DMing help

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

I just wanted to run this concept by this place (Since I am on no other site where there's as many people who play D&D).

Basically I want to run my party through a dimension hopping campaign (Which I hope will end at the end of Paragon tier or beginning of Epic tier), in which the characters learn that in 1 years time, both a powerful Balor demon and Codricuhn the Blood Storm (Retailored so that he is simply an enslaved superweapon), will invade the natural world with an army of demons. They will have to collect the Staff of Seven Parts which will awaken the Tarrasque (Also re-tailored into a guardian of the planet instead of living hurricane), and gather an army to combat the coming invasion.

So basically Dragon Age: Origins mixed with Majora's Mask.

 

[kingcom]

For more Roleplayers on a community, go to Giant in The Playground forums.

What edition are you running?

Anyway what kind of feedback do you want specifically?

As a player I can find it would get pretty annoying to go about collecting 7 parts (3 or 4 and it gets a little reptetive but you can easily spice it up).

What type of game are you running? Just a dungeon crawl with 7 dungeons?

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

For more Roleplayers on a community, go to Giant in The Playground forums.

What edition are you running?

Anyway what kind of feedback do you want specifically?

As a player I can find it would get pretty annoying to go about collecting 7 parts (3 or 4 and it gets a little reptetive but you can easily spice it up).

What type of game are you running? Just a dungeon crawl with 7 dungeons?

1.Thanks

2. 4e (NO FLAMES)

3. Just a general "Maybe you could change this" or "Sounds good but"

4 & 5. The 7 parts (The locations of at least 3 I've decided), will have varied locations, and perhaps only 1 or 2 will actually be in a dungeon. (On one I've decided the players will have to chase a Homunculous through a city, another they'll have steal one from a well-known thief, and my newest idea is that they have to navigate the Astral Sea. )

 

[heavyarms]

For more Roleplayers on a community, go to Giant in The Playground forums.

What edition are you running?

Anyway what kind of feedback do you want specifically?

As a player I can find it would get pretty annoying to go about collecting 7 parts (3 or 4 and it gets a little reptetive but you can easily spice it up).

What type of game are you running? Just a dungeon crawl with 7 dungeons?

1.Thanks

2. 4e (NO FLAMES)

3. Just a general "Maybe you could change this" or "Sounds good but"

4 & 5. The 7 parts (The locations of at least 3 I've decided), will have varied locations, and perhaps only 1 or 2 will actually be in a dungeon. (On one I've decided the players will have to chase a Homunculous through a city, another they'll have steal one from a well-known thief, and my newest idea is that they have to navigate the Astral Sea. )

I never did get much into 4th ed (mostly played 3rd and 3.5), but it does sound like an interesting campaign. I'd say make sure to talk with the players about what it is they'd be expecting or wanting to play as or want to see in a game and see how you can tailor those in. Other than that, I think you're good.

 

[crudus]

1.Thanks

2. 4e (NO FLAMES)

3. Just a general "Maybe you could change this" or "Sounds good but"

4 & 5. The 7 parts (The locations of at least 3 I've decided), will have varied locations, and perhaps only 1 or 2 will actually be in a dungeon. (On one I've decided the players will have to chase a Homunculous through a city, another they'll have steal one from a well-known thief, and my newest idea is that they have to navigate the Astral Sea. )

1. N/A

2. *obligatory hate towards something different*

3,4,5. It sounds good but don't get hung up on the staff parts too much. They are just macguffins. What you should focus on is the path the get there. Now, they shouldn't have to just fight their way through the dimension to get to the staff, nor should they just be able to walk to it(nor should they all just be in a dungeon). You need to keep the journey interesting. I personally don't know how to do it; I am not very creative. Maybe have each area where one or two of the players excel at ones (rogue in dungeons, fighters in fights, bards with diplomacy, etc). When I play I love being useful so as an Alchemist I love Large and up creatures to fight but then it becomes too easy. Something I hated a DM doing was requiring min/maxing in a game without regard to role-playing(I chose feats and spells I thought my character would take and what would be fun and almost died...a lot).

