Welcome back to Experience Points, the column that follows my weekly Dungeons & Dragons campaign Dark Legacy and discusses the ups and downs of life behind the DM’s screen.  First a little background. 

We began this campaign in earnest this past July.  The setting for the campaign is a world of my own creation however the region where the PC’s live follows the “points of light” model presented in the D&D rulebooks and is known as The Seven Bridges Valley.  I’ll reveal more about the setting in future articles.  For now let’s take a look at the players around the table:

• Andy is long-time gamer who I have played with for the past couple of years.  He likes to focus on exploring the setting, intrigue, and character development.  Every character he plays brings a great deal of verisimilitude and realism to the table.  He creates incredible back stories and motivations for his characters and continually contributes to both the campaign setting and the story arcs.  However he has one tragic gaming flaw we’ve all seen before; his dice truly hate him.  I think he has lined-out all of the “hit” lines on his Daily powers because he only needs to know what happens on a “miss”.
• Tara is my wife and a relatively new gamer who primarily enjoys story, mystery, and bashing evil over the head.  She played in a fairly long 3^rd edition campaign but personal issues and commitments have kept her from the table since November.  She brings a lot of enthusiasm to the table but is still learning the rules and developing her roleplaying skills.  Fortunately we’ve been married long enough that I don’t think our relationship interferes too much with the game, at least it hasn’t since her favorite character died in our last campaign (she claims it was an overt act of aggression on the part of a DM who wanted to sleep on the couch). 
• Colin and I have gamed together since the release of 3^rd edition.  He is a long time gamer who primarily focuses on story telling, tactics, and character development.  In the past he has been our group’s “rules lawyer”, however with 4^th edition we haven’t really needed one so instead he has gravitated to “rules analyst” and has done more than anyone at our table to help the rest of us learn the game.  He also contributes a tremendous amount to the setting itself, and drives a lot of the story through his character.  Additionally his character’s mother (and her, *ahem* relationships) has become a long running inside joke in the campaign.
• Chris is a newer addition to the group and began playing with us for the first time at the start of Dark Legacy.  He loves combat, action, tooling and retooling his character, and performing reckless acts of daring.  Chris brings a lot of fun and excitement to the table and asks a lot of great questions about the setting.  He also DM’s for a different group on another night so he brings a nice additional DM’s perspective to the table.  Chris recently suffered this campaign’s first fatality and has begun playing a new character.
• Stacey has gamed with Colin, Tara, and I for several years.  He loves action, combat, tactics, and interacting with the plot lines and themes of the campaign.  He enjoys developing a character and having the character’s story play out through the course of campaign.  He brings good rules knowledge and a solid understanding of tactics to the table.  His other commitments in life sometime require him to miss a gaming session so we’ve designed a character who can easily be “absent” from a session due to other duties (in this case his character is a local Sergeant of the guard, he’s married and has a young children). 
• Joe began gaming with us just a couple of months ago in our “off and on” Saturday night game.  This week was his first Friday night session with us and the newest addition to that group.  From a gaming perspective I don’t really know him very well yet but I like his style at the table.

Joe, Chris, and Colin plan their next move.

As I mentioned in the last installment I had several important considerations for Friday’s session.  To recap my goals and needs for the session:

1. Joe’s character Jhorgrim needs to be assimilated into the campaign in a smooth and realistic manner.  I need to make sure his addition is “holistic and natural” and feels right to the rest of the players.
2. Tara will be rejoining us next week so I need to set the stage for the return of Lady Ember Draco.
3. Stacey has a commitment and will not be here this session.
4. Chris is playing a new character and is still in the process of integrating with the rest of the party.  I need to ensure that the stage is set for those bonds to grow.
5. And lastly Andy’s character has decided to retire from adventuring.  To maintain the right atmosphere this requires a solid story reason for the retirement as well as the introduction of his new character.  Handling this transition correctly is pivotal to the campaign.

Well there we have it.  As I sat down to prep this session I had a lot on my plate.  In many ways the campaign felt like we were returning after the holiday break to start the second half of a television season, some familiar faces, a few new characters, and a return to the plot line.  In addition to the story telling and roleplaying issues above I had one other goal in mind for Friday’s game; I needed to test out the group’s new combat dynamics.  We went from a party with two strikers, two defenders, and a leader to having two leaders, three defenders, a controller and no strikers whatsoever.  I was sure that combat would play out much differently than it had been.

It may look like a pretty tall order, especially when you add the other basic requirements for the game; it has to be exciting, compelling, engaging, and fun.  In addition I want to propel the story forward and set the next chapter of the story in motion.  Looking at all of this I sat down and began to formulate my plan for each of my goals and needs.  Here’s what happened:

Fortunately #1 and #2 worked out in concert.  Early in the campaign the party was deeded the ruins of an old fort after defeating a clan of kobolds and their insane dragonborn leader Baresh, a follower of Tiamat.  Hirelings were employed to rebuild Fort Griffin.  To explain her absence, Tara and I decided that Lady Draco (her character) has been overseeing the reconstruction while she tore apart the shrine to Tiamat and re-dedicated it to her patron Bahamut.  There she discovered Baresh’s journal and realized that his story was a tragic descent into madness and she decided to find their old enemy and see if he could be redeemed.  Since the rest of her allies were off on an adventure she contacted her old friend Jhorgrim, a cleric of Moradin who she knew from the House of the Sun in Cornerstone (the party’s hometown).  Jhorgrim (Joe’s new character) accompanied Draco to find Baresh.  They tracked Baresh to the ruins of an old tower and there a battle ensued.  It appeared as though Baresh died as the tower collapsed but not before dealing a killing blow to Draco.  Jhorgrim returned to Fort Griffin with the corpse and a raise dead scroll. 

