Yora wrote:

Last game, the cleric managed to get snatched up by a water monster (giant python) that grasped him in its tentacle. The fighter tried to help him by slashing at the tentacle, but hurt the cleric instead, and on its next turn the monster crushed him down to 0 hp.
Then the priest of the party cast a healing spell to bring him back to 3 hp, and he used the opportunity to finally use the fear spell he had been saving all the time. Since that made the beast afraid of him, it dropped him and disappeared back into its underwater cave without him.
That one was really close. I already had written him off.

That will be an unforgetable moment for the Cleric!

Yora wrote:

Even if I won't, I am sure the other players will never let him forget it.

But apart from being squashed by a tentacle, I think it was actually really cool how he still managed to survive. He was already out and beaten and about to be draged into the dark watery abyss when he regained consciousness and used his only remaining spell in a way I've never even considred using it.
It's both embarassing and heroic.

Yora, I don't know if you've started to realize it, but what you are illustrating here is exactly what a lot of us have been talking about in this thread and elsewhere: That encounter, as briefly as you described it, is the exact sort of thing that builds memories for the players -- a death defying encounter for them to recall at future sessions. That is the sort of "heroic" material that makes for great S&S-style gaming, IMO. Great job!

Yora wrote:

But that does not mean that you can't arrange for circumstances that are interesting in other ways.

No need!

Yora wrote:

Yeah. But you can't plan that. It's lucky accidents that will happen regardless.

See? The game is made for this kind of thing! That's why our pyromancer has been down to -9 FOUR TIMES now.

She ain't pretty no more.

I treat everything from 1hp up as being battered and exhausted. At -1, you are getting into serious injuries with broken bones and being stabbed.

Cool moments happen all the time, regardless of preparation. But for my games, I want to have more than accidental momentary excitement, I also want to have progress and accomplishment. And that's something you only get from having goals and tasks. Asking the players what they want to accomplish is always nice if you can get a reply, but new players almost never have the required experience with the game to be able to tell what they want.
Now, you could just start meandering about until eventually they get the hang out of it and start getting actively involved in where the game is heading. But very often, you just do not have that time. Usually my campaigns don't go much longer than 3 or 4 sessions before the people of the group change and we have to start all over again, teaching the new players the basics of the game. Because goofing around and having random fights is fun, but usually not more than three times and then interest drops with everyone. If I want to have a story developing, it needs to do so now, it's nothing that can wait for half a year.

Yora wrote:

Usually my campaigns don't go much longer than 3 or 4 sessions before the people of the group change and we have to start all over again, teaching the new players the basics of the game. Because goofing around and having random fights is fun, but usually not more than three times and then interest drops with everyone. If I want to have a story developing, it needs to do so now, it's nothing that can wait for half a year.

If I knew for a fact that a group wasn't going to play for more than 3 or 4 sessions, I wouldn't even attempt to run a proper campaign.  Rather, I would start the characters at higher level (maybe 4-6 or 6-8) and just run them through a single multi-session adventure.  You really can't expect a campaign to grow and develop in such a short timeframe.

Adventures like Keep on the Borderlands were perfect for that.  Simple plot, simple dungeons and plenty of room to grow.

mabon5127 wrote:

Some of my best work is by accident! Players often can make you look brilliant. I just take credit and move on.

Totally.

Yora, try a look at Rats in the Walls. Plenty of room to dress it up with heroic trappings if you want, but a good, self-contained, low-level adventure.

druvas wrote:

Out of curiosity, do you, after pcs take lots of damage, introduce permanent physical deformities?  I've started using scars and whatnot but I'm thinking that when one is damaged significantly (deep negatives) that permanent injuries creep in short of magical healing.

Sorry for the thread-jack.  My ADD is kicking in. ;-)

I have been for past -3 in AS&SH. Nothing too significant, generally, and I try to make it fit the situation. But this character has been as low as -8 FOUR TIMES, so it's starting to add up!

There's just enough fluff around the adventuring part to make it one, I think.  If the pcs do well enough, the Castellan will meet with them, there's the chaos cleric that has his own agenda, etc. 

Ghul wrote:

Druvas wrote:

There's just enough fluff around the adventuring part to make it one, I think.  If the pcs do well enough, the Castellan will meet with them, there's the chaos cleric that has his own agenda, etc. 

Why, just this week, the Castellan met with the characters of my young children, Logan and Skye, promising them land and title should they continue their good work clearing out the Caves of Chaos. The threat of war is on the Borderlands, and the Castellan cannot commit any of his soldiers to help them, so he's depending on these two brave adventurers to root out this threat of Chaos in his backyard. ;)

Perfect.  I hope they perform admirably and smite chaos wherever it may lay in hiding!

Blackadder23 wrote:

There aren't any shortcuts.  Long-term RPG campaigning was invented by a specific group of people (middle-aged wargamers) and this form of play is tailored for people with similar interests and attention spans.  If your players don't have the patience for campaign play, then they won't be able to enjoy the advantages of it.  Players have to be willing to put in their time.  A campaign grows through a slow accumulation of interesting and exciting events, and there's no way to achieve that short of sitting down and doing it.

For example, you can tell your players as part of their backstory, "You hate the mayor of Highmark because he once humiliated you in public".  But it would be a hundred times more meaningful to them if this actually happened as part of ongoing play, and they actually spent some time dreaming of revenge.  This is an advantage of campaign play that can't be imitated by assigning the PCs a bunch of "contacts", "rivals", "enemies", or whatever.  There simply aren't any shortcuts to actually sitting down and playing out a campaign - including the "boring" bits.

 
Indeed.  It's not 100% your responsibility to make the game interesting.  The players need to step up.  It's one thing to be a newbie and sit tight while others take the spot light because you on your learning curve, but for the player to intentionally act stupid and ruin the campaign is another.  If it's not fun don't do it.  Never settle, coach or replace players as needed.