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Thoughts on running Rappan Athuk (and deadly megadungeons in general) [SPOILERS]
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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 9006300" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p><strong>Thoughts on Session Zero, Setting Expectations, and Getting Buy-in</strong></p><p></p><p>When are started to think of running RA, I already had a group of players I'd been playing with for several years. Our first campaign was a large-world sandboxy homebrew. Are second campaign was Curse of Strahd. At the time we were playing in person. I floated the idea of playing a massive, old-school, deadly megadungeon.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Place the Megadungeon in a Larger Setting, tie it to lore of the setting, and give natural "outs" if the players want to quit or get a break from the dungeon</em></strong></p><p>They were all interested. We, or at least I, had some concerns that a megadungeon could get old fast. But I had a lot of Lost Lands material and made it clear that the party was free to go and explore other areas of the world and pursue other quests and adventures. We always had an "out." More important the "out" was organic. Rappan Athuk is part of a much larger world with a lot of published material. Initially, my thinking is that this would give an "out" while still feeling natural in game. No need to kill the campaign and start a new, just move on to another part of the world. </p><p></p><p>But a secondary benefit is that it helped bring Rappan Athuk to life having it placed within a much larger setting. I didn't realize it at the time, but Frog God Games have threads sewn all throughout RA linking it to other locations, adventures, and lore. It is easily ignored if you don't want to invest in the Lost Lands setting, but if you like having the support of massive amounts of setting material, lore, and other adventures, it is there. </p><p></p><p>Also, this was my first "kitchen sink" campaign for 5e (and I hadn't played any TTRPGs from the very early 90s until 5e came out). The Lost Lands is such a massive world that you can have very thematic and tightly focused campaigns, but you can also fit about any race, class, or background you want and find a place for it in the world. Generally, I let players use any official WotC options and build their characters in D&D Beyond. Those players that were into detailed character backstories would write their ideas and I would find ways to tie it into the canonical Lost Lands lore, occasionally homebrewing to fill gaps or teak things to make their backstories work within the setting. But...</p><p></p><p><strong><em>We started with a session 0 funnel...</em></strong></p><p>I encouraged the players to not invest a lot of time into character backstories before our first session. Each player rolled up four characters using the level zero rules from the Adventurer's League adventure, <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248589/DDALELW00-Whats-Past-is-Prologue" target="_blank">DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue</a>. </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The character has chosen a name, race, and background.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The character has NOT chosen a class.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The character has gear plus weapons, up to one common magical item, and proficiencies granted by their race and background.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A level 0 character has 6 + their Constitution modifier for hit points, 1d6 hit dice, and no proficiency bonus.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Weapon and armor proficiencies may be granted by race and background; those are fine!</li> </ul><p></p><p>The first session started with the second-most trite setup in D&D after "you meet in a tavern." They were all members of a caravan travelling down the Coast Road on their way to the wilderness settlement of Zelkor's Ferry. One of the wagons broke down about a day or two's journey from their destination. The caravan stopped for repairs and maintenance and it was decided to camp for the evening and push on to Zelkor's Ferry in the morning. </p><p></p><p>In the evening they were approached by the Felthane, a group of fey (sprites, pixies, etc.) and were invited to a celebration. There were a variety of social challenges. The fey were threatened by a deadly creature called the bone crusher and were hoping that perhaps this large group of big folk would be able to destroy it. </p><p></p><p>The bone crusher is a custom RA monster that is quite deadly for low-level PC, much less level-0 PCs who don't even have a class yet. My players a long-time gamers and highly tactical. There were a lot of NPC caravan guards. They focused on protecting themselves and the non-combatant NPCs. Still, it was a meat-grinder. They ended up damaging the bone-grinder enough that it retreated, they did not follow. The surviving PCs received some rewards from the Felthane, treated the wounded, and buried the many dead. All of the players had at least two PCs that survived. </p><p></p><p>In the morning they pushed on to Zelkor's Ferry, where they gathered rumors, found a mentor/trainer, and leveled up to level 1. </p><p></p><p>The names of the dead PCs and NPCs were added to the obituary poster hung on the wall behind my DMs seat and expectations were set!