help with my campaign

[worldeater]

hi people, i've been running a campaign for a while now.
here's a recap i wrote up of the 5 sessions i've run so far:
http://www.utopiastudios.com/conan/recap.pdf

i'm trying to figure out what to do next. i thought people here might be able to come up with something clever.

here's a summary, since i doubt anybody wants to read the 9 page pdf:

the PC's are mostly borderer/nomad types, they are boating out to the middle of the
wilderness to get a supply of magic rock and bring it back to civilization. they
were attacked by a bunch of nasty diseased mountain goat picts (ie: BROOS). They were ambushed
at the point where they beached their boats (to set out on foot for the mine).
they leave their boats cleverly hidden. One of the PCs is unconscious and left by
the boats with another to guard him.
So the rest of the party (3 + an NPC + a hunting dog) head up into the mountains
to find this mine. they find the mine & camp have been ransacked. they set the
camp on fire to create a diversion, head to the mine & fight a monster, then
decide to get the F out of there. they each take a sack of magic rocks with them.
probably 35-40 lbs. worth a piece.

so it took them all day to get to the mine and search it, fight the monster, etc.
now it's night time and they want to head back to the boats in the dark. They
know the way, and they've got a torch. one character can see in the
dark and has the dog.

but they fought all day, been hiking in armor all afternoon, and probably weren't
getting much rest in the week previous, since they were boating thru the deep dark
jungle. i'm going to give them some fatigue penalties, obviously.

now the question is, what the hell happens to them and what do the picts do?
my plan was that they were bringing a larger warband, led by a shaman and their
biggest baddest fighter type. the picts know where the PCs originally landed their
boats, so they were going to head there to burn the boats, etc.

now, the party have hidden the boats, and are walking around in the mountains with
a lit torch at night. also, there's this glow of a burning camp in the distance.
what do the picts do? head to the bank, look for the boats, then head back uphill
toward the camp, thus meeting the party en-route? do they ambush the party, or do
they miss the party completely because they are too busy checking out the camp?

i want to penalize the party somehow for wasting time and travelling at night. should
they be attacked by some wild animals instead? being fatigued is not really a concern unless
it actually affects them in a fight.

on the other hand, the diversion and hiding the boats were definately good ideas.
what do they get for that?

also, the shaman does have a spell allowing him to summon some kind of crow or bat
that will scout for him.

i guess i have a lot of options here. what do you think?

once they're clear of this, the PCs have to row upstream for a week+ with ~150
lbs. of rock added to their cargo. they've got two rowboats, 6 bodies (5 PC's
+ 1 NPC) and a dog. i can't just let them get back with a "oh this takes
you a lot of effort but you get there eventually". what should i do? i'm
not even really sure what the carrying capacity of an ancient roman-esque rowboat
would be. i'm going to have to assume that the current is pretty slight (despite
it being called the 'Thunder River'), otherwise the whole trip would seem
pretty impossible (as opposed to nearly impossible, which is what i was going for).
throw me some ideas if you've got em.
thanks!

 

[Csmallo]

Pretty simple, the main party returns to the beach to find the boats destroyed/gone and the heads of the two that were left behind hanging from a tree. They are then picked off one by one as they try to make it back to the Westermark. You don't mess with the Picts, they will eat your lunch everytime.

 

[worldeater]

that'd be a great scenario if i didn't want to play anymore...

 

[Dpetroc]

Well, you could have the two at the boats captured by the picts to be used in some grisly sacrifice -- now the party has to free their companions and hot-foot it out of thier taking only their equipment...oops. Those magic rocks are REALLY slowing you down...

 

[worldeater]

hm not a bad idea. a capture/rescue scenario would be fun.
unfortunately, i'm guessing the players will just opt ditch their pals and head for home... the one guy with a code of honor is the one guarding his KO'd comrade (naturally).
also, it's kind of key to the rest of the campaign that they actually get out with the magic rock. its not the end of the world if they don't, but i have some cool stuff prepared for when they do.
the other thing is that i'm thinking the picts shouldn't find the boats at all. the boats are hidden, while we've got these guys walking around with a torch at night - wouldn't the picts attention be drawn to the party with the torch?
i think the players'll feel pretty cheated if their boat-hiding doesn't work. like i'm just deciding what happens and any precautions they take have no effect on the outcome of the scenario.

