Campaign Pitch to my players

[MCAD]

To The Players:
You are a member of the Grand Order of Druids, the Obad-Hai, an ancient sect tasked with holding back the excesses of deities and their followers of both Law and Chaos. The Arch-Paladins devoted to The Mistress of the Lake are as much a threat as the foul sorcerers of Sezrekan, the bloody beastmen of Azi Dahaka and the demonic frog-spawn of Bobugbuliz.
Daunting is your task, your towers are old and spartan, your worldly possessions few. But you have the power of The Sight, and can see much which normal man cannot. Your weapons are intellect and guile, subterfuge and patience. You can influence the minds of normal men, and drive them to achieve that which is necessary. Many may fall in your service, but no sacrifice is too great to halt you in your tasks.
Where ever a threat to the natural order of things is exposed the Obad-hai respond, willing the men nearby to take action, to drive them to acts of courage most would deem impossible. Such is the true weapon against threats to the Balance, the natural order of things. From these crucibles true heroes emerge, those with the strength to forge their own path. These men are also your weapons - more powerful, but conversely more difficult to control. The stronger they become, the greater the risks you place before them. Eventually they will fall in your service - such is the way of the Balance. Know too that each death in your service feeds that which you seek to bring back to the Balance. Each soul converted at swordpoint by the Holy Church of Pelor, or each one consumed by the fiends of Hell. Spend these souls wisely in your endeavours.
As these men - willing or unwilling pawns in your plans, venture towards the threat you observe using the Sight, your mind adrift from your body, your consciousness floating in the void of the Astral. You can subtly guide them, but cannot interfere directly. As they discover truths that are beyond them, you piece the puzzle together. Should they fall, you summon more souls to take their place. However, your powers are finite, and no more than 6 men can thus be controlled by you at any one time. This is the Number of the Hex, the number of your power, and the number of your limitations…

What are your thoughts as to the above pitch bridging a gap between Player vs Character Knowledge?
Any Ideas on mechanics of it in game?

[finarvyn]

A couple of options come to mind:

(1) Let "the Sight" be something that you talk out more like a storygame and don't bother with mechanics for it. Essentially, set aside the dice for a moment, have everyone sit back, and you can narrate through what insights the Sight gives them. This makes it more passive and keeps it under GM control.

(2) Set up "the Sight" like a spell and have players roll every time the invoke it. This makes it more active and keeps it under player control.

[Gameogre]

So each player will have six characters who are influenced by a druid/player? Pretty cool idea but I would have the players/druids influence other players characters not his own!

[MCAD]

I'm leaning towards no mechanics myself. I always forget to implement my own house rules anyway

Spoilers?

I was running the Portal under the stars, and after the first batch of o lvlers got toasted in room 3 (they thought safety in numbers and ran across the room in one big group.), the players sat back and discussed the "puzzle" after creating a fresh batch of pcs. \
"How do these characters learn from the previous parties mistakes?" I thought as I listened to their discussion.
And thus this pitch was written. I would like it to be more than just a "justification" for player vs character knowledge though.....

Fun fact: I interpreted the spirally symbol in the cubical from rm 6 down to room 7 as a magical glyph, and assumed it must be a teleportation room. My nervous players spent about 30 min real time testing it out. Then I actually read rm 7 description fully....spiral staircase.\
Note to self. Read ahead in full!

Proudest moment: players luring the crystal statues in rm 6 over the pit and fall into the muddy water below to fight clay statues in rm 8. Extra XP for that one.\

Cheers
MCAD

[Skyscraper]

This is a really nice pitch. Enticing. Well written. Punchy. Love it.

I assume you mean for "the sight" to be some way that the new PCs become aware of the previous PCs' knowledge, is that it?

You could also have some kind of vision/augury/foresight/dreaming associated to it. Perhaps develop something around that. If you want.

I'd avoid PCs that control PCs. As a player, this might be fun for one game session, but other players or even the GM imposing his will over that of the player is really not fun. Especially if you know it can occur regularly.

Controllling 6 characters : will these be henchmen?

Will all PCs be druids?

[MCAD]

Thanks Skyscraper!

The PC "Druids" are not characters per se, they represent the players and the player knowledge that accumulates. It's really a conceit to explain away metagaming player/ Character knowledge. And provides something a bit different.
The game, I hope, will play as normal with 6 characters each ( I only have 2 players!). I would like to implement portents and visions somehow, but TBH we've only got 1 game under our belt so I don't want to go complicating matters just yet.

