Don't you people ever die?! A DMing thread

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Julford Hajime

It's gonna be a weekly 4e group, and the first campaign I've ever led (I've done one-off dungeon runs before, including a well-recieved remake of the Cathedral dungeon in Chrono Trigger). Wanted to get some advice from you guys, as y'all seem to have led a fair number of groups....

4. This is likely to be a very fast leveling game, like one per session. That way my players have options, and I can ensure that the campaign ends fairly fast (I'm looking at a five/six week run here, maybe more, but definitely ending it at level 10, which is the end of the paragon tier). Really, it's gonna be mostly quest exp, as fighting always takes up a lot of time with this group. Should I start them a bit higher leveled than 1? I was thinking starting at level 3, which gives them their first utility skills as well as a second encounter skill to use.

Well, since your other questions were more or less answered, I suppose I should tackle this one. I would usually approve, especially if you want to get to around tenth in six sessions (third level would be pretty good), if you've not run a longer campaign it becomes important that you've had experience with higher levels of play. If you haven't had experience running things at levels higher than first, I'd start there, just to get the feel of it. If you have, then third level is a great place, but I'd recommend at least second level. As far as villain-power, remember this:

Originally Posted by Meister

Heh, you could have left it right there. 4E characters are tough. The only time I managed to drop a character to negative HP was in the fourth encounter that day, but it was the Defender so I'm still counting that as a success. Are they at least having a hard time and just barely pull through, or do they breeze through everything?

That said, I must be doing it wrong, or something. So far, in both 4E campaigns I've DM'ed, I've rather steadily killed one player character per 'adventure'.
Campaign One: First adventure, I killed the paladin and permanently wounded/scarred one wizard. Second adventure I (almost) "killed" both wizards (one twice), the rogue, and the cleric (they used up all their healing potions on him and every healing ability the party had to save his life). Third adventure, I more-or-less killed the non-wounded wizard, again, twice* (she got better).

Campaign Two: First adventure, I killed the rogue* (he got better!), and turned him into a newt dragon[SWAO="*"] (he got better... sort of)[/SWAP].

Meister, the lolcats are back in action! or "can I haz this ohpaneeng"?

Originally Posted by Meister

Another example situation I and a friend came up with would be a slave galleon, where characters could be anything from slaves or slave drivers to the captain or a passenger; play out one normal day on the galleon, and then have it get into a storm and crash, with the PCs as the only survivors, left with barely any equipment in a dangerous area. That, we thought, has a lot of potential, especially with slaves and slave drivers - they just established a hierarchy and the slave driver has probably made himself unpopular, and now they're suddenly on equal ground and have to work together.

Wow. This is one of the most awesome campaign-openers I've ever heard of. I may just have to steal it. (please)

On campaign openers, here's three I've run or prepared that I especially liked. There are a couple of ALTernate or possible reasons/explanations for them that I haven't tested, but might work for your game(s):
* Mass amnesia... plus!the party wakes up more or less naked in the middle of a field that has obviously undergone an explosion (there are bits and pieces of clothes they can cover themselves with around). They seem unscathed. None of them have any of their memories.
~ ALT: they know exactly what happened, and each of them has a different story/reason for being there.
~ ALT: they're friends from a war-time band and on the battlefield.

* Everyone has a different reason for not being able to talk about/know why.the party wakes up in the "rain", but everything is fuzzy and they feel others all around them. It's then they realize, it's not rain, they're in a dripping sewer, and the "others" are dead bodies. One has no memory, one has no tongue/voice (the illiterate savage bard {like barbarian}) who doesn't speak the local language, and one was deactivated at the time "stuff" happened (the warforged), meaning there's no way to communicate what really occured or how they all got down there. Then, they're pretty much immediately arrested.
~ ALT: they all have lycanthrope (probably were-rats)!
~ ALT: they were the survivors of a savage, cultic massacre.
~ ALT: both!

* Drafted into the position.the party is drafted into service by the local city. Any wandering "adventurers" who passed through are placed into assigned groups, put under contengient curses, given a minor magic item, and guaranteed food and decent wages for their services.
~ ALT: they all voluntarily showed up at recruitment centers
~ ALT: this is religious, not secular authority that performs the action/holds the drive (great for parties of divine classes).