 

[Evil_Trevor]

I guess you have to decide what you want as in, Do you want them to have a fight, encumbered, outnumbered and in the middle of nowhere ? are they in a fit state to fight or would it just be a slaughter ?

me, I'd let them leave but make sure they knew the picts were watching them, but have the picts take no action to start anything. it would generate a huge amount of parania in the players, might even have the picts grining a knowing grin.

As they make thier slow way up river the picts would follow them, as if waiting for something to happen....


The boat can take the load if you say it can, it might mean it is really low in the water and the players have to be carefull not to capsize. I would make it a very paranoid trip back

 

[Dpetroc]

hiding boats from picts...in pictland... I'd say that they should be happy that the picts didn't find the boats before the party knew they ever HAD boats...


You're party would sacrifice party members like that? Niiiccceee....

 

[Bregales]

Hey worldeater, this is a really cool adventure you've started. As for your dilemnas:

:arrow: That the party successfully hid the boats, you're right in thinking they should get some nod, points, whatever for that. Having hidden them underwater like that, not the easiest to spot I'd guess. But Dogotu and Grey, well that's quite another matter. :twisted: ~Since they're both PCs, I'd suggest instead of arbitrarily saying that they're caught, I'd make rolls to see if the Picts, the Shaman's spells or his crow spot them.

**If they're discovered, they're captured. The Picts should know from both their previous encounter as well as the burning camp uphill that these two aren't alone. So they'd most likely capture them and take them back to their camp to torture, or maybe do they old tie them up and taunt/torture them to try to lure the other party members out.

:?: Does the Shaman (or any of the other Picts) speak any of the languages known by either Grey or Dogotu? He could interrogate the men, trying to find out about *the boat, *how they got here, *how many in their party, *what happened to their party/where did they go.

:arrow: Burning the camp is an interesting choice the party made. I'd have the Shaman split his band, sending X number of them to the fire uphill, have the rest guard the prisoners if found, or search for the boats as it seems clear they know about the boats from Chapter 3. *If Grey and Dogotu haven't been found, would the Shaman suspect something? (He may either cast a spell for divination or make an Intelligence roll).

:?: How is the NPC who is with the group? As this one isn't severely wounded, seems okay. But how likely will the Picts be able to track/spot/hear the party (what are the NPC's skills)? What about the dog with the party, it seems to favor Morne. Reason I'm asking is, if the Picts approach, will the dog bark, snarl, growl, or run after them? Asking this based on the dog's past behavior with the albino ape and the Picts. And I don't know what levels the group are now, if they're multiclassed or if they've leveled up in the same classes. My ideas here are generalized without knowing more. It seems like you've done a very good job creating an interesting and challenging adventure for this group.
One last question about Grey: In your writeup he was knocked unconscious by a Pict's club, but you seem to indicate he's severely wounded. Is it the latter? If not, how long before he could regain consciousness (per nonlethal damage)?

:arrow: With the party split, you have to decide whether you want to run them in separate groups. I did this all the time when running the old Star Wars rpg, but despite wanting to do it with this game, the party always refused to separate! :roll: If this won't happen, it sounds like you'll just be running things for the main group, that's almost how your initial post reads, but I'm not sure. I still think you should roll for the Picts to discover the two left behind no matter what.

:idea: One last note about the boats: Suppose that Grey and Dogotu are discovered and that the boats are discovered. Yeah, lugging those bags of rocks which are instrumental for your campaign would make that practically impossible. But what about this then: suppose they're captured and taken to a tribal camp for torture, burning, or whatever. Make the party want to rescue them if they seem reluctant to. In this case, maybe finding and destroying their boats would be preferrable: they then have to put down the rocks and try to rescue their friends. *Getting to the camp, they discover that the Picts have canoes :!: :idea: *They also discover the Shaman's sinister plans. Maybe another clue from the camp. Can they turn the tides, how are Suhaila and Doombek and Morne's hunting/tracking abilities compared to the Picts who are busy at their camp? (I'm thinking of things like Drums Along the Mohawk, The Deerslayer and of course "Beyond the Black River" and "Wolves Beyond the Border."

Anyways, I haven't been on these boards in a long time, haven't been a GM in a long time (trying to get back into both now) so I hope some or all of these can be of help!

