Comfy D&D Campaign

Your last scenario is beyond train conductory, and any player would deroad it quick.
The problem with them being kids is they have to either level slow or they will out pace the tiwn gaurd captain and local priests very rappidly.
Any player would then take this as a chance to take over....at 19 or 20.
Or the town starts being attacked by dragons instead of bugabears

I think I prefer the guard tower.
To my mind, a lot of the comfiness comes from the isolation.

If you're in the village more it's a little two slice of life, inteadvof cozy seclusion. It's like a cabin in the woods, but a bitching ass guard tower.

Hey, it's someone else who loved that thread. I'll take it.

Any thoughts for this one?

> back to the things from that thread.

>One morning a dense fog bank rolls in over the hills and valleys, covering the countryside around the Watchtower in an impenetrable blank whiteness as far as the eye can see in every direction. Everything is calm. Everything is silent. It's almost peaceful, in an unsettling sort of way. At least it was, until the PCs start catching glimpses of titanic shapes and shadows swimming through the fog.

>On one particularly fine day, a large party of High Elves with all their riches and their finery makes its way over the hill and stops at the Watchtower. As it seems, the group has been on tour, taking in the natural wonders of the frontier, and has decided that the PCs' tower and bluff would make the perfect place for a picnic lunch. The PCs are, of course, welcome to partake.

>The daughter of a farmer from the nearby hamlet has been stopping by the Watchtower every other day to bring the Watchers fresh produce and dairy products, along with some conversation and companionship. After a few visits it becomes apparent to the PCs that she and the NPC Watcher would make a perfect couple and they decide to help make this happen.

>After the PCsaccidentally disturb a small, ancient shrine along the roadside, the Watchtower falls under a very weak but very petulant local goddess' curse and is plagued with bad luck.

This last one is one of my favorites. I'd make it some kind of Faerie shrine in the woods, which they have to find again and make amends.

I think that the premise is that advancement is a rare, if ever sorry if thing. It's meant to be a cozy local game not a power fantasy.

I think you've got to establish with the players that it isn't that sort of game from the outset.

> any player would deroad it quick

I appreciate the danger, and I don't force the players into anything. I know there's no way to really emphasize this online, but that's the kind of thing I'm good at. I have a subtle hand with narrative.

I'm not so good at tactics and stat blocks. I'm definitely a narrativist DM. But... it's something I'm really good at.

> They either have to level slow

Yeah, I'm going with Milestone leveling. I'm going to have the captain of their militia unit, an NPC ranger that's kind of leading them, take ill and either die or be saved by them, but be no longer fit for service. One of them steps forward as the leader, now, and they report to a higher station, with a little bit more dangerous stuff.

After which point, I'll probably have the belligerence between the nations go hot, and have the militia units called up as regular army, with these guys forming part of a scout regiment. Then RP the war for a while, then see where the players want to go.

The connection to the place, I think, means that when the war comes up, the players will give more of a shit.

> Any player would take this...

I try not to play with that kind of player. I've been doing good at it for 15 years of DMing.

Again. Narrativist.

> Or the town starts being attacked by dragons instead of bugabears

Definitely an option. I don't really think about the town being attacked as part of it, though. See above RE: war.

>Any thoughts for this one?
I posted my ideas here:I think the isolation makes the occasional social interaction the players get with NPCs more poignant. I do like the idea if some, or all the players being locals.

Yeah. I get you. I like the idea of the watchtower too, but to be honest, I'd rather play in that campaign than run it. It takes a great table to long-term play that kind of thing.

That's part of why I'm considering , with the watchtower being a rotational thing that they still are doing. That way they get a regular attempt at it, but aren't locked in. "Comfy vacation tower" instead of "Comfy cabin life."

