But first, I want to (somewhat) briefly address what I mean when I talk about an intro session. Before any of the characters meet in-game, I think it's valuable to hold one-on-one sessions with each player. This accomplishes three important things. First, it gives me as the DM and the player a chance to get to know the character before they encounter the party. That means recognizing and ironing out mechanics issues that may have arisen during the custom class creation. It also gives the player a chance to try out the character build so that they have a decent grip on how to use the character before the whole group convenes. Second, a solo intro session allows the character to connect with their past. The intro session gives the character a chance to meet with their long-time friends, family, and other fixtures in their daily life. It prevents awkward moments when the player needs clarification on something basic in their own backstory when the whole player group is present, and it truly helps the players role-play more effectively. Third, it gives the player a chance to get comfortable with my style as a DM, and me a chance to gauge how they play the game. This allows us to establish a bit of a back-and-forth that makes the first group session a bit more comfortable (and easier for me to prepare for). I highly recommend solo intro sessions. While they can be a little draining and intense, the benefits are extremely worth it. Below are notes on the intro sessions, but also consider how you can use these sessions in your own games.
So now, let's meet the characters. Let's start with the character whose intro session happened first.
Elleryn Celduinya
Elleryn, or simply "Ell," is a 29-year-old half-elf. She is the group's rogue-wizard (which I first described in this post, along with the custom classes for the next two characters). Ell is an anarchist assassin with lofty political goals and a willingness to do almost anything to achieve them. How big of a target are we talking about? Ell wants to assassinate the leader of the largest organized religion in the world. Until it comes time to execute that massive plan, though, she's making a living by taking contracts where she can get them, so long as she knows they're from reliable contacts. Ell has a troubled past which I don't intend to get into here quite yet, though I will say that her vendetta against the massive, corrupt Church of Pelor is a little personal.
When Ell's player, Alex, and I sat down for our intro session, I had nothing planned. That is the goal with this campaign, after all: no pre-conceived storylines, just improvised reactions to the players' decisions. So we began in the early morning when Ell arose, read a bit, and enjoyed a light breakfast. She stopped by a bookstore, met with an old friend, and learned about some anarchist happenings in a city to the north. You can see so far that Ell is a character who lives much as many people in real life do, taking care of basic needs and small tasks. This is something I enjoy being able to DM. It characterizes who someone is without huge story-driven events derailing their life (again, a big plus for the intro session model). Things didn't stay simple for long, of course.
Ell quickly noticed that she kept seeing the same orc everywhere she went in town. At first, she altered her plans, avoiding the more criminal parts of her day until she could be confident that she'd shaken her tail. Once the orc had fallen behind, Ell went to a favorite tavern where political dissidents meet to discuss local and global strategies for changing politics. She met a new addition to the group, a dwarf with yellow eyes and no beard. He introduced himself as Fiskar, and he walked with her to a nearby inn where Ell was expecting to meet someone to discuss a potential contract.
The contact was a quiet, frightened half-elf who offered a sizable amount for the death of a man he said was threatening him. Ell agreed to meet him in a city called Feirmor to talk details and carry out the contract. Before they could part, however, the orc who had been following her all day burst into the inn. Ell fought the orc, and Fiskar joined the battle, coming to Ell's aid. Once they had dispatched the orc, Fiskar helped deal with the body in a legal way. Ell called it a night after agreeing to travel to Feirmor with Fiskar the following day.
A brief second intro session also occurred with Ell in which she and Fiskar journeyed through the dense forests of the region en route to Feirmor. They dealt with an ambush from bandits and traveled quickly along the road. They approached and passed a traveling circus just outside of the city, arriving just before the circus arrived at the gates.
Ell illustrated during every part of her sessions that she is a careful, quiet individual. She is slow to trust strangers and asks more questions than she answers (though she doesn't ask all too many questions in the first place). Ell strikes me as a very practiced assassin, someone who observes and thinks much more than they speak or act. While Ell's sessions were much slower-paced and quieter than the other intro sessions, they did something very important: they established who she is as an individual and how she chooses to operate when all of the choices are her own. These are details which can easily get lost in group sessions, and I hope that I am able to provide Ell opportunities to strike out on her own or to take charge of the group so that we can see where her quiet preparedness benefits her and the group. And now, something completely different . . .
Gerald
Gerald is a goliath whose age is unknown. He was once a human, but was kidnapped by some magical entity as a boy and imprisoned in a cave. He subsisted in that cave entirely on mushrooms with mysterious magical properties for at least a decade, and likely more. At some point during his imprisonment, he transformed into a goliath, a massive humanoid with stony skin. Gerald is our group's barbarian-sorcerer, a class which we very carefully constructed to be as chaotic as possible.
