"The Outbreak" is back...again

[Grimmjow]

A while back me and my friends started a campainge called "The Outbreak" based on an undead invation of the world. We took a break over the summer and after about 3 games the group was killed (whe nwe started playing again of course). We decided to play a different campainge then.

Now my co-workers (none of which have played DnD) want to play DnD. Seeing as how they all love zombies i decided to throw this arc at them again. I'm making their characters for them and teaching them how to play.

Im trying to think of an quest that doesnt directly involve undead. Then i'll sneak some corpses in, followed by the dead rising from the local graveyard. Any idea's??

As far as their characters i've decided on a Human Warpriest of the sun (Pelor) and a shara-kai Paladin (Raven Queen). any other character idea's (striker and controller) that would fit into an undead invation campainge?

Thanks guys!

 

[fba827]

well you do have a divine thing going on so far. maybe an avenger? you could also have a wizard or magic user type and (you could learn later) that one of his former teachers was somehow involved in whatever thing caused the undead outbreak (be it on purpose or by accident, be it directly having a hand in it, or indirectly provided info or items to someone who made it happen).

as for something that doesn't involve undead but could make a good intro quest/adventure...
each of them is sent as a represnetative of thier teachers/church/order. there is some guy/contact who has information that was to be delivered back to the various churches.
but then they all get there (along with maybe some other representatives if you want extra NPCs around) and the contact is dead(? or missing or robbed?) and the parcels he was going to give out to the different representatives are missing. So it becomes a quest to recover the missing parcels...which in turn could have some information for the churches that hints at the coming 'problem' but not specifying what type, etc.

given that it is first time playing d&d for all of them, even the typical setup scenarios (mentor's sending them) will be new to them.
i'd also toss in reasons to use skills as skills (at least in my experience) have been an easier gateway to understand base mechanics rather than jumping right in to attack rolls and keywords and damage types etc as the first 'rolling' mechanic. oh, and be sure to let them have the chance to introduce themselves (possibly to each other, or at least to some NPC)...if nothing else it will help you gauge how 'in to' the acting aspects of roleplay that they are

 

[Grimmjow]

well you do have a divine thing going on so far. maybe an avenger? you could also have a wizard or magic user type and (you could learn later) that one of his former teachers was somehow involved in whatever thing caused the undead outbreak (be it on purpose or by accident, be it directly having a hand in it, or indirectly provided info or items to someone who made it happen).

I'm not sure more divine characters would work now (seeing as how i want them to be exposed to the different types of characters in the game) but a mage with necromancy would be cool. Eladrin maybe?

as for something that doesn't involve undead but could make a good intro quest/adventure...
each of them is sent as a represnetative of thier teachers/church/order. there is some guy/contact who has information that was to be delivered back to the various churches.
but then they all get there (along with maybe some other representatives if you want extra NPCs around) and the contact is dead(? or missing or robbed?) and the parcels he was going to give out to the different representatives are missing. So it becomes a quest to recover the missing parcels...which in turn could have some information for the churches that hints at the coming 'problem' but not specifying what type, etc.

I like this idea alot, it gives me a reason to bring the Shadar-kai out of the shadowfel and if i do go with an eladrin, then him/her out of the feywild. Then i can bring them all together in the little villiage of Oakwood XD

given that it is first time playing d&d for all of them, even the typical setup scenarios (mentor's sending them) will be new to them.
i'd also toss in reasons to use skills as skills (at least in my experience) have been an easier gateway to understand base mechanics rather than jumping right in to attack rolls and keywords and damage types etc as the first 'rolling' mechanic. oh, and be sure to let them have the chance to introduce themselves (possibly to each other, or at least to some NPC)...if nothing else it will help you gauge how 'in to' the acting aspects of roleplay that they are

Mhmm i think the roleplaying will be the hardest thing with this group. Maybe i could be wrong though they are crazy people. Anyway what sort of skill challange do you think i could use easy.

 

[Ryujin]

For a first adventure, you might want to go with a classic "find the Mcguffin" quest. Maybe place it in a graveyard, where they discover that the dead are rising. The thing isn't important, as all that it does is drive the reason why they end up where they need to be.

 

[Grimmjow]

I'm not sure if i understand, mind going into some detail? or maybe tell me waht Mcguffin is??

 

[Ryujin]

I'm not sure if i understand, mind going into some detail? or maybe tell me waht Mcguffin is??

McGuffin is an expression that Hitchcock came up with, IIRC. It's an item that isn't really important to the story, except for how it drives the story forward. It could be almost anything; a sacrificial dagger, The Maltese Falcon... that sort of thing. The adventure is nominally about finding the item, but in reality is about finding out that the world is under assault by undead.

 

[Grimmjow]

McGuffin is an expression that Hitchcock came up with, IIRC. It's an item that isn't really important to the story, except for how it drives the story forward. It could be almost anything; a sacrificial dagger, The Maltese Falcon... that sort of thing. The adventure is nominally about finding the item, but in reality is about finding out that the world is under assault by undead.

oh that makes sense. so send them after an item, and have them find out that the undead are rising! tats cool. So i should try and set it up so that they are all there in a group together to start with (maybe excepting the paladin) so maybe instead of an eladrin use something like a half-elf mage, and maybe just a human mage. Then have the paladin there investigating something else and they meet up at the start of the adventure. It should be really easy to get an undead slaying paladin into this kind of adventure also.

So anyone have an idea on what kind o striker would enjoy this kind of campaign? None divine pls/

 

[fba827]

I'm not sure more divine characters would work now (seeing as how i want them to be exposed to the different types of characters in the game) but a mage with necromancy would be cool. Eladrin maybe?

Hmmm.. i know this will take some guess work on your part, but do you have any ideas as to who wants to play what type of characters or anything like that? Because if you do, then maybe you know someone in the group might enjoy being the sneaky type (rogue or thief) or might enjoy the 'run forward and charge alll the time" type (barbarian -- which would let you introduce some 'primal' in to your mix of PCs!) or an archer (built either as a ranger or use the fighter's slayer build but pick the powers that work for basic attacks rather than just melee basic attacks; could be some guard trainee who has to do something in order to qualify for even taking the tests to join, etc) or maybe even something like a hexblade (i don't have access to the shadowfell stuff but if you do go with shadowfell is there a shadow pact of some sort which might give this person a reason to be involved in that as well?)

Anyway what sort of skill challange do you think i could use easy.

It need not be a skill challenge specifically. I just meant give them reasons to use their skills as their first die rolls rather than making it an attack. So maybe they are searching for clues. Or give them a History check when they get in to town to let them know some background on the locality, etc.

But if you did want to make a skill challenge (and you went with the aforementioned idea) maybe the skill challenge is searching for clues around town as to where the missing parcels/contact might be.

I'm not sure if i understand, mind going into some detail? or maybe tell me waht Mcguffin is??

Mcguffin is a literary term for an object that gives a motivation to go somewhere. It specifically means that the object itself is unimportant and has no effect on the situation other than giving the protagonists a reason to go/move forward. However, if the object does in fact have some bearing on the story then it ceases to be a mcguffin and instead falls into some other literary classification like a chekov's gun or something like that depending on how/when it's used, etc...

So I think the point Ryujin was making when he suggested that is, come up with some place you want them to go for a cool adventure location. And then just make up a reason (however flimsy) as the excuse to get them to go there.

 

[Ryujin]

So I think the point Ryujin was making when he suggested that is, come up with some place you want them to go for a cool adventure location. And then just make up a reason (however flimsy) as the excuse to get them to go there.

That's essentially my intent. The item should be something that could reasonably be found in the place you want them to go. Perhaps something like a magic item or memoirs of a ancient sage that are stored in a mausoleum, that is key to solving a problem?

 

[Grimmjow]

I think i could do that, well...i already got it planned out but im tired ill pop on in the morning and swing my idea by you guys for idea's on it