Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by HuManBing »

UPDATE 2013.03.14: This one-shot was successful and now my beginner players want a full-blown campaign. Click here to go to the Agency campaign (further down in this thread).

I have four players, none of whom have played my system (GURPS) or my setting (Ravenloft) before. They've done some computer RPGing, but they have played Call of Cthulhu games with me as a player before and they're excited to see me run a Ravenloft campaign.

We're using GURPS, so Good/Evil/Law/Chaos won't be an issue.

The first (and possibly only) adventure is this Saturday. I've got the following:

- Priest of the Eternal Order. I'll be using this write-up for it.
- A wizard. I'm running arcane magic as a "licensed" type of expert trade, which plays well into Azalin's patronage of mages in his realm.
- A shaman. I'm thinking this may be a druid type of character, more at home in rural areas. Unlicensed (so maybe at cross purposes with the mage) but well liked by the folk in the rural setting of this adventure.
- A fourth player who hasn't picked a character yet. Possibly an warrior or rogue type.

What I'm trying to achieve:

- Tabletop RPGs are facing stiff competition from CRPGs, but I want to stress the social interactions and complex consequence-dependent plotlines that live GMs can handle and which computer designers struggle with.
- I want a bit of combat, to allow the PCs to understand that mechanic.
- I want to focus on three different magic styles for the druid, mage, and priest. (These are easier to distinguish in GURPS than in DnD.) The warrior will be very useful because GURPS combat tends to be realistically deadly, unlike the arcadey-style cinematic focus of DnD.

What I'm thinking of:

- Giving each player shared goals but also mutually competitive side quests. Competing patrons have sent them to the Darkonian thorpe for different reasons.
- Giving the party a series of challenges which will reward them for working together.
- Giving them a one-shot that's more plot engaging than a mere dungeon crawl or mission checklist.

More details to follow in a bit.
Last edited by HuManBing on Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by HuManBing »

Pitfalls:

- There will be the potential for necromancy, and any character can stumble across the "bad book" and use it. Some of the characters will be more inclined to actually do this than others, but I'm leaving the choice open for them. The powers will confer disadvantages as the players use them more and more.

- Each character will have some social order that supports them, and some that dislikes them. Nobles will warm to the wizard, as they want to curry favor with connections to the distant king. The church will naturally look after its own in the Eternal Order priest. The poorest peasants will welcome the druid, who understands their poverty and often helps them for nothing in exchange. Town guards or innkeepers and the like may welcome the warrior as a useful ally in uncertain times.

- Each character will have a social order that opposes them, too.

Main plot:

- The main plot focuses on rumors of black magic in the forests. A bit of investigation turns up a mad wizard in the woods, and shambling undead around him. Killing the mad wizard, or bringing him to justice, is a priority for all the PCs.

Further plot:

- The mad wizard does not actually control the undead, and is in fact just as angry and frightened about them as the locals are. He fled to the woods after stealing an amulet, and the Eternal Order's highest echelons have animated a few undead to torment him. If the wizard is killed, whoever gets his effects will come across the amulet, and Azalin wants the amulet for research into plane-walking. (It's the Julio Glass Man amulet created by Hazlik in "Tales of Ravenloft".)

- The amulet (and the rest of the wizard's trove) can be split among the players, with some bits going to the four social orders above (the rich, the poor, the clergy, the laborers) to influence their attitude towards the players.

- The wizard's insane ramblings actually suggest that the Eternal Order may be behind the undead themselves. (This is actually true and the EO will take every possible means to suppress it.)

Sideplots:

- There should be some of these, to help the players gather clues about where the mad wizard is, make the players fight over benefits, and portray the village's different social factions. I'll try to think up more. A few below:

- One of the men-at-arms is actually a some-time bandit. He's too smart to hunt nearby his own thorpe, but sometimes he and a few others will travel to the king's highway and hold up some carriages and bring the loot home. He's popular among the thorpe, who see him as a bit of a Robin Hood, but obviously the law would love to bring him to justice. He can help the PCs take out the wizard, but

- Two wealthier farming families court the wizard to bestow charms and enchantments on them (and curses and imprecations on the other) so they can vie for influence. If the wizard chooses one, she'll influence some faraway relatives in the capital against or for her in future. If she's canny, she can play them both off against each other, but this may be very risky.

