HunterArtisanFarmer
948
38
7
Session 1 of my steampunk themed d&d campaign is tonight. I had my players give me backstories for their character and crafted some context intros that set the stage for why all these adventurers would end up joining forces. I have an astral elf monk, A bounty hunter, a religious zealot and a political agitator to tie together. I had the monk experience a vision where she gets executed (spoiler, real time event) and has images of little details about the other characters. The bounty hunter gets a protection contract on the agitator mid session. The zealot fails his initiation test. And shocker someone tries to assassinate our budding anarchist. Too structured?
EDIT: You folks have been great. I’m way less nervous about this now and look forward to unleashing jet pack (steampack) goblins at my characters tonight. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Edit2: It went great. Thanks for all the advice.
Session 1 recap. Our party of adventurers had an unlikely meeting in the galley of an Asteran Airbus. Lucky received news that a vote in the capital did not go his way 23-24 (odd, aren't their 51 senators?), and he was drinking heavily BEFORE that. K had a brief meeting with Harlan Fairfax, a living legend. At least he was living BEFORE he had a meeting with him. Steampack goblin pirates lead by the dread "Pirate Richard" attacked the ship, and one of the goblins had a user error with its pack that sent Harlan (and goblin) out a window presumably to his death. This is pretty devastating news for K, who shortly after landing was summarily dismissed from the Order for failure. The goblins were defeated and prevented from taking the cargo of the ship (most of which looked like food). Upon searching the pirate leader, Lucky was surprised to find a page torn from a notebook with a sketch bearing the likeness of...Lucky. Harlan's daughter Georgiana took the news of Harlan's death hard, but thanked you for doing what you could to save the passengers of the bus. She informed you that the city is locked down but gave Brink an address to a flat she keeps in the area that you can use for the night. We leave our story with Brink heading off in that direction, and the rest of the party in tow. (Our Astral elf has at this point recognized the other members of the group as figures from her vision).
xXCutieMomokoXx
The hardest part of DM'ing is trying to lay out everything they can do, without making it seem like chose option A, B, or C. You can always move things around. Also let them take things at their own pace & if they missed something you can always have a character repeat it if it is vital.
If you're doing steam punk I'd recommend looking at the eberron resources as it's kinda steam punk, they have trains & skyships which can be fun to use.
HunterArtisanFarmer
You are the second person to reccomend Eberron and I absolutly will look into it.
xXCutieMomokoXx
it's a campaign source book but pretty steam punk or maybe diesel punk, lots of ideas of things to put in a world so great thing to cannibalize for a home brew campaign.
If you don't want to buy it you can see if you can get a copy from your local library or maybe get it shipped from another library.
HunterArtisanFarmer
My tiny little town has a game shop. Perhaps i’ll see if it is in there.
Icetech3
If you listen to naddpod.. just DM like Jake :)
HunterArtisanFarmer
I wish I had more free listening time.
bornaparte
Railroading is a myth, at its core you the dm prepare some amount of content and the players can make choices within that content. Part of the social contract and handshake is the players will play what you have made
HunterArtisanFarmer
Fair-e-freaking-nuff. Honestly, i am really grateful to everyone who said something similar today. Way less jittery about it.
MajMalfunction2
Be sure to give some grace to the PCs and feel free to have a few "deus ex machina" moments in your pocket to keep the crew alive.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Yeah. I made sure of that. I have some reserve npc’s ready for a plausible save scenario. Or i can convert the assassination attempt into a kidnapping if needed.
realrealluckless
"Deus Ex Machina" is what one of my friends named his printer that he rigged with a button to print new character sheets.
Skyff
HunterArtisanFarmer
Holy shit. That is some dark humor and I’m on board.
Mostlydeadpool
@op so how did it go?
HunterArtisanFarmer
It was an absolute blast. Had some issues with foundry making maps look screwy, but otherwise, everything pretty much went as planned. The players had a ton of fun. I mean, who wouldn’t have fun fighting jetpak wearing goblin pirates on an airship?
Mostlydeadpool
sounds amazing. i did skaven airships once awhile ago. it was great. you might want to consider owlbear rodeo as a super light VTT. it's free and pretty good, especially if you pull maps off the internets
HunterArtisanFarmer
I paid for foundry and forge which has been pretty great. Group meats every week so it’s 100% worth then investment to me. Steep learning curve though.
Mostlydeadpool
i guess it's like anything else. you stick to what you know. if it works for you, great. :)
HunterArtisanFarmer
It’s always good to know other ways to do stuff. But I’m a big fan of exploring something in depth before I look for alternatives. That way I have a basis of experience to pick the “next thing” if that next thing is even needed. I appreciate the recommend though because it’s always good to have options that get brought up by people rather than an algorithm.
Mazzy94
When I design games, a degree of early linearity can be a good thing. Modulating betwren focused and open at appropriate times ia a difficult art.
I used to just dump players in open situations, it often goes awry
HunterArtisanFarmer
Logically, I totally get this. The stupid perfectionist part of my brain does not.
Mazzy94
A large RPG PC game we designing right now uses an accordion structure to go 1-2-1-4-1 with different dungeons the player can tackle, placing key plot in the linear parts so there's not a disconnect of urgency in the non-linear portion
xXCutieMomokoXx
glad session 1 went well &_&
gorillaClutch
D&D is like sex. As long as everyone involved is consenting and enjoying themselves there's no wrong way to do it. Don't worry about what they or you expect it to be and enjoy what it is. It is a collaborative experience.
HunterArtisanFarmer
D&D teaching about consent? No wonder some folks consider it a devils tool (and those people are morons). Yeah i did a prebuilt one shot before all this and honestly my favorite parts were the moments when the players surprised me with actions that were perfectly reasonable but totally unplanned for. I mean, they actually chased a dragon down ffs.
