Hi! New here. Heres the last D&D game I played.
masqueradeball:
5 dragons= CR ??? depending on age... so you need to decide how powerful the dragons are. Epic levels could probably handle this kind of thing. If you want to play that long to get there that is. Of course, you could just start everyone out at level 21 or whatever, but then princesses in castles won't seem like much of a challenge. Maybe you could do it the way Dragon Lance did and have the characters be present at a major battle where there are five dragons and they are major players, or maybe, do a gauntlet where the dragons aren't all at once but rapid succession (which would be only slightly easier, considering that D&D strictly uses daily resources). I know its' not out tell may, and it may be pretty expensive, but fourth edition seems to be promising in that these kinds of large scale encounters will be a lot more feasible...
Valvorik:
If you're asking for backstories, I think you should be upfront in what they have to tap into. Tell them to imagine "this" as the picture of the front of the module (the coolest scene, your big fight at end) and "this" as the blurb on back, and then design backstories etc. that tap into "this". Then elaborate and weave to create details responsive to their backstories and characters (e.g., if someone picks a dwarf, make sure there are foes of the types dwarves get bonus against).
Will the other players be up for gamist play - lots of the activity narrated in first post doesn't seem to be of a sort a D&D ruleset offers resolutions for, provides meaningful feedback on, if the players understood D&D they understood they weren't getting gold, XP, items for that, so what were they "getting out of, looking for" with those activities?
Have to say, I was amazed reading the post about DM handing the character both the facts of the backstory and what that meant for the PC's psychology ~ unless the Player had invited the GM's input etc. that's across a line even for most highly GM-lead D&D.
On the "testing only certain stats", In D&D, as a DM, you need to look at encounters and see to it that different skills, abilities, saving throw types are tested. Distribution of threats and tests across range of what's on PC sheets is required to test character design and reward different choices. For example, in a dragon heavy scenario Reflex saves will be called on often, in 3.0/3.5 Evasion will be a great boon. To even that up, you need NPC spells, traps or other monsters that are Will and Fort saves.
If using standard EL/CR calculations remember dragons are intentionally supposed to be weighted at the high level of their CR. A CR 15 dragon is supposed to be "a tough 15" if the designers did their job properly.
Rob
Kevin Vito:
Well, for that final battle I was thinking I could give the players armies. I'm not sure how to handle that rules-wise (maybe 4th will have something), but if they have the combined might of the princess's kingdom and The Dark Lord's fiendish forces, plus some airships, I think it could be pulled off without having to get to 'epic levels'.
As for that backstory, I was thinking I could do some kind of 'choose your character' type thing where I give the players a few roles to choose from and fill in some really basic details, but the players get to fill in the specific details. For example, The Dark Lord. I know Richard is going to want to play as that guy. I'm thinking though that I can give him the basic details: Dark Lord, ruled a fiendish empire, got double-crossed and imprisoned in an urn, but I leave it to Rich to answer the following questions:
How did The Dark Lord become The Dark Lord in the first place?
Why is he so dark all the time?
What does he look like?
Is The Dark Lord human or something else? What are his classes?
Does The Dark Lord even have a name?
I know Megan is probably going to want to be the princess, because she is always some kind of princess. I'll leave it up to her to decide what she is the princess of (what is her kingdom like? Is she human?) and I'll leave it to her to decide why she was kidnapped (let her figure out all the ancient prophecies and such).
Eric is the one least concerned with storyline. I think he would probably be okay being The Dark Lord's last loyal warrior as long as he gets to kill things. I'd like for him to be some kind of monster so I think I'll just hand him the Monster Manual and say "anything within reason". Why does he still serve The Dark Lord? How did he joing the dark legion? Why?
Most importantly, I only have the beginning and the end planned out. The middle of the story will be up to the players.
Selene Tan:
Quote from: chronoplasm on January 21, 2008, 03:46:48 AM
...Before that though, you have to fight his five children: a red dragon, a blue dragon, a green dragon, a black dragon, and a white dragon... all five at the same time.
The question is, even with the higher power level of a gestalt game, how do I get the players to the point where they can do this? Would a battle of this scale be possible for three players?
It's always possible if the characters are high enough level compared to the encounter level.
You might benefit from doing some "calibration encounters" with your players, though. Challenge Ratings are calculated for balanced parties of 4, and you'll have three players but gestalt classes. It will be helpful to run some other encounters to figure out whether you need to make mental adjustments when selecting encounter levels to get the desired difficulty level. (The d20 Encounter Calculator can give you some idea, but it assumes regular classes instead of gestalt.)
If the five dragons are all wyrmlings (the youngest/easiest age group), the encounter will be about CR 8, meaning a party with average level 8 will be able to take it out. So if you start the party at level 1, it'll be a while before they can handle the five dragons at once, but you certainly don't have to wait for epic level (20+) for that kind of encounter. (One of the nice things about D&D is that there are dragons for pretty much any level range.)
Regarding the backstory, definitely pitch it to the other players first. If they're only a little bit interested, find out what changes would make it really interesting for them. If they're not interested at all, it's best to scrap it, and ask them what they really want.
Callan S.:
Hi Chrono,
Quote
Most importantly, I only have the beginning and the end planned out. The middle of the story will be up to the players.
Who advocates doing it this way - with you dedicing the end and players deciding the middle. What texts or people have you talked to who said 'Yeah, that's great!'?
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