Free Epic Campaign - The Pirates of Drinax
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
Impressions from a quick skim of Part 7 (lunch break isn't long enough for more than that and the redoubtable KingsideBishop wouldn't want me to make a careful study, I'm sure):
> Good "transitional" adventure. This is where players move into the endgame of the campaign, and the adventure does a fine job of laying out the Secret Antagonist's cards.
> This one is decidedly RP-centered. It would possible to run this entire chapter without uttering "check initiative" even once.
> Our pirates have a Big Decision to make.
> That being said, our pirates could (it seems anyway) decide the above Big Decision either way without much in the way of Big Consequences. If Evil Hari Seldon is correct, there's really not much they can do to thwart future history. Unless of course there is and they do. A player group could (realistically I suppose) come out of the climax (or anticlimax depending on a few factors) with the impression that everything they've done to date is futile. I predict that the ref will have to carefully guage the attitude at his table leading into this, and if necessary, find a way to whip up their stubborn defiance quotient a bit before proceeding with the final events of this scenario.
In short, this chapter is worth that wait, but the ref should carefully watch the pacing and tone of his campaign before deciding to spring it.
> Good "transitional" adventure. This is where players move into the endgame of the campaign, and the adventure does a fine job of laying out the Secret Antagonist's cards.
> This one is decidedly RP-centered. It would possible to run this entire chapter without uttering "check initiative" even once.
> Our pirates have a Big Decision to make.
> That being said, our pirates could (it seems anyway) decide the above Big Decision either way without much in the way of Big Consequences. If Evil Hari Seldon is correct, there's really not much they can do to thwart future history. Unless of course there is and they do. A player group could (realistically I suppose) come out of the climax (or anticlimax depending on a few factors) with the impression that everything they've done to date is futile. I predict that the ref will have to carefully guage the attitude at his table leading into this, and if necessary, find a way to whip up their stubborn defiance quotient a bit before proceeding with the final events of this scenario.
In short, this chapter is worth that wait, but the ref should carefully watch the pacing and tone of his campaign before deciding to spring it.
Indeed. It's a decision that should be left to the players, but it's important to make clear that the "you're all doomed, the only chance for success is to follow my plan!" is GeDeCo's view, not the GM speaking as third-party-omniscient.
Just because "it is written" doesn't mean you have to read it.
Just because "it is written" doesn't mean you have to read it.
Morningkiller
Mongoose
Good stuff - the sooner this gets done the sooner I can pay mongoose a few bob for the good work done so far.
And Part 8 is being worked on right now 
Balfuset790
Mongoose
On a completely unrelated point - unrelated insofar as the release schedule goes that is - I have a question fort he various PoD GMs out there reading through this topic.
I'm going to - hopefully - be getting a PoD campaign started up in the near future, which so far has included some prep chopping things together in Publisher to make some rather neat, in my personal opinion
, player handouts to summarise the various planets of the Reach and the major NPCs they'll be meeting.
However, I'm still in the process of getting an actual group of players together who can all meet up on teh same night of the week, because adulthood.
And I have one - hopefully - very simple question! What Skill Package did people offer their players during character creation?
I'm torn between the Starship and Criminal packages, however one of my players has expressed an interest in playing a Barbarian character from the surface of Drinax, I had a cool idea that in the 200 years since the bombing by the Aslan the old Imperial culture's mutated into this religious tribal society where 'Sindal' is the name of some Dragon God that rules from the Floating Palace. The player in question has been curious how the King of Drinax is going to be portrayed, as she has plans to question the aptitude of her god's 'High Priest' if he's as useless as he sounds
Regardless, this character concept does not lend itself well to -starting- the game with any starship skills, making the Starship Package a little awkward for her to take, but I worry that the Criminal Package doesn't include enough of the necessary skills - should they be lacking - for the players to work the Harrier sufficiently until they acquire a crew, which will probably be stage one of the campaign.
Any thoughts?