KevinCarey
Nah, you'll just need to find a way to keep the people who aren't directly involved in the scene yet engaged. If it's interesting and moves at a decent pace they should be fine.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Yeah. I sent the secret intro’s ahead of time via text. I have one scene that is probably going to be single character, but i’ve done my best to keep it brief.
KevinCarey
Once all of the story threads join up you'll be amazed how it just kind of takes on a life of it's own and flows. You've got this
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thanks. I had bad writers block till I asked for backstories and then things just started building organically.
RyanMcFlyin
Neat! I too am playing dnd tonight with friends :)
HunterArtisanFarmer
As it should be.
IndependenceHallPhiladelphiaPA
Session 1 SHOULD be a railroad. You've got to guide them into the campaign. After that they can choose how to approach your challenges and encounters, but you cant drop them into a sandbox and expect them to play the story you've written organically.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thank you. Ya’ll are making me feel way better about this.
IndependenceHallPhiladelphiaPA
had a campaign where the players build characters that just... didnt want to participate. one PC left the group to perform at the town theater by level 2. its important to A. make sure your players build characters that WANT to adventure, and B. railroad them into your adventure to get things rolling.
FlyingGiantElk
Remember that you’re the boss.
My first and only time GMing got derailed for about an hour by players discussing lizardfolk reproduction, what is love and can they bottle and sell it, and one PC finding out that she’s gregnant.
In hindsight I’m perhaps not assertive enough to run games, but you can learn from this.
HunterArtisanFarmer
That escalated quickly. I wan’t to successfully strike the balance between dictating everything and the chaos you describe here.
FlyingGiantElk
I found my place in the player group as the pseudo-stenographer, so it worked out.
My passiveness fits and my notes alleviate my GMs’ need to multitask.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Honestly. Party notetaker is an undervalued role.
quietwalker
Here's a trick, every once in a while, provide a choice, some sort of fork in the road ... and then don't tell them that both forks end up in the same place.
Just like in real life, it's the illusion of choice that is attractive, even if it's all deterministic behind the scenes.
HunterArtisanFarmer
I actually do want the players choices to influence the outcome a bit. But for main plot points this is a great idea.
xXCutieMomokoXx
Your plot points make sense, and as long as you're okay with moving things around on the fly you'll do great
just remember that fun should come first, for the players & yourself as you're also playing this game.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Oh, i have a blast on my end. But you are right I need to make sure I get my part to. For me that is storytelling and writing.
J3lek
Once my sister and her husband and I collaborated our back stories, I was really disappointed that we never got the group back to actually start the campaign. I was a thief in a position with the thieves guild helping smuggle contraband and slaves through the port city. My sister was a pirate hunting down slavers and other pirates, she put out a hit on me, without an accurate description. And the brother in law was the assassin that took that bounty contract. Campaign started with us all in jail
HunterArtisanFarmer
That sounds hilarious (or brief depending on the players and pvp outcomes).
J3lek
The plan was that about half way through after they all bonded over shared adventure and camaraderie my identity would be revealed. In the back story I always attended back alley meeting "amadala style" i was there pretending to be random backup/muscle while some low rank thief interacted with the smugglers and guards being bribed.
HunterArtisanFarmer
I can see how that would work. Shame it didn’t get scheduled.
J3lek
Also the assassin had suspicions that the bounty is me, and had been stalking me for a while. He only got arrested because I was already in prison. Lol
Skyff
That sounds awesome! I'd have fun with that! Also I feel like the first couple of sessions it makes a bit more sense to railroad a little to get things going (herding kittens is difficult) then once everyone is kinda headed in the same direction and their characters start to have interpersonal relations and reasons for doing stuff together then you can try to open it up a bit more to let them influence where the story is going
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thanks. This is what I keep trying to tell myself. It’s ok to have some early guardrails and exposition to kick off a story. I just hope they all have fun. Almost screwed up my story by not noticing one of my players took ‘spare the dying.’ That would have been awkward.
Skyff
Remember as you go it's also fine to ask them what they plan on doing next or where they hope things might be going / what they'd like to see, it could give you some important clues for preparing future parts. But to start you've gotta have a plan and keep things moving forward! They'll have fun!
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thanks that’s actually a great tip. Kind of a subtle way of getting them to drive the story without doing the “what would you like to see” workshop.
grosscol
If you like steampunk, check out the Eberron setting. Should have lots of stuff for you to steal for your setting
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thank you! I need as much source material as I can find. Been cobbling it together from various history books on revolution, social oppression, and some really bizzare conmen. But anywhere I can pull dnd stats from and then change a bit to fit the story is going to save me a ton of time.
grosscol
And lore. Shameless you yoink lore with or without even replacing the names.
HunterArtisanFarmer
I wrote a 4 page backstory on a character I’m killing off in the first halfhour or so…i need all the help I can get.
DanielAsparagus
Don’t overthink it. Follow your gut, read the room, and make sure it’s fun and rewearing for your players. That’s the whole job.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thanks. I yhink the overthink it part might be my biggest issue.
DanielAsparagus
Know your crowd. Read your room. Don’t cater to twats. Make sure they have fun. There’s a great DnD episode of bobs burgers where the new dm throws them a curve ball and second guessed herself. Even if your adventure isn’t perfect for your party (and who cares if it doesn’t cater to their wants) they’ll respect the care you put into doing your job.
HunterArtisanFarmer
Thanks. Yeah, i play with mostly cool people so I think it’s going to be fine. The anxiety is entirely self fabricated.
DanielAsparagus
Hey you just found the cause of anxiety! Today I was listening to Jon Stewart talking about bombing, and his perspective became “yeah but did I get any shorter? Is my apartment smaller? Is anyone thinking of it but me?”