Dragon Warriors

A discussion forum for the Dragon Warriors RPG and related works
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:51 am

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 5:41 am 
Offline
2nd Rank
2nd Rank
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 24, 2015 11:16 pm
Posts: 51
Profession: Mystic
As I've mentioned elsewhere, my group and I will be starting our first Dragon Warriors game this Sunday. I'm pretty excited. :)

None of my players (I think all 7 of them will be there) have any experience with DW. I'm planning on starting off with a brief overview of the game, tying it in with character creation. After that, I figure there should still be plenty of time to run Under the Rocks, which I intend to go through as a prelude to The Darkness Before Dawn. I have a couple of things that I'm thinking about and am interested in getting feedback on.

First, it doesn't appear to me at first glance as though Under the Rocks - or most of the DW adventures - were designed with a group of 6 or more players in mind. I'm wondering how I might best stiffen the opposition a bit to make the game more deadly.

Second, inspired by the shiny new hardcover copy of Friends and Foes that I received today, I thought it would be interesting to introduce one of the characters therein as a fellow traveler that that the PCs happen to meet at their overnight stay in the village or abbey. Any thoughts on which one(s) might make things most interesting or dovetail well with the rest of the Sleeping Gods campaign?

Any other thoughts/ideas/advice would be welcome as well!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:14 am 
Offline
Site Admin
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:46 am
Posts: 605
Location: Victoria, Australia
Profession: Knight
maasenstodt wrote:
First, it doesn't appear to me at first glance as though Under the Rocks - or most of the DW adventures - were designed with a group of 6 or more players in mind. I'm wondering how I might best stiffen the opposition a bit to make the game more deadly.


If I was running it, I'd make the Ogre into a Mystic - an Ogre shaman :) Yes, there's strictly no rules for this, but I tend to assume the near humanoid races occasionally have Mystic types (and the smarter, more organised ones may have other magic using professions as well). A 2nd rank Mystic, probably.

Second, inspired by the shiny new hardcover copy of Friends and Foes that I received today, I thought it would be interesting to introduce one of the characters therein as a fellow traveler that that the PCs happen to meet at their overnight stay in the village or abbey. Any thoughts on which one(s) might make things most interesting or dovetail well with the rest of the Sleeping Gods campaign[/quote]

I'd suggest Marcus Dorsteny. I've found him useful as somebody who might be willing to buy even very esoteric things off PCs at times (at ridiculously low prices) and to sell them unusual items as well (at ridiculously high prices). One of my groups eventually decided he was following them (and they were right - to an extent).

_________________
Life and Death Are Only a Dice Roll Away!

Shaun Hately
co-author A Weak Pleasure
co-author Friends or Foes
co-author Dragon Warriors Players Guide


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:45 am 
Offline
Admin/Moderator
Admin/Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:38 pm
Posts: 690
Location: Birmingham, UK
Profession: Sorcerer
maasenstodt wrote:
First, it doesn't appear to me at first glance as though Under the Rocks - or most of the DW adventures - were designed with a group of 6 or more players in mind. I'm wondering how I might best stiffen the opposition a bit to make the game more deadly.

It's been a while since I read Under the Rocks, but refreshing my memory, I now see a few opportunities to beef it up a little:
  1. As Dreadnought suggested, you could just make the Ogre tougher - maybe the ogre wasn't blinded by the other group of adventurers, just slightly injured. The ogre could be a coward and just ran off at the first sign of trouble - but these new adventurers don't seem as tough, so the ogre is going to stay and fight this time!
  2. The adventurers that drove out the ogre from its lair could have been tracking this one to finish him off. There could be a stand-off between the PCs and this other party to see who gets to keep the ogre's treasure and the other party may not believe the PCs' protests when they say it was only 17 Florins and an empty satchel. Any group of adventurers powerful enough to root out an ogre lair would probably make short work of even a large party of 1st rank players, injured and exhausted from their recent battle with the ogre (presumably the other party would have had chance to rest and recover magic points, etc., which the players will not), so make this a role-playing encounter.
  3. The abbot might have committed some misdemeanour in the past and consider the attack by the ogre to be his divine punishment. It may be that as the Abbot drifts in and out of consciousness, he babbles almost incoherently about his crime. Do the PCs pick up on this? If so, what do they do? The abbot is orders of magnitude above them in the social hierarchy and accusing him of a crime without any evidence could have grave consequences. Again, more about role-playing than combat, but maybe when the Abbot recovers, he threatens them to keep quiet about it (remember how influential the church is). Publicly, he might still reward and praise the PCs, but in private he starts to plot their undoing...
  4. When the PCs return to the village to claim their 30F (presumably they still do this once the Abbot is safe?), they find that a mischievous goblin has cursed the fields (they turn boggy or parched, for example, either way, the seed will be ruined if the curse isn't lifted soon) and the village beseech the PCs to hunt down this fey sprite and end the curse. Goblins don't need much motivation, but maybe he was getting annoyed by the fields being blessed every year and decided to take advantage of the abbot's absence. When they catch up with the goblin, he'll happily lift the curse, but only if the PCs agree to raise a little mischief of their own... Sticking with this theme, if you want something more combat orientated, the goblin could simply have taken the opportunity to animate the scarecrows (of which, conveniently, there are the same number of scarecrows as PCs :)), which the PCs must fight before the villagers can safely emerge from their homes and tend their fields.

