Reflections on a 5 Year Campaign

This past week marked the 5-year mark for my Tidelock D&D 5e campaign. I didn't realize this until a player shared a memory on Facebook about making her character five years ago. It's still going strong (stronger, perhaps, when the pandemic suddenly made scheduling much easier), so I figured I'd reflect on what worked and what didn't.

Source

Just some fun facts first:

• Campaign started in September 2015. Began with myself and three Players.
• Scheduling App Used: when2meet (at least until the pandemic, when we adopted a regular weekly schedule.)
• Average Sessions per Month: 2-3 (~130 total sessions done to date)
• Total # of Unique Player Participants: 18
• Present # of Players: 4
• Campaign "Archs" Completed: 14-16
• Major House Rules Changes: 3+
• For about a year I was running two groups simultaneously within the same campaign world. Later, when Players dropped out, those two groups were combined.
• Player-Character Stat Generation Method: Point Buy
• Maximum Player-Character Level: 13
• Player-Character Deaths: 3-4 (This is despite the Players having no access to resurrection... Yet.)
• Forbidden Magics Discovered: 1 out of 4.
• After the first year all opponents and monsters used custom statistics. (see below)
• The most powerful campaign-changing magic item to have existed yet within the game was destroyed by a Player-Character willingly and without coercion for 'Reasons of Philosophy'. I did not remotely see this coming and I loved it.
• The name of this blog: Goodberry Monthly, was determined by my early players of this campaign by vote.

And now, some lessons learned from a long term campaign.

To Slay the Scheduling Demon

Ahh... The bane of all campaigns. The great foe: the Scheduling Demon. How to get all your busy adults with their adult lives and responsibilities able to get together on the same day is a problem with virtually no easy solutions. It's just a fact of Tabletop. There's nothing that can avoid this: expect casualties due to the Demon.

Though, shifting from a scheduling poll to a regular weekly game (and also in-person to Discord-only) did help a lot with participation. It lowered the threshold of effort required to play significantly. This was helped, though, by things largely being within the Theatre of Mind, instead of grid and setpiece-based exploration/combat.

Make Tools, Not Plots

Though, sometimes you do need to plot. It's unavoidable, even in a sandbox like Tidelock. Just try not to make a habit of it - it's exhausting and the Players will frequently surprise you.

Regardless, I cannot stress this enough: MAKE CAMPAIGN TOOLS. City and NPC generators, random tables, treasure troves. Embrace the DIY! Some of these tools I've made for the Campaign have continually paid dividends even years after creation. It's saved me hours upon hours of preparation time and largely rescued me from DM Burnout. Make Tools. Make Tools. Make Tools!

Don't Take Drop-Outs Personally

As you can see by the above statistic: 14/18 (77.7%!) people who participated in this campaign dropped out due to various reasons. For some scheduling became impossible. Others moved, or became disinterested. I imagine more than half of them expected the campaign to be more like Critical Role or your more traditional fantasy (instead of Planescape-style gonzo craziness that it ended up being). It took like 3 years for a stable group to form. Attrition is inevitable.

Save Unused Material. Be a Hoarder.

Use it later on, or for other campaigns or one-shots. Don't throw it out. Throw it up on the Cloud, index it, and remember it exists.

Make Use of Published Stuff. Curate!

Seriously. Swallow your pride and use published material.

That said, you must be a Curator. You must curate. You don't need to use every bit of published material you have. Decide what's appropriate or possible for the campaign, then adjust to make it work. Have a few dungeons or adventures you really like on the shelf that you can insert to supplement your homebrew material.

System Changes are Unavoidable. Embrace the DIY.

Unless you want to have the very specific campaign that a system describes. You probably don't. You probably want to have your own campaign. You're going to need to make some rules changes or additions. That's fine. Just be clear to your players about when this is happening and what's changing. I keep a document of all of the houserulings up on the cloud available to all players.

New PCs Need to be Integrated Into Existing Institutions

I've learned this the hard way. Players putting work into their detailed backstory, generating NPCs and institutions, for me to continually ignore it. See, I still go by the old online roleplayer axiom of over-respecting the creations of players: if a player made it, I can't mess with it without their permission. This works great for the PCs themselves, but when a player expects me to roleplay an NPC that they made, and we then both realize that it's impossible for me to match how they imagined that NPC in their head, the material falls flat. It's not inspired.

I'm guessing this is more just a problem with me than anything else, but I expect I'm not the first nor the last person on earth to have run into this. Don't have players contribute campaign material that you aren't 100% excited about.

Sometimes You Do Need to Say 'No'

It's rare, though. I think I've said outright 'No' to a Player's idea maybe once or twice during the whole campaign. It was a bit agonizing, too, because I really liked their idea. I realized, though, that implementing it would undermine one of the core principles of the campaign. That integrity matters, especially in the long run.

Also, see the previous point. If you're roleplaying something, you need to be comfortable with it.

