In reply to Beer Baron :
Wife and I have been plying shadowrun with our Wednesday group. It's my first exposure to the format so I decided to play a Face. What better way to get in trouble than to attempt to talk and bribe my way around in a world I don't know.
Have you played Baldur's Gate?
In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :
I'll still be using Cypher system for the mechanics. I just think the world of Shadowrun is really cool. I like the punk theme/aesthetic and the option mix for magic and technology. Cypher will let me capture that feel, but not worry about the really bad mechanics.
preach said:Have you played Baldur's Gate?
Playing it now. Quasi-mixed feelings that are more about how *I* play games than BG3 itself.
It's fantastic. It's huge. It has tons of options. It is a really excellent game. It is massive and unhurried, which is a double-edged sword.
I tend to play games in short spurts. I also have a tendency to want to tinker and optimize and not "miss out" on anything. When I have time to sit down and play it for at least an hour, I love it. But when I try to jump in and jump out, I find I spend the first 10 minutes or so just piddling around in camp, reviewing abilities, and juggling inventory. When I'm only playing 30 minutes, that means not a lot of progress.
Also it's a bit unstable and loading takes forever.
preach said:Have you played Baldur's Gate?
I have not.
Had our Session 0 campaign creation yesterday. Went well.
We settled on a sort of Urban Fantasy set in 1920's Venice. Stealing a lot of ideas and inspiration from Dresden Files in terms of there being a magic world that brushes shoulders with the mundane.
We've established a central theme of the pressure and conflicts between organized Religion, traditional/folk Magic, and Technology. Which can be handily personified by the Catholic Church, Mafia, and Fascists respectively for antagonizing forces. Outside of that is a big giant wrecking ball of a Lovecraftian threat That Lies Beyond and is starting to cause problems.
Our heroes are everyday people hanging out amidst the other pepole with a foot in the magical world. I'm waiting on full back stories from everyone but it looks like we have:
Once I get the full backstories, I'll figure out an inciting incident and some solid plot hooks to pull everyone in.
Big campaign is nearing an end. Likely sometime early in the new year. They're one good challenge from level 15, and might get to 17... I don't have any doubts about their ability to win fights anymore. If anything, I need to try harder.
As for the story, they've discovered the who and what and where of the main villain, now they just need to figure out the how. Namely, how to find (or make) a weapon, and how to get to the place. I've given them several choices of a path, but none are easy. And there's another way if they can puzzle it out. Any of the paths should leave them fairly vulnerable and add spice to the last challenge. Which I need to start doing serious prep for. I have several stat blocks to make up, and a stage to set.
Before that though, they have one last fetch quest. They need to find an old acquaintance who knows the making of the weapons being employed by the baddie. But he's hiding, dangerous, and immortal and so can afford to wait things out while the world ends. I also think I'm going to have him killed just as they're getting their info... you know, for drama.
As that wraps up, I'm working on world building and lore. My other party is progressing and that game is so much fun for me as a way to give the larger story depth and history. Got a couple players there who will have to stop soon (moving) so it'll give me reason to bring in other people to unknowingly help me build this thing. The goal is to eventually turn this world into a series of novels.
All in all, I love this hobby. I get to let my imagination run wild like when I was a kid, and I get to socialize and riff off others.
Session One of the new game starts Sunday. I'm in that state of agonizing over designing the best opening to launch the story. It's a bit tougher because I've got a web of antagonists rather than a single BBEG to build a storyline around.
One big thing that surprises me is that all the PC's have way more close, personal connections than normal. Two PC's are married, one is divorced but amicable with his ex-wife, and the fourth is a gay former-priest whose lover still lives back in Rome. So I anticipate this game being a lot more about personal conflicts.
Point remains - I want a good Inciting Incident to push the players into action. I want to threaten or take something away that causes a big problem.
In campaign creation, the players decided that an impending problem is a malicious presence that Lies Beyond. That seals holding it back have weakened and it's starting to seep in and infect people's minds. Their suggestion is that witch hunts by the Catholic Church have damaged traditional magical bastions holding the Forces of Darkness at bay.
