ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] About to start the campaign! Any tips from experienced players and DM's?
Samuel Cole
First Post
Here's my advice:
1. Read, read, read! Read the next adventure all the way through before beginning play, and continue perusing it as your PCs make their way through the adventure. There are a LOT of details, and your players won't (and shouldn't) follow the trail of breadcrumbs exactly as the writers imagined - you'll need to be ready to handle off-the-wall questions and unexpected actions gracefully and without breaking continuity.
2. Similarly, read ahead as much as possible - it will help you foreshadow future events, introduce relevant NPCs early, etc. The writers wrote the AP sequentially and couldn't have perfect knowledge of what future chapters would contain. You CAN have perfect knowledge, though, so take advantage of that!
3. Build direct ties with important NPCs into your characters backstory. One of my PCs is the brother of Asrabey Varal. Another was Nevard Sechim's apprentice. Another is the child of two migrant workers on the Avery Coast Railroad. Another is the nephew of Catharine Romana and third-in-line for the Duchy of Shale. Little details like that will help your players get hooked into the setting, and will make it WAY easier for you to develop personalized side plots for each character.
4. Don't be afraid to simplify the setting. I think the authors wanted to make every possible option available to players, which is admirable, but many of them don't add much to the world. For example, I couldn't see how having both Dragonborn and Lizardfolk in Ber added to the plot, so I turned all the Lizardfolk into Dragonborn, which gave me more opportunities to develop Dragonborn culture and politics, personalizing all of it for the Dragonborn PC. Similarly, I turned all the gnomes into halfings because, although we have a halfling PC, we don't have a gnome PC. (In fact, our halfing player once commented, "We've met more Eladrin women than halflings," which is one of the things that urged me to develop halfling NPCs more fully.) If I were doing it over again, I'd get rid of Elves, too, since they don't add anything that Eladrin don't.
5. The large handouts (e.g. the dossiers) are amazing, but I found it more fun to re-write them to incorporate references to the PC's actions. Sure, you'll miss out on the cool formatting, but it's not too hard to print something with a typewriter font and then stain it with tea in the oven. For example, here's the Royal Audit that Margaret Saxby did on my party.
6. If you're playing 4E, build the character mechanics on the backstory rather than the other way around. For example, if someone wants to play "a faithful warrior dedicated to Triegenes," I'd have them play a paladin. If, however, they wanted to play "a faithful Risuri warrior dedicated to the Unseen Court," I'd have them play a warden, instead. In fact, I limited class choices as follows:
Good luck!
1. Read, read, read! Read the next adventure all the way through before beginning play, and continue perusing it as your PCs make their way through the adventure. There are a LOT of details, and your players won't (and shouldn't) follow the trail of breadcrumbs exactly as the writers imagined - you'll need to be ready to handle off-the-wall questions and unexpected actions gracefully and without breaking continuity.
2. Similarly, read ahead as much as possible - it will help you foreshadow future events, introduce relevant NPCs early, etc. The writers wrote the AP sequentially and couldn't have perfect knowledge of what future chapters would contain. You CAN have perfect knowledge, though, so take advantage of that!
3. Build direct ties with important NPCs into your characters backstory. One of my PCs is the brother of Asrabey Varal. Another was Nevard Sechim's apprentice. Another is the child of two migrant workers on the Avery Coast Railroad. Another is the nephew of Catharine Romana and third-in-line for the Duchy of Shale. Little details like that will help your players get hooked into the setting, and will make it WAY easier for you to develop personalized side plots for each character.
4. Don't be afraid to simplify the setting. I think the authors wanted to make every possible option available to players, which is admirable, but many of them don't add much to the world. For example, I couldn't see how having both Dragonborn and Lizardfolk in Ber added to the plot, so I turned all the Lizardfolk into Dragonborn, which gave me more opportunities to develop Dragonborn culture and politics, personalizing all of it for the Dragonborn PC. Similarly, I turned all the gnomes into halfings because, although we have a halfling PC, we don't have a gnome PC. (In fact, our halfing player once commented, "We've met more Eladrin women than halflings," which is one of the things that urged me to develop halfling NPCs more fully.) If I were doing it over again, I'd get rid of Elves, too, since they don't add anything that Eladrin don't.