I Wish I Had an Easy Way of Getting Player Feedback

But there's like... this psychological wall that keeps players from really speaking their mind. Whether it's this fear that they're rocking the boat or they don't want to put in the effort of useful feedback. Players often have trouble knowing what they want, let alone expressing it. On top of that, DMs tend to be a little intimidating, especially when asking about feedback. I haven't figured out how to get around this.

Players will always tell you that you were great and they had fun, even if they didn't. I know, I do this as a player too. Even when playing in games I absolutely hated, I would still say 'yeah, that was good, thanks!', more to end the conversation as quickly as possible than anything else. I don't want to crush a DM's spirit, particularly a new one. Nobody wants to be the "well, actually that sucked" person. Peer pressure afflicts all.

I have, though, discovered a reliable, if difficult method: just good ol' fashion reading the room. You need to know your players. You need to know people. When the players are engaging and putting in effort of their own free will, you know you're on to something. If they're offering compliments to your DMing without prompt (especially in the middle of a session, not at the end (everyone compliments you at the end of a session anyways out of politeness)), you're doing something right. If you see or hear them excited, or sharing campaign anecdotes outside of sessions, or uncontrollably laughing, or rolling like their life savings depend on it, you're probably on the right track.

A Monk's Guide to Investigating the Esoteric

Compiled below are the unencrypted unrestricted notes of Fiona Index, supposed-daughter of the theoretically existent Mildred Index, to whom the reader outside of the Time Bubble would know as the esteemed Master Index.

"My mother existed. I am positive of this fact. I have eliminated the possibility that I am a Clone, or a Simulacrum, or a Shade, or an Illusion, or brainwashed. My mother was a human being who gave birth to me forty-six years ago. She had trained me since the age of four in the martial style of the Illuminating Fist. She had red hair and green eyes, just like me BUT NOT EXACTLY LIKE ME. She loved books. She was a Librarian, a martial artist, and a scholar. She never told me who my father was. I never really cared."

"Twenty-two years ago my mother vanished. We had not spoken in two years prior, as I was undergoing graduate training and had little time or interest in maintaining a relationship. Her disappearance was brought to my attention by a peer at the university, when, upon striking up a casual conversation about family, he refused to acknowledge that my mother existed, or had even ever existed. He had known her for years. He and I were childhood playmates. My mother had arranged things. Either he was lying, or there was some other factor."


"I proceeded to TORTURE MIND PROBE INVESTI INTERROGATE him. After multiple trials, I had come to the conclusion that he was sincere in his belief that my mother had never existed. This sent me into alarm, and at a rather trying time in my life - I was approximately midway through my dissertation on the subject of student-wizard cargo cults, and I had little time to undergo a proper investigation into the disappearance of my mother. For two additional years I ignored my mother's disappearance to finish my doctorate, putting it into the back of my mind for the sake of my education and career."

"The investigation began with interrogating those I knew to have had associations with my mother. I spoke with childhood neighbors, shopkeepers, fellow librarians, students, and birds. They all provided the same nervous answer: that they had never known this 'Mildred Index', that they were positive that she had never existed, and that it was both foolish and dangerous to be asking questions about people who never existed. No explanations were given as to how to reconcile the entirety of my existence with their narratives, and that is usually where the conversations TERMINALLY ended."

"I gave up. I was getting nowhere, and it was starting to become impossible. TO HIDE THE BODIES. For a period of ten years I pursued the aspirations into library sciences without giving much thought to my mother. I got married to my wonderful husband. STEWARD. EDWARD. STEPHAN. We had a CHILD complex and sometimes difficult marriage."

"Then, almost fifteen years ago, I came upon a breakthrough. I was SPYING EAVESDROPPING BENEVOLENTLY OBSERVING a group of undergraduate students in the library, who no doubt thought they had obtained security in the deep parts of the Graduate Library. There were FIVE THREE of them discussing various observations about particular secretive occult organizations within the university. This subject having been the object of my dissertation, I became interested. As the conversation shifted from blood fraternities to the Janitors, all in a whispered hush, one of them practically shouted: 'My roommate is gone! Gone! Disappeared! Why won't we talk about it! Huh?! Isn't that what we're here for! To talk about things we're not supposed to!' He was met with silence. Soon after, the meeting was awkwardly concluded. Needless to say, as memories of my futile investigation rushed back into my mind, I became intrigued with this young man. After the meeting, I cornered him in the section on Whale History. And, though I do not remember his name, or very much about him (his appearance or otherwise), I do remember his panicked ramblings, and in them these truths:

1. Sometimes, people disappear.
2. And with them, all record of their existence.
3. People who discuss, acknowledge, or interrogate these facts tend to disappear as well.

Factums one and two were self-evident from my personal experience. However, I had spent some time years ago investigating my mother's disappearance. If it were true, why had I not also disappeared? Perhaps, did my giving up in lieu of my pursuit of my PhD shield me from this unseen force? Had my indifference saved me? Perhaps this was not the effect he described, but merely a mimicry of it perpetuated by a third actor."

