City of Splendors: A Forgotten Realms Adventure

[ThatGuyThere]

the big plus in using 5th ed is that the numbers have flattened a lot. Granted power levels are not close to equal but you will run into a lot less of the I only hit on a nat 20 than you would with 3.5, the big difference not is not in hit chance but how much more damage and other effects that the higher levels can spring on you with each hit.

[Arkandel]

@lavit2099 said in City of Splendors: A Forgotten Realms Adventure:

@Arkandel This has been something that I hammered out when I first thought of making a D&D game.

The idea is, you have a central city that most people spend their downtime in/around. You have Guilds that recruit adventures for quests/tasks. Like, say, a noble family's caravan was robbed on the way from the north, find the orcs, kill them, get the stuff back. If you do? You get the xp, loot you find, a "quest reward" type thing of bonus xp and/or money. If you don't wanna be a merc like that? You can form a group with OOC friends (like, say, a pack in Werewolf) and run together. I imagine there will be players looking for short adventures, as well as DM's trying to get people together to run something (like adventures for the Guilds or just general "I have this idea I wanna run" type stuff).

My experience with games for the last several years has been almost entirely based on two specific kinds of MU*, World of Darkness and some Lords and Ladies. Given that the perspective I've got might be skewed, and any comparisons I draw here could be apples to oranges, so take it with a grain of salt.

There are two problems with ... shall we say mission based kinds of games - ones where the emphasis lies on challenging players by using the environment.

The first is that they are extremely biased in favor of groups with a pocket GM since someone has to run those Orcs; this has been a sticking point for example in many Werewolf spheres, who saw characters unable to gain Renown unless they just naturally happened to be included in the right kinds of scenes, and as the game is heavily geared toward interactions with NPCs (spirits to barter with, enemies to defeat, exploration to be done) it was really hard to stay thematic unless one had access to that sort of thing.

But the second issue has been no easier to resolve even if it sounds like it ought to be. It's sometimes not easy to be part of a group for people who're not very well connected OOC or are just a bit ... introverted personality-wise. Packs tend to either balloon up in size or no one wants to be the one putting one together in the first place, resulting in 5-6 people all complaining at the same time about not having one when the solution seems pretty obvious - but it has chronically been a hurdle, and I don't know a D&D party is easier to form than a pack. They're probably a bit more transient, which helps, but then again mix and matching levels could make up for that.

What do you think?

[faraday]

@Arkandel said in City of Splendors: A Forgotten Realms Adventure:

But the second issue has been no easier to resolve even if it sounds like it ought to be. It's sometimes not easy to be part of a group for people who're not very well connected OOC or are just a bit ... introverted personality-wise.

The places that I've seen this done successfully have all relied on an external catalyst to force the characters together. This could be a commander (BSG games or TGG), a fixer (Shadowrun), or fate (various contrived GM scenarios in TT RPGs).

[Arkandel]

@faraday said in City of Splendors: A Forgotten Realms Adventure:

@Arkandel said in City of Splendors: A Forgotten Realms Adventure:

But the second issue has been no easier to resolve even if it sounds like it ought to be. It's sometimes not easy to be part of a group for people who're not very well connected OOC or are just a bit ... introverted personality-wise.

The places that I've seen this done successfully have all relied on an external catalyst to force the characters together. This could be a commander (BSG games or TGG), a fixer (Shadowrun), or fate (various contrived GM scenarios in TT RPGs).

Sure, and I agree, but GMs are a very limited resource, whether we're talking about staff or other players. So while yes, it'd be ideal if you can just throw plot at these newbies to help them bond, but it's not a given you'll always have someone to run it.

I do like the idea of assigning PCs with this role though. Commanders of the guard, helpful innkeepers, whatever... that could help propel things and get people shuffled into groups. There's no telling everyone in a group will get along OOC, of course, but it beats having isolated players sitting on their thumbs watching the screen not scroll.

[lavit2099]

@Arkandel

First point: having a pocket storyteller/DM is an advantage in EVERY kind of game. Even WoD is a "mission based" kind of game if you get xp from scenes instead of just getting xp for sitting and trolling the OOC room. That will never change in this hobby. But by having multiple people who are willing to run adventures, including myself, the reliance of having a group and pocket ST/DM is less. Part of the thing with CoS is that you don't HAVE to have a dedicated group, like I said. You don't HAVE to have a company you ONLY do adventures with. You can totally be a sellsword and go on random adventures with random people randomly.

