Hey all,
So, Evan needed to take a week off from DM’ing and asked if I could step in and go ahead and start my Campaign. I had been doing a lot of thinking and planning about it recently and had enough that I felt I could jump in on short notice and kick things off. We had recently discussed some of this on a podcast and I had decided to do a lot of the ‘random’ rolls over e-mail and give each Player a recap of what their character was before hand. Because of how this game fell into my lap on such short notice that didn’t happen.
Overall, I thought the game went well. There were some points that I could have handled better but the group seemed to be having fun. I’m going to try and briefly recap what went down and call out some of the points I could have done better and what I thought worked well. There are a few points I left out of the original Post about this game on the off chance that one of them read it, but luckily no one did, but I’ll give you the full scoop here.
First off, I added a new Player for my game: Jared. So my group consisted of Niko, Rob, Evan and Jared.
Miscellaneous and House rule rolls:
I’ve discussed on Podcasts and other Posts some of the House Rules I’ve used or use in my games. There is another ‘Michael’ism’ that I’ve done for years and years with each new PC making a bunch of seemingly random rolls. Here are what the rolls are, and what they mean (NOTE: to date, NONE OF MY PLAYERS HAVE EVER GOTTEN THIS FULL INFO BEFORE!!! SHHHHHH!!)
D20 and a D6 at the same time: If both numbers match then the Character is Ambidextrous. A true Ambidextrous, not the rules version. They can use a weapon in each hand and get an extra bonus attack without penalty. If the d6 is higher than the D20 then the character is left handed. Out of 4 PCs 3 were left handed and none were Ambidextrous.
D20: If the Player rolls a 1 on this roll then their character has an eidetic memory. They get a +1 bonus to Intelligence and can recall any bit of info that their character has read, heard or seen. No one hit this roll.
%:
This is where things can get weird. If a player rolls a 01 on this roll then they are what I call a MANA WELL. It’s basically a home-brewed version of Spell resistance, but it works more powerfully. They can absorb and negate magic. This affect increases as they level. Potentially they could be the center of a FIREBALL Spell and absorb and negate the entire spell so that even those around them are not affected. At the same time they CAN NOT use Magic items and prolonged exposure can drain items that the other PC’s carry.
If the % roll is a 99 then the Character has some sort of supernatural power. This is based on a series of books I read by Mercedes Lackey called the Herald of Valdemar. If they get at 99 I either re-roll or randomly select one I think would be interesting. These can be Telekinesis, pyrokensis, ESP, Far-seeing, etc . . .
If the roll is % 100 then the character is Immortal. I’m talking Highlander, Conner McCloud immortal. Can only die if they are be-headed. I have them roll again and 91 or higher and they have already died and are aware of their status, 01-90 and they won’t find out until they die in game – assuming they aren’t beheaded or dissolved in Acid or other similar death.
I know this may seem like a lot of crazy stuff that can happen, but in all my years of playing I’ve only had 2 players that rolled 100 and were Immortal, only a couple that were either a Mana Well or had the supernatural abilities and maybe a half dozen that were ambidextrous.
No one in the group last night hit any of these.
RACE:
Next were randomly rolled for Race. As I had described before, this City is massive. There is no real world equivalent. I described it to the players that he City was the size of a State; somewhere between Ohio and Texas in overall size, but perfectly square and perfectly symmetrical. It is divided into 8 levels. Think of as looking at a staircase from the side. Level 1 is on the ground level and level two is back and up, level three is back and up . . ., Level 1 and 2 are populated by Halflings. The City appears to have been made for that purpose as everything is Halfing sized. Level’s 3 and 4 are populated by Dwarves. Everything is 3/4 sized. Level 5 is Elven only and Level’s 6,7 and 8 are Human Only.
I had each player roll 1d8 and whatever number they landed on represented their level and their race.
Niko got a 4 and Dwarven.
Rob got a 6; Human
Evan got a 2; Halfing
Jared got an 8; Human
I had secretly hoped that someone would have gotten a 5, since there is was special stuff with the Elves, but I was able to get this across through two NPC Elves, which I’ll discuss later.
I also had everyone roll to see if their NPC’s knew or may have known about each other. Everyone knew of Jared, Niko knew Rob but that was all.
AGE:
Next each Player had to roll to randomly determine the age of their character. This is one of the areas that I messed up on. I originally meant for them to roll 1d6 with 1-3 being normal starting age range, 4 being middle aged, 5 being old and 6 being venerable (with those last three coming with the negatives to STR, DEX and CON and the bonuses to INT, WIS and CHA), but I had a brain fart and forgot about the 1-3 thing. Niko’s Dwarf was Middle aged, Rob’s Human was old aged, Evan’s halfing was old aged and only Jared’s Human was young.