When Gerald's player, Ian, and I met for his intro session, we chose to pick up from the last moment of Gerald's imprisonment. He found himself before his strange magical captor, whom he immediately killed before bursting out of the side of a hollowed-out tree where the daemon/faerie/other fickle thing had been. Gerald looked around and sighted a stag in the middle distance. He called out to the stag, which began to glow green and speak to him. At Gerald's request, the stag directed him to "where the people are," which happened to be a nearby bandit camp. As the bandits began to rain arrows on Gerald and send armed men from their fort, Gerald received a strange vision of other goliaths, who spoke to him. This sent Gerald into his first rage. When Gerald rages, he takes on aspects of a porcupine, growing long, sharp quills from his skin. Gerald immediately lifted a boulder, threw it at the approaching bandits, and slew or frightened away two-thirds of them.
In the following battle, things became very chaotic (as is the expectation when Gerald is involved). Part of the custom class we developed for Gerald involves a custom expanded version of the Wild Surge table (which I have linked to here). To briefly explain, any time Gerald goes into rage or uses a spell, he rolls a d20, and a 1 or a 20 mean he rolls for an effect on the Wild Surge table. That's exactly what happened more or less right away. He rolled a wild surge, became instantly drunk, killed all but one of the remaining bandits, got another wild surge, grew to twice his size, and menaced the entire fort filled with bandits, who gave him a horse blanket to cover himself with, as Gerald had been naked the entire time.
Following the fearful bandits' directions, Gerald wandered to the small town of Splitaxe. There, he met a well-dressed orc who introduced himself as Tenk. Tenk offered to pay Gerald to safely transport him to a nearby city, as well as pay for Gerald to have some clothing and a weapon made in an appropriate size for him. Gerald described his encounter with the bandit fort to the townspeople, who cheered him as a hero. After a night of drinking and re-telling his story, Gerald fell asleep in a stable.
The following morning, Gerald donned his new clothing and picked up his new weapon, a massive pole with a double ax head on one end and a sharpened point on the other. (In the first group session, this weapon would be dubbed "Cleave 'n' Poke.") Gerald and Tenk made their way to Feirmor, where Tenk had business, and Gerald tried to figured out what to make of his apparent ability to use magic, his porcupine transformation, and his general place in a world he knew very little about. They arrived in Feirmor just ahead of the circus.
Gerald's first session may have been the most important to have done individually. Gerald's backstory is very unique, and everything about his character is influenced by his past. As of the first group session, Gerald had only spent a total of two full days out of his former prison. He had discovered that he is completely unlike practically everyone in many ways. He is very much a troubled child in many senses, but he grapples with problems that would bewilder any well-adjusted adult. By holding a solo session for Gerald, we were able to guide him from his old life into the new world, as well as establish how he would begin making his way in that world. I see Gerald as someone whose innate chaos is an expression of how little control he has had over his own life; he is unwilling or unable to control much of his personality because he has never had a chance to control much of anything. That will change as the campaign moves forward, and I look forward to seeing how that happens.
Desarae Malathor
Desarae, but really just "Dez," is a 22-year-old half-elf. Dez is a rogue-cleric combination, and a follower of the Silver Flame deity. She has very close ties to the royal family of Feirmor, having been more or less adopted by the king after her parents were killed by a plague. Out of gratitude for the king's generosity, Dez began eliminating threats to Feirmor's safety and to competing powers. As an assassin, accomplished a great deal under the guidance of the city's Captain of the Royal Guard. In recent times, after the same plague that killed her parents took the life of the king and spread through the city, Dez began walking the path of the cleric, trying to serve the city as a healer and protector. Dez is almost singularly interested in discovering the source of the plague and saving Feirmor.
When Dez's player, Delaney, and I sat down for her intro session, we began at sunrise. Dez tended to a series of experiments in her laboratory, where she had been trying to infect plant life with diseases to try to recreate the symptoms of the plague. After finishing her notes, Dez ventured forth into the city. She heard the sounds of a conflict and hid in the alleyway where two men argued. As the fight escalated to violence, Dez watched as one of the men killed the other. Turning her attention back to the plague, she magically faked the appearance of symptoms and approached a group of strangers. When they ran from her in fear, she decided to venture out of the city.
