Campaign Notes #1

It seems like a good idea to post some campaign notes as we are going along. The notes will be a hotchpot of various thoughts on topics like story development, NPC’s, and so forth.

GAMEPLAY

From a gameplay perspective, the first three sessions have gone pretty well-- i.e. no one has died yet. The trash fights have been good, and the boss fights have been challenging without being overwhelming. Not every experience-gaining encounter has been a set piece combat, either. We have had one chase encounter in the village of Dark Oaks followed by an interrogation. We have also done what amounted to an obstacle course in the last session, as the players had to accompany a sleepwalking Constable Dreng through the wilderness.

I like using chases, as they give skill based characters something more to do than just make knowledge checks, or find traps. We will also expect to see more roleplaying encounters coming up now, too, as the latest story post suggests.

As promised, we have started exactly at five each night, and ended a few minutes before nine. I think that is realistic going forward, which leads into my next topic--

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

I think we will continue to use rapid advancement, or about 1 level gained per session. I will probably slow that down once or twice in this campaign in order to get more roleplaying in for very particular sections of the story. All said, the characters will be 12^th level when the campaign ends. At that point, if someone else is interested in DMing a new campaign (assuming anyone still wants to play) all good. I would like everyone to keep their characters somehow linked or posted to the Dark Tides facebook page so that if we ever want to revisit Dark Tides here and there, we can!

STORY

Although I know where the story starts and goes in the end, the players have the ability to alter the course of the story in between. The most recent story post is an example of setting that up. Tuan and Erick have previously provided different hooks by text or online post. As a result, we will soon encounter the lovari, and a tribe of wild elves are about to become part of the story as well.

I have a general background for the gnome and the cleric, but nothing additional. I do not expect to get much from the ranger. I know if Foose were here he’d have probably sent something as well. No one has to provide anything extra if they dont want to, though. I think the story will be interesting enough if you don’t want to have any personalization.