"This was the catalyst to the development of what I would come to call: THE PROTOCOLS FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF MEMETICALLY DEFENDED CONSPIRACIES. It called for a two-pronged approach to the observation of the unobservable: one institutional and one psychosomatic, both formed in the interest of self-preservation under the duress of conspiratorial powers beyond the realm of traditional investigation.

The first of these, the institutional, was initiated with the formation of the The Waking Eye - a student-led cult devoted to the study of other cults within the city - a Stand Alone Complex of sorts. I personally printed the very first issue and subsequently trained the first batch of student editors to continue its influence after my speedy departure. The cult itself would come to mimic various conspiracies in the interest of its own defense: anonymity, a de-centralized power structure, and the undertaking a misinformation campaigns (particularly targeted at authority figures and student tattle-tales).

Physical issues of the Waking Eye would contain built-in defenses to ensure that a) counterfeit issues could be identified and disregarded, and b) information would be dispersed to those whom it was intended to reach, and no others. Issues contained self-destructing runes and mind-wipe spells upon random pages, which would disintegrate the material upon reveal in order to ensure that only those initiated with the cult (and having received the proper decryption key) would be able to read the text in full. Additionally, they were to be hidden in places only students would accidentally find: stuffed inside tomes of uncommon mathematics, placed in the cracks of classroom desks, or hidden behind unused lockers. Never the same place twice, never following observable patterns. The students were good at this. It has proven a resilient institution.

The second of these was a meditative technique I had developed that was derived from the martial arts school of the Illuminating Fist. Monks of a sufficient skill in this tradition would learn to master their immune systems and their minds in the defense of their autonomy. It is difficult to perform, required the utmost of physical and mental discipline. And yet, success in the technique is difficult to ascertain, as it involves the voluntary forgetfulness of particular chosen memories of the subject.

This technique cannot be described on paper. It is too DANGEROUS UNSTABLE COMPLICATED to be attempted by the uninitiated. Failure to correctly perform the technique can result in a number of effects detailed below.

FALSE MEMORY GENERATION. TERMINAL MIGRAINES.  HANGOVER-LIKE SYMPTOMS. COMA. STROKE. UNINTENDED AMNESIA. PERMANENT INTELLIGENCE LOSS. MULTIPLE SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER. SUICIDAL DEPRESSION. SCHIZOPHRENIC CHAKRA FILAMENTATION. TOTAL MEMORY COLLAPSE SYNDROME.

In addition, the subject may become vulnerable to possession and suggestion for a period of 24 Hours, and acquire anxiety and eating disorders."

"Using these two tools, a number of conspiracies have been observed in not-memory under what I have deemed a new branch of knowledge: HYPOGNOSIS, the Under-Knowledge (easily mistaken with Hypnosis, but not dissimilar in form). Or: that knowledge which has been annihilated but is still exists within degrees of separation through the use of physical objects and various data. Such knowledge cannot be accessed consciously, but can be reacquired with particular tools. One such method is the use of Hints.

Hints are those physical items which you leave on your person in the event of a memory wipe to subconsciously remind you of that which you chose to forgot for your own safety. They can be any object that you imagine: small notes, seemingly-inconsequential items such as tops or chess pieces, architecture, body positions, or time of day. It is key that these items do not elude to that which you intend to forget directly, as that would put you immediately at risk of memetic infection once again. Instead, they must provide a trail, or the beginning of an idea.

In the moments after the forgetfulness technique is used, one must be vigorous with physical or mental note-taking. What was the time of day? Where were you? What was on your person? Who is around you? Every detail could be a potential clue, and a single missed aspect could ruin years of revelations and investigations. As a Librarian and an aficionado of mystery novellas, this has come relatively easily to me, though the first few instances were wrought with disaster that wasted years of work. Again, rigorous mental discipline is required."

REPORT

"The conspiracy of the disappearance of my mother runs deeper than I could have imagined. Recently, I delved in the Library-Within-All-Libraries in search of the Sheol Computer - that which contains information on the lives and deaths of everyone in existence. The Library had recently become militarized, though the training of my mother had come through for me. I was able to slip through enemy lines undetected, and found the computer heavily guarded. I decided to wait and observe.

Fortuitous, then, that I came upon a group of foreign mercenaries. After feigning death upon a nearby dissection table, I kidnapped the smallest of them, a light gnome, for interrogation. To my surprise, they were actually looking for me, and not the library's secrets. I told them that answers would need to wait until my mission to access the Sheol Computer was complete, in hopes that I could coerce their cooperation. The gnome told me that she knew my mother. I was shocked. In over twenty five years nobody had ever mentioned my mother, and here came this foreigner, not only speaking openly about her, but actually having MET her. In person. I was suspicious, up until the point where she told me things about my mother that nobody else could possibly know. She even had a letter, a physical letter from my mother! A kind of time capsule from her to me. Suddenly, everything I had done until this point felt vindicated, and I broke down into tears. SHE WAS REAL. MY MOTHER WAS A REAL PERSON. SHE EXISTED.

