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2 years ago ::
Sep 26, 2011 - 1:51PM
#1
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Date Joined:
May 26, 2010
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My group mostly finished "Keep on the Shadowfell" and we took a break to play some "Call of Cthulhu". We're about finished there and I think I'd like to get them back to D&D for a while before we try another system.
I don't want to completely railroad them, but to keep them from dragging out KotS just to wrack up the loot and XP I'm going to use a group of NPC's to block them out of the areas they didn't go to originally.
I have the next module in the Shadowfell story-line, but I don't really like it...
I have 7 players in my group: 2 are under 10 years old, don't get along well and are constantly pulling "me too...",2 teenagers who are great and 3 adults (one of whom is very meta-gamey and tells everyone else what to do, but isn't the 'controller" of the group).
With what I feel is too large of a group whose overlapping abilities are contributing to a plague of "me too"roll-playing, I'd like to develop a sandboxy sort of wilderness journey to a higher level module. I have a decent feel of where some of the players want their characters to go and what sort of action they are looking for in the game and I think I need to do more Skill Challenges to balance out what has basically been a dungeon run up to this point.
Our Ranger wants a wolf cub as a pet that he can train to attack.
Our Wizard bought a ferret that he wants to train to do simple tasks and possibly attack.
Our Warlord isn't happy with her character at all, she thought she was getting a striker... But she can't hit the broad side of a barn and is also liking the more freeform CoC adventure we have been doing.
Our Fighter is bossy and a little stingy with the loot...
Our Cleric is sort of along for the ride, but seems to be enjoying himself.
Our theify Rogue is getting annoyed with every one stepping on her skills and stealing her spotlight.
Our acrobat Rogue wants a +2 protection/healing tattoo and doesn't seem to understand the "role-playing".
I feel like I'm completely drawing a blank right now as for where I want things to go...
I have almost all of the downloadable adventures from this site as resource materials and many maps and adventures for the net (like Dyson Logos and One-Page Dungeon).
I know I have some good plot hooks that I can work with to get the players some of what they want for their characters, but I want to encourage them put in a little more effort to get the cool stuff; I'm by far not a Monty Hall DM, but I don't want the flaming hoops to incinerate them either...
I'd like to create situations where the group needs to seperate to accomplish some tasks. My initial thought is requiring multiple objects from opposite sides of the map with only enough time to do half of it as a single group. Another idea along the same lines has half the group going to deliver something in one direction while the other half does something else in another direction...
I'd like to create Challenges where the groups' Skill overlap has to be divided to negate the "me too" and spotlight theft. I haven't done many sSkill Challenges so far, so I'm very much at a loss here... Creating situations that reguire two or three people's STR is easy, but putting two peoples Stealth or Theivery or Arcana are escaping me.
I read Mike Shae's Skill Challenge Worksheet article and I'd like to incorporate some of that as well... Our Worlord was wanting to play MouseGaurd and I think this might be a way to at least give a nod to that system and maybe set a foundation for it.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
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2 years ago ::
Oct 12, 2011 - 10:49PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Dec 28, 2010
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Wow i am suprised this post went unanswered. Lets see where to start....
The Ranger: Beast master ranger...problem solved.
Wizard: Feret would be okay as a pet, Arcane Familiar feat and get one. If there isnt one which im pretty sure there is, refluff something similar to a feret.
Warlord: Easy to sandbox D&D i havnt played CoC. Warlord a striker? where did she get that idea it takes a bit of tricks to do but they can be built to do decent damage. She should look into Thaneborn barbarian if she likes the idea of warlord striker but if she wants to stay a warlord she needs to know she is more of a support type. You can lean secondary but dont expect to keep up with the ranger or thief.
Fighter: eh well. Thats a player issue, tell him not everything in the world is useful to him?
Cleric: Good long as he enjoys himself
Thiefy ROgue: Wow you got a big game going on. 2 rogues is redundant. Should probably be the only thievery/acrobatics/stealthy character of the bunch anyways if anyone else has stealth keep up with the rogues. Tickle the rogues fancy by adding traps to disable and locks to pick. Also if you pick it up keep your skill challenges in mind and set them up for your rogue to feel useful.
Acrobatic Rogue: Far as roleplay best way i was setup into it is discourage metagaming by anything you say is IC. And speak back IC for the NPCs should strongly encourage roleplaying. Dont say "Rob tells you that you can find the key to the old church in the storage shed under the stables" but instead *in a voice sounding like Rob "The key is in the storage shed, under the stables if y'll have a look." But treat conversations in first person should help out. Lead by example, and dont give out items best on player requests. Unless you see a logical reason why they can find it, and pay for it with all that gold you give em.
Far as skill challenges instead of being skill inclusive on them, be open to play suggestion on how they use their skills. I found sometimes hiding the fact they are in a skill challenge can help. But instead create more opportunities for skill challenges. Yes, your fighter will probably be worthless negotiating with the Burgomaster, and your rogue will probably suck at traveling for 10 days through the desert. Escape from the police is a fun challenge to run but you can use the concept of skill challenges to let you know about how many actions will cause the entire encounter to succeed or fail. You should check my post on skill challenges you might find something useful. Last game i had a barbarian trying to negotiate with a skeleton at a hard DC for diplomacy, interesting and flavorful but needless to say ended in tears.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 13, 2011 - 1:04PM
#3
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Date Joined:
May 26, 2010
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Son of a Motherless Goat!!!!
I just wrote a HUGE post laying out my entire groups interpersonal relationships and the internet ate it!!!!
Part of what I see that I need to do is be more willing to step outside of the mechanics and just go with good story telling!!
I've offered the Warlord to do a complete re-write of her character with little to no input coming back...
I've alreasdy started with the "In Character" speaking and have started being more strict about the "if you roll the dice, you did the action" because our Ranger is 9 years old and wants to do "take backs".
I read an interesting article about skill challenges and assistance rolls, not sure if it was yours or not... The examples gave a very epic adventure feel with multiple skill challenges to assist in a journey across a desert.
I'm stringing together many of the free DDI content adventures into a "save the world" campaign, but it has some large gaps and I have no fallback point if the players decide to go left instead of right...
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2 years ago ::
Oct 17, 2011 - 10:12PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Dec 28, 2010
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Was just trying to be helpful and yeah a big pitfall of 4e is the rules are the end all authority. good old fashioned roleplaying is nice, sometimes i use the skill challenge idea as more of a guideline than anything else. I mean hell even in the rulebook it says modifying rules is okay, long as everyone has fun. And the "Rule of cool" you dont even need to run skill challenges honestly sometimes inserting them is inappropriate. You could instead simply award experience points for good roleplaying. I played a game before that used incentive exp so you get extra xp for RPing things well that were an obstical to you. You are lucky you have a tabletop group that doesnt seem obsessed with rules. I would leave skill challenges to things that take alot of time for sure, the artical probably wasnt mine but i did write a blog post bout em.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 6:43AM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 26, 2010
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I really appreciate all the advice I can get. It helps alot to get ideas and concepts down in writing and have other people explain out a different perspective.
I see what you mean about SC's sometimes not being the appropriate way to handle situations.
I'm considering implementing a variation of Feat Tokens I read about called "F you I'm Awesome" that allow rerolls and are awarded for players doing cool stuff. Most of my players are more into the ROLL than the ROLE, but a couple of them try.
I think the lack of Rules Lawyering in my group is based more on laziness...
Please post a link to your article, I'd like to read it.
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