I think I want to keep this idea as a sort of primal force, rather than embody it in a particular individual or group. Unless that changes.
I'm also thinking of stealing an idea from the game Stray Gods - and having deities like the Greco/Roman pantheon being real, and the Nazis and Fascists will seek to kidnap one of them to try to torture their secrets out of them.
Ideas for first Adventure:
I'm thinking of recycling an idea from a previous campaign. Having a major faction take over a site of significance to the PC's. That something is below/within it, and they are trying to gain control of it for their own devices. So... what building, which faction, what do they do to take it, and what's within it?
I'm leaning towards the Opera House (but possibly an old church) and most likely the Fascists coming in to take control. But it could easily be the Catholic Church. What's inside... can be something dark and sinister, or just powerful.
To open the adventure - I'm planning to have an NPC they defined - the lead Soprano for the opera - fleeing from an enraged suitor. Most likely a fascist officer - Lietenant of Captain - who she has smashed a bottle of perfume across his face because he got overzealous. The perfume was a gift from another suitor - a mafioso - and it was actually a potion designed to make her desire him. This will result in a powerful spell of passion, desire, obsession, and vigor over the officer who will persue her mercillesly.
I figure spin this into a pursuit and fights. It has the potential to spiral into an entire adventure, but I think is more likely to prelude to bigger things.
Probably drive them to be holed up somewhere, and while doing that, they launch an assault on the building our heroes are in to distract everyone while they move in and secure the opera house for their nefarious purposes with little to no resistance.
Everyday People? Are they "everyday people with the seed of heroic greatness", or really "I'm just an average being in this world"? Most of my experience is D&D (mostly 2e w/ some 1e added back as house rules, or a 3.5e w/ All The House Rules because DM is the Main Character), but in that system even a level 1 adventurer is an order of magnitude more capable than an Everyday Person (farmer, merchant, etc).
I've alwasy thought it would be an amazing campaign of Real Everyday People. Not the Party of Lore, fortold to Save Us All, but some average Joes roped into a support role - gathering info, dealing with minor events, all supporting The Heroes - ie, you're playing as the Team of NPCs from most campaigns. Lots of chance for death because Avg Farmer is like 1d4 HP, but man I think the RP opportunities around just /knowing/ you're not that important, but you are the little butterfly flapping it's wings to enable The Big Action to happen.
Your 20s Venice Church/Facists/Mafia setup sounds a lot of fun - and a lot of opportunity for no clear cut Right vs Wrong. Man, I'm jonesing now - our campaing largely fell apart w/ Covid and players/DMs moving across the nation. Following for bystander dopamine bumps. :)
rkammerer said:Everyday People? Are they "everyday people with the seed of heroic greatness", or really "I'm just an average being in this world"?
More the later. I think I mean "everyday" in terms of social status/power rather than supernatural power.
Dresden Files is a strong template for this. They all have mystical powers (telekenesis, a mystical servant, the ability to absorb kinetic energy, and a fiery aura). They have capabilities to help the everyday people of a neighborhood or town, not to save the world. Daredevil not Iron Man.
Considering signing up to GM at Origins Games Fair this year (big gaming Con here in Columbus).
Monte Cook Games who created my go-to system that I'm a big fan of has put out the call for GM signups. Dunno what the experience of GM'ing at a con would be like...
Big campaign is nearing finish. My players nearly mutinied me when I put them against two death knights wielding luck blades. In hindsight, it was kind of a dick move. Anyway. They ruined one of my big plans. Resurrected an NPC I purposely killed. Eh, not entirely ruined, but I did have to scramble.
They'll need to fetch a special weapon before attacking the big baddie, so I'll need to plan an elaborate and difficult, but traditional dungeon. Then I'm debating bringing in a guest to run a couple of the monsters in the end battle. We're currently at level 15, but close to 16 and might hit another before the end.