I'm going to - hopefully - be getting a PoD campaign started up in the near future, which so far has included some prep chopping things together in Publisher to make some rather neat, in my personal opinion
, player handouts to summarise the various planets of the Reach and the major NPCs they'll be meeting.However, I'm still in the process of getting an actual group of players together who can all meet up on teh same night of the week, because adulthood.
And I have one - hopefully - very simple question! What Skill Package did people offer their players during character creation?I'm torn between the Starship and Criminal packages, however one of my players has expressed an interest in playing a Barbarian character from the surface of Drinax, I had a cool idea that in the 200 years since the bombing by the Aslan the old Imperial culture's mutated into this religious tribal society where 'Sindal' is the name of some Dragon God that rules from the Floating Palace. The player in question has been curious how the King of Drinax is going to be portrayed, as she has plans to question the aptitude of her god's 'High Priest' if he's as useless as he sounds
Regardless, this character concept does not lend itself well to -starting- the game with any starship skills, making the Starship Package a little awkward for her to take, but I worry that the Criminal Package doesn't include enough of the necessary skills - should they be lacking - for the players to work the Harrier sufficiently until they acquire a crew, which will probably be stage one of the campaign.
Any thoughts?
IanBruntlett
Emperor Mongoose
If you are going to share your work in Microsoft Publisher with people who can't afford Publisher, you may want to consider downloading LibreOffice - its free to install, free to share and free to update - see http://www.libreoffice.org/ for the software, see http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/ for free guides/tutorials.Balfuset790 said:
Balfuset790
Mongoose
Ah, seems as though I may have inadvertently obfuscated my question.
I was asking for people's thoughts on the choice of skill package for character creation.
Sharing these profile docs is something I could do, they've been built in LibreOffice anyway I just used Publisher as it's a more immediately recognisable name. However, as these are for personal consumption only as it stands there's an issue of copyright I suspect as I've used text from the documents of the campaign, to save me having to hand my players the files themselves, as well as Google image searches for NPCS and planetary landscapes.
I was asking for people's thoughts on the choice of skill package for character creation.
Sharing these profile docs is something I could do, they've been built in LibreOffice anyway I just used Publisher as it's a more immediately recognisable name. However, as these are for personal consumption only as it stands there's an issue of copyright I suspect as I've used text from the documents of the campaign, to save me having to hand my players the files themselves, as well as Google image searches for NPCS and planetary landscapes.
Morningkiller
Mongoose
Balfuset790 said:
I found it handier to wait until the PCs are rolled up before discussing/deciding on a package. Chargen is pretty random so there can be odd blindspots. I let the package patch those.
Also if you let your players debate the package at the table it can give you good insights into their playstyles/hopes/expectations for the campaign. priceless data.
The easiest solution, if you're dead set on the "clueless barbarian goes to space" setup, is let the player choose from the skill package skills normally, but they only get to use those skills *after* the first adventure. Grimgr Skullsmasher can pick Gunnery (turret) during chargen, but he only works out how to fire the Eye of the Gods after a bit of trial and error.
In other news, Part 8 is off my desk; onto Part 9 next month.
In other news, Part 8 is off my desk; onto Part 9 next month.
Mytholder said:
Woo! And, in addition, Hoo!
But yes, you need to pick the skill package as a group. Part of the point is to give the players access to campaign-vital skills that their archetype doesn't have access to; it's not unreasonable to include a bit of in-character training to explain how and why they acquired these out-of-character skills. King Oleb may be canny/eccentric/drunk enough to decide on this determined primitive as one of his 'privateers', but Princess Rao and Lord Wrax have enough common sense between them to take them out in a Star Guard gunboat and make sure they understand the basics of how to operate a starship before giving them the keys to the irreplaceable Harrier.
Reminds me of the first mission of Legacies of War - a largely easy mission, but the GM is encouraged to make the players roll piloting checks for things he wouldn't normally bother with (like landing!) - especially since the Harrier has its malfunctioning main drive...
Sorry, we are in deadline hell at the moment - likely up next week!
Actually, pretty good - we are past the deadline, and now focussed on some Traveller bits!