Yet, my mission remained. With a diversion created by the foreigners I finally obtained access to the Sheol Computer. I typed in my mother's name: MILDRED INDEX.

-> MILDRED INDEX: DATA NOT FOUND
-> DEATH: DATA NOT FOUND
-> STATUS: PROVIDENCE

There was my answer in one word: Providence. Her very existence had been entirely erased, even the nature of her death, and that one word was all that was left of her. Providence.

We left the Library, easier getting out than in. Went to a Bar. For their own safety, I taught the gnome how forget as I do. She was a monk of the school of the Illuminating Fist, too. It's safer than leaving them with even the partial knowledge they've obtained. I told the rest to take some amnesiatic drugs.

I left myself the clues I would need, and then I forgot everything."

Alex Schroeder's Campaign Questions

I have, in fact, been running my campaign for a while, so I'll offer some reflections for Alex S's recent inquiry. We play 5e D&D.

How many sessions have you been playing, more or less?
Give or take 70.

How long have you been running this campaign?
Since October 2015.

Have you had long breaks? If so, how did you pick it up again?
There was one or two points around the 1 year and 2 year marks where we didn't play in at least a month.

How many people are at the table when you play?
Between 3-6. Averages 4.

How many characters are in the party when you play?
Each player controls 2 characters, but only plays one at a time. This was due to some shenanigans I'll explain later.

How many players have you had in total over that time period, not counting guest appearances?
11. Of the initial 4 who I began with, 1 remains in full and 1 remains part time.

About two years in, due to lack of activity I decided to revamp the campaign and begin a second play group made of entirely new people acting simultaneously within the campaign world. Eventually, as numbers dwindled, I combined the two groups again into one.

Have you had guest appearances? How did it go? Did you gain regular players that way?
Sometimes we'd have one of my siblings make a guest appearance, or had someone's husband show up. It went pretty fine. Usually they were quite impressed with how I ran things.

What have the character levels been over time?
Levels 1-13. Rapidly progressed over the first two years until level 11. Then, when the second group was formed, I brought peoples' levels down to be closer to newcomers. They've steadily crept up and equalized until they're now at 13.

What classes did the players pick? Did you add new classes over time?
We've had everything at one point or another except a Sorcerer. We added the Artificer when it came out recently.

Tell me about some adventures you ran over that time that I might enjoy hearing about?
I think my best one was an assassination plot against the party. I used one of Arnold K's d6 Assassins, Wizened Grudlow specifically. Had him announce his arrival 24 Hours ahead of time, like all good assassins do. In a metagame effect, I wrote down all of Grudlow's resources and tactics on small sheets of paper, folded them up, then put them in the middle of the table before the players even started planning their defense. I then let them prepare.

Party did some information gathering first. Found out that an Archmage they'd recently stolen from had hired the assassin. They then broke into the Bureau of Spatial and Temporal Matters, went back in time to try and alter the present, and spectacularly ensured that the assassination would occur. Grudlow, even in the past, out-foxed 'em. At least, though, they knew some more about who was coming after them.

They prepped a holdout at the Black Magic Fraternity's headquarters. Clocks placed every square meter to track Grudlow as he approached. Exploding suicidal zombies. Black Magic Brothers armed to the teeth. A Thousand Curses to be flung upon he who crossed the threshold.

Grudlow approaches. Time slows down. I'm playing that assassin theme from Kill Bill on my laptop, but distorted and reversed. I unveil Grudlow's chef strategy, placed there at the start of the session: he's going to burn the place down from the outside and watch everyone slow roast. He throws two torches in through the front door.

Suicide zombies out. Next preemptive strategy revealed: sniper on the roof. Nails the zombies, they explode on contact. Place is on fire. Party leaves through the back alley, having seen what happened to the zombies. They had Haste potions before, so they use them to escape the flames. In the back alley, they get ambushed by a shapeshifter and a trash wizard. Deal with them easy enough, despite their Haste as well.

After that, they approach the main alley where Grudlow is waiting. Monk takes a peek, avoiding a shot from the sniper. Fighter takes the next shot on a shield while the monk uses their Adjacency Glove (TM) to become adjacent to the sniper, then monk-kicks him off the roof.

Grudlow's got two lackeys with him. I reveal the next bit of paper: a hostage. He took an important employee of the party, and now he had a knife at her throat. Monk wins initiative, thinks he can save the hostage with some quick moves. As this happens, the last bit of paper gets revealed: the hostage is a disguised assassin. The monk goes from full health to dead in a single turn, shanked by a poison blade and cut to pieces by Grudlow.

