webrunner
First Post
Just ran some sessions this weekend and I thought I'd share how it went, so other DMs may get a good idea of what worked/didn't.
First, incidentally due to how not-often we get together due to various factors, I'm running a fast one dungeon = one level = ~4 encounters game with no XP tallying) The players were level 5 at the beginning of the last session, but only made it half way through the dungeon due to starting late. So this time Iwanted to get back "Caught up" so I DMed the rest of "level 5" and then the entirety of "level 6".
The setting was this: on Eberron, the party is currently being hunted down by two groups of enemies, one warforged-obsessed mad tinker, and a legion of undead. The party has some sort of secret power that they don't know bout- they're getting mysterious dreams of other people's lives, and strange occurances have begun to occur around them.
They had just got help from a well-to-do guild-member Dwarf named Jacob Risk to track down the mad scientist, named Doc Struktor, at his lab in the Cogs of sharn.
Now, another background: the first session was they waking up on Doc Struktor's examination tables, they've never met each other. Some of the first enemies I threw against them were statues that came to life.
Now, fighting Struktor again, they come to his lab. In the front of the lab is a giant mechanical hand.. I ran it as a custom solo, that got three actions a turn, and those three actions could be taken by any three of the five fingers. The characters could blast the hand, or take out individual fingers to reduce the hand's effectiveness, and each finger had a different power. It was a fun fight strategically, but tactically kind of boring since the hand doesn't move.
They come into the main hall- it looks to be a dwelling converted to a workship, with a red carpet in tatters on the floor and workbenches all over the place. I also make special note of the statues lining the area. They are immediately wary of them, but I tell them, "The statues do not come to life at this time.". They also have a giant door with giant gears on the side, with energy conduits leading to two rooms on the sides.
The room to the right was a room full of conveyor belts and traps, with monsters on it as well. It created a chaotic atmosphere until they found some places where they could be relatively safe- so if you do that, make sure no way is particularly safe.
They return to the room, and give the statues a wide berth again. They still fail to come to life.
In the other room, I did a laser puzzle using an actual laser and craft mirrors.. they liked it, but it had some problems with the actual mirrors pointing the right way.. so make sure if you do it to have a secure, level base for your mirrors and a level map.
Returning to the main room the door is open, and the statues in the middle, i tell them particularly, "Sometimes a statue is just a statue" with an evil looking grin. One of them is tempted to hit one with a rock but is talked out of it.
They leave the room, and go through another hallway lined with statues, with statues at every corner. I make sure to use minis for EVERY statue. They come across Struktor talking with his boss (first taste of this villian they've seen so far). Struktor taunts them from behind glass, and steps on a teleporter to what he calls the "Colossus", while activing his "new creations"... which come out of the walls.
This fight was an interesting one for them: it's a set of three golems which share a single life total. One of them glows blue, one green, and one red. The blue one doesn't move or attack, and resists 20 all. The green one has a ranged cold attack, and resists 10 ranged, vunerable 10 melee. The red one has a melee attack which causes cold vunerability, resists 10 melee, and vunerable 10 ranged. At 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 health, the three golem colors switch, while peforming a powerful energy area attack in the rectangle bordered by the three golems. The constantly shifting dynamic, as well as puzzling out the resistances, made it a fun combat that didn't drag. They couldn't just lock down one monster because suddenly they'd all be crowding around the one that didn't take any damage from their attacks.
They stepped through the platform, and I gave them an extended rest and a level up to 6.
In the new area, they were inside, went along a long corridor through a door, and before entering the door heard from the other side that there are "intruders on the colossus" who they think of course is them.
They start beating down the main guards, when another guard comes in and says "What!? More intruders!?" which of course piques their interest.
The next room is locked in combat before they get there- warforged soldiers in battle with legions of undead, with a minotaur skeleton blocking the door. Because I liked the imagery, and becuase it wasn't otherwise a great combat, I let them try to run through without being seen- bullrushing through the minotaur to fight it in the next room and closing the door behind them. They also feel a thunk beneath their feet and everything starts to vibrate.
They then found themselves unable to continue as the next door is blocked by giant metal girders. There's a big hole ripped out of the side, however, and when they look out they find they're on an airship in flight. Outside, there was a series of broken ledges for them to get across: this part was interesting because some people could do crazy stuff like leap across 3-4 at a time, some people kept 'free running' across them all, the ranger shot a string across and ran across, the haflling mage almost fell but was saved by the Warlord's polearm, it was all really cinematic stuff that wasn't planned.
Part way through they had to fight a small air skimmer piloted by undead, which lost control when the head undead was knocked off the piloting pad, and which lost power entirely when the head undead was killed. The end of it was the ranger swinging across on a rope mage-handed over by the mage as the skimmer fell into the abyss.
