Tyranny of Dragons Campaign OOC Thread

i rolled because i wanted more stuff than the basic shit, but yeah, usually class & background is pretty decent

 

Ah, I misread the rules then!

 

cool! still seeing some issues with it, so let's go in for round 2 of revisions. :P (I promise that I'm not picking on you in particular with this, nor am I going to be this nitpicky always; it's just that the character sheet is the biggest chunk of mechanic-y things on your (the player's) end, so if we sort it all out now, you won't have much more work like this ahead of you. :3)

ohhhhkay, so, um. these are incorrect. (the ones I've omitted are fine, though—just these three are wrong.) numbers are fine, but for Dexterity your modifier should be +1, for Constitution it should be +2, and for Charisma it should be +1. they were fine before your last edit. for future reference, may I ask why you decided to change them/why you thought these should be the modifiers?

these are likewise incorrect.

you still haven't listed this in your equipment! (the reason I'm insisting you do so is that proficiency with a tool doesn't guarantee that you own a tool, and I'd like you to list the kit as equipment so that I, well, won't forget you own it. :P)
aaaand that's it! much less feedback this time around. :)

and I promise I'll get to the rest of y'all in my next post, I just didn't want to be responsible for a M E G A P O S T. :P

 

...would you like me to give you those prompts, or? (also it's not super spoilery to tell you that, no, you won't be spending much time at sea, alas. :P)

y'know, I'll just quote from literally the first paragraph of the adventure proper (it's not spoilery if it's supposed to be the first thing I tell you, I figure):
"The town of Greenest was founded by the halfling Dharva Scatterheart, a rogue who fancied herself the queen of the Greenfields. Scatterheart passed away without ever achieving that level of eminence, but her town grew into a thriving community. Its success isn't surprising, since Greenest is the only town of any size astride the Uldoon Trail, the most direct road between the eastern cities of the Dragon Coast, Cormyr, and Sembia and the Coast Way running south to the great cities of Amn, Tethyr, and far Calimshan. The trade caravans that pass through Greenest bring gold to the town's merchants and craftsfolk, and Governor Nighthill runs the town at the behest of the inhabitants." (if you're sort of "???" at all those place names, it might help to look up a map of Faerûn/the Forgotten Realms.)
and the adventure also suggests reasons why you might be there:
"The adventurers might be on the road from one town to another or returning to their homes after a trip away. Alternatively, they could be accompanying a merchant or wealthy traveler as bodyguards. Many restless young people of Faerûn have had their first taste of travel and adventure as caravan guards."

no, you don't! those requirements are sort of... a way to force players and DMs who aren't interested in roleplaying to roleplay just a little bit, but you guys are doing the background/personality summaries, which accomplishes basically the same purpose imo.

okay, hold up. I think I got mixed up with who was planning to do this, but... Bladesinging is an arcane tradition for wizards. like, your character has to be a wizard (or have wizard levels, but multiclassing is a whole 'nother can of worms) to be a Bladesinger; warlocks like Kharika can't be.

that being said, what you have on your character sheet looks good thus far, aside from the starting gp/standard equipment thing that @swirlingflight pointed out. :)

 

She was thinking of two characters- Kharika and an elven bladesinger raised in an elfcult. She decided to go w/ Kharika

 

ahhhh, that makes more sense! thanks.

 

@esotericPrognosticator just updated my character sheet! her name is Honor, i went and made her a standard human, and her background is soldier. and i have her backstory worked out too! i didn't know how to put this in said backstory, but i figure she lived in a domain ruled by a dragon?

also the PHB says wrt the soldier background to work with the DM to determine which military organization Honor was a part of & what rank she attained? i was sorta vague about that in the backstory because i don't really know things, but she was in her nation's army, serving as a medic-of-sorts.

 

HERE LET'S HAVE SOME HEROFORGE STUFF

Spoiler: spoilered bc large

 

I was stuck in some brain bug eddy, wanting help but fearing I wouldn't follow through on using it... So I sat around making noises in hopes others would express interest so either we'd group brainstorm them or there'd be enough demand that it wouldn't just be my benefit. Coming up with good questions, so they're relevant and hook bait generating, is a task that takes some work. It seems an overwhelming amount of work still. -_-

Anyway, thank you for little-to-no sea confirmation! Caravans are the ships of land, and navigation at sea skill doesn't translate to navigation on land. Thunder could be zig-zagging across Faerun towards wherever the hell he last knew of his relatives being, and could've encountered others doing similarly.