OCCUPATION:
Next each Player had to pick 1, 2 or 3 and roll a d10. Basically I had 30 different possible Occupations and this roll determined what job they had. Each Player was given the option of re-rolling up to 3 times, but they had to take the last roll AND they had to explain in game why they were not their original profession. So it was assumed they started off in that profession but for some reason left it.
Niko rolled to be an Coach of some kind. I had him come up with what sport he coached and he decided it was a Dwarven Wrestling league similar to the WWE.
Rob rolled to be an Athlete. He decided he was a retired Boxed (A la, Muhammad Ali) and was now an announcer and minor celebrity in the boxing circuit.
Evan rolled to be a Baker, re-rolled to be a Librarian and then re-rolled to be a Guard. In game he decided that he and his wife ran the Bakery but after she died he closed the business and was re-assigned a job in the Library but kept having bouts of depression and then lashed out in anger so he was re-assigned to guard duty. Not the most complex progression, but I only gave him a couple minutes to come up with it.
Jared rolled to be a performer. He then choose to be Lute-player and singer.
STATS:
I purposefully had them roll stats last. Because of the way the City is designed as a socialist society and jobs are assigned then it doesn’t really matter if you have an aptitude for it or not. So being really smart is required to be a librarian (I know this sounds counter intuitive but secretly I was channeling the Family Guy Episode where society falls because of Y2K and Peter rebuilds and they randomly assign jobs). So anyway, I had each of the Players roll 4d6 and take the highest 3 to get a score. I then notated them and created a matrix (as described in an earlier post). I then had them pick a stat line (1-14) and then pick regular or reversed. I then wrote down their stats in order based on that selection. They then adjusted for Racial modifiers and then age modifiers. That gave them their final scores. Jared was the big winner. He got the second best stat line available. Everyone else was above average. I also, allowed them to re-roll one of the stats and take the new result so they could try to get rid of one bad one or their lowest. Rob was the big winner here, changing a 6 STR to a 14 (which then became an 11 after his old age adjustment).
For me this was a big win. While in the future I’ll allow the PC’s to see the matrix and select which stat line they want, I still really liked the whole process and the Players, even the ones who didn’t get great stats, all seemed to like the process.
BACKGROUNDS:
I then asked each PC to write down the names of 5 NPC’s that they knew and interacted with. Niko went with some of the athletes/actors he coached, Rob went with other Athletes, some of his girlfriends and a guy at the concession stand that hooks him up with the good stuff. Evan struggled the most, but came up with a prostitute he frequents and some other Guardsmen he knows. Jared was the over-achiever and gave me about 15 NPC’s.
Next I pulled each Player aside and gave them some info about their character. I had predetermined 4 secrets and then randomly rolled to see who got what background.
Niko was first. He learned that several years ago during a Annual Celebration that there was a moment when the Wards (I called them Wardens in the original post but changed to make it less obvious) seemed to stop. No one really seemed to notice, but he did because at that very moment he was filled with a sense of great power. It only lasted for about 15 seconds and then the Wards started back up again. Here I was trying to get across that there was a protective barrier preventing Magic in the City (There are no wizards, Clerics or Sorcerers, Druids, etc. . . ,) but that it failed for a moment and he was flooded with power. He is an innate sorcerer. Doesn’t mean he has to take that as a profession but he has the power to do so.
For Rob you need a little more info. The City controls access by ways of bracelets that each person in the City wears. They act like key cards. Certain bracelets open certain doors. There are doors spread throughout each level that no one can open. When a child is born a Ward shows up and take the child. They come back (usually) 3 days later with this bracelet that appears melded to their body and never comes off. Each level comes with a different color. The bracelets allow access between levels. You can go up 3 levels or down as many as you want. At some time in Rob’s past he had found a doorway that was open that he shouldn’t have had access too. It led into the under city behind level 6 and below level 7. He decided that his character would not have explored it but would have peeked inside. I described it as what a submarine interior would look like. Pipes, steam, gauges, metal staircases, etc . . .,
Evan, while patrolling one night, found a Human sneaking around in level 2. The guy was terrified and just wanted to run away. He managed to sneak away but dropped something. When Evan’s PC opened the small bag, he found a bracelet with a different colored Gem than he had ever seen before. After a few tests he figured out that his bracelet could open ANY door. Sadly Evan also proved scared and decided that his Character would have hidden it and not used it yet.
Jared, because he rolled 8 was let in on a few secrets. For one, those 10% of children who are not returned are turned into slaves for the Level 8’ers. It’s a big secret so they don’t tell anyone outside of other Level 8’ers. Jared’s character had 10 slaves assigned to him. The slaves do not have a bracelet and so have no access to go anywhere without an escort. Jared, also once, when his PC was younger was walking past a door that had always been closed but noticed it was open, he just happened to glance over and see a tall figure, humanoid shape with albino skin and red eyes walking past. He smiled at him with fanged teeth, but the door shut quickly. Jared’s character still isn’t’ sure if he really saw that or not.
