I’m a DM have been working on a campaign with the swashbuckling, lighthearted, leaping around and doing crazy stuff that only works half the time element like the Three Musketeers. Does anyone have any tips for creating this?
I like the whole idea of the evil king and the players not meaning to get in his way but still mess up his plans somehow
To be completely honest, my main advice is "don't use D&D". It's not a great fit. (I'd go for FATE, but there's going to be other perfectly good systems that I just don't know about.)
That said, if you're gonna use D&D:
Figure out some called shot/disarm/etc rules that are easy to use
Fights should be in complex environments
Be very free in letting people maneuver, jump, climb, etc. without having to roll, and even when you do require a roll, don't eat people's actions to do so
Have your opponents maneuver and use the terrain a lot
Don't let the game get too high-level
Keep the big-gun magic offstage, for both players and enemies. You know what's not swashbuckly? Fireball.
watch all the Zorro movies, and make some barriers to bust through
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About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
My big tip is make sure the players actually want to do this. What if I wanted to play a barbarian? Or a Druid?
And the second part is really hard to pull off without just railroading the players. Players are kind of conditioned to identify the BBEG and thwart them, not bumble around and accidentally muck up their plans. The first part, the swashbuckling style, you can work out at session 0 and get everyone on board. The second part, however, trying to expect the players to behave a certain way, that’s where it gets really tough.
And the second part is really hard to pull off without just railroading the players. Players are kind of conditioned to identify the BBEG and thwart them, not bumble around and accidentally muck up their plans. The first part, the swashbuckling style, you can work out at session 0 and get everyone on board. The second part, however, trying to expect the players to behave a certain way, that’s where it gets really tough.
It's not that hard as long as you're good at retroactively figuring out how whatever the players did just happens to have messed up the big bad's plans, which didn't exist until just now.
Another thought: adopt mook rules. (4e's minion rules probably work) Swashbuckling really needs bunches of flunkies that the characters can just plow through with ease.
I think this is actually very viable, if you're going for blending it with more traditional D&D concepts. If you want something that exclusively looks like a Dumas-esque swashbuckler in all respects, then yeah, maybe not D&D as such. But the premise is giving me the idea of a campaign based on the idea that nobles in a certain setting or region patronize groups of adventurer-bodyguards that fill a similar role to musketeers (or, given how player characters often wind up being profit-motivated outsiders, perhaps a "foreign mercenary-bodyguard" role like the French King's Swiss Guard, to use a musketeer-adjacent example, or the Byzantine Varangian Guard, to use a medieval one) and how they could be caught up in similar intrigues or find themselves competing with rival groups. I kind of want to run something like that now.
For the stylistic element, I think you want to particularly make good use of the inspiration mechanic, as it gives you a way to reward risky or creative maneuvers even if they don't work.
And yeah, it is true that a lot of players will assume "There's an evil king" means "Go kill the evil king right now," but the way of dealing with that depends a bit on the players' personalities and how it's presented (not every Forgotten Realms party sets off to kill Szass Tam the second they learn about Red Wizards; I think there's a natural mental separation between setting detail and immediate plot hooks, it's just a matter of making the king and his corruption feel too "distant" to be a direct target without necessarily relying on geographical distance), so I don't think it's impossible at all.
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Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
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I’m a DM have been working on a campaign with the swashbuckling, lighthearted, leaping around and doing crazy stuff that only works half the time element like the Three Musketeers. Does anyone have any tips for creating this?
I like the whole idea of the evil king and the players not meaning to get in his way but still mess up his plans somehow
To be completely honest, my main advice is "don't use D&D". It's not a great fit. (I'd go for FATE, but there's going to be other perfectly good systems that I just don't know about.)
That said, if you're gonna use D&D:
Are you familiar with the 7th Sea RPG system?
Other than that, the advice above is petty solid.
watch all the Zorro movies, and make some barriers to bust through
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
My big tip is make sure the players actually want to do this. What if I wanted to play a barbarian? Or a Druid?
And the second part is really hard to pull off without just railroading the players. Players are kind of conditioned to identify the BBEG and thwart them, not bumble around and accidentally muck up their plans. The first part, the swashbuckling style, you can work out at session 0 and get everyone on board. The second part, however, trying to expect the players to behave a certain way, that’s where it gets really tough.
It's not that hard as long as you're good at retroactively figuring out how whatever the players did just happens to have messed up the big bad's plans, which didn't exist until just now.
Another thought: adopt mook rules. (4e's minion rules probably work) Swashbuckling really needs bunches of flunkies that the characters can just plow through with ease.
I think this is actually very viable, if you're going for blending it with more traditional D&D concepts. If you want something that exclusively looks like a Dumas-esque swashbuckler in all respects, then yeah, maybe not D&D as such. But the premise is giving me the idea of a campaign based on the idea that nobles in a certain setting or region patronize groups of adventurer-bodyguards that fill a similar role to musketeers (or, given how player characters often wind up being profit-motivated outsiders, perhaps a "foreign mercenary-bodyguard" role like the French King's Swiss Guard, to use a musketeer-adjacent example, or the Byzantine Varangian Guard, to use a medieval one) and how they could be caught up in similar intrigues or find themselves competing with rival groups. I kind of want to run something like that now.
For the stylistic element, I think you want to particularly make good use of the inspiration mechanic, as it gives you a way to reward risky or creative maneuvers even if they don't work.
And yeah, it is true that a lot of players will assume "There's an evil king" means "Go kill the evil king right now," but the way of dealing with that depends a bit on the players' personalities and how it's presented (not every Forgotten Realms party sets off to kill Szass Tam the second they learn about Red Wizards; I think there's a natural mental separation between setting detail and immediate plot hooks, it's just a matter of making the king and his corruption feel too "distant" to be a direct target without necessarily relying on geographical distance), so I don't think it's impossible at all.
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral