Having been playfully accused of doing some heavy comment baiting this week, here’s a more mundane campaign log! 🙂
The RPG season is winding down.
Like some of my blogging buddies, we’re slowly getting ready to call it quits and it shows in our games. Still we managed to have a good time last Friday.
Let’s dig in shall we?
Last time, we left our heroes right inside Zelatar, the city of Demon Price Gratzz that covers three layers of the Abyss.
The PCs needed to find an Ambassador of Orcus, the Demon Lord of the undead. They hoped to retrieve a way to enter the deeper Demonwebs and disrupt Lolth latest scheme (and as a side quest, save their world from absorption into the Abyss).
I was upfront with the players and I asked them how they wanted to go at it in such an hostile environment and they all agreed that they’d prefer being discreet and avoid combat at all costs.
I was all for that.
In order to set the stage for a demonic city I started describing the environment of the city, focusing mostly on the demonic ‘citizens’ around them. (Thanks for the numerous tips!)
I described a series of maimed demons offering their services as guide. As the PCs were looking at the meager choice, I started describing a dialogue (in abyssal) between a nearby impaled demon and a Crow trying to feast on the impalee’s eye, Terry Pratchett style!
When Cixi perked up (she understands Abyssal, that’s what all Iron Heroes speak… hint hint) she engaged discussions with the crow and it was soon hired as a guide.
A bit later, I set up an scene where a spherical object was kicked toward the PCs followed by a horde of screaming, charging demons!
(At that point someone caught on my trope and called: “That’s a head coming our way!”)
As soon as it stopped at the feet of the PCs, the disembodied head let out a weak ‘save meeeee’ as the raveous demons were charging the party.
Always quick on his feet (literally), Inigo Firenze (played by Yan) kicked the head back into the middle of the the fiendish horde, who returned to their Football/Soccer game.
A bit later, I had a demon slaver ask how much the party wanted for Cixi, willing to go as as high as 50 000gp!
They were tempted…
Hell, even Cixi was, after having clearly established that she was her own owner (a concept the demon had to work out some).
We then spent the next 30 minutes or so exploring the city as the crow was leading the PCs to their destination and acting as tour guide. After some time, they arrived to a ‘hotel’ (In the Monte Cristo way), a series of buildings arranged around an inner courtyard and protected by barred gates.
That was the PCs destinatiuon, the Sign of the Black Heart, a very private and exclusive Inn on the remote 3rd layer of the realm of Grat’zz.
There they PCs had to negociate, cajole and pay through the nose (About 3500 gp….) just to be allowed in the Inn’s common room and get a vague promise that a message would be sent to the Ambassador ‘soon’.
Extortion DM aside: I had never realized how satisfying it can be to extort in-game money from players. As for out of game money, I do at every game when I collect for food! 🙂
After spending some time in the inn and getting nowhere, the party got fed up and started doing some serious intimidation to get to meet the ambassador (including breaking a few fingers of the serving staff).
That got results pretty fast (and started the timer as the maimed waiter ran to his bosses) and the PCs were in the Ambassador’s room, taking to a giant Undead Bone Snake (A Death Naga)!
There the Quest Giver Ambassador showed them how to get in the Demonwebs Pits (the Deep parts of the Demonwebs) and gave them the details on when Lolth was having her little ‘council of Demon lords’.
When all things were said and done, I had the door of the Ambassador crash and the Inn’s bouncer barge in, while some of Grat’zz Lamia Nobles were in the Inn’s courtyard, screaming for the Mortals’ blood.
I asked what the players wanted to do and they decided to run. So out of Zelatar they went with no dice roll and some rapid descriptions.
Deviating from a published adventure aside: The Adventure had 5 back to back fighting encounters to chronicle the PCs struggle to get out of Zelatar alive (and find an exit portal). I chose to waive all that (as the players wished) and replaced with only one encounter.
At the point where the entry/exit portal back into Shadowfell-bound Ptolus was, a large monster awaited them…
It was a horrible outsider made of heat and electricity whose breathe made Armour Spark up! Yay! it was an honest to goodness Microwave Ogre! (Thanks to Graham for making the stats up)
It’s a shame we can’t share that monster as it’s an adaptation of the CR13 Ember Guard from the Monster Manual V and therefore completely not OGL material.
Here’s a hint, Drop DR to 10/good and give it a 3d6 fire breath that deals an extra 3d6 electricity to metal clad targets (-4 DC save to them too).
As is the case for (almost) fully charged PCs, the fight was short. The Ogre scored a solid breath attack and then fell under the combined onslaught of a well coordinated group.
The party returned to Ptolus and geared up for the final foray in the Demonwebs and we were ready to go.