>The PCs hear a beautiful but lonesome voice singing in the forest.
>The storm of the century rolls in, forcing the PCs to secure their tower.
>A necromancer has set up camp in a small graveyard just down the hill.
>A troupe of traveling acrobats performs for the PCs pocket money.
>Something keeps knocking on the door to the tower before vanishing.
>A map to bandit treasure is found in the journal of a former guardsman.
>Once a year a ghostly army marches along the road past the tower.
>A local farmer's daughter is lost in the woods and must be searched for.
>One night, the lights in town all go dark, as do the moon and stars after.
>The wandering peddler's face matches one on an old wanted poster.
>Something large and lumbering is making its way down the valley.
>A group of pilgrims accidentally leave a satchel of hilariously bawdy letters.
>A small dragon decides to make its new nest up in the tower's lookout.
>The PCs must arbitrate a dispute over a minor wagon accident.
>A chest full of old, exotic potions is discovered in the tower's basement.
>The PCs hold an impromptu archery competition.

>>A necromancer has set up camp in a small graveyard just down the hill.

He wants to be a necromancer, thinks he's got what it takes, but he's going through the wizard equivalent of an emo phase.

I think the more mundane most of this is, the better.

>One of the villagers gets pregnant and blames it on which ever PC seems most likely. Not many people believe her since they're so far away but her da' and brothers still come by to try and force the accused into a marriage.

>A local woman shows up at the tower in a panic because she found out her husband, a local and well-regarded farmer, is a werewolf. She has him locked up but doesn't know what to do. The full moon is only a few days away and the guards have to gather up enough silver to make a silvered weapon and kill him.

>The village headman shows up in rags and malnourished. He tells the guards that he was kidnapped and was left for dead in the wilds four months ago which is right when the village headman started acting weird! The current 'village headman' is a doppleganger and killed the real village headman. The other 'village headman' is also a doppleganger who found out about the ongoing scam and decided to steal it.

>The local fey show up and need an impartial third party to settle a dispute between two different factions. The dispute is something incredibly mundane and petty (something like who stole who's acorns) but is deadly serious to the fey.

>The PCs find a small box of valuables dropped down the tower well long ago.

>A young Druidess and a dryad in a wheelbarrow of dirt pass by on their travels.

>Spring has come and with it, the PCs are expected to clean the tower from top to bottom.

>The wild hunt has come to the high hills, trapping the PCs inside till dawn.

>A new NPC is assigned to the tower and the PCs must show them the ropes.

>The sad elven ghost in the watcher's armor on the tower's third floor will not leave.

>A small rockslide blocks part of the road and needs to be cleared quickly.

I know this is against the current vibe of the thread, but I really enjoyed the original thread's idea of comfy with little vibes of creepy here and there.

Especially the one where the PCs play host to a bunch of villagers, including rowdy children, who are helping to decorate for a holiday.

After the holiday is done, they find increasingly suspect "gifts" left by the children. Coins, small figurines, dolls with human hair, animal eyes, maybe even culminating in a human eye.

Another idea a friend of mine had in discussion of this was the possibility of a heavy storm passes by. Either a group of travelers, or maybe a group of villagers, take shelter in the sturdy watchtower. These may include eccentrics like a gnome who speaks only in riddles, a ranger and a sleeping girl who the ranger won't let anybody touch, and a band of peaceful, musical gnolls.

Hell, I like creepy. Subtle creepy. I'm from a small southern town, and anyone who's been outside on a hot summer knight understands where ghost stories come from.

Here's one of the ones I really liked from the old thread.

>A local mother reports to you that her daughter has gone missing and nobody can find her. That night you find her hidden away within your tower. When questioned as to why she fled, she claims she found her parents bodies in their well.

Are you running this online, OP? I want in.

>they have to find it again
Add on to that, it's a Lost Woods kinda thing with this faerie shrine. If you're actively searching for it it'll move at random to different locations in the woods and you'll never find it. It can only be found by either combing the whole forest or at random.

In person, sadly, unless you're local to the Aurora, CO area.

>>A new ordinance demanding that you take a sample of consumables that pass through the area happens to come during the annual pie fair.

>>A local barkeep who has been good to you stops by and informs you that he'll waive your entire outstanding tab if you absolutely, positively do not let a particular man head into town. The man in question rides in the following morning, claiming to be hunting a dangerous fugitive.