My current campaign is really hitting its stride. Last two sessions have been great. My players are starting to learn that choices have consequences, "nothing" is a choice, and my NPC's don't berkeley around.
Two sessions back, they got themselves trapped in the mystical realm that borders the material world (basically my version of the Never Never out of the Dresden Files) and had to make their way out. They met Nyx (the Greek goddess/titan). They started a fire that manifested in the material world.
That mission presented them with a major ethical dilemma that they spent about 90 minutes at the start of yesterday's session trying to decide what they wanted to do. It was a messy situation with NO good choices.
So like, my players spent all that time really engaged by the question of "Oh crap. What do we do with the stuff we stole last session? We have the potential to make major allies or enemies with this. No matter what we do, SOMEONE is going to be unhappy with us..."
Then we had a fun chase through Venice, jumping off the Rialto Bridge into the canal. Getting caught between a Catholic witch hunter on one side, and an NPC who is sort of an R-rated mashup of Gaston and Pepe Le Pew.
Beer Baron said:Then we had a fun chase through Venice, jumping off the Rialto Bridge into the canal. Getting caught between a Catholic witch hunter on one side, and an NPC who is sort of an R-rated mashup of Gaston and Pepe Le Pew.
*fellow GM nods approvingly*
At a loss for what I want to throw at my players next session. I don't really have a BBEG with a definitive plan. Right now a mess of factions with small scale agendas. A chaotic stew.
I kinda regret making the campaign 20th century, alternate history, but ultimately real world. When it was fantasy I can do, "The big evil cult wants to assimilate everyone in the valley where you live." In 1930's Venice it's more like, "The Fascists, the Mafia, and the Church are all dicks who push little people around." It doesn't help that my players are less independently motivated than I'd hoped, and play very cautiously/conservatively trying to avoid trouble and not make waves, rather than pick a side and pursue an agenda.
So, I'm going to have to thrust troubles upon them.
I've got three factions: Church, Fascists, and Mafia. I've sort of taken the angle of alternating each adventure which one of them is causing problems for the PC's. Need to map out likely agendas.
I've got a solid idea for a good campaign turning point, but don't quite know how to get there...
Church: I see them as probably the least actively evil, and more a harassing force. They are an inquisition out to eliminate heretical pagan magic (which includes the PC's and their allies).
Mafia: I think I found my face, an evil wizard. He sent them on their last mission. I don't have an end-game agenda.
Fascists: I think I have my face: a young officer who has been stricken by a love spell and now pursues an NPC obsessively. He is the R-rated Pepe Le Pew meets Gaston I mentioned earlier. I'm thinking of stealing an idea from a video game and having the fascists out to kidnap and want to steal the powers of mythical beings.
The Darkness Beyond: There are weird shadow monsters. A strange, infecting darkness. I have no face or agenda from them. They are more of an environmental corruption in my mind. I could potentially tie them to the Church or the Mafia?
Campaign Pivot Point: I'm thinking of arranging a scene where - during an opera - the NPC Diva being pursued by the fascist officer is incarnated with the essence of Aphrodite, and then the fascists try to kidnap her for nefarious purposes.
Immediate Idea: Maybe some faction tries to swoop in to take control of the theatre in the square that is the home base for the PC's? Which faction? Idea is that this is the Old Theatre in Venice and is not trendy, shiny, or new, but is of mystical significance going back to before the city's founding. Who wants that power? Why?
Immediate Idea: Perhaps the local Don is a patron of the arts (i.e., has a protection racket set up w/ the Opera). That puts squarely on Team Mafia an immediate need to quell that chaos - and possibly you can bring along the team to solve the implied classical "damsel in distress" trope. Depending on thier current relationship with the Mafia, you could also use the "adversaries forced to work together" to help shape their opinion of Team Mafia - for more, or less, sympathy.
Mafia End Game: I could see Team Mafia wanting to maintain the status quo, after all the current state of affairs keeps their coffers full. Let the public outrage swing between Team Fascist doing fascist things, and Team Church getting more authoritarian (the whole Inquisition Mode engage!).