- The Eternal Order gives the priest permission to loot the tombs of some wealthy village scions. The EO had given the dead people "Heroes' Wakes" several years before, after generous donations from the families. But the families' tithes have recently fallen short or stopped altogether, and the EO is looking to dispatch somebody to quietly reclaim the valuable baubles they buried with the dead. If the priest is caught doing this, the Eternal Order will absolutely disown him (all the easier as he's an outsider) so he'll be on his own.

- The distant baron has a reeve who is making the rounds. The villagers have taken to hiding some portion of their bounties from him, so they have to pay less taxes in kind. The reeve will want the PCs to help him make sure the villagers are on the level. The druid, by contrast, may want to aid the villagers, because she has much more to gain from keeping the poorer demographic happy.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by The Giamarga »

Without having read post 2 yet, a few ideas:

Use the ravenloft campaign settings campaign advice
Use the template from RLCS( something like: buildup, confrontation, investigation/preparation , showdown)
Use cut scenes ( perhaps highlighting the characters backgrounds and the groups patron sending them on the way, but also foreshadowing, and wrap up)
Put a Tarokka a reading in somehow.
Use fear/horror
Start in the thick of the adventure/action when possible.
Use scenes and gloss over the in between times
Encourage action/improv be a yes-but DM
Use action points/cool points
Encourage shared/improv world building(I.e. didn't I know a guy from this village from my past)
(this is a strength or RPG vs crpgs)
You can do this during gameplay but also when building characters or after sessions...


Edit: read post2

Will the players realize that the wizard was innocent afterwards? Do you plan on using fear/horror/power checks? IMO it would be a plus.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Who did the wizard steal the amulet from? The EO? Or the local nobles? What's his motivation? What's the EO's motivation in sending the undead? What drove him mad, the undead? Why do you expect the players to kill him and not aid him? He seems pretty sympathetic to me.

NPC with strong motivations, histories, and character are one of the strengths of Ravenloft, and PnP RPG's in general, IMHO. Giving this guy more background than "crazy wizard" would go a long way to help that.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by HuManBing »

Thanks for the constructive input, I appreciate your good feedback! :)

The Mad Wizard:

Yes, the wizard is meant to be a somewhat-sympathetic character. He is a danger to himself and to others and must be stopped, but there's definitely enough merit weighing in his favor that a PC could quite legitimately want to spare him. One way of solving this amicably would be to finally put an end to all the undead harassing him.

The amulet's source I leave open for now, in case the adventure ends after a one-shot. I intend for the amulet to figure into a Grand-Conjunction style campaign if needed (as "the patron" Azalin sends competing bands of adventurers and Kargat agents to collect plane-walking artifacts across the demiplane) but right now there's no real need to fill out all the backstory to this. I think the wizard could have been part of an adventuring party who fell apart from greed and infighting after they picked up the artifact for the "patron".

I think I will fill out the wizard's history a bit more, with journal entries and fallen allies around to show that once upon a time he was a typical fantasy adventure. That will make him less of a "must-be-stopped bad guy" and more of a "wait, he's just like us... but crazy" type of character.

The EO and the undead:

One of the main secrets of my take on Darkon is the hypocrisy of the social order. The EO claims to be the only authority capable of holding back the Vengeful Dead, but they're often responsible for staging the sudden appearance (and later "successful" quashing) of shambling undead. Each time they secretly raise and then publicly dispel the undead, they milk the locals for their credulity and support.

