So the players rolled up characters for a new C&C campaign using Goodman Games Castle Whiterock. We have:
A human barbarian, a human assassin, an elf assassin, a human Illusionist, a human knight, a dwarf cleric, a human ranger, a human rogue, and an elf bard.
First Session:
Character generation went quickly and we where able to rather quickly outline the background of each characters without 'filling it in'. Everyone was pleased.
Cillimar and the surrounding lands suffer from humanoid infestations in the spring and summer as they come out of the hills to raid. Cillimar has a standing bounty on the heads of Orcs and Goblins. Through the Ranger in the party, they learn of a small band of goblin raiders that have moved into an area 1/2 a days walk south east of Cillimar. They go and eradicate them. The goblins where based out of an old razed farm dating to the raids of the red dragon Benthosruthsa. Nothing really left of the farm except the small cellar complex turned sepulcher and burial chamber for former farm inhabitants. They found a small hidden treasure room from that time that the goblins had not ransacked. It contained some old coins, and bone scroll case with two scrolls. The first one was a new 0th level illusionist spell, and the second was a blank sheet of paper. End of session.
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Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
-George Washington
Castle Whiterock and C&C
Nice group of PCs!
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Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte
"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax
"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth
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Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte
"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax
"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth
Lord Tadhg - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Ardmore
"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax
"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth
"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax
"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth
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CharlieRock
CharlieRock wrote:
That is a nice group!
My campaign is also a Castle Whiterock. We're stalled for the holidays but made it to level 6. (of the dungeon, not the characters)
What level are the characters? Have you been adding XP or making more encounters?
_________________
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
-George Washington
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CharlieRock
PeelSeel2 wrote:
What level are the characters? Have you been adding XP or making more encounters?
The characters are variously leveled between 5 (paladin) and 7. With most at 6. We've only expanded on random encounters to make them more numerous and/or difficult. Otherwise the xp has been a pretty close match as far as keeping pace with challenges as presented in the book.
We dont award XP for magic items, only coinage, jewelry, or gems and stuff.
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The Rock says ...
Know your roll!
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Lord Dynel
- Maukling
- Posts: 5844
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:00 am
Nice! Wouldn't mind seeing more updates of this.
Interesting to see two assassins in the group.
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LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules
Interesting to see two assassins in the group.
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LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules
Troll Lord wrote:
Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.
LD's C&C creations - CL Checker, a witch class, the half-ogre, skills, and 0-level rules
Troll Lord wrote:Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.
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CharlieRock
I suppose I should throw something about my team up, for comparison (and you could see why we dont add encounters but PS2 would)
6th Elf Knight
5th Human Paladin
5th Dwarf Assassin (missed some sessions for lower xp)
6th Gnome Druid
6th Dwarf Barbarian
5th Half-Elf Wizard
_________________
The Rock says ...
Know your roll!
6th Elf Knight
5th Human Paladin
5th Dwarf Assassin (missed some sessions for lower xp)
6th Gnome Druid
6th Dwarf Barbarian
5th Half-Elf Wizard
_________________
The Rock says ...
Know your roll!
The last two session's we have played have been great.
First, Rules tinkering:
I have been playing with the Target numbers for primes , what we call half-primes, and secondaries. We started off with the Prime 12 and Secondary at 18, but that felt unrewarding, not enough "swing". So we threw in the half prime at 15 and ran with that for the last two sessions. So humans have three primes, two half primes, and 1 secondary. Demi-Humans have 2 Primes, 2 half-primes, and 2 secondaries. For the next session I am going to tweak the numbers to 10, 13 and 16 and see how it goes.
Healing takes place a lot faster in my campaign. Binding wounds after a battle can heal 1d2, and 1d4 if they have a herbal 'kit'. Something we all like from fourth edition D&D is when in negative, if you get healed, you start off at zero and then get the healing. Makes the characters more 'heroic'. We also have given everyone 1 free anytime 1d8 healing. Call it fate, resilience, whatever. We have used it the last two sessions and it was good.
This last session we also tried an idea taken from Mongoose Traveller for characters assisting other characters in an action. The character doing the assisting makes a challenge roll; whatever he gets above the CL is added to the characters roll that he is assisting. It worked good in Traveller, and the limited play it got in our last session it worked great for C&C.
The Last Session:
Players:12, Characters: Human Assassin, Human Fighter, Human Ranger, Half-Elf Bard, Human Paladin, Human Knight, Human Rogue, Half-Orc Monk, Elven Ranger, Elf Assassin, Human Illusionist, and Dwarf Cleric.