 

[worldeater]

Hey worldeater, this is a really cool adventure you've started. As for your dilemnas:

thanks! i'm surprised somebody read all that mess! it's pretty fun so far and as you can probably tell, there are a lot of random seeds for story arcs floating around that could potentially take us several years to resolve (especially since we're going so slow so far).

:?: Does the Shaman (or any of the other Picts) speak any of the languages known by either Grey or Dogotu? He could interrogate the men, trying to find out about *the boat, *how they got here, *how many in their party, *what happened to their party/where did they go.

i doubt they speak any of the same languages. i think morne speaks pictish, and i doubt the shaman, being a hill goat type, knows anything but pictish. or possibly his own dialect.
also, it seems to me that it'd be far more likely for the party in the mountains gets spotted, since they're walking around with a torch at night. they could then be interrogated as to the location of the boats, but at that point its meaningless.

:arrow: Burning the camp is an interesting choice the party made. I'd have the Shaman split his band, sending X number of them to the fire uphill, have the rest guard the prisoners if found, or search for the boats as it seems clear they know about the boats from Chapter 3. *If Grey and Dogotu haven't been found, would the Shaman suspect something? (He may either cast a spell for divination or make an Intelligence roll).

yeah, it occurred to me that this diversion is pretty obviously a diversion. i mean, why would the party burn the camp and then STICK AROUND? maybe it shouldn't do much more than draw away a couple of scouts to check out what the ruckus is about.

:?: How is the NPC who is with the group? As this one isn't severely wounded, seems okay. But how likely will the Picts be able to track/spot/hear the party (what are the NPC's skills)? What about the dog with the party, it seems to favor Morne. Reason I'm asking is, if the Picts approach, will the dog bark, snarl, growl, or run after them? Asking this based on the dog's past behavior with the albino ape and the Picts. And I don't know what levels the group are now, if they're multiclassed or if they've leveled up in the same classes. My ideas here are generalized without knowing more. It seems like you've done a very good job creating an interesting and challenging adventure for this group.
One last question about Grey: In your writeup he was knocked unconscious by a Pict's club, but you seem to indicate he's severely wounded. Is it the latter? If not, how long before he could regain consciousness (per nonlethal damage)?

the party's class/levels are in their descriptions at the top of the pdf... suhaila and morne just leveled up to lvl 2, arides and their guide bruschas are still at lvl 1, as are dogotu & grey, since they didn't do much of anything in the last session. i'm planning on toning down the whole 'leveling up' dynamic of the D20 rules, because i don't like it.. i'm limiting HP to CONx2 max, etc. keeps it more gritty and less ridiculous. this means i have to tone down whatever stats for monsters i find in conan books. in any case, the bad guys are individually a bit weaker than the PC's.
as far as survival/tracking/outdoorsy skills, the party are pretty well equipped. bruschas & morne are both borderers, and morne is cimmerian so he is feeling right at home in the mountains. suhaila is a nomad with high stats so she's got some great skills for this as well. arides is the only city-slicker in the bunch that are in the mountains. the dog is also naturally good at this sort of thing, and is well trained. he's actually wounded though (and btw, he favors Suhaila, who is effectively his 'owner' -she's got the highest handle animal skill)..
unfortunately, the PC's aren't making much effort to cover their tracks, and again.. they're carrying a torch at night! anyone with higher ground within miles is going to see them easy without needing to roll opposed survival for tracking.

::arrow: With the party split, you have to decide whether you want to run them in separate groups. I did this all the time when running the old Star Wars rpg, but despite wanting to do it with this game, the party always refused to separate! :roll: If this won't happen, it sounds like you'll just be running things for the main group, that's almost how your initial post reads, but I'm not sure. I still think you should roll for the Picts to discover the two left behind no matter what.

yeah i will make a roll for it, but at this point we've lost two players, so it was a convenient way of taking those PC's out of the game. hopefully we'll get someone to step in and take over dogotu. grey was knocked down to 0 HP by the club, so i just ruled he was KO'd for a while. normally, Suhaila would have just been able to bump him up to 1 with first aid, but a) i want the game to be more gritty with actual consequences to being hurt bad, b) his player was kinda bummed about his 9 STR (constantly rolling 1's for damage and doing nothing), so his character being KO'd allowed him to switch to Morne (whose player had to drop out), and c) it allows me to reveal crazy flashbacks and/or hallucinatory fever dreams from Grey's mysterious past... if his player ever comes back to him.

