Hey guys, I'm running Dragon Heist for a group right now. We just hit the beginning of chapter two at the end of last session, so I'm looking into the factions and their missions more now. The first set of missions seem easy to incorporate into the story; The factions reach out to different individuals in the party, and then give them missions if they choose to join the faction. What I'm struggling with at the moment is figuring out when to give out the 3rd and 4th level missions without disrupting the flow of the main story. I've fleshed out the missions for all of the factions that I intend to use so that they are more than just skill checks that we can breeze through in a few minutes. Most of the missions should take 1-3 hours depending on how combat heavy they are, so that worries me a bit more about disrupting the flow of the story, because we could get sidetracked by missions for a whole session or more.
Has anyone had success with the faction missions? How did you decide when it would be a good time for the factions to give the players new missions?
How are you introducing factions? One faction per party member or to the entire party?
We're at the same place in the campaign. Personally, I am deferring new missions plans until the players actually join the faction and complete the quests. Each faction quest would take at least a session or more likely several. It would be a while until each player's faction
However if they did decide to join. I'm thinking for mine whenever the players take advantage of their faction's perks that's when their point of contact would offer them optional quests that's of less urgency. If the players seem bored of main plot's chase or if you want to spice things up then their faction would contact them out of the blue.
I am approaching the end of Chapter 2. We have spent quite a bit of time establishing the party within Waterdeep during this chapter. I have 4 players across 3 factions, Trollskull Manor is about to have its grand opening (the owner in debt to the Zhentarrim - could only put one name on the property title), and the party still have a couple of scarecrows to clean up. I would suggest spending a bit of time with this Chapter to enable the players to establish themselves with their neighbours and such if they are keeping the Manor, especially if they all choose different factions. During this time the players will provide plenty of hooks for you to use down the track. I'm tweaking the factions missions for the later chapters in a way that provides an additional titbit of info to the party relating to the heist.
We have spent several game sessions on this chapter. I have had feedback from my party re: game progress. They are enjoying the urban environment and intrigue as opposed to the usual dungeon crawl - a nice break, something different. If your players are big on the RP, Chapter 2 gives them a good opportunity to flesh out their character.
In relation to timing, once Chapter 3 starts, activities will revolve around the time-frame you provide for the completion of quests relating to the main story. A lot of what happens in Waterdeep occurs over days, with the party splitting up often to do their own things. Faction quests don't necessarily need all the party to complete, although having more present can make things easier. Depending on how faction choices go you may find characters don't want their party members to know what they are up to. It also has the potential to exploit things like fatigue - if a character(s) stays up all night guarding a farm plot, will they be fatigued the next day if they don't take a long rest?
I was a little chaotic about my use of the missions. Each character in my party chose a different faction so I had a wide variety of options available. I did not use all of the missions available. I mostly used them to help promote character development. The bonus of getting my players additional plot information was helpful too. Because of different playing styles I found a couple of my players needed the extra time to focus on an aspect of the city that they found interesting and intriguing. Several of the missions took a lot longer than I had allotted for but my players enjoyed them greatly. And some of my more enterprising players managed to make more of the missions than was originally intended. Many of the missions that I used fit comfortably in chapter 3 and some early in chapter 4. I mostly used times when my players were stuck or at a loll. It kept the game from feeling too forced or lagging.
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Hey guys, I'm running Dragon Heist for a group right now. We just hit the beginning of chapter two at the end of last session, so I'm looking into the factions and their missions more now. The first set of missions seem easy to incorporate into the story; The factions reach out to different individuals in the party, and then give them missions if they choose to join the faction. What I'm struggling with at the moment is figuring out when to give out the 3rd and 4th level missions without disrupting the flow of the main story. I've fleshed out the missions for all of the factions that I intend to use so that they are more than just skill checks that we can breeze through in a few minutes. Most of the missions should take 1-3 hours depending on how combat heavy they are, so that worries me a bit more about disrupting the flow of the story, because we could get sidetracked by missions for a whole session or more.
Has anyone had success with the faction missions? How did you decide when it would be a good time for the factions to give the players new missions?
How are you introducing factions? One faction per party member or to the entire party?
We're at the same place in the campaign. Personally, I am deferring new missions plans until the players actually join the faction and complete the quests. Each faction quest would take at least a session or more likely several. It would be a while until each player's faction
However if they did decide to join. I'm thinking for mine whenever the players take advantage of their faction's perks that's when their point of contact would offer them optional quests that's of less urgency. If the players seem bored of main plot's chase or if you want to spice things up then their faction would contact them out of the blue.
I am approaching the end of Chapter 2. We have spent quite a bit of time establishing the party within Waterdeep during this chapter. I have 4 players across 3 factions, Trollskull Manor is about to have its grand opening (the owner in debt to the Zhentarrim - could only put one name on the property title), and the party still have a couple of scarecrows to clean up. I would suggest spending a bit of time with this Chapter to enable the players to establish themselves with their neighbours and such if they are keeping the Manor, especially if they all choose different factions. During this time the players will provide plenty of hooks for you to use down the track. I'm tweaking the factions missions for the later chapters in a way that provides an additional titbit of info to the party relating to the heist.
We have spent several game sessions on this chapter. I have had feedback from my party re: game progress. They are enjoying the urban environment and intrigue as opposed to the usual dungeon crawl - a nice break, something different. If your players are big on the RP, Chapter 2 gives them a good opportunity to flesh out their character.
In relation to timing, once Chapter 3 starts, activities will revolve around the time-frame you provide for the completion of quests relating to the main story. A lot of what happens in Waterdeep occurs over days, with the party splitting up often to do their own things. Faction quests don't necessarily need all the party to complete, although having more present can make things easier. Depending on how faction choices go you may find characters don't want their party members to know what they are up to. It also has the potential to exploit things like fatigue - if a character(s) stays up all night guarding a farm plot, will they be fatigued the next day if they don't take a long rest?
If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
Sinnikal
I was a little chaotic about my use of the missions. Each character in my party chose a different faction so I had a wide variety of options available. I did not use all of the missions available. I mostly used them to help promote character development. The bonus of getting my players additional plot information was helpful too. Because of different playing styles I found a couple of my players needed the extra time to focus on an aspect of the city that they found interesting and intriguing. Several of the missions took a lot longer than I had allotted for but my players enjoyed them greatly. And some of my more enterprising players managed to make more of the missions than was originally intended. Many of the missions that I used fit comfortably in chapter 3 and some early in chapter 4. I mostly used times when my players were stuck or at a loll. It kept the game from feeling too forced or lagging.