 

[kingcom]

For more Roleplayers on a community, go to Giant in The Playground forums.

What edition are you running?

Anyway what kind of feedback do you want specifically?

As a player I can find it would get pretty annoying to go about collecting 7 parts (3 or 4 and it gets a little reptetive but you can easily spice it up).

What type of game are you running? Just a dungeon crawl with 7 dungeons?

1.Thanks

2. 4e (NO FLAMES)

3. Just a general "Maybe you could change this" or "Sounds good but"

4 & 5. The 7 parts (The locations of at least 3 I've decided), will have varied locations, and perhaps only 1 or 2 will actually be in a dungeon. (On one I've decided the players will have to chase a Homunculous through a city, another they'll have steal one from a well-known thief, and my newest idea is that they have to navigate the Astral Sea. )

While 4E is indeed heresy, a GM can make or break a game anyway.

Ok, from the Majoras Mask description I was thinking each of these items would be in a different dungeon. If they are scattered across the land in the hands of various people and places and things then its enough variety to keep people interested.

 

[zen5887]

Yeah man.. You story might a little generic, but as long as the encounters you write are interesting and fun (fun being the most important part), the characters are solid and the world is engaging everything will be fine.

 

[crudus]

Yeah man.. You story might a little generic, but as long as the encounters you write are interesting and fun (fun being the most important part), the characters are solid and the world is engaging everything will be fine.

I have never found anything wrong with "Demons coming to wreck out shit!". You always need to be a high level to deal with it and there is always a huge battle at the end. There is plenty of room for great stories to tell afterward. Last time it happened we rode undead, adult, red-dragons into battle! (that is after we went snowboarding instead of saving the world)

 

[Seltsam]

I don't really post but I had some thoughts this. Are you planning on killing off characters during the campaign? I've played two campaigns where you hunt down random items and the one where no one died was far less interesting and came down to track clues, kill/trick/disable creature/trap, change location and repeat several times.

The one where people died was more challenging and required a lot more roleplaying when introducing the new characters (why should the new elf wizard we just met at a tavern really care that we need 4 more items) and especially when they heard the death toll and how the other characters died (one was shredded into a fine mist that rained down on the rest of the party).

Either way, one of the most interesting items to hunt for was a cursed item that made anyone fight each other when they were within 500 yards of it and they would forget everything else except for the item which they longed for even several days after they were away from it. As with any good cursed item, no amount of convincing would make the person believe it was cursed. That was incredibly tricky to get (and then hand over).

 

[Naheal]

Sounds good. You seem to want to run something similar to what I run typically. Be careful when dealing with dimensional hopping, as things can get confusing for your players very quickly.

 

[Lazarus Long]

I would try to make at least some of the challenges involved in collecting the Plot Coupons something other than killing a monster, circumventing a trap, or solving a riddle. Maybe it's just your plot putting me in a Fable 3 kind of mood, but you might want to think about introducing some kind of moral dilemma.
What would (keep in mind I have no experience with 4e and the reworked alignment system) an LG Paladin do, for example, when it is discovered that one of these staff bits is the only thing keeping a small child alive?
Or that a remote desert village is using another piece to magically increase their food supply to sustainable levels?

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

I also had a few other ideas when it comes to part locations.

1. A Fortified town run by cultists where the PCs must enlist the army of a local Hobgoblin warlord.

and

2. On the back of a giant Dragon-turtle island. (Possibly including 4 Dire Elephants for shits and giggles.)

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

I would try to make at least some of the challenges involved in collecting the Plot Coupons something other than killing a monster, circumventing a trap, or solving a riddle. Maybe it's just your plot putting me in a Fable 3 kind of mood, but you might want to think about introducing some kind of moral dilemma.
What would (keep in mind I have no experience with 4e and the reworked alignment system) an LG Paladin do, for example, when it is discovered that one of these staff bits is the only thing keeping a small child alive?
Or that a remote desert village is using another piece to magically increase their food supply to sustainable levels?

That wouldn't be up to me would it?

It'd be up to the players.