This also goes all the way to the top, as Ravenloft GMs know. Azalin in my campaign is publicly held up as a distant but powerful wizard who holds back the undead and protects the living. The private reality is quite different.
The Giamarga wrote: Use fear/horror

Will the players realize that the wizard was innocent afterwards? Do you plan on using fear/horror/power checks? IMO it would be a plus.
I am still debating this, because the negative side of this mechanic is that it removes some degree of player control over their character. For an experienced player well used to Ravenloft, I don't think this is a problem - they signed on for this occupational hazard and they're generally fine with it if done well. But some of my gamers are literally first-time medieval fantasy RPG gamers, so I think I'll ease them into it if possible. Call of Cthulhu had these and I could see the same players chafing a bit when the CoC GM (himself a first-time GM) made them roll for SAN loss.

One rule I myself played under as a RL PC was: if you role-play your character's realistic reaction appropriately, then the GM will not impose any fear, horror, or madness check. I may institute this rule myself - it's better for your character to react realistically and preserve your player control over him, than it is to essentially let a dice roll determine what he does by GM or game mechanic fiat.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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PCs:

San - redhead wizardess, journeyman with the Thaumatorium in Il Aluk. Sent down to the village of Velnarest to reconnect with the Vorjek noble family if they're still around, and to curry favor with the next rising family if they're not. Also tasked with claiming any magical items and registering any unlicensed mages. Casts spells as though they were skills, and uses an internal energy reserve to do this. (Basically like a sorcerer from 3E.)

Remke - eastern shaman/druid. Used to have the outlying farmstead circuit as a witch doctor, but recently came to Velnarest village after her friend, Pardel, disappeared. She's now investigating his disappearance and trying to find out what happened. Casts spells by defining them according to certain criteria with GM, and then calculating the energy cost - she rolls against a skill to "gather" the energy cost from the surrounding nature. (Very flexible magic but very slow.)

Azedarek - dark elf priest of the Eternal Order. Transferred in dubious circumstances from eastern Darkon, to the village of Velnarest under the purview of the Nartok church. Sent to Velnarest to shake down the nobles and claim tithes and magical items.

Adventure plot:

An adventuring party, the Fellowship of the Broken Horn, followed clues to a burial ground near Velnarest, where they excavated some loot. One of them found a necromantic tome, carried into the battle by a misguided Falkovnian who hoped to protect his troops against the Darkonian night and its shambling forces. The necromantic tome split the party against each other until only one remained, and then animated a number of shambling dead to accompany the party's remaining member - a wizard gone mad. The tome is set on finding its missing pages (scattered across the village's environs) and it will grow more powerful as it does so. By the end, it will be controlling a squad of undead with military-precise reflexes and drill-hardened training.

The PCs must familiarize themselves with the villagers, find out the backstory to the Fellowship of the Broken Horn, and then locate the wizard and neutralize him. If they take too long, the wizard's undead horde will grow powerful enough to raze the village, and worse still, the powerful adventurers of the Fellowship will rise as elite undead under control of the book.

Velnarest:

Vorjek family - old fading noble house. They technically own most of the land, but they've fallen on hard times and been forced to lease out the profitable lands around the house. They now have mostly unuseable scrub lands, including Barrowhill. Barrowhill was the site of a massacre in the last Darkon-Falkovnian invasion, where scores of soldiers were hastily buried in a rockslide. Barrowhill's corpses have come back to life and this is the main adventure. The family's few remaining assets are some crumbling tomes from their forebears, some of whom were in the Thaumatorium. Vorjek would like to regain his family's wealth and once again be a respected noble name.

Redralen family - up-and-coming ostler family. They import Falkovnian and Nova Vaasan draft horses and are building up a profitable business and credible challenge to the Vorjeks. Also, some of their profits come from criminal activity - they subsidize Shay Stearns' gang of highwaymen, who ride out along the Nartok highway at night and shake down travelers too desperate to take shelter. Redralen wants to unseat Vorjek and become the village's lord family, although their connection to Shay Stearns may kill this dream.

Barji Weigh - a.k.a. Ba Zhiwei - smith. Clearly not local, but has become a fixture of the village. His handiwork is excellent, but his business is limited largely to recycling scrap metal, as the Vorjek mines fell into disrepair long ago. He has taken in several Twisted Ones (womb-deformed humans) and trains them in smithing, treating them like pets (which is already better than most in the village treat them).

