Hey all! My first time being the dm! My group is 4 of my friends, we all play various campaigns usually once a week. I’m trying to pull in one more person to DIA.
I really enjoy dming and this campaign! My players were all really shocked when they found out Elturel was ‘destroyed’ right off the bat. I was hoping that would give them a sense of urgency so we could keep content moving and things wouldn’t get stale.
Unfortunately the opposite is happening. We have had 4 sessions, each about 3-4 hours, and they are only a few rooms into the bathhouse dungeon. Part of the reason is because my friends all enjoy a certain green herb that impairs them. But the other problem is either with me, not making it seem like there are constraints, or them, being too precious with their characters (an ongoing problem).
In game it’s been 3 days since they were told to find the cultists, and Elturel was lost. At this point I think they should be moving toward candlekeep, but instead they keep leaving the dungeon to rest and wandering around the city.
I don’t want to punish them, but I do think they are getting bored- even though they have chosen what to do. I’ve had to tune back a couple of the fights because the monster/cultist has almost killed a player outright. I usually have either spare monsters run away, or if there’s supposed to be more people in the fight that haven’t been spotted I will just leave them out so that fights don’t last an hour. However there’s only one player actually trying to get combat over while the other three spent most of the time circling the edge of the bad guys range, missing with their attacks. One cleric is using a crossbow and is hiding out of sight a lot (they usually play a rogue), the other has had bad rolls. One player re rolled into a blood hunter (from a pacifist, which didn’t help move things along) and has contributed a lot more this last session. Still, most of the campaign has been hinged on the paladin.
They mentioned that I’m doing a good job but it seems slow, so I want to have the world move along without them a bit. I was thinking that someone else could find the dungeon while the party is out, finish clearing it, and get a reward. Then the PCs will get stopped/grabbed by the vanthampur hitmen who can link the PCs to the villa.
I think part of the problem is that the players really thought the game would start with them going into avernus right away. I suppose I can squish some of the Baldurs Gate content and fast track them to candlekeep, but since they are missing content they will be lower level (also part of the problem- they don’t like the first few levels because it’s sparse with abilities etc).
If anyone has any advice/suggestions I would appreciate it! thanks!
I'm not sure what purpose Baldur's actually serves in the story. Honestly, it feels like two or three different story ideas were crazy glued together by the editors who though they needed something for the 20th anniversary of the video game. My feeling is that if I ever run it, I'll probably just skip to the cool hell part ASAP. I think your guys could have just been in Elturel when it fell and started in Hell and it'd be the same thing, but here we are.
All they need to go to Candlekeep is the puzzle box and the shield. If you're that sick of Baldur's, just put both of those things in the treasury and skip the Vanthampurs. Say Mortlock stole the puzzle cube from his mom and he was bringing it to the shield which is now in d30 and has been calling him in his dreams. If you don't mind having someone else help them cleaning out the dungeon, just have Captain Zodge lend them a squad of about 10 Flaming Fist dudes. He'll keep the 200 gp he told them he'd pay them, but if the players are smart, they can still walk out with the treasury in d30 and you can just straight up jettison the dragon cultists.
Or, have the dragon cultists show up right now and tell the players that they'll help clean out the dungeon in return for getting Tiamat's hoard back. The players get the cube from Mortlock, the dragon cultists don't care about the shield because its not on their list, whatever. The players miss the treasury, but they get the 200 gp from Zodge.
Depending on whether you care about the characters of Reya and Thavius Kreeg, you can jam them in here somewhere too.
Ultimately, Liara Porter of the Fist points them towards Candlekeep, and you're back on track.
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Hey all! My first time being the dm! My group is 4 of my friends, we all play various campaigns usually once a week. I’m trying to pull in one more person to DIA.
I really enjoy dming and this campaign! My players were all really shocked when they found out Elturel was ‘destroyed’ right off the bat. I was hoping that would give them a sense of urgency so we could keep content moving and things wouldn’t get stale.
Unfortunately the opposite is happening. We have had 4 sessions, each about 3-4 hours, and they are only a few rooms into the bathhouse dungeon. Part of the reason is because my friends all enjoy a certain green herb that impairs them. But the other problem is either with me, not making it seem like there are constraints, or them, being too precious with their characters (an ongoing problem).
In game it’s been 3 days since they were told to find the cultists, and Elturel was lost. At this point I think they should be moving toward candlekeep, but instead they keep leaving the dungeon to rest and wandering around the city.
I don’t want to punish them, but I do think they are getting bored- even though they have chosen what to do. I’ve had to tune back a couple of the fights because the monster/cultist has almost killed a player outright. I usually have either spare monsters run away, or if there’s supposed to be more people in the fight that haven’t been spotted I will just leave them out so that fights don’t last an hour. However there’s only one player actually trying to get combat over while the other three spent most of the time circling the edge of the bad guys range, missing with their attacks. One cleric is using a crossbow and is hiding out of sight a lot (they usually play a rogue), the other has had bad rolls. One player re rolled into a blood hunter (from a pacifist, which didn’t help move things along) and has contributed a lot more this last session. Still, most of the campaign has been hinged on the paladin.
They mentioned that I’m doing a good job but it seems slow, so I want to have the world move along without them a bit. I was thinking that someone else could find the dungeon while the party is out, finish clearing it, and get a reward. Then the PCs will get stopped/grabbed by the vanthampur hitmen who can link the PCs to the villa.
I think part of the problem is that the players really thought the game would start with them going into avernus right away. I suppose I can squish some of the Baldurs Gate content and fast track them to candlekeep, but since they are missing content they will be lower level (also part of the problem- they don’t like the first few levels because it’s sparse with abilities etc).
If anyone has any advice/suggestions I would appreciate it! thanks!
I'm not sure what purpose Baldur's actually serves in the story. Honestly, it feels like two or three different story ideas were crazy glued together by the editors who though they needed something for the 20th anniversary of the video game. My feeling is that if I ever run it, I'll probably just skip to the cool hell part ASAP. I think your guys could have just been in Elturel when it fell and started in Hell and it'd be the same thing, but here we are.
All they need to go to Candlekeep is the puzzle box and the shield. If you're that sick of Baldur's, just put both of those things in the treasury and skip the Vanthampurs. Say Mortlock stole the puzzle cube from his mom and he was bringing it to the shield which is now in d30 and has been calling him in his dreams. If you don't mind having someone else help them cleaning out the dungeon, just have Captain Zodge lend them a squad of about 10 Flaming Fist dudes. He'll keep the 200 gp he told them he'd pay them, but if the players are smart, they can still walk out with the treasury in d30 and you can just straight up jettison the dragon cultists.
Or, have the dragon cultists show up right now and tell the players that they'll help clean out the dungeon in return for getting Tiamat's hoard back. The players get the cube from Mortlock, the dragon cultists don't care about the shield because its not on their list, whatever. The players miss the treasury, but they get the 200 gp from Zodge.
Depending on whether you care about the characters of Reya and Thavius Kreeg, you can jam them in here somewhere too.
Ultimately, Liara Porter of the Fist points them towards Candlekeep, and you're back on track.