They had another few platforming segments (at one point the Halfling could run across a cable with a balance check since she was lighter than the rest of the party, wheras the Eladrin Warlord passed it by doing a fey step followed by a polearm vault)
They make theyre way around and back into the ship by an air vent.. i introduce (and apparently kill off) a character as the leader of the undead force currently attacking (struktor opens a trap door) and they could sneak around the fighting undead and warforged into the cockpit to fight Struktor himself.
After 2 escapes and constant harassment they finally had struktor in a situation he can't escape. I ran him as a solo with 200 hp: starting using his technology with his crossbow and ability to zip across on machinery he summons, and summoning robotic minions. When defeated, he revealled his true form - he was a warforged in disguise, and sprouts blades which he switches to a lurker form- climbing on walls, pouncing on people, and skewering anyone who gets to close. He had another 200 hp there. The party ended up having to heal up inside of an enshrouding candle.
Solos can work if the fight is dynamic and moves around a lot. By giving Struktor his zip-move which gives him + to AC against Opportunity Attacks, and later his leap to wall, skurry along wall, then leap on top of a party member power, it kept the fight from being a 'tank and spank' that so many solo fights in 4E do. Plus, the blade aura that he had meant that both the fighter and the mage were relying heavily on push attacks to keep him away from the party.
With his last act, he activates the Colossus, saying it's "not merely an airship", which reconfigures around them, as they fall into the deep recesses of the machine, the session ended.
Anyway, they really enjoyed the sessions, and by acting out the characters (like the scene between the necromancer and Struktor that they had no part in) it helped flesh out the world.
I also introduced them to Fortune Cards.. they made some use out of them but it wasn't gangbusters.
I dunno if any of this is useful for anyone, but at least you can get an idea of what worked/didn't for your own campaigns. The highlight was definitely the "platforming" segment.. if you make it a series of smaller obstacles of different kinds (think Uncharted, Prince of Persia, or Enslaved) you can really get your player's creative juices flowing. So many crazy things happened, including the goliath catching the halfling on a missed jump, the warlord almost slipping off the end of a vertical pole, the mage using Levitate and Bracers of Mental Might to get some extra jump.
One of the things that I came up with was this: you can use HARD acrobatics to get across this whole section in one go, or a series of MEDIUM ATHLETICS to make the jumps individually. It gave them an interesting choice.
First, incidentally due to how not-often we get together due to various factors, I'm running a fast one dungeon = one level = ~4 encounters game with no XP tallying) The players were level 5 at the beginning of the last session, but only made it half way through the dungeon due to starting late. So this time Iwanted to get back "Caught up" so I DMed the rest of "level 5" and then the entirety of "level 6".
The setting was this: on Eberron, the party is currently being hunted down by two groups of enemies, one warforged-obsessed mad tinker, and a legion of undead. The party has some sort of secret power that they don't know bout- they're getting mysterious dreams of other people's lives, and strange occurances have begun to occur around them.
They had just got help from a well-to-do guild-member Dwarf named Jacob Risk to track down the mad scientist, named Doc Struktor, at his lab in the Cogs of sharn.
Now, another background: the first session was they waking up on Doc Struktor's examination tables, they've never met each other. Some of the first enemies I threw against them were statues that came to life.
Now, fighting Struktor again, they come to his lab. In the front of the lab is a giant mechanical hand.. I ran it as a custom solo, that got three actions a turn, and those three actions could be taken by any three of the five fingers. The characters could blast the hand, or take out individual fingers to reduce the hand's effectiveness, and each finger had a different power. It was a fun fight strategically, but tactically kind of boring since the hand doesn't move.
They come into the main hall- it looks to be a dwelling converted to a workship, with a red carpet in tatters on the floor and workbenches all over the place. I also make special note of the statues lining the area. They are immediately wary of them, but I tell them, "The statues do not come to life at this time.". They also have a giant door with giant gears on the side, with energy conduits leading to two rooms on the sides.
The room to the right was a room full of conveyor belts and traps, with monsters on it as well. It created a chaotic atmosphere until they found some places where they could be relatively safe- so if you do that, make sure no way is particularly safe.
They return to the room, and give the statues a wide berth again. They still fail to come to life.
In the other room, I did a laser puzzle using an actual laser and craft mirrors.. they liked it, but it had some problems with the actual mirrors pointing the right way.. so make sure if you do it to have a secure, level base for your mirrors and a level map.
Returning to the main room the door is open, and the statues in the middle, i tell them particularly, "Sometimes a statue is just a statue" with an evil looking grin. One of them is tempted to hit one with a rock but is talked out of it.
