Bay 12 Games Forum

Hey
--Just a warning, this is not a recruitment thread for an online game and I'm not looking for players--

I've never DM'd or played a tabletop RPG before and I find myself in the DM seat for 3-4 players. I'm actually pretty excited for this, I know it won't be easy but I expect it will be fun and interesting creative outlet. Still though, some advice from experienced DMs would be fantastic. So to start off, the concepts I'm working with/ideas I have

Concepts, ideas, setting
My heroes find themselves in the world of Oredrah (placeholder name, not married to it). It's a fairly traditional DnD style setting--orcs, goblins, elves, etc. I do want to keep it a little silly and tongue-in-cheek. Lots of little references to show, games, pop culture etc. for example:   I've generated a map from dwarf fortress using Dwarf Map Maker, here it is:
It's a medium sized world. I'm having trouble actually figuring out what the actual size is in KM or miles though, does anyone have an estimate of the size of a map tile? At any rate, I still need to populate it with kingdoms and roads and all that fun stuff. I would've been happy to copy that from the map generation but it seems that DMM doesn't handle that.

The big bad threat will be a rapidly growing force of an all-inclusive primitive civilization. It will be made entirely of the (semi)intelligent monstrous/tribal/brutish races such as goblins, bugbears, orcs, beast men (I'm going to include a few beast races in the game, crocodile men, leopard men etc), kobolds etc. This new and unlikely civilization will be banded together with a hatred and jealousy of the civilized races, and some sort of dark (blood?) magic--a tattoo that allows them to freely speak between eachother and would bind them into loyalty to the leader and civilization as a whole. The tattoo must be taken willingly, but once taken loyalty is absolute (there may be some limitations, haven't decided). I feel like a kobold would make a fitting Big Bad, given their cruel nature, tendency towards jealousy and big egos.

I want to add some more mechanics and monsters to the game. Namely, I want to add the monsters from Monster Hunter (the Capcom game) along with armor and weapon crafting using the materials gathered. I think I'll upgrade the Wyverns to be intelligent but savage, violent and very instinctually driven to better fit in with the Pathfinder wyvern concept. Capable of speech, but too unpredictable and violent for it to make a difference *most* of the time. Some, like Kut-Ku's and the gypceros will probably just be dumb beasts. The most important part is that their materials will be harvestable (presumably with survival skill) and the PC's will be able to use these materials to make and upgrade weapons. The weapon trees will follow the basic ones found in Monster Hunter itself, perhaps shortened for the sake of keeping it easier to balance/more rewarding. I probably won't include the charge/explosive/transforming weapons so as to keep with the setting, but perhaps they'll be available from specialized smiths later on. I intend to the weapons and armor better than most of what the players will find in the campaign (with a few exceptions) so they have a reason to go out and hunt and will be excited for a wyvern encounter. I also want to make Kobolds have an strong relation with wyverns (and the other reptilian monsters like Velociprey). I'd like some tribes to have an intimate knowledge of how to manipulate them using pheromones/bait etc, others to bow down to them as brothers of dragons (and be abused/eaten/taken advantage of in return). In general wyverns will see them as annoying pests, something to be ignored or eaten most of the time. I rather like the concept of kobolds, and I think this will give me a chance to feature them more and make the wyvern encounters a little more interesting at the same time.

Note: I intend the crafting to be done at a blacksmiths, and to be done between rounds *only* I.E. through email with me so I have time to balance the weapons/armor and so the players don't have to waste valuable table time shopping.

I also have a basic opening arc outline:


Where I Need Help
So I found an android app that has the core rules+beastiary+ultimate books, and I got the pathfinder beginner's box to give me a step in the right direction. This gives me a pretty wide base to work off of, especially for the homebrew stuff. The main things I need help with:

The Map/Setting: Oh god what a huge task. I don't know how to parse up the map to be useable in the game. I also need to come up with some kingdoms and all that. I think I'll start the horde/invasion in the evil peninsula off the continent, but I don't know where to start the PC's, I want them a reasonable distance away but I also want them close enough to feel the impact of the Horde's expansion. Also, if anyone knows how to make the map seem more like a tradition map in gimp that'd be great. I added the canvas filter to it which makes it seem more like cloth, but that's all I got.

The Mechanics: How to add in the weapons, armor and monster and balance the butchering for parts as well as weapon upgrades. Also, how to make a single wyvern be a reasonable but not overpowered threat to 3-4 players, and include some of the wyverns behaviors/attack patterns. Also, ideas on how the Big Bad's tattoos could work mechanically

Storyline ideas: Throw'em at me, I could use the inspiration

Feedback/hints/tips/cautionary tales/tools etc: oh god I have nearly no idea what I'm doing. HELP! Online tools and android apps would be nice as well.

Thank you to anyone who has had the patience to read all/any of this. The denizens of Bay12 seem like exactly the sort of folks that would help me out, and appreciate any I can get. Also, if this thread is in the wrong forum please move it as necessary, I felt this fit the best but I'm not sure.

Wouldn't tantrums be non-lethal, ideally?

I dunno, I kind of like the mental image that my dwarves are all potentially murderous psychopaths who are always a bad day away from from losing it and going on a rampage, kept in check only by a REALLY nice dining room.

Quote from: DG on April 28, 2013, 08:52:49 am

Toady, do you find public speaking daunting? Have you had much experience at it?

Toady, are you annoyed by all these unrelated questions?

Toady, Boxers or Briefs?

Make it ASCII

It's obviously a codpiece

As forest fires can now cause spectacular devastation with burning trees, can fires now level wooden buildings in towns?

I'd hazard a guess that the code that made trees invincible is separate from whatever code makes construction invincible, and even if they used the same code he probably wrote entirely new code for the trees. I doubt that would change unless Toady went out of his way for it.

People, I shall bug you with questions on theoretical wagon people until I have been satisfied.  Should Wagons have gender? Shpuld they still be used for transport by caravans? Is anyone following this thread a modder? I could use a bit of help.

Traditional wagons don't work in game. I suppose you could create some sort of "wagon" creature that would have all the properties of any being i.e. it'd be a single tile creature.

Toady just confirmed cart dumping and you can do it without stopping the cart. This could make it ridiculously efficient. Might even be able to make a magma dump trap.