5. The large handouts (e.g. the dossiers) are amazing, but I found it more fun to re-write them to incorporate references to the PC's actions. Sure, you'll miss out on the cool formatting, but it's not too hard to print something with a typewriter font and then stain it with tea in the oven. For example, here's the Royal Audit that Margaret Saxby did on my party.
6. If you're playing 4E, build the character mechanics on the backstory rather than the other way around. For example, if someone wants to play "a faithful warrior dedicated to Triegenes," I'd have them play a paladin. If, however, they wanted to play "a faithful Risuri warrior dedicated to the Unseen Court," I'd have them play a warden, instead. In fact, I limited class choices as follows:
- Risur: Primal & Martial classes (and fey warlocks)
- Danor: Martial classes
- Crisillyir: Divine & Martial classes
- Ber: Arcane & Martial classes
- Drakr: Arcane & Martial classes (and infernal warlocks)
Good luck!
One piece of advice I'd give in regards to this AP - don't feel like you have to read it all. Zeitgeist is on a different level of complexity than any other pre-published adventures I've ever encountered, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of material.
I read the current adventure in-depth, and plan all the details out to the best of my ability.
I read the overall structure and major NPCs of the next adventure.
Beyond that, I keep in mind the general outline of the overall campaign.
You'll probably find that your players take drastically different steps or make major decisions that differ from the expected outcome. Zeitgeist does a good job weaving in NPCs from every adventure into the plot later on. As was said above, there really are no throwaway NPCs. Just take it one adventure at a time, and really focus on building a good foundation of the setting and NPCs, rather than trying to plan out what's going to happen a year or more down the road. Let the Zeitgeist flow through you!
One of my PCs was engaged to Dala, Kasvarina's daughter. He's in for a few shocks come Adventure 8!
Velenne
Explorer
Last night two of my players were at my place until about 1am working on their characters! Here's what all we've got:
- Human Monk (Martial Scientist) - graduate of the Battalion school in Flint, handpicked by the RHC during training for his cool head and tenacity.
- Dragonborn Ranger (Technologist) - this is where I could use some help. I think I'd like for this character to be a descendant of Harkover Lee. I believe all dragonborn come from Ber but I know nothing else of their ecology.
- Deva Bard (Docker) - escaped Danor recently with only very recent memories, filled with wanderlust, survived to reach the docks of Flint and fell in with the workers there. Sticking out like a sore thumb as he does, and being an incredibly talented artist, he was picked immediately by the RHC. He's eternally grateful to the nation for taking him and protecting him. His art has even drawn the patronage of Roland Stanfield.
- Goliath Berserker (Yerosol Veteran) - joined the Risuri navy years ago when his tribe was displaced by a famine in the Anthras Mountains (too many goblins, the shaman said, and Ber law wouldn't allow his tribe to cull them anymore as they had for centuries). Served with honor as a cutter (boarder of enemy ships) and left duty somewhat recently. Spotted by the RHC working as a bouncer in several local taverns where he was developing a reputation for doing his job a little too well.
Samuel Cole
First Post
The setting won't give you much on the ecology of Dragonborn in Ber, so you should make some stuff up. Here's how I changed the setting to make things more interesting for my Dragonborn PC. Note that none of this canon.
- There are only five recognized peoples of Ber: the Minotaurs, the Orcs, the Dragonborn, the Goliaths, and the Goblins; the first Bruse united these five tribes to form the Nation of Ber. (The Gnolls never joined Beran society, I changed all the Lizardfolk into Dragonborn, and Kobolds are essentially a dragonborn racial phenotype.)
- Each species has a separate origin. For example, Orcs are actually indigenous to this world, while Minotaurs are what results when The Father of Thunder impregnates a humanoid.
- Dragons, on the other hand, come from another plane and entered this world before the Ancients completed the Great Seal. They brought with them one of the three great traditions of magic, the others being Fey magic and Angelic magic (i.e. arcane vs primal vs divine.)