Also could weave in Team Church vs Team Mafia - that's where my intrigue mind went. Who does Joe Smithicco go to with his problem - helpful guy on his block (capo for the Don), or his Priest (oh the Lord provides, but what would help is Some Tithe/favor). Public face (based on historical Mafia) would be "oh we are all devout" and from the Church "these are our most public facing devout parishioners" so no action between the factions could be taken overtly... but behind the scenes? And who better to shift the locus of power off-the-books than a group of troublemakers?
The "three bad guy teams" also gives you levers to pull - Each team could make certain allowances / promises to the group - i.e. Church says "it isn't your sin that made you this way my child, however to repent it would be good if you could just... then we can overlook..." then break that promise. And bring in the machinations of "Church's hand was forced by Fascist / Mafia because of such-an-event". Continually take away the football like Charlie Brown each time the group starts to bond with a faction.
Can also defer any firm alliances, but always hang the "We appreciate the help, but someday you'll need to make a choice" spectre of a closing door during missions for any given faction.
Keep us updated - living vicariously through this thread! Maybe once life settles down with the new move I'll seek out a local group and play again.
In reply to Beer Baron :
I like your "immediate idea" and have found in my games and stories that at this early stage you don't necessarily have to know the answers to the who and why quite yet. A few interesting plot points and a hint at some nefarious plot is usually enough to fill at least a couple sessions. Time to either fill in those questions later or to watch as your players may give you ideas on how you want to answer.
My long game is nearing finish. I have a dungeon that should take several sessions to complete before the party can launch a final assault on baddie. That final battle is something I've been puzzling over for some time. Basically, the baddie is locked in stasis, attempting to banish the four gods of this world. They are mostly locked with him. The players simply need to get to him and either distract, disarm, or kill him if they can. In their way are two as-yet unfinished monsters. Some sort of elemental dragon-esque constructs I'm simply calling guardians. I've called in a friend to help me design them and when the fight happens, to play as the guardians, freeing me up to both narrate and run the flanking force of baddie-cultists. They will be using some alternate magic fueled by sacrifices. Both forces will be deadly, but the flanking will consume their own numbers if the fight drags too long. It'll be epic.
My casual game is also reaching exciting new heights. They are only level 4, and still pretty green. Early on, they unwittingly fell in with a bad dude (BD). He has since resurfaced and demanded the party to retrieve a certain skull of a fallen ally(A). "For religious purposes and tradition and closure..." yadda yadda. What they didnt know is the fallen ally was attempting to steal an artifact from a lich, who's lair is inexplicably located in a realm I call the Chilldlands. Outsiders cannot navigate there and are rarely welcome unless they hire a local guide. Which they did, (LG). Without really checking credentials.
Anyway, they finally make it to the castle of the Lich, and once they step onto the grounds, are attacked by seemingly unending waves of undead. A decision is made to bravely run away, and by run away I mean dash through and get inside the castle. Because that should be safe. "Once inside, the door closes and you are greeted by a voice that comes from all directions at once, "What are your lives worth?"" And I ended on that cliffhanger with one player unconscious and many spell slots spent. That was a couple weeks ago.
Last night, they decided to explore and were warned that the lich would not harm them unless they tried to steal. There was no mention of letting them leave. So they decide to go downstairs first and after nearly losing the sorcerer to a death well, discover the remains of (A). The paladin's divine sense alerts him to an intricately worked bracelet that was obviously what (A) was after. Fast forward a bit and they go upstairs to explore, but (LG) says "I'll stay here and wait by the door. I don't want to meet that thing." So they meet the lich and carefully try to talk their way out and are asked if they have any responsibility to the guide waiting by the door. "Yes, we are obligated to offer him protection until we make it back out of the chilldlands." Unfortunate, since when you weren't looking he stole the bracelet and escaped. Apparently, this secret treasure is known. This is a problem. What are your lives worth? They are worth nothing unless you retrieve and return my property and erase all knowledge if its existence. Do we have an agreement?
