This unexpected session will happen due to unresolved issues from the Player Only Session 0.
REQ: Map printed out
Outcome: Done and viewed by players. Note that the map of Rhyl is incomplete – will be by next prep session.
# Players: FYI – Per my gaming contract, 6 PLAYERS are the group size we will run with. Drop ins are ok for 1-offs up to 7 if requested ahead of time. Seniority will determine priority. Arabus, Alanna, Corey, Ben, Earl are the core 5 and the scheduling and availability at the time I restart will determine others, Rocky is the current senior spot if he’s available on saturdays. Daniel is taking his place in the campaign if he is not available (right now he is not). Once the players are locked in, they are set unless a player drops out or they decide as a group to change the composition themselves.
Outcome: Players acknowledge and agree
The common lament of “I’m not familiar with your world” is unacceptable as a GM when the entire world is online. Admittedly the search on the site is bad, without paying for a plugin. The use for a phrase in quotes nets a better result, but I don’t want to hear at session “I looked and could not find it” – ASK OUTSIDE OF GAME SESSIONS… I will send a link if you cannot find something!
What do most Rhylains think of their home as? Shield of the North!
Shield against what? The Broken Lands – Valley of Sighs, Dark Lands, and Fallen North – Lich Lords
In what year did it become part of the domain for the high King? CY 6541 (roughly 3500 years ago)
What is your impression of the Great Forest of Rhyl?
Outcome: Players need to read more!
Every Player may choose between full i20 with the setting’s class archetypes and i20 Light for every character. Note that item and effect statistics only reflect the full i20 and iCore implementations and may not have applicable effects for your i20 Light character to be able to leverage. The GM reserves the right to makes changes inline with the concept of the class and campaign.
– Decide at time of character inception.
– No mix-and-match.
Outcome: TO DO: Full list of 2014 5e sub-classes accepted.
While I normally think this is an extremely bad idea, and invites all sorts of bad perceptions, as a Game Master am going to actively play an NPC. There are reasons for it I am willing to discuss that revolve around the lack of cohesion in this player group that and with the characters not having a sponsor to keep them focused (autonomy to choose their own path was requested). Together we will work out specific parameters. I want to avoid thoughts of favoritism or preference.
– I don’t want the group to feel like they need a “handler”
– I want a way to introduce information to the PCs without it being tied directly to game sessions only.
Outcome: Players all accepted this.
TO DO: Complete the half orc wizard PC.
Does the group want to exclude this? Does anyone want to have this? On what level if so?
– AS a GM, unless its tied to some campaign plot threads, who you marry or sleep with should not have any campaign impact. If I choose to use it as a plot thread later, that’s up to me, but by default, no one will Mary wealth, title or nobility. Explicitness = fade to black.
Outcome: Nothing explicit; Players agreed on restrictions presented.
In my best play groups, I never had to have a rule stating there will be lashings and floggings. That’s a hallmark of a group that doesn’t play well together – be it character and/or player clash.
Camaraderie ruled the day in the best groups that I was part of. We knew what each other was capable of, we didn’t hold secrets from each other when asked and we didn’t try to deceive each other. Even my most evil characters never kept secrets. They didn’t necessarily declare everything that they were doing, but when asked never held anything back. It allowed the players that didn’t want to know to maintain the illusion of not knowing, even though everybody knew what people like Rivkin or Darius were capable of. In fact, Darius was eventually killed by his own party. And I didn’t cry over it because he had it coming.
Some of the opportunities presented to you are going to depend on your level of connection to local individuals, politics, and institutions. If you want to remain completely free as classic adventurers, then you may find yourself opposing people that you might have aided a while back. With these characters is that going to bother you or are you just going to take a mercenary approach of the highest bidder or the one paying you in the moment as commanding your interest in loyalty?
Outcome: Players agreed.
Do these characters realize or believe they are special? Yes. The nature in which they find themselves adrift and the death of their mentor clearly marks them as participating in events way beyond themselves. The fact that they grew up with such a unique mentor and in a unique time and place and managed to have all their education paid for without being of noble birth, any titles, or having any sponsor of an institution or noble clearly indicates they had a privileged upbringing and they know it. Especially given the nature of some of them not even being of this world.
