So I was daunted by the councils in Rise of Tiamat, especially the humanoid council that throws 11 different characters at you and expects your players to somehow remember them all. You guys may have people well acquainted with Forgotten Realms lore but I do not. Heck, I barely have my own working knowledge. So I mostly gloss over the council and have been giving my party missions from the leader of the Harpers instead.
When prepping for the Dragon Council I knew that wouldn't work. I wanted to make this memorable, and not just me arguing with myself in 5 different voices. I set up the adventure with the silver seeking them out in town while they were on down-time from the Harpers. We ended that session with her carrying them off to the meeting place. In preparation, I got the idea to let each of my players also play the voice of one of the council members. IT WAS AMAZING!
I made up colored note cards for each of the dragon's names, some details about them, desires, attitudes, and concessions. I took the silver since I had already introduced her and it let me guide the conversation if I needed to, but I really didn't. We had one friend spectating who took the gold and somehow everyone got the perfect dragon for their role-play style. I have to say it is EASILY the most memorable session I have had between HotDQ and RoT. Probably in all of 5e so far.
If you have strong roleplayers, I would HIGHLY recommend this method for running this and turning what could be a humdrum combat-free session into something truly memorable.
I haven't read the adventure, but the player's don't necessarily need to remember or meet everyone. It is possible to remind PCs of characters their players should have remembered but they don't.
You're totally right, but also getting hit with name storm can be hard for me to keep up with and them. It makes them unimportant in the players mind too.
And I know I didn't handle it well either. I still have places to grow in my dungeon mastering. :)
I don't have the actual adventure, but it might be possible that you aren't just tossing names at the PCs, unless the PCs somehow learn their names.
Also if you are giving the PCs a ton of people at once, you can always have them written down for the PCs in advance. Especially with prepared adventures.
My two players are Young and Sleepy, and not too much into dialogue with NPCs, so I changed this whole Metallic Dragon council into a Fantasy Nailed It challenge where the characters had to solve room challenges/puzzles to collect ingredients to make a dragon cake. It gave them something silly to do and they enjoyed the run. Your mileage may vary. :)
I quite like your idea of getting the players to RP the dragons. Nicely engaging!
Hey fellow DMs,
So I was daunted by the councils in Rise of Tiamat, especially the humanoid council that throws 11 different characters at you and expects your players to somehow remember them all. You guys may have people well acquainted with Forgotten Realms lore but I do not. Heck, I barely have my own working knowledge. So I mostly gloss over the council and have been giving my party missions from the leader of the Harpers instead.
When prepping for the Dragon Council I knew that wouldn't work. I wanted to make this memorable, and not just me arguing with myself in 5 different voices. I set up the adventure with the silver seeking them out in town while they were on down-time from the Harpers. We ended that session with her carrying them off to the meeting place. In preparation, I got the idea to let each of my players also play the voice of one of the council members. IT WAS AMAZING!
I made up colored note cards for each of the dragon's names, some details about them, desires, attitudes, and concessions. I took the silver since I had already introduced her and it let me guide the conversation if I needed to, but I really didn't. We had one friend spectating who took the gold and somehow everyone got the perfect dragon for their role-play style. I have to say it is EASILY the most memorable session I have had between HotDQ and RoT. Probably in all of 5e so far.
If you have strong roleplayers, I would HIGHLY recommend this method for running this and turning what could be a humdrum combat-free session into something truly memorable.
I haven't read the adventure, but the player's don't necessarily need to remember or meet everyone. It is possible to remind PCs of characters their players should have remembered but they don't.
You're totally right, but also getting hit with name storm can be hard for me to keep up with and them. It makes them unimportant in the players mind too.
And I know I didn't handle it well either. I still have places to grow in my dungeon mastering. :)
Are you using the scorecard?:
http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/RiseTiamat_CouncilScorecard.pdf
Hope could be helpful.
I don't have the actual adventure, but it might be possible that you aren't just tossing names at the PCs, unless the PCs somehow learn their names.
Also if you are giving the PCs a ton of people at once, you can always have them written down for the PCs in advance. Especially with prepared adventures.
My two players are Young and Sleepy, and not too much into dialogue with NPCs, so I changed this whole Metallic Dragon council into a Fantasy Nailed It challenge where the characters had to solve room challenges/puzzles to collect ingredients to make a dragon cake. It gave them something silly to do and they enjoyed the run. Your mileage may vary. :)
I quite like your idea of getting the players to RP the dragons. Nicely engaging!
would love to see the note cards for the dragon, because that sounds awesome.