Using a tunnel she had built under the city's walls, Dez headed into the nearby woods and gathered various herbs before returning to the city. On her way back to the laboratory, Dez noticed the man who had killed the man in the alleyway. She followed him to a bar and waited outside, watching and listening. A strange half-elven woman clad in dull grey seemed to try to get Dez's attention, but Dez remained to watch the man she had followed. Eventually, the woman sat down next to Dez and made conversation, inviting Dez to follow her to something important. When Dez hesitated, the woman hinted that she had a strong connection to the Silver Flame. Dez followed her to a house not far from Dez's lab.
Inside, the woman illustrated through use of her power that she was herself the Silver Flame. Over the course of a long conversation, the Silver Flame asked Dez to be her champion, granted her pyrokinesis, told her about a cleric in town who was also working to fight the plague, and gave her a charm to contact the deity at any time. They also argued a good deal over what Dez's expectations of her deity was and what the Silver Flame could actually do and say. Of particular note was the fact the the Silver Flame claimed to be only a few days old, but could or would not explain why. Just outside the door to the house, Dez summoned the Silver Flame, spawning a few more playful arguments.
As Dez left, she saw the man from the alleyway yet again, and she set his cape on fire with her newfound abilities. She met with the cleric she had learned about and discussed the plague. The cleric, a gnome named Gilly, shared his belief that the plague was magical in nature and not transmittable. As evening came, Dez cast a spell of "Protection Against Evil" on a young patient afflicted with the plague and then headed home, where she practiced her fire magic and steeped a poison from some of the herbs she had gathered.
Dez's intro session was a very surprising and valuable one. I learned that Dez was very comfortable trying things without being fixated on the results, that she was willing to allow violence to happen without intervening, and that she felt no obligation not to argue with her deity. In my past experience, these are not common traits with characters, and I am excited to be playing with Dez. She is unpredictable and stubbornly independent. (In fact, it took most of the first group session to get her to agree to meet up with the rest of the party.) While Dez shares a bit in terms of experience and philosophy with Ell, I think that there is more that divides the two assassins than unites them. Having a "devil may care" character in the mix will definitely keep me on my toes, and I think it will keep the rest of the characters on their toes as well. Especially . . .
Carric Telethyr
Carric is a 80-year-old drow. He is a ranger-paladin combination (his custom class will appear along with the details of the other three in a future post), and is a disciple of the Order of the Path of Light. He has spent the last twenty years serving that order after being saved from a raid by a faction of drowish merchants from the Underdark had attacked the town of Blackleaf Falls while he was there on a visit. In the attack, he lost his parents and brother. He was saved, however by a pair of paladins from the Order of the Path of Light named Bernard and Flint. Desiring to follow these men and emulate his childhood hero Drizzt, Carric left behind his home beneath the surface and helped rebuild the town of Blackleaf Falls as a base of operations for the Order.
When Carric's player, Ross, and I sat down to play his introduction, Ross had already established a blueprint for Blackleaf Falls and the Order's structure and leaders. We began midmorning as Carric returned from a trip where he had been sent out to restore peace in a nearby town. Carric met with the Order's elders and clerics, who told him that a recent immigrant from Feirmor had arrived in Blackleaf Falls with signs of a deadly plague. Carric searched town looking for other residents who had lived in Feirmor in the past, trying to gather information about the plague. One of the people he found, a falconer named Vincent, was alarmed to hear that a plague had befallen his old home and offered to travel with Carric to Feirmor later that week.
Carric made his way to a favorite tavern for lunch and met the tavern's guest chef, a dwarf with yellow eyes and a thick moustache (but no beard). The chef, Fiskar, served Carric a series of delicious foodstuffs, several of his own design. As they talked over his lunch, Fiskar revealed that he knew about Feirmor, its royal family, and the best routes to the city. Carric then met with fellow paladins Bernard and Flint and spoke about the plague appearing in Blackleaf Falls, a disturbing discovery Flint made of "The Sea of the Dead," and Carric's daughter, Cara's plans to become a paladin herself. Carric met with the elders once more and shared his plan to travel to Feirmor to investigate the plague, which they approved. A priest of the Order had a prophetic vision as Carric passed him in the temple, telling Carric to seek two others who are fighting the plague in Feirmor and to follow the Silver Flame.