Good old caravan guard intro... everyone loves an escort mission. :'D

 

ooh, I like her already! :D uh, okay, wrt the military background: "nation" is not really a word that applies to this setting. about the largest (in terms of population) units of government are the big city-states along the coast (Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, etc.), but somehow I'm not getting a city-girl vibe off of Honor? her parents seem like they own a prosperous farm/orchard/ranch/etc., not like city dwellers. uh, but the majority of people live in smaller domains of various sizes, usually ruled by petty nobles—a duke or count or baron, something like that. so that could be anything from, like, one town and some fields to several large towns, a keep or castle, and a number of villages; it's just that the noble and their forces have to be able to physically travel across their lands in a couple of days max, and what with the sophistication of transportation topping out at horses and wagons, that means domains are pretty small.

since you mentioned she lived in a dragon's domain: the dragon would function much like the noble, ruling over a number of towns, maybe some castles, and a bunch of fields and so on. (wizards sometimes fulfill this function too. or, like, evil liches or what-have-you. anything with power.) what kind of ruler the dragon would be depends a lot on what kind of dragon it is. assuming Honor doesn't come from a swamp, a desert, or the tundra/pack ice, her draconic ruler would (probably) be green, red, bronze, or silver. green and red dragons are evil, dwelling in forests and mountains respectively; I'd imagine the former would be the power behind the throne, ruling through a puppet, while the latter would probably swoop down from the sky periodically, burn shit, and demand tribute. bronze dragons live along the coast and (very applicably to Honor) are fascinated by warfare, often fighting for what they deem to be good causes. I don't know about a bronze dragon ruling a typical domain, but I sure can imagine one maintaining an army/mercenary company to fight in wars along with it! silver dragons also lair in mountains, preferring to live in abandoned structures built by humanoids, but they don't spend much time in those lairs; they are fascinated by humanoids, particularly human, and spend most of their lives living among them in humanoid form. they would definitely rule humans, and well, too.

so, uh. that's some dragon ruler info? that you might not have wanted? but yeah, if any of that inspires you, go for it.

ALL THAT IS TO SAY that most military forces in Faerûn are small: mostly they're militia (of some domain or other), private guards (of some noble or other), or mercenary forces (which are more organized and reputable than smaller bands of mercenaries/brigands). there are also religious orders with such forces: for the Quintity, there's the Order of the Son and the Order of the Daughter, members of which are called dedicats. so any of those might work for Honor? whatever catches your fancy.

uh, and in terms of rank—she sounds like a battlefield medic, sort of like an EMT, who, like, triages wounded soldiers and sends them back from the front to doctors proper for treatment. maybe she drives an ambulance? :P seems like she wouldn't go after the enemy so much as protect herself and her patients. hand crossbow seems good for that, plus maybe a dagger/short sword, which I guess she's given up now that she's a saint and can use divine magic to kick ass? I don't think she'd use a rapier on the battlefield, but she could've learned it in camp; she seems the type to challenge people to duels. :P

anyway, contemporary medical corps have their own ranks different from other military personnel, but battlefield medics are basically enlisted men/non-commissioned officers, which is to say that they aren't lieutenants, captains, etc. so in army terms, she'd be a private if enlisted and a corporal or sergeant if a non-com—the latter two if she had experience and ended up in charge of other soldiers. looking at your model of her, she kinda just looks like a sergeant to me, so that'd be my suggestion if she spent some time in the military. and as a senior medic, I think she'd receive a certain amount of respect in any reputable military organization, not just her own. medics are important.

SO YEAH UH. YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR ALL THAT, BUT THERE IT IS. (you lowkey hit an infodump trigger, ngl.) ENJOY? OTHER PEOPLE WHOSE CHARACTERS WERE RULED BY DRAGONS MAY FIND IT HELPFUL TOO?

still not sure if you'd like my help brainstorming or providing questions as the DM or would rather have your fellow players'? srry pls advise

I mean, you don't have to use the caravan guard intro if you can think of something else...

 

Oh, no, it's pleasing in its familiar simplicity, it works for me. I'm only interested in other things if either I'm coordinating a recent background with another player, or something else speaks my thoughts (hasn't happened yet).

I was just making fun of video game escort missions.

