Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

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Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by Augur »

Okay, so I'm a veteran GM, extremely conversant with the Palladium system, and own/have read all the PFRPG books.

Here's my problem: I've been in the world maybe a half-dozen times (always as a player, and usually under Kevin, at that!), but am facing the very real possibility of GMing an extended campaign based out of Llorn (kind of like a "home base" for the party) for a group of 4-8 players.

Ideas for campaigns/adventures? The setting, despite all my reading of it, is effectively virgin territory to me, so any constructive feedback or ideas would be a great help.
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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by jaymz »

Well there is always the old stand by of there is a conspiracy against the local throne and the players are the ones tasked with finding out who is behind it and to thwart the various attempts on the throne itself...
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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by Lukterran »

Having the players motivated and having fun is really the hardest part. Keep encounters challenging and rewards well earned. You have to balanace power level with not being a scrooge with the rewards.

Try and include some of the players history into the storyline is always a good way to get them motivated.

If you are looking for fleshed out adventures there aren't too many of those for PF. I have used adventures from other game systems and adapted them to Palladium in the past.

However, there is a lot of resources online for fantasy roleplaying adventure ideas. Like this list of 99:

1. A young child begins to manifest mage powers and is causing havoc.
2. A couple forbidden to be together runs off to a dangerous ruin.
3. The heroes must protect a noble from an assassin.
4. A tinkerer is selling dangerous arcane artifacts to unsuspecting buyers.
5. The popular new parties thrown by a noble are attracting the wrong type of attention.
6. A Blood Mage cult is abducting people to use for blood magic sacrifices.
7. Strange lights and sounds come from an old elven ruin.
8. A dying miner claims to have found a mother lode of lyreum.
9. A cursed item passes from hand to hand, corrupting those it touches.
10. A demon possesses a living person to fulfill an ancient obligation made with a person no longer alive.
11. Envoys are assigned to escort visiting ambassadors or representatives from nearby Banns.
12. A friend of the heroes asks for help in settling a duel of honor.
13.A respected noble is accused of serious crimes; is it a frame-up?
14.The body of a respected Avvar or Chasind chief must be escorted to his homelands in honor.
15.Intrigue abounds at a seasonal festival.
16.An encounter with an ancient arcane item alters the heroes in some way until they can find a cure.
17.The heroes dream about a previous Age. Are they reliving past lives?
18.There are rumors of a Tevinter Magister still existing as a spectre.
19.A mysterious killer stalks the nighttime streets of a city.
20.Two port towns dispute over the ownership of a sunken vessel.
21.The 'secret ingredient' of a fad food comes from the Korcari Wilds.
22.A child or family is lost in the wilderness and is in need of rescue.
23.Two embattled Teyrns are planning secret raids on a dwarven shipment of gold to the King.
24.Darkspawn are gathering, but why?
25.An ancient dwarven gate opens and disgorges darkspawn or other creatures.
26.A new prophet rises up in Orlais, sensing the threat of a Blight growing in Ferelden.
27.The Dalish call for aid against the werewolves invading their hunting grounds.
28.Blight wolves and blight bears emerge from the wilderness to attack outlying towns.
29.A young man begs the heroes to help stop a wedding because he is in love with the bride.
30.Thieves steal the royal seal from the palace.
31.Strangely intelligent darkspawn begin organizing into a mercenary company, working for the highest bidder.
32.Pirates attack merchant vessels along the coast.
33.A map to a lost artifact falls into the heroes' hands.
34.Apostates organize into a coven and begin sowing dissent and misery in outlying farms and villages.
35.A demon preys on dreams, twisting them into nightmares.
36.A lost storehouse of ancient lore is guarded by possessed corpses.
37.A terrible storm wracks the coast and islands. Locals believe it to be magical.
38. Chasind barbarians, led by an apostate mage, raid coastal settlements.
39.A wronged noble needs a champion to fight in a duel of honor.
40.A child missing for years is seen running through the woods late one night.
41.A quake in the Korcari Wilds reveals the ancient ruins of a Tevinter Mage's stronghold.
42.The Chantry asks the heroes to aid in smuggling missionaries out of the Korcari Wilds or Avvar Tribal Lands.
43.The heroes must guard a carvan through dangerous territory.
44.The Chantry threatens to execute a well-known friend, claiming that he or she is an apostate.
45.Accusations of corruption mar a deceased noble's memorial service.
46.Animals mysteriously attack the local chantry, driven by an ancient artifact kept among its relics.
47.A harsh winter leads to conflict between the Dalish and Chasind tribes.
48.Everyone in an isolated village has disappeared without a trace.
49.A fellen and dying hero seeks aid in achieving a measure of redemption and peace.
50.A daring thief steals from the wealthiest people of a city.
51.The planned site of a new settlement is plagued by darkspawn or worse.
52.Fereldans and a tribal community (Avvar, Dalish, or Chasind) dispute the clearing of some forest land.
53.Members of a powerful Tevinter or Dwarven merchant's family are targeted for assassination.
54.The king of Ferelden must move the court to a distant city for a time.
55.The heroes are assigned as the escort of a troublesome noble.
56.Miners in the mountains uncover a lost Thaig.
57.Qunari raiders strike at outlying farms and villages, taking people to sell as slaves.
58.An apostate begins working with demon possessed corpses in the Korcari Wilds.
59.A Blood Mage cult hunts rare creatures to obtain strange arcane powers.
60.Rumors arise of a corrupt gryphon in the Brecilian forest.
61.The politics of the Circle Tower spill out into the most recent Landsmeet. Circle Mages demand appropriate representation.
62.A follower of Andraste begins to whip up fervor against all magic, calling for an Exalted March to destroy the Circle Tower and more.
63.An ancient dwarven golem is accidentally awakened.
64.A region of the kingdom is struck by plague. The cure lies in distant lands.
65.A young mage begins having visions of the future, which to date have always come true!
66.The Orlesians plan another invasion of Ferelden.
67.Foreign agents kidnap a noble's child to force cooperation.
68.A seemingly idyllic village is a front for a potent Blood Mage, who enforces peace and justice through magic.
69.The barbarian and tribal peoples of Ferelden contemplate war.
70.Relics are stolen from a chantry.
71.A Blood Mage or Apostate uses magic to grant unearthly beauty to any willing to pay for it.
72.Mabari kennels are plagued by attacks from horrible creatures normally found in the Deep Roads.
73.The son or daughter of a visiting foreign dignitary falls in love with a young knight in Denerim.
74.The heirs of two feuding noble families wish to marry despite their families' wishes.
75.A noble is poisoned in an assassination attempt, and the heroes must rush to find a cure in time.
76.The heroes must enter the Fade to overcome a powerful demon's curse.
77.Mages throughout the realm dream of someone calling for help from a distant land.
78.A town suffering a blight claims they were cursed by the Dalish.
79.A fire tears through a forest sacred to the Dalish (or other tribal community).
80.A young city elf runs off to join the Dalish, but her parents insist she returns.
81.The heroes awaken the morning after a seasonal festival with no memory of the previous three days.
82.A mysterious performer, the toast of the theater, may be an Orlesian or Tevinter spy.
83.A rejected squire seeks to prove himself worthy of knighthood.
84.A contact claims to have information, then turns up dead.
85.All of the children of a small community are altered or disappeared by darkspawn magic.
86.A fiery Fereldan Noble agitates for a preemptive war against the Orlesian Empire to overthrow the usurper and liberate the people.
87.A scholar asks for aid in exploring ancient ruins.
88.A noblewoman's journal or love letters fall into the wrong hands.
89.The heroes are asked to help break off an adulterous affair without the wronged spouse finding out.
90.A few chantries in Ferelden have fallen under the sway of the Orlesian Chantry, attracting radical power-seekers.
91.Avvar or Chasind raiders attack Fereldan settlers who inadvertently trespassed onto sacred ground.
92.An intelligent darkspawn offers to establish a non-agression treaty on behalf of the Archdemon.
93.A noble attempts a coup to become king of Ferelden.
94.A girl in Orlais can perform miracles without magic, and receives visions from Andraste, or so it seems.
95.A group of city elves want a settlement entirely in their hands.
96.A group of werewolves claim they want to settle peacefully in a Fereldan forest.
97.A ghost ship, captained by a shade, preys on vessels in the Amaranthine Ocean. (This could be changed to a pirate ship.)
98.A noble widow receives advice from the shade of her dead consort. Is it a trick or threat?
99.A radical noble appears to have the blessing of the Landsmeet to replace the current king
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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by The Dark Elf »