So that is how my level four party got sent out to track down this thief and kill everyone who has any knowledge of the artifact. Stuck between a lich, and what is basically the Illuminati (BD).
barefootcyborg5000 said:In reply to Beer Baron :
I like your "immediate idea" and have found in my games and stories that at this early stage you don't necessarily have to know the answers to the who and why quite yet. A few interesting plot points and a hint at some nefarious plot is usually enough to fill at least a couple sessions. Time to either fill in those questions later or to watch as your players may give you ideas on how you want to answer.
I'm leaning in that Immediate Idea direction because... don't second guess your gut instinct.
I do think I need to know what faction it is, even if I don't know exactly what they want. The groups are distinct, and it will be obvious who is walking up into the square.
The last adventure was a mission for a Mafioso, so I want it to be for one of the other two. I can see either the Church or the Fascists swooping in. I'm leaning towards the Fascists...
So they want control of the Theater. Do they go straight for it? Or do they pull a bait and switch? Act like they want the tenement in the square where the home-base cafe is, to keep everyone busy and distracted while they move into the theater? Or do they go straight for it?
I ran a version of this scenario in a previous campaign, and I did the bait-and-switch thing. The group that pulled that move though, I think was more subtle than the Fascists. They're pretty loud and direct.
Two sessions into this dungeon crawl to find the big weapon to defeat the baddie. I used a random generator to make the thing. Given the wizards tiny hut spell, there's really no reason they would need to worry. Just clear a room, cast tiny hut, rest and repeat. Well, to imprint some sort of urgency, I told them they have 5 days to find the thing or the baddie cult will get to the end first. So they have limited resources and are trying to be strategic with spells and potions and such. They're doing well.
As for the story, this very traditional dungeon is just that, a long and dangerous pit of death, meant to guard a treasure that is completely unknown. Even if someone had stumbled into it, they wouldn't know what lies at the end. Now, once the crawl is through they will have to each give up something in order for the thing to be available to them. I don't know what that will look like yet. The fighter has a belt of storm giant strength, but he won't part with it. The wizard has a familiar that literally goes back two years of gameplay. I want them to give up something difficult, a real and meaningful sacrifice. We'll see what that ends up being.
Tonight we made level 16. They'll be 17 before the final assault.
The end of this campaign is really the tragedy of Baddie. If the party is successful, they'll find that the baddie himself is a victim of ambition and overreach. Trying to kill gods is a deadly task. And if they fail (I hope not!) they'll find similar, with the difference being baddie didn't kill the gods, but he killed their ability to touch this world, dooming it to the consumption of demons and such. The characters will be given place in story and a way to start new lives in other places under the dominion of the gods they died trying to save. I'd like them to save the world though.
Baddie is a fallen character. Once the highest, overcome by ambition and ego. I'm actually writing a book(s) about this guy. Using the game as a world and lore building tool. It's amazing how the seed of an idea I had six years ago has grown and become this organic thing.
Low level group is tracking down their thief. They asked some good questions and learned that he's been know to hang around a particular lady of the night. So they track her down at work and I successfully get them to split the party!
Sorcerer goes in with the target to simply pay her for time and answers. The dice are not kind. Player ends up leaving the room having left the girl thinking this thief friend of hers is being hunted by my party. This is relevant later
While that is happening, the Dragonborn paladin who is multiclassing as a warlock catches the attention of another of the girls who is his same species. While talking with her, he is impressed by his patron to simply kill her in cold blood. I'm texting these impulses to my player at the table. He refrains, and starts going into the good guy role: are you here voluntarily and can you leave if you wish? To the point where he offers her the money to be able to get out. The light of real hope sets in for her, and the wicked DM texts another prompt. He responds with obedience, and a text "as quietly as possible" and crits the stealth roll. Slaughtering her right after filling her with hope. Brutal. Tragic.
