[Official] Poison

[Clovis]

No, only the sick will have the actual nightmare, but the others will have to feel the horror of his/her nightmare "and the real nightmare for his/her comrades looking for their lost friend - only to find said friend in a less then good condition." as written, the real nightmare of looking for a lost friend and then finding him/her in a pretty bad condition somewhere in the wild. (said friend is the one with the nightmares, that have sleepwalked somewhere out in the wild and still hallucinates)

Alright. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

I never - ever; do stereotypes. In my own fantasy world of "Profetien" (The Prophecy), I had several sessions in the beginning of the campaign were players only met the common man, experienced common problems and built relations - before the more mystical part started to come to the surface. That's one of the things that makes me like Esteren, as it builds on my view on how to portray a world

Glad to see that! Seems like you're on the right track then. Carry on!

[Ocule]

I am about to run Poison for my home group tomorrow, it was supposed to be a back up plan for our main game but it looks very likely that we will be playing this. They have been begging me to play since running Loch Varn so i think it will be a nice treat. Anyway was wondering if you had any advice, the party consists of Liam, Mor and someone who still needs to make their own character as Jearon actually died during the Loch Varn scenario.

So the party has experience from Loch Varn as well as a bunch of mental Trauma should probably give them a bit of downtime to cope with it. Needed a way to tie in those who experienced Loch Varn and maybe skipping the nightmare scene and putting something else there in its place or letting the player be aware he is having a nightmare and just describing what he sees?

I utilized the supernatural option at the end of Loch Varn as well where the Demorthen summoned two swamp creatures so two adventures that trick the players into believing a nightmare might be a bit excessive. And should I add in more bad guys to compensate for having some experience from a previous adventure? Finally, any particular preparations i should make before the game starts?

[Clovis]

If your Players have just gone through Loch Varn, I think it would be a good idea to make Poison a more toned-down scenario, where the horror will be more human and mundane. The idea would be to offer a contrast with Loch Varn by showing that threats are not only about supernatural manifestations, but also about sickness and human greed.

Therefore, my advice would be not to play the dream sequences and the attack of the mutant lizards at the end of the scenario. After all, supernatural things in Esteren should remain exceptional, and including one in every scenario you play would spoil the atmosphere, in my opinion. Instead, focus on the distress of Melwan's inhabitants, how the whole village is threatened by this mysterious poisoning, how urgent solving it is... and also how the PCs themselves are in danger from having drunk poisoned water!

The investigation in the scenario is not that hard, but if you want to give your Players a challenge, feel free to make things more difficult by removing some of the clues (the dead birds near the well, for example) or making the Reizhites particularly uncooperative.

All of this should give your Players quite a bit to chew while not overusing the supernatural card and giving some rest to their Trauma charts!

Hope that'll help! If you need more advice or have other questions, feel free to ask!

[Ocule]

Hmm i like that suggestion removing dead birds and nightsmares. Are mutant lizaeds really a supernatural thing not just a mutation from nimhail? Might replace them with a different confrontation to keep a similar lethality. I was thinking though that the dead birds were a bit too much of a giveaway

[Clovis]

Are mutant lizaeds really a supernatural thing not just a mutation from nimhail?

Well, they're supernatural in that they're clearly not something natural, or that people are used to.

Might replace them with a different confrontation to keep a similar lethality.

In that case, a fight with Talacien and his flunkies should be largely sufficient! Feel free to change the data (how many they are, their stats) as you see fit to provide a suitable challenge to your group, if you want to go for a final showdown weapons in hand.

Personally, I like to leave the group the possibility of solving things the diplomatic way, but that's up to you.

[Ocule]

Good idea thanks about to start our game ill post how it went when we finish

[Ocule]

I feel like i could have prepared more for the scenario it didnt turn out as well as I thought it would.

The scenario started out two weeks after the events of Loch Varn and we had Arven, Mor and Hale along for this trip. Hale being an original PC from one of them the other two were using premades provided. We tied him in by his village was wiped out by hilderin knights when he was younger and ended up fleeing to Melwan where he made friends with Mor. The bear took a nice chunk out of Arven but otherwise it went down pretty easily. They figured it wasnt a natural attack and they continued on to the village where the scenario was pretty unclear over what they knew before leaving Mewlan to go get herbs. Getting them invested in actually investigating anything was a bit of a chore but it was Ergor who actually got them investigating the origin of it ranting through the streets about being punished by spirits. Instead of suspecting the madman their first instinct was to think he was the only guy in the village who knew what was going on. In an effort to finish the scenario in a single session i didnt let them chase Ergons "Higher spirits" but it was after they went back to his hovel that they discovered the water was contaminated after seeing his malformed garden. They went upriver looking for its source and almost murdered the magientist Harven and the two mercenaries sent to watch over him. Fortunately they roleplayed well enough to get him to spill something and managed to piss off the bodyguards because they wouldnt leave when told to. With a bit of prompting they left back for the town to at least warn them about the source. After the town meeting was called and they were asked to track down whoever was responsible.

