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Dungeon Burn-out

Last post 09-19-2005, 5:54 PM by VkmSpouge. 131 replies.
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  •  7/14/2004 1:28:43 AM 501569

    Dungeon Burn-out

    I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I want to finish a campign I started a month or two ago. It's just so hard to stretch the story out to accomodate the concept of gaining 30+ levels.

    We're talking fighting 5 undead dragons of great wyrm age, each a different type of undead and each a different color. Final boss being either a red dragon demilich or a red dragon dracolich....

    I just don't know what to do for theplot... Any ideas?
    EPSC: She's crazy, lazy and oh-so-lovable!


    "The deific powers I emit will surely burn your retinas!!!"

    EPSC's World of Art!
    GHE Art Department
  •  7/14/2004 7:34:29 AM 666422 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

      Thats still a bit tough even for 30+ level party

    As for the plot, you can never go wrong with creatures that are power hungary that are harvesting more power to soon unleash it on the world's populace


    If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
    Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
  •  7/14/2004 7:55:55 AM 667258 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    "We're talking fighting 5 undead dragons of great wyrm age, each a different type of undead and each a different color. Final boss being either a red dragon demilich or a red dragon dracolich...." --Evil Princess Sarah Chlyallia

    I presume you're taking on these dragons one at a time right?


    "As for the plot, you can never go wrong with creatures that are power hungary that are harvesting more power to soon unleash it on the world's populace " --Tybaltus

    Kayless?

     


    Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
    Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!

  •  7/14/2004 8:49:49 AM 666429 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    A Kaydragon?
    If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
    Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
  •  7/14/2004 10:11:01 AM 666544 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Of course.. I'm not that cruel.

    The whole deal is that these chromatics are "the original created by the gods" and thorugh whatever means, they have cheated cheat via undeath.

    We have:

    Thanatos (dracolich red), Morana (vampire Black), Odhan (corpse creature* green), Rashanté (ghost blue), and Bane (Bone creature* white)

    ((*Book of Vile Darkness templates))

    W/ the exception of Morana (who is an adult) and Rashante (who's is old), the others are Great Wyrm. Also, they have all been alive for several thousnad years past what the Draconomicon states dragons should live... After all, we're talking the 1st chromatics.

    I have one idea to deal with a couple of them, but I dont know if having a deathless metallic (deathless is template from Book o Exalted Deeds), take out one or two would cheat the PCs out of XP.

    Also, the current Level of the group is 13. That's where the 30+ comes from.
    EPSC: She's crazy, lazy and oh-so-lovable!


    "The deific powers I emit will surely burn your retinas!!!"

    EPSC's World of Art!
    GHE Art Department
  •  7/14/2004 12:20:42 PM 666847 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Sounds like you have a pretty good idea where you want to take things.   So what's the problem?


    Dungeon Crawl Inc. - It's the most fun you can have without three midgets and a whip!
  •  7/14/2004 5:35:50 PM 666545 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Well for one my fiance and his friend can't seem to wait for me to come up with something and when I do they both seem restless. Second is a lack of "filler" ideas. I have a few but not enough to span over 30+ sessions (I am the lazy type to give a level a session).

    Idea #1: Have the psion duel his bro... to the death.

    Idea #2: Reavel past of amnesiac druid by introducing "Candice" a hunter of the dead who wields a shovel.

    Idea #3: Kidnap the gold dragon lady they are friends with and hold her randsom.

    Idea#4: Find 5 magic puzzle pieces (found 3) that will transport group to the "Lost City of Dragons" (name tenative) where they shall fight Thanatos as previously mentioned.

    While these are cool ideas... I cannot think out of how to have them strech over the course of 30+ sessions.
    EPSC: She's crazy, lazy and oh-so-lovable!


    "The deific powers I emit will surely burn your retinas!!!"

    EPSC's World of Art!
    GHE Art Department
  •  7/14/2004 6:45:26 PM 666413 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    I really wish I could help, but its real hard to pick up something after the plot has already progressed, let alone try to figure out where the plot should go or a filler plot.  Im sort of confused as it is
    If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
    Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
  •  7/14/2004 6:53:51 PM 667011 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Ah you are having the same problem I had when I used to run games, You think of the goal and the great climatic battle at the end but you don't have anything in-between. Keep the ending of course, but put it aside for now, after all it doesn't sound like it is going to happen for a long time. You need to work on short one-day adventures that will slowly foreshadow what is to come, or they can have nothing to do with the main plot; I find a mix of the two works best. Each of these sub plots shouldn't take more than one or two sessions to finish each, just in case something comes up and the game needs to be put on hold. This way you will have a good place to leave off and easily come back to once you are ready

    Now, as for the sub plots; they can very depending on the group and of course the theme of the game but there are four main themes that work in any setting: Action, Drama, Romance, Horror, and Comedy. These can be mixed together but I don’t have to tell you that.