Meanwhile, the rogue is trying to stay out of the rooms, being friendly with folks and trying to get some info from a barkeep. "I can't tell you anything about the girls or any customers" After he asks about the girl they came for (currently in a room with Sorcerer). So he asks if he can hire a girl and go into an adjacent room. "Whoah there friend, what are you trying to do?" And without hesitation, Rogue says "No no. Nothing nefarious! See, I brought my friend in here for a treat after I lost a bet. He's heard of that girl and you know how kids are... But we are friends and very competitive. I just want to get in the next room and see if we can't have a friendly competition."
So all of my characters are roomed up with prostitutes. One girl is dead, one thinks her friend is being hunted by this sorcerer, and the other has been paid well to perform loudly. What a scene. Anyway, the target girl sounds an alarm signaling that her John has broken a house rule and shouldn't be allowed to leave. We end with a fight scene to bust their way out of a brothel. It wasn't what I planned for, but that's the game. I also really liked making my players uncomfortable when I was roleplaying the girls trying to get them so buy some company. Super fun. Lots of laughs.
barefootcyborg5000 said:While that is happening, the Dragonborn paladin who is multiclassing as a warlock catches the attention of another of the girls who is his same species. While talking with her, he is impressed by his patron to simply kill her in cold blood.
That's dark. What's the patron's angle on this? What's liable to happen to the paladin as a result?
In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :
In this setting, the patron is a sort of banished demon. The thing gains power from taking it away from others. It's a zero sum thing. The character stands to (at this low level) either gain a point of inspiration or incur disadvantage on related warlock checks. It shouldn't be something that comes up terribly often, but I'm trying to instill the nature of the patron.
I'll open with a win from my most recent session: I had one of the best, most emotional scenes I've ever run. It was totally improv and really quiet (no threats or challenges), but I think it completely sucked all of my players into and got total buy-in for the world, and further deepened their attachment to my key plot-hook NPC. And they started it with a simple question!
I'll skip the long background:
NPC diva who they're friends with, they helped save from Fascist Pepe Le Pew. They asked if there was anything they can do to help her. She asks them to check on her father and bring him some food. Since her mother's death, she's been caring for him.
Turns out her real name is not "Carlotta". She's actually "Ruth Weisberg". Her father lives in the Ghetto Novo. My players were like, "Holy E36 M3. This is a real place. There are gates on the bridge that lock from the outside."
They show up and he's middle-aged man who suffered severe burns to one side of his body. He walks with a cane and has nerve damage that makes on hand barely usable. He lives on the third floor. He clearly was injured in an industrial accident, and there's no work for a crippled, uneducated, Jewish man in 1930's Venice. When they say his daughter sent them and is doing fine, he looks relieved. He basically has nothing in his apartment.
He offers them tea. One of the PC's offers to make it. Sees that in the jar there's basically enough for two pots.
One player is like, "We can't take the last of his tea."
Other player who is Jewish is like, "Don't insult him by refusing his hospitality."
Play out a brief conversation. He basically just wants some food, company, and books to read to keep him busy.
My players start looking nervously at me waiting for me to surprise them with an attack or something. I just strait up tell them, "There are no threats here. You will not be surprise attacked. This situation is exactly what it looks like."
They leave after promising to come back and keep bringing him food...
So, yeah... my players are now fully comitted to helping out the diva and her father.
I have an element of PC backstory I'm trying to figure out how best to implement.
PC has a character arc of being hired to hunt down and kill a Vodyanoy water spirit that has been murdering a series of people down the river, arriving in Venice. I've decided to twist the concept and throw a curveball.
I want the people who hired him to actually be bad. They stole something or kidnapped someone or... something. The spirit is hunting and killing the bad men who were involved in the initial crime.
So... summoned by a person? Or acting on its own?
What is it trying to recover or get vengeance for?
Human trafficking? A stolen artifact? They stole its young/eggs?
In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :
New/young party? I'd lean towards option 3, stolen young. They've already shown they want to help do the right thing. Keeps the theme going while being fairly easy to plan for while getting a bigger picture more fleshed out.
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