Initial Cohesion: There will be enough shared trauma to justify initial cohesion. Role-playing going forward is really what’s going to determine cohesion. The last group was fractured and not aligned in common goals or outlooks and it was painful trying to shoehorn it as a GM.
Outcome: Players agreed.
I want to quickly review the concept of agency – which is the level of autonomy and accountability players and their character have during game sessions…
You asked for more player agency. These are not the days of The Gallants. You do not get to inherit a reputation for a group, contacts, or money & items; you start at zero and will struggle to gain a reputation beyond that of troublemakers because that’s what adventurers are perceived as. The general feedback that I got was that the previous campaign was epic and fun, but there were a lot of threads that they were forced to inherit when making a new character. That constrains things. The constraints of the setting are one thing, but a campaign constraining characters – no matter the advantages – can become tedious and stifling.
Outcome: Characters agreed the principles and not a strict CODE will guide them. Allegiance to the group will take precedence in all operations, no character will attempt anything directly detrimental to the group. Something that might be a risk of being detrimental should automatically be discussed with the group.
All must state their Alignment chosen from: https://imgur.com/gallery/palladium-alignments-DmKvb and make sure there will be no conflicts. Discuss and inform the GM of any changes to make sure group cohesion will not suffer. Even if your alignment actions don’t apply to “the group”, taking actions on those outside the group may trigger other players to respond – make sure this wont happen or agree to non lethal levels of addressing differences – as a GM, I will force inconsistencies to collide. Your adherence to the proclaimed Principles/code are what RP rewards will be based on. If you want the flexibility of none specific, that will offset the lack of specific RP rewards based on proclaimed principles (and may create a few potential inter party clashes).
Proposed Group Principles: CAN YOU ABIDE BY SIMPLE GROUP LOYALTY BASED ON IDEALS NOT STRICT REGULATIONS & OATH?
= “Together we are stronger than the sum of our parts.”
Leadership: How would it work? Unilateral decision? Corey? Will this policy affect you decision of character to play? Yes unilateral minutes and coordinates.
Outcome: Players agreed with Corey in the leadership role for strategic decision and face of group for important contacts. Delegate for specific roles like negotiator for goods and services, combat tactician, etc. Players agreed to identify absolute Red Lines that no command is allowed to supersede because of morals.
Are you going to allow PVP? Or, if you really want to kill or attack another character, should we just have it as a standard protocol that the character you’re playing leaves the group? Will this policy affect you decision of character to play? Mediation sideboard. Do not base assessment by typecasting who you played in the past.
Outcome: Players agreed to identifying any absolute Red Lines that if crossed might trigger a PVP scenario. Players must do this for each character!
Does the group care about reputation rating? You get to add it to your checks to influence others or even borrow money or items. Note that certain borrowing can be done with the idea that on success, the PCs do not have to repay a certain amount in exchange for sharing the glory and reputation. i.e. the PCs say they “could not have done it without the priests order of Blunderboss! – The PCs losee some reputation gained and their debt is forgiven.
If the War of Rundlemans Revenge stand had failed at the 1 shot, you would start with -1 – another level to overcome the lower morale of Rhyl after the war’s end.
Pro: better chance at influence in certain situation
Con: targets for enemies of whoever you seem to be working for, more involvement in local and regional politics, can go negative.
Outcome: One player will be identified to track renown/prestige for the group.
To what extent do you want to allow this? When a character moves into a new area, they may have skills and ideas that they want to use to create wealth and opportunities for their characters alone. Is this to be allowed or forbidden by default? If allowed, to what extent? Out of game on Discord later? This is unfair to the extent that those who want to, but do not have the bandwidth out of game are stuck.
Outcome: Individual Investments ok. Resolved per 30 days.
The Concept of Play Session State Continuity has come up a few times, in multiple groups. Its especially at issue when there is a long gap between sessions. When the campaign was more epic on all levels, the GM is more forgiving with so many plot threads going at once and the need to keep the story moving. This will be less so with greater agency.
Remembering story state – summarizing. Who reads the ones I posted in Dunstrand Rising?
