I am running a campaign that is half way through. We are adding a new player ( they are experienced, just new to this campaign.)
I asked that when designing his character and backstory that he include some special knowledge about history- so he studies history in his spare time.
I also asked that he include that someone he knew that was close to him used to travel to the area the dungeon is in. That person died, and the new player came to visit in respects to their dead loved one.
This not only builds a reason for that character to be in the area to join the party (rather than meeting at the pub and saying oh that person looks cool let's bring him aboard) but it also allows me to hand out individual pieces of information to the different party members where the new party member will have an easier time putting it all together.
I don't want to make the new player"head of the party" but I want them to have a unique role.
Now on the face of it I think all this is fine. But what happens if for some reason they don't have access to the information I need to give them while in the dungeon?
I will not metagame..
Pulling them to the side and saying this that and the other I think detracts from the role playing.
So I've been thinking about creating a new magic item and I wanted to get opinions.
I would like to create an item that would simply give bonus to historical checks. So if the person already has a plus +4 they could gain an additional +2 with this item.
Now I could control this by making it a temporary item that at some point near the end of the dungeon gets destroyed somehow. Or I could let the player keep it.
But the way that I've laid out this campaign I need this person to be in the party and have special unique abilities to understand what actually is happening. Again they are not head of the party their role is to simply have an advantage with history to be able to piece things together.
So is the magic item worth creating? What other way would you pull this off?
Why bother with the item. Just mentally give the person a situational bonus to the check (set the DC nice and low), or give them advantage. Or if it’s the act of pulling them aside that is too weird, write them a note, you can even have it pre-written, it’s much less intrusive. Or just tell them what they need to know. You should never put plot-important facts behind a roll. The dice will fail you.
Also, what you are doing is pretty risky — making everything hinge on one character (as an aside, it’s pretty odd for someone opposed to meta-gaming that they have already decided which character will do what). What if the character dies, or the player misses that session, or moves away, or just quits the game. Then everyone else is just standing around confused.
Well the whole thing is just based on some basic history and knowledge of a small part of the campaign. As I said before they are not the leader of the party but a temporary focus point that can help guide the party along.
The other three players have already been involved in this campaign and the new player has been DM for the last several weeks on his own campaign. Mine is ready to start again but since he wasn't in it originally I'm trying to bring him into it now.
The way I have chosen to bring him in is that he had a father figure who had been to this town but he was from far away. The new character come to the town to find out what this Father figure was talking about.
My thinking is it this idea will bring a new depth to the party.
Another member of the original group also has a piece of the puzzle and together all of them will have to put it together.
The language thing is just a mechanic to allow the new character to be the only one to read specific information and relate that to the rest of the group. I'm just playing around with ideas of how to accomplish that.
When bringing in a new player, I prefer a “depth not breadth” approach to their knowledge. By the time the campaign is established, the party is going to have spent a fair bit of time generating a generalised knowledge of information relevant to their campaign. A new player coming in who also has a generalised knowledge undermines that - “hey there, fellow party members, yes, I do already know about everything you just spent X sessions learning” undermines the story and achievements of the party, since this new character accomplished something similar with a different path of seemingly lesser efforts.
Specialised knowledge of a specific relevant topic - say specialised knowledge of some ancient war with clues toward the main plot - gives the party a reason to want to keep the new person around, while not undermining the party‘s prior accomplishments and without lending itself to “I know more than you about [relevant skill], let me lead you now” kinds of gameplay.
It also is pretty easy to set up in game - player’s background choice provides a history bonus, then give them advantage on all checks related to their specific field of knowledge.
Pre write the history for the player (maybe in two different formats, one for success and one for non-success) then hand them out to them during the game. You can also do reembraces, ie that players PC remembers his dead relative talking about X, Y and Z and it has an impact on this room and or series of encounters. The player could have that info written in a book so if they die the other players could use the book while they are down.
Thanks. I had decided just this morning to do exactly that.
I decided that it would work better to keep the party focused on an NPC that plays a major role in all this. It would make since that the NPC has a book or two in his considerable library that the players can read or borrow or whatever. It can still be in that language but there would be a key of some sort or an NPC at the temple available to decipher it.
This is a pretty long campaign with a lot to do in it. I think about 30+ hours have already been played and they won't run into the need for the book for another 20 or 30 more, so I've got time to finish the writing. Already have the ending and it is just after the book is presented.
Thanks. I had decided just this morning to do exactly that.
I decided that it would work better to keep the party focused on an NPC that plays a major role in all this. It would make since that the NPC has a book or two in his considerable library that the players can read or borrow or whatever. It can still be in that language but there would be a key of some sort or an NPC at the temple available to decipher it.
