So we begin about a week before the game actually begins. I have a group of regulars I do a game with through Discord and Tabletop Simulator. All cool people. A bit retarded but their in good company seeing as I am also retarded. Unfortunately I knew from a few weeks previously that this group would be splitting up due to various IRL obligations. But I was asking a few of them if they'd be into doing this 1:1 thing.
We all figured out that out of my group of 5, two were willing to play as Patrons after I explained they wouldn't be needed for full sessions. But could still contribute in helping make the world feel alive and dynamic. This suited those two people fine. One had work and the other had a kid. And time wise they were both getting royally buggered by the lack of free time in their lives. So the idea of popping in every once in a while with a discord messages or the occasional voice chat was fine with them.
So I set them a task. Come up with two high level characters who own small domains. This can be anything from a small kingdom to a castle or a wizard tower. It all has to be okayed by me though so no power gaming. If they want they could even come up with lore on who they were and their minions and so on.
In order to maintain a semblance of fairness before I even let them make characters, I had them roll for the type and amount of assets they had. This would include things like Gold, soldiers, and the size of their land.
First of all I had them roll for their HQ. Once that was done they could pick any hex on the map for the location of that HQ. The table went like this
- Keep
- Makeshift/Bandit camp
- City
- Cave/Mine
- Wizard Tower
- Landmark of Power/Significance
So I had both guys roll a d6. They both ended up with Wizard Towers. So they both said they'd like to be feuding wizards. Cool. I then had them pick a spot of land each. Then had them roll another d6 for however many hexes joined to the HQ were theirs. They could pick any hexes based on their dice roll as long as the previous hex was joined to their territory. With that done we rolled for assets.
2d100 for troops.
D100X10 for Gold
After that I said it was up to each patron to flesh out what was in their hexes and what their territory looked like. I posted a price list for different assets like buildings, villages, and more troops. All that lore was offloaded to them. Again everything they did was okayed by me. So if they said
“I'd like another wizard tower with a laser beam that one hit kills anything I want.”
I would tell them to piss off. But if they said
“I want a little village on this hex, run by a vampire I have a tenuous alliance with. He supplies me with elite vampire troops.”
I would then go
“okay, but to make it fair we'll say you have to sacrifice D20 worth of troops and then you get D10 worth of Elite vampire troops. And you can only use them at night.” That bit about being at night is very important if you're running on real time. It makes sure that the other player is thinking about night raids and the importance of time in his army movement.
So again, I'm not just going to let them be OP for the sake of it. Both players independently give me some back and forth about what they want. I give it the okay. Or tell them to come back with something else. And before you know it, without any extra work on my part I now have two very interesting dynamic factions in my game world with centuries of lore. That will react to what the players do.
So with help from the two Patron players they both told me who their characters were and what their general goals are. They fleshed out their own domains and from that I was able to get an idea of how they fit into the world I created.
So let me set the scene for you.
On the continent of Nalan adventurers rise and fall every day. It a continent shared by the great Elvish Kingdom of Alu in the east. Powerful, unified, but for the most part a sleeping giant. Unconcerned with the affairs of younger races. Once there was the Unified Human Kingdom said to be the equal of Alu. But over 300 years ago, Nalan was blighted with the arrival of two evil wizards. The Lawful Evil Harlus and the Chaotic Evil Bahnov. Arriving separately from each other and with their own goals, they instantly began feuding. Uncaring for the concerns of the kingdom around them, the wizards fought each other. Using powerful but cursed magic. Schemes, plots, and open violence gripped the Unified Kingdom. Until eventually the people could no longer bare being in the middle of these two battling wizards. The Unified Kingdom descended into anarchy. And eventually fell. Leaving instead many different feuding houses. Petty kingdoms that will never unify again. The two wizards for the most part simply disregarded this and continued fighting one another to this very day. Bands of roving Orcs raid the helpless. A Dwarven expedition to colonize the nearby mountains is facing trouble from both the Orcs and the four houses. Nalan is fractured and in a chaotic state. It would only take the slightest push for things to change. For better or worse.
After the two patrons sorted out their land I then populated what was left with things I thought players might find interesting. I sorted out the territory for 4 rival houses that the players could join if they wanted. And I started dotting around things like cities, villages, landmarks and so on.
When things became interesting is when I popped down a tomb. I wanted an evil tomb that players could choose to raid if they wanted. You know, standard dungeon crawl stuff. I used a random name generator to call it The Cursed Tomb of Kavnak. The tomb of a great and powerful demon. I updated the patrons about what was on the map now.
Wouldn't you know it, I was contacted by both players separately. Here's what went down.
So Harlus contacts me, he basically says that he has an idea. He says the whole reason he came to to Nalan was to find this tomb. Turns out Harlus worships Kavnak as a god. And wants to resurrect him. Becoming all powerful in the process. He worships Kavnak as a Lawful Evil entity. He sends me two pages on Word about the history of Kavnak and why people worship him. Great. Love to see some lore building. Harlus asks if he can send some troops to conquer the tomb and gain power. Brilliant. I tell him he can. If he sends them out from his HQ he can have them at the Tomb in 8 days.
