Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luthien Greyspear" data-source="post: 2494657" data-attributes="member: 34334">Life During WartimeMy own campaign has been (up to now) based in and around Cormyr in 1371, which is currently undergoing the invasion of the ghazneth and the goblin armies of the Devil Dragon.  Two of the party members are Cormyri, one is a mercenary, and one was a mercenary before she ran afoul of a curse that took her memory away.  The party tank comes from a long military background on Evermeet, giving her a good reason to want to participate in a wartime adventure.The problem is, the party is not military as a whole, nor is the group well suited to mass-combat scenarios (except for the tank).  The group started as follows (the first two characters are the Cormyr natives and the asterisked characters have memory problems from the aforementioned curse):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Human Fighter 4/Rogue 1 (swashbuckler concept, heading towards house-ruled Duelist PrC)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Air Genasi Rogue 5 (career thief)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Elven Psychic Warrior 3/Wizard 2 (mercenary heading towards Bladesinger)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Wood Elven Cleric 3/Ranger 2 of Rillifane (former mercenary, but doesn't remember)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Elven Fighter 4/Wizard 1 (tank, heading towards Weapon Master and her Moonblade)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Human Bard 3/Rogue 2 (a circus performer that can do EVERYTHING.  No, really.)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">*Half-Elf Bard 5 (another circus performer, heading towards Lasher)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halfling Psionicist (Shaper) 5 (Gond-worshiping tinker/inventor/gun-wielding nut) </li> </ul>While the two Cormyri characters were certainly willing to stay and fight the war, and the elves wanted to help for their own reasons, the party just didn't fit any sort of military mold.  So I instead set them on the campaign's main quest, which was trying to sort through the shared curse and what happened to their missing memories, while using the war and the turmoil surrounding it to give them XP, magic items, and clues about their past.Here's a small list of the adventures they've had as a result of the Cormyri war.  With one exception (as noted), none of these adventures had anything to do with any actual military actions.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fighting several ghazneth on the roads (and discovering that they can't be killed)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exposing a corrupt nobleman to be a Malar cultist (encountered while using the nobleman's town to avoid the invading ghazneth)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chasing down and saving a rival elven adventuring party in Cormanthor   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Extracting an enslaved azer weaponsmith from the Iron Throne (arms dealers seeking to profit from the conflict)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Retaking a vital keep on the western border from an overzealous orc tribe (done in cooperation with the mercenary character's unit, the only real military action the party has seen)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fighting a duel in Sembia to prevent the loss of several thousand acres of vital land over an ancient bet between noble families (requested by the crown)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Taking down a temple of Kossuth hidden in Arabel (it wouldn't comply with the orders of the crown to stop using magic, as that attracted and strengthened the ghazneth) </li> </ul>Recently, the party was asked to stay out of Cormyr, as most of the party is afflicted with a magical curse, and the ghazneth eat magic.  While the party kind of wants the ghazneth to eat the curse, they have a tendency to kill anyone they meet, and the party has had enough deaths for their tastes.Overall, I find that using the existence of a war to be a good framework for a campaign, but only if you don't force the players to be military themselves.  You can have them cleaning up the messes that the military or the government would normally deal with, but can't spare the time for.  That makes the characters important without shackling them to a chain of command, and provides you with plenty of role-playing opportunities.</blockquote>

Verification