:idea: One last note about the boats: Suppose that Grey and Dogotu are discovered and that the boats are discovered. Yeah, lugging those bags of rocks which are instrumental for your campaign would make that practically impossible. But what about this then: suppose they're captured and taken to a tribal camp for torture, burning, or whatever. Make the party want to rescue them if they seem reluctant to. In this case, maybe finding and destroying their boats would be preferrable: they then have to put down the rocks and try to rescue their friends. *Getting to the camp, they discover that the Picts have canoes :!: :idea: *They also discover the Shaman's sinister plans. Maybe another clue from the camp. Can they turn the tides, how are Suhaila and Doombek and Morne's hunting/tracking abilities compared to the Picts who are busy at their camp? (I'm thinking of things like Drums Along the Mohawk, The Deerslayer and of course "Beyond the Black River" and "Wolves Beyond the Border."

Anyways, I haven't been on these boards in a long time, haven't been a GM in a long time (trying to get back into both now) so I hope some or all of these can be of help!

thanks, man! having to raid the picts in their lair would be a pretty intense scenario. not sure if they're up to it, but it would definately set the stakes higher for this whole expedition. through years of conditioning, my group automatically assumes that i am a completely evil bastard, and they are expecting to be completely killed off. i guess regularly ending scenarios or campaigns with a TOTAL PARTY KILL for ~8 years does that. anywhow, these days they tend to have a pretty cowardly approach to everything. i don't blame them. hopefully making the big bad ape monster a total wimp gave them some more confidence.

 

[Bregales]

Hey worldeater, this is a really cool adventure you've started. As for your dilemnas:

thanks! i'm surprised somebody read all that mess! it's pretty fun so far and as you can probably tell, there are a lot of random seeds for story arcs floating around that could potentially take us several years to resolve (especially since we're going so slow so far).

It was fun to read (although I admit I didn't read the letter they found at the end of the .pdf, but I was pressed for time and wanted to write down some ideas...) and nicely presented.

:?: Does the Shaman (or any of the other Picts) speak any of the languages known by either Grey or Dogotu? He could interrogate the men, trying to find out about *the boat, *how they got here, *how many in their party, *what happened to their party/where did they go.

i doubt they speak any of the same languages. i think morne speaks pictish, and i doubt the shaman, being a hill goat type, knows anything but pictish. or possibly his own dialect.

Makes sense, that's what I figured, I just wanted to give some ideas.

also, it seems to me that it'd be far more likely for the party in the mountains gets spotted, since they're walking around with a torch at night. they could then be interrogated as to the location of the boats, but at that point its meaningless.

Oh yeah, I agree :twisted: , I kinda overlooked that last night.

:?: How is the NPC who is with the group? As this one isn't severely wounded, seems okay. But how likely will the Picts be able to track/spot/hear the party (what are the NPC's skills)? What about the dog with the party, it seems to favor Morne. Reason I'm asking is, if the Picts approach, will the dog bark, snarl, growl, or run after them? Asking this based on the dog's past behavior with the albino ape and the Picts. And I don't know what levels the group are now, if they're multiclassed or if they've leveled up in the same classes. My ideas here are generalized without knowing more. It seems like you've done a very good job creating an interesting and challenging adventure for this group.
One last question about Grey: In your writeup he was knocked unconscious by a Pict's club, but you seem to indicate he's severely wounded. Is it the latter? If not, how long before he could regain consciousness (per nonlethal damage)?

the party's class/levels are in their descriptions at the top of the pdf... suhaila and morne just leveled up to lvl 2, arides and their guide bruschas are still at lvl 1, as are dogotu & grey, since they didn't do much of anything in the last session. i'm planning on toning down the whole 'leveling up' dynamic of the D20 rules, because i don't like it.. i'm limiting HP to CONx2 max, etc. keeps it more gritty and less ridiculous. this means i have to tone down whatever stats for monsters i find in conan books. in any case, the bad guys are individually a bit weaker than the PC's.
as far as survival/tracking/outdoorsy skills, the party are pretty well equipped. bruschas & morne are both borderers, and morne is cimmerian so he is feeling right at home in the mountains. suhaila is a nomad with high stats so she's got some great skills for this as well. arides is the only city-slicker in the bunch that are in the mountains. the dog is also naturally good at this sort of thing, and is well trained. he's actually wounded though (and btw, he favors Suhaila, who is effectively his 'owner' -she's got the highest handle animal skill)..
unfortunately, the PC's aren't making much effort to cover their tracks, and again.. they're carrying a torch at night! anyone with higher ground within miles is going to see them easy without needing to roll opposed survival for tracking.