Characters started off in Cillimar investigating the life of the former Jailer who was selling work crews into slavery. The Rogue and the two Assassins where the point on that, and between contacts in the thieves guild, and the Assassins 'casing' the dead guy, they found out where he lived, that he was not well liked, that he was a bad gambler, had gambling debts. They also found that he was associated with the undertaker in town.
So they split into two groups, one group going to check out the former jailers apartment, and the other group checking out Undertakers place. The group checking out the apartment ransacked it and found his uniform, other personal effects, and a ledger with amounts in it, the income and outgo of the jailers money. They also managed to find a hidden letter that was addressed to his captain in no flattering terms. The letter said in effect "If I wind up missing, its the undertaker who did it. I supplied him with people he could sell as slaves, and he paid me well." About that time the lookouts spotted the captain approaching (the Jailer had not shown up for two days to work). The gave the note to the captain and asked to accompany him to the undertaker. He agreed.
In the meantime, the other group watched the undertakers building. The bard noticed a diamond chested Raven fly into the upper window with something on its leg. She knew that those rare ravens are particularly prized by wizards for a rather intelligent familiar. Other than that incident, it looked like a busy undertakers place.
A couple of characters ran ahead to tell the group watching the undertakers what had happened at the apartment. The Human Knight, the Human Ranger, and the Human Illusionist went in to talk with the undertaker. The undertaker was able to pass off the note to the captain (with the help of a charm person) as the prattles of a man that was in debt to him because of gambling. He did not need to be involved in slavery with as busy as his business was.
The party decided to take the undertaker out. They cased his place out and made a two pronged attack that went really bad. One group with the dwarfs aid made use of a sealed entrance through the sewers to assault the undertakers from below. The second group came in through the ground entrance. The human assassin cased one of the workers that he looked liked and ganked him. He then disguised himself as that worker. He rolled a natural 20 on the disguise attempt, so I allowed it. The human thief and the half-orc monk disguised themselves as dead bodies, with the aid of some real dead bodies in the dead cart. He went into the undertakers on a signal from the illusionist. The Human Illusionist, the Human Ranger, and the Half-Elf Bard went into the undertakers and demanded to speak with the undertaker. The undertaker came down to speak with them. Once again, as the undertaker met them, he used his charm ability and got the Ranger. The illusionist had a good line of shit to feed him, but unfortunately for the illusionist, the undertaker was aware of the party and had been warned to look out for them. The undertaker won the initiative, and with a hold effect and three failed saves had the illusionist, the ranger, and the bard held.
Meanwhile down below, the characters busted through the wall to find a room with a pentagram and a demon in it. Their where four demon statues in the room, and demonic paintings all over the room. The dwarf crawled in and went to talk with the demon when he was attacked by the statues. This combat went really bad with only the human fighter standing afterwords (all other in negative but stable).
They where all feeling pretty down about then when the human assassin in disguise announced his death attack. He had been studying the illusionist from when he came into the room to when he held the characters. The Undertaker ordered him and the other toadies to secure the three held ones, and the assassin struck. The undertaker only had to roll above a five to save against the attack after the assassin hit him. I rolled the dice across the table and it came up a four. The assassins player did a horrid little victory dance as the rest shouted various whoops of joy. We wrapped up pretty quickly after that.
In the aftermath, I decided to do something we use to do with AD&D, and let the players roll the treasure they 'find' in the undertakers lair. One of the rolls they got gave them 5 antiquities. They rolled a 40,000gp Crown, and 30,000gp necklace in the five. Sheesh!! I told them that we would handle that next session and that I was going to have to make something that valuable a plot device somehow. They where fine with that and excited to wonder what this undertaker was doing with such a valuable crown and necklace. I was also excited to wonder why too!
I think that was the best thing about the session. Out of random rolls, something extraordinary happened that was not 'logical' or 'appropriate', but the story will be immensely more immersive when these random item
are given a back story in the context of the campaign.
I think the swinginess of combat, random encounters, and random treasure can force you to think of stories if you listen to them.
_________________
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
-George Washington
First, Rules tinkering:
I have been playing with the Target numbers for primes , what we call half-primes, and secondaries. We started off with the Prime 12 and Secondary at 18, but that felt unrewarding, not enough "swing". So we threw in the half prime at 15 and ran with that for the last two sessions. So humans have three primes, two half primes, and 1 secondary. Demi-Humans have 2 Primes, 2 half-primes, and 2 secondaries. For the next session I am going to tweak the numbers to 10, 13 and 16 and see how it goes.
Healing takes place a lot faster in my campaign. Binding wounds after a battle can heal 1d2, and 1d4 if they have a herbal 'kit'. Something we all like from fourth edition D&D is when in negative, if you get healed, you start off at zero and then get the healing. Makes the characters more 'heroic'. We also have given everyone 1 free anytime 1d8 healing. Call it fate, resilience, whatever. We have used it the last two sessions and it was good.
