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Message: <blockquote data-quote="whoever" data-source="post: 8870820" data-attributes="member: 7038514"><p><h2>Session 0</h2><h3><span style="font-size: 12px">Player Prep</span></h3><p>My player was pretty interested in the campaign overall and was actually pretty excited to read the player's guide (Convenient, since I think only 1 out of 6 people would enjoy that in my main campaign <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. That gives him a nice understanding of the world but restricted the changes I could make to names and characters. Ultimately, especially for a first playthrough, it's easiest to play everything pretty much straight.</p><h3><span style="font-size: 12px">DM Prep</span></h3><p>I was really excited about this campaign and printed the whole thing into binders I could lug around with me to read (if you're curious, about 6 1" binders!). At this point I've read up to The Last Starry Sky (so 1-9), and the adventure summaries up to the end. I like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9AkbgaWCQ&ab_channel=SethSkorkowsky" target="_blank">this guy's</a> (video) approach to preparation; basically a readthrough, a mark-up, and a pre-session skim.</p><p></p><p>I also looked at a lot of resources on this forum, such as arkwright's <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/13NN6WdpzaoVDmCw1RH-PHyTaXAOPICMohGgZz-HU7Ow/edit" target="_blank">guide</a>.</p><h3><span style="font-size: 12px">Duo Considerations</span></h3><p>I'm doing this adventure as a duo, so a bit of rebalancing may be needed. To adjust, my player is running two characters (basically a buddy cop thing). The characters themselves are a little more powerful and use Homebrew classes-- one <a href="https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M-WtrKeZNFdEXq0MKXw" target="_blank">Hedge Mage</a> and one <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eRlO5XHhRn9rsKuFXcNdtvlygBJVIHOD/view" target="_blank">Arcane Marksman</a>. We used point buy +an extra ASI, which is a boost but well within what a good stat roll will get you. We'll keep an eye on the power level as we go and adjust as needed. Other things we might do are:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rotate in a full third character as a guest or buddy character if it looks like a tougher adventure (maybe from the RHC backup team).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make use of Zeitgeist's allied officer statblocks or Matt Colville's followers (paid content, <a href="https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/products/strongholds-followers-pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, recommend but not for this campaign since it's got a definite fantasy feel; you can just use a stripped down statblock if you're doing something similar)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Double up on themes as needed but choose one mechanical benefit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tune encounters. I get an idea of how dangerous an encounter is by looking at expected per round damage (which I call EPRD in my notes). If it seems really high, I'll tweak it. Another thing that's good to pay attention to is if, ie, there are several opponents with lock down abilities that will seriously unbalance the action economy. In that case I'll either modify those abilities/characters, or try to anticipate it and give the player more backup.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Communicate. Once the session is over, we can talk about whether a given encounter felt too swingy and how to improve it for next time.</li> </ul><h3><span style="font-size: 12px">Rules Modifications</span></h3><p>I swapped the nature and survival skills with culture and engineering for the futuristic setting, similar to the Pathfinder or Level Up 5e system.</p><h3><span style="font-size: 12px">Character Creation</span></h3><p>I wanted a way to integrate characters into the world without forcing players' choices, so I made a Zeitgeist character creation minigame. I included the sheet below in case anyone else is interested. Each character gets a few attributes (such as religion, nation, Zeitgeist ancestry, and Flint neighborhood). All the options for a category are thrown into a hat (you can also use a dice table) and a character can pick two choose one.  Afterwards, we drew a up a couple of npc connections (using the relation and affiliation tables) this way. (You can choose which categories to pick from, but I'd only use cities for the npc connections, since much of the story is focused on Flint). You can make the connections pretty loose or redraw if you're unhappy; the idea is just to stir up ideas and hook the characters into the setting.</p><p></p><p>Ex: In our case, for character 1, Itschka, we ended up with Giant (we went with half-giant to make him a medium character), Ber and Drakr, Cloudwoods and Central, Panoply, University, and some other stuff that didn't make it in. For npc affiliations, we got grandparent, daughter, and niefling. My player chose the fighter class (in particular he wanted to try a trick-shot type class, so we went with Arcane Marksman) and the Gunsmith and Yerasol Veteran themes (gunsmith mechanically).</p><p></p><p>My player decided that his character lived in a <em>big</em> family in the Cloudwoods, where an enclave of Giants from Ber and Drakr has settled. He has a parent teaching in the university, a grandparent at home, and a daughter possibly attending, along with many nieces and nephews (For the time being we just picked names for the parents and daughter). For tough cases, he'll stay in an apartment in Central; pricey but worth it to skip a long commute. He and most of his family members are Panoply types. He was recruited into the army early on (his family is very loyal to Risur and also giants), but his best skills were actually his tactical brain and marksmanship. After the war, he accepted an offer to join the RHC and has served there ever since.</p><p></p><p>For character 2, Antoine, we got Danor and Tiefling (we were pretty lucky with the nation/ancestry matchups, but feel free to ignore one or resolve an unlikely combination in whatever way you please), the Nettles, Heid Eschatol, more parents, and an aunt connection.</p><p></p><p>My player wanted a magic character for the second, which made an interesting combination with Danor. He decided to go with the Spirit Medium theme. The character's parents were killed while doing magical experimentation near the Malice lands, but remain close to him and are the source of his power. After his parents were killed, his aunt brought him to Risur where she mingles in highbrow political circles and speaks out against Danor's political situation. Connected to ghosts and the undead, our character spent much of his youth wandering the Nettles, talking to the ghosts there and some of their friends. When he got older, he went into the military under the advisement of his aunt. While there, he met Istchka and saw something that shook him. [SPOILER="Dm Ideas"]I'll probably make this something to do with witch oil, which I imagine could be quite traumatic for a spirit medium.[/SPOILER] After the war, he joined the RHC, which was a natural fit for his abilities as a spirit medium, but after bringing in Itschka, he's spending more time in the field. Itschka also helped him out with his apartment in Central, where he stays most days.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="One Last Thought"]One last thought for this character is that I might combine the character Amielle Latimar with his aunt for a little more connection to the conspiracy.[/SPOILER]</p></blockquote><p></p>

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