Post by yithril on Apr 27, 2017 22:12:16 GMT
Hi all,
I am a decently experienced DM and I have players that love to just do their own thing, which I adore, but it means I have to mega plan for everything. Just last session I had an entire battle planned and made special powers for them and then they figured a way to stop the battle mid way (brilliantly), so yeah. I want to make sure I'm aware of possible contingencies and able to be flexible should the situation call for it.
The next major quest they're on is to break someone out of prison. This person they want to break out is a member of a resistance group that is fighting against the occupation of Orcs/Drow/Goblins in the kingdom. The orcs have been in charge for 400 years, so they are a well entrenched power. The resistance member (Eon) in question is needed for his knowledge of ancient elven and the discoveries he has made regarding the elves, who are thought to be an extinct race. If the character is free he unlocks another set of quest chains by taking an old map the characters recovered in a previous session and then translate it so that they can see hidden locations that would not be shown on any modern map.
I am trying to be a good DM, so I want to make sure the characters have a chance to be creative, and also to allow the story to unfold organically, so there is a chance the resistance member may in fact not be saved. The characters seem motivated to save him, two players being in the resistance themselves and one character a spy for the dark ones, so motivation to do the quest is there. The resistance member is set to be executed in two weeks game time, and is being held in a prison in a very large city of 30,000 people. So there is a real chance of failure, either by Eon dying during the prison break, or the players taking too long and him being executed.
For the prison itself I imagine that it has multiple underground levels, the lower the level, the worse the offender. The top is basically a drunk tank for vagabonds. I was thinking of what could be some possible ways that the heroes could successfully stage a prison break. I have the map of the prison worked out. The party is 6 level 4 characters, so it's not filled with super high level magic, after all, it's just a city prison. I pictured that the magic using prisoners are kept in an area with an anti magic field. There are lots of guards and chokepoints are locked.
Any suggestions about how to tackle planning this out?
I am a decently experienced DM and I have players that love to just do their own thing, which I adore, but it means I have to mega plan for everything. Just last session I had an entire battle planned and made special powers for them and then they figured a way to stop the battle mid way (brilliantly), so yeah. I want to make sure I'm aware of possible contingencies and able to be flexible should the situation call for it.
The next major quest they're on is to break someone out of prison. This person they want to break out is a member of a resistance group that is fighting against the occupation of Orcs/Drow/Goblins in the kingdom. The orcs have been in charge for 400 years, so they are a well entrenched power. The resistance member (Eon) in question is needed for his knowledge of ancient elven and the discoveries he has made regarding the elves, who are thought to be an extinct race. If the character is free he unlocks another set of quest chains by taking an old map the characters recovered in a previous session and then translate it so that they can see hidden locations that would not be shown on any modern map.
I am trying to be a good DM, so I want to make sure the characters have a chance to be creative, and also to allow the story to unfold organically, so there is a chance the resistance member may in fact not be saved. The characters seem motivated to save him, two players being in the resistance themselves and one character a spy for the dark ones, so motivation to do the quest is there. The resistance member is set to be executed in two weeks game time, and is being held in a prison in a very large city of 30,000 people. So there is a real chance of failure, either by Eon dying during the prison break, or the players taking too long and him being executed.
For the prison itself I imagine that it has multiple underground levels, the lower the level, the worse the offender. The top is basically a drunk tank for vagabonds. I was thinking of what could be some possible ways that the heroes could successfully stage a prison break. I have the map of the prison worked out. The party is 6 level 4 characters, so it's not filled with super high level magic, after all, it's just a city prison. I pictured that the magic using prisoners are kept in an area with an anti magic field. There are lots of guards and chokepoints are locked.
Any suggestions about how to tackle planning this out?