They get a choice on what race they are, but they have to chose from the following, human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, half-Orc and Half-elf. Their parents are all successful adventurers in the past and they came together many years ago and settled a town together out of the wilderness. They cleared the fields and planted crops, raised cattle and set up shops. They got married and had children.
Fifteen years later after growing up on the stories of fighting battles and defeating hoardes of goblins and vanquishing dragons, saving princesses, the children from these stalwart heroes want to go out and make a name for themselves too. These children have advantages that their parents never had, they have money and they still have treasure; they have friends in high places and there is a whole bunch of people in the area that know each of the adventuring trades and will train these children. The first born children of the adventurers at the age of fifteen are getting ready to apprentice to the various trades.
The first day the children are given a task by the people of the village. Winter is coming and they need firewood chopped, split and stacked to dry. It is long hard work that must be done but the farmers and the trades people alike and it is something that they are already familiar with, but the local woodsman has told them that he will be watching them and taking notes on how they do roll d6 every two days for six days and one the seventh day. The first for how many trees they chop down and drag out of the forest, the second for sawing the logs up, the third for splitting the logs into wood and the last day stacking the wood into cords. 4d6 drop the lowest and that is strength score.
The next week the sheep herder is taking the flock out to the summer pasture and she needs some help. The spring lambs are very playful and they keep running away from her and playing in the tall grass, she needs them rounded up and brought into the fold. After the sheep are on the pasture, she needs to harvest the wool from the older sheep and to do that they need to cut it off shear the sheep. After all the wool has been gathered she needs the wool cleaned and carded and to do that they need to brush the wool out and remove all the seeds and burs that the wool has gathered. On the last day, she wants you to spin the cleaned and carded wool into yarn. 4d6 drop the lowest and that is a dexterity score.
And so on.
It went well. Characters got made and they were really good randomly generated characters, better than random. 9 was the lowest stat and that was on the fourth character, the fourth wheel, coincidentally the only 18 was on that character too. But now I have to make the adventure and it is going to be tough because I have already identified one of the players as a "Mad Scientist"; he wants to break the rules and be amoral—he wants to see how far he can go. Natural20 thinks that it is because of modern sandbox video games you can do anything with no repercussions.
The village they grew up in was settled by successful adventurers. They took their gold and magical items and did not build massive castles; they built a village and exchanged the sword for the hoe. They married and raised children. They grew up with stories about dragons and demons and treasure troves from first hand stories. They remember when the dragon swooped down hearing about the wealth of the area and how no one died. The dragon lived too it was subdued and told to spread the word that no one should ever come to this village or they would meet death. So, life was safe and boring. When the first children started to go looking for adventure, the parents decided to put a stop to it and to train their children properly. Then out fit them and send them out into the world, where hopefully they would live and come back and settle down.
They were apprenticed for two years and then they left together to look for adventure. When they got through to the next village they found that it was very different. The paint was peeling on the buildings, the bridge looked like it was in poor repair. The road was covered in weeds. They went into the bar they had a few drinks, insulted the local folk and started a fight. The fight was a big fight, as most people were not trained warriors and they were. Yes, still first level, but trained. The sorcerer started the fight but the Ranger, he started throwing tables and he was the one that decided to pull steel, but then thought better of it. When the militia was called in to break up the fight, he started to punch them and beat them with clubs made of broken furniture. When they took him down, finally, they gave him a very thorough beating and kicking afterwards.
When they regained consciousness, the sorcerer was bruised, the cleric was good and the Ranger w at one hit point with a couple broken ribs, but still wanted to fight more. Brought to the magistrate and asked who they were and where they were from, the sorcerer told him the truth and the magistrate asked if he was the son of The great General, Paladinlord Brighthammer. His response was, "He was a General?" And that set the tone for the rest of the adventure for that character. The magistrate told the party that if they worked to clear up some problems in the village, he would overlook the bar fight and not send a note off to their home at Victory, asking for the General, to come pick up his son.
There was a little disturbance in the graveyard, and there were some woodsmen that we're chased out of the local forest by giant spiders, one was poisoned, and there was a disruption in trade from the road to the south. If they could get to the root of these problems he would forget about contacting their parents. But they would have to check in once every two days, or the morning of the second night, he would send for the 'General'.
*^*^*^*^*^*
Running for kids means that there will always a bit more of the Mad Scientist in their characters, but I expect that they will get that out of their system quickly when he rewards start coming to them.
The area is just meant to be a starting region. There is a Necromancer that has set up in the area, in the deep forest. His presence and his minions some goblins are responsible for everything in the village. The shenanigans in the graveyard are the goblins digging up graves for materials for the Necromancer. The creation of undead and the activities has pushed the spiders from their home to attack the woodsmen. The goblins are left to their own most of the time, so they have been attacking caravans that have been camping on the road. They undermined som large trees near the road and knocked them over, traders stop to remove the trees and get into town after hours, after dark they camp and the goblins attack them.
There will be a crazy old man who talks about things he has seen in the forest most of which are false. He has a stone that looks like an egg and he claims it is a Dragon's egg. There will be a nymph who lives in a pool in the forest. If they watch her swim she will charm them, if they act like gentlemen she will help them. There is a crypt in the village that dates to the time that it was first settled over a thousand years ago, there is a ghost and a specter in various parts. There is a riddle about the bridge in the village in the graveyard and there is a secret dungeon and treasure trove in e bridge, but only if they solve the riddle. If they think to use the Internet to solve the riddle, I don't care. The riddle will point to an egg and another will point to the bridge. There is a stone in the bridge missing and it is shaped like a stone.…, I wonder where they can find a stone shaped like an egg!
No comments:
Post a Comment