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Ashes of Zeitgeist: Campaign Thread
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<blockquote data-quote="RegularPerson15" data-source="post: 8601587" data-attributes="member: 7029955"><p><h2>ADVENTURE ONE - CHAPTER ONE: RNS COALTONGUE</h2><p></p><p><em>I want you guys to close your eyes and imagine this scene.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>We open on a sea in a raging storm. From every side are waves of black-blue water crashing all around you, no land in sight. Suddenly, you hear a slight metallic hum, as a shimmering blue portal opens, a few hundred feet above the water. From out of this portal, steps a figure who you can only see the back of, as they hover in the air looking out at the storm around them. The camera slowly spins to face this figure, and we see an ancient looking orc, his dark green face covered in faint scars and thick lines, his eyes clouded in white mist. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>We watch as this orc stretches out his hand, palm raised to the sky. There is a pause, as he leaves his arm extended, but then he whispers an inaudible word and clenches tight his fist. A crack rings out over the storm like a gunshot, echoing across the sea. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>As the camera pulls back, we see that the storm and the raging sea has become frozen in time, every drop of rain, every rising wave, every gust of wind, locked in place. The only movement you can see now is the trembling of the orc's fist, shaking ever harder as he forces himself to squeeze tighter and tighter. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Finally, with a sudden shout, the orc opens his hand, and the storm surges back into place, the sea roaring around him. As the camera zooms in on his face, and as his gasps for breath begin to ease, you see the slow beginnings of a smile begin to creep upon his lips.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Blackout.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>It is spring of the year 500 AOV...</em></p><p></p><p>The above is how I started the very first session of our Zeitgeist campaign. Taking inspiration from an actual play podcast that I love (Glass Cannon), I like to sprinkle in cold opens like this every now and then that might give the players information about parts of the story that their characters would never have access to. I like to do this especially in Zeitgeist because I feel like there's SO many amazing details in the story and the world that could almost never be found out by players naturally.</p><p></p><p>Throughout this first adventure, every few sessions or so, I would occasionally give scenes like above that (when pieced together) would tell the story of a group of powerful orcs that cast a ritual that barely held back some great extra-planar evil. Though my players had no idea what was going on at the time, this is of course a reference to the Ancients and the sealing ritual performed on Axis Island thousands of years ago. Though the players were confused, I think this opening adequately conveyed the idea that there were a lot of things going on in the background of this adventure.</p><p></p><p>The first chapter of this adventure took our group 3 sessions to complete, and they managed to succesfully complete all the main objectives that I put in front of them. In their initial role as security for the launch party, they quickly tracked down the 4 instigators, and dealt with them effectively. Subsequently, once on the boat, they very quickly sussed out how shady the Duchess was being. As an aside, I have played this initial adventure with 3 different groups now, and in ALL of them, the players have reacted amazingly to that awesome cinematic moment with the constables bursting into the Duchess's door to see Ethelyn crouched half-way out the window, preparing to jump into the ocean. This was such an amazing hook for my players, they really enjoyed that feeling of "what the naughty word is going on??" as they watch Ethelyn ride away on a giant sea monster. </p><p></p><p>The combat went about in a pretty expected manner, with one of the players managing to alert the king, while the others fought the assassin spy and other enemies while Sokana rushed down to the engine room. I want to point out here another aspect I love about a lot of Zeitgeist combat encounters, which is that there's so much world-building baked into them. In this particular example, this encounter gave my players their first taste with the fey of the Dreaming, the gold/teleportation restrictions, the eladrin, etc. I feel like it sticks in the players minds more when they're learning/applying knowledge in a tense encoutner like this, rather than just hearing me read it off a page.</p><p></p><p>After a critical hit by the rogue (the musket + sneak attack is deadly!) on Sokana killed her instantly, they figured out how to slow down the engine implosion enough to have the tiefling engineer come down and assist them in stopping the explosion.</p><p></p><h3><strong>Post Chapter Thoughts</strong></h3><p></p><p>I think this first chapter set a really positive experience for the players: they knew that they could come to expect interesting, objective based combat encounters, a deep underlying mystery, and an interesting world with consistent themes. But I think this first chapter highlighted some of the challenges that I continue to face running this campaign.</p><p></p><p><em>1. Helping the players/myself track all the many NPCs and their many different factions. </em></p><p>This is was most clear in the initial launch party scene, with the players having to suddenly take in so many different names and nations and groups. It was pretty difficult for me to give the many important people the players met at the party, unique identities to help them stick in the player's minds, and it's a challenge that I still really struggle with. I fear sometimes that all these NPCs become very 'same-y' when filtered through my limited ability to do voices/act them out. And of course, it's difficult for the players to keep track of all the things that their characters would know just by growing up in that world.</p><p></p><p><em>2. Running some of the most complicated combats I've ever seen in an adventure</em></p><p>This might partially be an offshoot of running sessions online exclusively through VTTs, but an encounter like the Coaltongue forces me to set up multiple scenes that the players are constantly jumping in and out of (the floors of the ships), track multiple objectives and trackers, resolve things that are happening outside the player's perception, etc. This makes the experience of running encounters like these really exhilarating but also pretty stressful! </p><p></p><p>Overall, I think this was a great jumping off point that got the players interested in a new setting.</p><p></p><h3>Highlights From Player Notes</h3><p><em>One of my players takes great notes for every session. I've put some of my favourite snippets from them for this chapter below.