Hey
--Just a warning, this is not a recruitment thread for an online game and I'm not looking for players--
I've never DM'd or played a tabletop RPG before and I find myself in the DM seat for 3-4 players. I'm actually pretty excited for this, I know it won't be easy but I expect it will be fun and interesting creative outlet. Still though, some advice from experienced DMs would be fantastic. So to start off, the concepts I'm working with/ideas I have
Concepts, ideas, settingMy heroes find themselves in the world of Oredrah (placeholder name, not married to it). It's a fairly traditional DnD style setting--orcs, goblins, elves, etc. I do want to keep it a little silly and tongue-in-cheek. Lots of little references to show, games, pop culture etc. for example:
I want the heroes to find a Stone of Cecil: It will play a random quote/snippet (or one I've made up) from Welcome to Nightvale when activated by the players, once per day max. I think later as a short 1 or 2 session adventure they'll find themselves transported to Nightvale and have to find their way back. I also intend to name one of the kings "The King Formerly Known as The Prince" and he will become annoyed/enraged if called anything else. Maybe they'll find themselves at "The whores nipple" (aka "The Dragon's Kneecap") of Korgoth of Barbaria, shortly after Korgoth's rampage, you know silly little stuff like that
I've generated a map from dwarf fortress using Dwarf Map Maker, here it is:
It's a medium sized world. I'm having trouble actually figuring out what the actual size is in KM or miles though, does anyone have an estimate of the size of a map tile? At any rate, I still need to populate it with kingdoms and roads and all that fun stuff. I would've been happy to copy that from the map generation but it seems that DMM doesn't handle that.
The big bad threat will be a rapidly growing force of an all-inclusive primitive civilization. It will be made entirely of the (semi)intelligent monstrous/tribal/brutish races such as goblins, bugbears, orcs, beast men (I'm going to include a few beast races in the game, crocodile men, leopard men etc), kobolds etc. This new and unlikely civilization will be banded together with a hatred and jealousy of the civilized races, and some sort of dark (blood?) magic--a tattoo that allows them to freely speak between eachother and would bind them into loyalty to the leader and civilization as a whole. The tattoo must be taken willingly, but once taken loyalty is absolute (there may be some limitations, haven't decided). I feel like a kobold would make a fitting Big Bad, given their cruel nature, tendency towards jealousy and big egos.
I want to add some more mechanics and monsters to the game. Namely, I want to add the monsters from Monster Hunter (the Capcom game) along with armor and weapon crafting using the materials gathered. I think I'll upgrade the Wyverns to be intelligent but savage, violent and very instinctually driven to better fit in with the Pathfinder wyvern concept. Capable of speech, but too unpredictable and violent for it to make a difference *most* of the time. Some, like Kut-Ku's and the gypceros will probably just be dumb beasts. The most important part is that their materials will be harvestable (presumably with survival skill) and the PC's will be able to use these materials to make and upgrade weapons. The weapon trees will follow the basic ones found in Monster Hunter itself, perhaps shortened for the sake of keeping it easier to balance/more rewarding. I probably won't include the charge/explosive/transforming weapons so as to keep with the setting, but perhaps they'll be available from specialized smiths later on. I intend to the weapons and armor better than most of what the players will find in the campaign (with a few exceptions) so they have a reason to go out and hunt and will be excited for a wyvern encounter. I also want to make Kobolds have an strong relation with wyverns (and the other reptilian monsters like Velociprey). I'd like some tribes to have an intimate knowledge of how to manipulate them using pheromones/bait etc, others to bow down to them as brothers of dragons (and be abused/eaten/taken advantage of in return). In general wyverns will see them as annoying pests, something to be ignored or eaten most of the time. I rather like the concept of kobolds, and I think this will give me a chance to feature them more and make the wyvern encounters a little more interesting at the same time.
Note: I intend the crafting to be done at a blacksmiths, and to be done between rounds *only* I.E. through email with me so I have time to balance the weapons/armor and so the players don't have to waste valuable table time shopping.