Oh Hale investigated the sick cattle and Arven went to go meet up with her mentor in the castle. Hale was nearly poisoned in the process eating contaminated milk the farmer offered him critical failure on his check to identify the sickness in the animal. Arven got information on the happenings with the Mac Lyr family.

At this point they stayed the night in town waiting for the sun to come up again when the heard Nealans screams. They went to investigate, more went outside to puke but Hale killed the miner as a mercy. So that was fun to narrate, i had a little girl standing in the doorway who had seen him do it and just watching him with an expressionless face. After they discovered he got sick before the lord of Melwan they remembered a stream that empties into the river and went to go see if they can find the source and possibly Talacien who they suspect to be mad.

They found the mines and all the clues inside fairly no problem where Talacien and two bodyguards cut them off after discovering the nimheil leak and they tried to resolve it diplomatically by convincing the mercenaries he was crazy but they rolled pretty low on relations so fighting began. Mor was very badly wounded and had a near death experience, Hervan took a sword for Arven trying to get Talacien to stop this madness and Hale just shot arrows at people. I replaced Nealan at the end with another guy who was infected and went berserk and ended the adventure there.

Feedback i got was one of the players felt the investigation was too slow and the scenario kind of paled in comparison to Loch Varn. Personally i think i couldve prepared a bit more to have clues on hand at this point to actually hand them and made sure they added up. The other two really liked it but found it a little slow to pick up.

As for running it the scenario is definitely the most basic of the three in prologue but i wanted to show a more mundane side to the world after Loch Varn to clean their pallet before moving on. This has been a bit hard as an introduction to the world since none of them really know much about the actual world they are in so im trying to narrate it as best as I can.

[Clovis]

I think the problem was not as much about preparation as it was what you and your Players may have expected. See, from what I can gather from your report, it seems like you wanted to go for a more mundane, mysterious, slow-paced scenario while your Players expected something very energetic and action-packed, similarly to Loch Varn, a scenario that previously thrilled them.

So this time, my advice would be to discuss it with your Players. Don't hesitate to take an hour or two (or to simply do so while having dinner, playing board games, or what-have-you) to talk with your Players and see what they'd expect from the campaign you're playing. Do they want action & adventure? Mystery & Investigation? Mystery & Horror?

Of course, you have to share what you'd like the campaign to be made of as well. This way, you can better prepare your scenarios, in particular when choosing whether or not to use such or such option in the official ones. Once you know what your Players want, you'll be able to do a much better job at not only preparing your scenarios to suit their expectations, but also anticipate how they will act through the game and thus not find yourself stumped.

Once you and your Players have decided what you want your Shadows of Esteren games to be made of, you can decide, for example, how detailed and deep their experience of the game should be. Maybe they'll feel interested about knowing the setting more closely (in which case you can spend time during the sessions introducing them to the locals of the Vale of Dearg, telling them about the history of the peninsula, introducing them to the various factions, etc.), or maybe they'll simply want a fun and thrilling experience (in which case survival-oriented scenarios with horrific encounters against Feondas would certainly be the way to go).

There you have it! I hope this will help, and that it didn't sound too patronizing!

[Ocule]

Yeah i was talking to them a bit more it was a little disheartening to hear. I try to explain the history of tri-kazel but its hard enough getting the basics out there is so much to share in the world. The other two said they really enjoyed the game so might just be that one standing out.

Apparently, the story was too predictable that a mad magientist and fossil flux was a dead giveaway from right after the enranged bear. That is lacked mystery.

Other than that i think our game would benefit from a bit more continuity since i ran these kind of episodic from each other didnt really cover what happened between adventures so might just let them get a bit more sandboxy and try to insert the adventures a bit more organically.

[Clovis]

That might be a good idea, yeah! On the other hand, maybe they want something suspenseful and thrilling but without having to take in a lot of information about the world, which would make disconnected scenarios more suitable. But hey, if they actually like the universe and its components, then go for the sandbox style; that's usually what works best for worldbuilding.