Jeff Mindlin
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Joined: Thu 29 Dec 2016, 13:52

Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 22:30

Ok so I’ve had 4 days notice to begin a campaign this weekend. I will have to run 2 days (4 sessions?) of the same thing with the same group. I’ve said I’d run FL without really considering I’d have to run 4 straight sessions (gulp!). And though a very experienced GM with other games over 40 years - I’ve never run or played FL.
I needed to re-read the rules and p.h. as I read them when I first received from Kickstarter but not in great detail as I wasn’t playing. So no time to read ravens purge. I’m reading the game masters book scenarios. Hollows is great - weather stone needs some thought. Haven’t got to vale if dead yet.
So...
Advice please. Anything general would be welcome.
What should use that’s easy to prep and good for a session or two? What should I do to make sure I don’t screw up Ravens purge campaign which I haven’t read.
Any other thoughts?
Argghhh!
 
Mr Oldtimer
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 23:34

Hi, 
And congratulations on starting your new campaign! No worries. This will work out just fine. I would begin by deciding how much the characters should know from the start. Chances are that neither them, nor you as a DM, would know too much at the start. So, start them off as thieves, being lowered down from the Iron lock, down to a new world. (Problem here are they might start a bit too close to places you'll want to save for later...) Or let them start in jail somewhere. Maybe with amnesia? Or let them survive a shipwreck off the coast of Vivend. They might be slaves, starving and exhausted to the point they have no clue as to how they ended up in this country. Or, if there's a mage in the group, he might have PORTALed them there by accident... Give the players one or two legends, perhaps about the Hollows and one random artifact?
Then I would have read and prepared the Hollows, a few funny "random encounter", which you can use to drop one or two legends more. Maybe about an abandoned keep not far away. Too well guarded for a few starving highway men but maybe intriguing for the players? If they spare the unfortunate robbers that is. And then off to Weatherstone. I would advise you to read about Merigall and perhaps about the scepter Nekhaka as well in the Ravens Purge and figure out if and how to let them be introduced already. Don't introduce Merigall too obvious, too early in the campaign is my advice.
More than 40 years of DM experience - I'd say you'll do great with those two places. 
Oh, and think about if they should have the map at start or if you'd like them to find it later. Why not find it as a loot in Weatherstone?

Good luck and It would be fun reading about how it all turned out!
 
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pellejones
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 23:39

1) Prep some NPCs using the GM book.
2) Prep a few simple encounters that have some minor hooks in them or use The Hollows as a starting point (And read up on it - print the legend and hand it out to them)
  • Three Goblins are squabbling over who gets the loot! The loot is hidden in a hollow tree nearby and the players need to capture one of them to find out where.
  • In a tavern in the starting village, the barkeep is sick. He needs help running the place but his wife is missing since a day or two, she didn't come back from her trip to the fisherman's lodge further down the lake.
3) The mist has quite recently disappeared. Make sure to get that feeling through. Roads are empty and overgrown. Villages have walls. People question everyone who enters a village. There is always guards moving in the villages.
4) Magic is powerful! Make it feel that way,
5) The more Willpower the players have - the more difficult the encounter.
6) Roll all your rolls open :)
7) Don't rush Raven's Purge. As I understand it, it is easy to incorporate later.
8) Magic items are sparse. If the players find one - make sure they feel it is important.
9) Don't roll critical injuries for all NPCs, only the ones who are more powerful.
10) Use the Rust church as scare tactics :D make the players feel that they are a powerful creepy bunch of people.
11) The rules are quite simple - roll the dice, 6s are success. One 6 is usually all you need, except in opposed rolls. Don't let your players push if they have succeeded. 
 
Jeff Mindlin
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 23:41

Thanks that’s really helpful.
You think that two adventure sites and s couple of randoms will fill 4 sessions?
I will have time to prep one more adventure site tomorrow.
Vale of dead? Or another one? Probably a dungeon would be good.
Thanks again.
 
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pellejones
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 23:43

We spent 5 sessions in a single adventure site :) And the last three sessions was spent in a fortress (a very small one even!). We do 4 hour sessions tho.
 
Jeff Mindlin
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Thu 18 Jul 2019, 23:52

We spent 5 sessions in a single adventure site :) And the last three sessions was spent in a fortress (a very small one even!). We do 4 hour sessions tho.
Wow! You do them face to face?
What were you doing so long there??
 
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pellejones
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Fri 19 Jul 2019, 00:12

How do you mean face to face? If you mean we sit down and play at a table then yes :) if you mean sessions in a row - no, we play every Monday. We have done 39 sessions so far. We sometimes play it twice a week tho.

Well, the 5 session was a big place they really wanted to be careful when checking out, so it took time (it was my adventure site "The Mists of Moorshire". It has a lot of stuff to offer). And the latest place - Mist eye - is a fort that they stumbled upon when chasing a monster that was hiding in their village and fled. They spent two sessions in the fort, and got captured in the fist. And they spent the second escaping, and today they returned to the fort to retrieve all the stuff that they lost when they got captured. They are there for revenge :D So the next session will also be in the same place.
 
Jeff Mindlin
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Fri 19 Jul 2019, 00:31

That looks amazing. I downloaded it but will read it at a later date. Face to face = around a table rather than via internet.
 
Matt6d6
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Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Fri 19 Jul 2019, 01:15

i will tell you right now, I haven't GM'd in over 20 years and I found this setting to be one of the most fun to build upon.  The lore is amazing and like other people have said, the Hollows and  Weatherstone are two great areas where you can spend a lot of time doing.  Good luck this saturday!  I am hosting our second session this saturday as well.  
 
Jeff Mindlin
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Joined: Thu 29 Dec 2016, 13:52

Re: Starting campaign Saturday. ADVICE PLEASE.

Sun 21 Jul 2019, 11:37

Thanks for all your help guys. I’m sure all the prep will come in useful at some point but:-
the game was cancelled in the end ☹️ very frustrating.
Some players have no idea how much effort and prep goes into running a game and view it like turning the tv on and off.

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