DM Chronicles, Session 7: Of Performing Crunch and Norming Fluff, Part 2

Blog lessons learned: Never post a ‘Part one’ on Wednesday night… it guarantees no comments on the highest traffic day! Next time’ 2 entries articles’ will posted on same day with a few hours in between.

See here for part 1.

When a Custom Scene Blows Up in Your Face
So the players made their way to Clasthamus Island, a protected druid’s groove smack dab in a Necropolis known for it’s marauding Undead, insane cultists and demons walking around at night.

Initially, I had no real Role-playing goals for this scene. Expecting it to be nothing more than a ‘Save Point’ before diving back again into the dungeon.

But once again, the day before the game, I had a flash for a scene made especially for Franky. It featured a new plot twist for Cixi. My goal was to aim for one of those ‘oh, wow’ moments that Franky has been known to appreciate.

I discussed it at length with PM, who’s now my DMing sounding board. The idea was to have the young noble the group rescued back in session 2, and whose ripped-out tongue was tossed into the Underdark, come to the island (ahh coincidence, my dear friend) and have a revealing chat with Cixi.

I had created enough of a Mind Screw about Cixi’s origins to make Franky scratch his head. The scene hinged on the noble showing Cixi an object with Great Significance (TM). I must mention that said noble is affiliated to a Noble House (Piratey Rau) that is considered an enemy of Cixi’s (Militaristic Khatru).

Well, like the subtitle says, that scene pretty much blew up in my face. You see, I played his arrival on the island with probably a bit too much Dashing and ‘Look at my cool plot hook’ energy. So much so that when I had the noble approach Cixi with a ‘ah shucks, if it ain’t that cute girl that stole my tongue’ scthick’, Franky went completely Icy.

He played Cixi as being hostile and not interested at all about talking or having anything to do with the noble. And being a rather poor improvisational DM, I completely missed the cue to end the scene there and salvage the scene’s ‘punch’ for later.

I basically forced the scene’s completion on Franky, who, unsurprisingly, did not find the big plot-twist reveal all that interesting or engaging…

Aside: There is a big difference between learning something and integrating that knowledge. A few days ago, I read Omnius, most excellent post on Plot opportunities and Plot devices. I even commented on that post. But somehow I failed to apply that knowledge to that very scene. I should never had forced Franky’s hand.

I should have played the noble’s appeareance a bit less outlandishly, and then mention to Cixi that he wanted to talk to her and she could show up later if she felt like it. That would have been a plot opportunity and could be salvaged later in the campaign if Franky failed to grab it. Forcing the issue became a plot device and it implied that Franky would play along. I was wrong and it just shows you that I still have stuff to learn.

Franky also spent the next hour in quite a somber mood, which worried me, thinking I had said or did something that made him mad. However, he managed to perk up in the evening’s last fight. We spoke about the scene, one on one, when everyone left and we worked out what went wrong. He told me was very tired and not much into roleplaying that night. He told me that he had been too surprised seeing that NPC come back so soon and with his tongue! He was definitively irritated by the NPC’s attitude. So all in all, he was not ready to play Cixi to deal with him.

That’s cool Franky my man…

Going back:

It was already passed 9h30 PM when the players, all ready to kick butt with their nifty 9th level abilities, decided to go back to the dungeon. They started visiting every room they had ignored last session. They found some prisoners suffering severe withdrawal symptoms as well as a pair of Slaughter Wights (145 hps crit-heavy Wights from Libris Mortis).

At that point, I was willing to give Graham’s ‘confirm a critical hit twice to crit an undead‘ house rule a shot. Of course, that’s when Cixi promptly started playing nothing but criticals, denting both undead’s Hit Points and dispatching them in short order without them scoring a single slam attack. Hurray for crits!

We adjourned there, with only one unopened door left in the dungeon.

It’s clear that I find Cixi’s (an Iron Heroes Archer) damage output staggering. A lot of this is due to the fact that she’s got an awesome build with some variant Masterwork weapons that increase Crit Range and Crit multiplier. She can drop a CR equivalent monster in one full attack.

But then again, this only worries me in that she somewhat outshines everybody else. Franky suggested right off the bat to nerf Graham’s variant rule so that she wouldn’t be as effective against some types of creatures.

I’m not going to make a bigger case out of it. First the players rolled like gods all night long, not a typical D&D occurrence. Second, part of the increase in party lethality is the player’s awareness of each other’s abilities and strength. So I’ll take a wait-and-see approach.

As mentioned in Part 1, the group as achieved the Performing stage in regards to rules and tactics. It’s clear that I have some norming to do in regards to plot opportunities.

But that’s what makes doing this so fun.

Lessons Learned:

• Plot Opportunities > Plot Devices: Offer the hooks, let players bite before springing a role-playing scene.

What Players liked:

• The fluff of the added Pathfinder monster. They loved the Lamia Matriarch. Math told me the next day that the adventure reminded him of our best encounters in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil… and Math is NOT the feedback type of guy… High praise indeed!
• Playing with their new abilities.

What player disliked:

• Franky didn’t like the cut-scene I had prepared. We’ve agreed to salvage what happened by making Noble guy bitter and hurt about being brushed aside.
• Yan is growing bored with the dungeon crawl and wants to move on. I am too… a bit.

Now you can comment! 🙂