State of the Campaign

[kenada]

In a few weeks, I’ll be putting on the DM hat so that we can continue this campaign through the fall and winter. Before that happens, I’d like to get some information from people on their characters and provide a little bit of background on my plans.

My Plans
We’ll be going into another module. This one is less monolithic and is broken down into ‘mini-adventures’. Reading over it, I think it definitely provides some nice opportunities for further adventures. For those who played in my last campaign, I intend to keep the really silly bits down to a minimum. I think I’m done being amused by Decks of Many Things.

I would like to point out that I will not be running Berrian (or Wil) anymore. As a DM, I don’t like running an NPC. It’s adds more stuff for me to manage than I would like, and they seem to end up either as the stars or as just an extra sword in combat.

Requests from the PCs
Please respond with some background on your characters. It doesn’t have to be much, but I would like to have an idea what their goals/aspirations/motivations/etc are. Also, please post a wish list of items that you would like to find, make, or have made. This helps me plan out the loot in advance so that you are finding items that are interesting and useful. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up using higher level versions of what you posted here even if you don’t want that stuff anymore.

[kenada]

I would like to add that if you are someone looking for a game to join, I believe we have room for another person or maybe more depending on how things fall out this autumn.

If you aren’t already, I recommend familiarizing yourself with 4e. This document is a good intro, but it doesn’t go into the important bits like changes to combat and how to make your character.

We are only using the core books right now, so only a copy of the PHB is needed. If you need one, Amazon has them cheap.

Update: I’m going to be using the Adventurer’s Vault for magic items. I will provide a card with the item’s stats for any item I give out so that everyone isn’t always borrowing my copy.

Also, it looks like we’re going to have room for one more this fall. (If any newcomers are reading this and are interested.)

[Atreys]

So do you prefer new characters or are we keeping old characters?  Are the new characters starting out at the levels we are at now?

[kenada]

It’s the same campaign, so we’ll be continuing with our existing characters. The new characters bit was mostly aimed at any newcomers looking for a 4e game to play in this fall.

[Atreys]

Okay.  I was just thinking on a tangent of a character who is Ol' Ma Hubbard's true son, angry at Broca for being the favored adopted child.  But I'll stick with Broca till he gets in more trouble than he can handle.

[kenada]

If people really wanted to roll up or change characters, that’s fine though it’s something I’d prefer only happen once and the character be ready before the session.

[Eldmor]

What's starting level and loot? If it's Lv1 and standard, I already have a character and personality, still working on background depending on the setting and terms of becoming a party.
Lled Greatbolt may not be the deadliest Ranger, wielding a crossbow, but he's looking to take a more stealth/control based approach to hunting his foes. (Rogue multiclass incoming.)

[kenada]

What's starting level and loot? If it's Lv1 and standard, I already have a character and personality, still working on background depending on the setting and terms of becoming a party.

The gist of it is that a lich was sealed away in a dungeon along 1,000 years ago. When this happened, some adventurers were sealed in with him. Part of the party freed the other part in the opening with some adventurers 1,000 years ago. This thread details the events of the first adventure where everyone was freed. While I do have the FRCS, the setting is essentially the generic default one.* We just finished Keep on the Shadowfell, and I will be picking up with Thunderspire Labyrinth when I start running on September 27.

Of course, I don’t expect to run canned modules/adventures indefinitely. The reason why I asked about motivations is so that I could make a more ‘personalized’ game. The motivation/intimacy system† in Exalted is one of the few things I really liked about it because of the player conflicts one could create.

I expect the party will be level 7 by then, so create a 7th level character. Your starting loot is a level 6 magic item; a level 7 magic item; a level 8 magic item; and 1,800 gp to spend on more magic items, potions, rituals, or to save for later.

Lled Greatbolt may not be the deadliest Ranger, wielding a crossbow, but he's looking to take a more stealth/control based approach to hunting his foes. (Rogue multiclass incoming.)

Looks good though taking Careful Attack may not be a good idea. Hit and Run seems like it would be more thematically appropriate for a stealth-oriented character because it would let you move out, shoot, and return to cover (where you could attempt to hide again the next round). Mike’s more of a Ranger-guru than I am, so hopefully he chimes in.

Also, just a reminder to everyone that I am observing the errata’d rules, which includes new rules for stealth. It also means that some monsters roll more dice for damage.