I would like help brainstorming, from you or from players alike. I want another layer or two of potential hooks for Thunder, things that would be relevant or interesting to other characters or things likely to come up in game.

 

Hmm. I think I might actually have this town be where Salt ended up, after becoming a pseudo-caravan guard for the folks after the swamp, and travelling with them to here.

 

Hmmm, what season does the campaign start in?
EDIT: Question B, is it large enough to have a linrary? Probably not, right?

 

hrm. well, I don't know about other people's characters so much... what kind of things likely to come up in game? places? types of people?

uhhhh, doesn't say, but I'll call it late spring/early summer.
EDIT: Question B, is it large enough to have a linrary? Probably not, right?[/QUOTE]
...word, sorry?

 

Library, I'm guessing.

 

Yes, library. Sorry, I've been phone posting and kind of absent all day, didn't catch the typo

 

So, uh, I might repurpose some of my Salt-based questions to have to do with the town more, see if those help with prompting ideas any? Maybe add a specific question for other PCs. No pressure to answer, just hoping to help with brainstorming. (I hope I'm not stepping on your toes, @esotericPrognosticator, but seems like a helpful thing to do maybe?)

• Have you been to Greenest before? Is this your first time, are you a regular visitor, do you live in or around town?
• Why are you there now, and how long have you been there? Just a week of rest before setting out along the trade routes again, or a couple years of full-time work?
• Do you have any friends or enemies in town? Do they know you're there?
• Do you know (of) Salt? What sort of rumors might you have heard, if so? If you've interacted, what was your impression? Have you tried to get to know or befriend Salt?
• @The Frood Abides, you've mentioned that Marian avoids retreading the same path, but given the location has she been through Greenest before, even if not for the town itself? Is the Bastard drawing her to Greenest, to somewhere which makes it a convenient stop, or is she there for no strong reason in particular?
• @Arxon, even if the library might not be up to some of those in, say, Amn, is it possible that Auralee is looking into the waystation nature of Greenest as a good place to compile and compare stories about dragons (and cults) from different parts of the continent? Or is she more focused on textual/historical research than risking the exposure?
• @swirlingflight, you've mentioned Thunder is looking into family stuff, so I'm extra curious how they see lizardfolk as related to half-dragons/dragonborn. Wholly distinct? Weird cousins? A lesser offshoot? Basically unconsidered? Have you had your tavern brawl to get to know Greenest yet? If so, how did it go? If not, why not?
• @garden, were Honor and Iris from the area around Greenest, or somewhere very much elsewhere? How long ago was the battle in which Iris died? Was it nearby? Has Honor been doing the constant-travel thing or the "settle in a place for a few weeks/months before packing everything up and leaving" thing?
• @NevermorePoe, has Vitae been doing research into protecting forests in general, or going to a bunch of areas and looking how to best protect those specific forests from dragonfire in the sort of way that the local environment does best. Especially if the latter, how's the area around Greenest coming along on that front?
• @KarrinBlue, I don't recall/see much yet to build questions off of for Kharika. What drew them to the patron they wound up finding?
• @Lazarae, I presume the prior talk about smuggling still goes, given the whole positioning of Greenest? Seems like a good fit for the prior plans with Salt, still.
• Are Marian and Honor aware of one another, as worshippers who've possibly been travelling the land?
• Have Vitae and Auralee had any kind of contact regarding the cults, even if just by letters/long-distance communication? What about with Thunder?

 

Themes, is the best word coming to mind.
Like, so far it's pretty clear just from the title ("Tyranny of Dragons) that a big thing's gonna be powerful dragons, or other races affiliated with dragons, misusing power.
Thanks to my meta knowledge of how published campaigns tend to work, I feel confident we're gonna run afoul of cultists eventually; you mentioned them, and cultists in tabletop games try to destroy the world an awful lot, giving even hesitant adventurers cause to use lethal methods (and cool powers) to stop them.
So far with Thunder, I've thought about the fun possible complications and hooks of (1) having relatives, family, missed loved ones among the cultists, and (2) being a half-dragon when we'll probably run into people who've gotten fucked up by dragons. I'm interested in him having at least a couple relatives he'd want to protect from the party -- at the least, he's gonna be concerned about them if we run into hostile cultists. There might be people pissed at the cult who assume Thunder's involved and cause us interesting trouble on that side. There might be people in the cult who recognize him, down the road.