Depending on the expectations you want to set your players, handing out a +1 magic weapon after their first (and really short...) adventure is a pretty high reward for not much effort. I'd probably replace this with a potion of healing. I think the letter of introduction is a valuable and appropriate reward, and will get the players to realise how different Dragon Warriors is from other fantasy RPGs that just had out magic and gold like it's made from trees.

Anyway, I'd very much be interested to hear how your players get on and the direction in which you plan to take this adventure on Sunday.

_________________
Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/
https://www.dragonwarriors.uk/
https://twitter.com/CobwebbedDragon
Now on YouTube!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 4:21 pm 
Offline
2nd Rank
2nd Rank
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 24, 2015 11:16 pm
Posts: 51
Profession: Mystic
Good suggestions, all. I'll give them some thought.

While I'm not a Monty Haul referee, I'm inclined to keep the magic mace. I'd like for the players can get a sense of the power that comes with magic weapons in DW vs OSR D&D, which is primarily what we've played over the past 7 or 8 years.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:11 pm 
Offline
Admin/Moderator
Admin/Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:38 pm
Posts: 690
Location: Birmingham, UK
Profession: Sorcerer
maasenstodt wrote:
While I'm not a Monty Haul referee, I'm inclined to keep the magic mace. I'd like for the players can get a sense of the power that comes with magic weapons in DW vs OSR D&D, which is primarily what we've played over the past 7 or 8 years.

If you want to highlight the comparison, then you should avoid telling the players it is 'simply' a +1 mace. Let the Abbot describe how the mace was a generous gift from a Crusader, returned from the Holy Lands with this mace wrested from the fresh corpse of a Ta-ashim zealot he slew in single combat. Gifting it to the Abbey to remove it's Ta-ashim taint, the monks have blessed this mace in their prayers for the past year and a day. Now cleansed and imbued with a divine blessing, the Abbot feels it is a worthy gift of the ones who would slay an ogre to defend the servants of the True Faith.

Nothing about it being +1 in all of that - all the characters see is a finely crafted mace of an exotic design. Mystics using See Enchantment, or similar magic detection, will reveal that the monks' prayers have indeed imbued the mace with a Godly aura. Although they still won't know what that means in game terms. And, of course, should it prove to be unbalancing to a party with already a significant combat effectiveness (did you say there were 6 players?), any deviation from the True Faith would be a good pretext to cause the mace's power to wane.

Just a suggestion.

_________________
Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/
https://www.dragonwarriors.uk/
https://twitter.com/CobwebbedDragon
Now on YouTube!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 4:19 pm 
Offline
Admin/Moderator
Admin/Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:38 pm
Posts: 690
Location: Birmingham, UK
Profession: Sorcerer
Should you be planning to continue into Sleeping Gods, I've made my extensions to King Under the Forest and Shadow on the Mist available again.

Feedback would be welcome (and encouraged!) :).