Vierpalt - "slick stone" - dwarfen hosteler and brewer. Manages the Vierpalt Tavern with no-nonsense gruffness. Hears most rumors and welcomes everybody. His main loyalty is to Vorjek, as he is actually old enough to have served alongside old Lord Vorjek's brave resistance against the Falkovnian invasion, decades ago. Though aged, he is still a surprisingly deft axeman. His family (half-dwarven, as he married a human) labor in the village and sleep at his tavern.

Shay Stearns - brash, loud, but generous youth. Head of a gang of highwaymen by night, laborers by day. They can't really wield weapons well, but they do have excellent horses and can run down most prey on the king's highway. They make their camp at the Vorjek estate forests illegally, but they've been forced off that land by the recent undead milling around. They hang out in Vierpalt's bar, much to his annoyance. Shay is seen as something of a Robin Hood figure.

Daniel Turnipseed - landholder, orcharder, and (one-time) pig and horse farmer leasing off Vorjek. His lands are allegedly cursed, because his livestock have almost all died except for his poultry. The actual reason is that one of the Fellowship adventurers was cornered and lynched on his property, with the killers throwing his body down the well. It has tainted the groundwater, sickening people and animals that drink from it.

Lukas Nardev - Priest of the local Eternal Order. He is a large, bald, intimidating figure, with a booming voice and a keen sense of how to play a crowd. He is also fairly unscrupulous, keenly aware that the church has a lot to gain from public fears about the undead invasion... provided that the church itself can be instrumental in putting it down.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by HuManBing »

The background:

About 80 years ago, the last Darkonian-Falkovnian war was fought, and the lands around Nartok bore the brunt of the invasion's main thrust. The village of Velnarest, lying several dozen miles east of Nartok, was a casualty in the war. A Falkovnian column was sent here to secure the location and neutralize Lord Vorjek's militia. Vorjek's men held out in the woods for a week against superior numbers and training.

Then, after the last Darkonian fell, a strange disaster fell upon the Falkovnians in the night. Signs point to churned earth and soldiers risen from the field to fight once again. Few Darkonians witnessed this firsthand in the dead of the night, but by morning the Falkovnian corpses littered the fields and the main army had fled southwards once more. Lord Vorjek had the fallen corpses quickly gathered to a ravine, and then ordered the gully collapsed on top of the bodies. A deeply superstitious man, he forbade any of the orderlies from taking even a single dagger or chain link from the fallen, fearing the wrath of the Gray Realm if they were in any way dishonored.

The corpses lay beneath the hastily-fallen clay and pebbles of the ravine for eight decades. The Vorjek family's fortunes fell steadily. Until the present day, when the Fellowship of the Broken Horn got wind of the corpse-hoard under the barrow, and decided to redistribute its wealth - to themselves.

The Fellowship:

The Fellowship comprised of a Darkonian wizard Kheltris, a Nova Vaasan tracker Selby, a Cosablan pistoleer named Jean-Pierre, and a Falkovnian deserter named Tervinost. All of them reached the burial ground, on the orders of their employer, L’Agence d’Affaires, and began excavating it. Kheltris stumbled across a few pages of a dark grimoire of necromantic spells, brought onto the field by a misguided Falkovnian spellcaster Fyodor Barzovel (thinking to counteract the Darkonian Dead Man’s Curse with mortal magic).

Undead began stalking the group, although it was quite some time before the adventurers realized the undead seemed primarily interested in following the tome around. The group fell apart in bickering and two of the members killed each other: Jean-Pierre shot Tervinost over an argument about the division of loot (when Jean-Pierre made an insinuation that he would turn Tervinost over to the Darkonians for the bounty) who then fatally stabbed him before bleeding out. Their bodies are still left around the camp at the top of a ravine in the forest - the undead swarmed the place when Kheltris and Selby escaped. Selby wanted to leave immediately, but Kheltris pursued the necromantic tome.