My Eastern Territory Campaign began in Llorn (I searched the players character name to find the post).

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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by pblackcrow »

The Game Master wrote:Okay, so I'm a veteran GM, extremely conversant with the Palladium system, and own/have read all the PFRPG books.

Here's my problem: I've been in the world maybe a half-dozen times (always as a player, and usually under Kevin, at that!), but am facing the very real possibility of GMing an extended campaign based out of Llorn (kind of like a "home base" for the party) for a group of 4-8 players.

Ideas for campaigns/adventures? The setting, despite all my reading of it, is effectively virgin territory to me, so any constructive feedback or ideas would be a great help.


Present your party with several options. Let them choose which one they want, and have fun. Plan side adventures for along the way.

Llorn is a nice place to start, as is wisdom. But I always like to throw out a wild card for a possible political adventure (such as helping the Western Empire colony in the GNW to survive and in doing so Llorn has an immediate foothold in the GNW and deliver a political slap in the face to the WE.).
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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

The single biggest issue with Palladium fantasy, compared to the other game lines, is that it's a reasonably stable world. and by that I mean there is no one currently trying to conquer or enslave everybody minus a few madmen who have no realistic chance of doing so. It's a vast, rich world with a vast, rich history, but while there is built in conflict in the terms of historical relations with certain powers, and some trouble brewing in the north, there is no hook that you can apply to any given game quickly.

Other lines have more obvious plot hooks that all parties can deal with. Rifts has an alien intelligence or evil god plotting conquest around every corner it seems. Heroes unlimited is full of super villians capable of wreaking untold devistation hiding out everywhere. Nightbane has Nightlords trying to find and kill your PC's at all times, even if they aren't trying to do anything, even ninja's and superspys has spy vs spy action and spec ops raids going on constantly.

Palladium fantasy was made to be a traditional dungeon crawling adventure. which means in terms of plot, it takes a bit more work compared to some other lines. Not that there is no built in conflict, just that the nature of a meideval world limits transportation speed and thus limits most threats to the purely local varaity.

This has two solutions, really.

One: Just do a few dungeon crawls to start out with and build plot from there
Two: Just introduce some villians of your own.
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Re: Veteran GM looking for n00b advice

Unread post by Bill »

To quote Raymond Chandler, "when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns." (or something more genre appropriate)
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