_________________
Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/
https://www.dragonwarriors.uk/
https://twitter.com/CobwebbedDragon
Now on YouTube!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:15 am 
Offline
2nd Rank
2nd Rank
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 24, 2015 11:16 pm
Posts: 51
Profession: Mystic
Here's one of my players' report on our session from Sunday:
Quote:

EPISODE 01: No MONKying Around

CAST:
Edward Winn & Edgard Winn – Knights (Twins)
Soren & Brent – Barbarians
Delwyn & Ezben – Mystics
Weiwort – Elementalist

BACKGROUND:
Edward and Edgard have a father who built ships, and now is the lord of the leader of a local large village. This is a world not welcoming of magic or women.

SUMMARY:
After leaving a fair, the gang encounters a local who is in need of help to find a Monk who went missing after he was on his way to bless the local’s crops. The gang began their adventure and encounter a large humanoid that they destroyed to save the monk.

STORY:

The gang (Ward, Gard, Soren, Brent, Delwyn, Weiwort and Ezben) are on their way back from a fair. To avoid trekking in the dark, they stop at a village. The man lets them in and offers them a bountiful meal, after realizing the two handsome men who greeted him were the sons (Ward & Gard) of Sir Edward.

A sheriff arrives concerned about a potential missing monk who has been gone for a few days. This monk was meant to bless the owner’s crops, but hasn’t been seen since he left his Abbey. Delwyn tricked the sheriff into thinking the danger was closer than it really is by creating an apparition to avoid being caught stalking him. This helped influenced the sheriff to ask the aid of the gang and to go to the Abbey to find out where the missing monk may be for 30 Florins.

Along the way they meet a variety of people. Thomas, who is brother of William, and are together famous brew masters, having the most well-known brewery. Girls throw their used stockings at them when they see him. He is a celebrity and has a suspicious feel about him. The gang also meet up with an older, difficult to understand, man who provided valuable information about something wrong going near the Abbey, as well as gave 6 cheaply made arrows.

The gang investigates and encounters a large purple-skinned shaman under a stone bridge on the way to the Abbey. The person had 20 ft arms. The gang destroyed the humanoid who was trying to get away and saved the hurt, missing monk. The gang looted the area and received some items, tribal relics and treasure. They decide to continue to the Abbey to seek aid for the monk.

They encounter the Cenobyte monks. They work to aid their injured fellow and are extremely appreciative for the slaying of the humanoid and saving the monk, and they give the gang some gifts. After the monk was fixed up, they all went back to the village with the monk to save the day.

/Fin

ITEMS:
SHERIFF REWARD: 30 Florins (Divided to everyone but WEIWORT)
HUMANOID SACK: 16 Florins (Divided to everyone but WEIWORT)
OGRE TRIBAL RELICS: (EZBEN)
ELEMENTRAL CRYSTAL VIAL: Restores Energy (WEIWORT)
MACE: +1 Attack, +1 Defense, +1 Damage, +1 Armor By (GARD)
Was blessed, but Ta'ashim design attracts bad attention
LETTER OF INTRO: Get out of jail free card for the monks (GANG)

For an initial session with a new system, I thought the game went OK. I'm used to playing sandbox-style games, not narrative-driven games, and I despise reading text aloud. Thus, running this was a bit of a change of pace, and I think Darkness Before Dawn be an even greater challenge. However, the players enjoyed the game well enough that they're willing to continue for at least another couple of sessions.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:51 pm 
Offline
Admin/Moderator
Admin/Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:38 pm
Posts: 690
Location: Birmingham, UK
Profession: Sorcerer
I have recently been training up a new group of Dragon Warriors and decided to cut their teeth on this simple little introductory adventure. I didn't actually change that much but wrote up my version of it anyway because, y'know, OCDs...

You'll need the original to get the password to my version but, assuming you have this, feel free to check it out here:

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/libra ... ntures.php

_________________
Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/
https://www.dragonwarriors.uk/
https://twitter.com/CobwebbedDragon
Now on YouTube!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:09 pm 
Offline
1st Rank
1st Rank

Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:56 am
Posts: 21
Profession: Sorcerer
The original was also available as free PDF download on the Mongoose Publishing website and it can still be downloaded via web.archive.org if you look at the archived page of the Dragon Warriors downloads if your looking for an original or a PDF version of the print one.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:44 pm 
Offline
1st Rank
1st Rank

Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:56 am
Posts: 21
Profession: Sorcerer
Sorry meant to say Mongoose Publishing's web site not the Green Ronin one. I fixed my previous post.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group