Selby made a few supply runs back to Velnarest, and eventually managed to get Kheltris drunk enough to calm down. Kheltris admitted his true name to Selby at this point, but as the drinking continued, the undead began swarming them and following Kheltris around. Shortly before Selby escaped, he learned that Kheltris had stolen a grimoire from the barrow, and he theorized that the undead were following him around because of it. Kheltris reacted to the undead as though they were trying to steal his book. Selby was ultimately cornered on the road to Nartok, where he tried to evade pursuit by Shay’s bandits on Turnipseed’s property. Unable to escape, he secured his stash to Turnipseed’s well before he was cornered and shaken down. During the interrogation, one of the Shay bandits recognized Selby as the friend of the Falkovnian, and the gang lynched him and threw him down the well.

Kheltris is frightened and upset by the appearance of the undead, because he cannot dismiss them. He has re-buried some of the choicest artifacts and loot and hidden it by a clever illusion (needs his true name in order to dispel it effectively - there is a bare rock in the woods where a trove crevice is hidden by an illusion of solid stone). He is also collecting the necromantic book, with the hope that the full volume will allow him to dispel the undead. It is extremely likely that the book itself is sentient and will cause him to lose his mind long before he can finish the incantations to dispel the undead.

Kheltris is obsessed with finding the book, and will collect various pieces. He will also raid farmsteads for food. Although he has no love for the undead milling around him, he does recognize their usefulness and will try to scare off farmers with the undead in order to raid their pantries and larders. If the PCs ever find his cache, he will immediately assume that Selby sold him out, and he will attack the tavern where Selby frequented, unaware that his erstwhile friend is dead. The undead by this time will be partially responsive to his moods, and will attack the tavern.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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Set events

Undead assault: Kheltris still needs to eat, so every few days he'll stage a raid of some farmstead or the tavern. This will allow the PCs to see his (very shaky) control over the undead - he pauses every so often to berate them for failing to follow his orders.

Denying the book: Kheltris loses his patience with the milling stiffs and throws the book away, shouting at them to leave him alone. The undead dutifully fetch the book and bring it back to him. He forgets his earlier rage and begins gathering them around him, clucking like a nanny taking children on a stroll.

Flensing: The Eternal Order has secretly dug up a few of its own graves in its cemetery and then loudly declaimed the act of desecration. If the PCs don't do anything, the EO will frame a Twisted One for the deed and then sentence him to flensing, a horrifyingly brutal method of execution intended to cow the populace and (nominally) intended to show the Gray Realm that the living can be vicious and implacable too. The PCs can stay the execution for a week while they try to hunt down Kheltris and the undead. The priest is fairly unruffled about the evidence pointing to his own involvement and is quite impassively confident that no dishonor can topple him. (And he's largely right.)
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by Cam »

Interesting read, thanks for posting. How is it that pages of the book have come out and separated from the majority of the book? Just wondering if there is backstory there.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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Pardel:

This character was a shaman serving the Velnarest village area before his disappearance, which I used purely to draw the PC Remke into the plot. Now that I think about it, I should work in some explanation of what happened to Pardel.

I'm thinking he confronted Kheltris at the campsite (where the Falkovnian and Cosablan also lie unburied) with appeals to his better nature, who lashed out at him in guilt and anger, causing the undead to kill him. Pardel's spirit remains at its location of death, to help the PCs if they want to stop Kheltris. He'll serve as an occasional oracle or guide, and will finally dissipate when the PCs complete the adventure and bring peace back to Velnarest.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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The adventure is going well, except that the mage (San) has relatively few combat spells, and the player would like some more. After talking with her about how she'd like her PC to progress, I've decided to put in a few quirky spells littered around for her to "find".

These spells will be found in spellbook pages ("shed", like fur, from the necromantic tome), and they'll be left with the members of the Fellowship of the Broken Horn. There is one problem, though: the PCs will have to fight the Fellowship members (as undead) before they can claim the spells.