All of this was told in narrative by me and the characters involved and as Friday night’s session opened the heroes returned to the fort to discover their companion Draco dead and her old friend making preparations to raise her the following day.  This accomplished a few things:

• Draco’s “off-camera” adventure justified why she still leveled-up (to 5^th level) along with the rest of the party.
• The story wrapped up the loose thread of “what happened to Baresh” without having to actually play through that adventure. 
• It served as the perfect introduction to Joe’s new character and gave him an instant connection to the rest of the party without falling back on the old, “You look trustworthy, care to adventure with us?”
• Next session, when Tara returns and Draco has been raised, I will give her some clues into the primary plot arc through visions she had while deceased.  Perhaps a communion with her patron Bahamut.

In similar fashion #3 and #5 also worked well together.  Although retiring from the party Andy’s character Arnz needed to return to Cornerstone to follow up on happenings with his sister, the owner of the Last Star Inn.  Likewise Stacey’s character Verrick, as a sergeant in the city guard, needed to return to the city as well.  Since all three of them needed to go back to the town it was the perfect opportunity for those characters to be absent until Stacey returns next week.  As an aside, the well-connected rogue Arnz may be retiring from adventuring but he has become a fantastic NPC for me to utilize in the future for a couple of reasons:

• The party trusts and likes Arnz.
• I can use Andy on occasion to play the part of Arnz when the party interacts with him, say as a source of jobs or information.
• And of course since the party has a long-standing personal relationship with Arnz he has become the perfect “victim” of misfortune later in the campaign; “Come-on men!  Our old friend Arnz is in trouble and needs our help!”

Andy and I handled the second half of #5 mostly behind the scenes and between sessions.  His new character is a cousin of Colin’s character and was sent by Colin’s father to keep an eye on him.  Dayereth (Colin’s character) has never cared for Cini and isn’t close to his father.  But out of the eladrin sense of duty, honor, respect, and commitment to Household, Dayereth has accepted his cousin’s “assistance”.  This worked out well in a couple of ways:

• Instantly established relationships (see above).
• As arguably the two strongest “roleplayers” at the table I know that Andy and Colin can easily play out a strained, tense relationship without it interfering with the campaign.
• It introduces a character that the party “needs” and allows me to interject potential plotlines through andy’s new character Cini.

Although I knew that 85% of the session would be spent in “roleplaying mode” I wanted to ensure at least one good combat encounter would take place and I wanted it to serve as a gauge of the new party’s combat style and effectiveness.  I also wanted an excuse to use the model of Fort Griffin that I had recently finished.  These were my thoughts behind the encounter’s design:

• The heroes’ long-standing enemies, The Dragon’s Eye, know where Fort Griffin is and they haven’t made an appearance in a while.  The party also knows that patrols have been seen nearby.  Time for a Dragon’s Eye midnight strike team.
• I want to test the party on a few fronts so I decided to us several different creatures with different abilities:
  • 2 Stormclaw Scorpions [level 1 soldiers, 200 xp]
  • 1 Hobgoblin Warcaster [level 3 controller, 150 xp]
  • 4 Goblin Sharpshooters [level 2 artillery, 500 xp]
  • 2 Bugbear Warriors [level 5 brute, 400 xp]
  • 1 Bugbear Strangler [level 6 lurker, 250 xp]
• For the number of characters present this works out to about an 8^th level encounter.  I went with more, lower leveled creatures to see how the new party stacked up against groups (a real weakness for the old party).

Because of our schedules it was a relatively short play session but it went well.  The story phase of the evening was spot-on.  Most of the talking occurred between players and didn’t require me to narrate.  Stories were shared, tales told, and introductions made.  New characters were brought up to speed by the existing heroes.  What I really liked was that this was almost entirely done by players in character.  It wasn’t just me sitting there narrating. 

The final event of the evening was the late night assault by the Dragon’s Eye on Fort Griffin.  The battle went well.  They players all quickly adapted to their new roles and new powers while I was a bit behind the power curve.  My suspicions were confirmed that this party can handle large groups of enemies better than the previous one.  My biggest disappointment was the bugbear strangler.  I’ve wanted to use one just to see its body shield ability in action but alas, this was not to be. 

Next week all six players will be together for the first time.  The heroes know that the forces of the Dragon’s Eye are beginning to muster and that they have unfinished business in the village of Cinderhill.  At this time I’m not entirely sure of what the heroes intend to do but I will prepare for a couple of eventualities begin introducing the next phase of the campaign.

Until next week…

The battle within Fort Griffin.