>A stone golem wanders by, seeking purpose in its life after the death of its master.

>The daughter of the village baker wants to set up a snack stand at the base of the tower.

>A group of suspiciously giggly Druids offer the PCs a gift of some peculiar incense.

>A big faire has come to the valley town, bringing an unusual amount of traffic on the road.

>Waking up one morning, the PCs discover the tower and everything inside to be mirrored.

>A heavy grindstone breaks loose from its wagon and rolls downhill, causing destruction.

>Passersby report seeing black straw voodoo dolls nailed to trees along the roadside.

>The NPC guardsman tries to learn how to play the lute but does not have much success.

>The PCs begin receiving letters in which minor explosive runes have been hidden.

>One of the villagers gets pregnant and blames it on which ever PC seems most likely.

Or Least likely. If available, one of the girls.

Or if certain conditions are met - say, they were drunk but sobering when they found it the first time, so they have to be drunk but sobering the second time too.

I think even played straight it would be fine. Caught early enough not to be a huge danger, but still a fairly thrilling combat encounter to be used to spice things up.

So, I'd like to posit the idea of daily tasks the Watchers need to have done alongside whatever is happening that day. Sometimes they can coincide, or sometimes they might be in conflict.

For example, they might have a patrol route, and rumors of some happenings might be along that patrol route. Or maybe there's heavy snowfall preventing one of their usual paths, but it opens up the ability to cross over a frozen river as a work-around.

I'm not sure what these daily tasks could be.
>Patrol route
>Touch base with the village
And some others?

>>A necromancer has set up camp in a small graveyard just down the hill.
>He's a very weak necromancer who kind of just wants to get along using undead as slaves, and the PCs and villagers don't have a problem with this, but because his undead are somewhat unruly the PCs have to kick him out and tell him to go elsewhere.
>>Once a year a ghostly army marches along the road past the tower.
>This begins shortly after the necromancer leaves-- he'd tried to raise some former soldiers who died at war but thought he'd failed. Turned out it just took some time and they woke up after he left.
>Without a purpose, they return to their border patrol.
>At first the PCs are mortified of the annual skeleton patrol, but it turns out without masters they've reverted to their living personalities, and are actually very friendly! They also reminisce about the village, having lived there in life.
>They become a welcomed event, with a festival thrown for them. They always give the blacksmith plenty of business with the gold they take off of bandits and small-time monsters they encounter along the border, and the town's economy grows for it. The blacksmith even manages to start up a caravan to move his goods to neighboring villages further down along the border.

Damn. If you want to run it online I can find a party. It'll be a blast.

I have an NPC from another game I might bring in for the "actual threat" mechanic. He's a would-be alchemist and researcher, who's trying to "build the better mousetrap." His experiments, get rich quick schemes, and projects, all failed, were the problems the low-level party were running in to - first, by trying to invent spam fliers (he translated the draconian poorly for the Dragon's Hoard Inn, which lead to a group of kobolds thinking it was an actual dragon's hoard, and laying siege to it), then by enchanting tools to do workers' work for them (an entire village of sentient tools attacking people. Blacksmith's hammer going after the dents in armor while people are still wearing it, brooms attacking travellers on the road because they're dusty, etc., etc.), and most recently by not controlling his experiment waste (an alchemical glue he was trying to develop leaked into the water supply and started fucking with some wildlife).

I might just bring him in. I like the idea of a big bad that actually isn't trying to do anyone any harm at all - he's just incompetent a what he tries to do, with far more ability than sense to use it.

That does sound fun.

>he makes up for it by moving his alchemy shop into town, which attracts adventurers and allows him to make curing potions for sick villagers, which he gladly does for free because he feels so bad about his damage

Patrol routes are good. They might actually be tasked with maintaining the roads.

It also gives a great reason for PC or NPC guards to be absent.

I could see the final confrontation being trying to talk him out of a colossally stupid idea he's come up with. And dealing with the aftermath of they fail.