Okay, I didn't know if the .pdf had been updated, or if they were listed at the beginning and you just added each chapter after that gaming session without updating the character bios. As for hit points and wounds, well I commend you on getting the grittiness and danger across to your party, I also like the idea of Conan from the stories being covered with wounds while fighting off hordes of enemies in battles, or Thak or some horrendous demon, and allowed the hp system in my last game to give some of that. I scared the daylights out of some of my players when we started and they saw how badly they could be hurt, and I don't think they ever saw me as an easy GM (?). But it will be interesting to see how your group does. I agree that the group is in big trouble if they are wandering down the path with a torch in their hand, careless of the thought of enemies.

...but at this point we've lost two players, so it was a convenient way of taking those PC's out of the game....

Sorry to hear that, but what happened seems to be a good solution then, especially for the player who dropped Grey and picked up Morne!

:idea: One last note about the boats: Suppose that Grey and Dogotu are discovered and that the boats are discovered. Yeah, lugging those bags of rocks which are instrumental for your campaign would make that practically impossible. But what about this then: suppose they're captured and taken to a tribal camp for torture, burning, or whatever. Make the party want to rescue them if they seem reluctant to. In this case, maybe finding and destroying their boats would be preferrable: they then have to put down the rocks and try to rescue their friends. *Getting to the camp, they discover that the Picts have canoes :!: :idea: *They also discover the Shaman's sinister plans. Maybe another clue from the camp. Can they turn the tides, how are Suhaila and Doombek and Morne's hunting/tracking abilities compared to the Picts who are busy at their camp? (I'm thinking of things like Drums Along the Mohawk, The Deerslayer and of course "Beyond the Black River" and "Wolves Beyond the Border."

Anyways, I haven't been on these boards in a long time, haven't been a GM in a long time (trying to get back into both now) so I hope some or all of these can be of help!

thanks, man! having to raid the picts in their lair would be a pretty intense scenario. not sure if they're up to it, but it would definately set the stakes higher for this whole expedition. through years of conditioning, my group automatically assumes that i am a completely evil bastard, and they are expecting to be completely killed off. i guess regularly ending scenarios or campaigns with a TOTAL PARTY KILL for ~8 years does that. anywhow, these days they tend to have a pretty cowardly approach to everything. i don't blame them. hopefully making the big bad ape monster a total wimp gave them some more confidence.

You're welcome, and I look forward to reading how they make out. Good luck with the group, and I'll try to check back in on these boards from time to time. :wink:

 

[worldeater]

i'll keep updating that pdf as the games get played. right now we're doing every other saturday (session 5 happened last weekend), so check back in a couple weeks. or i'll just post here when i update it.

 

[worldeater]

http://www.utopiastudios.com/conan/recap.pdf

posted the 6th session recap....

the PC's just baasically killed everybody with ease. i wasn't feeling too good the night of the game so i forgot some key things that would have made their lives a lot more rough. also still getting a gauge on what is challenging and what is not. the next guys they fight will have to be a lot tougher. they killed a freakin' level 6 shaman in no time flat!

 

[emirikol]

W.e.

Travelling at night on a river will result in one of two things:
1. A destroyed boat because of rocks
2. A destroyed boat because of rocks plus lost PC gear

I read your 9 page summary. YOu have a lot of good names in there as well as workable background. Keep it up.

jh

 

[worldeater]

haha yes, well, fortunately one of them can see in the dark... with the fog and everything that should count for... not too much

i've had to completely understate the hazard-level of the thunder river just to make this mission plausible. so i guess in this version of hyboria, the thunder river doesnt get nasty until further south into these mountains.


as far as workable background... i have enough side hooks in there too keep us busy for a couple years, unless they all get ignored!