EDIT: OH WAIT I MISREAD THAT.

That is interesting, and I may incorporate that.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

Considering I am currently playing a mostly improvised campaign (general skeleton is there, but we have basically nuked the rails within half a session) where are current motivation for killing the big bad is settling a debt since he stole some gnomish slaves from us. And one character is the ruler of two small slaving villages...

Sounds good, don't care much for the Terrasque part, you could probally use a less iconic monster or make up your own.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

Considering I am currently playing a mostly improvised campaign (general skeleton is there, but we have basically nuked the rails within half a session) where are current motivation for killing the big bad is settling a debt since he stole some gnomish slaves from us. And one character is the ruler of two small slaving villages...

Sounds good, don't care much for the Terrasque part, you could probally use a less iconic monster or make up your own.

You know I was thinking that, but when I pictured an army of assorted Giants, Men, Elves, Goblins, Golems, what have you, versus an army of demons with...

Spoiler: THIS

When I pictured the Tarrasque at the head of the charge and colliding with it I was just amazed...

Until, while writing this, I pictured a Colossus, armed with sword and sheild locking into Combat with the other titan.

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

If your players can RP worth a damn, approach one of them and try to get their character to be a double agent. All kinds of fun can come from that.


>Tinmpari Seal
It seems the Captcha has an item name idea.

 

[Lazarus Long]

2. On the back of a giant Dragon-turtle island. (Possibly including 4 Dire Elephants for shits and giggles.)

Turtles all the way down, mate.

Whatever you come up with, just remember that even if they aren't trying, your players will, without exception, come up with some shit you wouldn't have thought of with a decade of planning.

I recently played in a homebrew GURPS Matrix game, where we were put through a training-simulation raid on an office complex to get some bit of MacGuffin data off one of the computers. The GM was obviously expecting a crazy gun-fu action sequence a la the famous lobby shootout. I don't know why, considering his players had based their characters on Carl Kolchak and Spencer Reid.
We ended up asking the Operator not for "Guns. Lots of guns," but fake IDs and clipboards, and went in there posing as Fire Marshals doing a surprise inspection. Twelve Fast-Talk rolls later, we're walking out and wishing the security guards a pleasant afternoon.

EDIT:

Until, while writing this, I pictured a Colossus, armed with sword and sheild locking into Combat with the other titan.

One very important thing to remember: After completing their epic worlds-spanning quest to gain the means to defeat the Unspeakable Evil[sup]TM[/sup], no one wants to watch someone/something else have the climactic battle. Remember (or look up) the ends of Fable 2 or Oblivion's main quest if you want some proof.

 

[rathorn14]

I find that the most critical thing to focus on is world and character building, the people I DM for have a lot more fun and seem to get into their characters more when they have a believable and immersive environment where there actions or decisions have noticeable effects and consequences.
Someone above mentioned moral dilemmas, I usually work this in with side quests, forcing the characters to choose between a plea for help from people in need and jeopardizing the main quest to stop some type of impending doom, or earning the ire of the common folk for allowing bad things to happen to good people in order to look for some mythical item to stop some vague threat to the world that they don't understand or believe is real.
Anyways, hope it helps and I hope you and your players have fun.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Don't overly concern yourself with making the world realistic. If your mage casts Gaseous Form, then goes into a canyon near a bridge, he'll probably think you're a dick if the wind gets worse when he gets up close to the bridge (I certainly did when my DM pulled that shit). Also, don't make things difficult just for the sake of being a dick.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

EDIT:

Until, while writing this, I pictured a Colossus, armed with sword and sheild locking into Combat with the other titan.

One very important thing to remember: After completing their epic worlds-spanning quest to gain the means to defeat the Unspeakable Evil[sup]TM[/sup], no one wants to watch someone/something else have the climactic battle. Remember (or look up) the ends of Fable 2 or Oblivion's main quest if you want some proof.

Oh I know, which is why I will have the group fall down a several mile high tower while fighting the Balor prince while the titans and armies duke it out down below (or some cool shit like that). Anti-climactic is a horrible insult to me