Adventure Prep: When the end of an era draws near

This post is part of a series that covers the preparations I do for my current D&D campaign. You can follow it here and the various DM logs I wrote here.

Yup it’s another game week for Chatty’s gang as I pick up and read through Expeditions to the Demonweb pits and try to hack this adventure into semi-playability (as defined by my perception of fun for my group)…

PM was asking me why I was giving myself so much trouble using it instead of making my own… my 2 second answer was “I’m stealing its production value and core plot”, the rest is going to be mostly mine…

As the title of the post hints, we’re starting to feel the end of the campaign and players are becoming more critical of their characters and motivations.  Players have started talking about other classes they never got to play or old favorites they’d like to play again.

For example, while discussing with Yan about the new Pathfinder character he’s building, I noticed just how eager he was about trying something new (even if we are probably going to be playing it just one session). The discussion evolved to the point where Yan came clean that while he likes the fluff around Lillee and that she represents exactly what a Pixie sorcerer could be in D&D, he isn’t all that thrilled anymore as to how she plays out.

As we evolve as players and DM, we come to realize that some concepts and play styles are more appropriate for each of us.

Yan is that strange breed of player that wants to be both a Storyteller, a Butt Kicker and a Tactician. Furthermore, if you’ll allow me to borrow from Magic the Gathering lingo, Yan craves interactivity with the game’s elements, he likes to engage enemies, trade blows, jump on their back and steer them into walls .

While Lillee completely delivered to his inner story-teller, she was designed to be non-interactive. She’s this invisible, flying, spell casting character, MtG’s equvalent to a blue Control Deck (the archetype Yan hates the most).

So we agreed that Yan would make himself a new character. The design so far seems to be a Swordsage (Book of Nine Swords) multi classed with a Scout (Complete Adventurer). We discussed how to integrate him in the party and he’s working to build ties with other party members.

I’m rambling, I know, but this example serves to show you that some of my players, seeing our game drawing to an end, mid May is basically 8 games away, are looking for other things. I intend to stay true to my ‘play what you feel like’ philosophy and allow new characters (at the same Xp level).

Since my discussions with Yan, Eric (Cruguer) mentioned that he might go for a classic Wizard.

So here’s where I want to drive at in terms of Adventure Prep for this week, character changes bring a certain level of disruption to an established group. The question of ‘why should we allow this stranger to join us’ needs to be answered effectively to limit Storming in the group.

Here’s what I intend to do.

Last game, the characters received a prophecy that points toward the solution of the various Drow and Yugoloth threats against Ptolus and the rest of the game world.

Well, what if that prophecy had been given to other parties as well? What if, as darkness descends on Ptolus, organizations perish or revert to self-preservation? What if in that chaos, the recent actions of our party of PCs shine as a beacon of hope and others start flocking to it?

Now we get a Gygaxian extended party where players can switch PCs at pre-established points in the story and we can now assume that some unexplored plot hooks in our free play style get explored by some of the off screen members.

I don’t know about you, but I like this ‘patch’.

Now onwards to the adventure…

This week the players are presented with two hooks to explore:

• A drow portal that links the near-surface of Ptolus to an area possibly deep in the Underdark under the city.
• A Prophecy that talks of Demon death, gates and Keys.

Based on my player pre-game hype-generating banter, part of the group wants to go Underdark hunting for the Drow base of operation while the adventure, as written, goes quite another way.

So once again I’ll do something different from my natural style. I’ll resist from railroading the group.

I plan to allow players to choose which path to follow.  I will make following the Drow path a bit harder as the scale of what’s brewing on my world is, as planned, way above the capabilities of a small group to deal with. However, there will be a reward at the end of the line and a story to tell.
(It must be said that while we never played a Planescape game, we also never played an Underdark themed arc… so both possibilities are attractive to me right now).

Now since all players currently will have fighters, I will take the hint that I must focus on interesting fights.  They’ll get them all right!  🙂

In order to have a successful  session I need to focus on:

• Make the Drow a credible threat.  Last game was a washout and I want Aravar the Elf (Math)to see that the Drow are a real threat to his people.
• Weave Yan’s new character into Nogard’s story… I want to revisit the price that needs to be paid to have accepted to be transformed by a Lovecraftian horror.
• Cruguer is probably going to be featured for the last time in the game, I need to exploit his weakness (fear of death) with the path Eric chose for him (fighting the undead) and maybe have Eric realize that he wants to keep playing him some more…
• Start blowing stuff up in Ptolus to really drive home the point that the Bad guys have the means to bring about something Dire to the world!

So the players will get to decide if we start progressing into the new adventure or go explore something else… and my mission is to stay neutral in the decision…

Thank god for pre-drawn battle maps and the later Monster Manuals!