I think there won't be any influencing of others characters- that will get messy pretty quick.

[Skyscraper]

Thanks Skyscraper!

The PC "Druids" are not characters per se, they represent the players and the player knowledge that accumulates. It's really a conceit to explain away metagaming player/ Character knowledge. And provides something a bit different.
The game, I hope, will play as normal with 6 characters each ( I only have 2 players!). I would like to implement portents and visions somehow, but TBH we've only got 1 game under our belt so I don't want to go complicating matters just yet.

I think there won't be any influencing of others characters- that will get messy pretty quick.

Ok, i get it, very original concept, this druid approach.

However, do you plan to define the "druid characters" a bit? Because the players aren't druids. They're players. They're Bob and Martha and Jack and Tom, the student and plumber and engineer and librarian. No druid sits at the table.

As I see it, this is a RPG and its usual for players to play a role. Who are they incarnating? The druids? If so, they can have in-character moments playing druids. And then when they control the characters do they play in-character the six PCs? Or do they play the druids that control the other (sub-)PCs?

Maybe you have all this settled down clearly, but my first impression to your idea, that sounds interesting as mentioned above, would be to define more clearly where the line is drawn between characters (since the druids appear to be characters).

If on the other hand "the druids" is simply to remain an abstact concept that does not require the definition of characters, then I understand this to mean that there are no druid characters that would interact with the game world in any way. "The druids" then simply becomes the metagame assumption as to why information from killed characters is known by their successors. I guess this is also do-able, but my first impression is that the previous idea of defining druid characters might be more interesting, no? Because for information to be passed on, you could alternately simply have a patron or some kind, e.g. a supernatural entity, that informs the PCs; I'm not sure how "the druids" (which are not game world characters in this assumption) would bring anything more to the game, except as a metagame explanation that is otherwise unused in-game. This kind of fuzzes the line between the game and the meta.

I'd love to hear more about how you see this.

[MCAD]

TBH, the two different approaches you mention are what I'm wrestling with at the moment..
To codify the "mystic Druids" with mechanics in the game, or keeping them as a metagame "fluff" justification for mixing player v character knowledge and multiple PCs.
My players haven't really embraced the concept though they like the idea, probably because I haven't defined exactly what it means in my own head yet...can't blame them!
I'll end up taking my cue from them as to how much more I advance the concept.

As a bit of history, we regularly played more than one PC each in ADnD, and our last campaign (Barrowmaze) we each had a stable of 9 pcs, 4 of which could be active any one session. Very old school play style. We had similar metagame issues there too, but it was just hand waved.

Ps, in RL its an Architect, Sparky and a dual class Retail worker/ archeology student!
Cheers
MCAD

[Skyscraper]

I find the idea of over-controlling druid characters interesting. Personally, I'd embrace that concept and make them into full-fledged chatacters with some characteristics that might influence the other sub-characters controlled by the druids. The important stats of the druids might not be strength and hit points, but rather other things that might provide benefits to the sub-characters. E.g. druids might have powers that affect the sub-characters, such as calling natural allies one per X time period, etc... The druids would be patrons to some extent for the sub-characters, scheming. Then you can have some stuff happen to the druids. Not necessarily combat, since this is not their purpose. But perhaps other over-controlling entities exist in the game world, sending their own henchmen to block the druid...

And then, you could have druid in-chartacter moments. E.g. maybe they're all sitting around a small pond in which they scry what's happening with their henchmen. And they plan stuff to have the henchmen do. Pershaps they feel spied on sometimes....

[MCAD]

For those that may be interested our little group now has a few DCC delves under their belt. We have decided to keep the whole Druid thing as Fluff only (ie, no mechanics). Learning the this new system is enough for us ATM!