Definitely one possible solution. He also might get partnered with an older businessman, someone with the sense to apply what he can do in the right way. The glue failed because he was trying to bind two things together and get the best properties of both - Silk, as strong as steel. What he didn't understand was things like tensile strength, and what he got instead was floppy steel.

He just thought of that as a failure, when instead, flexible steel that's still just as strong is a miracle material - it's a fire blanket, or a protective coating, or a way to line a pit that's waterproof.

Likewise, the spam fliers - literally, FLYers, which would seek out people - with a little tweaking are a great way to send messages without a courier. He starts a business delivering mail locally... but only when the weather looks good, because they can't fly in the rain.

The tools - he just needs to focus the enchantment down, or sell them as prank items to give to someone (once the more lethal ones are excluded). Likewise, a shield that blocks any arrow is a wonderful thing for someone who's not trying to shoot arrows themselves.

...

>He has a young son who becomes a wannabe villain using his failures-- a cape of silken steel, a stack of spam fliers which will stick to and eventually constrain their target, a hammer that will naturally fly to and hammer away at anything metal. Turns out, though, he doesn't actually want to kill anyone, just hurt them for giggles, and he goes down in one punch.

>but only when the weather looks good, because they can't fly in the rain.
Does anyone else feel like it should be raining almost constantly?

I like it. Like a professor chaos type villian.

Heh. There's a thought. Though to be fair, that steel cloak would probably be heavy af.

I do like the idea of someone using all of those "failures" though. Might be how you get the two of them together to start a half-decent business.

Definitely.

Or rather, it's always raining SOMEWHERE. So your message has to be timed to go out in the right direction on the right day.

To maybe focus the conversation.

1) What are specific hooks you might use for the standard guard duty missions? How do you avoid it just being BANDITS BANDITS BANDITS!

2) What about the exploration ones? How do you deal with the fact that it's the local woods, and most things probably aren't too mysterious out there? There's probably not five or ten centers of power out in the woods around the same small town, so that could get old fast.

3) And how about the small town drama - I feel like it'd be super easy to go too heavy or too light on this. What are some examples from your town / family of feuds, drama, and nonsense?

I really like the watchtower idea, because it can be it's own mystery. And as the players add stuff to it, (objects structures NPCs) it feels more and now homey

I was mostly thinking that rain is cozy. You're either inside being warm and dry, or your hurrying home to put you feet up by the fire.

I like the idea of them finding a watchtower in the woods - old and ramshackle - and turning it into their own little fort by rebuilding it.

That way they've got the tower they HAVE to man when they're on rotation, and their own little base of operations.

To answer 3

If this fantasy world is anything like being an EMT or volunteer firefighter in a small town, then a good three-quarters of the problems should be caused by kids being Little Shits.

There's a fire out on the Willson's farm... because some shitty kids were smoking pot in a hay loft and didn't think that it was THAT flammable.

There's a kid at the bottom of a ravine with a broken leg - because his shitty friends dared him to jump it.

Somebody's garden is cursed! ... no, just some shitty kid who doesn't want to take the trash out has been putting it in miss O'Donnelly's compost bin because it's closer, and she can't see good enough to notice.

I was thinking more of: there's a watch tower in the woods that hasn't been used in decades. The king has ordered all watch towers be manned.

Get out there and man it.

Yeah. I get the appeal of the watchtower campaigns, and I want to incorporate some of that here. I just... I definitely want the other stuff - exploration of the countryside, dealing with fights on the roads, small town drama - and it feels like if you always have to be back to the watchtower, it cuts that out.

Given those parameters - that those three mission types given in the OP are to be kept - would it be better to give them a watchtower they go to on a rotating basis with other militia members, or to have them discover a watchtower in the woods, which they can claim as their own in addition to the weekly service, or to have them JUST be tasked with rebuilding the garrison in the woods, and just have it usually be manned by NPCs on the tower itself?