Then begins the chase. During which, the lackeys take some hits and leave before going down. Grudlow pursues to the bitter end. With his constant Slow aura he's able to keep up with the party no matter what. Three turns of the luckiest Hold Person saves in favor of the party keep Grudlow frozen while the party beats him down. Barely. Of the 4 PCs that started: one dead, one unconscious, one mutilated, and one standing.

Have the rule changes over that time? Do you maintain a house-rules document?
I do maintain a house-rules document, or rather, a couple. We began RAW, then an injury table was added, then Saving Throws for certain abilities and spells were shifted around. Then I threw out the WotC Monster Manual entirely and stuck with my homebrew.

Has the setting changed over time?
It has. Things shift around and change whenever I think of better ideas for them, or the old ideas run out of juice. A lot of my old material has been replaced. A recent example was that I entirely replaced my old Wizard City with the entirely new Wizard City that I'm writing on my blog right now, but having the city zip up in a bubble and undergo a 50 year timeskip.

How much in-game distance did the party cover, how big is the area they have visited?
They have access to an airship, but the world of Tidelock is very compressed. They've probably covered an area the size of India.

Have you used proprietary setting books? Like, could you publish your campaign or would you be in trouble if you did?
The campaign world is like... 5 campaigns worth of materials. Nearly all of them have some proprietary adventurers thrown in to fill up the gaps, but nothing that couldn't easily be excised. I'd need to change the names of my Archmages - they're a bunch of Greyhawk character names.

The Sanction Scenario

This is a scenario I've thrust upon my home campaign group. Is it a reactive module - something to introduce to the campaign when the right people have been sufficiently pissed off. In this case, they managed to piss off a major House, and aggrieved House's chosen recourse is to drag them to the Crooked Court.

I figure I'd share it here as a potential case study for player agency - it's an open scenario with factional play and about a thousand ways things could go, and opportunities for shenanigans abound. This will also serve as a reference for my players, if they're clever enough to read this blog.

~~~~~

The first vote is old. She cares for tradition and protocol.
The second vote is young. She cares for money and power.
The third vote is decadent. She cares for pleasure and vice.
The fourth vote is mad, and he serves a mad god.
The last vote is fate. It is left to the gods and to luck, to do as they may.

A simply majority decides your fate. There are no abstentions. No loopholes. This is a political trial. It is a religious trial. There are no tricks in religion. There are no tricks in religion. Refrain, and do what you must.

~~~~~

Given straight, this is a political trial with four judges and five votes. Three judges are matriarchs of the three most powerful Houses. One judge is a servant of the mad god. The last vote is completely up to chance, to be adjudicated by a die roll from the DM. There are ways to influence any and all of these judges. Everything and anything is fair.

A summary diagram.

The Judges

Laetha, of the House of Parchment and Marble

Statecraft has been the domain of her House for millennia. A political trial is precisely her element.
A disciplined matriarch, in body and mind. Her every word has purpose.

What She Wants: 
For tradition to be respected.
For the trial to be "fair" (i.e. a true political trial, a vote of popularity).
For Miz'ra to be crushed and her House subjugated as Ghilaera's was.
More slaves.
For her House to be seen as equal to the past great Houses of old.

What She Has:
A vast slave population.
Direct ties to legendary historical figures.
The most experience of any current politician.
The largest Senate voting bloc.
Statecraft Clerics
An elaborate web of connections spanning nearly every House
A robust trade network

Laetha doesn't have time for your shit.
(From Disney's Cinderella)

How She Views The Other Judges:

• Miz'ra - An upstart and a cutthroat. Her most dangerous rival. If she is quick to the defense of the accused, then it means she cut a deal, and must be opposed.
• Ghilaera - A dangerous fool. Her faction holds the swing vote in the Senate. She cannot afford to make her cross. She also cannot afford to cede leadership.
• Amom - Worthy of a grudging respect, provided he remains independent. If it seems like he's taking sides, then he gets no mercy.
• Fate - She will want it to be determined in the old way. Blood ritual.

Tactics
Divide and conquer. Erode the base of support for the opposition then kick them over when the foundation is weak.

If Pressured: 
1. False flag operations.
2. Spread rumors.
3. Swamp opposition in legal challenges.
4. Bribes of slaves and lucrative political offices.

Miz'ra, of the House of Bone and Silver

The new money, the new power. She has everything to prove and everything to lose.
A multi-widow fat from her conquests.

What She Wants: 
To use this trial to get ahead.
To show up Laetha and usurp her position of authority.
To acquire more wealth.
To acquire more bodies for necromancy.
To acquire more land.
To acquire influential allies through marriage.

What She Has:
The most land suitable for agriculture.
A large, loyal family
An undead army
Necromancers
Influence among the Wizards.
Money. Lots of it.