The next day I get a message. This time from Bahnov. He tells me that the name of the Tomb is gay but he has an idea. It turns out Bahnov went to Nalan in search of artefacts to resurrect his god. And he believes that Kavnak was an enemy of his god. So he wants to send some guys to the tomb to smash it up. I tell Bahnov that he has reason to believe that his rival Harlus is sending troops to secure the tomb. So if he wants to destroy it he needs to act quickly. Bahnov asks to send some men and sure enough he'd arrive roughly the same time as Harlus. Maybe an hour behind.
I felt really pleased with myself. Before I even got actual players I had Patrons scheming and creating conflict that players could react to. The dynamic world was forming!
A couple of days later, I finally get enough people to form a player party of 4. These are new people I don't know very well. During session zero I tell them the situation in terms of how these sorts of games work. Give the same background I just wrote out above. And so on. I haven't and can't tell them exactly what the two wizards are up to unless the wizards themselves tell the party or they otherwise find out what's going on. I lay out the map and ask them where they want to start. And from there where they want to go. They decide to spawn into a tavern in the nearby village of Havensguard. And from there decide the best thing to do is travel to the nearby Tomb of Kavnak to see if they can score some loot.
Now I didn't tell them a thing about the Tomb or how the two patron players are going to fight over it. Nor did I tell them that there's going to be a massive battle about two hours after the players arrive. I didn't plan this. I didn't ask the players to go to the tomb. I didn't even hint that the tomb was special other than the name. The players chose to spawn in a village close by and just picked that tomb at random. In 7 days we were going to do session 1 where the player characters raid the tomb. I also didn't tell the Patrons about the PCs. This could all have the potential to turn into a messy disaster.
So the day comes. We use Chainmail for any large scale battles and Dungeon Crawl Classics for the RPG stuff. I start off with the PCs because they got there first. Into the tomb they go. The entrance is trapped. One of the players, The Cleric, ends up with a minor curse from the DCC minor corruption table. Now his left leg is 1d6 longer than his right. Oh well. Serves that player right for not checking for traps.
An hour or so later I get a message. Bahnov's forces have arrived and he wants to construct some crude emplacements. The party are busy spelunking so Bahnov doesn't need to know they are around. But I do tell him his troops see some signs of displacement. Bahnov assumes it must be that crafty devil Harlus. He's sent a scouting party into the tomb to lay a trap. Obviously. So he portions off about ten of his men and sends them into the tomb.
I tell the party that they hear a rumbling as 10 infantry have charged into them whilst they plunder the tomb. I end up having to officiate both the combat in DCC for the party and the battle outside the tomb in Chainmail. And I have to do this in such a way that neither group realise the other one is there unless they find it out themselves. The ten men sent into the tomb need to report back that they found adventurers before I can tell Bahnov what's going on.
Harlus arrives and the fight begins. We use Tabletop sim and the Chainmail rules. Harlus has one block of five Fighting Man minis in formation with spears and shields. Which under Chainmail rules of 1:10 abstraction means he has over 50 infantry. Along with 1 unit of Vampires which comes to 10 guys. As Bahnov arrived early he had some very basic fortifications. Which I let him place on the table where he wanted. Just wood fences and a couple trenches. Bahnov had 40 sword and board Fighting Men after sending 10 into the tomb. Combat began as Harlus charged the infantry with his vampire. Who was promptly dusted due to bad rolls. Unlucky.
Meanwhile the party of adventurers were doing quite well. The Fighter ended up getting impaled by a sword and mortally wounded but was thankfully saved at the last minute by a potion from the wizard. I controlled the ten Fighting men and through no fault of my own their rolls were dog shit. But that was okay because so was the party's. Just fucked rolls all round. The party managed to defeat the forces of evil but had to carry their poor old Fighter out due to the wounds he received. It was time to return to the nearby village and flog their gains for profit. They emerged from the Tomb to see Harlus's men charge through and slaughter Bahnov's guys. The patron players were now aware that the players were at the same tomb they both were. Before I could get a word in the players all decide to flee. I waited for either Harlus or Bahnov to charge the party and slaughter them. But neither did. They both decided to keep fighting.
I was sweating this whole time thinking that the campaign was going to end with the party ignobly getting slaughtered by two armies. But I think both patrons took pity on me for the comedy of errors that led to this moment.
Combat between the two patrons resumed. For like five seconds as Harlus mopped up the last of Bahnov's. It wasn't even close. Despite losing his unit of vampires, Harlus won. And got to inspect the tomb. Where he found...
Absolutely nothing because the adventurers absconded with everything but the mumified corpse of the demon. Harlus swore revenge on the party. They just made his shit list.
So by the end of the first session we have an antagonist that will dynamically act and react to the players, someone seperate from a GM. With a whole different mind who can do things I never could think of. We also have another wizard the party can either ally with or fight. And these wizards are going to dynamically claim and fight over land whilst scheming. I'm very excited to see where this goes. And what evil schemes Harlus has concocted to mess with the party.