I'm going to post some utter bullshit so feel free to dismiss as you deem appropriate, but what I'd do is set up the campaign as cozy first to invoke attachment to the village, then slowly build up a threat to said cozyness. You're have in essence already done this: an (independent?) village between two unfriendly principalities, it's only a matter of time until shit hits the fan. To emphasize things even further, I'd put this village on a strategic chokepoint. Maybe it's right in the middle of the most passable valley in a huge mountain range. Sure, the two principalities can go to war in other passes or even outside of that mountain range (and have done so) but it's only a matter of time before someone breaks the village's neutrality.

Start out with a few quirky but meaningless missions that have no real stakes but are character-driven. For example, guard duty could involve such things as a lover's quarrel gone bad which ends with the couple not only embracing eachother once again, but agreeing to seal the deal with a humble wedding. Or maybe there's a small group of giants dwelling outside of the city everyone's afraid of, but they've only gathered in such large numbers because they're curious about the local innkeeper's famous handbrewed beer, which they eventually end up buying (or trading?) by the barrel. Or maybe you end up investigating the new family and it turns out that the father has always been proud of his clever son, even if he never really knew how to express it. Nothing is wrong, everything is fine and every conflict is an easily dispelled illussion.

And then humanity got a grim reminder when the fire nation suddenly and deliberately attacked the peaceful nation of Gallia on a day which will live on in infamy... or something. Anyway, things can't always be peaches and cream, but you can easily set up something worth protecting. A lot of anime and jRPGs do this: every generic hero comes from the coziest fucking village you can imagine.

Definitely the vibe I'm going for. I was actually considering, instead of the village being threatened, the players getting called away to the war - they're going through hell, but at least they know their home is safe.

... then they get the orders. Their unit has been re-deployed south, to the pass just outside of their home.

Earlier in the thread I suggested that they could, in the borderlands, meet their opposite number - militiamen who are guarding the other side just as they are. They could build up some human ties to them, interact with them at first in a distant way, and then eventually trading or smuggling things to each other - the beer made on this side is world-renowned, but the cheese on that side is to die for, how about a trade...?

Then, when the war comes home, they know for a fact that people they know are on the other side.

Quick note, though, the village was never intended as independent - just existing along the fuzzy border of two nations that only care about that region in wartime. They're all citizens of one side.

I think you might be leaning a bit too hard on NPCs, here. You might want to plot the situation out in such a way that the PCs are in the spotlight.

The blacksmith's son is a PC, for what it's worth.

I can't post now, but I wanted to say that I'm very much in-favor of this sort of game, and will try to contribute once I'm at liberty to do so.

And all of that is given as an example of the kind of stuff I want to do to the characters - that would be the "Blacksmith's Son in the Spotlight" episode near the start.

I can get them there, or close, with any of the characters in similar ways.

I honestly really like this idea. Over the course of the game you slowly pick up allies and have to try and rally people against a threat.

Like the Giants mentioned, or the ghost army, or the lonely golem.

Different strokes I guess.

There's no reason I see for the garrison of the tower to be given tasks like exploring the surrounding country side.

Right. Which is why I was moving away from this group being the garrison of a tower - I want them to be able to roam out and be free a bit, to make sure there's a bit of everything for everyone at the table.

That's why I like (best) either the idea of there being some sort of structure in the woods which they claim as their own, and build up, and/or them doing a rotating duty at a small regional garrison/tower, along with other levies from the surrounding villages.

I love the tower isolation setting, but I'm trying to do something a little bit different, hence the new thread. I'm hoping for this to be a once-a-week campaign for the next few years.

As someone mentioned prior, you should go the JRPG route. Have 3 or some simple missions, but focus more on setting and then boom plot device

>1.Bandits!

>2.Necromancer in the woods or town. Either not taking the kids seriously, or just comically bad. Shouldn't be a tough fight

>3.Some slice of life drama in town, you mentioned a few all ready.

Then BAM they either get drafted or the town is under attack, the kids need to prove themselves

Gonna do this, but on a longer timescale. I want the town to feel like the real world, not the tutorial.

So... I'm thinking, level 3, their boss dies, and one of them steps up as leader. Level 6, war breaks out, they're drafted. 8 or 9 they get sent back towards home, war ends in the not too distant future, and their veterans without jobs.