Selby: He was the scout and the drinker, winer, diner, and wassailer of the group. He was the one who kept the locals friendly and kept the ale flowing, even as the rest of the group fell into bickering and recriminations. His body is in the well at Turnipseed's property. The arcane dweomers that settled around him give a boon that will stave off thirst and prolong the breath underwater (also staving off drowning for a while). If the PCs actually bury his body with a proper burial, his spirit appears and grants a mild "Charm Person" type of enchantment.

Jean-Pierre: The sharpshooter. He will actually fight the PCs if they come to him. His body remains at the campsite, but if disturbed, he will rise up, cast his hollow-eyed corpse gaze around, and then burst away to the cover of the bracken and scrub. He mostly snipes at the PCs, with his two flintlock highwayman pistols, reloading at length and in safe cover. If the PCs can corner him, he engages with fencing blade and main-gauche. If the PCs best him, they gain a spell similar to a sling stone (a low-powered equivalent of Magic Missile from DnD). Burying him will allow them a spell of accurate vision.

Tervinost: The deserter. He will also fight the PCs if they come to him. He was shot in the face by Jean-Pierre (the pistol ball passing through his helmet nosepiece and coming to rest an inch or so into his right eye socket) and eventually bled to death, but not before spearing Jean-Pierre through the throat and staggering some ways down the hill. Tervinost's undead form is a potent melee attacker, armed with a longspear, shield, and shortsword as a side-arm. He is terrifically strong and well-armored, and plus his undead nature has removed much of his ability to feel pain, allowing him to continue attacking and pursuing his target long after a living man would have collapsed from exhaustion. Tervinost attacks single-mindedly, going after one PC at a time and striking until they are down and out, then moving on to the next target. If the PCs prevail over him, they gain a spell of increased melee strength. If they bury him, they gain a spell of increased damage resistance and endurance.

Kheltris: The spellcaster. He has the dark grimoire, and the PCs can kill him or spare him. Killing him will weaken the undead somewhat, but they will continue to defend the grimoire itself, frustrating any attempts to regain it. If Kheltris dies, the undead group will carry the grimoire out into the Darkonian wilderness for unknown destinations (the only reason they were staying near the village was that Kheltris needed to eat occasionally). The PCs can eventually find Kheltris' stash with spells and goodies.

Alternatively, if the PCs can spare Kheltris and kill all the undead, Kheltris will regain some of his shaky sanity and will thank them profusely. He'll give them the grimoire and point out where the rest of the barrow hoard is hidden - there is a fair bit of buried battlefield loot there, if they dare to touch it. He'll try to access his own personal stash (where he has several other spells) and then leave.

Either outcome will allow the PCs to find Kheltris' personal notes regarding the L'Agence d'Affaires mercantile organization, laying out the basis for a future campaign arc.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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Player interlude:

One of our players, Oglaf the Omniabsent, is usually absent. He has not shown up to any GURPS gaming sessions and pays only the most perfunctory of attention during the Call of Cthulhu games. I decided to roll him up an intro character to ease him into this Ravenloft GURPS adventure, in case he wanted to play alongside the three other players.

I sent him a character sheet and backstory, and said I was happy to make any changes he'd like, to tweak it closer to his specifications.

After a few days of no response, he sent me a curt email with scanned attachments of his 14th-level DnD character, with a short note saying "See what you can use from this."

I'm half tempted to say "if you're just looking to continue playing your DnD character, you need to go back to your DnD gaming group. And good luck to you".
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by Zilfer »

Wow.... that's.... a lame response to say it nicely.
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

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I sent him an email explaining why the party already has three spellcasters, and how in a beginner party, his request for a 14th level preexisting PC is inappropriate. I then said we could work together on seating a character for him.

He wrote back saying only "I would appreciate it if I could play my DnD character."

I'm going to have to think about this. The game is tonight, and it may just boil down to "we don't have space for you currently, sorry."
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Re: Beginner campaign in Darkon (possibly one-shot)

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Sigh... my response would be, "Then I suggest you find someone DMing a 14th level D&D game. I am not that person."
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