Imminent New Campaign

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    • Imminent New Campaign

      I'm starting a new Shard campaign this Wednesday night. I'm a long-time GM but this'll be my first time with Shard or its system. I'll try to throw some more specific information up here a little later, but for now I ask if anyone has any last-minute tips or suggestions about running the game, esp. in regards to the mechanics and easing players into those.

      Of course, anything that comes to mind in regards to the setting is also welcome. It's so cool, and I'm excited about running a game in it! I tend to aim a bit high in every game I run, so with so many things in Dardunah that I want my players to see and do (and get the opportunity myself to show them!) keeping this game reasonably doable will be a test of my willpower to say the least. But that's a good thing.

      Anyway, sorry if my inquiry is over-broad. I'm just interested to hear what experiences others might have had thus far that are worth passing along.

    • RE: Imminent New Campaign

      In regards to the system, I'd recommend starting small and easing them into it. So if you're using a traditional House campaign, then perhaps having them practice in the House's sand pits against the Weapons' Master or the Arena Master or some of their assistants (as long as they're NPCs) might be a good idea.

      If you can't manage that, then start with a small number of opponents with straightforward combat skills and see how they do against them.

      As combat becomes easier, start introducing things like Bundled actions, or some of the specialized Hit Location Maneuvers, or even things like poisons, living weapons, etc.

      Same thing with magic. Start small. Have the sir'hibasi in your campaign use their powers to do something simple, like looking into the recent past to see an event unfold, or even into the future to get a hint of what might be troubling them. Have healers deal with small wounds, or summoners start by calling forth a relatively weak creature.

      More than anything, however, give them the taste of the Dream Realm, the flavor of the moody, atmospheric magic. Describe the chanting, the incense, the elaborate glyphs that are drawn on the floor. Play some appropriate mood music while the PCs perform their magic rituals (that always helps). But definitely start small and get them comfortable with the mechanics and what sorts of things they can do.

      Good luck, Sarkakit! Let us know how it goes.

      -Aaron

    • RE: Imminent New Campaign

      Starting a new campaign can be a daunting task, especially in a world like Dárdünah with so many alien concepts slapping you in the face from several directions :D,...so I totally agree with Aaron that the best thing to do is to start in a sort of smaller, controlled environment, like the House the players belong to, or Clan, or some other social environment... I wouldn't have them jump out into the wide world just yet, at least,...not until the players have had the chance to "get to know" their own characters, the primary NPCs they will be socializing with, and the relatively simple ways they can use their Skills to interact with the world...

      As Aaron described, basic tasks are the way to go at first, and potentially interesting social situations that they are able to deal with from within their own areas... When Aaron and I both began our individual campaigns, we started our players off with a few basic "day-to-day" activities that helped establish our characters' professions and responsibilities, while carefully weaving in the elements of a secretive plot that unfolded concerning a visiting dignitary... This dignitary happened to be the current Great Aryah (head or ruler) of the Line the characters all belonged to, and as a result they were all quite busy performing the kinds of tasks necessary to make the House safe and ready for the Great Aryah's arrival... The plot elements that were slowly laid out had to do with this dignitary being old and soon ready to pass the title on to another... The politics behind this led to all sorts of eventual mayhem, apparent assassination, honorable sacrifice, and seemingly miraculous events,....all taking place under the characters' own roof!

      Only after the roles of the characters on their home-front were established did we then have their beloved Aryah start sending them on various missions and adventures outside their House,...first in the city of Sadahm itself, and then later across the gulf to neighboring lands...

      Expanding the game experience in this way often helps players slowly adjust to the unique environments and experiences the world of SHARD has to offer....

      Please let us know how you end up handling this! It's always great to see the creative methods folks like yourself employ...

      Have fun with it, above all!!!

      Scottie ^^

    • This is really pretty good advice- the first session I ran this past Saturday, I simply charged the players with stealing something.
      First, the sorcerers tried it, and I decided to give them a nice little challenge. I threw in a lot of unexplained things for them to investigate, really played up the fact that the Dream is much bigger and magic is much more than they know, and on top of that tossed in a big sort of trap they could trigger if they wanted (its kind of unfair that I know how they work and knew they'd try the very thing!) which ate their spiritual stamina and slung them out of the dream realm.
      Then the Treasure Hunter left early to try and steal the thing in the real world, on her own, sorcerers-be-damned (roleplaying arrogance or arrogant roleplaying?).
      And then her guards had to catch up to her and try and get her out of there. The upside of being a mouse and an elephant is that you've always got at least two ways of getting over a wall, apparently.

    • its kind of unfair that I know how they work and knew they'd try the very thing!


      It always helps to know how one's players work. I'm running with mostly grizzled veterans of my past campaigns, and as much as I'd like to be able to just give them a task I know they'd stare at each other blankly for a while and wait for me to point them in a direction (this is what happens when I, a long-time Shadowrun vet, start GMing for a gang of D&D dungeon crawlers). But otherwise the approach sounds good.

      What I'm doing tomorrow is a session that will be using characters which I create for my players. They can be kind of hesitant if I just throw them into a new setting/system and say, "Make a character!", so we're kicking off with this little adventure that lets them get used to both the system and the basic concepts of the world. This will also double as a prologue for the campaign itself, which will occur a decade or so later and feature the players' own characters that they'll make in the meantime.

      To be more specific without giving too much away, my players, all servants of a Tishinian House I haven't gotten around to naming yet (I'm down to the wire on planning here, but that's what the rest of today is for), find themselves left behind by a trade caravan, and consequently the sole custodians of a woman pregnant with the child who could be the House's heir. Of course, as one might expect, they don't just get to hit the road to Tishinia in peace. (Where would be the fun in that?)