She sneezes more than your net worth.
(From Disney's The Little Mermaid)

How She Views The Other Judges:

• Laetha - An old bag that would do better to get out of the way. Will fight her on every issue that doesn't directly benefit herself.
• Ghilaera - A feeble weakling, undeserving of her station. An ideal tool, if the right levers can be pulled. Miz'ra wants to find her price and her weakest point. Is it bribery? Threat? Spite?
• Amom - Outdated, irrelevant, idiotic. She despises the mad god and his servants. She would have him killed in an instant, if she thought the price of his martyrdom wasn't too high.
• Fate - She wants a coin flip. If it's the deciding vote, she'll have a puppet-minion try to influence the outcome. To maintain deniability, she'll give this task then wipe her memory of it.Whether it's discovered or not, she'll kill this puppet-minion and ensure that they can never testify.

Tactics
Identify then strike at the weakest links in the chain and work up from there. Maintain deniability.

If Pressured: 
1. Bribes of money - coinage laced with surveillance bugs.
2. Kidnapping + Modify Memory
3. Offer political marriage
4. Brutal but deniable assassination on important minions

Ghilaera, of the House of Poppies and Whips

The swing vote in nearly all things. It has made her an exemplar of opportunism.
She's definitely on drugs. It makes her notice things others don't.

What She Wants: 
To pit Laetha and Miz'ra against each other. To watch them do battle.
To be an equal to Laetha and Miz'ra.
To be entertained.
To experience new highs and insights.
Amom.

What She Has:
The swing voting bloc in the Senate
A menagerie of exotic mounts and monsters
Criminal network

Ghilaera lives on the edge of a blade.
(From Disney's 101 Dalamations)

How She Views The Other Judges:

• Laetha - A horrid wet blanket and a crone. A more reliable ally, though, than Miz'ra.
• Miz'ra - A potential powerful ally, but far too accepting of change to the status quo for comfort. She knows Miz'ra will stab her in the back the minute she doesn't need her.
• Amom - The most fun, second to Fate. She wants him, lustfully. She thinks it will grant her special powers and favors from the Mad God. She knows how dangerous this is but wants it anyways.
• Fate - She wants champions to have bloody fight to the death.

Tactics
Go to either Laetha or Miz'ra for support. Use either of them as a shield against the other.

If Pressured: 
1. Offer Miz'ra or Laetha her voting bloc in exchange for support and protection.
2. Arson
3. Enlist monster. Preferably one that eats brains.
4. Make promises to all sides, uphold none of them.

Amom, Rememberer for the Mad God

He has a subtle madness in the way of his god - the kind that slowly dawns into wretched light.
A mask for the mad god, and a mask for himself. Take care which he wears, and give proper address.

What He Wants: 
For the Mad God to be satisfied.
For his religious authority to be respected, or those who forsake it to be punished.
A slow descent into madness. So slow that nobody notices, and everybody simply takes it for granted.

What He Has:
Servants of the Mad God. They are legally allowed powers of inquisition.
Religious immunities. Cannot be charged with assaults or murders.

What kingdoms the Mad God forgets, Amom remembers.
leidensygdom

How He Views The Other Judges:

• Laetha - Her influence contributed to his rise in power. But the Mad God does not play favorites. Laetha cannot undo this decision. He needs to prove to the others that he's not biased.
• Miz'ra - She does not pay the proper respects. Her House stands on a knife's edge with the Mad God. He is looking for an excuse to punish her.
• Ghilaera - Absolutely certain she wants to have him murdered. Will never willingly speak or meet with her, or anybody in her service, outside of safe public spaces.
• Fate - He wants the most esoteric and evenly random option.

Tactics
Tactics suggest rationality. The Mad God is not rational.
(Recommend: Alternating between the highest conniving politics, and a dog chasing a car.)

If Pressured: 
1. Put on the mask of the Mad God, and let madness reign. For this:

• Laetha will get dangerously paranoid.
• Miz'ra will become more gluttonous and bold in her actions.
• Ghilaera will excessively use drugs, devastatingly so. Will certainly try to murder someone.
• For all else, whatever slight madness they have is amplified.

2. Choose a method of Fate that is least likely to work in opponent's favor.
3. Threaten everyone. Everyone.
4. Cave in to all influences at once, even if they conflict with themselves.

Fate

It has no bias. It has no wants. It's method is determined by the other four, with Amom having final say. It is a single instance. There are no repeats, no do-overs.

If anybody is discovered to have interfered with Fate (for instance, by rigging the coin flip, or creating an illusion), then all four of the Judges are obligated to slay the perpetrator on the spot, and they will almost certainly do so. They are all powerful sorcerers, and crushing a single opponent would be trivial with their combined might. For this reason, none of the Judges will interfere with Fate. An interloper's pitiful life isn't worth the wrath of the gods, nor the sanctity of this trial.

Important: even if the scenario occurs that Fate's vote doesn't matter, it will still be performed to ascertain whether the verdict sits good with the gods, and whether the judges should be worried with their choices or not.