PROPOSAL: @ end of each session, have a 8.5×11 sheet with a “save game”
– character name
– current health/HP
– wounds
– shield & armor resilience used
– spell slots used
– munitions used
Time tracking and dates, travel, activity & rest marking
PROPOSAL: Use a physical Cal? Someone who is not have the desire or attention or be great at RP could take this on.
Outcome: Players agreed. Kelly to create a printable document for this.
You chose a baggage train to take the place of micromanaging expenses. All quartermaster duties should be centered around this. I am working on a good format for this. Inventory Management and tracking handled by Ben. The initial proposition that was loosely agreed upon was that 50% of all wealth (Coin, jewelry, trade goods, etc….) will be divided with 50% going into a group pool and 50% being divided into equal shares among party members. Adventuring gear, weapons, armor and magical equipment will be distributed based on who can put it to best use for the group.
Outcome: As quartermaster , only track big single notable items, name only, not stats.
No records for posterity’s sake . No animals passed down from one group to another. Any record of what you want to have would have to be done by you. Someone who is not have the desire or attention or be great at RP could take this on – just a paragraph or even bulleted list in a shared Google doc.
Outcome: No one was directly identified, but someone might consider doing it for +1 CP
Quartermaster: Is there going to be a policy on collected treasure? If so, document it. Take into account the eventual cost of the Baggage Train. Shared Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13JTV9JOrvPFDpKuHT2uVPdxNdZ91Fl0gaRm6kSSmo7s/edit?tab=t.0
The quartermaster. Part of the baggage train operation is for short resting per long rest capabilities. Additionally, it has a couple of security mechanisms and locking storage facilities. The intent is not to create another NPC or building that needs to be managed. It’s simply to facilitate ease of use and not have to worry about tracking individual things. If you have stuff that will not fit in it, then you’ll have to buy separate facilities and track them independently. Extra horses aren’t going to be fed by the baggage drain. Extra food will not be supplied. Just cuz you have more NPCs. You’re welcome to track whatever supplies that you have personally and as a group that don’t fit in the baggage train with the quartermaster.
The baggage train should be considered an NPC with capabilities when you fill out the status at the end of the session.
Outcome: BEN to be quartermaster; 50% divide by # players; 50% into party fund.
There are a multitude of ways to run a classic adventuring campaign. The biggest and most prolific one is it’s an ark wherein the characters become famous and continue to rise in terms of candidacy for larger and larger threats that face a region where people. Let’s talk about campaign goals for PCs and party.
What do you want to do with the influence and power that you amass?
Outcome: NOTORIETY/FAME is the driving goal. Eventually get a boat; convert the baggage train to a boat or possibly have both if it can be afforded. If the PCs have a boat, make continual improvements and upgrades. Create a foundling based organization/institute/orphanage.
– NEVER GET IN DEBT
– RETIRE: If PCs can get a fleet of boats
—-> This feeds naturally into the next topic…
There was some talk early on of gaining a boat, all being same deity followers and a shared litany between them. This quickly dropped by the wayside as players delineated the kind of characters they want to play. Not a big deal, it can be achieved in game over a period of time with work from the PCs.
I have ZERO personal interest at this point how tight of a campaign you want to work in. I’ve laid lots of work in the north, so I want to there. Other than that, nothing is invested yet – all my adventures are just notes.
I chose a large Campaign theme of madness – something is not right in the north.
I wont add anything here, but its not a tightly bound campaign, just a series of adventures with a couple recurring thematic elements and NPCs that provide some continuity in a single large geographical area. It has the potential to be glued together by a larger context if the PCs decide they want a more connected campaign with intrigue, politics, and larger repercussions. I have about 2 dozen brief scenarios with notes. Or I can just run some modules that are not connected to the world around them very much. Not connected in the sense that there’s no reason they would have sat in this state unsolved waiting for some band of adventurers to go into a dungeon and kill everything.
Outcome: Players had no specific arcs other than what the GM identified (madness). Players agreed that swiftly the PCs should go into a small dungeoneering style adventure to get players used to each others character’s abilities and working together in a combat.
Reading Assignments – Everyone should have read them.