</em></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At first Dafton plays dumb and tries to push past us but A.I.G. grabs him and Initiative begins.....WE ALL ROLL LIKE DOG POO</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snow informs the team the ship is gonna blow...then BLOWS OFF THE BANDIT'S HEAD</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gambit has such faith in his stealing abilities that he reaches in to sneak the gem away from the flames and SUCCEEDS and is the proud owner of a fire gem. CRISIS AVERTED!</li> </ul><p></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RegularPerson15, post: 8601587, member: 7029955"] [HEADING=1]ADVENTURE ONE - CHAPTER ONE: RNS COALTONGUE[/HEADING] [I]I want you guys to close your eyes and imagine this scene. We open on a sea in a raging storm. From every side are waves of black-blue water crashing all around you, no land in sight. Suddenly, you hear a slight metallic hum, as a shimmering blue portal opens, a few hundred feet above the water. From out of this portal, steps a figure who you can only see the back of, as they hover in the air looking out at the storm around them. The camera slowly spins to face this figure, and we see an ancient looking orc, his dark green face covered in faint scars and thick lines, his eyes clouded in white mist. We watch as this orc stretches out his hand, palm raised to the sky. There is a pause, as he leaves his arm extended, but then he whispers an inaudible word and clenches tight his fist. A crack rings out over the storm like a gunshot, echoing across the sea. As the camera pulls back, we see that the storm and the raging sea has become frozen in time, every drop of rain, every rising wave, every gust of wind, locked in place. The only movement you can see now is the trembling of the orc's fist, shaking ever harder as he forces himself to squeeze tighter and tighter. Finally, with a sudden shout, the orc opens his hand, and the storm surges back into place, the sea roaring around him. As the camera zooms in on his face, and as his gasps for breath begin to ease, you see the slow beginnings of a smile begin to creep upon his lips. Blackout. It is spring of the year 500 AOV...[/I] The above is how I started the very first session of our Zeitgeist campaign. Taking inspiration from an actual play podcast that I love (Glass Cannon), I like to sprinkle in cold opens like this every now and then that might give the players information about parts of the story that their characters would never have access to. I like to do this especially in Zeitgeist because I feel like there's SO many amazing details in the story and the world that could almost never be found out by players naturally. Throughout this first adventure, every few sessions or so, I would occasionally give scenes like above that (when pieced together) would tell the story of a group of powerful orcs that cast a ritual that barely held back some great extra-planar evil. Though my players had no idea what was going on at the time, this is of course a reference to the Ancients and the sealing ritual performed on Axis Island thousands of years ago. Though the players were confused, I think this opening adequately conveyed the idea that there were a lot of things going on in the background of this adventure. The first chapter of this adventure took our group 3 sessions to complete, and they managed to succesfully complete all the main objectives that I put in front of them. In their initial role as security for the launch party, they quickly tracked down the 4 instigators, and dealt with them effectively. Subsequently, once on the boat, they very quickly sussed out how shady the Duchess was being. As an aside, I have played this initial adventure with 3 different groups now, and in ALL of them, the players have reacted amazingly to that awesome cinematic moment with the constables bursting into the Duchess's door to see Ethelyn crouched half-way out the window, preparing to jump into the ocean. This was such an amazing hook for my players, they really enjoyed that feeling of "what the naughty word is going on??" as they watch Ethelyn ride away on a giant sea monster. The combat went about in a pretty expected manner, with one of the players managing to alert the king, while the others fought the assassin spy and other enemies while Sokana rushed down to the engine room. I want to point out here another aspect I love about a lot of Zeitgeist combat encounters, which is that there's so much world-building baked into them. In this particular example, this encounter gave my players their first taste with the fey of the Dreaming, the gold/teleportation restrictions, the eladrin, etc. I feel like it sticks in the players minds more when they're learning/applying knowledge in a tense encoutner like this, rather than just hearing me read it off a page. After a critical hit by the rogue (the musket + sneak attack is deadly!) on Sokana killed her instantly, they figured out how to slow down the engine implosion enough to have the tiefling engineer come down and assist them in stopping the explosion. [HEADING=2][B]Post Chapter Thoughts[/B][/HEADING] I think this first chapter set a really positive experience for the players: they knew that they could come to expect interesting, objective based combat encounters, a deep underlying mystery, and an interesting world with consistent themes. But I think this first chapter highlighted some of the challenges that I continue to face running this campaign. [I]1. Helping the players/myself track all the many NPCs and their many different factions. [/I] This is was most clear in the initial launch party scene, with the players having to suddenly take in so many different names and nations and groups. It was pretty difficult for me to give the many important people the players met at the party, unique identities to help them stick in the player's minds, and it's a challenge that I still really struggle with. I fear sometimes that all these NPCs become very 'same-y' when filtered through my limited ability to do voices/act them out. And of course, it's difficult for the players to keep track of all the things that their characters would know just by growing up in that world. [I]2. Running some of the most complicated combats I've ever seen in an adventure[/I] This might partially be an offshoot of running sessions online exclusively through VTTs, but an encounter like the Coaltongue forces me to set up multiple scenes that the players are constantly jumping in and out of (the floors of the ships), track multiple objectives and trackers, resolve things that are happening outside the player's perception, etc. This makes the experience of running encounters like these really exhilarating but also pretty stressful! Overall, I think this was a great jumping off point that got the players interested in a new setting. [HEADING=2]Highlights From Player Notes[/HEADING] [I]One of my players takes great notes for every session. I've put some of my favourite snippets from them for this chapter below.[/I] [LIST] [*]At first Dafton plays dumb and tries to push past us but A.I.G. grabs him and Initiative begins.....WE ALL ROLL LIKE DOG POO [*]Snow informs the team the ship is gonna blow...then BLOWS OFF THE BANDIT'S HEAD [*]Gambit has such faith in his stealing abilities that he reaches in to sneak the gem away from the flames and SUCCEEDS and is the proud owner of a fire gem. CRISIS AVERTED! [/LIST] [I] [/I] [/QUOTE]
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