I'm throwing half-formed hooks like confetti, and now trying to pin things down more. Like, you know the stuff in Sarnai's background, that you noticed a couple weeks ago? Those were things I decided on because they made a core of selfishness-but-idealizing-heroism, a nice core that reflects her alignment and lays out her decision-making methods and fills in some of her background. That stuff want meant as hooks for party members to know about, and I had no intention of specifically bringing it up unless it's relevant to something in the maze we encounter. I want to get Thunder to the point of having that core. And since we're not doing the lol death maze, but planning on a campaign, I want to have some more idea what others are interested in, so I can brainstorm stuff in advance.
Maybe I'll be punny as hell, make his thing all about grappling with his family feelings. Idk yet.

Oooh. :|a Will be back with an edit after I think some more.

 

Ohhh, thats a good idea! As a bard, she can def pry info out of people under the guise of learning their stories. If it was later in the year I'd say she was looking for a place to stay for the winter, but as it is her spending a couple weeks or more there in order to talk to other travellers is a good idea

 

no, there isn't a library in Greenest (they're super rare, actually! most are not so much libraries as they are nobles' private collections of books; remember, this is back when books had to be copied out by hand), but Greenest is preeeetty close to Candlekeep! which, if you don't know much about the Forgotten Realms setting, is the biggest library on the continent and maybe in the world. it's its own island with a giantass keep on it (thus the name, because the towers are candle-shaped), entirely full of books, manuscripts, etc. there's an entire order of monks dedicated to maintaining it (canonically, they're devoted to... the knowledge god... Oghma?... buuuut I'mma say, completely arbitrarily, that they're divines of the Father, because reasons). Greenest is, mm... at least a week's travel inland of Candlekeep (none of these fucking maps have scales)?? so Auralee could be coming or going from there, if you'd like. :) @Helen of Boy has offered a really interesting alternative, though.

nah, it is helpful! I don't mind at all, especially since these are really good questions. :) tbh I'd rather you guys control anything having to do with your PCs as much as possible, rather than me dictating shit. only thing that'd step on my toes would be your (general you; "y'all's" looks exceedingly weird here, alas. fucking gerund phrases, man) doing DMly shit, answering mechanics questions addressed to me or something. speculation amongst yourselves is always fine, though!

uh, so the one thing about the excellent backstories you guys are cooking up is that the published adventure assumes you're newcomers to Greenest and know none of the NPCs there. that is no longer the case! so I was wondering which NPCs you guys think you'd know, and what you want me to do about that? like, those of you who've just arrived in Greenest won't know anyone, but for those of you who've been there a little while, do you think you'd know a fair chunk of people, or just some? which some? the innkeeper and their staff? random townspeople? (for those of you who've been there a long time, I'll assume you know pretty much everyone.)

OH and that brings me to a general gameplay question: there will be points in time when some of your characters know things that others don't—anything from prior knowledge to the results of Perception checks. I won't tell all of you those things, just those characters' players, so your characters will have to communicate amongst themselves more realistically. (side note: as much as possible, I expect you to play your character based on what they know, not what you know OOC. for example, your character will not know if they rolled low on an ability check, so you should not play them based on your knowledge that they crit failed a Stealth check, i.e., unusually cautiously. that sort of thing is called metagaming, and I think it's very bad for gameplay immersion and just roleplaying in general. I'll let you know if I think you're doing it. that won't be a "I HATE YOU AND YOU'RE TERRIBLE" kinda thing, fyi, just a "hey dude btw you're doing the thing" one.)

ANYway, how would you guys like me to convey that selective knowledge? should I just put it under spoilers marked with the players' names, or should I PM it to reduce temptation to peek and act on what you see?

why are we still writing in whispertext
uh, but themes in the campaign, yeah? okay, um. corruption, self-interest, petty scrambles for power. infighting and how one can take advantage of it. politics, for lack of a better word—negotiation, maneuvering. some of that's up to you guys, of course—you can charge through the campaign solving all your problems by hitting them with a sword, if that's what your characters would do.

typical ~heroism~ and ~Chosen One(s)~ kinda stuff, you know how it goes. an expectation of a Noble Quest to Thwart Evil. again, you don't have to play that straight—it'd be a little boring if you did, honestly, and I don't think some of your characters would.

and somehow I'm guessing your party will be facing a lot of prejudice, mainly speciesism. like, all of you, as a group. I just have a feeling, you know? :P

uh, but yeah. was that helpful?