GAME TIME:
Now that everyone was set we started the game for real. I randomly rolled and Rob’s character Roland was selected. We role-played out a short scene where while was at home entertaining a lady-friend a Ward showed up and captured him, putting a collar around his neck and taking him away. Before he realized what happened he found himself outside of The City, on the road with a bunch of other people. I then told the other Players that basically the same thing happened to all of them. They were dumped onto the road with no explanation and wearing and carrying what they had. Also with them were two Elves and an old Human lady. The Elves where armored and had swords and crossbows. They only spoke Elven (which none of the other PC did) and if any of the other players approached them, they would draw their weapons and wave them off.
Things got a little crazy here. The Players reacted about how I wanted. They were upset, nervous, scared, frustrated (Rob’s Roland was practically naked) and unprepared. They also no longer had their bracelets. During the confusion Evan’s Halfling, Brimm, and Jared’s Delvana, were working on a plan to bum-rush the Elves to take their weapons. There was much discussions, and arguing (one of the few times I encouraged that) but before any plans could be executed the sun began to rise. Immediately a bunch of spectators crowded the front edge of the city and starting calling out the Exiles. A group of Elves appeared and began lowering extra supplies to the Elves; more weapons, backpacks, food, rope etc . .. , I wanted to convey that the Elves had a much better idea of what was going on. And that they were much more prepared.
This spurred the Players to action and they started asking for favors as well. I used the NPC’s they had created and some rolls to determine what, if anything, they got. Eventually they all got something (and Rob’s Roland got pants!!).
At some point during all this a view screen popped up on the front wall of the City (the PC’s didn’t know what this was of course, they thought it was window) and a Human male in ornate armor showed them a picture of a crystal key and said that key would get them back into the city. If they could find it, they could return.
The Elves used their new gear and hooked a rope to a tree branch and repelled to the ground below (the road appeared to be a ground level from within the city, but it was actually 200′ above it).
Here’s where things got really crazy: Evan’s Brimm who he had been role playing as very distraught wanted to stay with the Elves, since they had gear and seemed to me better equipped to handle what was going on. The Elves had left the rope attached to the tree but it was about 5′ off the road. Brimm decided to jump out and grab the rope. It didn’t go so well. 200 feet later there was a Brimm pancake.
In some regards it worked great, because the other PC’s got a taste of how deadly this world is. As the DM I didn’t step in and allow Brimm to survive. He rolled low and he died. The end. The bad side I had originally intended on having there be a few additional NPC’s that also got exiled just for this exact possibility. If someone died early they could take over a different NPC. I added the Elves because no one rolled an Elf but I only had the other NPC as the old Woman. We decided to do a quick edit and say there was another NPC there and Evan quickly rolled all the rolls again. This lead to the best line of the night: When Evan rolled his Second Profession he came up with Priest (not a cleric, but a Spiritual guide Priest) so when we un-paused the game all the Pc’s had just watched Brimm go Splat and then the Priest stepped up to the edge and gave last rights. Reading this back, it’s not translating well, but it cracked the table up. Niko got the first Hero point of the night.
After a little more discussion the Group decided to walk the road rather than climb down the rope. We quickly jumped a few days ahead and I had a massive rain storm move in. All the characters were on this open road with no shelter so they all got soaked. The old woman (Sara) got sick and it was clear she had no hope of surviving. She hung on for a few more days and then passed away. I had originally put here there to die later to show what Brimm’s pancake had done for me so I did this to add some emotional punch. Jared did a great job of role-playing his Pc’s protection and sadness. Second Hero point of the game.
Eventually, just as the food was about to run out, the PC’s came to edge of the road. It dead stopped at a four way intersection with each section only extending a few feet and then nothing. There were also four pedestals that appeared to have key holes and one of them (associated with the road they were on) was turned 90 degrees. The Pc’s figured out that if they had a key they could turn on one of the other pedestals and maybe the road would appear and they could go on. They also found an archway and stairs leading down to the ground below. Below the roadway it was ancient jungle but also very sterile. No bugs, animals. They buried Sara and then headed off in what would be West where they hope to find another City. They passed through a wall of hazy fog and suddenly that power surge came back to Niko’s Dwarf (Grumps McMahon) and they realized they couldn’t go back through – they had passed into the unprotected world and things were about to get a lot more interesting.
that’s where we stopped. I realize this is a very long post, but I hope some of you took the time to read it and would love to hear how you thought the game went. Suggestions for next time, or questions for the stuff I’m sure I didn’t’ explain well enough.
Until next time . . .
– Michael – AKA Professor Mumbles