Up to that point the game had been awesome. The rhythm was sustained, a few obstacles were actually resolved with roleplaying and the flavour of the Demonic city and denizen was fun to play with.
The Demonweb part of the adventure wasn’t nearly as dynamic.
While the players had been given a map to the Demonweb (which is a very very convoluted, ever changing series of 20′ wide web corridors), it was completely useless. The players spent about one hour stumbling through empty rooms and poorly guarded, easy to kill guardians.
It got to a point where the rising boredom of the group was palpable and I forwarded the PCs to the next part into the Demonweb Pits I hadn’t really read as I didn’t expect to reach that point that night.
That’s when I realized that I was getting really tired, (and so were the players) although it was about 9h15 PM.
Thing is, we had started at 5h30 that night, a full 90 minutes earlier than usual as our Late working friend, Math, actually showed up real early that night. By 9h30, we had been playing for about 4 hours (including a short dinner) and we were pooped.
Yeah I know, we’re wusses… I remember playing from 5h00 PM to 3 AM when I was a teenager. Now, if we have more than 3 combat and 2 roleplaying scenes in one night, we’re preety much done unless said scenes have been utterly awesome.
Anyway, soon after getting into the ‘deeper’ parts of the Demonwebs, the party met yet another guardian encounter. Having no wish to have one more of those mindless Speed bump fights (heaven knows we had enough if those in that campaign), I stopped the game for the night.
Some players left and we ended the evening playing some Magic the Gathering.
Lessons Learned
- Story trumps combat when a gaming group is getting tired of an adventure
- Paying tributes to old memories is fun, at least for the DM
- There is such a things as too many meaningless fights, no matter how retro-stupid-nostalgic one may get.
What Players liked
- Exploring the Demonic City
- Getting out of Zelatar unscathed
What Players disliked
- The seemingly senseless Dungeon crawl after a few good story driven scenes
- Even at level 11 and tweaked to heal without spending an action, the cleric is clearly underwhelming in terms of ‘doing stuff that matters’ when compared to the late design classes*
- Speed Bump fights…
I’m definitively going to do something about those speed bumps. I’ll tell you more next week, but I’m probably going to go all out story telling next session and end the campaign there.
*Nitpicking avoidance alert: While buffing and healing matters, it’s not interactive and players seeking action have less fun. In my experience, druids are more fun to play.
Hey look everybody! I’m an annoying person with nothing useful to say! Pay attention to me! Aren’t I great because I got first posts?
– Graham’s impersonation
Oy! Don’t start this please!
At least say something significant about the post! 🙂
Fixed!
Did I understood right and this was your honest the god, first first post comment… LOL!
It’s not like there is that many comment being post… well… beside the last 2 or 3 weeks… 😉
As for this session, the meaningless dungeon crawl was a pain it was either so underpower that it was irrelevant or so overpower (the drow town) that you could not even consider going against it.
It came down to:
Phil: You arrive in room with description Y you have x path leading out
Yan look at map scratching his head
other players look at me with a clear sign of hope that’ll figure something out of this crap.
Yan: The hell this map makes no sense!
Yan throws a dice and choose a path at random for the group.
Rinse & repeat…
Hmm…you know…there’re quite a few campaigns that I wish I could remember every detail of…maybe I should start logging the events of our group…
What is RPG season? Do you break for summer or something? Is it because of kids? Maybe you already explained. I love reading campaign logs. Nice one.
jeffxs last blog post..DM Grade: Life and Times in Alkin – Session 1
RPG season is the period where we play our main campaign. It usually starts in late August and peters off in mid-late May.
At that point, vacations, kids, parents visiting and general tiredness eats up on game attendance and I usually end up making a call to end the current season.
During the summer, the more ‘intense’ role players meet once or twice to test new systems, new rules or re-visit an old campaign we never finished.
Our season and current campaign should end next Friday or maybe in mid May. Then I break out the new 4e Module and we try it out in an informal game.
Thanks for the kudos jeffx.
The more intense roleplayer… Lol!
Those games usually lead:
Groups fights an angel to keep relics from its clutch
or
Rogues raiding Pelor’s vaults for his church’s most precious relics…
Oh yes that is not the thread of the 10 words contest… Sorry stuck in the 10 word pattern 😉
That being said Mat has had less time of late and even less with the coming birth… So the intense roleplaying group as diminished…
Sounds awesome. How was the food in the Abyss? Did you get me anything?
About the “combat speed bumps”
I sometimes like to give my players something they can mow down quickly, it gets their ego up so I can smash it later. I don’t do it often, maybe one or two encounters in a set. This is particularly good for the first encounter of the evening, as it helps shake the cobwebs off without too much risk to the PC’s.