Here are d12 potential methods, but by all means make it weirder.

d12	Method	Determined By...	Chance of Guilty Verdict (%)
1	Coin Flip	Guilty/Innocent Sides	50
2	Decapitation, chicken.	Witness where it lands. Inside the Seal of the Senate, or no? Inside = Innocent.	60
3	Decapitation, criminal.	What does the criminal whisper? Guilty or Innocent?	65
4	D20 Die Roll	Evens = Innocent Odds = Guilty	50
5	Cockatrice Liver	Stone infiltration. Yes = Guilty	35
6	Basilisk Spleen	Amount of Blood. Does it fill the Chalice of Judgement? If overflowing, Guilty.	45, +/- 20 varying on size/health of basilisk.
7	Champion Fight, Unfair.	First champion to die loses. No rules, bounds, or time limits.	Special
8	Champion Fight, Strange. Each allowed nothing but one magic weapon which does not obviously cause harm.	Whose champion is victorious. Weapons: 1. Pillow 2. Tea Cup 3. Candle 4. Warm Coal 5. Bloody Eyeball 6. Quill 7. Chalice 8. Braid of Hair 9. Doll 10. Egg Magic: 1. Hidden Edge 2. Cursed 3. Exploding 4. Poisonous 5. Dancing 6. Mimic 7. Magic Jar 8. Hypnotic 9. Possessed 10. Plague-ridden	Special
9	Champion Fight, Insult Contest.	Magnitude of crowd noise. An audience of 1000 jesters, slaves, and thieves serve as judges.	Special
10	Moon Augury	The Image the next visible Moon shows. Blood = Guilty Anything Else = Innocent	55%
11	Draw from the Deck	The Deck of Many Things. Negative result = Guilty. Positive = Innocent. If neither, draw again.	41 on each try
12	Arrow Shower	Accused tied to post at range 1200ft. Three trained archers of the city guard attempt to shoot her three times. Any hit indicates guilt.	30

If Found Innocent...

There are no ill effects, and perhaps most importantly you have achieved a symbolic and real political victory. You are now firmly a part of the "Us" of the city.

If Found Guilty...

Citizenship stripped. Property rights stripped. Face exile, or worse if you stay.

How This All Plays Out

You, the accused, need 3 votes to be found innocent. There are a few ways this is likely to go down.

2 Innocent : 2 Guilty split vote. Fate becomes tiebreaker. This is likely if the party puts most of their effort into getting either Laetha or Miz'ra, and either Ghilaera or Amom. Laetha and Miz'ra will almost definitely vote in opposite directions, and whoever is voting against you will try to get Ghilaera and Amom on their side. In this situation, Amom's support is crucial so that you can get Fate's odds in your favor.

Laetha and Miz'ra teaming up their votes against Ghilaera and Amom would be bizarre, but possible, if both powerful matriarchs think they can win the party to their side.

3 Innocent : 1 Guilty. Automatic victory without Fate. This is most likely to happen with Ghilaera, Amom, and one of the other matriarchs. The best way to go about this, methinks, is making one of the two powerful Matriarchs an enemy of everyone else. The difficulty with this outcome is having a better offer for Ghilaera than Miz'ra or Laetha can put forward.

1 Innocent : 3 Guilty. Automatic loss without Fate. What happens when you fail to court Ghilaera and Amom. You cannot win on the support of one powerful Matriarch alone.

0 Innocent : 4 Guilty. Fate doesn't matter. So, you've managed to piss off everyone? Good job! Enjoy your exile.

4 Innocent : 0 Guilty. Fate doesn't matter. Super unlikely. Potentially unwise. Can't please everyone in the long run.

Tidelock PR: The Dragon Cistern

Play report for a session about a year ago for my home group. Party is 9th level. We're playing D&D 5e.

This dungeon concept was wholeheartedly taken from Arnold K. over at Goblinpunch. In short: a dungeon is full of six dragon siblings, all with their own dragon cults and weird idiosyncrasies. (links here and here)

