Bleak Generation

This chapter needs a lot of work. It offers players an open-ended problem but gives the DM only one solution. The big question: how the fuck do you steer the party towards evacuating residents, and then towards the Ubiquitous Wayfarer? In hindsight, what I should have done was frame it this way: Daniphe wants the players to help her evacuate around the church. Daniphe tried to do it herself but was ignored. News of the players’ deeds regarding the old church has spread around the area, so if they help, surely the evacuation will succeed. Plus if they find her sister they can fight yadda yadda yadda. To flesh things out, consider stalling with RP encounters. With it being the Athar’s month, I included an encounter with some Athar evangelists of sundry races and personalities, doling out free mulled cider to passers-by and trying to spread their philosophy. Some are more amicable than others. The Halfling running the operation made all the mulled cider himself. The dwarf is especiall...

The party arrived in the Lower Ward, wandering down a street thoroughly blanketed in Athar pamphlets: “The Myth of the Gods”; “The Power Within You”; “The Death of the Divine”. Heading in the direction of the church, the party (and Daniphe) stopped by a small stand doling out free mulled cider. A bariaur approached carrying four mugs, asking if they had time for a drink and a chat. Ragados asked back if they had a permit for their cider stall. A dwarf joined the group, and showed a writ from Factol Terrance of the Athar. Factol Terrance of the Athar doesn’t have any real legal authority, his name just carries a bit of clout, but Ragados was placated. The dwarf asked the adventurers about their respective faiths. Ragados had no interest in discussion, thank you, he was comfortable worshipping Azuth. M’narr thought that the ascendance of his deity, Vlaakith, to demi-godhood was a refutation of Athar philosophy. 12-Bar was less certain, but knew he wanted to feel divine inspiration, and...

This was mostly an accounting session. Finishing off downtime, Ragados worked another week for the Harmonium, and tried to pick up a bit of carpentry. M’narr headed to the Green Mill one evening to see if the Stolen Beauty Citizens’ Support Group was still running. To his luck, it was, and he was able to restore all six attendees to their natural beauty. He got a little bit too much attention from an amorous elderly half-orc, but otherwise all were very relieved and grateful. One morning not long after, the party was visited at Truetemper’s Solution by an elvish woman. At Mercy’s insistence, M’narr hastily tidied away his mess of research notes from the front desk. The silver-haired elf was in a state of distress, and wanted to know if this was the workshop where she could find the cutters who’d been investigating the old church in the Lower Ward? The party was suddenly all ears. The elf – incidentally, the most beautiful elf Ragados had ever seen – was in a state of distress. Her si...

I did not prepare for this session well at all. I spent a lot of my allocated D&D time this week just reading through my newly printed Planescape setting books, largely to the detriment of the game. The lesson here: “lore” isn’t a thing that your players can play! Don’t neglect encounters. If I did this session again, I would plan the church riot/encounter first, change details as needed, and then work backwards from there. It might be that Daniphe’s lie would be best altered. We’ll see. I spent a second chunk of time looking for an acceptable calendar for Sigil as well, and figuring out what the date was in the game. As Gygax himself said, keeping good track of time is an important part of immersing your players in the world. Dead Gods says the PCs get to Yggdrasil in late summer, so I figure that’s like the third week of August in our world. I used this calendar that I found, which is full of charm and fun details. Some useful things I did prepare were road encounters. What w...

 Arriving back in Sigil, our heroes were quickly ushered out of what initially looked to be some kind of cross between a barn and a menagerie. The sign outside revealed the truth (Maven’s Meats: Extraplanar, extra delicious!). The characters’ senses were quickly overwhelmed by the food stalls of the Market Ward at dinner time. Crowds, stalls, smells, smoke, sedans on the street, creatures flying overhead: Sigil hadn’t changed at all. Ragados headed to the nearest kebab stall (Arborean Boar with honey sauce), while 12-Bar opted for an Abyssal slug burger served by an ant-like humanoid. M’narr followed his nose and picked up two barrels of pipeweed: one barrel of Prime blend, and a barrel of Limbo weed (the smoke changes shape according to the smoker’s will, the Halfling salesman claimed). It was good to be home. The trio wound their way back slowly to Crystaldew Lane. Despite their lengthy absence, no eyebrows were raised as they walked back through the downstairs restaurant to ge...

DM Tip: Bards make great side antagonists in your game. If you have a serious and deadly BBEG in your game, consider adding in an antagonistic bard on the side! Why? Well, most players don’t want every conflict and struggle to be of the high-stakes, do-or-die variety. Players want to be silly and petty sometimes (adventurers, of course, being some of the pettiest people known to man). If the DM offers their players a release valve where they can be silly and petty, the players are less likely to take that shit out on the BBEG. Most players, at least. But why a bard? For starters, they can have a bit of an ego, which your players will love to hate. Worse still, they have the charisma to get other people to like them. Your players will feel like the only people that can see how odious this guy is. How can nobody else see it? It’ll drive them mad.   Give your bard antagonist a dash of artistic insecurity, and your new villain offers a rare opportunity for you, the DM, to stoop to th...