I ran a “Wicked Fantasy Factory” adventure a few months ago. This are adventures whose design is to maximize the “Rule of Cool”. They had a mechanic in there called “Mook”. Essentially, these are guys who are meant to be plowed down by the heroes. As I recall, all spells were treated as maximized when used against them, melee attackers get the cleave feat for free when fighting them (if they already have cleave they get the greater cleave), and ranged attackers automatically get the rapid shot feat against them, possibly at no penalty. Players always knew when they were fighting mooks, and would go a bit nuts against them. Anyway, the point being that these guys are cannon fodder, let the heroes look cool slaying them quickly.
Another idea to use bumps, but speed past them, by treating the monsters like “minions” in 4E. The kobold minion stat that was released awhile back showed that they died if they took any damage. That’s something else that is easy enough to do, allowing the players to mow through monsters and get to the good stuff.
Finally, you could always handwave a fight. “Four drow spiderguards stand guard at the door. They spot you, and combat ensues. Describe how you defeat them”. Let the players go gonzo on the description and move on to the good stuff.
I did that, only without the Gonzo descriptions by the players. I just said that they mowed down a certain number of Drow patrol… maybe I should have given the players the mike on those ones and let them one up each other with combat fishing stories…
Good tip, thanks..
I’m really looking forward to the minions rules.
The part in the city was really cool. It was fun seeing Phil throwing encounter at us just so we would figure a way to avoid them…
I personally liked when I punt back the ball/head back at the demon.
I could Imagine the head landing saying help me. Inigo kicking it back into the fray with a: “No problem, don’t need to thank me… ”
As for the food I would say that it was not really inviting “literally”…
Yeah apparently, grilled Mane brochettes aren’t appreciated by Primes… go figure.
Demons make a damned good barbeque though.
I personally more inclined to go food Deviled eggs and Devil Food Cake…
But that’s a personal preference.
🙂
That’s more of a nine hells kind of thing though.
I got a rule against eating stuff that talk back at you… Duno, maybe it’s just me… 😉
Edit: I can just see the scene: ” Sir may I suggest that you eat my left leg. It’s my strong side. Tender muscle you’re gonna love it.”
Lawful Evil FTW Jason!
Yup… but in Zelatar, you can have Devil Meat!
Hmmm. LE Bacon!
Yan, reminds of the simpsons episode where homer dreams of the pig in a top hat and waist coat that wants him to eat it.
chatty, there’s a quest in WoW when you get to outlands that requires you to purify tainted Hellboar meat to make sausages for this goblin cook. The cook’s name is Legassi if you get the referrence.
This sounds like fun. I admit I’m a bit lost everytime you mention Iron Heroes though. What product are those from? Just curious enough to go glance at a description. Sounds like the demonic city was a lot of fun. Don’t feel too bad about getting slowed down by the webs though. I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with the DM of the game I’m in currently about managing information you want the players to have. I’m thinking there’s a good article there somewhere I just haven’t assembled enough miscellaneous bits yet to ask the right questions.
Comment on comments – Hmm. Chatty entrees bring up an interesting point. I have a simple write-up on the steampunk/fantasy setting I was working on in preparation to making it using the spiral design philosophy (spiral out from where the PCs are and fill in the details as I go). I had a faerie sort of realm with talking animals though and now I’m wondering about meat there. What would the packaging say? “100% grade A meat freshly enchanted off of a voluntary donation from a regenerating cow named Lenny. Stop in at our shop any Saturday, he loves to meet customers!”
Jason: About quest, food and WoW,
…There’s a quest in Nagrand where you must “dig” some berries that are into talbuk’s manure… only to found out that the quest giver upon their return make them water-breathing berries that you can swallow for another quest implying some deep water creatures… [sigh] Classics
Oh, and Yan…. i’m currently reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Restaurant at the End of the Universe” and there is a part where the characters are at that restaurant and they meet the “Plat du jour”, a talking kinda cow who is proposing his best part and is happy to be your next meal… sweet 🙂
Mike & Jason: Yep read & seen that… While writing the comment I had the distant feeling that I had seen/read something like that somewhere… 😉
Hitchhiker is one of those classic…
Lanir: Iron Heroes is a variant d20 low-magic High Action Fantasy game created by Mike Mearls for Monte Cook’s company.
An Iron Hero is a character class focused on martial prowess (i.e fighters) that have non magical abilities but can still meet a level-equivalent D&D character with magic loot head on.
It’s great fun!
Here’s a post I did on it:
http://chattydm.net/2008/01/09/mini-link-total-iron-heroes-fanboi-cop-out-from-an-actual-post/