- Dragonborn are actually dragons in their larval form. In order to become a dragon, they must consume an enchanted "royal jelly" which is brewed from the blood of humanoids. Discovering this formula was a major sideplot in our game. (Note that in 4E it is possible to become a dragon via Epic Destiny.)
- There are two major cultures of Dragons: chromatic and somatic. Somatic dragons surround themselves with "hives" of their dragonborn children, selecting only the brightest and best to become full-fledged dragons and sending them off to start their own city-states. Chromatic dragons, on the other hand, think that surrounding yourself with your own larva is gross, so they form their hives by enslaving other species, such as Gradiax with his Gnolls, or Cheshimox and his undead, and only have as many children as they plan to raise to dragonhood. (The jury is out on whether Inatch actually serves Risur or just considers them to be his hive.)
- When Avilona was damaged and the last Dragon Tyrant was killed, the method of brewing this royal jelly was kept secret, and the vast majority of Berans don't realize that Dragonborn have draconic potential. Dragonborn made themselves useful to Ber by being natural sailors ("The wind is in our blood."), and have played along with the revolution, quietly biding their time until the day they can bring the Dragons back.
- I replaced Cavallo with the Dragonborn PC's father, and a great deal of political maneuvering led to him become Bruse at the end of Adventure 6. The return of the Draconic Tyranny is now immanent, although few realize it.
RangerWickett
Legend
This is canon.
Samuel Cole
First Post
Wait, really? I thought I'd made that up. :-(
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RangerWickett
Legend
I don't think it's anywhere in the text, but back in 08 I ran a Stone Age campaign where various powerful creatures were trying to get worshipers so they could ascend to godhood. Meanwhile, El the God of Desert Storms was filling a high mountain valley with 40 days of rain so that when he shattered a dam his people had built, it would flood all the other gods' followers so he would be the one true god.
Anyway, on a quest to stop that, the PCs had to cross a lightning-strewn grassland controlled by the Father of Thunder (whom I eventually repurposed for ZEITGEIST). They first tried to recruit him. He shot lightning at them. Next they tried to capture him and travel alongside him since his horn attracted any lightning bolts that would land nearby. He trampled them. They tried getting him drunk. They ran out of beer.
So finally a PC priestess said, look, he's got a ton of female herd animals around him. Clearly he's horny. I'm just gonna go sleep with a god, and then he'll do what I say. She seduced him, and he offered to give her a mighty child. She was like, what, I'll have a minotaur baby? Sweet! After the coupling, he let the party travel with him across the dangerous grasslands, and they proceeded to do terrible things to the Book of Genesis.
Anyway, on a quest to stop that, the PCs had to cross a lightning-strewn grassland controlled by the Father of Thunder (whom I eventually repurposed for ZEITGEIST). They first tried to recruit him. He shot lightning at them. Next they tried to capture him and travel alongside him since his horn attracted any lightning bolts that would land nearby. He trampled them. They tried getting him drunk. They ran out of beer.
So finally a PC priestess said, look, he's got a ton of female herd animals around him. Clearly he's horny. I'm just gonna go sleep with a god, and then he'll do what I say. She seduced him, and he offered to give her a mighty child. She was like, what, I'll have a minotaur baby? Sweet! After the coupling, he let the party travel with him across the dangerous grasslands, and they proceeded to do terrible things to the Book of Genesis.
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Velenne
Explorer
Thanks again to everyone who has responded to this thread so far. We just finished Chapter 1 last weekend and we'll be moving on to Chapter 2 on Sunday (two days from this post).
I've now read the entirety of Chapter 2 as opposed to just the adventure synopsis (which I've done for chapters 1-12... so excited!!!) and I'm a tad overwhelmed with the number of NPC's and character interactions I need to keep track of. Don't get me wrong- I love the complexity of this campaign- but I'm wondering...
..is there a tl;dr or a DM cheat sheet I can use to keep all this straight??
I've now read the entirety of Chapter 2 as opposed to just the adventure synopsis (which I've done for chapters 1-12... so excited!!!) and I'm a tad overwhelmed with the number of NPC's and character interactions I need to keep track of. Don't get me wrong- I love the complexity of this campaign- but I'm wondering...
..is there a tl;dr or a DM cheat sheet I can use to keep all this straight??
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