    From my experience what works best is if you think of your game more like a TV series than a big full scale movie in the sense that each session will have an opening and a climax of there own. Perhaps each one having it's own "boss" or whatever. For instance, you could have them stop in a typical eastern European style village that is in constant fear of the unknown menace that has been snatching villagers who venture too close to the woods. Now you could do several things with this you could make it a horror and have perhaps some sort of intelligent undead or maybe a werewolf snatching people. You could make it more specific by having it be children that are being taken.

    Perhaps you could add a Comedy twist by saying that the Werewolf isn't killing the children; just taking them to his cave where he cares for them. The children have come to love him, perhaps the first time one of your muscle-brained players tries to attack the "dangerous" creature the children surround the werewolf, or the PC as they hit the big mean man. Maybe only a few people has disappeared, maybe the local lords daughter, perhaps she was in love with the werewolf before he changed; but the lord forbid it because the soon to be werewolf was a commoner. The commoner, pretty damn upset, went off into the woods to get firewood and take his mind off of his problems and is attacked and bitten by a werewolf. Now he is living in the woods unable to bare being in public as the beast he has become, he is the first to disappear. The lord’s daughter, distraught, runs to the woods to find him and be with him despite her father and isn't seen again. The lord has the players go out into the woods to find her because some large beast has killed his own men whenever they enter the forest. The players find the daughter and the commoner, after some talking and they have decided on a course of action the other werewolf comes bounding in. There is a large battle at which point the PC’s and the commoner/werewolf have to kill the other werewolf. Maybe this changes him back, perhaps he dies in the battle to save the lords daughter, it's up to the dice, oh and you of course.

    This is just an example, it could be anything really, from guarding a king to gathering giant bat guano for a crotchety hermit wizard

    Bah I'm rambling again...

  •  7/14/2004 7:46:35 PM 666543 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Well here is the plot: For 700 years undead have been a plague upon the known world. At the same time the dead began to rise in laarge numbers, the island nation of Mished seem to vanish. That is to say, the people have vanished. Any attempts to go to the isle fail as no one returns.

    Only exception is Sharde, the druid. He was on a ship to Mished which was smashed by Bane. He was found adrift by merchants. He has no memory of his sharded past (hence his name) other than boarding the ship and then being attacked.

    The cause of the plague is "The Legion" (for a lack of a cooler name), the five dragons I have mentioned. Thanatos and the other dragons intend to turn the world to undead to "save them from the truth". That truth being... there are no gods.

    You see... the dragons fought in a war where the gods killed each other. All so-called divine powers and such are merely the sheer force of willpower of the people. They believe so strongly that the gods are still there that they create their own magic.

    What the PCs know: There is some dragons, presumably undead, that seem to have a connection to the recent surge in undead (it seems to be worse now than it has been in past years). They know the names of the 5 original chromatics and 5 original metallics, thanks to the 1st gold and the 1st silver dragons. These two dragons know nothing about what happened after they were frozen in magic crystal in the middle of the god-war.
    EPSC: She's crazy, lazy and oh-so-lovable!


    "The deific powers I emit will surely burn your retinas!!!"

    EPSC's World of Art!
    GHE Art Department
  •  7/14/2004 7:56:56 PM 667014 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Interesting, a lot of that sounds like it could put some aspects of the Dragonlance campaign setting to good use, such as mystics (Clerics who us divine magic by force of will and faith in themselves.) And the dragon riders if it is going to have lots of dragons in the story. It also has rules for vampiric Dragons and this cool thing that these Dragon Overlords did in the book serise in which they killed off other dragons and made totems useing the skulls of said dragons which increased their powers. There are many cool rules and templates in The Dragonomicon which may be more to your liking than some stuff in The Book of vile darkness or whichever book it was you said you used for the big five.

     

    If you are interested and don't want to purchase or pirate copies of these books i can type out some information from my copies. Or I could just scan the pages pretaining to these things.

  •  7/14/2004 7:57:37 PM 666418 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Interesting plot.  It definetly has the clear villains and proper motive for them to do their actions, and motive to stop them.

    I struggle to get to that point at least


    If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
    Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
  •  7/16/2004 1:44:05 AM 668044 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Man you guys play real D&D. The one campaign that i played ruined me.

    I was a wizard and within 9 sessions my guy was level 20 (max level at the time) with so many overpowered made up magical items i was a beast.

    I had over 1300 hp....a wizard! My stats were in the hundreds....this DM was horrible. Oh how I wish I could start over *sigh*

    But on another note, DMing is tough. I tried to do it once for some friends...was horrible at it. Either slaughtered everyone or made it too easy. So to all the DMs out there I salute you.

  •  7/16/2004 2:40:09 AM 669172 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Yep DMing is no easy task, but if you work at it and it goes off well it is very rewarding.

     

  •  7/16/2004 7:01:17 AM 667348 in reply to 501569

    RE: Dungeon Burn-out

    Ive actually never really played DnD

    I have assisted my brother in his storyline for his DnD game

    I have played DnD related games

    Never actually played it.


    If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
    Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons
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