In the previous session, while resting in the tower, Sigurd, Zel, Kat, Daphne, and Rikkit had a discussion of their backstories. Sigurd, the third child of a Valsc raider who settled down with a Kaldish weaver, had run away from home seeking adventure and the chivalrous life of a knight. Kat and Daphne, frightened of the prospect of inheriting their father's terrible and unsanitary sandwich shop, fled north to make something of themselves. Zel, one of many illegitimate offspring of a witch and her various expendable lovers, fled her home along with her eldest brother. They travelled in opposite directions to minimize the chance of them both getting caught. Rikkit was cast out of his goblin clan by the terrible chieftain, Blackhide. He fled to an isolated manor house, where the lord took pity on him and taught him to control his budding sorcerous powers. Soon, however, Blackhide and his tribe descended on the manor and slaughtered all inside, save Rikkit who escaped with his favourite cat Bartleby. Ever since, Rikkit has hated goblin kind and vowed to one day kill Blackhide.
The session began with the party (minus Crowdance, Monty, and Rikkit) departing the ruined hobgoblin castle and heading north toward Castle Morbis, an uneventful trip due to my abysmal random encounter rolls. They found the gates shut due to increased bandit activity from across the pass, so they had to talk their way past the guards. (I have found these homebrewed diplomacy rules by Rich Burlew to be much, much better for dealing with PC/NPC interactions than the 3.5/Pathfinder rules as written.)
Once inside the gates, the party found themselves in a large walled town. I like to spend time creating the towns that the party will interact with, so that the players see it as more than just "the place where I get to flip through the book and choose which items I want to buy." I think of the kinds of shops and establishments that the town should have, and provide brief notes on special items or things of interest. My write-up for Castle Morbis is as follows:
As you come up through the foothills out of the Shatterwald, you pass by (or see in the distance) a number of small villages which are tasked with supplying Castle Morbis with wood, sheep, and grain. Soon, the square black keep of the castle rises up before you. It sits on Highfrost Pass, surrounded by a walled town.I roll to see what magic items the town has available using the oft-neglected rules for generating a settlement's magic item selection. This makes the town seem more real and keeps the players from thinking of it as an infinite magic item shop. As you can see, I also like to make up some of my own magic items; I'll probably talk about that in a later blog post.
- Main gate: The guards are wary to let travelers in, and must be convinced to allow you entry.
- Guard Captain's Tower: Captain Albert Husker.
- Will pay 15 gp bounty on bandit scalps.
- Bounties on Uli Blackeye (murder, rape, banditry: 1500gp), Helga Manarms (murder, banditry: 1000 gp), Stephen Tanner (murder: 500 gp).
- Husker tells you that the bandit problem had been bad since the fall of Castle Drenn (on the other side of the pass) 12 years ago. There is an ongoing 1000 gp per head reward to anyone who can discover the rumored underground rout through the pass, with an added bonus if the intel returned leads to a strategic advantage in retaking Castle Drenn.
- The Buxom Witch: seedy inn/tavern (and low-key brothel). Run by Korth, who offers to sell adventurers a map to treasure (same one Sir Hardrig had in his saddlebags).
- The Rusty Glaive: reputable inn/tavern favored by tradesmen, adventurers. Run by Harvin. Sells adventuring gear, simple weapons.
- Special: Winter's Head (+1 light hammer, 5% chance of dealing extra 1d4 frost damage. 3,815 gp.)
- The Summer Snows: upscale hotel/pub. Run by Karlin. Sells alchemical items, CLW pots.
- Specials: oil of gentle repose, pot of remove fear, pot of sanctuary.
- Barshall's Leatherworks: mundane or masterwork leather armours, +1 leather, studded leather, or hide.
- Wolfshape Cloak (1/day, wearer can drop to all fours, replaced w/minor image of a wolf. DC15 to disbelieve. Lasts as long as wearer remains on all fours. 1,800 gp.)
- Morlock Hide
- Glove of Storing
- Dorninn's Dwarfen Armourers: mundane or masterwork metal armours, +1 chainmail, +1 breastplate, +1 banded mail, +1 hvy. steel shield.
- Lion's Shield
- Helm of Darkvision (11,500 gp)
- Dorninn's Sanguine Pauldrons (spikes pauldrons. Deal 1d3 bleed on successful Bull Rush. 1,300 gp.)
- Kevlin's Weapons: all simple and martial weapons, reasonable exotic weapons, +1 spear, longsword, warhammer, battleaxe, dagger, heavy mace, heavy flail.
- Beornin's Black Chopper
- Cairn Blade (mwk broadsword. Glows green. +2 dmg. vs undead. 1,200 gp.)
- Shatter darts (mwk darts, +1 bleed damage. 200 gp each.)
- Highfrost Outfitters: adventuring gear, simple and light martial weapons
- Cloak of Resistance +1
- Immovable Rod
- Snowstep Boots (+4 to checks to resist effects of cold weather. Never treat knee-high or lower snow as difficult terrain. 800 gp.)
- Cape of Effulgent Escape
- Ring of Return
- Fletcher's & Bowyers: run by Markus Fletcher and Markus Bowyer. mundane and masterwork versions of all ranged weapons and ammo.
- Sleep arrow (x5)
- Dustburst bullets (x3)
- Nightstalker crossbow (+1 heavy crossbow. Wielder has low-light vision when aiming it. 2,600 gp.)
- Starwick's Stables: wagons, saddles, feed, kit, horses, ponies, riding dogs, donkeys.
- The Scroll and Quill: proprietor Charvin Groate
- Scrolls of touch of the sea, goodberry, levitate, death ward. wand of summon minor monster (26 charges).