--
* I might pilfer the FRCS for ideas, but this campaign world will remain separate from Abeir-Toril.
† Calling it a system is a bit of a stretch since there were only a few situations (IIRC) where the PCs got more or less dice to roll because of their intimacies and motivation, but the fact that it was there (and mandatory for motivations) encourages people to think about their characters a bit more. (Maybe? )

[Eldmor]

I took Careful Attack because it fits his hunter background. I will agree however, that Careful Attack and Sure Strike need some fixing. Like adding their respective hit stat to damage. It wouldn't be as good as something like Reaping Strike, but still keep the intention while being useful.

EDIT: Sheet is updated with crunch. How did the new adventurers survive a thousand years in a tomb? Preserved aura? Diet? I'll assume we found our magical gear in there as "possessions into the afterlife" that are associated with the dead.

[Measure Zero]

I took Careful Attack because it fits his hunter background. I will agree however, that Careful Attack and Sure Strike need some fixing. Like adding their respective hit stat to damage. It wouldn't be as good as something like Reaping Strike, but still keep the intention while being useful.

EDIT: Sheet is updated with crunch. How did the new adventurers survive a thousand years in a tomb? Preserved aura? Diet? I'll assume we found our magical gear in there as "possessions into the afterlife" that are associated with the dead.

Their memories are a little bit hazy; both Jyrgal and Adran may have to make History check to see if they remember details of the past.  All of their formerly magic equipment was drained along with their prowess, and at least one of their former allies was corrupted while another was turned into an undead horror.  They were kept in some kind of magic preservation device.  Hyune knows enough to operate it from his few moments of study, but not enough to say how it works or what is purpose was.  Originally, they went into the lich's keep (sacrificing themselves) to distract him while one of their allies sealed it off from the rest of the world in an effort to eliminate the lich as a threat.  No one knows what has become of this lich.  Perhaps he found a loophole that let him pass the seal.

Most of the dungeon that it was in seems to be destroyed or otherwise off limits, but the party does know that there is some kind of passage connecting it to a place where kobolds lived as well as a well that went straight down.  The PCs wisely chose to explore neither of these, instead heading to a portal to return home.  No one knows exactly where in the world this lich's dungeon is or if the rest of it is accessible or even intact (i.e. no character knows that you know of).  No one knows if the lich's dungeon is even in this world, for that matter.

[Measure Zero]

What's starting level and loot? If it's Lv1 and standard, I already have a character and personality, still working on background depending on the setting and terms of becoming a party.
Lled Greatbolt may not be the deadliest Ranger, wielding a crossbow, but he's looking to take a more stealth/control based approach to hunting his foes. (Rogue multiclass incoming.)

We already have some kind of ranger, and our tank and mage are leaving us.  Unless Josh wants to change to a new character, being a ranger is probably not the greatest idea.  Josh seemed to want to change to a new class, though, so I guess this is open for discussion.

[Thomas Kerwin]

My warlord would love some more melee heroes.

[Eldmor]

Already started statting up another character, a Warforged Fighter. Going 2-hand for more damage and the fact Warforged can take some serious lumps and still recover on their own with their racial and the right Fighter powers. Do more damage to them so we take less damage, in a way.
And on the fluff side, Warforged are eternal constructs. Of course they would be put in places for centuries on end as guards. Or one could get lost and live for generations. They also have no combat immunities now, so they're balanced to the standard PHB races.

[kenada]

I picked up the Adventurer’s Vault on Friday. I'm liking what I see, so expect to see an item or two pop up in the upcoming module. (I’ll update my earlier post to indicate that magic items from that book should be okay.)

[Measure Zero]

Already started statting up another character, a Warforged Fighter. Going 2-hand for more damage and the fact Warforged can take some serious lumps and still recover on their own with their racial and the right Fighter powers. Do more damage to them so we take less damage, in a way.
And on the fluff side, Warforged are eternal constructs. Of course they would be put in places for centuries on end as guards. Or one could get lost and live for generations. They also have no combat immunities now, so they're balanced to the standard PHB races.

Actually, Warforged are nearly extinct, with the last known one (alive for over 1000 years) gone mad trying to re-establish the race.  If there are more, then they are constructs of the lich that kept half of the party in stasis for so long.  You could be the insane one (we didn't actually kill him, and I suppose our mysterious archmage could have "fixed" him) or one that was created by Mr. Lich (and only the party and a few others know this; everyone else would be like "what's a warforged?").

This is of course  unless Randy wants to change the campaign information that I've already released.