Portal under the Stars. Where a group of villagers attempt to solve an ancient curse that sits upon their village. Many villagers die uncovering the tomb and defeating the clay soldiers, but three survive..One becomes a wizard, and studies the strange Crystal Orb, where upon the goat headed demon in Portal leads them to…
Temple dedicated to Thanatos, God of Death. (AKA Level 1b Stonehell - the Quiet Halls, heavily modified)
Here the group suffer misadventures (including 2 villagers carried off to Hell via the Ghostly Funeral Skiff- great encounter!) and meet with with one Malefreces Nul - a minor necromancer. This Priest of Thanatos and his Acolytes were preparing a small army of zombies and skeletons with which they hoped to reclaim a lost temple to Thanatos - infested with Fire Beetles! The temple is recovered and fire beetles driven off, but the party uncover an ancient horror - a BoneThing. It chases the survivors out of the dungeon without much to show for their risks. Gathering some new henchmen, the survivors re-enter the Temple and find it eerily quiet. Both a halfling and a dwarf fall almost instantly to a ghoul disturbed whilst opening a chest. The ghoul lair reveals a tunnel to an ancient tomb, where upon the party are beset by a guardian statue. A major summoning of mystical power (ie nat 20 roll casting of Magic Missile =6d6+6damage!) sees the statue shattered before it can attack, and the party uncover a lost treasure - the Harness of St Ras. This Full Plate and Shield is emblazoned with the Heraldry of a Knight of St Ras, God of Duty and Justice, which the Warrior in the group immediately dons. Finally, the party discover the BoneThing, nesting amid the rended corpses of the remaining Acolytes. The Party put it down eventually, and recover much coin. They return home to rest and divide their rewards. Also in their possession - A golden sun symbol, painted black...

[MCAD]

And a bit of foreshadowing for the next adventures...
Nte the players were exploring Stonehelll using AD&D 1E rules before we switched over to DCC. I am trying to maintain some continuity...
We currently have 2 Wizards, a Fighter, a thief, and i think a cleric is about to join them, leveling up from the last adventure.
plus a host of 0-level henchmen / meatshields...

Doom of the Savage Kings
To The Wizard:
You light the dryad tree wood with the fire beetle secretions within the copper brazier, and prepare the ceremony to invoke your patron - the goat-faced god of the crystal ball.
Many visions pass through your minds eye, one in particular resonates with you - the resting place of the Knight of Chaos laid upon a frozen bier, his greataxe on his chest. At his feet lies a large bronze rod...
You see the frosty tomb fall away beneath you to reveal a ruined keep, then a low mountain surrounded by blighted plains, then a river. The river flows into a gulf beside a small village you now know as Hirot, and then your minds eye races over water until landfall and your hometown hoves into view.

You know the way.
Players head towards Hirot based on the Wizards visions. They seek the tomb of Knight of Chaos Felan SoulShatterer, but are directed to the Tomb of Ulfheonar instead, and stumble across the Devil Hound of Hirot….

Sailors on the Sunless Sea
To the Warrior
Not long ago a gravedigger, has proved himself in battle and also donned the Harness of St.Ras...Cuirass, Sword arm Pauldron & Vambraces, Gauntlets, Cuisse & Greaves, and Shield bearing the St.Ras' heraldry - White gauntlet (fist) on red background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Components ... val_armour

Many nights running he is beset by dreams of knightly orders arrayed for battle, lances held high and pennants fluttering. Set before the knight squadrons are a host of Chaos - heathen warriors and foul beastmen. Great Chaos lords sit atop their black barded mounts, surrounded by sea of loathsome warriors - many no longer human…

A horn sounds somewhere, and the shining ranks of cavalry charge into the midst of the horde - a bright beam of light cutting through the all-encompassing night....

A ruined keep under siege. A mutated Chaos warrior farewells a fallen brother, laid out on a frosty stone slab. Accompanied by a bodyguard of mutants, he rises and enters the main keep doors. Walls shatter from a trebuchet hit and in the main courtyard a great hole in the ground opens up, as if a portal to Hell itself. You spiral towards the pit, which reveals a dark underground sea, a ziggurat pushing up above the black waters.

A great white armoured figure stands before you, pressing his sword down gently but firmly on your shoulder. There is a sense of urgency, that of a quest unfinished.

You know what you must do…
In the mountains to the West of Hirot sits the Ruined Keep of the Chaos Knight Felan SoulShatterer and his Wizard brother Molan. An old shrine to St Ras (as per StoneHell) sits on the outskirts of Hirot, and the warrior Dougal is drawn to it…The Keep was almost destroyed but sealed instead of cleansed, and it has recently been re-opened. The Knights of St.Ras were decimated in the Keep assault, and the previous owner of the Harness of St Ras fell, failing in his oath to cleanse the keep.