This last session we also tried an idea taken from Mongoose Traveller for characters assisting other characters in an action. The character doing the assisting makes a challenge roll; whatever he gets above the CL is added to the characters roll that he is assisting. It worked good in Traveller, and the limited play it got in our last session it worked great for C&C.
The Last Session:
Players:12, Characters: Human Assassin, Human Fighter, Human Ranger, Half-Elf Bard, Human Paladin, Human Knight, Human Rogue, Half-Orc Monk, Elven Ranger, Elf Assassin, Human Illusionist, and Dwarf Cleric.
Characters started off in Cillimar investigating the life of the former Jailer who was selling work crews into slavery. The Rogue and the two Assassins where the point on that, and between contacts in the thieves guild, and the Assassins 'casing' the dead guy, they found out where he lived, that he was not well liked, that he was a bad gambler, had gambling debts. They also found that he was associated with the undertaker in town.
So they split into two groups, one group going to check out the former jailers apartment, and the other group checking out Undertakers place. The group checking out the apartment ransacked it and found his uniform, other personal effects, and a ledger with amounts in it, the income and outgo of the jailers money. They also managed to find a hidden letter that was addressed to his captain in no flattering terms. The letter said in effect "If I wind up missing, its the undertaker who did it. I supplied him with people he could sell as slaves, and he paid me well." About that time the lookouts spotted the captain approaching (the Jailer had not shown up for two days to work). The gave the note to the captain and asked to accompany him to the undertaker. He agreed.
In the meantime, the other group watched the undertakers building. The bard noticed a diamond chested Raven fly into the upper window with something on its leg. She knew that those rare ravens are particularly prized by wizards for a rather intelligent familiar. Other than that incident, it looked like a busy undertakers place.
A couple of characters ran ahead to tell the group watching the undertakers what had happened at the apartment. The Human Knight, the Human Ranger, and the Human Illusionist went in to talk with the undertaker. The undertaker was able to pass off the note to the captain (with the help of a charm person) as the prattles of a man that was in debt to him because of gambling. He did not need to be involved in slavery with as busy as his business was.
The party decided to take the undertaker out. They cased his place out and made a two pronged attack that went really bad. One group with the dwarfs aid made use of a sealed entrance through the sewers to assault the undertakers from below. The second group came in through the ground entrance. The human assassin cased one of the workers that he looked liked and ganked him. He then disguised himself as that worker. He rolled a natural 20 on the disguise attempt, so I allowed it. The human thief and the half-orc monk disguised themselves as dead bodies, with the aid of some real dead bodies in the dead cart. He went into the undertakers on a signal from the illusionist. The Human Illusionist, the Human Ranger, and the Half-Elf Bard went into the undertakers and demanded to speak with the undertaker. The undertaker came down to speak with them. Once again, as the undertaker met them, he used his charm ability and got the Ranger. The illusionist had a good line of shit to feed him, but unfortunately for the illusionist, the undertaker was aware of the party and had been warned to look out for them. The undertaker won the initiative, and with a hold effect and three failed saves had the illusionist, the ranger, and the bard held.
Meanwhile down below, the characters busted through the wall to find a room with a pentagram and a demon in it. Their where four demon statues in the room, and demonic paintings all over the room. The dwarf crawled in and went to talk with the demon when he was attacked by the statues. This combat went really bad with only the human fighter standing afterwords (all other in negative but stable).
They where all feeling pretty down about then when the human assassin in disguise announced his death attack. He had been studying the illusionist from when he came into the room to when he held the characters. The Undertaker ordered him and the other toadies to secure the three held ones, and the assassin struck. The undertaker only had to roll above a five to save against the attack after the assassin hit him. I rolled the dice across the table and it came up a four. The assassins player did a horrid little victory dance as the rest shouted various whoops of joy. We wrapped up pretty quickly after that.
In the aftermath, I decided to do something we use to do with AD&D, and let the players roll the treasure they 'find' in the undertakers lair. One of the rolls they got gave them 5 antiquities. They rolled a 40,000gp Crown, and 30,000gp necklace in the five. Sheesh!! I told them that we would handle that next session and that I was going to have to make something that valuable a plot device somehow. They where fine with that and excited to wonder what this undertaker was doing with such a valuable crown and necklace. I was also excited to wonder why too!
I think that was the best thing about the session. Out of random rolls, something extraordinary happened that was not 'logical' or 'appropriate', but the story will be immensely more immersive when these random item
are given a back story in the context of the campaign.
I think the swinginess of combat, random encounters, and random treasure can force you to think of stories if you listen to them.
_________________
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
-George Washington