Second point: you don't HAVE to have a group in order to do group activities. Even though D&D is a tabletop game, just like WoD, in a MU setting like this you aren't locked to ONLY dealing with your "group." I believe that's part of your misunderstanding at this point. In fact, I assume MOST people won't have a large company. They'll have two or three people they run with/make characters with. They may open a bar to have their own space. But that doesn't stop them from going out and adventuring with other people.

@faraday

I intend to have something like this. The Time of Troubles is a great "external catalyst" for people to work together. But, again, no one says they have to work together or "force characters together." If people wanna be solo's and run with random people every so often, power to them.

My idea isn't to try to get people together to form groups and the like. I'm not running a Werewolf game (I never would, spirits are dicks) where it's "pack or you can't do shit." But, as @Arkandel said in this last comment there, yeah, having PC's with "positions of power" or "shit to do" is a cool way to keep people engaged and something I'd likely do. Once it's off the ground, I plan to try to create a "social" sort of class that will be stuff like nobles (who hire adventures to do shit and get further acclaim and renown and the like for being badass). People could also try to create guilds (band of criminals, brokers for adventures, whatever) and get people to work with/for them. Be a city guard? Sure. Own an inn/tavern? Sure. The goal is to have enough stuff for everyone to wind up doing what they want to have the fun they want. For me? Getting levels, getting loot, being bossauce is my fun. As is coming up with character concepts and working out new fun class combos (who doesn't love theorycrafting?).

[magee101]

Lords of Waterdeep is an excellent example of Nobles using the Adventurers to gain their own renown and such. In the game you play a noble of the city Waterdeep, hire adventurers to go on quests and buy buildings to gain points. I don't think it would be too hard to create a homebrewed points system to use in a MU*

Now MU*s vary from boardgames in that usually no one is trying to 'win' the game, but you could use the points for other things, there are several games that award points for RP etc. that you can then use to unlock new classes, races, more starting gear for your next character etc.

In regards of pocket GMs, I now this fairly well. I played on a nWoD game (RIP The Reach) for almost two years straight and I did have a few individuals and another group of players that I ran scenes for, but I also did what I liked to call my 'random badass moment of the day' which is where I'd run around the grid, find a cool looking spot, and run a little scene that was open to anyone that wanted to happen into it anytime during that scene's progression (This once turned into a scene that I ended up running for 16+ hours and I finally had to say "Okay guys, no more new people we gotta end this cause I wanna go to bed")

So there are ways you can get people involved without them having to join or participate in a clique. However as Lavit said GMs are a valuable resource, it takes a certain type of person that gets as much or more enjoyment out of creating and running things than actually playing the game.

Personally I have run several 1+ year campaigns over Roll20 simply because I love creating worlds and NPCs and cities and quests and the creation of stories and watching those stories come to life, and watching what people/characters choose to do to interact and change that story just fascinates me, so I love GM'ing because of that (plus I have this thing where if I'm not the GM, all I can think about it how I would have done things or set up puzzles etc and tend to judge other GMs too much to really enjoy playing for too long. I tend to be only able to play a MU* for a few months at the most if I don't become a GM, but if I become a GM I can habit a MU for years at a time.

In conclusion, I think a D&D approach which at the core of the game is a very inclusive game (races/cultures/religions etc come together even if in the theme they are enemies or skeptical of one another to go on grand adventures) also allows that freedom for players to be able to make those sellsword characters, or characters that just enjoy finding new people to run around with while adventuring. nWoD is not quite the same way, each supernatural creature is generally only going to interact with other members within that sphere (IE splat/gamebook. Werewolves/spirits, Sin-Eaters/Ghosts, Vampires/humans etc.) Very rarely do we see examples of the various entities coming together against a common anything, simply because they are distrustful of each other and that is typical a major part of the theme. (Of course nWoD is a bit less aggressive on the lines between supernaturals but the mistrust and the unwillingness to work with different types of supers besides yourself is still pretty engrained in the basic theme.) Where as for dungeons and dragons the very nature of the game is to find things different than yourself (race/class/disposition/alignment etc) so that you are experiencing even more of the world, learning from it and using everyone's strengths to the group's benefits.

[golgoth]

Talking on maps: there was a 4E MUSH that had a decent (external) map system Rex Tides, I think. Used an excel-like thing and was sorta impressive.

[lavit2099]

Sadly, at this point I've had to shelf this game idea due to a number of RL reasons. I do hope to restart it, but I couldn't fathom when I'd be able to within the foreseeable future.