This is a pretty long campaign with a lot to do in it. I think about 30+ hours have already been played and they won't run into the need for the book for another 20 or 30 more, so I've got time to finish the writing. Already have the ending and it is just after the book is presented.
Glad to be of help, after playing and GMing for around 44 years I do have some old and new tricks.
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I am running a campaign that is half way through. We are adding a new player ( they are experienced, just new to this campaign.)
I asked that when designing his character and backstory that he include some special knowledge about history- so he studies history in his spare time.
I also asked that he include that someone he knew that was close to him used to travel to the area the dungeon is in. That person died, and the new player came to visit in respects to their dead loved one.
This not only builds a reason for that character to be in the area to join the party (rather than meeting at the pub and saying oh that person looks cool let's bring him aboard) but it also allows me to hand out individual pieces of information to the different party members where the new party member will have an easier time putting it all together.
I don't want to make the new player"head of the party" but I want them to have a unique role.
Now on the face of it I think all this is fine. But what happens if for some reason they don't have access to the information I need to give them while in the dungeon?
I will not metagame..
Pulling them to the side and saying this that and the other I think detracts from the role playing.
So I've been thinking about creating a new magic item and I wanted to get opinions.
I would like to create an item that would simply give bonus to historical checks. So if the person already has a plus +4 they could gain an additional +2 with this item.
Now I could control this by making it a temporary item that at some point near the end of the dungeon gets destroyed somehow. Or I could let the player keep it.
But the way that I've laid out this campaign I need this person to be in the party and have special unique abilities to understand what actually is happening. Again they are not head of the party their role is to simply have an advantage with history to be able to piece things together.
So is the magic item worth creating? What other way would you pull this off?
TIA
Why bother with the item. Just mentally give the person a situational bonus to the check (set the DC nice and low), or give them advantage. Or if it’s the act of pulling them aside that is too weird, write them a note, you can even have it pre-written, it’s much less intrusive.
Or just tell them what they need to know. You should never put plot-important facts behind a roll. The dice will fail you.
Also, what you are doing is pretty risky — making everything hinge on one character (as an aside, it’s pretty odd for someone opposed to meta-gaming that they have already decided which character will do what). What if the character dies, or the player misses that session, or moves away, or just quits the game. Then everyone else is just standing around confused.
Well the whole thing is just based on some basic history and knowledge of a small part of the campaign. As I said before they are not the leader of the party but a temporary focus point that can help guide the party along.
The other three players have already been involved in this campaign and the new player has been DM for the last several weeks on his own campaign. Mine is ready to start again but since he wasn't in it originally I'm trying to bring him into it now.
The way I have chosen to bring him in is that he had a father figure who had been to this town but he was from far away. The new character come to the town to find out what this Father figure was talking about.
My thinking is it this idea will bring a new depth to the party.
Another member of the original group also has a piece of the puzzle and together all of them will have to put it together.
The language thing is just a mechanic to allow the new character to be the only one to read specific information and relate that to the rest of the group. I'm just playing around with ideas of how to accomplish that.
When bringing in a new player, I prefer a “depth not breadth” approach to their knowledge. By the time the campaign is established, the party is going to have spent a fair bit of time generating a generalised knowledge of information relevant to their campaign. A new player coming in who also has a generalised knowledge undermines that - “hey there, fellow party members, yes, I do already know about everything you just spent X sessions learning” undermines the story and achievements of the party, since this new character accomplished something similar with a different path of seemingly lesser efforts.
Specialised knowledge of a specific relevant topic - say specialised knowledge of some ancient war with clues toward the main plot - gives the party a reason to want to keep the new person around, while not undermining the party‘s prior accomplishments and without lending itself to “I know more than you about [relevant skill], let me lead you now” kinds of gameplay.
It also is pretty easy to set up in game - player’s background choice provides a history bonus, then give them advantage on all checks related to their specific field of knowledge.
Pre write the history for the player (maybe in two different formats, one for success and one for non-success) then hand them out to them during the game. You can also do reembraces, ie that players PC remembers his dead relative talking about X, Y and Z and it has an impact on this room and or series of encounters. The player could have that info written in a book so if they die the other players could use the book while they are down.
Thanks. I had decided just this morning to do exactly that.
I decided that it would work better to keep the party focused on an NPC that plays a major role in all this. It would make since that the NPC has a book or two in his considerable library that the players can read or borrow or whatever. It can still be in that language but there would be a key of some sort or an NPC at the temple available to decipher it.
This is a pretty long campaign with a lot to do in it. I think about 30+ hours have already been played and they won't run into the need for the book for another 20 or 30 more, so I've got time to finish the writing. Already have the ending and it is just after the book is presented.
Glad to be of help, after playing and GMing for around 44 years I do have some old and new tricks.