They leave the room, and go through another hallway lined with statues, with statues at every corner. I make sure to use minis for EVERY statue. They come across Struktor talking with his boss (first taste of this villian they've seen so far). Struktor taunts them from behind glass, and steps on a teleporter to what he calls the "Colossus", while activing his "new creations"... which come out of the walls.
This fight was an interesting one for them: it's a set of three golems which share a single life total. One of them glows blue, one green, and one red. The blue one doesn't move or attack, and resists 20 all. The green one has a ranged cold attack, and resists 10 ranged, vunerable 10 melee. The red one has a melee attack which causes cold vunerability, resists 10 melee, and vunerable 10 ranged. At 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 health, the three golem colors switch, while peforming a powerful energy area attack in the rectangle bordered by the three golems. The constantly shifting dynamic, as well as puzzling out the resistances, made it a fun combat that didn't drag. They couldn't just lock down one monster because suddenly they'd all be crowding around the one that didn't take any damage from their attacks.
They stepped through the platform, and I gave them an extended rest and a level up to 6.
In the new area, they were inside, went along a long corridor through a door, and before entering the door heard from the other side that there are "intruders on the colossus" who they think of course is them.
They start beating down the main guards, when another guard comes in and says "What!? More intruders!?" which of course piques their interest.
The next room is locked in combat before they get there- warforged soldiers in battle with legions of undead, with a minotaur skeleton blocking the door. Because I liked the imagery, and becuase it wasn't otherwise a great combat, I let them try to run through without being seen- bullrushing through the minotaur to fight it in the next room and closing the door behind them. They also feel a thunk beneath their feet and everything starts to vibrate.
They then found themselves unable to continue as the next door is blocked by giant metal girders. There's a big hole ripped out of the side, however, and when they look out they find they're on an airship in flight. Outside, there was a series of broken ledges for them to get across: this part was interesting because some people could do crazy stuff like leap across 3-4 at a time, some people kept 'free running' across them all, the ranger shot a string across and ran across, the haflling mage almost fell but was saved by the Warlord's polearm, it was all really cinematic stuff that wasn't planned.
Part way through they had to fight a small air skimmer piloted by undead, which lost control when the head undead was knocked off the piloting pad, and which lost power entirely when the head undead was killed. The end of it was the ranger swinging across on a rope mage-handed over by the mage as the skimmer fell into the abyss.
They had another few platforming segments (at one point the Halfling could run across a cable with a balance check since she was lighter than the rest of the party, wheras the Eladrin Warlord passed it by doing a fey step followed by a polearm vault)
They make theyre way around and back into the ship by an air vent.. i introduce (and apparently kill off) a character as the leader of the undead force currently attacking (struktor opens a trap door) and they could sneak around the fighting undead and warforged into the cockpit to fight Struktor himself.
After 2 escapes and constant harassment they finally had struktor in a situation he can't escape. I ran him as a solo with 200 hp: starting using his technology with his crossbow and ability to zip across on machinery he summons, and summoning robotic minions. When defeated, he revealled his true form - he was a warforged in disguise, and sprouts blades which he switches to a lurker form- climbing on walls, pouncing on people, and skewering anyone who gets to close. He had another 200 hp there. The party ended up having to heal up inside of an enshrouding candle.
Solos can work if the fight is dynamic and moves around a lot. By giving Struktor his zip-move which gives him + to AC against Opportunity Attacks, and later his leap to wall, skurry along wall, then leap on top of a party member power, it kept the fight from being a 'tank and spank' that so many solo fights in 4E do. Plus, the blade aura that he had meant that both the fighter and the mage were relying heavily on push attacks to keep him away from the party.
With his last act, he activates the Colossus, saying it's "not merely an airship", which reconfigures around them, as they fall into the deep recesses of the machine, the session ended.
Anyway, they really enjoyed the sessions, and by acting out the characters (like the scene between the necromancer and Struktor that they had no part in) it helped flesh out the world.
I also introduced them to Fortune Cards.. they made some use out of them but it wasn't gangbusters.
I dunno if any of this is useful for anyone, but at least you can get an idea of what worked/didn't for your own campaigns. The highlight was definitely the "platforming" segment.. if you make it a series of smaller obstacles of different kinds (think Uncharted, Prince of Persia, or Enslaved) you can really get your player's creative juices flowing. So many crazy things happened, including the goliath catching the halfling on a missed jump, the warlord almost slipping off the end of a vertical pole, the mage using Levitate and Bracers of Mental Might to get some extra jump.
One of the things that I came up with was this: you can use HARD acrobatics to get across this whole section in one go, or a series of MEDIUM ATHLETICS to make the jumps individually. It gave them an interesting choice.
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