Featuring:
Xynyx, Gnome Wizard Inventor
Night, Tiefling Dreamwalker Warlock
Arinulf Ulfsson, Half-Elf Sand-Viking Paladin of Life
Raemus Astorio, Rogue Extraordinaire!

~~~~~~

A quest to prove their worth as hunters from the Queen of Kobara led the party to the Dragon Hole. The map is designed like a giant hollow tree, with a massive vertical shaft and each dragon's lair branching off.

Garnos's Lair is the first branch down. Xynyx scouts it out with an Arcane Eye and the entire party is weirded out by the Tree of Swords, the Pile of Charred Helmets, the Giant Statue of an Axe Made of Smaller Axes. Regardless, they press on.

There's a fight with Garnos's dragon cult berserkers. In the loud commotion Garnos is alerted. The party escapes into a tunnel headed downward too small for Garnos to fit in. Garnos breaths fire down the tunnel, killing the hirelings and seriously scorching the party.

Tunnel leads to Vulpernia's petting zoo. After making themselves known to the gentle but deadly dragoncult, they agree to meet Vulpernia, not realizing she is also a dragon.

Vulpernia interrogates these intruders. Her preconception that bad people are always ugly causes the liars in the party to become hideous. This dragon is essentially in her My Little Pony phase of girlhood, and kidnaps Xynyx because she thinks he's adorable.

After breaking Xynyx out of his bonds of preteen dragon affection, the party continues downwards through a secret hole in the floor, eventually leading to a secret door to Ashrendar's library.

A muscled librarian lookout spots the party walking atop the bookcases and sounds the alarm. Party heads in the other direction, escaping to the main vertical shaft. They continue heading down...

...Where they meet Scabbermouth, roiling in self loathing down in the mucky waters. They narrowly, narrowly avoid his hostility, realizing almost too late that the key to appeasing his madness is not to belittle him directly, but to say that his siblings belittled him.

He leaves them alone. They continue down, to Emerald Egg's time-themed funhouse lair.

Eggs all over the place. They pick up the dark angel egg (essentially a handheld mini-nuke). They release the Book Burning Demon held in a wooden box egg. It burns Xynyx's spellbook, then runs off to burn Ashrendar's library. This will come back to bite them in the ass far into the future.

Sneaking around, they spot Emerald Egg, in human form, working at her necromancy table. She is making undead from stone-to-flesh spells. Brashly, they decide to open negotiations. Emerald Egg does not tolerate trespassers. A battle ensues. Emerald Egg takes her dragon form.

In the ensuing melee, a significant feat of teamwork and strength results in Emerald Egg being forced onto her own Circle of Death. Unfortunately, the Rogue gets pulled on, too. Both of them bite it. A shame, since the Rogue was secretly carrying an artifact which he traded the secret of Teleportation for - a potion which grants its drinker safety from sudden death and double their lifespan.

After this the party leaves.

~~~~~

When they get to the surface the rumor has already gone around about red dragons in the area. Where the party has made camp there is now a host of dragon hunters, hungry for spoils. Negotiations ensue. It's made clear that it's first-come-first-serve when loot's on the line.

After a days rest the party prepares for a second venture.

Meanwhile, the delicate power balance in the Cistern has been tipped past the point of no return. Emerald Egg, while nobody's favorite sibling, did maintain the illusion that Mother was alive. With her dead it's now a free for all, with a massive dragon hoard on the line.

As the party descends once again, Garnos and his dragon hunter berserker cult launch an attack on Vulpernia and her shepherdess and cute animal cult. Normally, Vulpernia, being the biggest and strongest, would be able to rebuke Garnos. Not so when he has his dragon-killing helm, and when he's on the offensive. He kills Vulpernia, but gets wounded in the process.

As Garnos and his cult lick their wounds, the other dragons plot. Facilitated by the party (and the fact that Volectra likes elves), an alliance is struck up between the human Diviner King Suleyman, Ashrendar, and Volectra. Together they assault Garnos and his lair with a combination of screaming fanatic artists, muscled-librarians, and lightning dragoons.

However, unbeknownst to the party, a secret pact was struck between Ashrendar and Suleyman. They plot to have Volectra's forces take the brunt of the assault, then turn on her when her forces are weakened. This plan goes on without a hitch. Volectra is left vulnerable, and agrees to forsake her claim to the treasure and live in exile, instead of death.

For a sizable amount of treasure, Suleyman leaves Ashrendar to rule the entire Cistern by himself. Ashrendar is now Lord of the Dragon Hole. The party leaves having proved they killed a dragon.


Beloch's Questions

Who did the characters wrong during the session?
Every single dragon, somehow, except Scabbermouth.
Garnos, Vulpernia, and Emerald Egg are dead. Volectra is exiled. Ashrendar's library burnt down.

Did the characters do anything stealthily during the session?
Who released the book-burning demon was a secret, now that Emerald Egg was killed.

Is there anyone, aside from employers, who benefited from the character’s actions?
Ashrendar and The Diviner King Suleyman remain the two massive beneficiaries. They now control the entire Cistern and its wealth.

If anyone died in the course of the party’s adventure, what sort of hole did they leave behind in their community? What effect did they have on their environment which will be lost now that they’re dead?
The rogue died. This was big. He took the secret of his transactions with the Queen of Kobara to his grave, and his reward, now in custody of the party, remains a secret.

What information did the party spread around?
Dragons be in the Dragon Cistern. No doubt this will bring in more dragon hunters.

Did the characters do anything which the authorities, or the public at large, will have feelings about?
Cementing Ashrendar's rule and empowering the Diviner King sets a massive political shift in the area.

Did the players express any desires or interests you might use to engage / hook them in the future?
They love the dragons. The surviving ones will become major plot points in the future.