DM Changes for Sharn

With the party now in Sharn and ready to start the next campaign arc, I set about changing a bunch of stuff.

First, I decided to explicitly ignore most components for spells, and stuff like arrows and bolts. Originally, I had them finding dead adventurer pouches (or other caches) here and there, or giving them opportunities to buy/acquire any needed reagents… but the whole process just seemed tedious. If a player wants to track his reagents or arrows they can. If they want to limit themselves and say “they ran out of x” for RP purposes, I’m all for it. But in the average session, it seems like a waste of time to fret about the small stuff here.

Second, I decided to get rid of coins. Genre-savvy players know to loot all the things, and while patting down every corpse for valuables can be good RP fodder (“we’re brigands now!”), the process just seemed tedious. So, they aren’t financial planners… but they are seasoned adventurers, so it seemed like a decent enough arrangement to have some vague financial stability. They have enough from their previous adventures to cover basic costs (food, arms), and enjoy the rest. The door remains open for financial hardship adventure hooks, but penny-pinching and just-scraping-by aren’t the norm.

Third, I’m revamping loot. The change and thought process deserves an expanded post later, but for now, I’ve decided to work up a list of a few items/consumables for each character, and keep them on hand. If the party does something interesting and the loot is appropriate, they get some pre-picked loot (got a great example of this coming up in a few sessions).

Fourth, I decided to introduce elements of another RP system into the campaign. The system is called Gumshoe, and can be found in “Trail of Cthulhu” RP game. Essentially, this system aims to improve investigative experiences for RPGs. Instead of making players roll dice when a potential clue is encountered (leading to the possibility of missed clues due to poor dice rolling), the system just gives the players the clue, provided the PCs have relevant skills to suss out in game. If the party doesn’t have the skills, they may not get the clue, or get a distorted version of it. Thus, the game’s focus and tension shifts from acquiring clues to interpreting them. Very cool.

Introducing Gumshoe elements is a bit of a big deal for the arc. Sharn is rife with intrigue, and the aims of the system should fit well in the world. I decided to adopt the spirit of the system in two ways:

·         Essentially, adopting the system as intended. Should the players wish to investigate an area, their skill proficiencies come into play. If investigating a murder scene, for example, proficiency in Survival would give them better clues (if there was a struggle, possible murder weapon, etc).

·         Taking the idea of proficiencies and areas of expertise and using it to tie the players to Sharn.

The second bullet point needs a little more explanation. Basically in game, the party arrived in Sharn, and instead of dealing day-to-day, we’re sticking a week or so of elapsed game time in between sessions. So, each member has some down time, and gets to explore the vast, complex city on their own a bit. I gave them each a few areas, persons and/or organizations (I provided the players with a summary sheet, but encouraged them to utilize the wiki or ask for more info). When the party would encounter these areas, persons or organizations, the relevant party member could speak up and educate the rest of the party a little bit. Week to week they might learn something new, or get a tip from an associate leading to some new adventure or add a facet to an upcoming one.

As DM, I still needed to do most all of the grunt work to incorporate the second bullet point. Things need to be summarized a little and then disseminated, but in-game, it has been a nifty way to get players to “own” some section of knowledge and educate the rest of the party (more-or-less) in character.

So, those are the big changes I looked to make kicking off the new arc. I’ve got cool things planned for Sharn, and a handful more session recaps to catch up on before we get caught up to the current sessions.