- Temple of the Champion - Wollam, priest of Dennar. CL 5
- Chapel of Tytir - Trunkle, gnome priest of Tytir. CL 3. Offers currency exchange services.
- Shrine to Presidia
- Bron's Shrine
The party wandered around town investigating shops and taverns. When they asked for directions, I let them find the building easily; when they just set off randomly, I let the dice decide what building they found. In every tavern, Kat tried to gain favour and coin through bardic performances. In the fancier Summer Snows, the barkeep informed her that they already had several contracted bards, and letting her play would violate those contracts. She eventually convinced him to let her audition, and her performance was sufficiently impressive that she was allowed a one-time paid performance at some future date. In the mid-level Rusty Glaive, she found easy audience for her music, though the patrons were few at 11 in the morning. In the dive bar of the Buxom Witch, crowded even in the morning, there were already four musicians plying the crowd for coin. Kat found the weakest one, a 13 year old aspiring bard, and convinced him to leave by directing his attentions to Sigurd, "a real adventurer who killed a hobgoblin king!" Sigurd then had to fend off the fanboy advances of the young man, eventually convincing him to leave by bluffing that Daphne was his girlfriend and they needed space because they were on a date.
Soon, the barkeep came over to the party and offered to sell them a map to treasure, the same map that had led Sir Hardrig to his capture, torture, and death. Kat tried to sucker punch him, at which point he called upon his thug bouncers. The party exchanged threats with him, and eventually cowed him with the news that the hobgoblin king Thornos had been killed.
The party visited the guard captain's tower and learned of the bounties and rewards available. Kat bought a bastard sword from Kevlin's Weapons (having recently taken exotic weapon proficiency with the weapon) hoping to improve her combat performance. At Barshall's Leatherworks, Barshall told them that Stephen Tanner, his biggest supplier of unworked leather, is wanted for a murder that Barshall believes Stephen did not commit. He offered the party a discount if they could find some way of getting Stephen off the hook.
As the party set off to explore the surrounding region, they were stopped by guards who accused them of being horse thieves. While the party was initially concerned they meant Sir Hardrig's horse, the guards instead pointed to Sigurd's horse. Then the accuser appeared, a young blond man who Sigurd immediately recognized. He recognized Sigurd too - as his sister, Sigrid! The party was shocked to discover their adventuring companion's secret. Her brother, Bjorn, had followed her north to bring her back home. When he saw her horse in the party of strange figures, he feared the worst and called for the guards. Sigrid explained to her brother that she would not return home; she sought a life of a knight errant, not a housewife. Moreover, she had a mission - to gather the gold necessary to raise Sir Hardrig from death. Bjorn and Sigrid parted amicably after she bought him a new suit of chainmail to make up for having stolen his armor.
The party set off to investigate the surrounding villages in search of bounties. As they passed through one village, a frantic woman ran up to them screaming that her husband was trying to kill her. They went to her house and found the husband barricaded inside, afraid for his life, as the woman urged the party to dispatch him quickly. Upon further questioning of both parties, they found cause for suspicion. Eventually, it came out that the wife, Helena, had been sleeping with both Stephen Tanner (wanted for murder) and Hogar Smithsson (Tanner's alleged victim). Her husband maintained that he awoke to find Helena standing over him with a knife, so he punched her and she fled. The party, unwilling to pass final judgment on the situation, told them both that if either of them were found dead, they would kill the other one.
~~~
Telling backstories is a great way for players to become more involved with their characters - and for other players and the GM to get to know them better. When a character has a backstory that includes plot hooks, it is the GM's duty to try to reward that by bringing those plot hooks into the story somehow. In my last campaign, one of the characters had been a bard in the court of half-orc king Hammit Ironfist of Calvados before he was exiled for practicing his "bardic performances" on the princess. Instantly, I knew that the plot would have to take the party to Calvados, which I made a sort of pseudo-Spanish kingdom within my campaign setting. They snuck in under disguise, were recognized by a spy and imprisoned for abetting crimes against the King. The bard had his tongue cut out for returning from exile. Soon the party staged a daring escape with the help of the lovely Princess Talia, uncovered court intrigues, and became wary allies of the king. The adventures that arose out of that one character's backstory became some of the most memorable parts of that campaign, and were really formative to the second half of the plot.
In this campaign, I would be a fool not to think about Rikkit's past with the evil goblin warlord Blackhide, or Zel's witchy ancestry, or Sigrid's hidden identity and worried family. In the case of Sigrid, the player worked with me behind the scenes to ensure that I knew the whole story and the players did not, allowing for a more natural and exciting reveal.
The GM is still, of course, the final arbiter of the world, and it is up to him/her to figure out how, if, and when to work such backstories into the plot. But keep in mind that it can be quite a rewarding experience on both sides of the GM's screen.
Now to talk about town adventures. I know a lot of players that hate to spend a whole session wandering around town. The reasons are wide and varied: there are no monsters to kill, laws and guards get in the way of real adventuring, walking and talking and shopping is boring, etc.
Try to think of a town as a dungeon. It shouldn't be entirely mapped out like a dungeon should, but you should have enough information on the town (see above) that you can improvise. If a town has a limited range of magic items rather than "open the book and choose what you like," especially if there are some homebrewed magic items, those are sort of like the dungeon's treasure. Instead of monsters, traps, and skill challenges, there are other types of encounters: the overzealous fanboy, the innkeeper who won't let the bard play here, the crooked bartender luring adventurers to their deaths with fake treasure maps, the wife accusing her husband of murder. And the important thing to remember about these town encounters - you earn XP for dealing with them! A well-though out town can easily make for a non-boring (perhaps even exciting!) session of adventuring.
-your metropolitan d20 despot
No comments:
Post a Comment