I don't think that's really necessary. If it's more of a slice of life game, it can stay that way. The only problem you'd run into is system-based power creep, which is why running this on DnD is a bad idea, imo.

I think it makes sense to run something where the goal is to keep things small and relatable

Oh man and the town has moved on without them and they have to find their places once again.

OP please make threads with updates on this game, I want to live vicariously through you.

They went away, and came back to a different town. Some old timers who blame them on behalf of all soldiers for the problems, the trade disruptions. A young sweetheart who found someone else in the meantime, a parent dead, a childhood home sold or demolished or rebuilt. A jackass bully now in a position of power.

Yeah. You can't go home.

so what are you going to do when your humble militia men are 5th level and can solo most local type threats with ease?
are you going to allow casters? kind of hard to be a humble militia man when you can bend reality by teleporting, turning invisible, flying, and mind controlling.
PC classes are leaders and officers and special forces, they are heroes. Not watchmen.
You should look into a gritter, low poerwed system , like Warhammer Fantasy RPG. That's more what you are looking for, just remove the edgy gross Chaos stuff and use more traditional bestiary.

As already dealt with in the thread, these guys are by level five or six off fighting in a war, and probably becoming heroes and leaders and officers and special forces. I believe the Scouting Regiment was already mentioned as where they'll go.

They'll be doing special forces shit in dangerous territory by that point.

And who said anything about humble?

I'll admit, I'd prefer Cortex, but yeah. D&D isn't built for anything but fantasy adventures, which is why we've already talked about the way they're going to be on fantasy adventures.

D&D has name recognition that other brands don't, and 5e has a minuscule barrier to entry for non-players. A bunch of my players aren't veterans at tabletop.

We have one caster, a bard. No clerics, sorcerers, or wizards. Bard is a powerful class, don't get me wrong, but a suitable level of magic for a community to have access to before 6th level. Probably one or two other casters in the town.

Just saying. I get what you're saying based on OP, but we've already addressed all of this.

Those are good boys.

I'd personally run something like this using Beyond The Wall.

>humble militia men are 5th level and can solo most local type threats with ease?
You know as a gm, you can control how fast player characters gain experience right?

And he already said hes doing milestone levelling

Continuing the things from the tower thread.

Anonymous 09/29/16(Thu)16:31:09 No.49567106
>A damaged caravan stops in a field near the tower, you can see a dwarf mechanic and a sorcerer making repairs to many of the wagons. They send a small group to the tower, they claim that they were ambushed by -insert humanoid race here- and are being followed. They request the PCs assistance in protecting them from the ambushers. A sleek elf who is escorting the caravan claims that the ambushers will likely arrive in a day and a half.

>A group of adventurer's would like to trade some of their food for a few of your weapons. Ordinarily you'd decline since these are state issued weapons and bad things would happen if they turned up missing, however your latest supply shipment hasn't arrived. So you must decide whether to trade some weapons for precious food, but risk the kingdom finding out. Or decline the trade and find an alternative food source.

>While most of your crew is visiting the nearby town, someone you recognise as loyalty has recently passed by your tower. You would report this, however an unnaturally dense fog keeps you from communicating to other towers, and by law you are not allowed to leave the tower unoccupied.

>You find a crate of preserved jellies hidden underneath the floor boards.
Every jelly is unique, and many have odd labels.

>While searching the tower you find a letter addressed to yourself, it's written in your own handwriting. Yet you have no memory of writing it. Most of the letter is faded except for a few unimportant words.

>Two farmers approach the guards for help in settling a bet
>One says that armor is too heavy to run in because you'd get hot and give up, the other one insists that he saw part of a battle once and the fellows in suits were as nimble as you could see
>They ask to borrow a suit of armor from the guards' armory and help one of them try it on, so they can see who will win in a race

On that last one.

>it was a ruse to steal the armor, and you just fell for it. Better go catch them, find whoever they sell the armor to, or get enough money to buy a new one before the armorer comes by and finds out you lost it!