into contact with the villain when he visited her father's trading post. She had been sorely abused by her father, her spirit damaged beyond repair, and she wanted him dead and wanted to take control of her life. As the infection spread, however, this girl collected many of the other children in town. By the time the heroes arrived, the girl had almost two dozen kids with her at the trading post, children who had become vicious and cunning enough to make the surviving adults unwilling to try and ferret them out.
Though in the end I supplied the party with an item given to the girl by the villain, which could then be destroyed and the curse lifted, the party first had to deal with the grim reality that they might have to fight their way through a mob of 7- to 13-year-olds to reach the source of the infection... and that they might have to actually slay the misguided youth who had started it all.
That was a tense session.
I know now that the players loved it, but I had almost feared breaking their spirit with that particular battle of conscience. Senseless or hopeless tragedy isn't fun for anyone, but there seems to be just enough hope left in the wake of these events, hope that the heroes can catch the villain and put a stop to this madness... It's fascinating, and some times a little frightening, to watch it develop. Obviously, if I had misjudged my players in the least, and discovered them unable to bounce back from such events....
Fortunately, it's been working thus far, and I'm getting to know them. The challenge will be to continue to develop this kind of edgy material without pushing too hard. I'm not intending to provide a game so fraught with tragedy that it will come to characterize the campaign, but I don't want the characters' experiences down the line seem to pale in comparison to their early adventures, and I don't want to invalidate the motivation they feel by making things easier... less "weighty". And I have to balance the tragedy with decisive victories that give them strength and focus.
This has gotten to be a lengthy post, and for that I apologize, but I was wondering whether anyone else had stories or insight to share that seemed to parallel the feel of this campaign. Success stories? Failures? Relavent experiences? Even just general advice... I'm trying to build the campaign with as clear a view of my options as possible....
Thank you for reading.
I recently launched a campaign with a new group in a new town, and I wanted to create adventure material that would have the potential to bind the party together with a sense of comraderie and purpose strong enough to compel the players to return enthusiastically for each gaming session despite my inexperience with their needs and interests. Consequentially, I kinda played it by ear, improvising plot twists and customizing my story to highlight the elements that they responded to with intensity. Interestingly enough, I got so caught up in the details that I hadn't taken the chance to step back and examine the feel of the game... until now. And I've noticed some relatively disturbing elements.
In my first adventure, which, because the group was newly formed and the characters undeveloped, spanned about nine or ten sessions, the heroes were confronted with an evil undead-spawning curse established by the consecration of some sort of vile artifact in a hidden underground temple near the village. These were atypical undead, in that they rose at nightfall and fell lifeless again with the rising of the sun. Even "slain" undead would rise again unless blessed by the cleric and/or hacked to pieces. And the effect began at the shrine and spread from this epicenter, reaching further every night.
While the heroes were dealing with the effects of the curse, they were forced to allow night after night to pass as they investigated the cause and healed between battles. They did eventually find the shrine and quench its unholy fires, thus putting an end to the wicked blight, but not in time to save the village. The effects of the curse had reached an old graveyard near the town, and the resultant wave of lifeless assailants had been too much for the villagers to withstand. The heroes' victory was tainted with the blood of innocents.
I hadn't actually planned it that way, and I naturally feared that it would provide a very anti-climactic finish to the adventure. But I stood behind the organic evolution of my plot and allowed it to play out... and it had an unanticipated effect. It bound them together.
The party consisted of a sort of hodgepodge of characters, a not entirely compatible bevy of personality archtypes. But the tragedy of this first adventure created a sort of bond between them that made them fiercely protective of one another and driven to catch the villain with the artifact that started the curse. And the characters were visibly shaken by the event; the more carefree personalities suffering a sort of grim reality check, the others strengthening their resolve.
So, in the second adventure, I kept myself open to the same sort of organic plot development. The heroes encountered another side-effect of the artifact's passage in the very next town. This time, a sort of infectious paranoia had gripped the locals. It had begun very subtly, then consumed the villagers with a need to protect themselves and what was theirs, while lashing out at everyone around them. By the time the party arrived in this little hamlet, many of the locals had been slain by their neighbors, and any strangers at the inn had been rounded up and locked away. Survivors had barricaded themselves in their homes, some of them grouping together with extended family, and the town militia was monitoring the streets for any suspicious activity.
This seemed a fairly straight-forward kinda scourge, requiring the characters to track down the source of the infection (if there was one) and try and reverse the effect. Of course, the lingering possibility that there would be no such cure created a sense of panic in the PCs, who realized that the villagers would eventually slaughter each other to the man. So, I gave them a source (what kind of self-respecting DM wouldn't, after all). But there was a twist.
It all started with a fifteen-year-old girl who had come into contact with the villain when he visited her father's trading post. She had been sorely abused by her father, her spirit damaged beyond repair, and she wanted him dead and wanted to take control of her life. As the infection spread, however, this girl collected many of the other children in town. By the time the heroes arrived, the girl had almost two dozen kids with her at the trading post, children who had become vicious and cunning enough to make the surviving adults unwilling to try and ferret them out.
Though in the end I supplied the party with an item given to the girl by the villain, which could then be destroyed and the curse lifted, the party first had to deal with the grim reality that they might have to fight their way through a mob of 7- to 13-year-olds to reach the source of the infection... and that they might have to actually slay the misguided youth who had started it all.
That was a tense session.
I know now that the players loved it, but I had almost feared breaking their spirit with that particular battle of conscience. Senseless or hopeless tragedy isn't fun for anyone, but there seems to be just enough hope left in the wake of these events, hope that the heroes can catch the villain and put a stop to this madness... It's fascinating, and some times a little frightening, to watch it develop. Obviously, if I had misjudged my players in the least, and discovered them unable to bounce back from such events....
Fortunately, it's been working thus far, and I'm getting to know them. The challenge will be to continue to develop this kind of edgy material without pushing too hard. I'm not intending to provide a game so fraught with tragedy that it will come to characterize the campaign, but I don't want the characters' experiences down the line seem to pale in comparison to their early adventures, and I don't want to invalidate the motivation they feel by making things easier... less "weighty". And I have to balance the tragedy with decisive victories that give them strength and focus.
This has gotten to be a lengthy post, and for that I apologize, but I was wondering whether anyone else had stories or insight to share that seemed to parallel the feel of this campaign. Success stories? Failures? Relavent experiences? Even just general advice... I'm trying to build the campaign with as clear a view of my options as possible....
Thank you for reading.
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