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 9006300, member: 6796661"] [B]Thoughts on Session Zero, Setting Expectations, and Getting Buy-in[/B] When are started to think of running RA, I already had a group of players I'd been playing with for several years. Our first campaign was a large-world sandboxy homebrew. Are second campaign was Curse of Strahd. At the time we were playing in person. I floated the idea of playing a massive, old-school, deadly megadungeon. [B][I]Place the Megadungeon in a Larger Setting, tie it to lore of the setting, and give natural "outs" if the players want to quit or get a break from the dungeon[/I][/B] They were all interested. We, or at least I, had some concerns that a megadungeon could get old fast. But I had a lot of Lost Lands material and made it clear that the party was free to go and explore other areas of the world and pursue other quests and adventures. We always had an "out." More important the "out" was organic. Rappan Athuk is part of a much larger world with a lot of published material. Initially, my thinking is that this would give an "out" while still feeling natural in game. No need to kill the campaign and start a new, just move on to another part of the world. But a secondary benefit is that it helped bring Rappan Athuk to life having it placed within a much larger setting. I didn't realize it at the time, but Frog God Games have threads sewn all throughout RA linking it to other locations, adventures, and lore. It is easily ignored if you don't want to invest in the Lost Lands setting, but if you like having the support of massive amounts of setting material, lore, and other adventures, it is there. Also, this was my first "kitchen sink" campaign for 5e (and I hadn't played any TTRPGs from the very early 90s until 5e came out). The Lost Lands is such a massive world that you can have very thematic and tightly focused campaigns, but you can also fit about any race, class, or background you want and find a place for it in the world. Generally, I let players use any official WotC options and build their characters in D&D Beyond. Those players that were into detailed character backstories would write their ideas and I would find ways to tie it into the canonical Lost Lands lore, occasionally homebrewing to fill gaps or teak things to make their backstories work within the setting. But... [B][I]We started with a session 0 funnel...[/I][/B] I encouraged the players to not invest a lot of time into character backstories before our first session. Each player rolled up four characters using the level zero rules from the Adventurer's League adventure, [URL='https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248589/DDALELW00-Whats-Past-is-Prologue']DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue[/URL]. [LIST] [*]The character has chosen a name, race, and background. [*]The character has NOT chosen a class. [*]The character has gear plus weapons, up to one common magical item, and proficiencies granted by their race and background. [*]A level 0 character has 6 + their Constitution modifier for hit points, 1d6 hit dice, and no proficiency bonus. [*]Weapon and armor proficiencies may be granted by race and background; those are fine! [/LIST] The first session started with the second-most trite setup in D&D after "you meet in a tavern." They were all members of a caravan travelling down the Coast Road on their way to the wilderness settlement of Zelkor's Ferry. One of the wagons broke down about a day or two's journey from their destination. The caravan stopped for repairs and maintenance and it was decided to camp for the evening and push on to Zelkor's Ferry in the morning. In the evening they were approached by the Felthane, a group of fey (sprites, pixies, etc.) and were invited to a celebration. There were a variety of social challenges. The fey were threatened by a deadly creature called the bone crusher and were hoping that perhaps this large group of big folk would be able to destroy it. The bone crusher is a custom RA monster that is quite deadly for low-level PC, much less level-0 PCs who don't even have a class yet. My players a long-time gamers and highly tactical. There were a lot of NPC caravan guards. They focused on protecting themselves and the non-combatant NPCs. Still, it was a meat-grinder. They ended up damaging the bone-grinder enough that it retreated, they did not follow. The surviving PCs received some rewards from the Felthane, treated the wounded, and buried the many dead. All of the players had at least two PCs that survived. In the morning they pushed on to Zelkor's Ferry, where they gathered rumors, found a mentor/trainer, and leveled up to level 1. The names of the dead PCs and NPCs were added to the obituary poster hung on the wall behind my DMs seat and expectations were set! [/QUOTE]
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