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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 24, 2014 19:52:00 GMT -8
Okay,
In this thread I'll put a log of what was improvised and what was planned.
No players beyond this point please.
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 24, 2014 20:34:33 GMT -8
The first improvised thing I can think of was the teddy bear.
Someone asked if either of the orc children had any toys. I figured orc society was pretty Spartan, so they probably only had toy weapons, but decided to yes-and a human toy. II wasn't sure where this would go.
The players glommed on to it because it was unusual, so it became the main clue. (originally, it was going to be the halfling, but I abandoned that , though he may have a role later.)
It became the defining thread between the two kidnapping incidences, sort of an evil toy maker kind of thing.
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baldyr
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Post by baldyr on Dec 24, 2014 22:56:04 GMT -8
Listened to the second part and was surprised that the toy maker seemed to be part of the main plot. This would then mean that the plot has changed in mid-play, now including the toy maker whom I originally thought was just a stop-gap kind of distraction. I did however expect the session to end in a combat - did this factor into the decision to trow in another undead at whatever location the characters were currently at?
It'll be interesting to see (hear) what the outcome from the toy shop raid will be - what clues you decided the players need to move the plot forward. As for the plot itself, I'm as perplexed as the players at this point. My pet theory is however that it has something to do with the little factoid about the elves dying out you put out at the onset of the campaign. This would make the whole thing a mad bid to revive dead elves in order to buff out the elven ranks, or something original like that. The story's got me hooked at any rate.
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otherdoc
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Post by otherdoc on Dec 25, 2014 7:34:52 GMT -8
Nice job of moving clues around to keep the players engaged.
I've been running a mystery game for a year or two now and I've found that my players in particular seem to get frustrated whenever the clues aren't falling into their laps on the first try. When the toy maker thing happened I was worried they'd put a lot of effort into hitting a brick wall and were going to lose engagement but it was nice to see how it unfolded. Very well done!
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Dec 29, 2014 9:17:55 GMT -8
For a moment I thought the halfling was going the be a call-back to your old GURPS game, Stu Venable ... the one that got Horseclans'ed.
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Post by lowkeyoh on Dec 29, 2014 11:04:39 GMT -8
I thought the bear as a improvisation was a fantastic addition to the story. It actually dawned on me that the boys might have been given the bear instead of stealing it when I remembered Tyler berating whomever, probably Bruce, for assuming they stole it. Though I thought the bearmaker was innocent, and some shadowy group had been buying and stealing bears from him over time to lure children. I actually really wanted bearman to be innocent after they knocked down his door and started letting accusations fly. Just to make them feel like dicks. Anyhoo, onto the topic of this forum, I feel an important part of forum as an exercise is not just to identify what was and was not improved, but how that affected the flow of the game. Improvisation is awesome, because as a GM you now have more puzzle pieces to fit into the story, but I think it's easier to improvise when you have a sturdy base of prep. So we can assume that stu wanted to steer the players into a location where they could be attacked by zombie Elves (Zelfs?) but without the bear improvise, how was that going to happen? Without the inclusion of the bears, what clues and/or prep did you have to get the players to arrive at the conclusions they did? Would they have encountered the Zelfs in another location other than the basement of Vecna? Did you have other NPCs already made that you reskinned into Bearmaker? What was the clue you had originally intended them to pick up from the halfling?
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 29, 2014 15:11:11 GMT -8
My original concept was to have the halfling escape from the orcs and have the party hunt him down. He would admit that he was hired by a "mysterious stranger" to shadow the zelves, not knowing what they were going to do.
I liked the more direct trail the party's questions about the crime scene offered.
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Post by archmagezemoc on Dec 30, 2014 8:45:25 GMT -8
For a moment I thought the halfling was going the be a call-back to your old GURPS game, Stu Venable ... the one that got Horseclans'ed. Well, we don't know he's not, he's a halfing, check. Undying? Immortal? 'We have no proof against it, so yea that sounds about right. Medieval level of prosecution achieved, damn I'm a good olde timey lawyer.
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 31, 2014 8:26:32 GMT -8
When I first mentioned the halfling among all the orcs, I get a sidelong glance from Bill.
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Jan 21, 2015 8:22:06 GMT -8
So... Almost done with episode five now. I get the feeling that the son was aiming for the father, and missed.
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Post by jonas on Feb 8, 2015 5:12:21 GMT -8
What? The teddy bear was improvised? It just felt as such a natural element of the folding story.
It's fun how you can be surprised by things like these. :-)
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Post by archmagezemoc on Feb 8, 2015 11:11:53 GMT -8
So... Almost done with episode five now. I get the feeling that the son was aiming for the father, and missed. My original idea was that it was a fake, like either the Prince handed his arrow to his archery instructor, who took the shot. Or he shot the Mountain Lion ahead of time, left the corpse in the tree, and MageHanded to knock it down on time, his arrow just whent off "somewhere". Oh and uh, that mountain lion REALLY shoulda turned into a Wight mid-skinning. . . . just an evil DM thought *snicker*
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kevinr
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Post by kevinr on Feb 8, 2015 13:21:08 GMT -8
Stu, I am curious how you are building the encounters. They have mostly seemed pretty over powered for the characters levels and they seem to be getting lucky not to get tpk... Though the rhinos sure seem to help them.
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Post by lowkeyoh on Feb 9, 2015 12:12:27 GMT -8
Stu, I am curious how you are building the encounters. They have mostly seemed pretty over powered for the characters levels and they seem to be getting lucky not to get tpk... Though the rhinos sure seem to help them. There is no such thing as balance'd encounters the way they are playing. I know because it's the way I ran my games. The rules for encounter design are written with the understanding that an adventuring day will contain eight encounters of monsters and/or traps. When you're just having one fight a day, encounter balance goes out the window, as classes are no longer working to intended balance. Kimi get's shafted HUGE, as Fighters powers are all only usable once per encounter. Bill, Bruce and Tyler get over emphasized, because they can use ALL their spells in one fight, instead of spreading them over the day. Bill also get's the advantage of using all his Lay on Hands in one fight. Compare that 15 free healing to Kimi's 1d10+3 healing. It takes three encounters for Kimi to heal more than Bill can. Or compare Kimi's one extra attack an encounter to Bill being able to use Divine Smite. It takes 4 action surges to equal out what Bill can do just Smiting Spell Slots. This problem is worsened when you introduce Rhinos. Rhinos are the equivalent of 6th level characters. So now all of a sudden Easy/Medium/Hard/Challenging doesn't mean anything.
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Feb 9, 2015 13:25:09 GMT -8
I feel like his method of balancing is: "Hm, I didn't kill anyone yet, I'll make the next one harder."
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