I also have a basic opening arc outline:
The party is acting as guards of a traveling merchant caravan (note: I don't have any backstories from the players yet, this detail may change to accommodate those). On the road they come across the ruins of another merchant caravan, maybe 3 wagons, with ~20 corpses strewn about. They were apparently setting up for the night, with half set up tents strewn about and ripped up, with evidence this happened the previous night. The corpses are pretty terribly mutilated and eaten, and there are a few velociprey corpses around as well. Several of the dead were obviously killed by a larger creature (the PCs will know it as a velocidrome if they pass a a knowledge check). Oddly, everything appears to be looted and picked clean. Also, the guards seem to have poison darts in them as well as wounds from the monsters. The caravan master encourages them to investigate while they wait there with most of the other guards, and might send an NPC with them. They will find 2 trails, 1 will be from the velociprey, which will be marked by a blood trail/scales/obvious tracks. If the PC's follow that they will encounter the Velocidrome and a few velociprey, lightly wounded from the previous night. The other trail will show obvious signs of attempted concealment, but the broken branches and signs that perhaps crates were dragged that way. This will lead to a few simple traps (snares, pits) first marked by an exhausted deer with a broken leg hanging from a tree. As they follow the path (hopefully avoiding the traps) they find themselves at the entrance to a cave. The entrance is mined out but leads to a series of natural caverns, one of which contains a chained velociprey and a chained boy from the caravan who is just out of reach of the velociprey. Whether they are attempting to tame it or just use it for torture is unclear. Anyways, they slaughter some kobolds and find a small, heavy chest with a high quality lock and the king's symbol. The kobolds obviously tried to pry it open and pick the lock, but they didn't have much luck. If the PC's manage to open it somehow they find a golden, gem studded sex toy with a strap (debating on whether this is too silly/stupid for the first game, if I do do it I'll describe it in a roundabout way I.E. "you find a golden rod, 8" long, rounded at the top and studded with precious gems. You feel this would make a poor weapon..." and if they make a knowledge check "while the king is largely considered a just and righteous man, his tastes in the bedchamber are widely rumored"). Anywho, I'll word it so that they get the hint that taking the whole box and locking it again would be a good idea. When they return they continue onto their destination, and are approached by a cloaked man who is clearly not fitting of the situation. He'll smell and act like a noble. He'll offer to hire them on behalf of the king to investigate a caravan that hasn't arrived yet and carries something that belongs to the king. Oh hey what a coincidence. They give him the chest, he plies them to make sure they haven't opened the chest, checks the chest, pays them and is off. Next morning guards burst into their room and interrogate them about the man they spoke to. They get brought in front of the king himself, who asks them questions about the man and the chest. He fervently insists that the contents of the chest was just a decoy (the queen blushes) whether or not they admit to opening it, or indeed whether they opened it at all. The king decides they look trustworthy and tells them that the box had a hidden compartment containing papers that may give credence to another man's claim to the throne and the man who hired them was a spy who had wormed his way into his council and was recently found out. While the king's claim is legitimate, this proof could split the realm and cause a civil war, which is just not an option with the horde attacking the southern borders. He asks for the player's assistance in securing these dangerous documents. That's all I've got so far
Possible storyline branches:
Characters leave the box or convince the caravan master to keep moving-They are contacted by the spy all the same and have to go back and get it (there's no way they wouldn't take the bait at this point, I hope)
The spy figures out the characters opened the box-He makes them swear to secrecy about the contents
The characters search the box and discover the hidden lineage proof-I'm really hoping this will happen, it could open up all sorts of opportunities for the PCs to end up embroiled in political intrigue and potentially have very noticeable and real impacts on the game world
Where I Need Help So I found an android app that has the core rules+beastiary+ultimate books, and I got the pathfinder beginner's box to give me a step in the right direction. This gives me a pretty wide base to work off of, especially for the homebrew stuff. The main things I need help with:
The Map/Setting: Oh god what a huge task. I don't know how to parse up the map to be useable in the game. I also need to come up with some kingdoms and all that. I think I'll start the horde/invasion in the evil peninsula off the continent, but I don't know where to start the PC's, I want them a reasonable distance away but I also want them close enough to feel the impact of the Horde's expansion. Also, if anyone knows how to make the map seem more like a tradition map in gimp that'd be great. I added the canvas filter to it which makes it seem more like cloth, but that's all I got.
The Mechanics: How to add in the weapons, armor and monster and balance the butchering for parts as well as weapon upgrades. Also, how to make a single wyvern be a reasonable but not overpowered threat to 3-4 players, and include some of the wyverns behaviors/attack patterns. Also, ideas on how the Big Bad's tattoos could work mechanically
Storyline ideas: Throw'em at me, I could use the inspiration
Feedback/hints/tips/cautionary tales/tools etc: oh god I have nearly no idea what I'm doing. HELP! Online tools and android apps would be nice as well.
Thank you to anyone who has had the patience to read all/any of this. The denizens of Bay12 seem like exactly the sort of folks that would help me out, and appreciate any I can get. Also, if this thread is in the wrong forum please move it as necessary, I felt this fit the best but I'm not sure.
Author
Topic: DM-ing a Pathfinder game, looking for advice/feedback/help homebrewing (Read 822 times)