After Sunday's session, we lost a couple of PCs and a substantial amount of gear.
The PCs already realized they had no business being down as deep as they went, and were thinking about spending their time on the orcs. The fact that the 275 point PCs couldn't hold their own against the trolls and purple worms made it pretty clear that the group needs a wider base of powerful delvers to be down in that mess.
But I presented a few options for going forward (aside from a bonus option for an unrelated mini side game, which still might happen.)
1) Vryce and Dryst step aside for now, taking some time off (in game, nominally to rest and recruit). Everyone makes up new 250 point guys.* We put Felltower to the side, and the new guys adventure off in some locale more suited for beginning DFers until they build up some experience, fill out their gear, and otherwise develop into guys that can handle the foes in Felltower. Maybe a handful of sessions, maybe longer. The campaign has always allowed for people to have multiple PCs for each player to be selected from on an as-needed basis, and even with my encouragement this didn't happen.
* Actually, Vryce's and Dryst's player already have at least one backup guy each they've been itching to bust out and play, but it's always been a bad time. There was never a good session for Vryce not to come.
2) Continue as usual - new guys at 250, they join Vryce and Dryst, and deal with either the new guys handing lots of loot over to Vryce and Dryst to keep their XP gains up or V&D accept that they will progress slowly for a while.
3) As #2, but not in Felltower.
Right now, we're kind of rolling around what #1 would mean. Vryce and Dryst would be in reserve and come back out when the other PCs are more ready for their "level" of threat. I'd need to either write up an adventure locale, or run Mirror of the Fire Demon (again), or convert an AD&D module or something. All are equally likely, in terms of what would temporarily replace Felltower. Having everyone be 250 again for a little while would be a good break all around, perhaps, and mean that it's hard to fall into the role of "make my guy the best possible Vryce buffer and Dryst supporter I can!" when you have to develop on your own to survive on your own. And in the long run, that might help.
Felltower itself would lie fallow, and when the PCs were ready to tackle it again I'd do one big restock. Probably the orcs would get more powerful, but not terribly so. Some monsters would show up or grow in numbers, some destroyed areas might be repaired more fully than would be in a normal two or three week lull, etc. - but the PCs wouldn't be racing a clock where each session away mean the orcs got more powerful, like the fevered concerns of Captain Willard. It would just mean a change of venue, and then a somewhat changed Felltower when the more lived-in PCs were back to see how they fare. And Vryce and Dryst would be waiting.
That's kind of what we're mulling over right now.
Couple of quick questions - more for the players than for the blog - how much levelling up would it take before the B Team had enough experience to hang with Vryce and Dryst? Do they need to get up into the 400+ XP range, too? That could take more than a year of actual play. Do your players have the patience to wait that long to get back to Mungo?
ReplyDeleteI'm actually not sure. I don't think it'll take that much - maybe just a few months of playing and getting people into the 300s. That's only 8-10 sessions, if they're hunting in grounds where the rewards are a bit lower but the risks aren't as high, either.
DeleteFrom a storyline standpoint, Vryce and Dryst need to be the ones who get their revenge on Mungo. Anything else doesn't feel as satisfying.
ReplyDeleteI'd go with #1, and send them on a related mission. Maybe they take on the source of the orcs, and explore some lairs and smaller dungeons along the way. The results of this affects Felltower somehow, like how tough the orcs get, or, if they really do well against the orcs, what replaces them when the orcs have to leave since they're cutoff from their fellows. Give Coy and Vance their own storyline, then let the main group pick up from it.
"Storyline" is an interesting word to use. The game is, essentially, a pickup game - we play with whoever shows up, exploring whatever part of the sandbox they have the interest in exploring. Setting aside Dryst and Vryce from play for a while is just the players of those guys saying, yeah, let's try our backup guys out for a while instead of dragging the new guys to really lethal dungeon spaces.
Delete"Revenge" is an interesting one, too. I bet they'll use the same word when they kill him eventually, but "He must be rich!" is what I was hearing even as they were getting beaten down.
#1 sounds like the most fun to me.
ReplyDeleteIf I was doing it, I might consider an accelerated start and/or advancement, because doing this at your normal speed amounts to suspending a game that just ended on a big downer for multiple months, and then trying to switch back. IME, if you take any pause after a big setback, players tend to not want to return to the depressing place they were in. The main exception is if there is big revenge to be had - are they very mad at Mungo?
Another thing I'd consider is a plot that starts a few months in the current game's past and eventually pushes the new PCs to strike the Orcs in Felltower right about the time they are hitting 350-400 points. (Maybe they have an item, prisoner, or visiting ally the new PCs want.) That way there is an organic dovetail into the old game.
It's not a downer, really, nor ending the game. It's shifting the focus from the two PCs who've gained the most experience, and the megadungeon that centers the game, to other adventure locals in the area and new guys who are working their way up to taking a crack at Felltower.
DeleteThe other ideas - accelerated development, setting a game in the past - would work in a storyline-based game. But this isn't, it's just a not terribly forgiving limited-size sandbox. Next game will be the same day in game as in reality, time will keep passing, PCs will still be buying stuff in Stericksburg, and so on - they just won't be trying Felltower for a little while.
Oh, if you do convert an AD&D module, let me suggest Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. There may be no better showcase for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.
ReplyDeleteTwo problems with that:
Delete- This game is explicitly No Sci Fi. Barrier Peaks would make a fun side game, but not one that I'd let feed back into the main campaign. I'd have laser pistols and power armor in my game until the end of time if I did that, and that's not the game I want this time around.
- At least one of my players is intimately familiar with Barrier Peaks. Not a surprise who, either.
I have the adventure I ran at ROFCON if you want me to send it too you. It's got maps and everything. >__>
ReplyDeleteDoes it have Mungo in it?
DeleteNo, it doesn't. I wish I'd had time to shove him in it though. Might still on the final version, because reasons.
DeleteBecause Mungo have reasons!
DeleteIf you send it, I'll take a look - I might to use it, but I'll consider it!
I can do that. My players just finished it up, it needs some revisions, but it's mostly minor stuff and if I could get another set of eyes on it...that'd be great. Check your email.
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