Carric got dinner that evening with Cara, Flint, and Bernard. After dinner, Carric and Cara went to the graveyard to see the grave of Elizabeth, his passed wife and Cara's mother. After they prayed there, sparks began to jump from her grave, and an animated scarecrow attacked them. Cara used fire magic, revealing that she had begun to study magic (she had asked Carric's permission to do so that night at dinner), and the two together destroyed the scarecrow. The following day, Carric traveled with Bernard to the city of Goldshrine to seek the advice of an expert diviner, Herbert Rosebud. After returning home and tending to temple chores for a few days, a courier arrived carrying Rosebud's findings. [This report became the first document which I created for this campaign, and I will share it and the importance of creating documents like it in a future post.] The report said that the spell that animated the scarecrow had come from the Underdark. The courier also bore the skull found inside of the scarecrow, but it had been transformed to bear golden filigree along the fissures in the skull. Carric left Blackleaf Falls with Vincent the falconer, and with no trouble along the roads, arrived at Feirmor's gates just behind the circus.
Carric's intro was a vital solo session. It allowed us to see the town of Blackleaf Falls, as well as how Carric interacts with his compatriots and his daughter. It also provided me an opportunity to see his prioritization when multiple things demand his attention. And looking forward from the intro session itself, I found several opportunities to connect Carric's character to the interests and allies of the other characters, and to his own past. Carric's behavior made it clear that he believes in careful consideration, service to others and his Order, and working ever onward even when loaded up with responsibilities. This showed me that Carric will persist at goals relentlessly, making him a useful part of the engine that will keep the campaign moving.
All Together, Now . . .
Taken apart, each of the four characters described above are extremely exciting to me. Each presents unique opportunities for storybuilding, roleplaying, and teamwork. The classic D&D party is composed of four complementary roles: tank, healer, striker, and expert. For most parties, that means a fighter, a cleric, a wizard/sorcerer, and a rogue. In this party, it means a ranger-paladin (Carric), a rogue-cleric (Dez), a barbarian-sorcerer (Gerald), and a rogue-wizard (Ell). But that party setup is considered for combat and skill balance.
I think that roleplaying benefits from complementary roles, too. I think that there are four roles that are necessary for well-balanced storytelling and interaction. You need a leader/anchor character who serves as the hub which the party circles. This character keeps the rest of the party focused and united (within reason, as I think divisions in a party are necessary and interesting as well). The counterpoint to the leader/anchor is the loose cannon. This character is needed to keep the party on its toes and draw in a bit of chaos for the rest. The third role is the planner, someone who keeps long-term goals in mind and who makes sure that the party stays prepared for the bigger concerns down the road. Finally, a party needs someone who is so intensely human that the fantasy of the story and the setting stay rooted in what can be felt by the players. For lack of a better term, I call this role the feeler. They're driven by what they feel and what they aspire to, and sometimes they're driven by anger or fear as much as by hope or love. Without a mixture of these roles, a game can become an exercise in hierarchical orders, railroaded storytelling, total randomness, or robotic following of what seems to be a storyline. (Comic relief is necessary too, but that can come from any, and hopefully every, role.)
I don't think that any of our four players fit one-hundred percent into the four roles I've described here. No party will have a character who is completely one of these roles to the exclusion of the others. Here's how I see our four heroes stacking up after the intro sessions and one group session:
- Ell - Planner with some feeler and anchor. Ell is thoughtful and cautious enough to fill the planner role fairly cleanly, but definitely has enough of a sentimental core to be a good feeler and steadfast enough to hold things together when things start to fall apart.
- Gerald - Feeler and loose cannon, almost in equal measure. Gerald is characterized by chaos in terms of class features (his custom class was dubbed "Chaos Caster," for Pete's sake), and he's made it clear that he'll keep things from getting too orderly. But at the character's center is a deeply hurt human who just doesn't understand why the world has treated him the way it does. It's his own emotional struggles that make him a loose cannon in the first place.
- Dez - Loose cannon and about as much planner. Dez cares deeply about her kingdom, but her actions show that most decisions are made based on what's best for her, and the effects of those decisions don't trouble her much. But as evidenced by the way she confronts the plague and the choices that only have long-term value, she thinks about the future as much as the present.
- Carric - Leader/anchor, with plenty of feeler mixed in. Carric is someone who has defined himself by his role as a paladin serving justice across the land. As such, he has become comfortable becoming the person people look to for guidance. Of course, his devotion to that role only exists because he cares about helping the helpless on a basic emotional level. He serves because he cares, and his role as a father will only add to that.
Whether or not these estimates are accurate in any way will have to be seen out over time. As more group sessions happen, we'll begin to see who these characters really are. I've never seen a character stay completely the same from beginning to end in a campaign, so I look forward to being proven wrong about any or all of these assumptions.
There's a lot in the works behind my DM screen at the moment, and I have some catching up to do as far as recording it here. Be on the lookout soon for custom class development pointers, map updates, document examples and pointers, and group session notes. There are many adventures to be had, and I plan to keep you posted on them as they unfold. Thanks for reading!
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